#and the dropout subscription is worth it to watch the other seasons

[aloekat]

personally i think about Fantasy High a lot now. there is so much i could say abt the show and Dimension20 IN GENERAL but we'd be here for hours so instead take some fun fabian art i did to practice looking at reference because surprise! i almost never do it despite knowing it makes my art better. bad habit i suppose lol

==========

reblogs > likes, but any interaction is always appreciated :]!

edit: ty guys for not having this flop! love u dimension 20 fans <3 :D

[whoblewboobear]

I feel like dropout is the wrong comparison to make with watcher tbh? Dropout started out of necessity because college humor went out of business. Dropout offers a lot more variety and has a more varied roster of talent to fill out a full weekly schedule.

When watcher launched their new channel, it seems like that was always the goal to have bigger roster of shows that eventually featured different personalities. But in the past 4 years they’ve been independent, not all of the shows have worked and the shows that didn’t feature Shane and Ryan and to a lesser extent, Steven, really failed and never got brought back. A majority of people aren’t excited for Worth It to come back either and that being one of the selling points is kinda.. I’m fully biased, I haven’t ever been much of a Steven fan and the episode of here’s what you do where he said he’s still close friends with people that are homophobic/racist left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t watch his shows. Which isn’t a huge deal, but with how Watcher’s release schedule is, they’re airing one show at a time, weekly updates til the season ends. So if you don’t like the show currently airing you’re kinda out of luck. If that changes to them pumping out 2-3 shows or more at a time, then it could justify the price. But I don’t see how that can happen either when the shows people want to see are mainly Shane/Ryan/Steven. It would be unsustainable for them to be shooting that much to keep up with a schedule like that. They mentioned that from now until May 31st will be a trial period but a lot of people really aren’t willing or cannot afford to be a company guinea pig right now.

This is very ambitious and a big ask for a lot of fans right now, there’s no way around that. It can work, it reminds me lot of how Noel Miller and Cody Ko moved away from Patreon to launch their own streamer. They still post on YouTube, but the draw of TMG Studios is that you get an extra hour of bonus content along with other shows. You have the option to choose which shows you’d like to support and opt out of at different price points. Hell, even Rhett and Link still post on YouTube while having a streamer of their own with the Mythical Society and the major draw of that is seeing what the crew is up to. In both of these cases, both TMG & Mythical took their time before making a leap like this. I believe TMG took 7 years and Rhett and link have been in the game for even longer.

I’m not familiar with the watcher crew, they don’t have a lot of other front facing people on the team outside of Ryan/Shane/Steven making shows at the moment. I don’t want them to fail and I’m sure they will be fine, but it’ll be a rough transition to start and I hope they survive it. Completely leaving YouTube does not feel like the move though. I feel like you need a lot of balls in the air and plates spinning to keep drawing people to a new subscription service. Whether that’s YouTube, TikTok, instagram, etc, if no one knows what you’re up to outside of 1 episode of a new show/season hitting the YouTube channel you abandoned every couple weeks/months then it’s a tough sell.

[sumoattack-gooddog]

Here’s the thing about WatcherTV,

Let’s talk about what’s being offered —

Let’s talk the financial —

Let’s talk the unanswered —

Let’s talk the solution —

Cumulatively since they began — trailers included — Watcher has 377 videos available for view. Netflix has 17,000 titles. Episodes, movies, and most recently games. If the minimum price of Netflix at $6.99/month provides that, how can one justify $6/month for WatcherTV? 2.2% of Netflix’s size is what Watcher is offering — all of which are currently free on YouTube.

The closer similarity, of course, would not be Netflix but Dropout. The prices of their subscriptions are equivalent, but again, what isn’t, is the amount of content. There is already a significant backlog of videos that can be consumed for new subscribers AND three different shows which post weekly. Had the company come forward with a backlog of new media at the ready to be watched, people would have been far more receptive to this proposal.

I understand that, as a creative, you have certain aspirations for making the best version of your idea. You want what you put out in the world to be as close to the image in your head as possible. Sometimes there are constraints due to time, due to money, due to manpower — so on and so forth. I recognize that. I, myself, have worked professionally, academically, and privately in film/media production. I Understand.

What I do not understand is the decision to ostracize a larger portion of your audience. Not everyone can afford a new streaming service — especially one that offers such little in return for the cost. But beyond the American-centric perspective of it. This platform isolates the majority of foreign fans, especially those who are subject to exchange rates. What I have seen some refer to as “the price of a single coffee,” for others is a week’s worth of food.

This community was beautiful and passionate and diverse as a result of its ability to be easily and freely consumed. That will be lost without change.

Furthermore, we see issue derived from the lack of transparency as to what is being offered. We are being promised “bigger and better,” new things, and the return of collapsed things. However, there is a significant lack of clarity and it is felt. Beyond Travel Season and its upcoming May time release, there is no clarity as to what (beyond the old content) people are getting. Yes, there is the vague promise of future seasons of the fan favorites, but there is no clear time as to when. If people subscribe now, how long will they be waiting for content that isn’t already free?

How can this be fixed? Frankly, good fucking question. Perusing through the comments, it’s pretty clear that a majority of fans feel blindsided and lied to. Watcher has consistently denounced capitalism and condemned corporate greed, and to what extent this behavior falls into it definitely raises some questions. I think it is worth acknowledging, they are a company that has grown to put out content. That means they are responsible for 27 (I believe) paychecks, beyond their own. But that is not the only explanation for why they’re doing this. Or their most prominent one — I’ve already acknowledged their bigger and better mindset, but their other reasoning was that they are at the mercy of advertisements. And that this will stop those.

Well, what if it didn’t? The most obvious compromise, in my mind, would be something like Peacock’s cheapest streaming option of roughly $1/month which includes ads to make up the subscription cost disparity from their ad free option. That is far more manageable for most, even with exchange rates, than $6. It would still be a luxury beyond free, but most people would be able to justify a 1 USD splurge especially while waiting for content backlogs to actually come out.

I don’t hate the Watcher company after this, but I am frustrated and disappointed by their announcement. I am sure it was not done without thought, but it does not feel like it given what they have to actually show for this decision. I have been a consumer of their content for 10yrs, and it is what helps me during troubling times — Just as Shane acknowledged caring about. I would hate to lose the connection to this wonderful community because of a narrow minded perspective on the future. I urge @wearewatcher to consider this moving forward.

[invisiblefoxfire]

Listen up, fellow queers and token straights, we're not gonna whine about the lack of new media during the strike and we're not gonna waiver in our support of the strikers.

In the meantime, we are going to recommend to each other more already-existing media than any of us could ever watch given several lifetimes to do it in.

I'll go first. Here are just a few of the creators I care about and want you to support.

FREE TO WATCH:

Filmjoy: This YouTube channel (Movies with Mikey, Deep Dive, etc.) makes incredibly well-produced video essays on film and occasionally TV and games. The channel's focus is on positivity and finding things to love about everything. And YouTube doesn't promote that sort of thing anymore, so the channel's creators (one of whom has multiple sclerosis) are running out of money and close to losing their house. Binge these genuinely incredible video essays with adblock turned off or, better yet, sign up to their Patreon and binge them with adblock on. Seriously, I love this channel so much, and if they don't get a boost in income soon, they're going to have to stop making videos. And I want more videos. Seriously, even watch the videos about things you haven't seen. They've persuaded me to watch loads of stuff I never would have watched otherwise and they're very good about not spoiling things (and giving spoiler warnings when needed).

AyeForScotland on Twitch: This is Tumblr's very own very handsome pro-Scottish-independence @ayeforscotland who has an incredible accent and plays loads of interesting games. He's going for Partner on Twitch now, which he has already earned but been denied due to an absurd technicality regarding whether viewers being linked to the channel directly from Tumblr integration. Go follow him now if he's not live, and when he goes live, go to Twitch and manually click on his name to watch the stream, since that's apparently the best way to get him the boost he needs. He sometimes has @thebibliosphere on as a guest (DOUBLE SCOTTISH ACCENTS HELL YES) and you can watch archives of many of his streams on his YouTube Channel.

Africa Everyday: This YouTube channel is run by Babatunde, a Nigerian man who shares his life and culture, makes cooking videos, and generally is a pleasure to watch and listen to. Seriously he's one of the kindest human beings I've ever spoken with. The money he earns from the channel goes towards helping his family and his community.

CHEAP AND WORTH PAYING FOR:

Dropout.tv: You simply will not find better comedy entertainment for the money. A monthly or yearly subscription is just a few dollars a month and gives you access to countless hours of top-quality entertainment from a company that started their own streaming service rather than cater to YouTube's algorithm. This is the place that started as College Humor, but if you haven't seen them in a while, you really need to check it back out. They're incredibly inclusive in their casting and theming and the production values are insane. I recommend starting with Game Changer, a show which has made me laugh so hard I choked and almost threw up. They also have Dimension 20 (or D20), the highest-quality DnD series out there, with custom-made sets and minis, usually with a focus on sheer comedy rather than drama (most of the cast members are comedy writers or comedians) - but it WILL and I mean WILL make you cry now and then. The currently in-progress season of D20 is called Dungeons and Drag Queens and the players are four literal actual fucking drag queens including Bob the Drag Queen and friends? You need to be watching this. If you have any doubts about whether Dropout is worth it or don't have any money, you can watch many full episodes for free on the CollegeHumor YouTube channel, although they have to censor the swears on there.

Nebula: Remember Lindsay Ellis? She left YouTube because of [too many reasons to list] but it turns out she's still active, she's just on Nebula now. Nebula is the co-op of streaming sites. Users sign up for a low monthly fee and the income is distributed among the creators, weighted according to how many views they get. The videos are uncensored and ad-free and contain lots of stuff that later needs to be edited out of YouTube videos to avoid copyright strikes. They've got FilmJoy on there (remember them from the start of this list?), Philosophy Tube (@theabigailthorn), Jacob Geller, Extra Credits, and loads and loads of other stuff on all different sorts of topics. Many of these channels also have YouTube channels that contain most of their content if you can't afford a Nebula subscription, but Nebula supports them more and gives them more creative freedom.

I'm gonna stop here for now but I'll add more in reblogs as the strike continues.

I hereby invite all of you to ruin my notifications until the strike is over. Reblog this, add your recommendations (especially ones that most people might not know about), and pass it on. There will not be a single complaint about lack of things to watch while the strike is ongoing.

(Why yes I am looking for more things to watch too. I've already seen all of the above. Bring it on.)

(And if you have a few dollars to spare, support the strikers directly at the Entertainment Community Fund.)

[pizzacastella]

fh anon again: ive been going in order of release and literally finished unsleeping city season 1 yesterday so i was gonna take a break, do other stuff and all that. but MAN do i want a hit of what youre smoking here im pulling up sophomore year right now lets see how fast i can go through it and buy a dropout subscription

ooo i see i see !! i haven't really finished other d20 shows (started unsleeping city then i got a dropout sub n binged junior year under a week n a half) but mann I HOPE U GET THE SUBSCRIPTION ITS SO WORTH IT FR

but pls feel free to talk to me abt freshman and sophomore year too!!! i just really want more ppl to talk to abt it !!!!! happy watching and i will be here, down to clown when u get to junior year !!!

[bonni]

I'm a huge supporter of dropout, I have been basically since it started, because they released the first season of dimension 20 for free on YouTube and I absolutely fell in love. To me, they proved that dropout was worth $4 a month for that show alone, and then they continued to put out more delightful content, new cool shows, and consistently up production value in the years to come, even when the whole company almost went under and during covid. I understand the comparisons of watcher to dropout, it's a super similar model (all the way down to the website which looks 100% identical to dropout. Like down to the same font. idk maybe they used the same template or smthing but that just immediately struck me as weird). I just don't feel that they've proven their content is worth $5 a month in the same way dropout has. I mean the main show id even consider subscribing for is puppet history, a show that has had 6-8 months between each season. Maybe the initial subscriptions will allow them to improve their output and I'll consider subscribing, but I'm pretty skeptical rn.

This is great insight, I'm not familiar with dropout (yet, I know you're all really into dimension 20 and I want to watch it at some point) but from what other people have been saying I got the same impression, that dropout provides significantly more content and, crucially, made the platform out of necessity since CH was going under; Watcher's reasons for moving to streaming seem greedy by comparison, with them citing the needlessly high production value of their shows which could definitely be made on a lower budget and still be equally enjoyable.

[huntingteeth]

Where do you watch Dimension 20? It’s not on YouTube, is it? It sounds like something I‘d like, but I don’t want another subscription...

Some episodes are on Youtube! All the seasons are on Dropout, which you do have to pay for but honestly is a) the cheapest subscription I have and b) the most worth it subscription I have. You can subscribe for $5.99 per month or $59.99 for the year. Besides Dimension 20 (of which there are like 20 seasons plus talk-backs for about half of those seasons), Game Changer is phenomenal and I don't say that lightly. Other shows I watch on it are Um, Actually (a nerdy game show), Very Important People (an interview show where the interviewee is dressed up and must embody the character they become), Dirty Laundry (players have to guess who the secret belongs to and there's a fun cocktail recipe for each episode), Make Some Noise (an offshoot of Game Changer), and Paranoia (think playing mafia but the players have to guess who's high).

Plus their values are great for a streaming service, which is honestly so refreshing (interview with Sam Reich!) -- something, something no ethical consumption under capitalism but Dropout's doing pretty alright.

[dankomanuels]

ok sorry this is so random, but what's the show with guys playing DM and the incredibly funny and charismatic guy whom i've seen in other vids on tumblr is a dm? (purple background on the gifset i've seen you reblog). i've never heard of it and i'm not sure where to look! tia! <3

omg hi it's from something called dimension 20! it's part of a larger media network called dropout that has a ton of really good content (i really love their game show-esque stuff), they either used to be or used to be part of collegehumor. it's a paid subscription service but it's like six dollars a month and tbh with the amount of joy d20 + um, actually (a show where nerds pick out the wrong part of a given sentence about nerd shit), dirty laundry (a show where four people try to guess whose secret is being read aloud while getting progressively drunker, i have actually cried laughing at the linked episode more than once), and game changer (a game show where the game is different every time) bring me it is SUPER worth it.

anyway dimension 20 is a ttrpg show that has different seasons with different plots - my favorite is called a crown of candy and the first ep is on youtube (here!), it's a little silly at first (i think the dm's plot summary is literally "like game of thrones but with food") but watching the participants develop their characters in real time and react to/interact with the worldbuilding is so much fun (and it made me genuinely ugly cry at my desk at one point).

the very funny and charismatic guy is named brennan lee mulligan and truly every video i've seen him in has been delightful. the way his brain works is fascinating and i have never identified more with another human being than watching him explain in GREAT DETAIL the political climate of a mostly-irrelevant location for, and i am not exaggerating, seven minutes while his players just kind of nodded. did they need to know any of that? no. but brennan needed it to make sense to him and they were along for the ride.

(but also emily, siobhan, lou, ally, murph and zac oyama my beloved are very entertaining in their own right and if you end up getting into d20 please message me again and tell me who your fave is because literally any answer is valid.)

[stone-stars]

Where do you watch these episodes of game changer? I couldn’t find it on YouTube

Hey! The season 5 episodes of Game Changer (which the episodes I've been posting about recently are a part of) are releasing on Dropout, which is its own subscription-based streaming service. I know they sometimes push episodes to youtube but it's usually like one a season, there's so much more on Dropout-- Game Changer, its spinoff shows Play It By Ear and Make Some Noise, and a whole bunch of other content releases there! (There is a free trial so if you wanted to just catch the few episodes you could-- the screenshots and stuff I posted recently are from the Bachelor episodes-- but it's definitely worth the subscription in my opinion for all the quality content they put out.)

[dragqueenpentheus]

How do you watch that stuff. The college humor (?) stuff. Legitimately or…?

i have a dropout subscription!! i like directly paying content creators for things i enjoy (esp when they. have a lot of queer employees and are telling queer stories!!). it's six bucks a month and goes into my entertainment budget! i watch pretty much all the shows so it feels super worth it, esp compared to other streaming platforms lmfao. i think they have a free trail period of a month or two as well, if you wanted to wait until this new season of d20 was finished and then binge it!

they also put a lot of their stuff on youtube and have a podcast version of a few on the campaigns for free!

[mithrilbookofmystery]

Ayyooo you been rbing a lot of dimension 20 and I wanna know is it on the college humour site? Do I gotta subscribe to watch/listen to it? Which one is this campaign with the fey cousins? I’ve seen a lot of YouTube shorts and that’s it LOL

OK SO the show with the fey cousins (my beloveds) is A Court Of Fey and Flowers, and it's on Dropout, CollegeHumor's subscription service. The first episode is also on youtube for free, but the rest is behind a paywall. It is $5.99/month (tho there is a free trial that's at least a month I'm not exactly sure what it's at right now but it should be a month), but it 100% is absolutely worth it trust me, there's so so many good shows on there even besides the Demension 20 stuff (of which there are SEVERAL seasons in all sorts of genres with literally dozens of hours worth of content per season, as well as behind the scenes stuff for each one), like Game Changer (chaotic game show that fuels my soul), Total Forgiveness (Grant and Ally do literally anything to try and pay off student loans), and a fuck ton of other things that I'm too lazy to list out but those two are among my personal favs. But anyways fuck yeah watch ACOFAF it's great

[grasslandgirl]

Hi I recently got into d20 and I'm almost done w/ fantasy high s1 on yt. I wanted to watch the rest of fh and the other series so I was wondering if it was worth it to get a dropouttv subscription ($5.99/month) or if I should just get a youtube membership to colleghumor ($4.99/month) instead? You're one of the few people who watch d20 that I follow so I was hoping for some help!

hi anon!! thanks so much for asking <3 if i'm honest i didn't know collegehumor had a youtube membership lmao, i've have a dropout subscription for like two and a half years now, and i really like it- there's a huge backlog of old college humor shows and sketches, as well as like. a cumulative thirteen or so dimension 20 seasons all available to watch, and the associated talk back shows and behind the scenes content for a lot of the d20 seasons; i don't have a membership to CH via youtube, so i can't say what they have available on that specifically as compared to their personal streaming service- but i do know that everything IS available without ads on dropout itself, which is worthwhile to me as someone who watches not only a lot of d20, but really loves a lot of the other shows dropout has produced/ is producing! they're currently coming out with quite a few shows outside of dimension 20, a lot of which do also include cast members from d20 and/or college humor at large !! i'm sure that a lot of these shows are likely also available on their youtube via membership (and some, like um actually and early breaking news seasons and some of the game changer episodes are available NOT behind a pay wall on the dropout yt right now, if you want to check them out before subscribing!) but again, i can't say specifically what parts of the catalogue at large are/aren't available to watch with a youtube membership as compared to a dropout sub

tldr: you can probably watch most of what you're looking for with either membership, and you might be able to find more information about availability on the dropout website or on their youtube, but if d20 is something you're interested and invested in, i highly recommend subscribing to dropout!! i really enjoy it, and there's a really big catalogue of new and old shows beyond d20 to watch, so you're not paying 6$ a month for ONLY d20 if you don't want to; and of course you can always binge watch everything you want to and cancel your sub after a month or two, if it ends up not being what you're looking for !!

hope this helped <3

[doggendoodle]

This may be a dumb question but how do I watch dimension 20? I see your posts about it and it looks really interesting

The first and second seasons of Dimension 20, Fantasy High and The Unsleeping City, as well as the first sidequest, Escape from the Bloodkeep, and the first parts of Tiny Heist and Fantasy High: Sophomore Year, are on the Dimension 20 YouTube channel. The rest of Tiny Heist and Sophomore Year, as well as episodes of the current season, A Crown of Candy, are on CollegeHumor's subscription service, Dropout, along with a bunch of other stuff. It's honestly well worth the five bucks a month, even if you only watch Dimension 20.

[reluming]

dimension 20: an explainer

ok so i’ve decided to finally make a post about dimension 20 to try and drag as many people in here with me as i can!!!!

do you want to watch something extremely funny, heartwarming, and diverse that will give you so many found family feelings? dimension 20 is here for you.

dimension 20 is a dungeons & dragons actual play show featuring GORGEOUS battle sets and brennan lee mulligan as the magnificent DM. there are two main campaigns (a third one coming out in april) which are 17 episodes each and feature the same cast, and two unrelated “sidequests” which are only 6 episodes each and feature different casts.

what i love about the casting is that the cast for the main campaign includes:

zac oyama and lou wilson, two incredible icons of colour

ally beardsley, the most wonderful chaotic nonbinary gay icon

and 3 out of 6 of the players for escape from the bloodkeep are poc!!! WE LOVE TO SEE IT

dimension 20 hires sensitivity consultants as well!! which makes me very happy. you can tell they really put a lot of thought and care into great representation 💜

all of dimension 20 is available to watch via dropout.tv. i personally think the dropout subscription is totally worth it as there’s like... a total of probably 120+ hours of content for dimension 20?? and dropout is like £4 ($5 or something??) a month. but a lot of the content is available on youtube, and there’s also a free trial on dropout, so you don’t have to pay for any of it if you can’t afford it.

main campaigns (17 episodes each):

1. fantasy high: available to watch for free on youtube starting here

my favourite. this is an awesome YA fantasy story set basically in a magical version of US suburbia about a bunch of nerdy awkward teenagers during their first year of high school at the aguefort adventuring academy. just a bunch of kids trying to figure out who they are and who they want to become while also solving mysteries and fighting monsters!!

this campaign technically has 2 seasons but the second season (sophomore year) is a live show rather than pre-recorded and does not feature any battle sets, so it’s branded as “dimension 20 live” rather than “dimension 20”. (this was really confusing for me at first.) sophomore year is mostly only available on dropout at the moment.

overall (taking into account sophomore year) it’s a very gay campaign:

2 of the PCs are canonically queer (one is a lesbian; the other is probably bi)

there are at least three regular NPCs who are queer (one gay dude; two lesbians including an autistic black girl!)

there’s an NPC who is a NONBINARY BI POLYAM PIRATE AND I LOVE THEM

2. the unsleeping city: available on dropout for a subscription fee (but there’s a free trial)

urban fantasy set in new york city! there’s a thrilling fight set during a broadway musical! one of the characters is a dirty rat man and he will make you cry! another is an older black man who has dedicated his life to serving the people of new york and he will ALSO make you cry! ally beardsley plays an extremely chaotic trans guy!! the ultimate enemy is capitalism! also there are so many pigeons! it’s beautiful and full of thoughts about what the american dream means for different people.

the first eight eps are free on youtube but not the rest, for some reason?

3. a crown of candy: as yet unreleased season set in 🍭CANDYLAND🍭, first ep dropping 8th april on dropout! LOOK AT THE SHINY TRAILER HERE and tell me that doesn’t make you want to SCREAM with delight at the brilliant aesthetic

sidequests (6 episodes each):

1. escape from the bloodkeep: available to watch for free on youtube starting here

basically the ending of lord of the rings, from the point of view of the villains. very delightful. there’s a hot spider mom! a sexy pirate! a wet elf! an evil version of hagrid! a useless nazgûl! and an evil princess who is pregnant with the child of the lord of shadows! they all form unexpected bonds with each other and get through their terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (seriously, the whole campaign takes place over the span of one day) TOGETHER ✨

2. tiny heist: available on dropout for a subscription fee (but there’s a free trial)

this one has the mcelroys! it’s a HEIST, but TINY! basically it’s toy story crossed with oceans eleven and if that doesn’t make you want to watch it then idk you. here’s the first ep free on youtube

AAAAND THAT’S IT! hit me up if you have any questions about the show and if any of you start watching it i WILL want you to come talk to me about it PLEASE 🙇🏻

[canonicallyanxious]

hey! how do u watch d20? do u pay for dropout? i really wish i could but it’s a bit expensive for me, and idk where else to watch their series

Hey anon! So yes I do watch d20 on dropout (although on the DL I share an account with a friend don't tell the dropout overlords dhdjdhdjdh), unfortunately I think this is the only way you can watch all seasons/episodes (that I know of at least)

BUT in case you didn't know you can watch all of fantasy high season 1, escape from the bloodkeep, and the unsleeping city season 1 on their youtube channel which considering each episode is at least 1-2 hrs (and between these three seasons that's a total of 40 eps) is already a lot to get through! I think it took me like 2 weeks on super binge mode to get to the point where I needed to switch to dropout?? And I feel like those three seasons are a good way to feel out the show and see if it's your style because they're tonally fairly different and showcase a lot of different talent but also are some of d20's best known seasons so imo it's a great intro to the series! You can also listen to these seasons in podcast form on Spotify and I assume wherever else you can get podcasts idk if that's more your speed.

(note: the first like 5 or 6 eps of fantasy high sophomore year aka season 2 are also available on youtube but the full season is something like 18 eps so you probably won't be able to finish it without dropout)

Something else I suggest if springing for dropout (or mooching off a friend lol) is not an option for you right now - dropout posts the first episode of each season on their youtube channel for free in a relatively timely manner, so you could use those to get a good feel for which seasons you're most interested in and then use the free 3 day trial to binge the season you want? One thing I like about d20 is that it's an anthology show so most of the seasons (aside from fantasy high sophomore year and the unsleeping city chapter 2) are standalone stories and thus very manageable lengthwise, for an actual play show at least!

But yeah if you want full access to the show past the first three seasons dropout will probably be your best bet - my two cents is it's completely worth it, my Hulu subscription is more expensive than dropout and I use dropout WAY more, even just d20 makes it worth it based on sheer amount of quality content (14 full seasons!!!!!) but dropout/collegehumor puts out a lot of other really funny and entertaining stuff too like game changer, um actually, dirty laundry, make some noise, etc. and it's nice to be able to directly support creators I'm a fan of! But that's just my opinion and like I said totally understandable if you can't go for it right now, the yt channel should hopefully give you a good start!!

[dipulb3]

MLB TV review: Stellar baseball streaming hampered by blackout restrictions

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/mlb-tv-review-stellar-baseball-streaming-hampered-by-blackout-restrictions/

MLB TV review: Stellar baseball streaming hampered by blackout restrictions

For out-of-market baseball fans, MLB.TV is the only game in town to follow your favorite team night in and night out. As a Cincinnati Reds fan living in New England, I’d be able to watch only a handful of Reds games during the season — on the rare occasion when my small-market team makes an appearance on national television — were it not for MLB.TV. With the service, I’m able to watch nearly every one of the Reds’ 162 games from April to October, along with other out-of-market games every day of baseball’s regular season.

Like

Wide device support

Easy access to in-game stats

Choose your own audio feed.

Smooth streaming

Don’t Like

Blackout restrictions can be frustrating.

Inconsistent experience across devices.

At $130 for the year, MLB.TV is too pricey for casual fans but certainly worth it for serious baseball geeks who live outside their team’s home market. And that’s the catch. For fans of the local team — say a Red Sox fan living in New England, a Dodgers fan in LA — subscribing to MLB.TV makes little sense. That’s because your local team’s games are blacked out on MLB.TV, which means you’d be better served with cable or a live TV streaming service, like AT&T TV, Fubo or YouTube TV, that includes the regional sports network (RSN) that carries the games. 

Read more: MLB baseball streaming 2021: Watch your team’s games this season, no cable required

Not only are your local team’s games unavailable on MLB.TV, but nationally televised games also fall prey to blackout restrictions. Games on ESPN, Fox, FS1, MLB Network and TBS are blacked out on MLB.TV, which can be terribly disappointing when you attempt to tune into a game and are greeted with the blackout notice. It’s even worse for fans of the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs and other big-market teams that are on national TV seemingly every week and, thus, constantly blacked out on MLB.TV. Even if you think you are sold on the service, be sure to peep your team’s national broadcast schedule before subscribing so you don’t find yourself singing the blackout restriction blues before the ivy turns green at Wrigley.

If you’re an out-of-market baseball fan willing to put up with the blackout restrictions, however, you’ll find plenty to like about MLB.TV. The live game streams are steady and smooth with few dropouts in my experience. They feature informative, easy-to-access stat overlays that enhance the viewing experience. From iPhones and tablets to PCs and TVs, there’s broad hardware support so you can tune into games no matter where you are. And you can listen to radio broadcasts with MLB.TV, which I’d say would be useless for every sport other than baseball.

Check out the MLB.TV app on iPad, phones and TV streamers

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In short, MLB.TV makes it possible and enjoyable to follow your favorite baseball team when you live far away from it. Being able to watch games live almost every day of the six-month season and hear your team’s announcers, the home crowd and even local ads connects you to your team. And after a year of chaos, pandemic and lockdowns, a summer of baseball could be just what the doctor ordered.

MLB.TV subscription options and extras

There are three ways to subscribe to MLB.TV:

Pay $130 to be able to watch out-of-market games live or on-demand. You can watch replays of your local team’s games, but there’s a 90-minute delay from the final out before the archived stream is available. Archived games are available sooner for out-of-market teams.

Pay $110 to be able to watch a single, out-of-market team live or on-demand. If you’re only interested in watching your favorite team play, then this plan can save you a few bucks. You sacrifice, however, the ability to switch over to a potential no-hitter in progress elsewhere or any other exciting matchup or moment that does not involve your team. I spend 95% of the time watching Reds games, but I still pay the extra $20 for the full package because FOMO is a real thing.

Pay $25 per month to be able to watch out-of-market games live or on-demand. This is a good option if you have doubts about your team contending this year and can see your attention waning along with your team’s chances by midseason. 

You can pay by the month or for the full season.

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With MLB.TV, you can also listen to home and away radio broadcasts. And baseball is one of the few sports, if not the only, that’s enjoyable to listen to on the radio. And some rare good news for the in-market fan: MLB.TV’s radio broadcasts aren’t subject to the blackout rule, so you can listen to your local team’s games live. 

MLB.TV also includes a ton of video content, including classic games, baseball documentaries and old This Week in Baseball episodes. This year, a new show called Big Inning made its debut for MLB.TV subscribers. Starting at 9:30 p.m. ET each weekday night, Big Inning will offer live look-ins across all the games in action as well as highlights as they happen. It’ll feel similar to the NFL’s RedZone channel that jumps around the league’s game on Sunday afternoons.

MLB.TV is also adding pre- and post-game coverage this year, which is a welcome addition. After a big Reds win, I’m pumped up and ready to hear interviews and analysis, but my MLB.TV feed gets abruptly cut off before the on-field celebrations are complete. It’ll be a slow rollout with one or two clubs offering pre- and post-game coverage to start the season before being added to more than half the clubs by midseason, according to MLB. As with the games themselves, the pre- and post-game coverage will be available only to out-of-market viewers.

Two types of blackouts

MLB.TV lets you watch every game of the regular season that’s outside of your local TV market and also not on national TV. As a resident of New England, for example, I cannot watch Boston Red Sox games live on MLB.TV. Since the team I follow is a small market team that has not had much success in recent years, it is not picked for national broadcasts with any great frequency. As a result, I rarely encounter a Reds game blacked out on MLB.TV. I’d imagine the blackout restriction is much more frustrating to fans of successful, big-market teams, since their teams are shown regularly on ESPN and other national broadcasts. 

These blackout restrictions mean an MLB TV subscriber is either an out-of-market fan like me who can’t watch his or her favorite team in-market, or a hardcore baseball fan who wants to watch even more baseball than what they can get from their local and national TV broadcasts. Were I not a subscriber to MLB.TV, I would need to subsist all summer long on box scores, highlights and the rare Reds national broadcast to follow my team.

Watch (and listen) on just about any device

No matter how big a fan I am or how much I enjoy streaming games on MLB.TV, I have neither the time nor the inclination to watch nine innings of baseball every night. My favorite part about MLB.TV is its wide device support that lets me catch parts of a game while I go about my day and evening. 

I watch a few innings on the iPad in the kitchen while making dinner and a few more innings after dinner on my laptop when my son is playing on my iPad. And perhaps the last few outs on the big screen via my Apple TV. And when I can’t watch, I listen to the Reds’ radio call on my phone when I take the dog out for her evening stroll or during weekend yard work, which just so happens to coincide with Sunday day games.

MLB.TV offers broad hardware support.

Sarah Tew/CNET

MLB.TV is part of the free MLB app, which is available on a slew of devices, from phones and tablets to computers and game consoles to streaming boxes and smart TVs. Here’s the full list:

Mac and Windows PCs

iOS and Android phones and tablets

Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Chromecast streaming devices

PS4, PS5 and Xbox One game consoles

Samsung smart TVs

Xfinity Flex

You can get more details, including system requirements and specifics on supported models, on this MLB.com support page. 

I tested MLB.TV on the devices I usually use to watch games: iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and Apple TV. I also checked out MLB.TV on my Roku TV and a Windows PC.

Stat overlays and radio feeds

My preferred device for watching MLB.TV is the iPad. All devices give you access to stat overlays, but the iPad’s implementation is best. Swipe from the left edge and you can see a pitch-by-pitch summary of the game. Swipe from the right edge for the box score. A two-finger tap brings up both info panels along with scores of all the games along the top edge and a game-status panel along the bottom edge. 

Stat overlays work well on the roomy iPad screen.

Matt Elliott/CNET

You get similar overlays on a phone, but there’s only two and the box score panel that slides up from the bottom edge blocks most of the screen. On an iPad, you can call up all four panels and can still see most of the game going on in the middle of the screen. On a PC, there’s only a single stat panel that you can toggle on and off on the right edge of the player. 

MLB.TV lets you watch the home or away video feed so you can listen to your team’s announcers. And should you prefer your team’s radio announcers to the TV announcers, you can change the audio feed so you can listen to the radio call while still watching the video stream. 

The ability to choose my audio feed is one of my favorite features.

Matt Elliott/CNET

Watching MLB.TV on an Apple TV has a benefit not offered on my other devices, including Roku. On the Apple TV, when you tune into a game in progress, you are given three options: Catch Up, Start from Beginning and Watch Live. The last two are self-explanatory, and the first is the option I usually select. It gives you 90 seconds of highlights from the action you missed before taking you to the live feed. On Roku, you can only join live or start from the beginning.

The Apple TV app has a cool catch-up feature.

Sarah Tew/CNET

As much as I like watching on the iPad, there’s no option to start watching a game other than to join it live. Why can’t every device offer the three options as Apple TV when I go to tune into a game that’s already in progress?

On all my devices and using both wired and wireless network connections, games streamed smoothly. They occasionally get choppy when on Wi-Fi, but such instances lasted only a few seconds or a minute at most before returning to HD clarity. A few seasons ago, I would avoid watching on my Apple TV because the video quality looked poor when displayed on my HDTV, but now streaming games on MLB.TV on my TV look no different than watching a game on ESPN on my TV via YouTube TV.

Ad-free highlights, repetitive ads during games

When I miss a game, I can watch the Game Recap highlight package on MLB.TV the next morning or a slightly longer Condensed Game. Each shows plays from the game without additional commentary; you hear the call from either the home or away announcer. There is also a collection of individual highlights you can fire up to see the big hits and outstanding defensive plays.

When watching highlights, as a subscriber you do not need to sit through ads. The highlights play immediately, letting you jump from one to another without the fear of an ad inserting itself in the middle of your review of the previous night’s game. Individual highlights are also available during a live game on about an inning-or-so delay.

You will see ads during the usual commercial breaks between innings and during pitching changes of live games, and they will get repetitive. We are not even a week into the season and I can safely say I’ve seen the ad for Duluth Trading Co. underwear enough times to last all summer. On the other hand, I never grow tired of hearing ad reads for Skyline Chili during Reds games even though each mention of Cincinnati’s unusual take on chili makes me wish I were back in the Queen City.

Beware big-market blackouts

For diehard baseball fans who don’t live near their favorite team, an MLB.TV subscription is the only way to follow your team day in and day out over the course of the long, 162-game, six-month season. I don’t take advantage of any of the extra video content and still think my subscription is money well spent just for the ability to tune into nearly every game live on TV or the radio and hear the Reds announcers no matter if my team is playing at home or on the road. My only word of caution is for out-of-market fans of big-market teams. 

You access MLB.TV via the free MLB app, but be sure to check out how the blackout restrictions affect the team you follow before subscribing.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Baseball’s inequity between big- and small-market teams makes it difficult to be a fan of a small-market club like the Cincinnati Reds because my team loses its young stars as they enter their prime and misses out on free agents to big-market teams that can hand out huge contract after huge contract. An MLB.TV subscription might be the only thing in baseball where it’s an advantage to be a small-market fan. 

To fans of the Yankees, Dodgers and other big-spending, big-market teams, I would say enjoy your team’s abundance of pitching, your deep lineup, your regular postseason appearances but be sure to check its national TV broadcast schedule before subscribing to MLB.TV. There’s not another option for out-of-market baseball fans that delivers the sheer volume of baseball of MLB.TV, but a Yankees fan who lives far from the Bronx, for example, might be able to satisfy their fandom with a pay TV service that includes ESPN, Fox, FS1, MLB Network and TBS instead — the channels that regularly show your team’s games that are blacked out on MLB.TV.