Wondering how the non-live stream versions of new episodes will be accessible. On the Roku app, for instance, once the latest episodes is prepared, will it just appear in my library with other purchased episodes? Will we get a code for a Season 13 download that will appear with previous kickstarter awards packages and new episodes appear there when their ready?
None of this is pressing, I’m mostly just curious how this will work with the current library/purchased content structure.
Thanks!
@ivan ,
Is there any content from the streaming premiere that’s going to be removed in the “final” downloads or DVD/BluRay content? Intros, commercials? I’d be thrilled if I could archive what we saw this week, as well as the copies made available to the whole wide world.
This is a significant change from what was expected - indeed, what we were promised. I cannot view content in streaming format, I have to download the files and watch them. I can’t pseudo-download them in whatever apps you’ve got, I don’t have any devices to run apps on.
When the S13 campaign kicked off, I (and a bunch of other people) specifically asked about getting real, downloadable files, because we’d been burned by other TV/movie campaigns that promised downloads, but eventually only delivered streaming, and as I said, I can’t use those options, so I (and others) got screwed.
Enough people asked about this that Joel specifically addressed it in the second campaign update, “Joel Answers Some Questions, Part I”, here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k/posts/3155537
… where he said:
- I want to own all the new episodes. How do I do that?
Yeah, I’m sorry this wasn’t clearer right away. Let me explain. If you want
to own the new episodes, the options for that are pretty much the same
as our original Kickstarter:At EXPERIMENT 100 and up, your rewards will include DIGITAL
DOWNLOADS for all of Season 13, which you’ll be able to access starting
right after our “live premiere screenings” in The Gizmoplex.
You’ll note he said, explicitly, they would be available immediately after the streaming premiere. He did not say we would have to wait some unspecified number of months.
I’m kind of pissed off at the bait-and-switch. I was promised downloads, and now here after others have already watched the first episode more than a week ago, only now do you announce, “Hey, ya, you don’t get downloads immediately like we promised, we’re gonna make you wait a few months, not sure how long yet.”
Side issue: I’ve been trying to find out about the downloads since 1301 premiered - there’s been nothing posted to the Gizmoplex or a campaign update or anything. Someone else had to point me to the forums – can you guys please post important info like this somewhere else in addition to the forums? Lots of us don’t use the forums.
Charles
I suspect that things were in flux with how the Gizmoplex development was going and they decided they needed to have a “soft” open before opening the site and the episodes to the larger masses. Basically, we are all beta testers for not only the site and apps, but the episodes themselves (note the issues with the audio that the team is trying to sort). So the plan changed as a result of need. It isn’t some unknown date, final versions of the episodes will be available May 6, and after that, I think the plan is to follow the expected release schedule.
You don’t need any special apps to view the episodes now. If you have a Gizmoplex Pass (which since I’m assuming you backed at the $100 level you would) you can view the episodes on the website, or in the Gizmoplex Theater, both of which are available as regular websites.
What issues are you having that streaming is not possible? Maybe someone here can help.
EDIT: @ivan Umm it looks like the barebones Gizmoplex site has been overlaid with a generic MST3K info page?? Was that supposed to happen?
@LadyShelley Can you post a screenshot of what you’re seeing on the gizmoplex site? It’s loading normally for me.
I understand how frustrated you are, and I apologize. I’ll email you directly.
@ivan Yep, hang on.
Huh, now it’s back to the proper gizmoplex site. Before I was getting this:
So basically, the gizmoplex site and the mst3k.com site were showing the same thing.
Unfortunately, many people do not have internet service available at speeds that make watching episodes through streaming possible.
That’s what I was trying to find out. If it was an internet issue or a question of not knowing how to make the streaming platform work.
It isn’t some unknown date, final versions of the episodes will be available
May 6, and after that, I think the plan is to follow the expected release
schedule.
Really? I haven’t seen that date mentioned anywhere. Ivan’s post said they’re still trying to decide when to release the downloads.
You don’t need any special apps to view the episodes now. […]
you can view the episodes on the website, or in the Gizmoplex Theater,
both of which are available as regular websites.
It appears you didn’t actually read what I wrote. I said I cannot watch videos in streaming form. That most definitely includes streaming on the web. I can only watch by downloading files and then playing them.
As for others’ comments about stopping piracy… the pirates posted the episode to the web within 24 hours of the premiere. It’s only honest folks like me who still can’t see it.
I’m a software engineer who has written firmware for terabit-class internet backbone routers. It’s not a matter of not knowing how streaming works 
I sympathize with Charles. I guess the case can be made that the episode isn’t complete yet, which is also a bit of miscommunication, I think, because nowhere in the hoopla about the streaming premiere did I see anything saying this wouldn’t be a finished episode.
I’ve been trying not to say it in so many words, but I’ll also feel pretty slighted if we don’t get a download once the episode is finished. I specifically chose the level that I thought would give me that.
I seem to have the option to download for offline viewing for 1301 in the app. So while it’s not exactly downloading a DRM-free file, it looks like it is possible to download, rather than stream the episode.
The date has been mentioned in various posts around the forum and in Backer Update number 59.
I did read what you wrote, but you were non-specific as to why you can’t watch in a streaming form.
That’s great, if you can run the apps. As I said, I can’t.
Only downloadable files will let me watch. I’m with FastidiousRobot - I contributed $150 specifically to get downloadable files, and even asked specifically about this - and got a confirmation from Joel that we would get downloads “right after the streaming premiere in the Gizmoplex”. The fact that they’re still trying to decide when we might actually get that… sucks.
you were non-specific as to why you can’t watch in a streaming form.
How is that relevant? I cannot stream. Why I cannot stream doesn’t seem to have any impact on the problem at hand.
Because, as I said in my post if it were a technical issue, maybe someone here could help. We don’t know who you are to know what your background is. I get that you’re frustrated and probably mad that things have not gone to plan. I’m sure the production staff is just as frustrated. But maybe take a breath and not snap at people who are trying to help.
Would it be possible to make downloads available with some form of DRM applied (that doesn’t require an app) within 72 hours after the premiere of an episode? With the promise that DRM-free versions will be made available at some later date?
But maybe take a breath and not snap at people who are trying to help.
I realize text is not the most transparent medium for getting non-verbal cues across, but you are reading far too much into my text. I haven’t snapped at anyone, though I did express my frustration with the situation. As Mark Twain reputedly said, “I am continually amazed to find myself described as ill-tempered by people I have never laid eyes on”.
I don’t know why you want to know why I cannot stream; is it that you don’t believe me? I’m not sure what I would gain from lying about it.
If you want an example, then let me tell you a story. If you’re outside one of the few cities where I live, the only better-than-dialup option for internet service is 4G (LTE) fixed wireless. Maybe Space-X’s Starlink will be viable someday (if you can get past the waitlist) when they get a few thousand more satellites in LEO, but we’re a lot further from the equator than USAnians, so it’s not currently practical.
There’s only one phone company that offers service outside the major urban areas and the highways that connect them.
A 4G “unlimited data” plan is therefore the go-to solution for internet. And that plan will come with 1 (yes, one) gigabyte of full-speed data per month. After that, your connection is throttled back to 256kbps or 128kbps depending on your plan, which is completely inadequate for streaming video.
There are a lot of folks in this sort of position, and that’s only one reason why streaming isn’t viable for many people.
