# The Orville is moving to Hulu



## Azlen (Nov 25, 2002)

'The Orville' Moves To Hulu From Fox For Season 3 In 2020 - Deadline

Seth MacFarlane's hit space adventure series _The Orville_ is moving to Hulu from Fox for its upcoming third season. The series will be available exclusively on the streaming service as a Hulu Original in late 2020. MacFarlane made the announcement today during the show's panel at Comic-Con in San Diego.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

That was unexpected. Just saw it on Twitter.

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1152695428158070784


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

Boo! Even though I get Hulu bundled with something else I pay for, still. Boo!

--Carlos V.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

And that's it for me. I like The Orville, but not enough to pay for it. And I don't subscribe to Hulu.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

I hope it's a weekly on Hulu, and not a release-all-episodes-at-once-binge-fest.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

For any Sprint subscribers, Hulu comes free (with commercials)


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## Donbadabon (Mar 5, 2002)

Dang that sucks. Well I'm out then.


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## zyzzx (Jan 22, 2002)

I’ll miss it but I’m not subscribing to Hulu just for The Orville.


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## Family (Jul 23, 2001)

astrohip said:


> And that's it for me. I like The Orville, but not enough to pay for it. And I don't subscribe to Hulu.





Donbadabon said:


> Dang that sucks. Well I'm out then.


Hulu's offers one month free trial. Bang it out at the end of the season over 30 days for free.

Did The Orville mean that little, because I thought it had a solid season.


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## longrider (Oct 26, 2017)

I will subscribe for one month and binge it. (Bingeing for me is watching one or two episodes a night every night for a couple weeks)


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

That's where I watched it anyway.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

A matter of getting paid more by Hulu? I saw MacFarlane on a talk show a bunch of weeks ago and he mentioned that "The Orville" was coming back--no discussion of a network switch (and there might even have been mention of Fox in the course of the conversation). Isn't MacFarlane a beloved child at Fox?


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

I think Fox had an issue with S3 not being ready for the '19 Fall Season


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## longrider (Oct 26, 2017)

The link in the first post explains it in detail but the main issue is what Tony_T posted.


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## tenthplanet (Mar 5, 2004)

Fox studios which produced The Orville is now part of Disney. Disney owns Hulu. Get used to these things. I think FOX the network got outbid.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Family said:


> Hulu's offers one month free trial. Bang it out at the end of the season over 30 days for free.
> 
> Did The Orville mean that little, because I thought it had a solid season.


I liked it, but I'm not jumping thru hoops just to watch it. And subscribing to a service, even if it's free, is jumping thru hoops for me.

If it was must-see TV, probably. The Orville ain't.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Like wmcbrine above, I only watched it on Hulu anyway; the picture is not compressed, there are no bugs on the lower third, and I can leave my remote on the side table because there are no commercials to skip. Moving it off Fox may mean a more generous standards & practices oversight.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

I got the Hulu 99 cents a month deal when they offered it back in late last year, but I guess that will expire before The Orville comes back. I’m not sure it’s worth subscribing to another service just for The Orville.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Tony_T said:


> That was unexpected.


Not all that unexpected for me.

Keep in mind the Disney purchase of 20th Century Fox, separating it from FOX (the broadcast network). As a result, FOX is said to be focusing more on unscripted fare than ever before. (As exhibit A, for the fall 2019 season, Wednesday has "The Masked Singer," Thursday is now NFL, Friday is wrestling, and Saturday is NCAA football.) A show like "The Orville" doesn't really seem to fit into that sort of a network anymore.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

longrider said:


> The link in the first post explains it in detail but the main issue is what Tony_T posted.


Thanks. I'm still not seeing the "challenge" of Fox Network waiting until 2020 to get episodes. I mean, it's not as if Fox--or, for that matter,_ any_ of the broadcast networks--has so much hot stuff going on . . . .

But for Fox Network's support of MacFarlane, would "The Orville" ever have seen the light of day?


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

LoadStar said:


> Not all that unexpected for me.
> 
> Keep in mind the Disney purchase of 20th Century Fox, separating it from FOX (the broadcast network). As a result, FOX is said to be focusing more on unscripted fare than ever before. (As exhibit A, for the fall 2019 season, Wednesday has "The Masked Singer," Thursday is now NFL, Friday is wrestling, and Saturday is NCAA football.) A show like "The Orville" doesn't really seem to fit into that sort of a network anymore.


Fox had said that they renewed The Orville only two months ago, so I found the Hulu Twitter announcement unexpected.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

ej42137 said:


> Like wmcbrine above, I only watched it on Hulu anyway; the picture is not compressed, there are no bugs on the lower third, *and I can leave my remote on the side table because there are no commercials to skip*. Moving it off Fox may mean a more generous standards & practices oversight.


Turn on Tivo autoSKIP.


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

Bleh. The biggest annoyance is what happens in Canada - will it be shown on TV or be completely unavailable to view because Hulu is definitely not available here. Sure you can use a VPN, but still.


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## getbak (Oct 8, 2004)

Worf said:


> Bleh. The biggest annoyance is what happens in Canada - will it be shown on TV or be completely unavailable to view because Hulu is definitely not available here. Sure you can use a VPN, but still.


I suspect it will remain on Citytv, just like the first two seasons. Its network change in the States shouldn't change things in Canada.

City hasn't been afraid to air streaming shows from the US over the air in Canada, like when The Mindy Project switched from Fox to Hulu a few years ago. City kept airing it in Canada.

They also picked up the new Twilight Zone from CBS All Access earlier this year.


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## IndyJones1023 (Apr 1, 2002)

There's always "magical means."


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

Seth m's bread and butter is broadcast tv/ either he is getting lots of $$$ or he wants to go somewhere and be edgy. Those millions who carried the show?? "F--k 'em" "they are peasants".


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

I suspect this is the new algorithm. Keep moving shows around to different streaming networks to try and get everyone to subscribe to all of them .


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

The thing that really bums me out about this is the fact that I can't get 5.1 sound on Hulu through my TiVo or Roku.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Azlen said:


> Seth MacFarlane's hit space adventure series _The Orville_ is moving to Hulu from Fox


Guess it's not such a "hit" now is it?


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## MizzouJames (Jul 15, 2019)

astrohip said:


> I liked it, but I'm not jumping thru hoops just to watch it. And subscribing to a service, even if it's free, is jumping thru hoops for me.
> 
> If it was must-see TV, probably. The Orville ain't.


I am thinking we may have to take turns and rotate these streaming channels. May be hulu for 3 months then netflix for 3 months then the Disney one for 3 months!!


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## Howie (May 3, 2004)

I watch Hulu frequently and don't mind paying for the ad free version. As said by others, I watched The Orville on Hulu already, so I'm OK with it. Maybe they'll even have a little more freedom with their scripts than regular network broadcast allows.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

MizzouJames said:


> I am thinking we may have to take turns and rotate these streaming channels. May be hulu for 3 months then netflix for 3 months then the Disney one for 3 months!!


That's my definition of "jumping thru hoops". Some people may be fine with it, and I'm sure the streaming services are counting on it.

So far I'm okay with TV + Netflix + Amazon Prime. That's plenty to keep me occupied. But I should note I have all the premiums, so I get a lot of HBO/SHO/etc type series.

I'm probably an outlier, but it ain't the money, it's the PITA factor. Plus I don't like streaming as much as DVR-viewing.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

astrohip said:


> That's my definition of "jumping thru hoops". Some people may be fine with it, and I'm sure the streaming services are counting on it.


I don't think it's really that much of an effort to switch streaming services. I dropped Netflix for a month and signed up for CBS All Access, binge watched Discovery and then switched back to Netflix. I wasn't watching anything on Netflix for that month anyway, so why pay for it?

Back when Netflix was under $10 a month I just kept subscribing to it even if I rarely watched it, but now that it's closer to $17 that seems like just flushing money.

It's the main reason I don't subscribe to all these services. Who has time to watch stuff from every service?


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

mattyro7878 said:


> Seth m's bread and butter is broadcast tv/ either he is getting lots of $$$ or he wants to go somewhere and be edgy. Those millions who carried the show?? "F--k 'em" "they are peasants".


I doubt Seth McFarlane had any say in this decision. The studio owns the rights to the show, and the studio decided to license the rights to Hulu rather than FOX. The fact that the studio and Hulu have common ownership and FOX does not surely played a large role in the decision.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

The one thing that streaming (w/Roku) has that I wish Tivo had was auto CC on/off on replay.


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## Lurker1 (Jun 4, 2004)

Turning streaming subscriptions on and off is very easy and takes less than a minute. I don't see how anyone could consider it "jumping through hoops." A couple clicks and you are done. It is nothing like the nightmare of cancelling cable or satellite. We've been rotating monthly for a few years and are quite happy with it.


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## IndyJones1023 (Apr 1, 2002)

I don't think it's "hoops" that are the problem. It's all the disparate services. I liked it when I paid DirecTV and got everything I wanted. I don't want to have to pay Hulu for 1 or 2 shows, Netflix for a lot of content, YouTube TV for regular TV, Amazon Prime for a couple of shows. The list is too lengthy.


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## MScottC (Sep 11, 2004)

IndyJones1023 said:


> I don't think it's "hoops" that are the problem. It's all the disparate services. I liked it when I paid DirecTV and got everything I wanted. I don't want to have to pay Hulu for 1 or 2 shows, Netflix for a lot of content, YouTube TV for regular TV, Amazon Prime for a couple of shows. The list is too lengthy.


I liked it when I paid nothing, and all 4 networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS) came to us over the air for free. Well not really, we have so much more now, and we can watch on our own schedule.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Tony_T said:


> Turn on Tivo autoSKIP.


That brings its own set of problems. If I turn it on I can't copy programs to another TiVo conveniently nor can I use the guide efficiently on TiVo.


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

DevdogAZ said:


> I doubt Seth McFarlane had any say in this decision. The studio owns the rights to the show, and the studio decided to license the rights to Hulu rather than FOX. The fact that the studio and Hulu have common ownership and FOX does not surely played a large role in the decision.


Dont count Seth M short. He was responsible for 3/4 of Fox' Sunday nite at one time. Movies, Broadway, game shows and a lot (not me) of sci-fi fans were comparing The Orville to ST:TNG. I think Seth wanted out as he has very little love for "the news division" over at Fox.


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## Amnesia (Jan 30, 2005)

Tony_T said:


> I hope it's a weekly on Hulu, and not a release-all-episodes-at-once-binge-fest.


That seems quite selfish and petty of you.

You prefer to watch shows once a week. Fine, I get it. But even if it's all released at once, you still have the option of watching just one episode a week. So really, it's all the same to you.

But for people who prefer to binge-watch, it makes a big difference. Why shouldn't both groups get to watch it the way they prefer?


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

You can still binge if it's weekly -- just wait for the season to end.


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## Family (Jul 23, 2001)

Tony_T said:


> You can still binge if it's weekly -- just wait for the season to end.


Forget it. That's jumping thru hoops!


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

IndyJones1023 said:


> I don't think it's "hoops" that are the problem. It's all the disparate services. I liked it when I paid DirecTV and got everything I wanted. I don't want to have to pay Hulu for 1 or 2 shows, Netflix for a lot of content, YouTube TV for regular TV, Amazon Prime for a couple of shows. The list is too lengthy.


I was thinking, spreadsheets of shows and networks are becoming mandatory.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

mattyro7878 said:


> Dont count Seth M short. He was responsible for 3/4 of Fox' Sunday nite at one time. Movies, Broadway, game shows and a lot (not me) of sci-fi fans were comparing The Orville to ST:TNG. I think Seth wanted out as he has very little love for "the news division" over at Fox.


Without getting into the specifics, what an interesting take/possibility.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Releasing one show a week is just a ploy by Hulu to make you extend your subscription for the entire season. If they dumped all of the shows at once then what's to prevent anyone from binge watching over a weekend and then dropping them? Netflix and Amazon can do it because of the sheer volume of original content they offer in addition to their vast library of movies and TV shows. I haven't really compared the overall lineups from each provider, but I'm pretty sure that Hulu falls way short of the other two when it comes to original programming.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

MScottC said:


> I liked it when I paid nothing, and all 4 networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS) came to us over the air for free. Well not really, we have so much more now, and we can watch on our own schedule.


That option still exists.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

mr.unnatural said:


> Releasing one show a week is just a ploy by Hulu to make you extend your subscription for the entire season. If they dumped all of the shows at once then what's to prevent anyone from binge watching over a weekend and then dropping them? Netflix and Amazon can do it because of the sheer volume of original content they offer in addition to their vast library of movies and TV shows. I haven't really compared the overall lineups from each provider, but I'm pretty sure that Hulu falls way short of the other two when it comes to original programming.


That's a good point, and I wonder if the network streamers will do the same (is this how CBSAA works too?) Show one a week for 12 weeks and they got you for 3 months, and they assume that you'll find something else and stick around.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

astrohip said:


> I liked it, but I'm not jumping thru hoops just to watch it. And subscribing to a service, even if it's free, is jumping thru hoops for me.
> 
> If it was must-see TV, probably. The Orville ain't.


I know some folks say it's easy, Takes two seconds. But it's keeping track of where shows are, when to drop networks and bring new ones on. I know some folks keep a spreadsheet, but to me that's "work". I don't want to work to watch TV. I just want to watch TV.


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## allan (Oct 14, 2002)

It doesn't affect me personally, since I'm already on Hulu. But I wonder if the shrinking audience will hurt the show.


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

Steveknj said:


> That's a good point, and I wonder if the network streamers will do the same (is this how CBSAA works too?) Show one a week for 12 weeks and they got you for 3 months, and they assume that you'll find something else and stick around.


Then again, if you are patient you can join when your shoe is in week 12 and binge watch from that point on. Personally I can't wait for a new Star Trek so I pay while it airs. Now, no Star Trek...no CBS All access.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

mr.unnatural said:


> Releasing one show a week is just a ploy by Hulu to make you extend your subscription for the entire season. If they dumped all of the shows at once then what's to prevent anyone from binge watching over a weekend and then dropping them? Netflix and Amazon can do it because of the sheer volume of original content they offer in addition to their vast library of movies and TV shows. I haven't really compared the overall lineups from each provider, but I'm pretty sure that Hulu falls way short of the other two when it comes to original programming.


Hulu does at times drop-all-at-once (recently Catch-22).


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## eddyj (Jun 20, 2002)

Tony_T said:


> Hulu does at times drop-all-at-once (recently Catch-22).


Veronica Mars also dropped all at once.


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## vertigo235 (Oct 27, 2000)

Interesting move, but I'm just glad there will be a Season 3, not too worried about where it is.


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## Lurker1 (Jun 4, 2004)

Steveknj said:


> I know some folks say it's easy, Takes two seconds. But it's keeping track of where shows are, when to drop networks and bring new ones on. I know some folks keep a spreadsheet, but to me that's "work". I don't want to work to watch TV. I just want to watch TV.


Sites like ReelGood make it very easy to keep track of shows you like, where they are, and how many unwatched episodes are available. Try it, and you'll see that it is more "fun" than "work".


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Lurker1 said:


> Sites like ReelGood make it very easy to keep track of shows you like, where they are, and how many unwatched episodes are available. Try it, and you'll see that it is more "fun" than "work".


It's fun to track where shows are and turn accounts off and on. I won't be coming to any of your parties if that would be the fun part.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

I keep track of streaming shows with Tivo's 1pass. 
You can launch directly into the App from Tivo (but I use my Roku to watch)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Azlen said:


> 'The Orville' Moves To Hulu From Fox For Season 3 In 2020 - Deadline
> 
> Seth MacFarlane's hit space adventure series _The Orville_ is moving to Hulu from Fox for its upcoming third season. The series will be available exclusively on the streaming service as a Hulu Original in late 2020. MacFarlane made the announcement today during the show's panel at Comic-Con in San Diego.


I've been watching The Orville from Hulu commercial free for a while now. So this won't have any affect on me. I switched to watching from Hulu because of the terrible video quality FIOS has now. And the DC OTA video quality is equally as bad. The quality from Hulu is a night a day difference.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Tony_T said:


> I hope it's a weekly on Hulu, and not a release-all-episodes-at-once-binge-fest.


I would love for them to release all episodes at once. I've preferred that ever since my first binge watching session in 1984. With St. Elsewhere using a VCR.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

astrohip said:


> That's my definition of "jumping thru hoops". Some people may be fine with it, and I'm sure the streaming services are counting on it.
> 
> So far I'm okay with TV + Netflix + Amazon Prime. That's plenty to keep me occupied. But I should note I have all the premiums, so I get a lot of HBO/SHO/etc type series.
> 
> I'm probably an outlier, but it ain't the money, it's the PITA factor. Plus I don't like streaming as much as DVR-viewing.


Even when I had all the premium channels, I still watched them from their apps. HBO, Showtime, Starz etc. Since the quality was much better than what FiOS has.

Although now that I don't have the premiums on FiOS. I just subscribe to those apps as needed.

But with Hulu I subscribe all year. Since I watch my broadcast shows with Hulu. And then pay outright for the other broadcast shows from NBC, ABC, and FOX that Hulu doesn't carry.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

morac said:


> I don't think it's really that much of an effort to switch streaming services. I dropped Netflix for a month and signed up for CBS All Access, binge watched Discovery and then switched back to Netflix. I wasn't watching anything on Netflix for that month anyway, so why pay for it?
> 
> Back when Netflix was under $10 a month I just kept subscribing to it even if I rarely watched it, but now that it's closer to $17 that seems like just flushing money.
> 
> It's the main reason I don't subscribe to all these services. Who has time to watch stuff from every service?


I only pay around $8 a month for the UHD tier from Netflix. By getting Netflix gift cards at half price. I currently have around a $300 balance on Netflix from half price gift cards(from Ebay).
Which should cover me for another year and half or so.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Lurker1 said:


> Sites like ReelGood make it very easy to keep track of shows you like, where they are, and how many unwatched episodes are available. Try it, and you'll see that it is more "fun" than "work".


Much easier to set a season pass and forget about it. I have enough trouble keeping track of shows between AP and Netflix. Imagine trying to keep track of 7 streaming services, finding shows, determining when to add or cancel a streaming service, finding time to binge a whole series within the month and watching the other 30 or so shows I watch in standard TV, plus watch all the sports I watch too. Might work for your workflow, not for mine. Fun to me is not toggling between three or four websites while trying to figure out what's on. I'm all about process (it's a job requirement for me) and this process is completely unwieldy and un-intuitive.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

mattyro7878 said:


> Dont count Seth M short. He was responsible for 3/4 of Fox' Sunday nite at one time. Movies, Broadway, game shows and a lot (not me) of sci-fi fans were comparing The Orville to ST:TNG. *I think Seth wanted out as he has very little love for "the news division" over at Fox.*


Again, I don't think Seth had any say in the decision. And "the news division" was a completely separate company from 21st Century Fox that owned the studio and the broadcast network. The bottom line is that Disney bought the studio but did not buy the broadcast network. So now Disney wants to keep the show as content on an outlet it owns, which fits in nicely with the fact that the FOX broadcast network will be largely moving away from scripted fare.


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## realityboy (Jun 13, 2003)

Steveknj said:


> Much easier to set a season pass and forget about it. I have enough trouble keeping track of shows between AP and Netflix. Imagine trying to keep track of 7 streaming services, finding shows, determining when to add or cancel a streaming service, finding time to binge a whole series within the month and watching the other 30 or so shows I watch in standard TV, plus watch all the sports I watch too. Might work for your workflow, not for mine. Fun to me is not toggling between three or four websites while trying to figure out what's on. I'm all about process (it's a job requirement for me) and this process is completely unwieldy and un-intuitive.


I don't think it's fun, but to me it's the equivalent of looking in TV guide like the olden days to keep track of what's where, but I'm not turning things on and off for the most part. I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, & DC Universe. (CBSAA does get turned on & off, but that's because I only watch a few series there, & it would go unused the rest of the year)

It is going to get significantly more complicated if I have to add very many more services.


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## MizzouJames (Jul 15, 2019)

Steveknj said:


> Much easier to set a season pass and forget about it. I have enough trouble keeping track of shows between AP and Netflix. Imagine trying to keep track of 7 streaming services, finding shows, determining when to add or cancel a streaming service, finding time to binge a whole series within the month and watching the other 30 or so shows I watch in standard TV, plus watch all the sports I watch too. Might work for your workflow, not for mine. Fun to me is not toggling between three or four websites while trying to figure out what's on. I'm all about process (it's a job requirement for me) and this process is completely unwieldy and un-intuitive.


That does make it sound more complicated than what I was thinking it would be! Maybe it wouldn't be complicated in reality assuming each of these streaming services winds up with only 2-3 shows to catch up on each time. So if I haven't had Hulu in a while and have 3 Hulu shows I watch then I can just watch those and then I'm done with Hulu for a year. May be some of these like Netflix will have so many that I need to keep it for more than a few months though. Does anyone know for all of these services do you lose any favorites lists that you set up if you disable your account?


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Steveknj said:


> Much easier to set a season pass and forget about it. I have enough trouble keeping track of shows between AP and Netflix. Imagine trying to keep track of 7 streaming services, finding shows, determining when to add or cancel a streaming service, finding time to binge a whole series within the month and watching the other 30 or so shows I watch in standard TV, plus watch all the sports I watch too. Might work for your workflow, not for mine. Fun to me is not toggling between three or four websites while trying to figure out what's on. I'm all about process (it's a job requirement for me) and this process is completely unwieldy and un-intuitive.


Obviously, someone needs to develop an app for this.


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

Mikeguy said:


> Obviously, someone needs to develop an app for this.


Why hasn't anyone else ever thought of that?!?

Or, you might ask: So nary any other person has ever thought of this?


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

DevdogAZ said:


> Again, I don't think Seth had any say in the decision.


It's possible his "say" in the decision was him telling FOX that the episodes wouldn't be ready for mid-season [1], which forced the decision on both FOX and 20th Century Fox's [2] parts.

[1] That said, I'm a little baffled as to why McFarlane always seems to suggest that The Orville is so hard/complex to produce. (This isn't the first time that McFarlane has blamed production challenges; I believe he said the same thing when season 2 slipped from a fall show to mid-season.)
[2] I'm aware Disney now owns 20th Century Fox, but they seem (to me) to be operating it more as a subsidiary studio, so I'll continue to refer to it as 20th Century Fox.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Wil said:


> Why hasn't anyone else ever thought of that?!?


Don't even think of going there--I just filed a patent application on the invention 2 minutes ago . . . .


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

LoadStar said:


> That said, I'm a little baffled as to why McFarlane always seems to suggest that The Orville is so hard/complex to produce. (This isn't the first time that McFarlane has blamed production challenges; I believe he said the same thing when season 2 slipped from a fall show to mid-season.)


He seems to be a sharp guy, but I wonder if it's a lesser familiarity with the demands of the medium. I remember reading or listening to an interview of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, part of the creative team behind the Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon," and they were discussing how they found the Broadway process. One or the other of them stated that he was amazed at how much time it all takes: in "South Park," if they wanted to change the story or animation, they just sat down and did it; in "The Book of Mormon," a change could implicate the set designers, the lighting crew, and then those messy wet things, the actors.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Mikeguy said:


> Obviously, someone needs to develop an app for this.


Don't really need an app.

This is basically what Apple's TV app does. You subscribe to a show and when it "airs" it shows up in your viewing list. It works with most streaming apps (Hulu, CBS, Amazon, etc), with the big exception being Netflix, but you can search for Netflix shows and then open them in Netflix.

Android TV has something similar.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

morac said:


> Don't really need an app.
> 
> This is basically what Apple's TV app does. You subscribe to a show and when it "airs" it shows up in your viewing list. It works with most streaming apps (Hulu, CBS, Amazon, etc), with the big exception being Netflix, but you can search for Netflix shows and then open them in Netflix.
> 
> Android TV has something similar.


Please don't tell the U.S. Patent Office, on my application. 

I guess the idea here, though, would also be to time and coordinate the subscribing and cancelling of the streaming services. A nice app could try to coordinate and balance that to a user's benefit.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Tony_T said:


> Hulu does at times drop-all-at-once (recently Catch-22).


The DCU live action shows are weekly as are the CBSAA Star Trek Discovery shows. I would assume that any future programming on either of those services will follow suit.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> I've been watching The Orville from Hulu commercial free for a while now. So this won't have any affect on me. I switched to watching from Hulu because of the terrible video quality FIOS has now. And the DC OTA video quality is equally as bad. The quality from Hulu is a night a day difference.


That's because OTA is 720p or 1080i whereas Hulu is probably 1080p (I'm not sure if they do 4k). FIOS just retransmits the OTA content via their network so the video quality is essentially the same viewing from either source.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mr.unnatural said:


> That's because OTA is 720p or 1080i whereas Hulu is probably 1080p (I'm not sure if they do 4k). FIOS just retransmits the OTA content via their network so the video quality is essentially the same viewing from either source.


The reason is not the 720P resolution. I have OTA HD recordings from 2001 to 2005 that look superb from 720P OTA channels. They put to shame anything broadcast today on OTA in the DC area, anything on FiOS, or anything on Comcast.
The reason it looks so bad is because of the over compression in the DC area. We have frequency sharing and many sub-channels. WHich greatly decreases the bandwidth available. All of the DC area OTA stations are over compressed and bitstarved now. They look as bad as the FiOS Cable channels that are not available from OTA.

Even five or six years ago the OTA quality was much better. But over the last few years it has degraded immensely.


----------



## Lurker1 (Jun 4, 2004)

MizzouJames said:


> So if I haven't had Hulu in a while and have 3 Hulu shows I watch then I can just watch those and then I'm done with Hulu for a year. Does anyone know for all of these services do you lose any favorites lists that you set up if you disable your account?


This is basically what I do. Watch all my shows, then cancel and rotate to another service and watch those shows. Everything has always been just as I left it when I turn a subscription back on.


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## MizzouJames (Jul 15, 2019)

Lurker1 said:


> This is basically what I do. Watch all my shows, then cancel and rotate to another service and watch those shows. Everything has always been just as I left it when I turn a subscription back on.


Well that makes it a whole less complicated like the person earlier made it sound it was to switch around ethese services! Just activate and your favorites are there waiting for you.


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## Lurker1 (Jun 4, 2004)

MizzouJames said:


> Well that makes it a whole less complicated like the person earlier made it sound it was to switch around ethese services! Just activate and your favorites are there waiting for you.


Yes, it is that easy.


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## tapokata (Apr 26, 2017)

mr.unnatural said:


> That's because OTA is 720p or 1080i whereas Hulu is probably 1080p (I'm not sure if they do 4k). FIOS just retransmits the OTA content via their network so the video quality is essentially the same viewing from either source.


Hulu is 720p, as is almost every other OTT live tv streaming service. Direct TV NOW streams at 1080P, and there's an all sports service that has streamed a few events in 4K. The only difference between most is in the frame rate.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> The reason is not the 720P resolution. I have OTA HD recordings from 2001 to 2005 that look superb from 720P OTA channels. They put to shame anything broadcast today on OTA in the DC area, anything on FiOS, or anything on Comcast.
> The reason it looks so bad is because of the over compression in the DC area. We have frequency sharing and many sub-channels. WHich greatly decreases the bandwidth available. All of the DC area OTA stations are over compressed and bitstarved now. They look as bad as the FiOS Cable channels that are not available from OTA.
> 
> Even five or six years ago the OTA quality was much better. But over the last few years it has degraded immensely.


I live just southwest of Baltimore in Ellicott City but I routinely record from the DC OTA channels because the signal from the Baltimore stations is so strong I get a lot of pixelation. I am also on FIOS in Howard County. I would have to agree that the OTA channel image quality seems to have suffered over the years. I forget what the allowable bitrate is for OTA broadcasts (I seem to recall it's around 19 MBPS), but I routinely see them at much less than half of that. There are a lot of local channels with as many as 3 or 4 sub-channels so I always assumed it was taking away something from the primary HDTV channel on the same frequency.

I don't subscribe to Hulu or the DCU so anything I watch from those sources are acquired through "magical" means. I am able to find them in either 1080p or 2160p so I assumed that's how they are transmitted via their streaming services. Apparently they are offered at a higher resolution in other areas.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

mr.unnatural said:


> The DCU live action shows are weekly as are the CBSAA Star Trek Discovery shows. I would assume that any future programming on either of those services will follow suit.


This is my assumption too. That will keep you connected to a service for more than month if you are the type that needs to see it right away. If you're willing to wait for the season to be over, then sign up, binge and leave, then you can do that. But imagine you have 2-3 shows on Hulu you want to watch, are you going to wait for that serendipitous time when all three are bingable? It's complicated (or lets say not so easy) to keep track of everything.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

realityboy said:


> I don't think it's fun, but to me it's the equivalent of looking in TV guide like the olden days to keep track of what's where, but I'm not turning things on and off for the most part. I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, & DC Universe. (CBSAA does get turned on & off, but that's because I only watch a few series there, & it would go unused the rest of the year)
> 
> It is going to get significantly more complicated if I have to add very many more services.


We forget what the "olden days" were like. You have 3-4 major networks, maybe a 4 or 5 cable channels you watched stuff on, and pre DVR, you knew what day every show you watched was on. So it was pretty easy to keep track of things. Now? you might have a dozen or more streaming services to watch stuff on, with maybe 30 of 40 shows you might watch regularly (my SP list is 80 shows right now). Now add in that streamers like Netflix and AP add dozens of shows a week, a lot of junk but there's always 1-2 shows I'd be interested in watching....if I had the time to watch them!! This is much more complicated than TV Guide. It's not even close to being equivalent.


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

Azlen said:


> 'The Orville' Moves To Hulu From Fox For Season 3 In 2020 - Deadline
> 
> Seth MacFarlane's hit space adventure series _The Orville_ is moving to Hulu from Fox for its upcoming third season. The series will be available exclusively on the streaming service as a Hulu Original in late 2020. MacFarlane made the announcement today during the show's panel at Comic-Con in San Diego.


And how to kill a good show!


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Steveknj said:


> We forget what the "olden days" were like. You have 3-4 major networks, maybe a 4 or 5 cable channels you watched stuff on, and *pre DVR*, you knew what day every show you watched was on. So it was pretty easy to keep track of things. Now? you might have a dozen or more streaming services to watch stuff on, with maybe 30 of 40 shows you might watch regularly (my SP list is 80 shows right now). Now add in that streamers like Netflix and AP add dozens of shows a week, a lot of junk but there's always 1-2 shows I'd be interested in watching....if I had the time to watch them!! This is much more complicated than TV Guide. It's not even close to being equivalent.


Pre-*VCR* (remember the programable vcr's that had the ability to change the channel on the cable box?)


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Tony_T said:


> Pre-*VCR* (remember the programable vcr's that had the ability to change the channel on the cable box?)


Yeah, I used mine that way, but I suspect most people used them to watch pre-recorded rentals  Even with the DVR, if you watched a bunch of shows and recorded a bunch on a tape, you had to watch them in the order recorded, so you were somewhat stuck in watching things in order. The DVR changed that.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

tapokata said:


> Hulu is 720p, as is almost every other OTT live tv streaming service.


We're not talking about the "Live TV" portion of Hulu here, but the "on demand" portion, which is higher quality. I haven't actually checked the resolution, but everything looks better than broadcast, I can tell you.

Hulu says:


> You can stream selections from Hulu's streaming library in the following resolutions and minimum bitrates:
> 
> 
> Standard Definition (SD): 1.5 Mbps
> ...


Hulu Help


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## realityboy (Jun 13, 2003)

Steveknj said:


> We forget what the "olden days" were like. You have 3-4 major networks, maybe a 4 or 5 cable channels you watched stuff on, and pre DVR, you knew what day every show you watched was on. So it was pretty easy to keep track of things. Now? you might have a dozen or more streaming services to watch stuff on, with maybe 30 of 40 shows you might watch regularly (my SP list is 80 shows right now). Now add in that streamers like Netflix and AP add dozens of shows a week, a lot of junk but there's always 1-2 shows I'd be interested in watching....if I had the time to watch them!! This is much more complicated than TV Guide. It's not even close to being equivalent.


In my pre-DVR days, I had dozens of channels, and I had to know what time, day, & channel each show came on. Now, there's less than a dozen streaming services, and I only need to know the date of the season premiere/finale of the streaming shows as well as what service it's on. TiVo keeps track of the cable shows. Yes, there's a lot more content, but over half is tracked by TiVo. I still watch roughly the same amount, but of course, your mileage may vary.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Steveknj said:


> Yeah, I used mine that way, but I suspect most people used them to watch pre-recorded rentals  Even with the DVR, if you watched a bunch of shows and recorded a bunch on a tape, you had to watch them in the order recorded, so you were somewhat stuck in watching things in order. The DVR changed that.


That's what multiple VCRs were for. I remember in the early 90's using six VCRs for my recordings. And I had VCRs dedicated to certain Broadcast networks and cable. And then sometimes I would start watching a show in the middle of the broadcast. I would remove the tape and put another one in to continue recording. And start watching the show from another VCR. I always did this with Babylon 5.

But I did all this to avoid commercials. Whether it was 1990 or whether it's 2020, I want to do everything possible to avoid seeing commercials. I didn't start using VCRs until 1984. And I thought it was the best thing ever. To be able to quickly scan past the commercials. And to also binge watch shows. Although it wasn't called binge watching back then.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

realityboy said:


> In my pre-DVR days, I had dozens of channels, and I had to know what time, day, & channel each show came on. Now, there's less than a dozen streaming services, and I only need to know the date of the season premiere/finale of the streaming shows as well as what service it's on. TiVo keeps track of the cable shows. Yes, there's a lot more content, but over half is tracked by TiVo. I still watch roughly the same amount, but of course, your mileage may vary.


BAck in the 80's and 90's, when I used VCRs, I always created a speadsheet on my PC each TV season. To keep track of all the shows I watched. So I would know what time they were on, and what channel/network had them. And which VCR was used to record them from. I certainly don't miss those days with stacks of video tapes around.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Sparky1234 said:


> And how to kill a good show!


More likely how to encourage people to become pirates.



aaronwt said:


> BAck in the 80's and 90's, when I used VCRs, I always created a speadsheet on my PC each TV season. To keep track of all the shows I watched. So I would know what time they were on, and what channel/network had them. And which VCR was used to record them from. I certainly don't miss those days with stacks of video tapes around.


I did the same thing with my VCRs, DirecTivos and DVRs (both Tivo and ReplayTV). It was the only way that I could keep things straight. I decided to tinker with a Win XP HTPC using BeyondTV as my recording engine and I was hooked. I could add as many tuners as I wanted and never worry about conflicts or spreadsheets. When Ceton introduced the InfiniTV 4 cablecard tuner I was first in line to buy one. It meant that I had to give up my XP HTPC and switch to Windows 7, but it was well worth it. I went through a lot of growing pains for the first year or so and then it just plain worked. Now I have multiple Win 7 HTPCs plus a Win 10 PC for 4k playback and audio using JRiver Media Center. All of my streaming content is viewed using a Nvidia Shield.


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## JYoung (Jan 16, 2002)

Steveknj said:


> Yeah, I used mine that way, but I suspect most people used them to watch pre-recorded rentals  Even with the DVR, if you watched a bunch of shows and recorded a bunch on a tape, you had to watch them in the order recorded, so you were somewhat stuck in watching things in order. The DVR changed that.


Most people didn't know how to set the clock in their VCR.
(Hence the later addition of the clock sync feature.)

I was probably the only person I knew who routinely recorded stuff for later playback and more than one show a week.
And I must have gone through six VCRs in ten years.
I even had a VCR Plus+.

This is why the introduction of TiVo (and Replay) fascinated me.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

That was an old joke.
Now it's how old folks don't know how to use smartphones


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## realityboy (Jun 13, 2003)

JYoung said:


> Most people didn't know how to set the clock in their VCR.
> (Hence the later addition of the clock sync feature.)
> 
> I was probably the only person I knew who routinely recorded stuff for later playback and more than one show a week.
> ...


My mom tells a story about me at 4 years old getting up and putting a tape in the vcr and hitting record on Saturday morning cartoons so I could go back to sleep for a few more hours.


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

mr.unnatural said:


> More likely how to encourage people to become pirates.
> 
> Why? How?


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Were you quoting me or yourself there? Why would this encourage more people to pirate TV shows? Because they would become fed up with the way they're being distributed and rather than pay ridiculous subscription fees to watch a couple of shows they'll just download them for free. How would they do it? If you don't know then I can't explain it here as it isn't an allowable topic for discussion. Let's just say that there are at least a few methods for getting TV shows from streaming services without paying for them.


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## allan (Oct 14, 2002)

JYoung said:


> Most people didn't know how to set the clock in their VCR.
> (Hence the later addition of the clock sync feature.)
> 
> I was probably the only person I knew who routinely recorded stuff for later playback and more than one show a week.
> ...


In the mid 90s, I had shows I liked almost every evening. That's also when I went out with my GF 4-7 nights a week. I used the heck out of my VCR, but there were plenty of problems (I'd forget to set the VCR, forget to put in a tape, put in the wrong tape, etc). I would have sold my soul for a Tivo then.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Tony_T said:


> That was an old joke.
> Now it's how old folks don't know how to use smartphones


An old joke but true. I couldn't even count the number of VCRs I saw that was flashing 12:00. All because the people had no clue how to set it.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> An old joke but true. I couldn't even count the number of VCRs I saw that was flashing 12:00. All because the people had no clue how to set it.


I've never understood the issue--it typically is fairly easy to set (one just needs to take the minute to do so).


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Old Folks just can't understand new technology


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## Lurker1 (Jun 4, 2004)

Mikeguy said:


> I've never understood the issue--it typically is fairly easy to set (one just needs to take the minute to do so).


Easy for you and me and 99% of TCF posters, yes. There are plenty of regular people for which it is not easy, and too much trouble to figure out again every time the power goes out.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Lurker1 said:


> Easy for you and me and 99% of TCF posters, yes. There are plenty of regular people for which it is not easy, and too much trouble to figure out again every time the power goes out.


For me, it's just not easy for them because they don't read the manual for it, to the extent it's not intuitive to them (as it might be for many here).


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> An old joke but true. I couldn't even count the number of VCRs I saw that was flashing 12:00. All because the people had no clue how to set it.





Mikeguy said:


> I've never understood the issue--it typically is fairly easy to set (one just needs to take the minute to do so).


Some people just never bothered. Their VCR was to watch Back to the Future that they rented at Blockbuster. That was the extent of how they wanted to use their VCR. Some people just couldn't figure it out. Maybe, they were confused by it. Heck, I set up a simpler Harmony Remote for my MIL, and she calls me because something didn't turn on, and all I tell her is to hit the Help button and that will fix it. Three weeks later, the same question. I've shown my dad how to clear notifications off his Android phone, next day there are dozens of notification again. Some people are technically challenged.


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## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

Like with Fire Fly, Fox just killed another good show.


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## lambertman (Dec 21, 2002)

Except they literally didn’t.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

SNJpage1 said:


> Like with Fire Fly, Fox just killed another good show.


I'm sure people would have loved to have Firefly move from Fox to a streaming service and get another season. I know I would have. But of course there were no streaming services back then.

I'll take another season on a streaming service any day, over a show getting canceled on a broadcast network and never having more episodes.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Steveknj said:


> Some people just never bothered. Their VCR was to watch Back to the Future that they rented at Blockbuster. That was the extent of how they wanted to use their VCR. Some people just couldn't figure it out. Maybe, they were confused by it. Heck, I set up a simpler Harmony Remote for my MIL, and she calls me because something didn't turn on, and all I tell her is to hit the Help button and that will fix it. Three weeks later, the same question. I've shown my dad how to clear notifications off his Android phone, next day there are dozens of notification again. Some people are technically challenged.


And how do _most_ of us know that people have a flashing 12:00 on their VCR....
....by the Jay Leno jokes.
Then it was how people couldn't even set their VCR clock. Now its how they can't connect to WiFi.

I view the VCR<=>Clock as an urban legend.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

mr.unnatural said:


> Were you quoting me or yourself there? Why would this encourage more people to pirate TV shows? Because they would become fed up with the way they're being distributed and rather than pay ridiculous subscription fees to watch a couple of shows they'll just download them for free. How would they do it? If you don't know then I can't explain it here as it isn't an allowable topic for discussion. Let's just say that there are at least a few methods for getting TV shows from streaming services without paying for them.


It's not an allowable topic for discussion? What about threads like these?

Bit torrent Question.. I need someone to walk me through like I am 5

Anybody want to explain Usenet to me like I'm seven?


lambertman said:


> Except they literally didn't.


Exactly. 1. The show wasn't killed, and B. FOX likely had nothing to do with this decision (or at most they simply allowed Hulu to have the rights).


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

DevdogAZ said:


> It's not an allowable topic for discussion? What about threads like these?
> 
> Bit torrent Question.. I need someone to walk me through like I am 5
> 
> ...


This came up in my Google News feed today...
Plex makes piracy just another streaming service


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Tony_T said:


> And how do _most_ of us know that people have a flashing 12:00 on their VCR....
> ....by the Jay Leno jokes.
> Then it was how people couldn't even set their VCR clock. Now its how they can't connect to WiFi.
> 
> I view the VCR<=>Clock as an urban legend.


I've SEEN it, with my own eyes, on many TVs. Not an urban legend, but truth. Heck, I'm technically savvy, and I had one of my DVRs with the clock not set, simply because I just never needed to do it. I just played back pre-recorded stuff on it or used it to transfer VHS tapes to DVD (back when I cared to do that). Setting the clock was meaningless to me.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

I don't doubt you have (which is why I said _most_)


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

aaronwt said:


> An old joke but true. I couldn't even count the number of VCRs I saw that was flashing 12:00. All because the people had no clue how to set it.


My VCR used to always flash 12:00 because Florida Power and Light would have brief power flickers about 3 times a day. Wasn't worth the trouble to set the time. (And my very old oven clock loses about 10 minutes a day, so it never gets set either).


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

VCR's weren't cheap when they first came out. Never understood why there wasn't a battery backup for the clock back then to deal with power outages.


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## Lurker1 (Jun 4, 2004)

All the average user understands is, 'Hey, it didn't record what I wanted it to record. I'm dumb.'

PBS Project Could Set VCR Time in a Flash


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

I just can't believe that people are that dumb. A main benefit of a VCR was to record TV shows, that needed a correct time, so that alone would drive the user to learn how to set it. (Why I don't but the old joke as real)
The flashing 12:00 only makes sense if the user only rented from Blockbuster


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

Well, there goes the last reason for me to watch anything on Fox...


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## Howie (May 3, 2004)

I remember having a DVR that came with a sort of light pen and a laminated chart with times and days of the week and channels. You could use that to select the exact times you wanted a channel to record. Very high tech. I think it might have been a Panasonic.


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## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

Tony_T said:


> I just can't believe that people are that dumb. A main benefit of a VCR was to record TV shows, that needed a correct time, so that alone would drive the user to learn how to set it. (Why I don't but the old joke as real)
> The flashing 12:00 only makes sense if the user only rented from Blockbuster


Early on, people that used VCR's to record TV were in the extreme minority. The vast majority of VCRs were bought to play back rented movies. People had, at most, one blank tape, if they had any at all. Nobody cared about timeshifting TV yet, that was small potatoes. The home movie market was the big potatoes.


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## longrider (Oct 26, 2017)

kdmorse said:


> Early on, people that used VCR's to record TV were in the extreme minority. The vast majority of VCRs were bought to play back rented movies. People had, at most, one blank tape, if they had any at all. Nobody cared about timeshifting TV yet, that was small potatoes. The home movie market was the big potatoes.


I was the exact opposite. I recorded either if it was something special I wanted to keep or for time shifting. I could probably count on one hand the number of movies I rented.

The comment about how expensive early VCRs were reminded me of a good story. I bought my first VCR in the early/mid 80s and it was EXPENSIVE! Around a $1000, it was the first unit to use pushbuttons and solenoids to activate the drive rather than levers you had to push down. Several years later something broke and the repair was around $300 which I had no problem with as it was a $1000 unit. Only later I saw I could have bought a new unit for around $200


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

longrider said:


> I was the exact opposite. I recorded either if it was something special I wanted to keep or for time shifting. I could probably count on one hand the number of movies I rented.
> 
> The comment about how expensive early VCRs were reminded me of a good story. I bought my first VCR in the early/mid 80s and it was EXPENSIVE! Around a $1000, it was the first unit to use pushbuttons and solenoids to activate the drive rather than levers you had to push down. Several years later something broke and the repair was around $300 which I had no problem with as it was a $1000 unit. Only later I saw I could have bought a new unit for around $200


And remember when VCRs originally came out and the remote was _wired_? A wireless remote was a big deal (and a more expensive option).


----------



## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

DevdogAZ said:


> It's not an allowable topic for discussion? What about threads like these?
> 
> Bit torrent Question.. I need someone to walk me through like I am 5
> 
> Anybody want to explain Usenet to me like I'm seven?


OK, then clearly no further explanation is needed for my previous response as you understood where I was coming from. I forgot that this forum is a bit more forgiving in discussions of those topics. All other forums I get involved with don't allow such topics to be discussed openly or you can get banned.


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

kdmorse said:


> Early on, people that used VCR's to record TV were in the extreme minority. The vast majority of VCRs were bought to play back rented movies. People had, at most, one blank tape, if they had any at all. Nobody cared about timeshifting TV yet, that was small potatoes. The home movie market was the big potatoes.


My first VCR was a 2-head Hitachi model with a wired remote. I was hooked on time shifting right off the bat.


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## longrider (Oct 26, 2017)

Mikeguy said:


> And remember when VCRs originally came out and the remote was _wired_? A wireless remote was a big deal (and a more expensive option).


I remember very well, the unit I was discussing had a wire remote. I built a 25' extension for it so I could run the wire around the room and over the door rather than across the middle of the floor


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Beta Max


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

My VCRs had their clocks set, but I seldom if ever used them for time-shifting -- because, for me, the VCR era corresponded to the cable box era, with the VCRs being unable to control the cable boxes. Instead, I'd watch live and zap out (pause recording on) the commercials. (At least some of the VCRs were "cable-ready", but then they'd have to forgo the scrambled channels. Also, for a while, our cable system required two lines for each box, with half the channels on each.) I finally got real time-shifting with the DirecTiVo.


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## longrider (Oct 26, 2017)

Tony_T said:


> Beta Max


I had to make that decision, fortunately I chose VHS


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Tony_T said:


> VCR's weren't cheap when they first came out. Never understood why there wasn't a battery backup for the clock back then to deal with power outages.


The SOny VCRs I owned back then had a capacitor that would store enough power to keep the memory for something like 12 hours or day(I can't remember the exact amount of time it lasted. Only that I remember paying $400 or $500 for the Sony VCRs). IN the mid 90's I started connecting all my VCRs to a UPS so I could continue recording during a power outage. Since the cable company typically still had a signal during the power outages.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Tony_T said:


> I just can't believe that people are that dumb. A main benefit of a VCR was to record TV shows, that needed a correct time, so that alone would drive the user to learn how to set it. (Why I don't but the old joke as real)
> The flashing 12:00 only makes sense if the user only rented from Blockbuster


I ran into many very smart people that could not program a VCR. Lawyers, Doctors, accountants etc. People with Masters and Doctorates. But they had no clue how to set the clock on a VCR.

And I still run into people like that today with AV stuff. They have no idea how to even hook up any AV equipment.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The networks are becoming more and more useless. I'm not sure I even have any SPs left on the big 4.

Edit: Just looked at the fall lineup and I have 5 SPs from the big 4, all half hour comedies, and 3 of them I never even finished last season. Network TV sucks!


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

mr.unnatural said:


> OK, then clearly no further explanation is needed for my previous response as you understood where I was coming from. I forgot that this forum is a bit more forgiving in discussions of those topics. All other forums I get involved with don't allow such topics to be discussed openly or you can get banned.


Still not appropriate....


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## allan (Oct 14, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> The networks are becoming more and more useless. I'm not sure I even have any SPs left on the big 4.
> 
> Edit: Just looked at the fall lineup and I have 5 SPs from the big 4, all half hour comedies, and 3 of them I never even finished last season. Network TV sucks!


Out of the shows I watched last year, 1 was cancelled, 1 (this one) won't be on this year and will be streaming only next, 1 will be renewed, and everything else was 2nd tier at best and the only one of that batch that I remember off the top of my head is cancelled. I'm not optimistic about next season.


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## type_g (Sep 9, 2002)

Whoa this thread about The Orville being moved is almost longer than any episode thread of The Orville. Granted 3 pages are probably about just VCRs flashing 12:00 haha.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

Bah.. guess I won't be watching. I'm not subscribing to a service just for one show. Even if it is just for one month. I cut the cord for a reason. I only have / watch Netflix and am not going to jump on and off all these streaming services and pay.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

NJChris said:


> Bah.. guess I won't be watching. I'm not subscribing to a service just for one show. Even if it is just for one month. I cut the cord for a reason. I only have / watch Netflix and am not going to jump on and off all these streaming services and pay.


A lot of them offer free trials. If you can squeeze the whole season into a week or two you might be able to watch without paying.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

aaronwt said:


> And I still run into people like that today with AV stuff. They have no idea how to even hook up any AV equipment.


The bulk of humanity doesn't understand multiple Video Inputs on a TV, let alone hooking up AV equipment. That's as true now as it was 25 years ago, when I was trying to explain Cable/LD/VCR on TV/Input 1/Input 2; and they looked at me uncomprehendingly, like cows at a passing train.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

My daughter has Spotify premium (student) and she "gets" Hulu for free with that. Just sayin.....


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Hulu also free for Sprint customers.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

But isn't that the version with commercials? Even if they paid me each month, I couldn't watch the Hulu version with commercials.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Of course the free version is with commercials.
(I have Sprint, but I pay the $12 for commercial free Hulu)


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

gweempose said:


> The thing that really bums me out about this is the fact that I can't get 5.1 sound on Hulu through my TiVo or Roku.


Biggest drawback that I see...I enjoyed the 5.1 surround sound on OTA Fox


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Tony_T said:


> Turn on Tivo autoSKIP.


I haven't actually used autoskip, but I presume it effectively does the skip exactly when it becomes available to the user...
so that's still not as good as watching it on Hulu or other without commercials, since
1) no onscreen animated ads (except the stupid logo is still there)
2) no "coming up on" for commercial breaks.. I guess that's not true for most scripted shows, but still for some kinds of programming it's there

the only benefit is still using the tivo remote/having convenient 8 second skip back, and QuickPlay (esp with the recently-discovered modifiable speed quickplay.. I now use only 1.5 and 1.9x when using quickplay, for different kinds of content).


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

Those aren't the ONLY benefits of TiVo. The TiVo FF/RW is absolutely stupendous. Fast, responsive, and precise.

Every single other FF/RW is annoying at best and useless at worst. I get that since there are no commercials it's less often necessary to use them, but I'd rather re-watch 10 minutes of a show I've already seen or live with having missed some content than try to use the FF/RW on any of the streaming services.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

madscientist said:


> Those aren't the ONLY benefits of TiVo. *The TiVo FF/RW is absolutely stupendous. Fast, responsive, and precise.*
> 
> Every single other FF/RW is annoying at best and useless at worst. I get that since there are no commercials it's less often necessary to use them, but I'd rather re-watch 10 minutes of a show I've already seen or live with having missed some content than try to use the FF/RW on any of the streaming services.


It's not just streaming REW/FF. The TiVo puts DirecTV to shame also. While there are many aspects of DirecTV that aren't bad, or even better than TiVo in some ways, their Trickplay sucks. Just. Sucks.


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## eddyj (Jun 20, 2002)

astrohip said:


> It's not just streaming REW/FF. The TiVo puts DirecTV to shame also. While there are many aspects of DirecTV that aren't bad, or even better than TiVo in some ways, their Trickplay sucks. Just. Sucks.


And even then, it is much better than what you get from streaming services.


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## allan (Oct 14, 2002)

That's my biggest gripe with the streaming services. On every streaming service I've tried, FF/REW is much worse than on the worst physical DVRs I've tried.


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## IndyJones1023 (Apr 1, 2002)

allan said:


> That's my biggest gripe with the streaming services. On every streaming service I've tried, FF/REW is much worse than on the worst physical DVRs I've tried.


I love how YouTube TV implements it.

Once you hit the FFW or REW button, the video pauses and a timeline pops up showing where in the program you are with a box that shows where you will be if you hit play. They stop the program and you can keep hitting forward or rewing and the box will show you a still image of where you will be. So hit the button a few times and it will show you when you're back in the program.

But it's still not playing! It's paused! You hit play again to resume playback. I really like it. Much better than the old way.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Still wish Tivo would implement a closed caption on replay (like Roku)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Bierboy said:


> Biggest drawback that I see...I enjoyed the 5.1 surround sound on OTA Fox


All the surround info is there. IN my testing between 5.1 broadcast shows and the 2.0 shows on hulu, all the audio info was there. What audio was in the six channels from the 5.1 broadcast was also in the same channels from the 2.0 audio in Hulu. At least with Dolby Surround processing, they both sounded the same. The same audio emanated from the rear speakers, center speakers etc.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> All the surround info is there. IN my testing between 5.1 broadcast shows and the 2.0 shows on hulu, all the audio info was there. What audio was in the six channels from the 5.1 broadcast was also in the same channels from the 2.0 audio in Hulu. At least with Dolby Surround processing, they both sounded the same. The same audio emanated from the rear speakers, center speakers etc.


Not to my ears...and I've double checked my HT settings. Netflix, Prime (and I'm not sure about YTTV) all pipe out DD+, and it's MUCH better than whatever Hulu Live is doing...


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Bierboy said:


> Not to my ears...and I've double checked my HT settings. Netflix, Prime (and I'm not sure about YTTV) all pipe out DD+, and it's MUCH better than whatever Hulu Live is doing...


No idea about Hulu Live. I'm comparing Hulu commercial free shows with what is recorded from ABC, Fox, and NBC with my TiVos. With those the audio came out of the same speakers in my 5.1.2 setup using Dolby Surround processing.


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## Fl_Gulfer (May 27, 2005)

5 bucks to watch a season then cancel. hummmm tough


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> No idea about Hulu Live. I'm comparing Hulu commercial free shows with what is recorded from ABC, Fox, and NBC with my TiVos. With those the audio came out of the same speakers in my 5.1.2 setup using Dolby Surround processing.


Well, this thread is about a show that airs live on Fox and is moving to Hulu Live, so that's exactly how and why I responded as I did.


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## MizzouJames (Jul 15, 2019)

Bierboy said:


> Well, this thread is about a show that airs live on Fox and is moving to Hulu Live, so that's exactly how and why I responded as I did.


Is it? What's Hulu Live?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Bierboy said:


> Well, this thread is about a show that airs live on Fox and is moving to Hulu Live, so that's exactly how and why I responded as I did.


It's moving to Hulu. I subscribe to Commercial Free Hulu. I will still be able to watch it like any Hulu original show.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

MizzouJames said:


> Is it? What's Hulu Live?


I spoke incorrectly...just Hulu. I watch Hulu Live most of the time because, frankly, there's not much worth watching on plain old Hulu. But I get the same audio whether it's Hulu or Hulu Live...and its a poor rendition of surround. Never DD or DD+ like Amazon Prime or Netflix.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> No idea about Hulu Live. I'm comparing Hulu commercial free shows with what is recorded from ABC, Fox, and NBC with my TiVos. With those the audio came out of the same speakers in my 5.1.2 setup using Dolby Surround processing.


You may be able to get audio out of all your speakers, but that's still not the same as true DD+. There is no way to get a discrete 5.1 mix from a 2.0 source.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

gweempose said:


> You may be able to get audio out of all your speakers, but that's still not the same as true DD+. There is no way to get a discrete 5.1 mix from a 2.0 source.


While not discrete, if the signal is encoded with the surround info then the result can sound identical. When done properly, a 2.0 audio signal can sound the same as a 5.1 audio signal. With all the audio placed properly in the same speakers. Which has been the case for many, many years.

In my testing with Hulu 2.0 audio and the 5.1 audio from the broadcast recordings, the same audio emanated from the same speakers(subwoofer, Front Left, Front Right, Center, Surround Left, and Surround right). And once I tested and found this out, I had no problem with the 2.0 audio. Since I was missing nothing.

The same audio in the 5.1 mix is also in the 2.0 mix. And when decoded with the proper post processing, yields the same results.

Of course the 2.0 audio has to be done properly and have the proper info. I've certainly had 2.0 audio from other sources that was not correct. So the post processing could not be done properly. But so far every broadcast show I've tested from Hulu that was in 2.0, matched everything from the 5.1 broadcast.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

You talk about the "same audio" coming from the same channels. That could be true (although my audiophile ears would dispute that). But I maintain the quality of the sound is also entirely different (it's worse from Hulu). And my receiver also tells a different tale when it displays what kind of audio it's processing.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Bierboy said:


> You talk about the "same audio" coming from the same channels. That could be true (although my audiophile ears would dispute that). But I maintain the quality of the sound is also entirely different (it's worse from Hulu). And my receiver also tells a different tale when it displays what kind of audio it's processing.


My receivers also upsample the stereo pcm audio which helps with the quality. But you also have an issue with Hulu where some devices output improper 5.1 audio as well.

I only know that in my testing of multiple shows between the stereo audio from Hulu, and using the Dolby Surround processing. Compared with the 5.1 DD audio from the recorded shows on my TiVos, along with Dolby Surround processing. That the same sounds and effects emanated from the the same speakers.


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## That Don Guy (Mar 13, 2003)

IndyJones1023 said:


> I love how YouTube TV implements it.
> 
> Once you hit the FFW or REW button, the video pauses and a timeline pops up showing where in the program you are with a box that shows where you will be if you hit play. They stop the program and you can keep hitting forward or rewing and the box will show you a still image of where you will be. So hit the button a few times and it will show you when you're back in the program.
> 
> But it's still not playing! It's paused! You hit play again to resume playback. I really like it. Much better than the old way.


This sounds like how it works on the YouTube app on Roku. However, that app (at least in my experience) is notorious for its lag in terms of handling REW/FF presses. Also, if you want to get to somewhere, say, 30 minutes into the program (for example, because you had to interrupt it the last time you were watching it), that's 180 button presses.

Have you seen how the new WWE Network interface handles it? It is similar to how it used to work - pressing a button keeps it in REW/FF mode until you press Play - but now it shows you images of where it is currently located.


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

Finally. A date:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1441084240276250634
March 10, 2022.

--Carlos "We try harder" V.


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## IndyJones1023 (Apr 1, 2002)

I read MacFarlane state that this was the final season and they were wrapping up the story. But the retitling suggests otherwise.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

I just hope he's made up his mind to make a comedy spoof, OR a real sci-fi homage to Star Trek. When he tries to do both, it's awful.


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## IndyJones1023 (Apr 1, 2002)

I think the format is great! As I read on the internet, it's the "Shaun of the Dead" of sci-fi.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Hank said:


> I just hope he's made up his mind to make a comedy spoof, OR a real sci-fi homage to Star Trek. When he tries to do both, it's awful.


It's got a unique tone that you have to get used to, but once you do, it works.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

wmcbrine said:


> It's got a unique tone that you have to get used to, but once you do, it works.


I've watched the entire series. I'm "used to it". 
When you mix some really phenomenal sci-fi writing with gratuitous and sophomoric fart and dick jokes, it doesn't work. 
It's either a serious show or a joke show, it can't be both.
It's like saying mixing Jazz with death metal "works".


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

At first I thought it was going to be parody of the Star Trek series, but over time it moved into more serious Sci Fi stories with some comedic overtones. I think it made up it's mind about 2/3 through the first season.

I'm not sure if I don't get another $2 a month Hulu deal I will re-up to watch this. I liked it, but it's not something I'd spend money to watch.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

I agree with Steveknj. Most of the sophomoric level of humor was ditched midway through season 1. 

There's still some casual humor to the writing, much of which I'll grant is very anachronistic to the futuristic setting (for example, the jokes about "Avis"), but I don't see that changing - that's just the style of the show.


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## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

I love this show… the combo of the sci-fi and fart and dick jokes works for me.


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## Howie (May 3, 2004)

You had me at fart and dick jokes.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

I was with some friends this weekend and asked their opinion of the show. One of my friends said that he heard that they're seriously toning down the jokes in the upcoming season.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

Hank said:


> One of my friends said that he heard that they're seriously toning down the jokes in the upcoming season.


I think they've already done that in Season 2. The tone is more morality-tale based than fart and dick jokes.

Gonna miss Yaphit tho.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Well, hopefully it's even less. Then I might actually _like_ the show.


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

Saturn_V said:


> Gonna miss Yaphit tho.


Oh. Yeah.


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## eddyj (Jun 20, 2002)

madscientist said:


> Oh. Yeah.


I need a refresher of what's with Yaphit.


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## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

eddyj said:


> I need a refresher of what's with Yaphit.


Played (voiced) by Norm Macdonald(RIP)


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## trainman (Jan 29, 2001)

Reportedly, Yaphit is going to appear in Season 3, because Norm Macdonald had completed the voice work already.

Norm Macdonald Leaves New 'The Orville' Episodes Behind; Seth MacFarlane Mourns - Deadline


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## eddyj (Jun 20, 2002)

Ah, I had totally forgotten that. Damn CRS!


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## Bruce24 (Jan 8, 2003)

Hulu's The Orville Will Soon Be Available for Streaming on Disney+


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Bruce24 said:


> Hulu's The Orville Will Soon Be Available for Streaming on Disney+


More evidence that the 2 services will eventually merge as it will also still be on Hulu.


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## Amnesia (Jan 30, 2005)

I don't see why that's evidence that the services will merge. There are shows that are on both Peacock and Hulu (like _Friday Night Lights_)...


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Hulu and Disney+ are both owned by Disney.


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## Amnesia (Jan 30, 2005)

So? Hulu is 2/3 owned by Disney and 1/3 owned by Comcast (who owns Peacock). 

I don't see why a show being aired by both Hulu and Disney+ is any more indicative that Hulu and Disney+ will be merged than is the fact that a show is being aired by both Hulu and Peacock.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

People love conspiracy theories.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

.


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## getbak (Oct 8, 2004)

Amnesia said:


> So? Hulu is 2/3 owned by Disney and 1/3 owned by Comcast (who owns Peacock).


For now, but they have an agreement for Disney to buy out Comcast's stake at some point after 2024: Disney is taking full control of Hulu | CNN Business

This is from 2019, before Disney+ launched:


> Now Hulu is effectively a Disney product. The company became the majority stakeholder in the streaming video service after it closed a deal for most of Fox’s assets in March. Last month, WarnerMedia — now owned by AT&T (T) — agreed to sell its 9.5% interest back to Hulu. (CNN is a division of WarnerMedia.)
> Comcast (CMCSA) owns roughly a third of Hulu. Under the terms of the deal, Comcast (CMCSA) will sell its interest to Disney for Hulu’s fair market value no earlier than 2024. Disney has guaranteed that the sale price will reflect a minimum total equity value of $27.5 billion for Hulu at that time, according to a press release.


Right now, Hulu is only offered in the US, so most of its original programming is already on Disney+ outside the US. When I saw the announcement about The Orville yesterday, I was confused because it has been on Disney+ in Canada for a long time.

There has been a lot of speculation that once Disney has 100% control of Hulu, it will be rolled into Disney+ so they can standardize their global marketing efforts.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Disney technically already has full control. Comcast’s ownership stake was converted to a silent equity partner stake in Hulu.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

So does this mean that The Orville will be ad-free on Disney+? I have the ad supported Hulu and also Disney+. I haven't seen the new season yet on Hulu, but if this is the case, I'll wait until it's on Disney+ and watch ad free.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Steveknj said:


> So does this mean that The Orville will be ad-free on Disney+? I have the ad supported Hulu and also Disney+. I haven't seen the new season yet on Hulu, but if this is the case, I'll wait until it's on Disney+ and watch ad free.


Disney+ doesn’t have ads, so I’d assume Orville would be ad-free there.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

morac said:


> Disney+ doesn’t have ads, so I’d assume Orville would be ad-free there.


Disney will be launching an ad supported tier on Disney+, later this year.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

This is an interesting play by Disney. Since they have to pay Comcast fair market value and they can't do it until 2024, Disney has zero incentive to help increase Hulu's value between now and then. By only having a very short exclusivity window on Hulu before content is also available on D+, that could effectively damage the value of Hulu, which seems like cutting off their nose to spite their face, especially if they've already agreed on a floor value (according to the quote posted above by getbak).


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

It is possible that Disney would want Hulu to continue for non-Disney programming that they can carry there.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

TonyD79 said:


> It is possible that Disney would want Hulu to continue for non-Disney programming that they can carry there.


Yes. They need a place for their rated R content.

Plus, they have been pushing their bundles big time. Bundles that include Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

TonyD79 said:


> It is possible that Disney would want Hulu to continue for non-Disney programming that they can carry there.


With all the various studios launching their own streaming services (Peacock for Universal, HBO Max for WB, Paramount+ for Paramount) and moving their content there, I have to ask what non-Disney programming is left? 



aaronwt said:


> Yes. They need a place for their rated R content.


Disney+ in the USA has added R rated content since adding parental controls. Most notably the Marvel shows that used to be on Netflix and also Deadpool. Other countries have always had R rated content on Disney+.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

morac said:


> With all the various studios launching their own streaming services (Peacock for Universal, HBO Max for WB, Paramount+ for Paramount) and moving their content there, I have to ask what non-Disney programming is left?
> 
> 
> 
> Disney+ in the USA has added R rated content since adding parental controls. Most notably the Marvel shows that used to be on Netflix and also Deadpool. Other countries have always had R rated content on Disney+.


They still have plenty of non Disney content on Hulu. If you have Hulu, go to the channels section and see. Plus Hulu has live tv! And sports!


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

aaronwt said:


> Yes. They need a place for their rated R content.











R-rated movies have come to Disney+


Disney+ just got a little more adult.




www.cnn.com


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