Clever Geek Handbook

HBO Max

HBO Max will be free for millions of subscribers. Are you one of ...









HBO Max is currently only supported in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories.

If you are in the service area and believe you've received this message in error, please follow the steps below: HBO Max is live: Here's everything to know - CNET more01:26WatchStarting May 27, all of HBO will also be available via HBO Max.HBO GO. HBO NOW. HBO Max. You have questions: Are they all the same? Do I need all three? We have answers. Read on to find out the differences.

HBO GOis a streaming service offered by HBO that is included free with your HBO subscription through a TV provider, and offers original content from HBO, including series, documentaries, specials and more, plus a large selection of movies. A cable or TV package that includes HBO is required.

HBO NOWis a standalone streaming service offered by HBO that does not require cable or satellite TV and offers original content from HBO, including series, documentaries, specials and more, plus a large selection of movies. Current HBO NOW subscribers (billed directly by HBO) will also get access to HBO Max at launch at no additional cost.

HBO Maxis a platform offered by WarnerMedia that features 10,000 hours of premium content bundling all of HBO together with even more movies, shows and Max Originals for the whole family, including Friends, South Park, The Big Bang Theory, Wonder Woman, the Studio Ghibli collection and much more.

To learn more about HBO Max and receive additional updates, check out the , and . Also follow and on Twitter.

Must-Watch HBO Series Your browser does not support the video tag.Looking for HBO Max?Stream all of HBO together with even more of your favorite blockbusters, addictive series, and new Max Originals.

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Information storage and accessApplyNo, Allow Sharing Save and Close HBO Max: price, free trial, movies, the Snyder Cut and more ... Esto también se puede leer en español.

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It's the latest big-league streaming service, but it comes with a $15 monthly price tag and confusing upgrades for current HBO members. And if you want to watch on a Roku? No luck.

May 27, 2020 8:45 a.m. PT The fabled "Snyder cut" of 2017's Justice League will be released on HBO Max next year.

Warner Bros./HBO Max , the -anchored streaming service packed with extra shows and movies,after months of hype. Its arrival brings a complexity of answers to some pretty simple questions: How much will it cost me? Where can I stream it? And will I always have to pay this much?

Like rivals and, has a sprawling catalog of hit shows and movies, plus a big-budget slate of exclusive originals packed with stars. But is the most expensive of the bunch. New subscribers can sign up and pay a simple $15 a month subscription after a week-long free trial, the same price HBO already charges for its linear channel on most pay-TV providers and for its preexisting standalone streaming service, HBO Now.

But if you're already paying for HBO in some form, the amount you'll have to pay for Max now, or whether you have to pay anything extra at all... well, it's complicated.

"The question is: Does your provider have to deal with us for Max and do you move over? That answer will be fairly simple, and then beyond that it gets a little more complicated," Andy Forssell, the general manager of WarnerMedia's streaming operation, said in an interview last week. "We've got really broad distribution, and ... midnight next Tuesday we'll be where we are -- not that that's an end point, if there any discussions undone."

To entice you to give it a try, HBO Max has padded itself with more content than you'll find on either the regular HBO channel or HBO Now. For the same price, HBO Max doubles the amount of programming you can watch. AT&T, which owns HBO as part of its TV-and-film division, has been pouring billions of dollars into its budgets for original programming and into expensive deals to stream blockbuster movies from , and as well as popular shows like , and . (A deep dive into the shows and movies on Max is near the end of this article.)

To make it easier to find these well-known franchises, the HBO Max app has hubs based on many of them, so you can quickly jump into HBO's programming, DC's or Ghibli's. It's also taking a more curated approach to surfacing things to watch compared with Netflix's data-driven recommendations. And HBO Max wants it's app design to feel distinct from Netflix too. As the dominant streaming service, Netflix's user interface became the gold standard for designing a subscription video app. But HBO Max is experimenting with different shapes in its UI -- a landscape-style rectangle represents a single episode, a square is something personalized to your watch history and circles lead into a human element, like recommendations around a particular actor or character.

"The starting point is visual variety," said Forssell, who executive vice president and the general manager of WarnerMedia's direct-to-consumer business. "And then the second piece is: Let's get humans involved in curation."

ghi-totoro-select03 [https://cnet2.cbsistatic.com/img/6kdYlklAtM1V4VYUVD4YHjOUQ-0=/644x0/2020/05/27/6496d64c-062a-4720-afe0-c4ef6529753c/ghi-totoro-select03.jpg] HBO Max launched with almost the full catalog of Studio Ghibli animated movies, streaming in the US for the first time.

Studio Ghibli/GKids The latest high-profile exclusive HBO Max announced is the fabled . Costing more than $30 million to remake, this alternate edit of the DC movie by director Zack Snyder will stream on the service in 2021. Beyond that, HBO Max's so-called Max Originals will offer new shows and movies unavailable anywhere else. At launch, the service will have six, including an called Love Life starring Anna Kendrick that follows her character through a new romantic relationship each episode. HBO Max will add 11 more originals over the summer, including the Aug. 6 premiere of Seth Rogen's comedy film An American Pickle.

But one highly anticipated original is missing at launch. A Friends reunion special was planned to be . But like most things in the world, HBO Max's original productions have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Confined to their homes, people across the nation are streaming much more, but the novel coronavirus and its respiratory disease,, have also shut down television productions globally. HBO Max has said it will be delivering 95% of the new shows and movies it planned for launch and soon thereafter. But the . The company was in the midst of recreating the sitcom's set to host its six stars in front of a live audience in early March, when lockdowns and social distancing put the project on ice for the foreseeable future.

HBO Max's $15-a-month price matches the cost of HBO Now and for HBO's traditional channel when you get it through most pay-TV providers. By comparison, Disney Plus is $7 a month and Netflix's cheapest tier is $9.

For brand new HBO customers, pricing is straightforward. You just sign up, and pay the $15 monthly cost. Early next year, HBO Max will add a new tier that is cheaper each month but includes commercials to support the discount.

But if you already pay for HBO, the question of whether you get a free upgrade to HBO Max has no simple answer. Some people who already have a regular HBO subscription or HBO Now will get-- but not everyone.

screen-shot-2020-05-01-at-9-33-30-am.png [https://cnet4.cbsistatic.com/img/mFR2VBDI3_yyDDLKEpEHsaqxgaM=/1092x0/2020/05/01/468f2822-0315-4c9c-978f-7b1ef71ae73c/screen-shot-2020-05-01-at-9-33-30-am.png] HBO Max is offering a discount if you sign up at HBOMax.com before launch on Wednesday.

HBO/Screenshot by Joan E. Solsman/CNET In order for you to get the automatic upgrade to Max, HBO needs to strike a deal with the company that's already billing you for HBO, whether it's a cable-TV company like Charter or a digital provider like Apple. HBO Max has been ramping up these deals, and there's a growing list of providers that are letting their HBO customers upgrade to Max. (See the full list below.)

But HBO Max doesn't have deals with every provider. Comcast, for example, is the biggest cable company in the country, and HBO Max hasn't announced a deal for any of its Xfinity-based HBO customers yet. If you're in that boat, you could be forced to choose: either pay twice -- one bill for regular HBO and another for HBO Max -- or cancel your current HBO subscription to re-sign up for Max.

On top of that, HBO Max isn't available on some of the most important devices either. Neither Roku nor Amazon Fire TV have been confirmed to have an HBO Max app -- together, they represent an eye-popping . And if HBO Max users are anything like people who stream Netflix, the vast majority of viewing hours will be on televisions. if you want a sense of how consumers feel when they can't stream big-budget programming to their TVs.

Another big hole? resolution nor image quality at launch.

So yeah, it's complicated. Below are the finer details about HBO Max's cost, discounts, app and its shows and movies.

How much does HBO Max cost? HBO Max is $15 a month at launch with a seven-day free trial.

On Wednesday, AT&T's incoming CEO John Stankey said early next year. He didn't specify the price, the precise launch date nor any catalog limitations that this tier might have.

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Before launch, people who preordered the service at HBOMax.com unlocked a discount deal that lowered the price to $13 a month for the first year. Preordered accounts don't qualify for the seven-day free trial.

HBO's current standalone streaming service, HBO Now, also costs $15 a month. Though HBO Now will continue to operate, HBO Max will essentially replace it.

HBO Now subscribers are welcome to stick with that service, but they'll essentially be paying the same amount for less programming. HBO Max will have all the same shows and movies on HBO Now plus a big catalog of licensed programming and exclusive originals.

Compared with rival streaming services launching before HBO Max, that pricing may feel steep to many consumers. Disney Plus is $7 a month, and is $5. Both are offering deals that can cut the price further or are providing opportunities for extended free periods lasting up to a year. , for example, is giving away a year's subscription to anyone who's purchased an Apple device since early September. And Disney set up a deal with so any of the carrier's mobile subscribers get a year free.

When is HBO Max's launch?

HBO Max launched overnight Wednesday in the US.

After that, HBO Max's first international expansions will prioritize Latin America and Europe. Latin America will get HBO Max in 2021, the company has said.

HBO Max's US timing will put it near the end of a parade of streaming service launches. Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus launched in November. April brought Quibi, a mobile-only streaming service that features short, episodic originals. Also in April, NBCUniversal's Peacock launched a "sneak peek" at its service on Comcast. Peacock's national launch is set for July 15.

What devices can stream HBO Max? HBO Max will be available on a wide variety of devices, including phones, tablets, the web, connected TVs and game consoles.

But two crucial streaming devices didn't have HBO Max apps at launch. Neither Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices supported HBO Max, even though those devices represent the vast majority of streaming devices in the US. estimates nearly 70% of installed streaming-TV devices in the country are either Roku or Amazon Fire TV products.

Earlier in May, AT&T incoming CEO John Stankey warned that Amazon's Fire TV products may not have an HBO Max app. "I'm pleased to say we're going to be in virtually all app stores, or maybe one exception. It looks like we may not be in the Amazon Fire app store when all of this is said and done," he said.

The service has confirmed support for the following devices and platforms:

What product features does HBO Max have? In a long-anticipated feature for anyone streaming HBO Go, HBO Max has downloads for its mobile apps. Unfortunately, like most things with HBO Max, the company doesn't have a clear answer for whether there are limitations on the amount of programming you can dowload.

"We don't have a crisp answer for you on how many downloads will be allowed but it's going to be a very comfortable number for most people," Forssell said. "The limit will probably be how much space you have in your device versus our limit, and that will liberalize over time."

HBO Max allows you to stream to three different devices simultaneously. By comparison, Disney Plus allows four simultaneous streams, and Netflix allows between one and four depending on how much you pay each month.

You can also create multiple profiles to keep recommendations separate for different members of the household, and it also has kid accounts that are unlocked by entering a PIN. These parental controls allow moms and dads to set the maturity levels of the programming each kids' profile can access, based ratings like PG and TV-14.

For HBO Now members, HBO Max automatically replaces the HBO Now app through a software update.

But there's a downside to the transition from HBO Now and HBO Go to HBO Max: HBO Max won't preserve any of your watch history if you switch from an existing HBO streaming account. So your personalized recommendations start with a clean slate, and HBO Max won't know, for example, if you've already watch every episode of Game of Thrones three times or if you're halfway through the movie Joker and want to pick back up where you left off.

Another missing element: resolution nor image quality at launch.

Where can I get HBO Max? The simplest way to get HBO Max is to sign up for it directly at .

Friends [https://cnet4.cbsistatic.com/img/uK6Xi-vz21EJXb06FUA6DdSfdRo=/644x0/2019/07/30/1902c73a-734b-46a5-9238-91619d0bd69e/gettyimages-143480073.jpg] HBO Max brokered a reported $425 million deal for all episodes of '90s hit Friends, which exited Netflix to start streaming on HBO Max at launch.

NBC Through Apple, HBO Max will be an iOS app for iPhone and iPad, which will allow you to sign up and pay through an in-app purchase. Apple will also integrate HBO Max into its own TV app, which allows you to congregate certain streaming channels to watch them in one place.

Through Google, HBO Max will have an app for Android phones and tablets in the Google Play store, and you'll be able to sign up inside the app with an in-app purchase. You'll also be able to stream HBO Max on Android TV, Chromebook and Google Chromecast. If you already subscribe to HBO Now through Google Play, you'll automatically be able to log in to HBO Max at launch at no additional charge, and you'll continue to be billed through Google. And YouTube TV, the streaming pay-TV service operated by Google's YouTube, will also carry HBO Max.

People with Samsung Smart TVs that support the HBO Max app will also be able to sign up directly there.

How do I get Max if I already have HBO? What does it cost? Things get more complicated if you already have HBO and want to know what the launch of HBO Max means for you. Some people who already have an existing subscription to HBO are able to unlock HBO Max at no extra cost,.

Here's some good news for anyone who is an HBO Now subscriber through Apple or Google: You barely have to do anything to unlock HBO Max. Your HBO Now app should automatically be replaced by the HBO Max app via a software update on devices that support HBO Max. In those cases, when you open the new HBO Max app, you just need to agree to the HBO Max Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and choose to "Access All of HBO Max," and you're set, according to an .

Some HBO Max distributors unlock an HBO Max upgrade at no extra cost for their current HBO and HBO Now customers, thanks to deals HBO Max has struck with them. You qualify for the HBO Max upgrade at no extra cost if you already pay for HBO through:

However, it's unclear if HBO Max will strike more deals with other pay-TV providers, whether that's traditional providers like Comcast or , or internet-based ones like and .

AT&T is also offering a complicated matrix of promos for HBO Max. Some customers get Max at no extra cost, while others qualify for a one-month, three-month or one-year free trial. Your best shot at figuring out whether you qualify is to check your account or the myAT&T app, but CNET also lists AT&T's qualification terms for its.

Now playing: Watch this: HBO Max: How to get it 4:24 Shows and movies: What can I watch? The catalog is all over the map.

HBO Max includes all the shows and movies on HBO, plus a selection of high-profile licensed content, like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Rick & Morty and South Park. It'll layeron top of that. At launch, HBO Max said it'll have 10,000 hours of content.

Originally, HBO Max planned to have 31 originals in its first year and amp that up to 50 originals in the second year. But those plans may be adjusted because of disruptions from the coronavirus.

The simplest part of the catalog to understand is HBO itself. HBO Max includes everything on regular HBO, so that means all the theatrical movies that come and go from the channel; new episodes from all HBO series, like Westworld and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver; and the past seasons of those programs as well as the full HBO back catalog, like Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Veep and The Wire; plus any of the HBO original films, documentaries and specials.

Movies are be a crucial part of the catalog. And any movie that's available to watch on the traditional HBO network will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Highlights of the HBO Max film catalog will include (but not necessarily be available at launch):

Ultimately, HBO Max will have more than 18,000 movies, the company has said.

On top of that, AT&T has been licensing outside hit shows to beef up HBO Max's catalog. The most most eye-popping deals have been:

It's also secured deals for past seasons of Rick and Morty; 11 of the most recent seasons of , plus another three to come; CW dramas like Pretty Little Liars, Batwoman, and Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene as well as more upcoming CW series; The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; The West Wing; and British series like Luther and Ricky Gervais' original The Office, among many others.

Animated satire South Park will not only contribute its full back catalog to HBO Max but also stream new episodes. The latest episodes of South Park will stream on HBO Max 24 hours after they air on Comedy Central for the next three seasons.

And HBO Max will have exclusive new shows and movies called Max Originals. For the most part, original series on HBO Max will drop new episodes on a weekly basis.

At launch Wednesday, the originals are:

After launch, the next Max Originals that are scheduled for release are:

Then over the course of the fall and beyond, HBO Max will add other originals, including:

HBO Max originally planned to have 31 original series in its launch year (which totals 69 series when combined with HBO content). Then in 2021, HBO Max planned to expand Max Originals to a slate of 50 shows. About half are targeted at young adults aged 16 to 34, and the rest will be divided between more adult fare and kids and family content outside the HBO brand.

Some of the other highlights of the originals set for HBO Max include:

The service will have a smaller slate of original films, between five and 10 per year, according to the original plan. Early highlights on the original movie slate include:

Now playing: Watch this: How Game of Thrones language High Valyrian comes to life 8:25 How does HBO Max fit in with HBO Go and HBO Now?

HBO Max is similar to but with additional programming.

Generally speaking, and are nearly the same product. The main difference is who uses them: Anyone can sign up for HBO Now for $15 a month, while HBO Go is the app for people who already have an HBO subscription through a live-TV provider like cable or satellite. Both HBO Now and HBO Go stream all the programming available on WarnerMedia's traditional HBO network.

People who already have HBO Now can switch over to HBO Max for no additional cost. Their HBO Now app will automatically transition to the HBO Max app through a software update on Wednesday, and people who want to upgrade to Max just need to accept the terms of service, a privacy policy and a selection confirming you want the expanded catalog.

For HBO Go users,. HBO Go is unlocked by a pay-TV subscription, and HBO Max won't unlock for all pay-TV customers. (Pop back up to the "How do I get Max if I already have HBO?" section for those details.)

How is HBO Max different from all the rest of AT&T's streaming services? AT&T has even more streaming services.

is similar to a cable or satellite pay-TV service, except it's delivered over the internet. includes live channels, DVR and video on demand that cable subscribers are familiar with, plus the ability to stream from apps like Netflix and . To watch on TVs, AT&T TV has its own proprietary streaming box that AT&T requires you use, and subscribers can watch everything on mobile devices with an app too. Right now, it starts at $50 a month for the cheapest tier's first year; the price jumps to $93 a month in the second year.

, on the other hand, is a along the lines of Sling TV or . If you were familiar with , is just the renamed version of that service. Rather than requiring a specific box, it lets subscribers stream live channels to Rokus, Apple TVs, Fire TVs and more, and the channels are available on a mobile app as well. It also has a cloud DVR. Services like this are sometimes called skinny-bundle streaming services, but AT&T TV Now's cheapest package isn't particularly skinny -- $55 a month for more than 45 live channels (not including HBO). Still, it isn't quite as robust as AT&T TV, which is meant to replicate the giant cable packages of traditional TV.

Finally, is closer to a traditional skinny bundle. It offers more than 35 live channels, including AT&T-owned TBS, TNT and CNN. AT&T Watch TV is a free perk included with certain unlimited AT&T wireless data plans, but anyone can sign up for it for $15 a month. It was designed as a mobile-first service, but you can stream AT&T Watch TV to televisions with a few boxes, including Apple TV and , but others aren't supported, like Roku boxes.

Simple, right?

New movie calendar for 2020 and 2021 following coronavirus delays

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