Podcast #790: Hulu Live TV Beta

This week Hulu released their paid beta for live TV. That means you have the privilege of paying $40 a month to help them find their bugs. But in all honesty it's actually pretty good minus a few user interface issues that should get buzzed out with feedback from everyone paying $40 a month. The interface was intuitive and made sense. Hulu is already somewhat organized around TV shows, so it feels like a bit of an app-based DVR. Add live content behind that and it simply feels like it belongs there. You don’t feel like you have two separate sides to the same app. Live TV flowed seamlessly in the interface.

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Podcast #787: YouTube TV

Youtube has just entered the IPTV market and if you live in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, or Philadelphia you can sign up today. Like the other IPTV services available you can sign up for only $35 a month with no commitments and you can cancel anytime. Unlike the other services there is only one plan with a few add on channels.

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Podcast #776: Whole House Music with Chromecast Audio and Grace Digital CastDock X2

We’ve been on a quest for DIY whole house music for nearly a decade. Going all the way back to the Squeezebox from Slim Devices. We even tried a digital media player with a built in FM broadcaster we could pick up on our old school radios throughout the home. Over time, Braden settled in on Sonos while Ara landed on an Airport Express solution. There are other options, though, so we decided to check out what Chromecast Audio from Google can do.

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Podcast #764: Kodi

There has been an explosion of devices recently, or perhaps going back a couple years, that are based on the Kodi Media Center software or include Kodi as a standard app you can run along with other the other apps available on the device. A simple search at Amazon for ‘Kodi’ yields pages and pages of options for devices. Intrigued by this streaming platform that seems to have taken off like wildfire, we decided to pick up one of these little boxes and see what all the fuss is about.

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Podcast #762: Vudu Movies on Us

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t think Netflix totally changed the game in home entertainment. First, with the unlimited DVD rentals for a small monthly fee. They essentially ended the video store business. Then, with the shift into unlimited streaming movies, anywhere, anytime, again for a small monthly fee. It has changed the way most of us watch movies, and in some cases, television series. They’ve been so succesful, others, like Amazon, have tried to copy their model. But you can’t be king forever. Someone will eventually come along with a different game changer and dethrone you.

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Podcast #761: Tivo Mantis... Cord Cutter's Dream Box?

We have read countless emails from listeners who have cut the cord over the years and many of them have turned to Tivo to become the center of that process. With an antenna and a Tivo box you can cut your TV subscription services to almost nothing. Tivo boxes support Hulu, Netflix, Youtube, Plex, and Amazon Prime so you really don’t have to give up everything. Yes there are cable channels that you may miss, but many of those have an app where you can watch some of the programming for free. Worst case you may need to buy a few season passes of a couple of TV shows that are not available through an app. Regardless, you should be able to watch everything you want and dramatically cut your yearly bill.

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