Watching things properly
Your television, your streaming apps and your subscriptions are all working against you by default. None of it is hard to fix. It is just badly documented.
Picture and Sound
How to Turn Off Motion Smoothing on Any TV Brand
How to Watch
Viewing orders, episode schedules, and finding a specific film rather than a specific title.
How to Watch
Slow Horses Season 6 Episode Schedule: All Six Dates
Apple's press release gives the premiere, the weekly cadence and the finale in one 27-word sentence, and no US clock time at all.
How to Watch
How to Find Every Film a Director Made, and Where to Stream
Streaming search is built around titles, not people. Working from a complete filmography first is the only way to know what you are missing.
How to Watch
How to Watch a Show Late Without Getting Spoiled
Most spoilers come from the app, not from other people. Thumbnails, next-episode previews and promotional clips are the three worst offenders.
Streaming Tips
The settings you cannot find, written out as exact menu paths for each device.
Streaming Tips
Netflix Genre Codes: 14 to Try, and How to Check Any Code
Fourteen codes to start with, and the ten-second method for confirming any code against Netflix itself instead of trusting a list.
Streaming Tips
How to Remove Titles From Continue Watching
Prime Video's television apps cannot remove a title at all, and Netflix's control is missing from some older TV apps, which is where most people try first.
Streaming Tips
When Do Streaming Downloads Expire? The Two Clocks
Two clocks can run on a download, and the shorter one starts only when you press play. Only one big service publishes both numbers, and two publish no number at all.
Picture and Sound
Your television is working against you by default. Almost all of this is free to fix.
Picture and Sound
What Filmmaker Mode Does, and When to Use It
It is not a picture preset so much as the absence of one. It switches off your television's processing and restores the film's own geometry.
Picture and Sound
How to Get Dolby Atmos From a Streaming App
The usual advice is that you need HDMI eARC. For streaming that is wrong, and the setting actually blocking you is the TV's audio output.
Picture and Sound
Why Movies Have Black Bars, and Why Not to Zoom
Zooming a 2.39:1 film to fill a 16:9 screen pushes roughly a quarter of the width off the edges of the panel, and softens everything that is left.
Save Money
Free services, your library card, and what a cheaper tier actually takes away.
Save Money
Free Movies With a Library Card: Kanopy and Hoopla
Kanopy and Hoopla are free with a library card, and both cap borrowing. Your library sets the cap, which is why no published number is right for everyone.
Save Money
Free Legal Streaming: Tubi, Pluto TV, Roku and Plex
Tubi, Pluto TV, Roku Channel and Plex are free, legal and ad funded. Their catalogues rotate fast, which is why a saved list beats a published one.
Save Money
What a Streaming Ad Tier Actually Costs You
The adverts are the obvious part. Resolution caps, missing titles, audio limits and download rules are what people notice later.
Explained
Why the business works the way it does, starting from primary documents.
Explained
By Any Means: What the Justice Department File Says
Paramount's page for the film opens with four words: based on a true story. We pulled the Justice Department's own file on the case and read it.
Explained
Streaming Windows: What Studio Contracts Actually Say
Only one output deal states a figure in months. Two more fix an ordering without a length, and the rest of the record is silence.
