This week on TechHive: PlayOn’s streaming DVR just got a lot pricier
For a certain kind of cord-cutter, PlayOn has always been an invaluable tool.
With PlayOn’s desktop software, you can record TV shows from streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and HBO Max, letting you watch them even after your subscription expires or when they move to a different service. Essentially, it’s a DVR for streaming services that don’t have their own built-in recording features.
But earlier this month, PlayOn developer MediaMall quietly made a major change: The company is discontinuing its current desktop software and replacing it with a subscription-based service called PlayOn Home. While PlayOn Desktop still works as of this writing, its recording capabilities will break over time, and the program won’t work at all in Windows 11.
While the change might be necessary for MediaMall’s business, it strands users who paid for lifetime PlayOn licenses, and it further complicates the question of how to record shows to watch on your own terms. Read the full column on TechHive.
Weekly rewind
The Roku-Google impasse: If you own a Roku player and haven’t downloaded the YouTube app, make sure you do by December 9. That’s when Google is threatening to pull YouTube from Roku’s Channel Store over a carriage dispute that started in May.
In lieu of an agreement, new users would not be able to download YouTube on Roku devices, but the app would still work for those who installed it already. Roku previously pulled the separate YouTube TV app from its platform, but still allows existing users to access it. (Google, in turn, made the entire YouTube TV experience available through YouTube proper as a workaround.)
Roku says Google is seeking special treatment in search results and demanding “search, voice, and data features” that other platforms don’t have to offer. I previously tried to untangle these claims and found a fair share disingenuousness on both sides, but it’s a sad situation for users regardless. While I had been optimistic that the two companies would come to terms without any further impact on users, they don’t seem particularly close right now.
Comcast TVs are coming soon: After months of rumor and speculation, Comcast has officially announced a pair of smart TVs built on the same software as its cable boxes. Hisense’s “XClass” TVs will come in 43-inch and 50-inch sizes for $298 and $348, respectively, and they’ll both have 4K HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and DTS Virtual: X support. They’ll include a free year of Peacock Premium. Walmart will carry the TVs exclusively, and they’ll be rolling out to stores over the next several weeks.
I’m willing to give these a fair shake, if only because Comcast’s cable box software tends to be well-regarded, but it’s amusing that Walmart’s product page contains not a single mention of Comcast or Xfinity. Both brands would be poisonous at retail, and Comcast has to know it.
More baseball streaming drama: A report by the New York Post’s Josh Kosman claims that the MLB is looking to launch a streaming service for in-market games, potentially in time for the 2023 season. The NBA and NHL could also partner with the league to stream local basketball and hockey games as well. While cable providers might not be happy about that, the MLB could compensate by cutting them in on the streaming revenues.
Although Sinclair also wants to launch a streaming service around local sports next year, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that Sinclair lacks the rights to do so. This sets up something of a power struggle as both sides try to navigate the implosion of the regional sports channel business. But either way, the unbundling of local sports from pay TV packages is starting to look like inevitable.
More catch-up
- WarnerMedia execs consider a name change for HBO Max, which will surely clear up any lingering confusion around the current name.
- Millennials are pretty good at cycling through streaming services instead of keeping them year-round.
- Amazon adds more local newscasts to its News app on Fire TV.
- Evoca, an over-the-air TV bundle using ATSC 3.0, adds regional Altitude Sports channels in Colorado.
Save more money
Best Buy is currently the selling Roku Streaming Stick+ Headphone Edition for $40, which is $60 off the regular price.
Unlike the brand-new Roku Streaming Stick 4K, this model doesn’t support Dolby Vision HDR, and it doesn’t have the modest performance and Wi-Fi improvements of the current model. But it does include a set of earbuds and has a headphone jack built into its remote for private listening. It’s worth considering if you’d rather not fiddle with the private listening features in Roku’s mobile app.
If you missed it last week, you can also still get Walmart’s Onn UHD streaming box for $20 (here’s my review), and the Tablo Quad over-the-air DVR with 1 TB of storage remains on sale for $209 (my review of a bring-your-own storage variant is here).
Thanks for reading!
I love hearing from lovely readers like you, so please let me know if you have any cord-cutting questions I can answer, especially in regards to the Roku-YouTube fracas. I’ll likely have more to say about that next week, unless something more exciting comes up. Just reply to this email to get in touch!
Until next week,
Jared