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Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers
- Kerbonut 3y agoWho is Max? I really hate what HBO did here. I was very much liking the HBO Max era, and very much unimpressed with all of what’s happening now.
- 1letterunixname 3y agoDilution of a good brand to pretend a hot load is something people want.
- bigstrat2003 3y agoThe rebranding of HBO Max to "Max" might be one of the stupidest rebrandings I've ever seen. And that's saying a lot, because I've never seen a good one to begin with. I can't fathom what led to that decision. They had a service which people liked, and was named after a channel which was synonymous with "quality TV". So they decided to throw that away, in favor of the most generic name to grace the world (until Elon tried to one up them with "X")? Really? Were they sniffing markers in the HBO board room or something?
- bqmjjx0kac 3y agoAlso, they chose to inconvenience the entire user base by forcing them to download another app and sign in over there.
- cpuguy83 3y agoAnd somehow it wasn't just a rebranded version of the same app. It was like a beta version of a brand new codebase.
- at_a_remove 3y agoI see your "Max" and raise you a "SyFy." And then putting wrestling on.
- throwaway914 3y agoHBO Max to Max is the stupidest rebranding in terms of quality change. Twitter to X is the stupidest rebranding in terms of market valuation.
- dragonwriter 3y ago> I really hate what HBO did here. “HBO”, inasmuch as that names something that can be said to act or be acted on, was more the recipient than the active party. Its what the acquiring corporate parent did to HBO.
- wilg 3y agoIt was that or "Dr. Pimple Popper", "Gypsy Sisters", "Hoarding: Buried Alive", and "Expedition Bigfoot" all became HBO shows.
- blindriver 3y agoIf you try to cancel, they will offer you 3 months for 7.99. I'm going to take that deal and then cancel after 3 more months. I'm also cancelling Netflix this month. There's nothing that I can't bittorrent or borrow one of my friend's accounts for one-off viewing.
- sarchertech 3y agoI cannot for the life of me understand the rebrand. This has got to be some idiot exec who just wanted to put their stamp on things. One of those decisions that isn’t for the benefit of customers or shareholders—just the exec.
- cameldrv 3y agoI think that the point of the rebrand was to eliminate the expectation that HBO shows would be available on HBO Max. For example, Westworld is no longer available on Max.
- orev 3y agoIt was supposedly more related to the fact that they’re now also streaming tons of non-HBO content, and so they didn’t want to dilute the perception of quality of the HBO brand by having all that junk under the “HBO” app.
- thereisnospork 3y agoThat's probably at least part of the official internal logic, but I can't help read that as 'removing a selling point for our service'. Even if shows were to disappear or rotate out, a la the Disney vault, why advertise it? It feels like a lesser version of Netflix rebranding so they can spin off 'netflix originals' to other services. Losing recognition and good will to ???. Besides, if they aren't going to hoard and leverage their portfolio to drive subscribers to their platform why are they even playing at being a streaming service?
- dragonwriter 3y agoI think that’s the rationalization, but the point of the rebrand is David Zaslav pissing on things to mark his territory.
- matheusmoreira 3y agoWhy would HBO shows not be available on HBO's own platform? Makes no sense whatsoever.
- 1letterunixname 3y ago"Legacy" marketing wank. I signed up last year. They want 33% more ($150 -> $200) for absolute no value at all. A greedy profit-price spiral cash-grab is what it is. Canceling the day before the renewal and back to torrents I guess. https://auth.max.com/cancel-subscription https://auth.max.com/cancel-subscription
- IggleSniggle 3y agoI haven't done it in over a decade. Is the bay still the way it's mostly done by casuals?
- spondylosaurus 3y agoTPB's pretty rough/risky these days. For better alternatives, you can find megathreads on Reddit with vetted sources. Have yet to encounter any issues.
- RajT88 3y agoThere are a few non-registration sites which are better than the Bay. I do not see many 4k torrents on any of them.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jquery 3y agoTPB is hot garbage these days. I really recommend doing some research and finding some better sites. I ended up just buying a private tracker account on some shady third party site, was well worth it. YMMV.
- e63f67dd-065b 3y agoNah, don’t use TPB, moderation is lax and selection is meh. On the public side, these days it’s all 1337, TG, maybe RuT. They’re all fairly well moderated and have good selections, even if some stuff has just the one guy seeding from his dialup in the middle on the ocean.
- 3y ago
- fragmede 3y agoAdd (HBO) to the title?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rockemsockem 3y agoNope, they dropped the "HBO" in a very ill advised rebrand
- Racing0461 3y agoWhat is the point of these aritificial tiers and gating 4k? The marginal cost to go from 1080p to 4k is insignificant unless there are underlying licensing deals hbo can't get out of.
- nickthegreek 3y agoAgreed. 4k and Atmos is why I had Max. I immediately canceled when I got this email. No reason it couldn’t have been kept for legacy accounts.
- orev 3y agoIt’s really not that hard to follow from a product perspective. 4K is better, therefore it has more value that people would be willing to pay for. The price of things (especially virtual goods) rarely has any relation to “marginal cost” to produce or distribute it. It only matters what people are willing to pay.
- networkchad 3y ago[dead]
- icegreentea2 3y agoI mean you answered it yourself. They have a product that is basically marginally free to produce, but that customers do seem to assign a marginal value to. Of course you'd try to charge for it.
- mathieuh 3y agoBaffles me why all these streaming companies are shooting themselves in the foot. For about 18 months there was a golden age where it was easier to pay for things than to pirate. Now we’re in a situation where it’s even /harder/ than it’s ever been. People will pay for media if it’s easy and a good experience. The barrier to piracy is non-existent these days and you actually get a far better experience.
- spondylosaurus 3y agoFor HBO/Max's foot-shooting specifically, David Zaslav is why. https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/can-david-zaslav-make-it-in-hollywood https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/can-...
- BlackjackCF 3y agoImagine being the person who took a rock solid brand like HBO and flushed it down the toilet…
- spondylosaurus 3y agoThere was another really good New Yorker piece recently about Howard Schultz (the Starbucks CEO responsible for elevating the company into the juggernaut chain it is today) and his insistence on rolling out these Oleato drinks that are literally just coffee with olive oil drizzled in. Granted, I don't think Oleato is enough to kill Starbucks, but my takeaway of the whole thing was that sometimes these C-suite guys end up in positions where everyone around them is too afraid to say "what the fuck are you doing."
- jquery 3y agoI don't know anything about Oleato, but some people swear by the coffee+MCT oil (bulletproof coffee) combo. I see several brands at Whole Foods that are basically this (Super Coffee and others). Oleato doesn't sound too far off from that, and looking it up, it looks intriguing. But reading more about it, seems they put way too much oil in the coffee. Super Coffee has 3 grams of MCT oil, I'm seeing Oleato with 34 grams of oil reported in a Grande.
- strangesmells02 3y agoDoes anyone care about 4k? Ive been using either 720 or 1080p for years and never had an issue
- matheusmoreira 3y agoI don't particularly care either. These streaming services will compress the video pretty horribly anyway. I saw lagging artifacts in a panning shot once and I started wondering why I pay these people.
- bigstrat2003 3y agoSome do, yeah. I have a friend who is real upset about the change, for instance. But I get you - I don't even have a device with 4k resolution, and I am perfectly content.
- bqmjjx0kac 3y agoI bought a 4k TV and I've been enjoying 4k content on it. I was annoyed enough by this change to cancel my account.
- deckar01 3y agoThe Dolby Atmos/Vision standards also provide HDR, dynamic brightness, and surround sound. People spend thousands of dollars on home theater setups to meet those standards. Max has almost completely stopped producing cinematic content, so I can’t imagine the upsell making much sense.
- fbdab103 3y agoIf you are spending thousands of dollars on a home theater, surely streaming was a no go from the start? Blueray is the only available option which has a chance of delivering the optimal experience.
- Arn_Thor 3y agoA lot of people, myself included, are fine with “less than optimal”. Sure, I’d prefer a blu-ray for my favorite epics, but a great home theater system also makes streaming content a satisfying and convenient experience. There’s also a lot of content one wants to watch that never makes it to blu-ray
- ivraatiems 3y agoWho here actually has and uses a 4K device? I still haven't gone higher than 1440p, and even on that, I don't mind if my content is 1080p. I rarely even notice. (I also hate >60 FPS, for what it's worth.)
- RajT88 3y agoI have a 4k TV with Max. I am not sure I can clock the difference.
- speedgoose 3y agoYou may have a quite small TV, or seat quite far from it, or need to get your sight checked. Perhaps it’s time to wear glasses or changes your glasses. I used to not care about 4K but after I got my eyes sight fixed, 4K against fullHD is quite easy to distinguish. I’m not sure it’s worth the price bump though.
- RajT88 3y agoNo, yes(ish) and maybe. 75" TV. Big living room, middle age.
- asutekku 3y agoMost modern tvs are 4k these days and 1080p vs 4k is very visible in these
- ivraatiems 3y agoThe only TV I use is a 32'' Vizio from about ten years ago. I guess I'm just not the target audience.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y agoNot at the shitty bitrates we're getting in the USA.
- janosdebugs 3y ago
- Finnucane 3y agoHeh, my wife and I were just talking about cancelling due to not using it enough to be worth paying for. Netflix too. Don't really care about 4K as such, as we don't have a 4K tv. But still, basically raising the price to get the same service is a dick move.
- deckar01 3y agoMy AT&T internet package still “Includes Max” with no monetary value assigned to the “ad-free monthly” subscription, but new service with the same speed (without Max) is $5 cheaper monthly. Max’s subscription settings defer to AT&T, which doesn’t offer a choice. None of the internet packages include Max anymore. I suspect I will have the opportunity to stop subsidizing their reality TV outlet soon.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- wilg 3y agoY'all would be shocked if you knew how many new and upcoming blockbuster movies are mastered at 2K even though you can buy them in 4K or watch them in IMAX.
- wmf 3y agoYeah, it's pretty sleazy that movies were shot on 2K Alexa and then upscaled to 4K. If your movie isn't 4K, just let it be what it is. Don't sell me a 4K Blu-ray with upscaled content.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- bastard_op 3y agoYou know what hasn't taken away my 4k access? The pirate bay.
- olliej 3y agoIt's even better, they notified via email, explicitly stating that the price was not increasing, yet they removed 4k, so to get the same thing you have to pay more. Than sounds like a price increase to me.
- Sparkyte 3y agoStreaming companies promoting stuff so hard only to realize that data is expensive.
- ajmurmann 3y agoMore reason to make sure to watch everything within a month and then unsubscribe for another 9-12 months. With Succession over I'm not even sure what I should subscribe for. I like How To With John Wilson, but am not paying this kind of money for that show alone.
- abvdasker 3y agoI immediately canceled my subscription when I got that email. Easy decision since HBO doesn't even have any new content being released these days. Plus the idiotic rebrand to "Max" forced me to download an entirely new app and burned whatever goodwill I had towards HBO as a brand. David Zaslav is a totally incompetent moron.
- Havoc 3y agoAt this rate I’ll need to dig out my old sonarr setup. The streaming companies are pricing themselves into oblivion
- m-p-3 3y agoNothing better for user retention than stripping away a perk from the userbase that gave them their money early on. I guess they made the calculation that this will save them more money than the loss of subscriptions this may incur.
- spamtarget 3y agowelcome to the warner family, bro
- lamontcg 3y agoEveryone is trying as hard as they can to squeeze the consumer with higher and higher subscription revenues. This won't end well.