So what exactly are the premium benefits to members now?

Now that HD videos is going to be made available on YouTube, what exactly are the benefits to being a member? Don't get me wrong, I like being a supporter of the content and will continue to do so but I think it should be a bit more clear as to what the premium content is and maybe would be good to avoid changing it up?... Off the top of my head I can think of Jar Time, Load Our Last Save, Random PC Game, and that's about it? Also I think there should be a Premium tab in the videos section to consolidate all of the content to really make it more easily accessible. (Edit: Just learned there is one...)

Another thing that was good about the HD content being exclusive was that there was a benefit across all of the Whiskey sites. As of now it seems like the premium content is mostly on Giant Bomb, aside from maybe Tested's live video podcast? It just feels like with the HD video thing, the loss of Happy Hour, there really are no finalized specifics as to what a membership will get you.

Any video which says [PREMIUM] on any of the Whiskey sites.

There is a Premium tab in Videos, its called Subscriber.

You support the site, get exclusive videos, discounts to the store, can call the big red phone, can use a set top box, and get the mobile site.

Aren't all the premium videos under the Subscriber section? Hover over Videos and click that.

There's more benefits compared to when it first launched.

No ads. quality HD videos

No clue how I missed the subscriber tab before -- thanks for the heads up on that. I've always had trouble finding TNTs in the video section, oops...

First of all, there may not be a Premium tab, but there's a Subscriber tab that shows subscriber only videos. Hope that's enough. :)

There's still the mobile site, downloading the videos, a better video player, the Radio Show, HD TNT, more one-off videos (like Breaking Brad, Morrowind/Oblivion marathon, Tricaster party, Joust stuff, SNES Party, 2nd video feed of the BLLSL).

And supporting the duders.

I honestly feel so bad for the guys trying to run this site. You please one demographic, you are pissing off the other. Lose/lose.

I never said I was pissed off about it, I was just wondering what exactly are the benefits as it seems it keeps changing up every so often.

Yeah if it weren't for the mobile site, I wouldn't bother subscribing. I like supporting the guys, but I'm not doing this for charity.

Don't forget about the video downloads as well as the nice warm feeling in your tummy that you're paying awesome dudes to do dumb shit on a regular basis :)

Exclusive Sub Video content including live streams, access to site archived live streams, no ads, store discount, mobile site, set top apps, the ability to download videos, access to higher quality HD videos and with a number of watching options through the site player vs Youtube, and other little things. Not to mention the knowledge that you support the guys to do more cool stuff, probably increase the quality of things like lighting (I've seen a pretty big jump in the quality of lighting in any of the on camera bits since premium memberships took off, as well as other little quality touches), as well as getting them new equipment to play with like when we got the SNES marathon.

@XII_Sniper said:

Yeah if it weren't for the mobile site, I wouldn't bother subscribing. I like supporting the guys, but I'm not doing this for charity.

Charity would be giving money without being rendered a service. Considering that the content you consume is being created at a cost by the WM folks, I'd say calling subscribing a charity kind of bullshit. Even if the mobile site is the only perk you use, which I doubt, you're paying to improve the service that is their job. Considering that you obviously consume some of their content, supporting them, even if it's optional for you, isn't really charity. It's picking between methods of paying them: viewing ads or paying money. Either way you have to pay somehow, even for non-premium content. And again, the guys aren't lounging around with terminal illnesses asking for handouts, they are getting payed for the work they do. Directly supporting them isn't charity in the slightest and it seems bit condescending to say it would be "charitable" in any way.

@HibikiRush: You are getting real HD, not youtube 720 which looks kind of bad to me. Yeah it might technically have 720 lines of vertical resolution but it's heavily compressed and looks blurry and blocky.

The mobile site is pretty awesome

and the premium videos - all really great stuff and worth the cash alone

and the download options, which is a LIFE SAVER when I'm heading out on a trip and only have 1-2 hours of wi-fi time at a hotspot in some small backwater town

@MordeaniisChaos: What I meant by that is that there are people here who claim to subscribe "just to help the guys" which makes it sound like a charity and kinda bothers me. To me it almost comes off as insulting to the people who produced all that subscriber content.

Though if something like the mobile site and HD video both became free, you'd be left with pretty much just the subscriber videos, which I do enjoy but aren't necessarily worth paying for. It's a cherry on top of the extra site services you get. So taking HD exclusivity away cheapens the subscription a bit. I would at least like to see some new features to replace it.

HD is finally being made an option for the YouTube videos? That's pretty cool. Subs still get better quality HD than YouTube's though so it's not like anything is being devalued.

Supporting an awesome series of websites.

Quality HD videos, the ability to download videos, mobile site, Whiskey's media player, no Ads, Store discounts, The Big Red Phone, Dave's radio show, Tested's live podcast, Giant Bomb's random Live "parties" (SNES and Tricaster,) content like Load our Last Save, Jar Time, Random PC Game, and access to the set-top box apps (Roku and Boxee.) Then whatever you get from Screened and Comic Vine if you're into that sort of thing.

They're giving us plenty for our buck in my mind.

@tourgen said:

@HibikiRush: You are getting real HD, not youtube 720 which looks kind of bad to me. Yeah it might technically have 720 lines of vertical resolution but it's heavily compressed and looks blurry and blocky.

The mobile site is pretty awesome

and the premium videos - all really great stuff and worth the cash alone

and the download options, which is a LIFE SAVER when I'm heading out on a trip and only have 1-2 hours of wi-fi time at a hotspot in some small backwater town

Damn you people complaining about 720p looking "bad". I feel like a peasant considering my internet connection can only handle 360, and sometimes it can't even do that without stopping and starting. Still can't believe the two ISP's in my area get away with what they're charging for such shit internet.

@Afroman269: If you listen to the Whikey radio show they just posted, Dave talks about how they handled it. Once they saw everyone talking about it they decided to wait a month and see what happens and after the overwhelming majority of paying and non paying agreeing that 720 should be free, they made the change.

I think that the extra videos from GB alone are worth $5 a month, you get anywhere from 4 to 10 hours (estimation, don't yell at me) of cool content. Compare that alone to the price of 1 movie ticket thats an hour and a half long.

Outside of the members only videos it's basically just that fuzzy feeling you get in your stomach when you think you do something good.

Also, where did this better youtube video quality info come from? I hate the GB video player so I'm glad if they bump it up to 480p and I will finally be able to pick up where I left off watching videos as the GB one is CONSTANTLY screwing up and forcing me to restart loading from the start.

For me, nothing. The quality of the free stuff isn't lower than the quality of the premium stuff. That's a very good thing and reason enough to stay a subscriber.

As a free member, the quality of the YouTube videos is lower then what we had before the switch, and for the purpose of judging how good a game looks is simply unacceptable. Anytime they made mention of how good the games looked you honestly couldn't tell. I am watching some of the Skyrim marathon on Justin.tv because the quality is better then YouTube, but before the switch the Giant Bomb videos where clearly better then on Justin.tv. I know you see it as losing a feature, but i see it more as bringing it back to the original quality that we had as free members.

@Lego_My_Eggo said:

As a free member, the quality of the YouTube videos is lower then what we had before the switch, and for the purpose of judging how good a game looks is simply unacceptable. Anytime they made mention of how good the games looked you honestly couldn't tell. I am watching some of the Skyrim marathon on Justin.tv because the quality is better then YouTube, but before the switch the Giant Bomb videos where clearly better then on Justin.tv. I know you see it as losing a feature, but i see it more as bringing it back to the original quality that we had as free members.

they'll start putting the HD on youtube pretty soon (I assume), that's why this thread was created (the radio show was 95% pro putting them up)

@Lego_My_Eggo said:

As a free member, the quality of the YouTube videos is lower then what we had before the switch, and for the purpose of judging how good a game looks is simply unacceptable. Anytime they made mention of how good the games looked you honestly couldn't tell. I am watching some of the Skyrim marathon on Justin.tv because the quality is better then YouTube, but before the switch the Giant Bomb videos where clearly better then on Justin.tv. I know you see it as losing a feature, but i see it more as bringing it back to the original quality that we had as free members.

I don't mind you folks getting HD youtube videos. I doubt many people do.

I support the site just like how I support my local NPR. I don't expect the perks to be outstanding or "worth the money" because the content they already have is worth paying for even though everyone else gets it for free.

If you think HD video was the only notable membership benefit, you haven't been paying any attention lately. And as for HD videos finally being opened to non-subscribers? About time. When enough people get around a certain message in this community, we can force them to listen. Good show, people.

I think the mobile site should be made available for non subscribers too.

@Dany said:

@Lego_My_Eggo said:

As a free member, the quality of the YouTube videos is lower then what we had before the switch, and for the purpose of judging how good a game looks is simply unacceptable. Anytime they made mention of how good the games looked you honestly couldn't tell. I am watching some of the Skyrim marathon on Justin.tv because the quality is better then YouTube, but before the switch the Giant Bomb videos where clearly better then on Justin.tv. I know you see it as losing a feature, but i see it more as bringing it back to the original quality that we had as free members.

I don't mind you folks getting HD youtube videos. I doubt many people do.

Don't matter to me, I would be impressed if someone actually got HD out of youtubes silly service, at least when it comes to 720p. 1080p videos on youtube look fine.

Hookers and blow.

$5 a month or $40 a year for the content delivered only to premium customers is worth it for me, but I see that to many it is not. The mobile site is a big boost, and the fact that it helps Rorie is a minor way makes me feel happy.

EDIT: Also, when was it announced that HD was going up on youtube? Not sure how I missed that...

I might even watch the 720 vids on youtube now, and I'm a paid member. Amazon S3 is fucking slow as shit to Australia (some nights the best i can get is 30k a second down stream).

@b4d533d said:

For people that want to whine about paying for something someone else is doing for them, piss off. You don't work for fukin free do you? Man the fuck up, get a better job, and move outta mom's basement. Spend as much time/effort improving your life as you do making moral stands on message boards and you might be scary.

I wish I had this much passion.

@SuperSambo said:

@b4d533d said:

For people that want to whine about paying for something someone else is doing for them, piss off. You don't work for fukin free do you? Man the fuck up, get a better job, and move outta mom's basement. Spend as much time/effort improving your life as you do making moral stands on message boards and you might be scary.

I wish I had this much passion.

You do, it is all in your heart, it burns like a fire! Then one day for no reason at all you'll just yell random things that has nothing to do with a topic on these forums, you just have to be patient

For people that want to whine about paying for something someone else is doing for them, piss off. You don't work for fukin free do you? Man the fuck up, get a better job, and move outta mom's basement. Spend as much time/effort improving your life as you do making moral stands on message boards and you might be scary.

Meh, these guys gave me the best gaming forums and news articles and very entertaining videos, I feel that's enough for me to pay five dalla a month 
 
But you're kinda right, sometimes it feels unclear what the premium account provides.

Bout fucking time.

I'm glad they switched to HD on youtube because I've been having major problems with the GB player for a while... Sometimes it spontaneously stops playing the video.

Anyhow, ever since I subscribed I've been hooked onto GB more than ever. They seriously produce more content than I have time for - which is bad for me because I've been making time for it and procrastinating on other things.

If any non-subscriber reads this comment and is wondering if going for subscriber is worth it? Trust me it is. Especially if you are fond of the GB crew. Try it out for 5 bucks a month and see how much you like it.