AVexcel - Episode 205

Patrick Norton (0:00)

AVexcel Episode 205 was recorded on May 24th, 2023 It's just max now.

TVOS 16.5 is all about sports. Do spendy dacks make an audible difference? Tcl Qm8 TVs are hit in the stores.

Got that and quite a bit more. Don't forget, email askatavxcel.com if you got an audio, video, headphone, streaming, or any other AV related question for us. And thank you, seriously, thank you to everyone that supports us at patreon.com/avexcel. You make this podcast possible.

Robert Heron (0:33)

Testing one, two, three, all right. I'm not blowing anything out.

Patrick Norton (0:37)

Ignorant weasels chewing on your soul.

Ignorant weasels. Do you have speed?

Robert Heron (0:44)

Yeah.

Patrick Norton (0:45)

Well, Navy Excel, your guide to the best in home video and audio gear, no matter what your budget is. I'm Patrick Norton.

Robert Heron (0:49)

Hey, I am Robert Heron.

Patrick Norton (0:52)

I might be a little mellow today. It is sunny, hot and sunny here in St. Louis.

And it's funny you should mention HBO Max now being Max because I got home from work yesterday and my wife was like, you need to update HBO or Max or whatever it is.

Robert Heron (1:11)

Oh, that's funny.

Patrick Norton (1:13)

Well, I, okay. So it's, you know, the 23rd was, I guess, the flip day. And, you know, I'm, fire up the Apple TV and you launch the HBO Max icon because it's a significant part of reviewing Lifestyle. And it's basically like, yeah, go find Max. This, this application is dead.

And so you go in and you log in and you find it and you download it and then you realize, oh, you know, I have to pull the HBO Max icon down and slide the Max icon up. And then suddenly you're scrolling and you're like, wow, that's a lot of weird ass discovery shows I've never heard about and have no interest in watching.

Robert Heron (1:55)

Hey, at least Apple on the Apple TV platform made that fairly clear as to what the situation was. On my roommate's TV, which is a newer Samsung and the Tizen platform they have, it effectively lets you launch the HBO Max app and then it would give you an error saying that you were in some other country and it was inaccessible.

It didn't actually direct you toward the new Max app. And it wasn't until we actually fired up the living room TV that has an Apple TV on it that all was made clear. So yeah, if you are rolling with a TV or a streaming box of some kind, do be sure to grab the new Max app and replace it. Replace the HBO Max app or just delete it and move on.

Patrick Norton (2:42)

Oh my goodness.

Robert Heron (2:43)

With the new experience.

Patrick Norton (2:44)

Yeah, no, there is one thing worth noting. The HBO, excuse me, Warner Brothers, excuse me, Max, we'll just call it Max.

Robert Heron (2:53)

max.com.

Patrick Norton (2:54)

They're claiming, and I haven't, yeah, max.com, whatever it is.

You know, wherever I get my next round of Game of Thrones, prequel, sequel, future, sci-fi, whatever, you guys know what I'm talking about. The story is though, they have over a thousand movies and TV episodes in 4K at launch. The really cynical part of me wants to be like, how many of those are for, you know, weird semi-reality shows about people with too many children I don't want to watch. But again, we mentioned it before, right? Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Matrix films are all supposed to be in glorious 4K. And when I say glorious, like Dolby Vision, HDR10, Dolby Atmos Audio where it's available. So, you know, this is good. You're going to be paying for the ultimate subscription.

But, you know, if you are a video enthusiast, if you enjoy your 4K lifestyle, it's probably worth keeping on that one. So, I'm trying to think like, yeah, they're actually, they are, they actually are upgrading some of the older HBO series in 4K.

Robert Heron (4:03)

All right. Benefits.

Patrick Norton (4:06)

More as I give up my relationship with my wife and children and invest the rest of the month. In looking for 4K content on Macs.

So, Netflix didn't update today. And basically like the schmiel, the blurb on netflix.com is, quote, starting today, we will be sending this email to members who are sharing Netflix outside their household in the United States. And it's basically a reminder that a Netflix account is for use by one household. Everyone living in that household can use Netflix wherever they are, at home, on the go, or on holiday. They don't get super specific on what not living in the household means. So, you know, whether or not your child in college qualifies as outside the household or not remains to be seen, at least for me.