hbo max bringing the stars of friends together again plus new movies every month including
same-day premieres of warner brothers films for the rest of 2021 and a cheaper way to stream
hbo max but there is a catch hey what's up it's michael welcome to my channel and in today's video
the seven things that you need to know before you sign up for hbo max let's get started number one
what is hbo max hbo max launched in may 2020 so by now you may be familiar with how it works at first
people were confused with the difference between hbo max and hbo so let me quickly go over the
basics with hbo max you can stream everything from hbo but on top of that there are hbo max originals
these are movies and shows that you will only find on the app and then a library of content from
order media and it's a pretty good one too plus some licensed series and movies now hbo max says
that it is a streaming service for everyone from families with young children to adults i'm going
to take a deeper dive into the content a little later on so you'll get a sense of its strengths
and its weaknesses number two how much does hbo max cost maybe this is the biggest hurdle for you
because hbo max is not cheap its ad free plan is 14.99 a month which is more expensive than netflix
standard and hulu with no ads and to be honest the price is the only reason why i don't subscribe to
hbo max for 12 months out of the year instead it's one that i stop and start but there's this
after a long wait hbo max debuts a cheaper option with ads at 9.99 a month a company executive said
this plan will have the lightest ad load in the streaming industry now aside from the price and
the ads the only difference between those two plans is that the cheaper one will not include
the same day premieres of warner brothers films for the rest of 2021. number three does hbo max
offer a free trial so there are three points i want to make in this section first when you
sign up for hbo max directly on its website or through the app there is no longer a free trial
at launch there was a seven day free trial but there is still a way to try before you buy this is
the watch free section where you can stream free episodes without a subscription now typically it
is just the first episode but it's enough to tell if something catches your eye and second although
there is no free trial directly with hbo max you can still get one when you sign up with a third
party i signed up for hbo max through youtube tv and got seven days free and you can get the same
deal when you sign up for hbo max through hulu one week free then the regular price and third
you may get hbo max as a free perk with a tnt att's most expensive wireless plan unlimited
elite comes with complementary access to hbo max and there's this some at t tv streaming plans
include hbo max 2. so if you are on the fence and cost is a concern consider pausing or cancelling
one of your other subscriptions like your netflix or your hulu and then trying hbo max if you don't
like it you can always cancel it there are no contracts number four what do you get with hbo
max so let's talk about content hbo max describes itself as all of hbo and so much more and that so
much more part is what i want to focus on in this section because by now you probably already know
what you think about regular hbo let's start with movies and the big gamble hbo max made here's the
headline in case you missed it because of the pandemic hbo max decided to premiere
all new warner brothers films the same day they hit theaters now this will not continue long term
but it does last through 2021 and for many these warner brothers premieres alone justify the cost
of a subscription now put the same day premieres aside and the library of movies on hbo max it is
still one of its best features particularly action dramas and comedies but if you're not into movies
the library of shows includes some big hits too hbo max is the place to stream friends the big
bang theory the fresh prince of bel-air and many more too but then there are hbo max originals
there's a mix of content here but quite a few reality and non-fiction series also the
friends reunion streaming in late may 2021 highly anticipated and delayed a year because of covid no
i think hbo max is primarily a service for adults but it does have a respectable collection of kids
content from the cartoon network sesame workshop and looney tunes i just don't think you'll want
to cancel your disney plus subscription for this number five how is the user experience with hbo
max hbo max has a great layout maybe the best in streaming and it has made a lot of improvements
since it first launched so i'm going to swing around the camera and show you on my tv when
you first open the app you select a profile you can add up to five profiles per account including
kid profiles with parental controls i'm going to use the adult profile and this is the home screen
you see the featured content you can click play and go directly to it or
more info for a longer summary and other episodes if it is part of a series continue watching is
right below the featured series or movie and if you're just getting started you will not see this
here but as soon as you start streaming this area will populate below that is my list and when i
first signed up i spent about 15 minutes browsing the recommendations and adding things to my list
to add something to your list just choose a title navigate to the plus symbol and select
it at the very bottom of the home screen you will see hbmx hubs but there is also a shortcut to this
area from the navigation on the far left and that left navigation also includes shortcuts to search
home movies series and browse a few other things i like when you select a movie or series
you will see the option to skip intro in the lower right corner and fast forwarding on my roku is
great i can see the point that i'm skipping to and when you finish an episode in a series the
next one will automatically play now there is no way to turn this off so that can be either a good
thing or a bad thing depending on the person if you don't want to keep watching you will have to
press pause or stop number six how do i stream hbo max you can stream hbo max on your phone tablet
computer or to a tv set as long as you've got a supported device like the roku i'm using today
and here is a list of the supported devices for streaming to a tv set in addition to roku you see
amazon fire tv android tv apple tv and even some newer samsung smart tvs now you will need a high
speed internet connection to stream hbo max says on its website that you'll need a minimum download
speed of 5 megabits per second to stream hd video but 50 megabits per second for streaming 4k
content is recommended and when you are connected to wi-fi you can download shows and movies for
offline viewing right from the hbo max app on a phone or tablet just tap the download icon which
is the arrow that points down number seven can my family share hbo max hbo max can be streamed on
up to three devices at the same time but go over that limit and you may get an error message about
too many streams as i mentioned earlier there are up to five user profiles per account and
you can see here on hbo max's website those multiple profiles are intended for your immediate
family or household the keyword there immediate and those separate profiles let everyone in the
house have their own continue watching and my list and the kid profiles are very useful since
so much of the content on hbo max is geared toward adults you can easily filter what kids watch using
the parental controls and now pros and cons as far as i'm concerned the major downside of hbo max
is that monthly price 14.99 a month without ads but i do give hbo max credit for launching the ad
supported plan and as far as the pros let's recap the same day premieres of warner brothers films
for the rest of 2021 that tops my list and it's followed by the library of movies and tv shows
including high quality hbo content the service has a premium feel with a solid user experience
you can discover new content and get back to what you've already been following with ease
so if hbo max is not in your streaming rotation i recommend that you try it out for a month or two
a lot of people consider it to be the best streaming service out there today and while
you're testing it out you can pause or cancel your existing services like netflix or hulu to help you
stick to your streaming budget i have developed the michael saves streaming tv spending tracker
it's free and you will find a link below thanks for watching and i'll see you next time