home theater, cord cutting, video streaming, a/v tech, and more!

[skullman80]

I've always been a fan of TCL tv's on the budget side. I did have a Hisense but it died within 2 years. Great picture, but the support was awful (even with extended warranties) so I will never buy from them again.

I think with any of the budget brands you are basically playing the panel and support lottery. Not that high end tv's can't die too, but the amount of stuff I've read on Hisense TV panels going bad and newer Vizio tv's getting bricked with updates that people keep them off line ...makes me want to stay clear of those.

[eddy]

I'm a fan of TCL Roku TVs for a budget set. Never had an issue.

[NTP66]

Found my old iPhone 3GS while cleaning out the closet. Out of curiosity, I searched on eBay and people are still selling these for $40 unlocked. Who the **** is buying these?

[tifosi77]

You could maybe use a device like that as a cheap control center. I had to replace my Pixel6 because it went funky on me, but my plan was to relegate it to control WiFi devices like kitchen appliances and do music streaming.

[NTP66]

I have so many other devices that I could use for those purposes. I added it to my electronics pile that will be recycled this weekend. My basement is quickly being cleaned out to the point where I may not hire a junk removal crew to finish it up. May just do it myself.

[dodint]

Why are you cleaning out this house? Having another kid? Divorce? Impending suicide? You okay?

[faftorial]

He needs more space to store gadgets.

[NTP66]

Why are you cleaning out this house? Having another kid? Divorce? Impending suicide? You okay?

For two reasons, really. One, it was getting out of hand with all of the boxes and crap down there. None of this stuff I will ever use again, so I'm using this as an opportunity to simply clean things out. Secondly, I have some cracks that I'll need to address in the basement with epoxy, and there's no way that can happen until we can actually access the walls.

[NTP66]

dodint, since you're a fellow nerd, maybe you'll appreciate or even relate to this: I also found a dozen old HDDs in a box in my closet. Everything from old school 5200 RPM drives to newish WD Blue 7200s, ranging from 300GB to 1TB in size. Spent yesterday wiping them, as they are also being recycled.

[dodint]

The nerd part is that you bothered to wipe them.

Honestly, I'm in the same boat as you. We have plans to finish or repurpose some rooms in the basement except, well, those rooms are full of stuff I haven't used in decades. There might be enough car parts around to assemble a whole car.

[Shyster]

The nerd part is that you bothered to wipe them.

Honestly, I'm in the same boat as you. We have plans to finish or repurpose some rooms in the basement except, well, those rooms are full of stuff I haven't used in decades. There might be enough car parts around to assemble a whole car.

[DigitalGypsy66]

So we get the ad supported ESPN/Disney+/Hulu package through Verizon.

To my knowledge, Hulu is the only part of this that has commercials. We mostly watch live events with ESPN, which obviously has ads while streaming live.

Disney+ has all of the Hulu content available, to my knowledge. So why would I watch anything on Hulu with ads when I can watch it on Disney+ without ads? I thought, "Eh, maybe the R rated stuff isn't on Disney+? Or feature length films?" Nope, it's all on there from what I can tell.

It's very strange.

[nocera]

There are a lot of shows and movies that are exclusive to Hulu. Off the top of my head: Abbot Elementary, Always Sunny, Handmaid's Tale, Shogun, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Creator, Fargo, The Bear... The list goes on. The majority of Hulu isn't available on D+ yet. Maybe that's changing but right now there's not a lot of overlap.

[tifosi77]

The idea is ultimately to wholly merge Hulu and D+ into a single app. That's how the services operate in pretty much every territory in the rest of the world. (Hulu is U.S.-only, but its international counterpart is called 'Star'; iirc D+ has only ever been offered through Star outside of North America)

Hulu+ Live TV is not available through D+, nor are any add-on premium services like Max. (I don't know how likely it is that they'll ever sort out the latter piece, from a business perspective.) And I don't think user-specific things like My Stuff and watch history are portable, yet.

[nocera]

One app makes a lot of sense. I cancelled Disney+ after my annual renewal was set to jump from $85 to $135 for the year. It's just not worth it for the content that I watched. Now, if Hulu content was included (all Hulu content) and the price remained around $135 annually, I'd consider re-upping. I very much doubt that would happen.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Abbott is on D+, as is Shogun (which is what got me thinking about this in the first place). There has to be some missing content, as on D+ it says on the Hulu tab or button? that Hulu is a beta.

Plus, there isn't a 4K upcharge (yet). I was recording Shogun on YTTV, but I'm not going to keep the 4K upgrade for that beyond the trial month (almost nothing is in 4K in YTTV, but Shogun recordings were in 4K).

[nocera]

Source of the post Abbott is on D+, as is Shogun (which is what got me thinking about this in the first place). There has to be some missing content, as on D+ it says on the Hulu tab or button? that Hulu is a beta.

That's weird. I don't have any of that on D+, including the Hulu tab. It must be a slow roll out.

[tifosi77]

A lot of the content that is currently 'exclusive to Hulu' is actually licensed content. Shogun, The Bear, Always Sunny..... those are actually F/X shows.

[nocera]

A lot of the content that is currently 'exclusive to Hulu' is actually licensed content. Shogun, The Bear, Always Sunny..... those are actually F/X shows.

Wonder who owns FX?

[dodint]

FX, quite annoying, is really stingy with reruns so it's tough to get caught up on stuff you hear about too late.

[NTP66]

Abbot Elementary is on standard cable (ABC).

Edit: Nevermind, you must be referring to something else, because all of those shows are also on standard cable.

[eddy]

Source of the post Abbott is on D+, as is Shogun (which is what got me thinking about this in the first place). There has to be some missing content, as on D+ it says on the Hulu tab or button? that Hulu is a beta.

That's weird. I don't have any of that on D+, including the Hulu tab. It must be a slow roll out.

Same, I don't see it yet. Does Hulu have shogun in 4k or do you have to have a package for that? Maybe I'll just wait for it to hit D+

[DigitalGypsy66]

Hulu doesn't say what format Shogun comes in - but I am on my work PC that doesn't support 4K. D+ says it goes all the way up to 4K.

[eddy]

I am confused now, are these shows popping on D+ regardless if you have Hulu or not?

[nocera]

Exclusive was a poor choice of words. I just meant "not also on Disney+." I wouldn't be surprised if that Hulu tab was only rolled out to people with the bundle.