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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2017
Let's begin this review based upon what Tubi isn't:
1. It's not a competitor to Prime Video, nor Netflix or Hulu;
2. It's not for bandwidth snobs or audiophiles.
Rather, this is what I'd call a "value" streaming service. Please note, I'm wholly aware of the fact that this is a free app for your Amazon Fire TV stick. It still qualifies as "value" because it requires an investment not of money, but rather time.
Tubi works by offering the viewer programming that requires no financial investment. However, in return, you must watch commercials, an average of five per break. And by "break," I mean, "at the most annoying and inopportune times." How's that, you say? Well, remember how when the world was innocent and we used to watch TV at times dictated by network schedules and in return for being able to channel this gift from the corporate gods via the airwaves, we'd exchange a few moments of our lives to be informed about the wonders of the latest impotence medicine, or be tempted by the next blizzard-o-carbs snack? In those instances, the shows would be produced so that the story milestones would be punctuated by said breaks in a well-coordinated synergy between network and producer. Well, put those thoughts out of your head, because the commercials manifest themselves at bizarre times, sometimes in the middle of a line of dialogue or a bit of movement. To be fair, after you've experienced your Mad Men-inspired montage, the action picks up a few seconds prior to the interruption, but it's still a bit jarring. Furthermore, the audio and video quality are probably 480p at best. Not horrible, but your 4K TV is hardly going to get a workout.
One other thing: the content is uncensored, so if you're hoping for sanitized versions of films and TV, you're out of luck. Every bit of violence, skin and f-bombs are left in. The selection is also B-level at best with a few A-list gems thrown in to keep it interesting. One other benefit: they do feature a lot of obscure/old/silent films not found elsewhere.
1. It's not a competitor to Prime Video, nor Netflix or Hulu;
2. It's not for bandwidth snobs or audiophiles.
Rather, this is what I'd call a "value" streaming service. Please note, I'm wholly aware of the fact that this is a free app for your Amazon Fire TV stick. It still qualifies as "value" because it requires an investment not of money, but rather time.
Tubi works by offering the viewer programming that requires no financial investment. However, in return, you must watch commercials, an average of five per break. And by "break," I mean, "at the most annoying and inopportune times." How's that, you say? Well, remember how when the world was innocent and we used to watch TV at times dictated by network schedules and in return for being able to channel this gift from the corporate gods via the airwaves, we'd exchange a few moments of our lives to be informed about the wonders of the latest impotence medicine, or be tempted by the next blizzard-o-carbs snack? In those instances, the shows would be produced so that the story milestones would be punctuated by said breaks in a well-coordinated synergy between network and producer. Well, put those thoughts out of your head, because the commercials manifest themselves at bizarre times, sometimes in the middle of a line of dialogue or a bit of movement. To be fair, after you've experienced your Mad Men-inspired montage, the action picks up a few seconds prior to the interruption, but it's still a bit jarring. Furthermore, the audio and video quality are probably 480p at best. Not horrible, but your 4K TV is hardly going to get a workout.
One other thing: the content is uncensored, so if you're hoping for sanitized versions of films and TV, you're out of luck. Every bit of violence, skin and f-bombs are left in. The selection is also B-level at best with a few A-list gems thrown in to keep it interesting. One other benefit: they do feature a lot of obscure/old/silent films not found elsewhere.
