While I’ve been a fan of Showtime, often preferring their original content to HBO’s, my primary ding against the Showtime Anytime streaming service has been stereo sound. With the launch of Showtime’s new Internet streaming service this week, that does not require a cable subscription, I reached out to Showtime’s PR team. And the good new is that 5.1 surround sounds it coming to these services “very soon”. I expect this will apply to both native Apple TV and Roku Showtime apps, but the fascinating Hulu Showtime linkage remains a question for me given Hulu’s own auditory limitations.
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Ah, good news indeed. It is odd that they didn't launch with 5.1 SS and I was wondering if/when that would be added. Just for kicks, I signed up for the free month via the new Showtime app on my Apple TV 3 this week. (I already have a regular paid Showtime subscription.) I'm impressed with the HD video quality when streaming shows on-demand; so far, it looks even better than the linear Showtime channel does on DirecTV, which is the best-looking traditional TV source I've ever had (although I've never had FiOS or Google Fiber). Still, the quality isn't *quite* as good as Netflix or Amazon Prime's HD streams (although it's better than HBO Go). It would be nice if Showtime offered a top-tier stream of all programs in 1080p24 H.264 in the 7 to 8 Mbps range, kind of like Vudu's HDX stream - I'll bet the majority of their subscribers' home networks could handle that. Unfortunately, the video quality for the live linear Showtime channel (as opposed to on-demand selections) through the new streaming app is not too good; it's watchable but appears highly compressed, I'm guessing it's something like 1 Mbps H.264. They're probably afraid their servers wouldn't have enough upstream bandwidth to support higher bit-rates for the live channel during peak watching hours on Sunday nights.
Any word on whether Showtime and TiVo are in talks about bringing this new service to TiVo?
"While I’ve been a fan of Showtime, often preferring their original content to HBO’s"
"I have a headache."
"It might be a tumor."
"It's not a tumor! It's not a tumor. At all!"
Well, if it's a not really a tumor, Dave, how else on earth do you possibly explain this?
"While I’ve been a fan of Showtime, often preferring their original content to HBO’s"
I mean, this is akin to proclaiming your prefer your guacamole to be make out of peas.
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