$10 Video Credit with 2016 Fire Stick activation by 10/31/16

If you are interested in getting a Chromecast-style “media stick”, Amazon just launched their 2016 edition of The Fire Stick and if you purchase and activate it by 10/31/16, you will receive a $10 Amazon Video credit which you can use in their store to purchase or rent movies and TV shows. This offer is on the Fire TV stick with the Alexa Voice Remote. You must not only purchase this, but also activate it in order to get the credit.

In addition to the $10 store credit, you also get two free trials IF you have never been a customer of Hulu and SlingTV. You get 2-months of the “Hulu With Ads” subscription (their euphemism PR name is “limited commercials”), and 1-month of Sling TV.

To see the details click on the banner mentioning the promotion there. It pops up, it does not open in a new window…

firestick_offer

The store credit cannot be used towards monthly subscriptions, only towards purchases of actual movies and shows. This includes Season Passes, and combined with the slow-shipping credits for Prime members, it can get you a TV season at a pretty good price.

September 28, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

[DEAD] Cordcutter Alert: starts Thursday 5:49pm ET, Mediasonic HW130STB sale

This particular limited-time offer expired, but the Mediasonics go on sale on a recurring basis…

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September 21, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

Two Months of HBO Now with Roku activation

Roku is running a promotion that gets you a two months of HBO Now for FREE when you activate a new condition Roku player by October 1st in 2016. Typically HBO Now offers a free 1-month subscription. The subscription goes for $15 per month, so this promotion is a $15 value. You can cancel at any time as usual.

It’s no coincidence that this promotion started after Season 6 of Game Of Thrones ended 🙂 That’s one way to balance the subscriber numbers with the seasonal HBO viewers cancelling after the season finale!

More details on this promotion, including restrictions and deadlines can be found at the Roku website.

Speaking of Roku, the 2015 Roku 3 (with Voice Search, model 4230R) is on sale for $80, in new condition, at amazon.com by Amazon actual. They also have bundles with an HDMI cable and a mount.

NOTE: the refurbished option you see there is NOT eligible for the 2-month HBO Now promotion!

August 17, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , ,

ViewTV AT-163 OTA Converter Box and PVR for $28 w/free shipping

If you want to be an OTA cordcutter but still have rudimentary DVR functions, there’s a number of chinese budget boxes under $40 floating around. One of those options is currently on sale on eBay, it is the ViewTV AT-163 Converter Box going for $28 with free shipping and handling. This ships from New York and already over 740 units got sold from this particular offer.

I haven’t used this particular ViewTV model, but I am using a similarly-priced model that is in the same ballpark in terms of features, the Mediasonic HW-150PVR. I still have to write-up the full review, but to cut a long story short, if you are comfortable programming a VCR, you should be fine with its user interface. I am not even using an external hard drive on mine, just this tiny 128GB USB 3.0 flash drive. It takes up no space, and requires no external power!

June 22, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , , ,

Cordcutters: 1TB TiVO Roamio OTA DVR for $400 without Monthly Fee

If you are a cordcutter and watch only a little over-the-air TV, a basic no-name Over-the-Air DVR for under $40 may be good enough for you. If so, check our unboxing of the Mediasonic HW-150pvr (review coming as soon as I can transfer my thoughts and notes on paper).

On the other hand, if you are a power-viewer and power-user and watch something equivalent to what you are used to with your cable or TiVO DVRs, now there’s a brand new release from TIVO without the dreaded monthly fee. $400 is what it takes to get you the 1TB TiVO Roamio OTA DVR from Amazon which ships in about 2-4 weeks from today.

Unlike the basic sub-$40 OTA DVR mentioned above, the new TiVO model allows you to record up to four shows at the same time, basically covering the prime time of four your favorite OTA networks.

Other features include a commercial skip mode, an option to play video faster to save you time (for slow-moving or talking-heads type of shows), and has some integration with streaming services (eg Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, etc) so you can watch it all from one place.

If 1TB is not enough, you can use external TiVo-ready NETGEAR ReadyNAS storage (you have to purchase these ones, but your TiVO itself includes 1TB of internal storage).

May 2, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

OTA DVR: Mediasonic Homeworx HW180STB for $20

If you want to dabble in OTA DVRing, the Mediasonic Homeworx HW180STB is currently on sale for $20, in new condition, at Amazon by Amazon actual, with a limit of ten units per customer during this sale. The usual free shipping terms apply (Prime or $49+/$25+ orders). It averages 3.6 out of 5 based on 1350+ customer reviews, and has 660+ questions answered.

This is a close relative to the HW150PVR OTA DVR, which I have been using for a couple of months now. I have plenty of notes on it that will turn into a review soon, but in the meantime, you can get a feel for it with a useful text and pictures only unboxing (no video, no audio).

To cut a long story short if you are trying to make a quick decision, if you were comfortable (or at least could survive) programming VCRs (yes, V-C-R), then you will be fine with this. If you are used to TiVos and cable company DVRs and iOS and Android app level of user experience (or expect this user interface level from other devices), you may be frustrated and disappointed with it. This is best suited for spot duty, maybe a few shows per week, it’s not really an industrial strength DVR 🙂

April 14, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

[DEAD] Watch for FREE: Season 1 of Outlander (Starz)

UPDATE (April 12, 2016) Since the original post, Starz launched their own standalone subscription option and updated their apps. The promotion mentioned below is no longer available.

You can still start a 7-day free trial (directly from the Starz apps or thru Prime) and if you don’t like it, you can cancel. It is a month-to-month subscription (like Netflix). Note that if you sign up through Prime, you don’t get a Starz account, you have to watch through Amazon’s own video apps (Instant Video, Web Browser, etc) and channels (Roku, FireTV, etc).

I believe some cable companies are having a weekend binge promotion that includes Starz (I think Comcast Xfinity) but I don’t know if that’s open to all or only their own customers or even further restricted to their TV subscribers.

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March 29, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

[DEAD] Cordcutter Deals until Sat PM: $10 back on $50+ Netflix, $6 back on $30+ Google Play

This particular promotion expired, but Rite Aid has Plenti Gift Card promotions almost every week. Some of them are better than others ~ partially depending on which ones are your favorite stores 🙂

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March 24, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , , , , ,