Cord Cutting

ESPN has been one of the main reasons I've not considered cutting the cord and dumping cable TV. Things are starting to get interesting as Dish announces a streaming service that includes ESPN for $20/month:

"But what is Sling TV? For $20 a month — yes, twenty dollars — you get access to a lineup of cable networks that includes TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Disney Channel, ESPN, and ESPN2. ESPN is obviously a huge get for Dish and could earn Sling TV plenty of customers all on its own."

Via lifehacker

Technology

On the one hand, you'd think they'd have something nicer. On the other, I appreciate a company being frugal.

Just visited the WOW! Cable offices. Their lobby setup includes a VHS player and a CRT television. #cuttingedge pic.twitter.com/tdKMOfqJ6C
— Lone Nut (@LoneNutVolFan) December 12, 2014

Extra Work

KB6NU has a great idea for a job opportunity to help "cable cutters" setup antennas for their televisons:

"From a technical point of view, though, it’s not very difficult, there are fewer and fewer TV repair shops that do this work, and with the trend towards“cutting the cable,” you should be able to find plenty of customers."

Chromecast: MLS and WatchESPN

I mentioned the Chromecast yesterday and then saw this:

"This means that next week, U.S. soccer fans will have the ability to watch all 64 World Cup games with the tap of the cast button (vuvuzelas not included). Of course, in addition to soccer, you can also cast all of ESPN's other sports content, from the NBA Finals and X Games to college football."

Chromecast

I like my Chromecast and got it when you got some free Netflix, so it was a great deal for me. Amazon has the Chromecast for $29.99 with free ship (saving $5.01).

True Detective Season 2

Something about this doesn't seem right to me.

The Wil Wheaton Project

Evil Wil Wheaton is doing his own show starting May 27th. The Will Wheaton Project:

"a weekly roundup of the things I love on television and on the Internet, with commentary and jokes, and the occasional visit from interesting people who make those things happen. It’s sort of like Talk Soup for geeks, with a heavy focus on those hilariously bad paranormal reality shows (in fact, that’s where the whole thing started a year ago, but as we worked on the show more and more, we discovered that there were lots of scripted paranormal shows that provided a ton of comedic material. When we expanded to cover the scripted shows, we discovered that nobody was doing a show like this that was just focused on the genre shows that nerds like us love, and we decided that we’d make that show because of reasons.)"

Via Slashdot

Dumb Glass

From my Twitter feed:

BenedictEvans Spoke to a big UK broadcaster this week - apparently their strategy team is worried about the TV becoming 'dumb glass'. Nice new jargon...
Thu, Sep 12 13:06:46 from Twitterrific for Mac
retweeted by tim

I can't wait until it is smart enough to filter the ticker that runs across the bottom of my screen, so I can eliminate all those MLB and NBA scores that I don't have any interest in.

Football

"Seriously, explain offsides to me!"

Chromecast Teardown

Chromecast Teardown

(So this is how you take something apart without trashing it.)

Chromecast

Chromecast - a $35 (plus shipping/tax) HDMI dongle for streaming video to your TV. It will stream from Chrome, Youtube, and Netflix. They same more to come - Amazon maybe? You can control it from a PC or tablet. Buy now and you get 3 months of Netflix free. I have a Wii for Netflix in our living room, but the TV in our bedroom isn't connected at all.

I'm in for one.

harrymccracken Now Google’s unveiling Chromecast, a tiny HD-streaming gizmo you plug into a TV’s HDMI. Yup, another Google approach to Net-enabling TVs. Wed, Jul 24 12:51:50 from Tweetbot for iOS

What Do You Mean If?

George RR Martin is a slow writer. There is now a race between him finishing the books and the HBO series based on his books catching up. This article asks if the show will catch the books. I don't think it is a question. The show will catch the books because George is a writer first and a business man second. The creative process will not be rushed.

Much to my disappointment.

Via Winter is Coming

AC's Bad TV

We all have our buttons:

"I’m perfectly happy watching a magic/science levitating invisible robot that’s powered by glowing radioactive crystals and can also play jazz; but the minute a general fires a sheriff I’m royally pissed off."

Seinfeld Today

I've often thought that many of the conflicts in a typical Seinfeld episode would have been easily resolved if all the characters had easy access to a mobile phone. One person had gone a step further and imagined what the story lines might be if the show was produced today: Seinfeld Today.

The modern problems would include Elaine being banned for a critical Yelp review, Kramer getting into a fight with an Apple Genius, George's parents start using Skype, etc.

American Ninja Warrior

What is wrong with American Ninja Warrior?

My answer - nothing the fast foward button won't fix. I've decided my next physical challenge should be to win American Ninja Warrior. All I need is some super-human upper body strength.

Aaron Sorkin is Green

I watched the first episode of The Newsroom and enjoyed it, but I can't argue that he doesn't recycle.

sarahcuda Can we stop pretending Aaron Sorkin writes great characters? (emph on plural) youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZ… gross.Tue, Jun 26 02:25:06 from Twitter for iPhone

Game of Thrones and HBO

Some notes as the Game of Thrones Season 2 ends...

Game of Thrones is this season's most pirated show.

And if people like the content so much, maybe HBO should start offering it directly. I would probably pay for an HBO Go account since my provider, Knology, doesn't include it with the HBO subscription.

And a funny suggestion for other shows to watch while we wait for the third season.

Image via 9gag.com via winteriscoming.net

SYTYCD

So I admit it. I like So You Think You Can Dance. I've never had much interest in dancing, but this show has been very entertaining and I have been amazed by the athleticism of the dancers. Last week the episode included a mom who was trying to balance her family and her dream of dancing. That alone was a touching story, but then her little girl got on stage and was dancing. It was so cute, I thought I might have to give up my man card for liking it so much. The episode also included this guy doing what he called "exorcist style." I thought it was going to be really weird, but it turned out to be very powerful. You don't see it in the video, but the dancer himself was humbled and moved to tears by the response from the judges and the crowd.

I didn't need to worry about my man card as this week's episode included this young lady demonstrating aerial pole dancing. (Unfortunately, not in the video.) She is clearly a very talented dancer.

Note: I was going to embed the videos, but the Fox embed code is very lame. For one, it auto-plays. Boo. Also, I embedded two videos, but it just plays the same video in both boxes. I never understand why people want to make things overly complex. Don't they want me to share the content and promote their show?

BREAKING: #GameofThrones has been renewed for Season 3

Excellent! According to GRRM, the third season will only cover about half of the third book. I think that is a good sign that they want to stretch out the series. Of course, this also takes the pressure off GRRM to finish the next book. I had been predicting a race to publish the sixth book verses the HBO series catching up.

GameOfThrones BREAKING: #GameofThrones has been renewed for a third season. RT and spread the word to #GoTFans across the realm.Tue, Apr 10 12:46:17 from HootSuite retweeted by SimoneBoyce

Netflix Diversity

I wondered how they handled the different people in a household using the same Netflix account:

"Take as a first example the Top 10 row: this is our best guess at the ten titles you are most likely to enjoy. Of course, when we say “you”, we really mean everyone in your household. It is important to keep in mind that Netflix’ personalization is intended to handle a household that is likely to have different people with different tastes. That is why when you see your Top10, you are likely to discover items for dad, mom, the kids, or the whole family. Even for a single person household we want to appeal to your range of interests and moods. To achieve this, in many parts of our system we are not only optimizing for accuracy, but also for diversity."