Playon for $19.99 (again?) - not sure how long left...

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Well, I see this deal's been around before, but PlayOn is $19.99 right now and claims that basically if you pass this up, you'll have to pay for their subscription model (yearly fee). You don't get as much with the $19.99 lifetime license as with the subscription, but you get Hulu, which makes it worth it to me.

Supposedly ends "midnight tonight", but they didn't list a time zone. I've tried it throughout the last week and decided it was worth paying for.


Go HERE and slap in coupon code lifetime


Enjoy, sorry so last min, I'm not here much anymore.
 
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Um yeah I don't know about Play-On. I loved the idea when I heard about it, but I tried the free trial and couldn't get Hulu to work. I found the Play-On media server under the video section of the dashboard and then the Hulu section, but whenever I tried to play a video, it would say something like unrecognized file type.
 
Where's all the info on the subscription service? I bought PlayOn some time ago, but have almost no idea what the subscription deal is...
 
From the e-mail promoting the discount:

Today is the last day to get a lifetime license of PlayOn for $19.99!

On May 20th, 2010 we are moving to a subscription plan, also called PlayOn Premium. Customers purchasing on or after that date will be required to pay an annual fee to keep their PlayOn working. Customers purchasing before that date can opt to upgrade to PlayOn Premium ($4.99 for the first year, $19.99/year thereafter), or they can opt to simply stick with their lifetime license and never pay us another cent. Customers opting to stay with their lifetime license will continue to keep all released content channels they have today for the life of the product.* New content channels like Comedy Central, PBS, NHL, and more will require that they upgrade to PlayOn Premium.

If you buy prior to May 20th, it's your choice whether you want to participate in the subscription plan or not.

Tonight at midnight a lifetime license goes back up to $39.99, prior to midnight you can get a lifetime license at 1/2 price for $19.99. Visit us here and enter coupon code LIFETIME to take advantage of this offer. PlayOn forever for only $19.99, with an option to ugrade to PlayOn Premium at a later date for only $4.99.

If you are a current PlayOn customer, there is nothing for you to buy here. You already have a lifetime license. Look for your opportunity to upgrade later this Summer.

Cheers,
The PlayOn Team

*The Daily Show and Colbert Report will require an upgrade as these are currently in beta. All other current content will be included in PlayOn Basic and will continue to be supported for the life of the product. If you do buy today and later opt to upgrade to the subscription plan you will be given the opportunity to do so at the "Founding Member" rate of only $4.99 for the first year.
$19.99 offer expires May 2nd, 2010 at 11:59PM.
Click to expand...
 
Back when I tried PlayOn, during their beta stage, it didn't work well at all. Video was jerky and tended to drop out entirely at random intervals. Usually, at some point, it would just freeze altogether. It's entirely possible that they have fixed it since then, but in the meantime I found another, better alternative (i.e. re-purposing an old machine that I wasn't using anyway as a media center), thus pretty much negating any use I would have had for it.

I have to say that my first reaction upon seeing this "subscription" plan was "are you fucking kidding?" and it hasn't gotten any better. I know it's a fairly trivial amount, but in principle it still sounds dicey. I can understand charging for upgrades, but charging a fee to keep the software (that I've supposedly bought) working at all?

I wonder how the content providers they're streaming would react if they knew that PlayOn was charging a "subscription" fee based on access to their content. Somehow I don't think it would go over well.
 
Not a fan of Playon either. Tried the demo awhile back and the videos would either not play, or play for awhile then crash. Maybe its my connection, but for anybody thinking about this, try the demo first.
 
I got it at PAX East ($20 plus tax offer at the show) and I love it. My PC is almost 7 years old (barely meets specs) and my DSL is almost crap speed (1.5 max down) and the service has been working great for me. Saving me a bunch of money from getting TV shows on the Zune Marketplace.
 
I've also had it since the beta period, so over a year, and I can honestly say that it has gotten a lot better. Before it used to cut out and freeze with hulu and netflix. However I haven't had it freeze or cut out in months and I'm even using it with the unsupported original modded xbox method. Playon has definitely been worth it for me.
 
It sucks that they're going subscription based now since Playon's video capabilities were pretty limited with most of it expanded through user made plugins. If I didn't already buy it at Pax East, then I don't think I would bother buying Playon right now since there are all these rumors about Hulu going subscription based as well which is pretty much all Playon is good for. TVersity has alot of potential and can play Hulu as well with the paid version and it has much better local media support so I would keep an eye out on that instead.
 
I bought PlayOn when it was first released so I could watch Netflix on my PS3 and Wii. Now, both those consoles have native Netflix support that's far superior to what PlayOn offers.

It's funny that they announce the subscription model right as the product value takes a nose dive.
 
PlayOn going to a subscription fee is BS and more or less marks the end of the service for me. Are they going to be paying that back to the content providers, because that's the only way it even begins to make sense, otherwise they're just basically gouging you for functionality that's already been there that's freely available from your PC (and has previously been free via user-created plugins). I wouldn't worry too much, some other app will eventually fill the void.
 
Yep, with the Netflix having a disc now (and a vastly superior interface) and Daily Show/Colbert Report not on Hulu and Tonight show with Conan cancelled I hardly ever use playon anymore, especially since it requires another computer be running the software (which the netflix disc does not).
 
With Hulu losing content and inevitably going to a subscription service and netflix having free options on all the consoles this app is essentially useless IMO (PS3MediaServer being a much better and FREE option).
 
While I generally like PlayOn and will probably grab the 'early adopter' discount on the sub ($4.99 for the 1st year), my biggest complaint isn't necessarily with PlayOn. Has anyone else noticed that many of the content areas are empty...for instance, if you drill down looking for full episodes of a certain show, there's nothing there...
 
I've been using PlayOn for a year with no problems on the 360 which was set up super easy. PS3 hardly ever works. Big problem for awhile was that sometimes you would need updates to keep up with Hulu but PlayOn wouldn't tell you a update was availble but they have fixed their update service recently.

I got it for $20 I would have recomended it last year but by the end of the year you'll probably won't need it at all.
 
Did I misread the email they sent me? Everyone seems so pissed that they are going with a new subscription based model for certain features. The email I read, I am pretty sure said nothing was going to change for the current service besides the Daily Show and Colbert Report separate feed things were going to disappear unless I got a subscription.

I don't think many people are going to grab a subscription but still they aren't taking functionality away from me. If I am wrong please point me to another message that says different because I have by far gotten my money's worth out of the service since beta but I don't want to pay a subscription.
 
I'm using it I got for 19.99 with a Gamefly trial. Before I used Tversity for streaming purposes and it was extremely buggy. I've had pretty good success with plugins and regular content also. When I got the email I was relieved that regular content will still be free.
 
I used the free trial before and it's pretty good but I'd never really use it so I won't buy it. But I get emails from them saying last chance for $19.99 at least once a week so I'm sure it's not actually the last chance.
 
Yeah, their lifetime subscription model is BS. If you want the New content you have to pay extra, this includes the beta channels they are already providing which they intend to remove unless you pay extra.

I feel like I've been bait and switched, yes I got a killer price when I bought it, but now I find out I really didn't buy unlimited upgrades, because to avoid honoring that agreement, all they needed to do was change the product name to Super Duper edition.
 
[quote name='Saablic']Did I misread the email they sent me? Everyone seems so pissed that they are going with a new subscription based model for certain features. The email I read, I am pretty sure said nothing was going to change for the current service besides the Daily Show and Colbert Report separate feed things were going to disappear unless I got a subscription.

I don't think many people are going to grab a subscription but still they aren't taking functionality away from me. If I am wrong please point me to another message that says different because I have by far gotten my money's worth out of the service since beta but I don't want to pay a subscription.[/QUOTE]

If you buy it now you'll get an "early adopter" version which will not require a subscription for the current feeds. If you buy it later on down the road, a subscription will be required for everything. Likewise, if they add any additional feeds later (including moving the Daily Show and Colbert feeds out of "beta"), you'll be required to purchase a subscription for them regardless of when you purchased the program.

So yes, if you have already purchased it, or purchase it right now, they won't take any current functionality away from you. However, if you want any additional feeds or features that they add later, you'll have to start paying for a subscription.

I'm not so much "pissed" about it as much as I find it to be a very questionable move. If the software somehow had to run through their servers (thus requiring them to maintain said servers), I could possibly see it -- but since, as far as I know (unless something has radically changed since I tried it), it runs entirely locally, what exactly are you paying for? To keep the software running?

Here's the thing -- they are essentially charging a subscription fee for delivery of the content off of the sites they're feeding (I mean, really, what else would it be for?). When cable companies do that with TV channels, they have to pay licensing fees to those channels. Is PlayOn paying licensing fees to Hulu, Netflix, or any of the other sites they're charging to stream? When they're just selling software that operates as middleware between two devices on your local area network, it's not a big deal. But once they start charging for a subscription, they're essentially charging for that content. I find it hard to believe those sites are ok with that, any more than the networks involved would be ok with a cable provider selling access to their TV channels without a proper license.
 
I think it's ridiculously shady that they're basically charging users for content that belongs to other websites. I don't think Hulu would approve.

I stick to my Netflix disc and PS3 Media Server. Screw PlayOn.
 
I tried the trial last year, and it worked great. Then I bought a license. With subsequent updates, videos increasingly would stop loading and crash. The customer service reps try to solve everything by instructing you to upgrade, which doesn't fix a thing. I would definitely pass, even for $20.
 
[quote name='arcane93']If you buy it now you'll get an "early adopter" version which will not require a subscription for the current feeds. If you buy it later on down the road, a subscription will be required for everything. Likewise, if they add any additional feeds later (including moving the Daily Show and Colbert feeds out of "beta"), you'll be required to purchase a subscription for them regardless of when you purchased the program.

So yes, if you have already purchased it, or purchase it right now, they won't take any current functionality away from you. However, if you want any additional feeds or features that they add later, you'll have to start paying for a subscription.

I'm not so much "pissed" about it as much as I find it to be a very questionable move. If the software somehow had to run through their servers (thus requiring them to maintain said servers), I could possibly see it -- but since, as far as I know (unless something has radically changed since I tried it), it runs entirely locally, what exactly are you paying for? To keep the software running?


[/QUOTE]

Thanks for verifying. I have seen it mentioned a few times that people said they were pissed they were going to be charged for software they already purchased which isn't true. I don't support their new subscription model at all either but at least I can still use what I paid for.

Oh well, PlayOn was well worth paying the devs for what it was at the time when it was around the time it came out of beta but now it is pretty much worthless.
 
[quote name='SEH']I think it's ridiculously shady that they're basically charging users for content that belongs to other websites. I don't think Hulu would approve.

I stick to my Netflix disc and PS3 Media Server. Screw PlayOn.[/QUOTE]

Hulu doesn't approve of its content being on a TV, well at least their content providers don't which means they can't. Now that they are going subscription based too I hope their free stuff doesn't suffer to greatly. I am fine with a rolling 5 for now.
 
I loved having PlayOn before Netflix came to the PS3. Now I use it occasionally to watch new Hulu episodes. Good thing is that I have not had a single problem with choppy video or audio syncing in months. I doubt I'll upgrade to the subscription unless they really add some worthwhile content.

Last year the plugin community was pretty strong, and updates were coming daily. Lately though they seem to have slowed down. There are "scripts" available that pull content from adult swim, comedy central, and others... but they don't work a lot of the time or produce real poor quality video.
 
holy crap what a nightmare. just installed playon, ps3 refused to run it without crashing, then my pc crashed and i had to reinstall the os and lose everything! boo to playon.
btw, hulu used to run smoothly on the ps3 browser before they blocked it. fuck paying to get content that used to be free. you are basically paying a doorman... but i would actually buy it if it worked. no worky.
 
It's weird it seems like you either love this software or it's a disaster.

I've had extremely good luck with it and even set my parents up with a WD TV Live and PlayOn so they could watch Hulu on their TV, and they love it. The user plugins are quite good too, especially if you find something you like. It works pretty much transparently, unlike a lot of the freeware apps which might have a lot more features but don't seem to work as reliably. (in my experience) I don't think I'll be signing up for a sub (nor will my parents) but the $19.99 price is good for what you're getting already.

Whisky Pete-- how did you "just install" it and manage to get through so much troubleshooting that you decided to reformat your OS? Seems like you took a pretty drastic step there... are you sure it was PlayOn or something else on your system ready to collapse? (not trying to defend them, just have never heard of PlayOn destroying a system beyond repair)
 
Ive had playon since the beta period and LOVE it. there were times when they were warring with hulu and it would go out for a few days at a time, but they were always on top of it to fix it, and the way they do it now seems bulletproof as i havent had a hulu outage in months.

of course i can watch netflix on just about anything modern now, but with playon i can watch it on my original xbox too, which is nice(xbox is setup in the bedroom specifically for playon and streaming content from my pc)

i'm actually surprised that so many people are pissed about the new business model. after all, there was no official comedy central channel when you originall bought playon, right? right.

and secondly, nowhere have they ever said they were removing plugin/script support. So when I want to watch the Daily Show, guess what? I'm gonna watch it through the Comedy Central script.. no subscription required.

Obviously they aren't charging for other people's content, they're charging to maintain and develop their service. If any of those sites change how they deliver video, playon has to adjust as well. And the new content channels don't just appear on their desks in the morning.. they have to develop them. If you really consider this "paying for other people's content", it's not much different than Microsoft charging you 5 bucks a month to play games online that they didn't publish(or to watch netflix, or use twitter or facebook.. none of which is their content)

edit: I'm curious, are the guys who are so unhappy with PlayOn younger/live at home/don't pay the cable bill? I mean, I'm sitting here thinking about how PlayOn has saved me $60/month for close to 2 years and I'm perplexed at how anyone could be so down on it.
 
[quote name='Justin42']It's weird it seems like you either love this software or it's a disaster.


Whisky Pete-- how did you "just install" it and manage to get through so much troubleshooting that you decided to reformat your OS? Seems like you took a pretty drastic step there... are you sure it was PlayOn or something else on your system ready to collapse? (not trying to defend them, just have never heard of PlayOn destroying a system beyond repair)[/QUOTE]

sorry for the confusion, i had to reinstall on the pc, not the ps3. although the pc is actually the more drastic. at least for my wife, lol.

i am a mac person. was just using the wifes pc for this software because its not mac compatible. when i tried to uninstall playon (after several failed attempts to get it running on the ps3 - saw hulu, chose "desert punk" - got corrupted file or freezes, tried several other anime selections, nada) it froze the system (pc). when i rebooted, i just got "blue screen".

i called toshiba (the manuf.) and they tried to take it back to before the install but no dice. had to do a complete reinstall. maybe its because of my inexperience with pc tech. but it sure sucked, and damn it should work outta the box. even for dumbshits like me. but maybe im wrong.

and then the kaiser stole our word for twenty. and i chased him for a diggety mile.
 
I have also had an awesome experience with PlayOn. I never really saw many outages and most of those were due to Hulu constantly changing things to break apps that played their content on TV. I did get some stuttering now and again but I also got that with streaming movies to my PS3 over wireless now and again so I just assumed it was the same cause. I guess I should consider myself lucky I haven't had many issues.
 
I've had playon for a while now, and while it definitely can sometimes have some issues, once it's set up, works great. I repurposed a laptop with a busted hinge as my server, so I have it running all the time. A note of advice, make sure either the ps3/360/wii or your pc is wired to your router, as that usually helps a lot with the streaming issues. I currently have them both wired so I don't have any streaming issues for the most part. If you go to playonscripts.com, you can also add scripts so you can view other website content, as well as playonplugins.com. I currently have ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, NBC, and a couple of other channels I can't remember off the top of my head, as well as netflix, hulu, and some amazon on demand stuff.
 
[quote name='smoger']Obviously they aren't charging for other people's content, they're charging to maintain and develop their service.[/QUOTE]

What "service" are they providing exactly? My understanding is that once I've purchased their software, it runs entirely on my computer and, other than the possible occasional check-in to make sure that I have a valid license and see if there are any updates, it never connects back to them again.

[quote name='smoger']If any of those sites change how they deliver video, playon has to adjust as well. And the new content channels don't just appear on their desks in the morning.. they have to develop them.[/QUOTE]

Then charge for software updates, like any other software developer does. If I want to update my software, then great, I'll pay for it, but if I don't, I should still be able to keep any functionality that I've already paid for that's still working. Here's the thing with a subscription model -- if the site that I use doesn't change, and doesn't require them to do anything, I still have to pay the subscription fee if I want my software (that I supposedly bought) to keep working.

[quote name='smoger']If you really consider this "paying for other people's content", it's not much different than Microsoft charging you 5 bucks a month to play games online that they didn't publish(or to watch netflix, or use twitter or facebook.. none of which is their content)[/QUOTE]

Do you really not see the problem in that analogy? Microsoft has licensing agreements with Netflix, Twitter, and Facebook to provide their content on XBox Live. Every developer that releases a game for the XBox 360 signs a licensing agreement with Microsoft that includes XBox Live connectivity as part of its content. At no point is Microsoft providing any content over their service for which they do not have a legal agreement with the content owner to provide.

[quote name='smoger']edit: I'm curious, are the guys who are so unhappy with PlayOn younger/live at home/don't pay the cable bill? I mean, I'm sitting here thinking about how PlayOn has saved me $60/month for close to 2 years and I'm perplexed at how anyone could be so down on it.[/QUOTE]

I'm down on it based on the fact that I think that when Hulu, Netflix, or the other content providers catch wind of what PlayOn is doing, they're going to smack them down, hard. While it's just a piece of software that is being run locally on the user's machine, there's not really a lot they can do about it. When a "subscription" becomes involved, though, the ground becomes much more shaky.
 
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The way I'm looking at it is that it works great right now, and if I get 2-3 months of Hulu out of it, I got my money's worth. If Hulu goes subscrip and falls apart after a few months, c'est la vie.

Oh yeah, and it works great for me.
 
[quote name='arcane93']Then charge for software updates, like any other software developer does. If I want to update my software, then great, I'll pay for it, but if I don't, I should still be able to keep any functionality that I've already paid for that's still working. Here's the thing with a subscription model -- if the site that I use doesn't change, and doesn't require them to do anything, I still have to pay the subscription fee if I want my software (that I supposedly bought) to keep working.[/QUOTE]

The problem with that is, in my experience netflix stopped working about once every week or two without downloading the PlayOn updates. If they sold you a product that died after a week's time and tried to sell you an updated version after, how many people would buy that? They'd probably have more people at their HQ with torches and pitchforks than people willing to constantly fork over more money.

But I also am not going to be paying for their subscription. While I've had, used, and enjoyed PlayOn for about 9 months, I just don't use it very often anymore. I used it for almost nothing buy netflix on the PS3, and I haven't done that in a while despite preferring their interface to the netflix disc.

I feel like I got my $20 use out of it, but they aren't likely to get more money out of me.

MjC
 
[quote name='MCalvert1']The problem with that is, in my experience netflix stopped working about once every week or two without downloading the PlayOn updates. If they sold you a product that died after a week's time and tried to sell you an updated version after, how many people would buy that?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, what they'd have to do is sell you the program for a certain price and include free updates for a year with it. Then when you bought a new update the next year, it would include a year of free updates after that, etc. Yeah, that's almost the same as the subscription model, except for two distinct differences:

1. If you choose not to purchase an update, your software keeps working for as long as the services that you use don't change. They don't shut it down on you completely just because your year has run out. While Netflix changes constantly, it is possible (likely even) that other services remain much more static -- and, as has been noted, most people don't need this for Netflix anymore anyway, since all of the current-gen consoles support Netflix now.

2. It keeps that pesky word "subscription" out of there, which avoids the implication that you're paying them on some level for delivery of the content. I know that it's largely a matter of semantics, but semantics can make all the difference in the world when it comes to issues like licensing.
 
Have had PlayOn streaming to my 360 over a year and always found support prompt & video quality good. Am a fan of using the plugins for Anime Shippuden, etc. Watching Monster and Samurai Champloo today on Hulu while I work at home actually. Recently started using it in our family room for the Wii as well, as it allows streaming from my video files on upstairs computer (which is already built into 360 interface).
 
Had PlayOn a long time, at end of Beta. Used it on my Xbox 360's before having my PS3 to stream Hulu and such as we didn't want to pay for cable, worked fairly well.


Got my PS3 and set it up, most Hulu and other channels come through fine, wired connection helps. I noticed since the last few updates along with Netflix being added to PS3, every time I try to use PlayOn for Netflix movies/shows I get a corrupt data error. Nothing I've tried takes that error away, and it's only on Netflix content. I'm a networking guy so I've tried almost everything. Good thing I have that PS3 Netflix disk!


I will say that it works suprisingly well on the Wii too. Good alternative if your Wii unit is in a room that doesn't have a PC or cable.
 
Thanks for posting. I am going to test this on my PS3, and if it works I'm going to buy it :)

Update: Worked great on my PS3, so I bought it. It is a bit disappointing that Hulu only has a few episodes available for shows I looked at. Still, we decided we can get our money's worth for $20.
 
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