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Is Max Worth It? 5 Things to Know About HBO's New Streaming Home!
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Mar 29, 2024
Max is the new streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery that replaced HBO Max. Is it really worth it? I put it to the test to help you decide. Here's what I'll cover in this Max review: 0:13 How Much Does Max Cost? 0:58 How Bad Are the Ads? 3:11 What Can I Stream in 4K? 3:36 Is There More Content With Max? 5:14 How Is the User Experience? 7:09 Final Thoughts: Is Max Worth It? 8:08 Max Streaming Service Free Trial Find the list of Max 4K titles here: https://tinyurl.com/w3at538f 📺 More Cutting the Cord Content The Pros and Cons of Every Major Live TV Streaming Service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFLSMcF5-pw 9 Things to Know Before You Buy Another Streaming Device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-PsYCHpFEw These Are the 20 Best Free Roku Apps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO3Ce19MgBM
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0:00
Max is the new streaming service from Warner Brothers Discovery, the one that replaced HBO Max
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You probably already know that, but is it really worth it? I put it to the test to help you decide
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Here's a look at everything I'll cover in this review. Let's get started with more on how much Max will cost you
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There are three Max plans instead of the two that HBO Max had. Plans range from $999 to $1999 per month
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The cheapest plan has ads, the most expensive, has 4K content. Now many people, they're going to prefer the ad
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ad-free plan $1599 a month. The biggest drawback of these new plans, 4K content is restricted to the
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most expensive plan that one's called Ultimate Ad-Free. And keep in mind, only the ad-free plans
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include offline downloads. Annual plans are offered for all three plans, prepay for a year
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and you could save about 20%. I wasn't able to find any special deals for Max at launch
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but I will be posting any that pop up on my website, michaelsafe deals.com. Let's move on
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I've tested out Max's plan with ads, the 99 plan, to help you decide if you should rule it out or not
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Officially, Max says, expect about four minutes of ads per hour. And when there's an ad break, the number of ads and a timer will appear on the screen
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That's here in the top left corner. And when you're watching Max, you can always press pause, and then you're going to see the breaks on the progress bar
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So here's my experience with Max's ad plan so far. I watched the Succession Series finale, about 90 minutes of content, and in this case
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40 seconds of ads, two ads that rolled before the show started
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Next, I binge-watched a three-part mini-series about Jared, that guy from Subway
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Each episode was 42 minutes long, and this was interesting. The first episode had a pre-show ad, and then four breaks total three minutes of ads for that 42 minutes
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Episode two, much less, a pre-show ad, and then two breaks, only a minute and 15 seconds of ads
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And episode three, how about this? A pre-show ad and one break? only 25 seconds of ads total
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This is something I've noticed with Max. When you watch episodes back to back there tend to be fewer ads as you watch more Max in one sitting Next up a two documentary and this one had a total of four minutes and 45 seconds of ads
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Max says four minutes of ads per hour. This had about four minutes for two hours
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I checked out a Max original, the other two, a 30-minute episode, this one had a pre-show ad, then two
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breaks, two minutes and ten seconds total. So that's about on par with what Max says
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I did notice in Break 2, it had two of the exact same. ad, I know that can be annoying for a lot of viewers. I streamed two episodes of Kendra Sells Hollywood
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This is something that came over from Discovery Plus, each episode about 25 minutes. The first
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episode had a pre-show ad, and then three breaks within it. This was kind of annoying just because
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of the frequency, two minutes and 30 seconds of ads. It got better with episode two, again, about
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25 minutes. It just had a pre-show ad, and then one ad break for a total of one minute of ads
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If you've got the Max Plan with Ads, leave a comment below and let me know about your experience
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Does it match up with mine? At least for now, I don't think the ads with Max are bad at all
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All right, let's move on to 4K content, something you won't get unless you subscribe to the 1999
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a month Ultimate Ad Free Plan. At launch, Max said in this news release that it's offering eight times the 4K content compared
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to HBO Max. Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, the Dark Knight, the Matrix
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The list goes on and I'll drop a link to this news release with a more extensive list of 4K programming
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I want to talk about the big picture and content changes that subscribers are definitely going to notice when they sign up for Max
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Perhaps most importantly, it's home to everything that people liked about HBO Max
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So that's HBO Original series, Warner Brothers films, and the DC universe
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Now Max has added a selection of children's programming and unscripted content from Discovery networks
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Those include TLC, HGTV, ID, and Food Network. A couple weeks after Max launched, it was reported that about 20% of content viewed on
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Max was that Discovery Plus content Not all Discovery Plus content made the move to Max but the most popular Discovery shows did especially recent seasons of them From my testing and comparing the two apps
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licensed content on Discovery Plus from networks like A&E, History, and Lifetime, that's not available
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on Max. I emailed Max's PR team for more specifics. Unfortunately, they didn't get back to me
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I'll post an update in the description below if they do. The good news, Discovery Plus is still
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available as a standalone service, so those subscribers aren't being forced to get Max
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So if Discovery Plus isn't going away, why add all the Discovery Plus content in the first
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place? And the answer is simple. HBO Max had a high churn rate, and Discovery Plus, it has a
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low churn rate. And this is a metric Warner Brothers Discovery executives are really focused
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on improving with Max. By combining HBO and Discovery content, they want Max to become a service for
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every member of the household so that fewer subscribers will cancel the service throughout the year
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There has been a lot said about the Max user experience, so let me share with you some of what
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I've noticed during my testing. This is with a Roku Ultra. First of all, I do think the navigation
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is faster and smoother, as promised. I'll start toward the top of the home screen, and I do like
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these shortcuts, specifically the one that takes you directly to HBO content. Max said there would be
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improvements to personalization on the home screen and beyond. But I'm not sure they've been able to deliver on this yet
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Maybe I just need to spend more time with the app. As I scroll down, I have had an issue with continue watching
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I've noticed that it includes programs that I've actually finished watching, except for the credits at the end
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Fortunately, with my Roku remote, I can easily just click the star
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and then that removes the program from continue watching. Scroll in a little down the home screen
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and I like the brand spotlight area. This is something that Max adopted from Discovery Plus
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And moving to the left navigation, let's start with profiles. You can select an avatar for your profile, also an option to activate kids mode parental controls
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No complaints here. The search feature is improved and I going to show you how Of course you can search by typing or voice for specific shows and movies that you want to watch but there also recommended content on this page and that by default
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I kind of view the search screen as a slim down home screen. It's got that brand spotlight, and also Browse by Genra featured high up
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That's pretty nice, and with a Roku, you can always click Star to add any of these programs to your list
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So let me show you where you're going to find your list. It's right here under My Stuff, and that's also from the left side navigation
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This is also another place where you can view your continue watching. Just a couple things I want to show you from the settings menu
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Right here under playback, control autoplay for both previews and next episodes
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Just toggle on or off. And like most streaming apps to cancel or make changes to your account, go to the website, max.com
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Back to the original question. Is Max worth it? If you had HBO Max, I think it probably is
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HBO has high-quality scripted content that I personally appreciate, and I know many people subscribe for that content alone
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And if Max's recommendations improve, perhaps more people who like HBO content will sample some of the discovery content that aligns with their interests
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I watched a few discovery programs while putting together this review. They were pretty good, but much of that library just isn't for me
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I've got a friend who's subscribed to both HBO Max and Discovery Plus, and he's excited about Max
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because based on the shows that he watches, he'll be able to drop Discovery Plus and just have Max
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But because not all Discovery Plus content made the move to Max, you're going to want to cross-check the apps before you cancel anything
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For those who have Discovery Plus but not Max, you probably only need to upgrade if you're interested in adding some of that scripted HBO content into your streaming mix
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And here's a tip. Max doesn't offer a free trial on its website, but you can try out the service free of charge through 3
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third parties. YouTube TV, Hulu, and Prime Video, they've all got seven-day free trials for Max
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Give this video a like if you found it helpful, and leave a comment below. Let me know your
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experience with Max. I'm Michael, and I thank you for watching
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