HBO: Is it really quality over numbers?
I've been watching interviews/panels with David Simon, the creator of the wire, that must have been filmed over ten years ago. Based on what he's been saying, HBO seems to be somewhat different because they don't seem to take viewer numbers quite as seriously as "broadcast" does.
So, is David Simon right about this? Is HBO's web streaming service worth the money? I do like the fact that they have a pricing model that allows you to be charged with or without ads, monthly or yearly. |
I think so....
Amazon - you don't know what's free and what you have to pay for Hulu - good content but the ads are rough Netflix - solid original programing but it takes forever for new stuff to come out Disney Plus - expensive for what you end up getting HBO Max - has quality films and a deep library and solid shows to rewatch. |
Originally Posted by CringeFest (Post 2251213)
I've been watching interviews/panels with David Simon, the creator of the wire, that must have been filmed over ten years ago. Based on what he's been saying, HBO seems to be somewhat different because they don't seem to take viewer numbers quite as seriously as "broadcast" does.
So, is David Simon right about this? Is HBO's web streaming service worth the money? I do like the fact that they have a pricing model that allows you to be charged with or without ads, monthly or yearly. |
Re: HBO: Is it really quality over numbers?
HBO's quite good. The Warner Bros. deal really put it over the top this past year.
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Re: HBO: Is it really quality over numbers?
I've got HBOmax streaming and like it. There is at least one major release each week, a good selection of B/W classics (IMO), plus the hub streaming options that include a few titles from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, the BBC's Doctor Who, Studio Ghibli selections, along with almost every HBO original series offered. Not everything, for some reason, is available. For example, Fraggle Rock is not.
That's from memory, btw, and may change regularly depending on licensing I'm guessing. |
Originally Posted by ynwtf (Post 2251804)
I've got HBOmax streaming and like it. There is at least one major release each week, a good selection of B/W classics (IMO), plus the hub streaming options that include a few titles from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, the BBC's Doctor Who, Studio Ghibli selections, along with almost every HBO original series offered. Not everything, for some reason, is available. For example, Fraggle Rock is not.
That's from memory, btw, and may change regularly depending on licensing I'm guessing. |
Re: HBO: Is it really quality over numbers?
Based on what is on this thread, I might get rid of cable and go with HBO/Max. I only have cable for TCM and if HBO/Max has a deep movie library why not switch. The only thing I would miss is Bravo's Below Deck. For some reason, I enjoy watching young people cleaning and making bad decision during drunken revelry.
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Just a quick run through highlights from the International tab of HBOMAX:
47 Ronin 1 and 2 8 1/2 War and Peace I-IV Bicycle Thieves Three Colors (blue, red and white) Daisies The Four Feathers Breathless Solaris (1972) A few of Hanzo the Razor Haxan Ikiru Black Narcissus In the Mood for Love Rashomon The 400 Blows Seventh Seal La Strada Orpheus Stalker Vivre Sa Vie Watership Down Wild Strawberries There were several films of Melies not long ago and of course, David Bowie the Last Five Years ;) There are 449 titles in this tab alone. Granted, there are a lot of B movies like a handful of old Godzilla battles and crap like Hobo with a Shotgun, but this tab doesn't overlap too much as many of the other category tabs do (sci-fi and action, for example). This has been a great starting point for me to dig deeper into film and its history, IMO. |
Re: HBO: Is it really quality over numbers?
My only issue with HBO Max is that it's the one streaming service that is consistently buffering whenever me and the lady try and watch it. The rest of the ones we use don't have that issue, nor is it a problem indicative of our WiFi setup.
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Originally Posted by MovieMaker5087 (Post 2294989)
My only issue with HBO Max is that it's the one streaming service that is consistently buffering whenever me and the lady try and watch it. The rest of the ones we use don't have that issue, nor is it a problem indicative of our WiFi setup.
*EDIT* Great avatar, btw! |
1 Attachment(s)
Originally Posted by ynwtf (Post 2294993)
Great avatar, btw!
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Originally Posted by MovieMaker5087 (Post 2294989)
My only issue with HBO Max is that it's the one streaming service that is consistently buffering whenever me and the lady try and watch it. The rest of the ones we use don't have that issue, nor is it a problem indicative of our WiFi setup.
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I had the absolute worst experience with HBO Max when I had it last year. I can’t argue with the impressive breadth of their library; between Warner Bros, HBO, TCM, Studio Ghibli, Cartoon Network, DC and even the Criterion Collection, it’s a pretty great catch-all catalog). For my money, though, they’re easily the worst streaming service out there. Their user interface is unusably laggy, they lack basic Roku support and they apparently also lacked a sufficient number of servers to handle the amount of web traffic they get.**
In fact, despite living just outside of a major city, HBO Max was literally unusable from sundown until sunup (when people were home from work) and their day-and-date 2021 movie slate (like In the Heights and The Suicide Squad) wouldn’t play for me at all.**Friends of mine who lived in-town evidently had none of these issues, but the service might as well not have existed even 20 minutes down the road. Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Shudder, the Criterion Channel, Prime Video, Peacock, Tubi, Kanopy, Arrow, Mubi, Kino Cult, Shout TV, Apple TV+, YouTube TV, (all of which I either currently have or have had at some point in the past) never gave me any of these problems that HBO Max does. |
Originally Posted by Obi-Wan_Mifune (Post 2295393)
For my money, though, they’re easily the worst streaming service out there.
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Originally Posted by John McClane (Post 2295537)
Paramount+ has entered the chat
So I ended up checking out more HBO Max while visiting my parents for the weekend. Despite living near Chicago (instead of downstate like me), the audio was badly desynced on pretty much everything we watched all weekend, although the other issues that I’d previously experienced on my own never seemed to materialized. I’m not sure if that’s due to server proximity or if they actually fixed some of the problems on their end, though. Apparently we can get a free week of HBO Max through Hulu, though: which I guess specifically uses Hulu’s servers. Since my partner really wants to see The Batman, it sounds like we’re going to give that a try this weekend, although I’m still feeling pretty skeptical about the whole thing. :shrug: |
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but the merger just may have shifted their commitment to excellence. They cancelled Raised By Wolves without any regard. Before the merger they never would have done that. Pretty sure we may seeing a shift in the HBO standard thats been maintained for so long.
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