Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, and this is Cord Cutter Weekly, my newsletter on how to save money on TV and make the most of streaming. Sign up here if someone shared this newsletter with you.
This app turned my Plex library into 24/7 streaming channels
Jared Newman | 
While lots of free streaming services offer lineups of live TV channels to flip through, they all have the same problem: You’re not in control of the content, and you’re constantly interrupted by ads.
A new app called Bunny Ears TV aims to solve those problems with help from Plex Media Server. If you have an Apple TV box and your own collection of movie or TV files in Plex, Bunny Ears TV can spin them into dozens of round-the-clock streaming channels with practically no effort.
It’s a neat app that mimics the channel surfing of cable using your own content, but unlike with cable, there are no commercial breaks.
Weekly rewind
DuckDuckGo blocks YouTube ads now: DuckDuckGo’s web browser for iOS, Windows and Mac now blocks ads on YouTube by default. The Android app will soon do so as well, though you can turn it on manually in the meantime under Settings > Ad Blocking. DuckDuckGo says it’s using the same filter lists as uBlock Origin, so it’s functionally the same as installing the uBlock Origin extension in any other browser.
Of course, this won’t help if you’re watching YouTube on a television unless you try screen mirroring from your phone or computer (or just installing a computer in your living room). In any case, I’m curious to see how YouTube will respond to this, as it’s been playing cat-and-mouse with ad blockers for the past couple of years.
ZapperBox zapped from Amazon: BitRouter’s ZapperBox M1 is a completely legal way to record local channels from an antenna, and is one of the best solutions on the market for doing so. Yet over the past month, some doofuses at Amazon keep mistaking ZapperBox for an illegal piracy box and removing it from Amazon’s storefront, while also denying BitRouter’s appeals.
Fortunately, the box reappeared on Amazon as several journalists (including me) started looking into the matter, though Walmart has also stopped selling the box and it remains unavailable there. Matthew Keys and Jim Kimble both wrote about the ordeal. While I’m glad ZapperBox is back on Amazon, the whole situation speaks to a sad lack of awareness about free over-the-air TV and legal recording options.
More catch-up
- A story I missed while on vacation: Netflix is pushing users to set up separate email addresses for each profile.
- Several states may sue to stop Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
- I wrote a list of unanswered questions about Fox’s plan to acquire Roku.
- Netflix wants to be more like YouTube with short videos from online publications.
Save more money
This part of the newsletter has some affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up buying or subscribing to something.
MLB.TV is currently $48 for the remaining season if you sign up before the end of the All-Star break. It’s advertised as half-off the $96 remaining season price, but that’s a little misleading given that the full season costs $150 and we’re more than halfway through at this point. Still, it’s a good deal if your team is out-of-market and hasn’t played itself out of contention yet.
Other notable deals:
- Paramount+: Still $1 per month for two months of Premium with code SAVE992MPREM, or half-off a year with code SAVEANNUAL50. New and returning subscribers only.
- Starz: Back to one year for $24, or three months for $3 per month. New and returning subscribers only.
- Refurbished Roku Ultra boxes are selling for $60.
As always, I keep a full list of up-to-date deals on this page.
This week in Advisorator: I wrote about Apple’s price hikes, a decent mini PC deal, and why I keep buying cheap printers. Plus, I’m answering readers’ questions in the members-only Tech Buds forum. Read it here →
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Until next time,
Jared