The Great Desk Upgrade, Hasbro Legends, YouTube Price Hike & Sony’s Plan to Save Cinema

Hey, this is Steve Bloom, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron

Phillips, and joining me on this adventure into

geekdom is... TFG and Mike. Please don't block

me anymore. More on that later. Yeah, don't block

him anymore. We'll discuss that after this. But

if you're listening to this episode, I'm actually

not in my home studio. I am actually on a work

trip. And this is after hours. And I am sitting

in the hotel room with my, instead of my blue

Yeti, which is normally hooked up to my desk.

I have a portable Mackie. E .M. USB -C microphone,

and I won this during COVID. So this is kind

of my go to like on the road microphone. I mean,

sure, I could use my phone, but this is better.

This is better. This is definitely better. So

if you're listening to this episode and you're

like, why is Steve sounding weird? That's why.

And for the record, you don't sound that weird.

It's just a little bit off. They sent me to the

moon. Yeah. It's probably also because this room

is big and echoey, so it's going to sound a little

bit different and the ambience is not the same.

And then the air conditioner, the air conditioner

unit, I can change the temperature. It never

turns off. it does not i tried to turn it off

last night i was like okay it's way too cold

in here and then so i tried to like turn the

temperature up so that it would be you know warmer

before it kicks on and it was like no not gonna

do it and it just like it it just kept recirculating

the air and i was i was going uh yeah it it was

infuriating i was like i'm freezing uh uh more

on that later because like i literally like during

the convention like everything's been great information

uh great company that uh been listening to a

lot of panelists and met a lot of people in the

company and then other companies and we're kind

of looking into certain software for work and

uh the convention hall was so cold today i was

sitting there for the first three and a half

hour Like, cause there were multiple sessions

jammed in there and they had some lightning round

sessions that were like under 10 minutes and

they had some that were like 40. Oh geez. Yeah.

So they had like little micro breaks in there.

Uh, and then before lunch I was like going, I

need a sweater. I need a sweater. I need a sweater.

And so in between, cause the, the building that

the, uh, that all of the panels are in are the

same room as my hotel or same building. And so

I was able to just go down the hall and like

shoot into my hotel room. And I luckily I brought

a sweater for just the right occasion. So after

lunch, I was able to go down there and have it

on. And I was like, I am comfortable for the

rest of this. But, you know, could have used

shorts because it's like 90 some degrees outside.

I did not pack that. But the bonus is. it it

mattered where it counted where i needed to be

warm so exactly yeah so it just doesn't matter

i was like it's less load i was able to uh you

know carry on with my um carry on with my uh

microphone and like all of the other things i

needed to bring with me but yeah so let's get

into your twitter scenario Well, before we do

that, it's literally the middle of April, folks.

April 15th. Mother Nature is having a conniption

fit. She doesn't know if it's spring, winter,

summer, or not to fall yet, but between spring,

winter, and summer, she doesn't know what in

the hell she's doing. As far as Twitter goes,

as far as X goes, okay, so... I was resigned

to the fact that I lost 18 and a half years.

And mind you, I don't like go back. Like I joined

Twitter July 27th, 2008. The only reason why

I know that is the only reason why I know the

exact date is because somebody else got the hack

message. The hack direct message because somebody

else sent me a. actually it was somebody on discord

sent did you send me this i'm like no don't stop

block the account it's fine wasn't me i didn't

do it i don't have control over the account right

now i got hacked but when they sent that screenshot

to me i was like oh that's interesting because

you never actually not like i don't like i Pretty

sure what we see as account holders is different

than what the public sees on certain things on

account. Yeah. As far as I know. And I did not

and do not remember the initial date, the actual

day. I remember the month. because every july

twitter used to send me oh hey happy x year anniversary

or whatever and i i don't i'm not saying that

because it's now called x i'm saying because

insert whatever year number it was on twitter

you would get your whatever year that was hey

happy anniversary message from from twitter at

the time when it was called twitter So somebody

sent me the, Oh, did you send me this? This,

I said, don't click on that. It's a thing that

don't, you're going to do just ignore it, block

it, whatever. So, but because that person sent

me that screenshot, I was like, Oh, interesting.

July 27th, 2008. I knew it was July of 2008,

but anyway. So. Initially, when I got hacked

after I accidentally clicked a link from a DM

from who I thought was a friend that sent it

to me in the middle of when I was half asleep

one night when I was still sick, which I'm still

getting over the sickness. I'm not full. I'm

still sick. It's seasonal. Whatever the hell

this is. No clue. It is what it is. But. ecker

did was he they he she it they whatever whatever

pronoun or negative noun i i like to call them

negative nouns just to screw with people because

i like to be different but um whatever thing

they want to be called All they were doing was,

I guess, getting my friends list or getting my

followers list and sending that hack DM to other

people. They didn't change anything. They didn't

change my profile picture. They didn't change

my location. They didn't tweet anything. They

didn't do anything with my account for the longest

time. And then they did. And you know what the

first thing they did was? And this is really

the only thing that really bugged me about losing

my ex account was I no longer had my name. They

held my name hostage. That was the only real.

Oh, my God. That was my real emotional breakdown

was I no longer had at TFG on Mike on anything.

It doesn't matter what platform it is, a version

of it or whatever. Like that was my real sticking

point. And then. Moron. decided to become a fake

elon impersonator and they changed the twitter

hand the x handle so guess what i could do i

could go back on and check and see if my name

was still available well it was and i'm back

now i don't have that same account anymore i

don't have that same following and let me tell

you let me tell you folks going from an account

where i was following i had i was following just

over 1200 accounts i had amassed in 18 and a

half years just over 1200 people following me

Going from following over 1200 accounts to following

just right now, I'm following 100 accounts and

I've got seven people. And really, at the end

of the day, I don't care. I don't care if people

want to follow me. Great. If they don't find

whatever I never Twitter to me is like that old

current or whatever it was that Craig and Dave

or Dave and Craig video. i'm twittering now i'm

doing this now i'm i'm at work now like you know

you you tweet every little thing that you do

because that in 2008 that's what twitter was

is tweeting every little thing that you did out

into the world and if somebody was you know hey

i like this movie hey i like that movie it was

it was doing like -minded things and if i like

this transformer i can't stand that transformer

The Unicron trilogy sucks. Beast Wars is amazing.

You know, you find all kinds of friends when

you make these crazy opinions on the platform.

But the experience of going from having a following

of me following over 1 ,200 accounts to only

following 100 accounts is shocking. My timeline

is crazy, but what I will say about Twitter,

it's X itself now. You can customize the for

you tab. And if I take out like politics, the

Iran conflict, the business and finance, the

artificial intelligence and the crypto, and I

hit apply. That will customize it for me and

that will give it to me as long as I stay on

that tab. But if I click back over to following

and I refresh following and then close the application,

I guarantee you when I go back in here. Yep.

It resets to for you and I have to then redo

the customization all over again. so it does

not keep the customization you have to do it

every friggin time so i don't know i wish i could

have gotten my original account back i tried

so many times to send in emails to do this to

do that and yeah they don't they don't pay any

attention whatsoever their thing was their thing

was No, the thing was, oh, we can't find the

original email you signed up with. Well, probably

why you couldn't find it was because the hacker

changed the email login. Like, email I got, the

two emails I got was, your email has been changed

to at email address. And literally, that's what

it said. It was like Gmail. And I'm like, what?

What email address is that? And then it was like,

oh, a passkey for an iOS device has been created.

I haven't had an iOS device since 2010. I have

not been on the rotten fruit Apple bandwagon

since 2010. And look, I like. iPhones and that

kind of stuff they're they're kind of cool they're

kind of okay but I just I don't know I I switched

over to Android at one point or another I ended

up with a Samsung and now I'm on the Google's

train and whatever and I just like these phones

better because I don't know it just I don't know

it is what it is and once I realized that that

it was an Apple user that that hacked me i was

like oh okay no wonder twitter x whatever can't

can't uh can't find my original which how they

can't like if you change the email address i

can't believe they don't have a record of the

times you've changed your address that's crazy

and honestly x needs some sort of support some

sort of other support other than email like every

website to my knowledge or most every website

now has a chat bot that can pop up like if like

if you have a question or whatever for customer

support like most websites or i don't know what

the percentage is on it or whatever but anyway

i got the name back A few people are like, oh,

don't sign back up again. Don't do this. The

tight look for me, the time that I'm on Twitter

in the last 18 and a half years versus the time

I was off it for like the four or five, six days

I was off of it in the last week and a half or

so. Not on there all the time. I'm on there maybe

five times a day and the five times a day I'm

on there, I'm either engaging in conversation

with friends or I'm promoting podcasts. I'm mainly

on there to promote stuff for the network, for

the podcast that we do, for the writing that

I do, for photos that I take, whatever, or I'm

engaging in, like we've been engaging in conversations

about physical media, which we'll talk about

here in a little bit, but like, I'm not on there

to get into fights with people about politics

or stupid crap or drama or whatever. I never

was. It's not what is there for me. And the fact

that Mr. Cologne owns it now or has owned it.

i don't do i wish he would implement better things

in the in the platform yes absolutely i wish

he would do a better job well it's it's mostly

run by bots at this point like there's bots all

over the place and then there's the automations

suck i mean they sucked before there was no there

there was real no human auditing for anything

yeah but anyways the guy he did finally remove

um your links and oh did he yeah Well, no, it's

still there. It's still there, yeah. I had him

blocked, that's why it showed up. But he's not

been posting very often. He posted through April

5th and then posted again 12 hours ago, but as

of this recording, I'm having fun reporting it

constantly. Because if you type in TFG1 Mike

still in the search bar, That still comes up.

Oh, does it? Yeah. The new account doesn't come

up? No, they both do. Oh, okay. Let's see if

it actually... It might not come up now because

I blocked it, but yeah, his account was coming

up because it had yours. I'm just glad you can

get it back, but yeah. Anyways, yeah, we got

a lot of... A lot of content to talk about. Yeah,

we got lots of stuff. Yep. So let's start off

with YouTube's premium U .S. pricing going up.

So I wanted to find a better resource, a better

breakdown. And that comes to us from nine to

five Google. I just needed something better than

the original link that I found. And basically

from the lovely people. Over at 9to5Google. Google

is implementing a price hike for YouTube premium

plans in the U .S. with prices going up by as

much as $4 per month. Live now for new subscribers,

YouTube premium pricing in the U .S. is as follows.

Individual plans $15 .99 a month up from $13

.99. Family plans $26 .99 a month up from $22

.99 a month. Lite is going to be $8 .99 a month,

up from $7 .99, and the Music Premium, $11 .99,

up from $10 .99. YouTube Premium has not raised

prices in a few years now, with the family plan

jumping from $17 .99 to $22 .99. $22 .99 back

in 2022, and individual plans later following

in 2023 from $11 .99 to $13 .99 at the time.

YouTube Premium Lite has only been available

for about a year, with background play and offline

downloads added to the low -cost subscription

earlier this year. Everything is going up. Everything

is good. Streaming is cable. It just is. It's

the new version of cable. We still have cable.

We still have cable packages. But if you look

at streaming, whether it's YouTube Premium, whether

it's Disney +, whether it's Netflix, whether

it's whatever, HBO Max, streaming is cable. It

just is now. It's just crappy cable. It is. That's

not sugarcoated. It is biological. Well, here's

the thing. I've always said that for me to enjoy

streaming plans and we talk about a la carte.

We talk about that a lot around here. Or me personally

to enjoy streaming plans as long as I can afford

it, as long as I budget correctly and I afford

it and whatever. I love the option as long as

I'm given the option, as long as I budget correctly.

I love the option of annual billing. Annual billing

sometimes ranges from... $120 to $160 a year.

And I don't know what that is for whichever service

it is. I think Disney Plus is like $180 a year.

But look at the content library Disney Plus has

with Hulu, with everything else they have. $180

a year is not bad. for that one service now I

know that adds up with multiple services like

if you add YouTube Premium in but I mean even

at $15 .99 a month you're still paying let's

see that's $191 .88 a year for YouTube Premium

at the $15 .99 a month thing I think YouTube

Premium is yearly something like 140 so you'd

be saving 50 bucks if you did it and the only

thing i don't like about the youtube premium

annual plan is they specifically say it does

not renew automatically annually you have to

go in and do it every year yourself now i know

that some of the other uh streaming services

annual plans will automatically renew that's

because there's a law against that stuff in certain

areas oh true okay um because we had to be very

careful with subscriptions too um there's just

there's a lot of a lot of regulation all over

the place that kind of changes depending on where

you're at yeah so that's part of it and so i

think that um they may have just more or less

hedged their bets i think they're based out of

california too so i think that's probably why

they don't have it. Um, checked automatically,

but, um, yeah, I, uh, uh, I'm kind of word cutter

deluxe at this point on multiple fronts. So,

yeah, I haven't actively watched regular, like

over the air television in want to say to, Next

year will be 10 years. 2017 was the last time

I watched actual ABC, NBC, Fox, like actual over

the air television on my TV. Everything on my

55 inch flat screen, 4k television that's mounted

on my bedroom wall is streaming services. And

for me, like I was mentioning earlier with budgeting

and whatever else. For me, I will pay the price

that YouTube wants for premium for the like,

OK, well, YouTube premium gets you ad free because

if you pay for YouTube premium, it means you.

So the $15 .99 a month, I will pay for that because

I know I think and I would I'm going to have

to go digging for this, but I remember this specifically.

If you watch enough of certain creators, whatever

creator you watch, I think that's how they get

whatever. If they're in the partner program,

I don't remember how all that works. But the

point is, is that the reason why YouTube has

ads is so the creators can make money and yada,

yada, yada, yada, yada, whatever, whatever, whatever.

I'm probably saying it wrong. I forget off the

top of my head. Point is, is that for me, I will

pay for ad -free television. I am 46 years old.

I spent my entire childhood, my entire teenage

years, and most of my 20s watching ads on TV.

I've seen enough ads. I'm too old for that shit.

As long as I, like I said, working into my budget,

I will gladly pay. Or ad free television, because

I just want the content that I want without having

to sit through ads. I don't want to have to sit

through ads. I don't want to have to hit a button

to skip ad now. I don't want to have to do any

of that. I just want to watch my, especially

if it's a 30 year old show, I shouldn't have

to sit through an ad to watch an episode of Nash

Bridges or to watch an episode of Knight Rider

or to watch an episode of. star trek whatever

you know kind of thing uh so yeah yeah see i

i i mean i the last time i watched like cable

uh was in like i mean like as far as free cable

like free television because i haven't had cable

cable since um Probably 20... 2010? Yeah. Because

it came with a place I lived. I didn't outright

search it out. And then I think I had it when

I moved into my house briefly in like 2014 in

Michigan. And I had it briefly for like six months

or something or a year with AT &T. And then...

Or maybe it was... I don't know. They all mesh

together. I've only had it like twice. but I

bought a digital antenna and hooked it up to

my TV during the run of the Olympics and so that

was pretty much the last time I've watched actual

TV outside of a like a platform of some kind

or discs or I mean I've watched stuff on YouTube

but I've Kind of switched over to Tubi and I'm

like, I'll deal with the ads. I don't care. And

I watch Netflix because I have it and I've occasionally

watched Disney+. But I don't... YouTube's not

one of those ones I feel incentivized to pay

for. Plus they're all climbing in cost to the

point that they're all going to end up being

more than cable anyway at some point. And then

they're going to limit how much you can... do

with that before they go all in on ads which

is kind of crap because it's like alright if

I'm paying for all this crap the least you can

do is give me an 18 episode season like like

just saying you're just saying you're you're

you're getting your wishful thinking hat on there

buddy yeah well i'm using logic something that

well yes obviously something that even george

lucas is like hollywood doesn't have it no they

don't what's that yeah uh also going on but yeah

so i mean we we also have the other youtube article

yes that's what i was gonna get to here really

quickly Tying into that one YouTube thing we

just talked about, YouTube quietly reveals a

trick to get fewer ads without premium plans.

YouTube shows ads more aggressively than ever

before, but the only official way to get rid

of them entirely is by getting a premium subscription.

And if you are in the US, buying a premium subscription

now costs $15 .99 a month for the individual

plan after the recent price hike. However, you

don't always need a premium subscription to watch

videos without ads. While there are unofficial

ways to go ad -free on YouTube that Google doesn't

like, the Mountain View tech giant has recently

revealed a trick to see fewer ads on YouTube

without paying a monthly fee. Don't get too excited,

because the trick only applies when certain conditions

are met. Even if you are not a premium user,

YouTube will now hold back ads when live chat

engagement is at a peak during live streaming.

YouTube has announced this in its official blog

post, though it kept us in the dark about what

actually counts as peak engagement via Dexardo.

This is something that you, as an individual

user, don't have much control over because engagement

spikes collectively. but you can certainly play

your part by commenting on the live streams.

So in an entire live streaming session, you may

see fewer ads than before, depending on whether

YouTube's system recognizes a spike in engagement.

If you watch a lot of popular live streams on

YouTube and are on the free tier, This will certainly

impact your viewing experience, but for everyone

else, buying a premium subscription is still

the best way. Yeah, see, that's the thing. That's

a crapshoot. That's like going to Vegas and putting

odds on the horse with the gimpy leg. Like, I'm

not going to take that gamble. I'm going to pay

for a premium subscription. Sorry, not sorry.

I just use brave browser and I never see the

ads anyway so if you yeah yeah so I mean that's

that's kind of how I avoid it plus I don't see

them on my TV anymore either so I yeah that's

where I'm going to leave that Yar! Alrighty then,

we head over to those pyrites at Hasbro. Speaking

of TV, Hasbro Entertainment and Get After It

Media. Aim? I'm? Launch Hasbro Legends channel

to over 70 million homes across the U .S. Oh

boy, that's going to be a lost hub here soon

now, isn't it, folks? It's the Hub 2 .0. It's

the Hub 2 .0. The only difference is they didn't

steal a name of something I created. I had a

website called The Hub. Uh, yeah. So, April 13th,

2026, Burbank, California. Hasbro Entertainment.

Hasbro's content arm leveraging its comic bur

- It's iconic. Whoops, I can't read right. Iconic

brands and across film, television, animation,

and digital, along with Get After It Media Game.

That's a horrible acronym. Horrible acronym.

Yeah, they're announcing a deal to launch Hasbro

Legends, a new linear channel kind of housing

everything. So their goal is to reach 70 million

homes across the US and more distribution. They're

also planning on, you know, having more of their

their portfolio of legendary franchises that

have shaped generations, mostly like Hasbro's

beloved characters and things. So they're, you

know, fanning out about it. They're they're thrilled

to partner with them. And they talk about Power

Rangers and G .I. Joe and. all of the other things.

It's essentially like they're going to have G

.I. Joe, they're going to have Jem and the Holograms,

My Little Pony, Power Rangers, Transformers.

And then distribution and monetization across

both the over -the -air and free ad -supported

streaming television environment. So they're

going to kind of have their own ecosystem to

track it and go through that. But yeah, they're...

It's been a while since they've had their own

kind of dedicated channel, although I feel like

Hasbro already dumped their load on YouTube anyway.

Yeah, that's the thing. Like, why? Like, this

is like, I feel like this is a syndication play.

Yeah, it is. And may the man rest in peace, Goldner.

May Goldner rest in peace. But he tried this

with the hub. Well, I think. It fizzled out because

Discovery was part of the problem. They got none

of the profits for Hasbro. I think what's happening

now is because NumNuts that's running it right

now, he's figuring out that gaming isn't necessarily

the direction and crappy quality toys aren't

the direction. So what do we do here? So I think

he's like outsourcing certain things and I think

he's backpedaling to retrace his predecessor's

steps to make things right. gotcha gotcha so

they're okay so and i okay so looking at it that

way i wasn't thinking of it that way i was thinking

of it in the way of tv stuff failed the first

time why are we trying again if it but i see

what you're okay so yeah yeah yeah so this isn't

okay so because this is guy Oh, God. Can we please

talk about these fucking acronyms? I'm sorry

to use it, but... Oh, my F. Oh, my God. Jesus.

Like, they're... So, CTV and OTA are actual acronyms

of the television industry. I know they are.

Fast is something slightly different. Although,

it doesn't matter. Like, if you go to different

organizations, like, you go to different... television

studios and or radio stations depending on whatever

platform that they they own the rights to or

don't own the rights to they'll have their own

weird acronyms too um they're you know as far

as the the company that they're partnering with

yeah uh get after it media i feel like it's a

stupid acronym like it it's it's like they're

saying like game yeah and we're like we're like

g game like you know aol instant messenger like

yeah yeah it's supposed to be game but i look

at it as game i look at it i look at it as different

i think it's game but any it's it's it's still

weird anyway like i i like acronyms that you

know like ota or ctv or you know gcrn or ceo

uh you know things that kind of just flow yeah

It's strange if you spell it out. But anyways,

yeah, I feel like this is a brand play that's

going to be beneficial to Hasbro and reintroducing

people to what actually works and will allow

for... Because it sounds like they're letting

Get After It Media handle as far as delivering

it and helping them with the advertising and

everything else. And the distribution and the

growth and everything. But I feel like in this

situation, in this play, Hasbro will likely profit

off of it. So I could see them also taking down

selected episodes from YouTube or putting them

behind a paywall or having Get After It Media

put special advertising on these episodes. uh

going forward or you know there's a lot of different

directions they could go with this uh but they

do have an extensive library and it would be

stupid not to monetize what they have yeah especially

when those are the programs that made them yep

absolutely Yeah, I see this as a good, now that

you've, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone else is saying,

oh, this is going to, and I thought this was

going to be bad because I thought, oh no, they're

going to do the, but now that you're, yeah, yeah,

yeah. Okay. I'm on board. Let's see what they

do. I mean, Tubi's got some of this stuff too.

So, I mean, it's like, you know, at what, I feel

like this whole thing is an ad play. Yep. It

probably is. Most likely. Gotta recoup the money

from all those buckets and buckets of War for

Cybertron, Earthspark, and Transformers 1 toys

that didn't go anywhere. That they overproduced

and underproduced of the Optimus Primes and Megatrons

that never showed up in store. Very, very true.

I still have not seen them. I've looked. I got

lucky once when the Mattel Hasbro crossover of

the Hot Wheels Optimus Prime came out, my son

found one. I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I remember that. And I got so emotional over

it, which is stupid because it's like a toy.

I know. But I got so emotional because he found

this one at this one store that's local to us.

And him and my oldest, they bought it. it was

like a three dollar hot wheel because of where

it was bought it wasn't yeah but still it was

the fact that they found it and there's like

literally like a eight foot stretch of hot wheel

cars that yeah and on an entire rack and it's

it's literally like four foot tall so they had

to have dug through part of it to find it and

i've looked i've looked i've looked like for

the last year to try and find more because i'm

like okay if i find more i'm gonna give them

to the kids because like it would be awesome

you know and i know they had an ultra magnus

i know they had a you know they were like eight

variations of prime there were like three variations

of bumblebee or something and i know this is

not all things transformers but it's still interesting

but but yeah i mean i'm like you know if i found

them i would do the right thing get them each

one too oh yeah yeah and you know and if i found

you know three of them i would open one and then

i would give them the other two so that i have

the original that they bought me on the shelf

you know and yeah uh but no like i you know you

can't even find those like so it's like where

the heck are all these things going it's like

they're under producing anything with prime on

it unless it's you know the uh transformers devastation

figure that nobody wanted or the transformers

one figures that nobody bought uh like they had

to clearance them out like for 80 off just gonna

go away I like that movie, but I didn't want

any of those. I did not give two crafts about

any of those toys. I'm at the point now that

it's like I don't even care to own any of the

Transformers unless they're Beast Wars related.

And even then, like we were at a Ross or no,

a Burlington the other day. It was on like last

Sunday. We went to Burlington Coat Factory, you

know, trying to get clothes for the kids. Ian

finds a one of the legacy evolution silver bolt

and it was like 12 bucks and I was like he's

like do you want it and I'm like like kind of

I'm like but I don't at the same time I was like

I don't really need anymore like I don't I don't

have that itch to like keep picking up these

figures like anymore because like I mean yeah

he's cool but I'm like I already I already have

what I want like I don't at this point like I'm

like I'm trying to like very minimally pick up

certain specific you know like the Captain Kirk

figure that's coming later this year like there's

like I'm hyper targeting now it's like I don't

have the space it's like what do I actually want

um so yeah I know I've gone like on a whole different

tangent from the Hasbro thing but yeah it's cool

well I mean it it Makes sense because, you know,

with them, you know, beyond honored and thrilled

to team up with Hasbro and the fact that president

and COO of game that they're beyond honored and

grew up with G .I. Joe and Power Rangers. And

now they get to bring these legendary brands

to broadcast television at scale. At scale. What

the fuck does that mean? It's an ad play. yeah

yeah yeah yeah all right talk about your other

great love mr telltale like star trek game poison

yeah so this game this game hurts a little bit

just saying it but well they so they they did

license it the the ex telltale people did license

this you know to be able to make this star trek

game and it came out on steam and on epic games

now mind you the code that they gave me for review

to play this was on epic games so i have it on

epic games i don't have it on steam so it's been

delisted from steam but still available on epic

games now they're supposed to keep it like if

you if you bought it you'll still have access

so i got to play like the first chunk of the

game with their code And what I saw, I was impressed

with. They had a sound alike for Leonard Nimoy's

Spock. Very well done. Like they had, you know,

Jonathan Frakes as Riker back in this, and they

had a bunch of new characters that kind of were

in it. And the focus was good. Like some of the

gameplay was a little bit clunky, like when using

the tricorder, you know, positioning the ship

or stuff, you know, because it was a typical

Telltale style game, which I'm not uber fond

of the style, but the story was beautiful. Um,

and so for that alone, I was like, okay, like

this feels like an episode of Star Trek, like

classic Star Trek, none of this, you know, newer

Kurtzman era crap. Um, and so I, I played, I

played that level and I was like, okay, this

is, this is great. Um, and I think they gave

me like more of the game or something and I was

able to play it and do a full review and I did

a review and then I was like, I was so impressed

by it that I was like, okay, I have to support

these guys. Like I will buy this game. Like I

never did complete the game, mind you. I got

pretty close to the end and then I hit this wall

where I was like, I'm too stupid to get past

this part. Well, I feel like it was like Batman

where I could just like climb up something and

like, you know, take him down that way. But you

have to sneak around a room and they're constantly

like scoping it out. And I'm never good at those

rooms. It's not like Batman where you hide in

the walls or in the, you know, wherever on the

rafters and all that kind of stuff. So anyways,

I'm playing this game and I just was like, yeah,

this is probably where I'm going to call it.

I never did finish it. So I watched the rest

on YouTube and I was like, the story mode was

beautiful. It tied up a loose end from season

one of Star Trek The Next Generation with Riker

and this alien race that basically went extinct.

But they were back in this game, which is how

it all kind of spiraled. But they pulled on a

thread and it worked. Anyways. So it's getting

pulled from sale forever at this point because

the three -year license is now done. And it takes

place before Spock disappeared and everything

else. It's been, despite delisted and taken from

sale, it's still on Epic. And if you bought it,

you're still supposedly having access to it.

like existing customers can continue to access

the game via their library um and then it includes

a thanks to everyone who was able to enjoy the

game you know live long and prosper kind of being

the the last hurrah of it uh but yeah i mean

i i know that it came over on it was on the epic

game store 2023 and then steam in 2024 And had

an 89 % positive review between 50 ,000 and 100

,000 sales, even despite being a year old on

Steam. Again, it was a great game. But yeah,

I guess they're still selling it on Epic for

$25. But Steam, it's completely been taken off

unless you already previously purchased it. But

yeah, so... I think if you want to get the game,

go ahead and get it. It's a great episode. As

far as Star Trek's concerned, it is fun, and

it does play into the lore, and it's very entertaining

and leaves a lot that it's kind of a true iteration

that just feels fun, but it is very much like

an episode, like a message in a bottle type thing

of the old Star Trek. There is a beginning, middle,

and an end. It's not like Star Trek Online where

you can kind of continue playing forever with

different episodes and you know an ongoing DLC

of you know microtransactions so it is and they

were very responsive when it came out I remember

there were some glitches with it and they fixed

it they patched it up and it was it was great

so yeah I definitely would recommend it if you

haven't played it to check it out but at the

same time the physical copies like when it came

out at like PS5 are selling for upwards of like

100 bucks now you can still get them on like

Amazon apparently for like 30 bucks but yeah

the physical disc is going to be difficult to

come by so if you can find one great this is

kind of this will come into play with some other

stuff later with physical versus digital, you

know, delisted means, you know, you're screwed

because you don't own it. So, yeah. So we'll,

we'll move on from there and go to your NCIS.

Yep. Before we go into the, the topic of, you

know, disks and no disks, all of that. We're

going to skip over, um, the, um, the val story

maybe maybe not i mean we'll i might just gloss

over it okay i don't think we'll actually like

cover it per se okay good because um it'll be

quick and it'll be quick so yeah i uh yeah when

i did it it was a couple of years ago I don't

know if he still has anything to do with the

website, but I believe Michael Asiello created

or did he had something to do with the website

TV line. I'll have to do the, I'll have to do

the research later. And anyway, uh, I interviewed

him cause he was doing, he did his autobiography.

Oh, did his autobiography film a couple of years

ago. And, This is how I got turned on to TV line

as a website for news sources and things like

that. So I follow them on Facebook and I share

some of the stuff that they put out. I mostly

like most of their stuff and I am a huge NCIS

fan. I have been since 2003 when the original

show with Mark Harmon debuted, I used to have

all of the NCIS DVD sets back in the day I had

up to season five and When NCIS Los Angeles debuted

with LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell, I was like,

ooh, cool, I'm loving this. This is awesome.

Well, now, as of today, written up by Dave Nemitz.

Sorry, Dave, if I screwed up your name. NCIS

New York ordered at CBS with LL Cool J and Scott

Kahn set to star. NCIS franchises taking a bite

out of the Big Apple. CBS has handed a series

order to the new spinoff NCIS New York, with

LL Cool J reprising his NCIS Los Angeles role

as Sam Hanna. With Hawaii Five -0 alum Scott

Kahn also starring, the series will air Tuesdays

at 9 p .m. this fall. Following the original

NCIS and preceding the NCIS Origins, NCIS Sydney

will return at mid - season, taking over the

Origins time slot. See CBS full schedule here.

In NCIS New York, according to the official description,

legendary NCIS agent Sam Hanna, played by L.

Cool J, returns to his hometown of New York City

to their field office, partnering with a roguish

agent Scott Kahn, helping to lead a new team

as they are tasked with high -stakes missions

to defend one of the most vital cities. and ports

in the world. The pit creator R. Scott Schimmel,

who was also a showrunner on NCIS LA, will pen

the NCIS New York pilot per deadline with Byron

Belasco from Kingdom serving as showrunner. LL

Cool J starred as Sam Hanna on NCIS Los Angeles,

which wrapped up a 14 -season run on CBS in 2023.

He's also guest starring in the next two episodes

of NCIS. Good sneak peek here. Khan is CBS drama

veteran as well, having co -starred as Danny

on Hawaii Five -0, which ran from 2010 to 2020.

2010 to 2020. He even guest starred as Danny

in a 2012 episode of NCIS Los Angeles. So if

NCIS LA is done, I wonder if we're going to get

a complete series DVD set. NCIS Los Angeles was

the second spinoff. I have been... Waiting for

complete series DVD set of that show. Anyway,

this is going to be cool. I love this. I think

this is awesome. I think it's going to be super

fun. I love the character of Sam Hanna. LL Cool

J is really awesome. And when I saw this, I was

like, oh, interesting. There are certain parts

of the NCIS franchise, like when they debuted

NCIS Origins, which is the Mark Harmon, Gibbs

Origins stuff. I was like, oh, cool. We're finally

going to get to hear all the stories from, I

forget which one of the ex -wives, Sharon or

Kelly or whatever, which one of his wives wrote

down his rules. I think it's Sharon's rules.

Anyway. yeah i know so i just i had to talk about

this because i was like oh interesting so we're

gonna get that this fall i just love that they're

continuing on with this franchise and they're

finding new and different ways to expand it that

makes sense like i've never seen ncis sydney

i'm sure it's okay i'm sure it's cool i'm sure

it's fun I've never seen NCIS New Orleans. I'm

sure it's okay. Actually, NCIS New Orleans has

Scott Bakula. Wasn't he a Star Trek alum? Yeah,

he was Captain Jonathan Archer. Yeah, he was

Archer in the thing. In Enterprise. Enterprise,

yeah, the thing. Yeah, so I'm very excited to

see what happens in NCIS New York this fall.

Then, folks, people make stupid decisions in

Hollywood. Oh, how so? I don't care if he said

that they could do it. There are certain things

you ask yourself, Steve. You just ask yourself,

should I do it or should I not do it? And if

the answer is I shouldn't do this, then you shouldn't

do it. Are we talking about Xfinity? Oh, no,

that's that's that's after this. This is not.

No, that's something you're talking about. Val

Kilmer. Yeah. Yes. The Val. Yeah. So there's

a new movie coming out called As Deep as the

Grave. And Val Kilmer has been digitally resurrected

via AI to star in this new movie, which I could

see if you were like, hey. You know, I would

really love to see Val Kilmer in this movie.

And, you know, it would it would have been something

along the vein of something he would have done.

And he was like kind of like a little bit part

that showed up at some point, you know, not speaking

role, but just, you know, like a brief cameo

that kind of was there is like an homage to him

or something. But the fact that they've digitally

resurrected the man. Who's, you know, been gone

since. you know, around the time that Top Gun

Maverick came out. Yeah. And, you know, died

shortly after his scene. And they, you know,

the man had cancer and couldn't, you know, couldn't

talk and they resurrected his voice for it. Yeah,

to make him the lead of a movie where the man

has been gone, It almost is like they try to

continue Tombstone or something with it. Yeah,

Top Gun Maverick is four years old. It came out

in 2022. And in 2022, when Top Gun Maverick came

out, you could barely talk in the mood. You watch

him with Tom Cruise. He's struggled like hell.

And I'm just like, why are you even having him

in this? Even if he wanted to be on it, even

if he said, yes, I can do this. It's going to

be okay. I'll be fine. Even if he said all of

the things that he's wanted to say that he could

do that film, there still should have been someone

there that should have said, no, he, he shouldn't

do this. This is a thing where the man's been

dead for four years. This is, like, somebody

should have told these people, no, you shouldn't

do this. You should not do resurrected by AI

as deep as the grave. He died, actually, last

year. Oh, in 25? Yeah, April 1st. Because everybody

thought it was an April Fool's Day joke. Okay,

so he's only been dead a year. He did look rough.

Yeah, but still. Dude had suffered. Yeah, exactly.

no this is all well they have him playing a priest

basically but I was like is this like tombstones

continuation or something like because it kind

of reminded me of that it's another historical

drama about like archaeologists in the southwest

you know that kind of aligns with the western

theme of tombstone and yeah I mean I guess when

it happened with this movie, as I'm doing more

digging on it, it says as deep as the grave is

a separate new film, you know, that utilizes

AI to fulfill a role. Kilmer was originally cast

for before his passing. So I feel like. There

may be something we're not seeing with this.

Not that I'm trying to like condone like, yeah,

let's resurrect every dead actor with AI. I wonder

if he knew something was up and like he was cast

in it and really wanted to do it. And I feel

like they were already going to use because there's

definitely some like back and forth with the

timeline. in this movie according to the trailer

like they have young kilmer and then older kilmer

and then like old old kilmer so i'm wondering

if they were already digitally reversing his

age in the film for the young version and he

was just going to play the old version before

and you know because we all know that movies

take a while to make anyway uh so i wonder if

this was before he was like deathly ill like

he was probably cast in it shortly after maverick

um and so like i'm wondering if he must have

signed something to be in the movie regardless

and then the family like took it a step further

and we're like yeah you can you can keep using

him and have him digitally be there and then

they get the payday it it's still like kind of

a moral weird gray area i mean i could cast dell

kilmer right now in a in my short movie you know

and into it but it's like i don't know i would

feel weird doing it like just because like it's

like dude guy's dead like leave him alone like

leave his look alone leave his voice alone like

at that point it's like yeah if you want to mess

around with it for like a passion project to

kind of play around with something sure but I

mean even then it's kind of just weird like I

wouldn't I wouldn't feed AI like my dad no you

know and have it voice and and you know it look

like him and respond to me how i would expect

him to respond like you know i mean it would

just be creepy and weird and so i have like so

when karen died okay i had all these clips like

we never actually did a full podcast we never

actually did a full recording never actually

did a full topic show we never actually did a

movie review we didn't do a tv review well we

did do one tv review but it's a thing but it's

one of those things where we had all these separate

recordings that we had done but we never sat

down like chaos and i have sat down we've recorded

like i don't know seven eight nine i've got like

Probably we've recorded currently, I think seven

podcasts that are published and I have something

like four or five other ones that I still need

to, I'm in the middle of editing one right now,

but we've got like other, but when Karen and

I were together and we were one stuff and whatever,

we would record all these things on our phones

and stuff, but we would never actually sit down

to record a podcast. We record all these clips.

um we sat down and we uh a recipe for seduction

i kid you not that's what it's called no dude

let me tell you this was 20 2018 2019 i forget

which i think it was 2018 uh who's slater who

the hell is slater um what's his name mario lopez

Thank Slater from Saved by the Bell. It's not

Mark. Okay. Mario Lopez. So Mario Lopez and somebody

else. It's a Hallmark movie thing, but it's not

a Hallmark movie thing. We sat down and we were

going to watch this thing and I'm like, hey,

let's record our reaction to this. Little did

we know it was a five minute skit on the Hallmark

channel. But we recorded our reaction to it.

My point in saying all of this is that after

Karen passed in 2021, it probably took me about,

I don't know when that was published. I'll have

to look. I'll have to look. But yeah, it. I have

all these clips of Karen and I doing funny things

or funny situations. And after she passed, this

is before the great AI uprising. I took all those

clips and I made them into geek cast radio episode

312, which was published a year after she passed.

It is episode 312. The Marin moments. It is just.

what's the time what's the time it's 31 minutes

and 36 seconds long and it's all these clips

various clips and various whatever and the reason

why it's 31 minutes and 36 seconds long is because

it's me doing voices like not voices but it's

me doing vocal introductions of what the clips

are and when the clips took place kind of thing

doing the narration bit explaining to the audience

why this is and what this is and whatever but

the clips themselves are the clips that we had

recorded so the reason why i'm saying all of

this is to tie it back into val like yeah karen

passed away but there's no way in hell i was

going to have ai or anything back then change

her voice or do this to do that because a year

later i felt like i needed to release this i

felt like it was okay to release this because

i felt like the clips were so funny it was fine

to tie it back into val though they are using

artificial intelligence to create something with

him but he's not here it's him but it's not him

like they're So I found an article about it,

and it's like a European paper. So anyways, the

director of this, the writer and director of

this, opened up about the controversial decision

to bring the late actor back with AI. He says,

he was the actor I wanted to play this role,

and he says it was very much designed around

him, like this movie. And said that he goes further

into it. He said that although the director had

Kilmer ready to shoot his scenes when they first

started beginning on the filming of this in 2020,

the actor was going through a really, really

tough time medically and couldn't do it. Because

obviously Kilmer had the tracheotomy for his

throat cancer and lost his voice and died of

pneumonia last year. The director explained that

he was still able to use the state -of -the -art

generative AI to place Kilmer in certain scenes

via photos, footage, and audio recordings obtained

with permission from the estate and from the

family. He said his family kept saying how important

they thought the movie was and that Val really

wanted to be part of this. He shared that and

he says he really thought it was an important

story that he wanted his name on. because he

added, uh, that it was also the support that

gave him the confidence to say, okay, let's do

this. Cause I, apparently he like pumped the

brakes on it and the family was kind of like,

Hey, he would like this. Like the director was

like in this dilemma of like, man, I really want

him to do this, but like, obviously the man can't

do it. Um, so he says, despite the fact that

some people might call it controversial, this

is what Val wanted. Um, and I guess his daughter's

shared that, uh, uh, express that the support

for bringing her late dad back using AI that

he was always looking at emerging technologies

with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities

of storytelling and that the spirit is something

that we're all honoring within the specific film

of which he was in you know a part of and I guess

his son was also you know involved with that

too So it sounds like the director also mentioned

that, you know, they cut many scenes involving

Kilmer's character due to time constraints and

budget. So apparently it was supposed to be a

lot more with Kilmer in it, but they cut it because

of budget. He says he realized that Kilmer's

role was significant, a major missing element.

He says, you know, besides the AI version of

Kilmer, they also had a couple other actors.

in it but uh it's based on true movie or true

story uh for one and uh he said normally they

would just recast an actor he says i'm all about

working with actors may have brilliant performances

throughout the film but uh he continued that

they can't roll the camera again don't have the

budget there's not a big studio film so had to

think of innovative ways of continuing it realize

that the technology is there and Kilmer obviously

has used AI before to resurrect his voice because

he literally couldn't speak. He partnered with

a company so he could actually talk. The daughter,

I guess, says it means a lot to Val and that

he's very proud of her. It sounds like there

was a lot of... a lot of back and forth with

it um so yeah i mean people are going to be on

either side of the fence of it like i i can see

the moral sides and like even it sounds like

the director even had like a do i don't i like

yeah um and then the family was like hey but

i know that they're probably benefiting too so

it's like it's like all right at what point but

i'm sure bell would have done it regardless yeah

If he was even still alive, I'm sure he would

have been like, yeah, use my image with AI and,

you know, probably would have had thoughts about,

you know, I would like to see him do this or,

you know, I'm sure he would have been involved.

So, yeah, I don't know. It's weird. Either way,

it's kind of it's really weird. So, I mean, the

more I dig into it, the more I'm OK, I don't

see both sides of it here. You know, it's controversial

for multiple reasons. Very. Yeah. So I'll check

it out when it comes out, just cause I'm interested

now. Yeah. Interesting. All right. Yeah. So let's

go to Xfinity. Yeah. So I have been fighting

with Xfinity since I moved here to Anderson,

Indiana back in 2022. So four years. because

my internet constantly will go out at a moment's

notice depending on what time of day it is and

it'll constantly say unexpected network issue

investigating this and it's like a daily occurrence

it'll go out at least once a day at some point

during the day whatever whatever or my speed

isn't where it's supposed to be i'm right now

as of right now i'm upgraded to two gigabit uh

internet and i'm not even pulling that i i know

i'm not i guarantee you i'm probably not even

getting probably one gigabit and i follow marquez

brownlee aka mkbhd and the people that work for

him uh one of them ellis rovin i actually had

over on studio 2009 a couple years ago he did

a podcast approach with me And one of their clip

shows, Waveform, they do a podcast called Waveform.

One of their clips, Ellis was talking about Xfinity

and how they were on, I guess, the chat version

of Xfinity. Like I was mentioning earlier about

every website has a chat feature, yada, yada,

yada. Well, they were texting with the chat and

whatever else, because I'm not getting the speeds

I'm paying for. I'm not doing this. I'm not doing

that. You checking in yada, yada, yada. Apparently

Xfinity has a switch that they use. They can

use to not actually give you the full speed you're

paying for, because the boss says not to do that.

That's not cool. The link to that short is in

the show notes. I'll have Steve put it in the

post or I'll put it in the post on the website.

That's not cool. Like I've been a loyal Xfinity

customer for a year. We both have loyal Xfinity

customer for years. We have paid God knows how

much money to this company and they have a switch.

to either get our internet speeds up to where

we're, where they should be, where, what we're

paying for or to lower them. And the boss tells

them to lower the speeds on us. Uh, no. And I

don't, I honestly don't think that this, this

clip is, it's not Ellis. He's not joking. This

isn't a skit they're putting on. This is, this

is not them. I'm pretty sure this wasn't taken

on April fools. I question it partially too,

because like, it's not even on the original channel.

It's just tag. Yeah, it is tagged, but it is

them. Like it isn't like, I mean, I could, I

could reach out to Ellis and say, Hey, when did

you guys film this? I could look for it on the

original channel. and see the only thing like

i don't know where this is like i pay for 500

megabyte service they're in new jersey okay like

i get 500 megabyte service yeah um but i think

it's like now if you're paying for like gigabit

you're not getting it like yeah but there's also

limitations to those cable lines too yeah like

they only can go so fast and then you're you're

bottlenecked plus you're also bottlenecked based

on who's online in your neighborhood and how

many of them are online and how much data they're

using. So you're, you're always going to run

into that issue too. And if your modem can't

handle it. So, I mean, there's, there's so many

different variables here that it's like, it's

hard to like, I don't, I could see them doing

something scummy like this, but at the same time,

like, like I've had issues with Xfinity many,

many, many, many, many, many times over the years.

Yeah. uh recently i had an issue with them where

they wanted to send out a technician to mess

with my line and i'm like i know there's nothing

wrong with my line i was having issues getting

internet one day and it was like i was getting

like less than a megabyte uh and i'm like i know

i pay for 500 i should at least get 300 like

if i get at least 300 i'm not going to complain

because honestly you're not going to notice the

difference on the download it's the upload speed

that's terrible and i'm supposed to for this

get like 16 megabyte down or up um and i think

for gigabit you're supposed to get like 20 megabyte

up which is still pathetic like it should be

a one -to -one ratio or at least a one to you

know a one to 0 .5 ratio so you should at least

be getting you know if you're doing 500 megabyte

download you should be getting 250 up because

your speed is ultimately bottlenecked by how

quick your computer can communicate with the

internet and the fact that Comcast is still behind

on that. And like, you have to get like fiber

or you have to get like some local, like a lot

of local governments are doing their own internet

because they can do it for the same price as

Comcast and the price doesn't fluctuate. They

own it. I'm a little leery on government owned

internet, but they also do a one -to -one ratio.

You're paying for a gig up, you get a gig down.

Like, I mean, they're, they're both. you know

one to one but I've also heard that there's bottlenecks

with those too and then of course you know it's

like do you own the equipment you have to rent

it you have to like Comcast I buy all my equipment

so I don't have to pay them a monthly rental

because I'm cheap and so when they try to play

games with me I'm like I know that this works

I've already audited I know all of the little

ins and outs I know your game I know how all

of this works like I need you to send a reset

code to my my modem like i've already done all

of the stuff i can do on my end and they're like

well we need to send a i'm like bs like i've

i've literally done your job for you it's like

there's there's no reason to come out to my house

nothing has changed on my end it's like it's

literally something on your end fix it and they

did well recently they were like oh Well, you

need a new modem. And I'm like, no, I don't.

You were just out here two and a half months

ago. I just had the modem replaced. It was the

same modem I had for from four years ago when

I moved here. You just gave me the top of the

line modem. Oh, well, we'll ship you a new modem.

I'm like, no, don't do that. I need a new because

with the with the. but the internet they give

you the free tv the little tv box thing it's

not a cable you know what i mean it's not the

cable package but they give you the whatever

the streaming box is as a as a whatever as a

bonus um i don't know whatever yeah the the cable

box more or less like yeah yeah yeah like i i

get i think with my internet i get it um I think

I get a free cell phone line, which I don't use

because they don't support the device. And then

I also get Peacock for free. Right. Exactly.

Yeah. Same. So they're like, oh, well, and I

told them when I, when I called him, I said,

my modem is fine. You just up. I literally, you

can look at the modem, right? I asked them that.

Can you see my modem? Yes. okay look at the modem

you just upgraded it it is literally the best

modem you people have i need to buy my own modem

at some point i haven't done that yet because

i'm still using one of theirs so i don't need

a rental of it i don't even know it i'd have

to look at the bill i can tell you later it's

probably like 10 or 11 yeah it's like it's not

that much it's like 10 or 11 bucks um i'm like

you just gave me a brand new modem replace the

old one i said what i need is i need a new tv

box they completely ignored that and sent me

the exact same modem i already have so now i

have a piece of equipment that i can't use i

don't have a new tv box i either have to get

somebody out here because i don't drive and i

can't get to one of their stores and i'm not

mailing this crap back because i don't have like

it's a whole thing and it's like now we find

out that supposedly allegedly they have a button

that they can control like just a literal button

that the boss just tells them yeah give them

slower speed so we can just charge them more

money really seriously give me a break and i

said allegedly so whatever we're covered oh xfinity

you suck sometimes Alright, topics at hand here.

I wanted to say this really quick only because

I'm in the middle of writing these reviews for

the lovely La La Land Records. Love La La Land

Records. I've been covering stuff for them for

years. But yeah, I find we've talked about this

for years on the Geekcast Radio Network. media

rights and streaming rights and which services

have what and this is why we talk about netflix

and hulu and disney plus and hbo max and paramount

plus and insert streaming service name here and

whatever the james bond films the entire catalog

of james bond films arrived on netflix january

15th 2026 yay One place. Watch all the movies.

Yay! Cool. We have time. We can do whatever we

want. We can watch The Man with the Golden Gun.

We can watch Doctor No. We can watch Octopussy.

We can watch Live and Let Die. We can watch The

Night. Tomorrow Never Dies. The World is Not

Enough. Die Another Day. Crap. damn it i'm dying

we can watch crap yeah yeah uh hey hey hey wait

a minute i'm not doing my spiel uh but yet here

we are three months four months later james bond

movie catalog is now leaving netflix april 20th

2026 what a frag huh what It was only there for

quite literally three months, three months and

five days. Why make that deal? Seriously. Why,

why Amazon MGM? Cause that's who owns it. Cause

it's, it's MGM is Amazon and. broccoli and all

that and whatever for the for the bond franchise

why make that deal why go to netflix and say

hey we're gonna let you get as many subscribers

as you can get to your service for the next three

months and five days just to take the entire

film catalog away in three months and five days

And who knows if it's going to go back to Amazon

MGM. Who knows if it's going to go to whatever

other service. And I'm now sitting here crunch

time. Luckily, I'm in the middle of writing my

Tomorrow Never Dies film score review for La

La Land Records. And I'm about to watch The World

Is Not Enough and then write that review before

20th. Since it's the fifth, I'm doing that tomorrow

or whenever you find people hear this, it'll

be done. But it's like, what, why, how? Like,

can we have another month? Like, come on, people.

I get it. The rights and everything else. But

like, what was the point? Of only giving Netflix

three months and five days of that entire film

catalog. I don't understand that. Six months,

eight months, maybe give it a year. Because they

don't know what to do with it. It's probably

just limited rights. I think they're all just

having fun passing around the same crap over

and over. I think that's literally the boat we're

in now. I mean, so. Next year will be the 65th

anniversary of the Bond franchise because the

Bond franchise starred Dr. No was 1962. So. I

could see if Netflix held the streaming rights

until the end of this year. Like instead of only

having it for three months, give it until December.

And then. Send it back to Amazon or put it somewhere

else for the 65th anniversary or something. I

don't know. So weird. Yeah, so that happened.

And then we have. So I saw this from Pop Culture

Brian on Instagram. He put it other places as

well. CinemaCon is either already happened or

was going on. Where all the movie studios give

all the press releases and everything else. And

Sony's CEO, Tom Rothman. Had this to say, these

three, I wrote these three things down. I wrote

them down in two different ways. I wrote them

how Tom said them. And then I wrote them down

how Brian or Brain, his page is actually called

Pop Culture Brain, I think. Yeah, I wrote them

how he broke them down. Enforce longer windows,

even if that means you can't play every film.

Get rid of pre -shows, get off the ad track people

know to show up late. Then going to the theater

must become affordable again. So basically make

it cheaper, show fewer ads, and expand the windows.

Thoughts? I mean... I think that the guy's onto

something. Like, I hate how long. I hate how

long. Like, I went to the theater, like, in February.

And it was pricey. They put in premium seating.

And now you pick your seats. Like, it's no longer

just go in there and, you know, just wander in.

I can kind of get their longer windows. But at

the same time, those of us that are going to

just watch it at home anyway are going to just

do that. Get rid of the pre -shows and get off

the ad track because people know to show up late.

I 100 % agree with that. We went to see a movie

and it was supposed to play at 2 .30 in the afternoon.

It was... almost late three 15 before it started.

Oh geez. Because there were so many ads, like

there were literally ads in between the trailers

and there was like, uh, there was like six trailers

or seven trailers for movies that played. And

I'm like, okay, like three to four is like kind

of the limit. Like we don't need seven movie

trailers. It's like, I'm not going to go see

everything. And, and then they, they mismanage,

you know, mismatch them too. And then and then

there's ads. There was like two to three ads

between every trailer. And I'm like, what is

this crap? And then, you know, of course, going

into the theater, you know, obviously it needs

to be more affordable or people aren't going

to go. But it also needs to be, you know, I feel

like if. I feel like if there's a time that the

movie should start, it should start at that time.

Otherwise. you know let people know when it's

actually going to start and say hey by the way

we've got 20 minutes of commercials and like

another 20 minutes of trailers you know the movie's

actually going to start at because it's like

i don't i don't care like i don't i don't want

to sit there an extra 40 minutes like i came

to see the movie eat my popcorn get my drink

go home like i don't like actually bought a popcorn

last time we went because it was like oh this

isn't too bad like it's you know you get a free

one free refill and the bucket was big And it

was like 10 bucks or something. And I'm like,

okay, that's not, I mean, it's not great, but

it's not terrible either. Um, but I, I at least

was like, you know, the, the, the rest of the

experience was fine. I mean, I didn't need fancy

seats to go see it to pay an additional like

$4 and assigned seating. Like I, I missed the

old days of it. You don't, you just pay the stupid

price, go find a seat, sit down, shut up and

watch a movie. but I think what does it for me

honestly like anymore people because like there

aren't that many people in the theaters when

I'm going when I have gone it's it's the pre

-show all the ads it's like I don't I don't want

to see all that like usually they used to play

the ads before the start time and then they would

they would play one more ad to start you into

the trailers you would have your three to four

trailers and then you'd have the movie yeah and

i was like okay i could deal with that because

it's like you're talking like 10 to 12 minutes

of you know trailers yeah usually you used to

have the like the open like when you go in you'd

have the let's say the the overhead lights are

on and they'd either be playing music or whatever

the screen would pop on they'd have something

playing on the screen the lights would start

to dim the screen would change you would have

some sort of theater i don't want to call it

animation but let's say some sort of theater

title cards let's call them playing or whatever

you'd get maybe one ad That would then lead you

into the trailers like you're saying, and then

you'd get another little theater thing, and then

you get the movie. And like you're saying, it

would take maybe 15 minutes at max. But now it's

like, this theater owner is brought to you by...

maxwell house this theater owner is brock you

know folgers there's way of waking up in this

theater is folgers in your and it's like okay

that's two coffee ads here's two trailers here's

two fast food ads here's two more trailers here's

this here's that here oh you you're gonna need

some medical attention after you leave this movie

theater so here's a ambulance ad here's this

ad here's that ad 20 minutes later you're like

i even watched the movie oh the movie hasn't

even started yet oh god i'm gonna be here for

another nine hours no matter how like and that's

not a mart that's not me saying anything against

like the movie itself but like you know depending

on what the length of the movie actually is but

yeah it's just it's just nuts which is why i

i just don't don't care about movie theaters

anymore there's there's nothing they could do

there's abs even if it was transformers the movie

there's not a damn thing they could do get me

to go see a movie in a movie theater it just

isn't and this whole thing about as much as i

agree with what um culture brain is saying about

enforce longer when like get i agree with get

rid of the pre -shows and get off the ad track

and you know um make it cheaper i agree with

those two things expand the windows no don't

expand the windows well i mean if you're looking

even right now like the project hail mary and

super mario galaxy they're gonna get kicked off

the list anyway like it's like at this point

it's like just let it fade out and go to streaming

like and galaxy's only been out like two weeks

yeah and project hail mary has been out what

like three Yeah, something like that. Something

like I don't know, like. At this point, like

I. If you go for a happy medium, like I think

they wanted what? I think they were at 40 days.

They want to make it like. 60 or something now.

Yeah. Which, OK, like that's not terrible. Like

they were going to go 90 days like back in the

day, like. Three months in the movie theater

is way too long. Well, I think it's three months

before it comes out. Like publicly, like it used

to do. Remember, like they used to fade out,

like it would be in the theater for like 60 days

or until it stopped making a profit. Yeah. And

then and then it would disappear and then you

wouldn't hear anything. And then three months

later, come on on disc. Right. And so I feel

like we're at that stage again, like I and I

don't have a problem if it fades out, it gives

you if nothing else, it gives you the want to

see it again if you enjoyed it. you know for

the three month window but if they're going to

do that they also need to continue making the

discs which i know like there's a big diatribe

with that on x right now too uh but most of the

outrage is because people aren't reading the

articles they're just reposting what they're

reading um like people are flipping out about

yeah i'm not going anything Yeah, I'm not going

into much detail on it, but people are flipping

out because the Disney thing, because they laid

off all of their home entertainment people, but

the thing that people are forgetting, and I forgot

about it too initially, they spun off all the

rights for the DVDs and the Blu -rays to Sony

Entertainment, which is now producing all of

the Disney content for them, so they don't need

that division anymore internally. So they're

outsourcing it because it's cheaper. yep and

in that regard like i get it like yeah it sucks

that people are losing their jobs but i mean

like in every industry jobs do go away and then

they're replaced with new ones that you know

do something totally different so i mean it's

like you know they are changing with the times

but at the same time like they also went points

of time where disney would not produce any vhs

tapes you know and then they would come out with

like a platinum edition or you know whatever

and It would get locked in the vault and they

didn't just sell the stuff constantly like they

do now. So, I mean. They created their own scarcity.

But yeah, I mean. I agree with some of it. I

don't I mean, I don't care if they keep it in

the window longer for like. And I think what

they're talking is like enforcing the windows

longer so that. You you can't watch the film

until after that certain point, which. whatever.

Like, I mean, if they wait three months, it's

not going to kill me to wait three months after

it's been in, you know, from the debut in the

theater. Um, I don't think it should stay in

the theater 90 days. Cause that's stupid. Um,

I think when it's naturally fizzled out and it's

making under $5 million at that point, you know,

and it was like, let's say it was making like

80 million and 40 million or whatever a day.

And it goes down to like 5 million for the week.

It's like, okay, it's time to boot it out. or

you've got new stuff to replace it like yeah

get rid of it and then like let its window start

let it 60 days start before it gets to go on

streaming or or you know physical discs um i

would love to hear from people though as far

as the physical discs are concerned like where

they're picking up their physical discs at this

point like um like i've seen them at walmart

uh is a pretty good source for like television

shows and like newer movies that have come out

or like their bargain bin for five bucks um i've

also seen like there's like essentially like

goodwill which is arc like arc stores um at least

around where i'm located in colorado they have

those and there's like literally a wall of dvds

and blu -rays and i'm like and in goodwill has

them too but they're not quite as extensive and

i've thought about going through the aisle and

being like hmm you know, and checking it out.

And we have a lot of GameStops or, you know,

different game stores, GamesAhoy or whatever,

and stuff around me that I could get, you know,

traded in television series and Blu -rays and

DVDs. So, I mean, I'm definitely looking on the

other side of it going, what do I really enjoy

that I would like to own again? Or that I've

never owned and I would love to own, you know?

um like i found batman the animated series and

batman beyond again and they're dirt cheap at

walmart um or deep discount um and yeah so i

mean there's there's a lot of places for it but

i'm just curious where people tend to source

from and you know i know you can get it on amazon

too but i i'm looking at like cheaper cost for

some of the stuff but still having good quality

so it would be interesting to hear what people

use For me, I have to use Amazon for the most

part, because for me, I am all in on 4K. 4K television.

Because they be expensive, but I look at it as

an investment in kind of a. I look at them all

as special editions, even though they're not

all special edition things. Most of them are

regular disc things. I'm trying to see. There's

a 4K because I'm over here on Amazon now. arriving

june um uh june 30th the money pit on 4k it's

just a standard regular like there's no special

edition whatever it i think i'm paying 37 49

so but i'm paying that for the high quality now

that If that was a regular DVD, that would probably,

if that was just DVD quality, that'd probably

be a 20, but there'd be a $20 disc. It would

be, you know, the $13 or $17 cheaper. I think

the reason why that that's, and this is, I could

be wrong, could be completely wrong. But I think

the reason why I'm paying in total $40 and 11

cents after whatever. taxes and all that is because

it's 4k and honestly i don't mind that i'm paying

that um june 23rd click and 51st dates uh same

kind of pricing 37 44 each for those you know

but for me it's about having those on physical

media In the highest quality, I can get them

because I have a player and television that plays

that high quality. Yeah, I mean, I have a 4K

TV now since I got a smart TV and but honestly,

normal people. Yeah, I was looking at a report

of it. People can't tell the difference between.

like 2k and 4k people can't honestly tell the

difference between like true HD and 4k because

the amount of information our eyes can physically

read is not high enough to actually notice 4k

or even like they're even messing with 8k and

they're they're kind of backpedaling on it because

they're like what's the point like our eyes can't

even see 4k like the level of detail in it Like,

yes, true HD, like 1080p. Yeah. Like, yes, there

is a significant difference between that and

720p. Like, there is. Just like there's a difference

between like the old, you know, 360p or like

the 480, you know, from like old school television

to the 720 to the 1080. Like, but there's not

enough of a difference between like 1080p and

like, or even 21. 2160 which is like doubling

the 1080p like you can't really tell the difference

beyond that that 2160p to the 4k and blu -ray

pretty much sits at that anyway so like blu -ray

is like pretty much as best as you're gonna get

it so yeah i don't i don't even pay attention

to the 4k stuff anymore like even when i have

digital files of stuff like it's 720p because

i'm not going to notice the difference on any

of my screens Now, if it's an action movie like

1080p, is it more important to me? But like if

it's if it's like something like, oh, Star Trek,

you know, movie or like a big action movie like

let's say I got, you know. The Mission Impossible

series. I would probably get that in Blu -ray

because I would want the best possible quality

of the action. Or, you know, even. Like there

have been like 4K masters of Beast Wars that

people have done using AI and like different

technologies. And it looks better than the DVD

quality because the DVDs are very compressed.

There never was a 4K quality. There never was

an HD quality because it was not made for that.

But the quality is better. It's still not 4K

and it's still not enough for my eyes to pick

it out. I mean, my eyes aren't that far gone.

I mean, I wear glasses, but I don't need it to

see. It's more of a distance thing. But yeah,

I mean, it's just, I don't know. We're in this

weird phase with physical media and streaming.

People are sick of subscriptions, sick of streaming.

And we're hitting this precipice now that the

younger generation is realizing, hey, you old

people from... You know, you Gen Xers and millennials

that grew up in the 80s and 90s. I guess your

stuff actually was awesome. Because we got full

games. We got full television shows. We got full

movies. We got good writing. We got good acting.

We got good production. They did things on a

lower budget. We got complete games. And if they

had DLC, they either gave it to us for free or

we bought an add -on. And it was a one shot like

it wasn't stupid expensive. They didn't have

microtransactions. They didn't have like loot

boxes or things that you had to earn to one up

the game or to cheat. Like you actually had to

be good at the game to beat it. I mean, there's

there were so many like old game consoles or

even like selling like hotcakes and super expensive

because didn't need an Internet connection to

play them. Same with old games. You didn't need

an Internet connection for them. Like I literally

go and check out abandoned where just so that

I can play like old games because it's like,

I don't need an internet connection. I can just

play it. So, but I think that about rounds this

episode out. We've kind of gone all over the

place, but there's been a lot of good conversation

and a lot of good thoughts. Absolutely. So I'm

wondering if, you know, again, not only the question

about the physical media where people, you know,

kind of their go -to places whether it be online

or physically in person uh but you know maybe

maybe what's some what's some uh think some of

your thoughts on some of these discussions we've

had or even you know what are some old television

shows or movies that we should check out like

i'm checking out the mission impossible series

and i still have to finish the second to the

last film and I have to watch the last one, which

is not on Netflix, but for some reason they put

the second and last film on Netflix and not the

last one. So, um, so yeah, I'm watching that.

I'm going to finish that on the plane ride, but,

um, but yeah, the, uh, that series has impressed

me other than the, uh, J .J. Abrams Kurtzman

written third film. So, yeah. exploding chips

in their heads just a bunch of exploding chips

in their heads i just think of uh what's that

movie called there's another one um british film

british film uh not not 007 it's avengers no

it's it's another like spy action oh i i know

what you're talking about too um Kingsman Kingsman

that's I was like men something like yeah Kingsman

I think of that first one with Sam Jackson and

Mark Hamill and you know where they had the chips

in their head and then you just like at the end

like there's just random exploding fireworks

from people's bodies um that's all I think about

I'm like that one was a better film yeah but

yeah so anyways That rounds out about this episode

of Altered Geek. Let us know on the website as

always. Thank you for listening to the episode.

I've been your host, Steve Megatron with TFG1

Mike. And you can, of course, leave a comment

on the website geekcastradio .com. You can hear

us on all of the different platforms again, including

TuneIn, which fixed their podcast submission

fee now that they've been bought out. So until

next time, get altered, get geeky with the Altered

Geeks. Don't block me on X. I'm now TF2 and Mike

again. From classic icons to new sci -fi dreams,

with every episode we'll unravel the themes.

Let's geek out and laugh, keep the spirits high.

Together we'll journey reaching for the... Discussion,

let's dive into lore from Star Trek to Transformers.

We're ready to soar. Superheroes clash as we

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