4 ms·

Mainstream broadcast TV, for myself in the UK, has been dead for about a decade. There is literally nothing of value that I want to see. I have netflix/prime/no

Mainstream broadcast TV, for myself in the UK, has been dead for about a decade. There is literally nothing of value that I want to see. I have netflix/prime/nowtv/ad nausaum to compete for my attention and I can choose something for the mood I am in. Sometimes I do miss the days of being forced to watch "what ever is on" but I think that is more of a failing in curating the programming for these services. I wish there was a website I could check-off my interests, list my location and the streaming services I subscribe to, and it would just give me my next show to watch. I also wish something like that existed for video games, collating my steam library + subscription services (EA, PS+, Gamepass, etc.) and just tell me what game to play next, before they age off etc. Honestly, in this digital age where everything is automated and the era of search I find the curation and recommendation of all of these subscription services to be really very poor.

chaostheory 4y ago
Google, Amazon, and Apple all have AI recommendation apps that show you how what you might want to watch, but you have to buy their respective streaming boxes to access it. Not sure about Roku, but if they didn’t have a similar service I would find it strange If you find these recommendation services poor, did you give them feedback on the initial and subsequent recommendations in order to train them?
- flumpcakes 4y ago
  I do have a google TV (or whatever it's actually called) and a TV with one of the newer chrome casts that has google TV built-in. It is painfully annoying as I have downloaded apps for Disney+, Prime, etc. but I will not get recommendations for shows/films on these platforms, or simple integrations such as the option to continue playing from the google landing page. Any recommendations I do get end up being for media that I need to buy or subscribe to a service I do not have. Considering I have to download and login to each of the streaming apps, you would think google would know what I want to watch. As for the recommendations in-app, they are not good. Ok, so Netflix shows me shows that I probably would like more than what it shows my wife, but 90% of them are still not good. If there is a show I know I want to watch it is painfully difficult to find it without specifically searching for it with textual input. I don't think these platforms are actually recommending what they think you want to watch, more some overlap between what will decrease their bandwidth bill the most (i.e. currently cached closet to me) and some broad category like "horror". There is definitely a market for a good cross-subscription/service recommendation platform for both TV/film and video games. It's definitely not google TV.
  - chaostheory 4y ago
    Are you training the AI via thumbs up and thumbs down? My Google TV home tends to have recommendations based on what I watched. Installed apps are linked to recommendations. Not sure if you have to explicitly enable it like Apple TV though. One thing that I noticed about Google TV is that it’s buggy. I can’t even add another separate account and just have it work. I’d try your luck with another streaming box like Amazon.
AlbertCory 4y ago
> Mainstream broadcast TV, for myself in the UK, has been dead for about a decade OK, I'm not in the UK. However, I always like to defy conventional wisdom that everyone knows, and that is certainly some of it. Broadcast TV is digital now, in the US at least. An antenna will cost you $50-75 or so, it's tiny, and if you have line-of-sight with the tower, you get a perfect picture. It will be in 4K soon, supposedly. What's on? Well, sports, if you like that. I watched the US v. Netherlands match yesterday on broadcast. All the big college football games were on yesterday. If you don't watch sports, then yeah, there's not much. Still: local news, much better than you find on the web. And PBS stations. And ancient TV shows, e.g. Frasier, Taxi. It doesn't replace streaming, but it IS free.
- harry8 4y ago
  >Still: local news, much better than you find on the web Can't you find the exact local news broadcast on the web to watch at the time of your choosing? If not why not? Seems odd.
  - uni_rule 4y ago
    Perhaps being farther away from the cruft is the point with such broadcast stations.
    - AlbertCory 4y ago
      I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but: They're a blast from the past. They never changed. It's like the crew from The Mary Tyler Moore Show is still putting on the news.
- flumpcakes 4y ago
  In the UK we have a TV licence that costs £150 or so a year. You need it to watch any live broadcast media. I have not paid for this in over ten years. I also have not watched any terrestrial TV in that time period. It's just... not good. Every time I visit family and watch the TV I am maddened by the adverts, and general quality of the programming. Regarding news, the internet is a better fit for me. If we're talking about "general" news rather than reading change logs, then I get my fix with written news on half a dozen outlets ranging from public media, political left/right media, and then some more specialised websites for tech/cyber news. I don't think I would go back to "normal" TV/broadcast media. It makes me emotionally angry and I can feel a physical response to the annoyance of it.

chaostheory 4y ago

Google, Amazon, and Apple all have AI recommendation apps that show you how what you might want to watch, but you have to buy their respective streaming boxes to access it. Not sure about Roku, but if they didn’t have a similar service I would find it strange If you find these recommendation services poor, did you give them feedback on the initial and subsequent recommendations in order to train them?

flumpcakes 4y ago
I do have a google TV (or whatever it's actually called) and a TV with one of the newer chrome casts that has google TV built-in. It is painfully annoying as I have downloaded apps for Disney+, Prime, etc. but I will not get recommendations for shows/films on these platforms, or simple integrations such as the option to continue playing from the google landing page. Any recommendations I do get end up being for media that I need to buy or subscribe to a service I do not have. Considering I have to download and login to each of the streaming apps, you would think google would know what I want to watch. As for the recommendations in-app, they are not good. Ok, so Netflix shows me shows that I probably would like more than what it shows my wife, but 90% of them are still not good. If there is a show I know I want to watch it is painfully difficult to find it without specifically searching for it with textual input. I don't think these platforms are actually recommending what they think you want to watch, more some overlap between what will decrease their bandwidth bill the most (i.e. currently cached closet to me) and some broad category like "horror". There is definitely a market for a good cross-subscription/service recommendation platform for both TV/film and video games. It's definitely not google TV.
- chaostheory 4y ago
  Are you training the AI via thumbs up and thumbs down? My Google TV home tends to have recommendations based on what I watched. Installed apps are linked to recommendations. Not sure if you have to explicitly enable it like Apple TV though. One thing that I noticed about Google TV is that it’s buggy. I can’t even add another separate account and just have it work. I’d try your luck with another streaming box like Amazon.

AlbertCory 4y ago

> Mainstream broadcast TV, for myself in the UK, has been dead for about a decade OK, I'm not in the UK. However, I always like to defy conventional wisdom that everyone knows, and that is certainly some of it. Broadcast TV is digital now, in the US at least. An antenna will cost you $50-75 or so, it's tiny, and if you have line-of-sight with the tower, you get a perfect picture. It will be in 4K soon, supposedly. What's on? Well, sports, if you like that. I watched the US v. Netherlands match yesterday on broadcast. All the big college football games were on yesterday. If you don't watch sports, then yeah, there's not much. Still: local news, much better than you find on the web. And PBS stations. And ancient TV shows, e.g. Frasier, Taxi. It doesn't replace streaming, but it IS free.

harry8 4y ago
>Still: local news, much better than you find on the web Can't you find the exact local news broadcast on the web to watch at the time of your choosing? If not why not? Seems odd.
- uni_rule 4y ago
  Perhaps being farther away from the cruft is the point with such broadcast stations.
  - AlbertCory 4y ago
    I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but: They're a blast from the past. They never changed. It's like the crew from The Mary Tyler Moore Show is still putting on the news.
flumpcakes 4y ago
In the UK we have a TV licence that costs £150 or so a year. You need it to watch any live broadcast media. I have not paid for this in over ten years. I also have not watched any terrestrial TV in that time period. It's just... not good. Every time I visit family and watch the TV I am maddened by the adverts, and general quality of the programming. Regarding news, the internet is a better fit for me. If we're talking about "general" news rather than reading change logs, then I get my fix with written news on half a dozen outlets ranging from public media, political left/right media, and then some more specialised websites for tech/cyber news. I don't think I would go back to "normal" TV/broadcast media. It makes me emotionally angry and I can feel a physical response to the annoyance of it.