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- cross-posted to:
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Pirating went down when paying for streaming was more convenient. Well, you are making it far less convenient.
Streaming has become cable 2.0.
It was wonderful when everything was on one, maybe two providers. Could watch everything in a very easy, very affordable way.
But everyone saw that, went “I know, I want that money!” and spent billions building their own individual infrastructures so make their own streaming services, and right around we go right back to the absolute worst days of cable and bullshit.
Only thing stopping me from saying fuck it and downloading shit I want to watch, is the fact that I no longer know what the good sites are… since I havent pirated since the heyday of the bay.
[email protected] Their sidebar can teach you a lot.
Streaming has become cable with micro transactions.
Join lemmy.dbzer0.com the piracy instance and ask around about private trackers and if there are any open signups
And the irony is that people switched to cable for the exact same reason. They got tired of the nonsense that broadcast TV pulled with subscriptions for different channels and all the ads and everything, and went to cable because you paid one bill for every channel. Then, everyone moved to streaming because you had to buy 50 different cable packages for the one channel on each you actually cared about, and there were just too many ads to deal with, etc.
Something something, those who don’t listen to history are doomed to lose profit margins or whatever.
TorrentFreak occassionally posts a list of sites, just use a good no logging VPN.
That and movies just suck nowadays. This is partially old man yelling at cloud stuff but also true since the death of DVD’s means studios won’t take risks anymore since they can’t recoup funds after a poor box office.
This isn’t yelling at clouds, it’s check l correct.
It’s also not quite so much “recoup funds at a poor box office” as it was “count on DVD sales to make up fifty percent of revenue for certain kinds of movies.”
On the usenet side of the house, I think the only big change was NZB Matrix going away.
I can’t tell if no one talks about usenet because no one knows about it or because they don’t want anyone else to know about it.
I prefer torrents because it’s totally free, unlike Usenet. I don’t even pay for a VPN since I don’t care about a few love letters in my inbox. It’s not about the cost; it’s a matter of principle that I disagree with commercialized piracy.
But Usenet is a good option for other reasons.
Both. It’s a semi secret club.
Galaxy torrents is a newer, solid option friend
Oh, so they defederated and y’all complaining about that now. I see how it is 😋
Arr
As lord Gaben has said, “piracy is a service issue”
Well, this time they have Google and Microsoft on big brother duty to make sure you don’t get crazy ideas. And I’m not seeing enough people jumping away from Chrome and Windows to stop it.
I’m on Windows and it’s never hindered me when I needed to go download something that would make a studio exec cry. Granted, I use Firefox, but I’m not sure what Chrome would do differently - it’s just a matter of clicking links that get sent off to qBittorrent to handle. What “big brothering” do they do?
Google is implementing a new scheme that verifies your browser (correct DRM, etc.) and sites won’t allow access without it.
Basically you have to have Chrome and without extensions they don’t like.
I’m preeeeetty sure that the Pirate Bay isn’t going to implement that scheme.
But so far google and microsoft are incompetent big brothers, to the point that most people will find free streaming sites just by searching “free streaming epx of show”. Now we are not talking good streaming, or even safe but if you want an example just look at any place with poor users (like a school or library).
Time will tell…
To be completely fair, it’s been over for a while. Even if you completely forget about infrastructure, between the endless wars for licenses, endless removals of content from platforms, shitty inconvenient apps, and regional locks, it’s already a dying market.
On top of all of that, they’re implementing the “don’t you have 5 extra dollars” strategy, with skyrocketing monthly prices for each of these. If it was 15$ a month to watch anything, i would still pay. but it’s 15$ for each of them, and they still serve you ads, and sell your data
The funny thing is we’re rapidly approaching the point where there’s more digital content than any single human could consume in a lifetime. Including content from before copyright. So the main thing streaming services offer you is convenience and up-to-date media. But if you’re just trying to entertain yourself 30-year-old 40-year-old 50-year-old 60-year-old 70-year-old content can be just as engrossing. You just get emotionally invested in it.
I’ve found a DVD rental place close to me with quite a collection. Honestly thinking about just unsubscribing from all streaming and going all in on DVD rental. I watched one recently for the first time … you forget how consistently good the qualilty is compared to streaming (YMMV). But, in true hipster fashion, being more deliberate about what I watch, more openly exploratory, making more of an event of it, all seems attractive. If streaming were actually convenient, fine, but with the way things are now … they can go to hell.
I’d need Blu-ray at least tbh.
But yeah lately I’ve been buying 4k Blu-rays for movie night
Why? You’re giving the people who ruined streaming more money.
Plus you get commentary and behind the scenes and such, not sure why most of the streaming services don’t offer that.
Yep … I forgot to mention that. Overall, when I watched a DVD for the first time in ages, it was somewhat eye opening … like we’ve truly gone backwards on what the home viewing experience can be apart from the somewhat minor convenience of being not needing to store the DVDs at home.
this is a rose tinted glass tbh. maybe if you’re watching a dvd on an iphone screen, but DVDs were limited to 720p, and a bad one too. You need modern bluerays to really get up to par with HD streaming services.
DVDs are 480p, 720p wasn’t introduced until the Blu-ray/HD DVD wars
There was also the forgotten format, D-VHS which was a specialized VHS tape tape which the recordings could be at 720p or 1080i resolutions. Or the same resolution as DVD but at a higher bitrate so there are less noticeable digital compression artifacts than DVD. The introduction of HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc formats kept the D-VHS format from ever becoming widely adopted.
Don’t get me started with the unskippable intro screens.
One of the many things that drove me away from physical media to streaming. Big companies were always pulling the “you will watch what I want you to see” approach. It’s also what killed cable and satellite.
That being said, I’ve found myself checking out more and more DVDs from the library simply because it’s reliable, and I find it enjoyable in a way. I don’t really care about HD quality or whatever – DVD quality is fine.
I have a good DVD collection I’ve amassed by buying them second hand in thrift stores, and for titles I really want to own.
Yep, Get those for like 2 bucks at goodwill. Hell, even entire box sets.
Almost got the entire collectors edition band of brothers box set for 2 bucks at goodwill once… only reason I didnt is cause it was missing like 3 of the disks, and I didnt want to spend the rest of my life trying to hunt those 3 down.
480p. If you have a component, dvi or hdmi connection from the dvd player.
The place has plenty of Blu-Rays too … I’m grouping them in with DVD for convenience … also you shouldn’t presume the quality of my internet and streaming subscriptions or even my TV.
If you can go to a source of older content it often comes pre-filtered for the better stuff too, so you don’t have to wade through a ton of rubbish to find the occasional gem like you do with the new stuff.
Can you point out some resources for that?
Criterion Collection
Or
Janus Films
Both offer the best films of all time.
Very cool! Thank you!
Reviews from sites like IMDb and rotten tomatoes. As a movie or series is older, or finished, the general audience has had plenty of time to review it and if it’s fondly remembered, then it might get mentioned on here or other social platforms.
The issue with new content is that it can be amazing at first and then they release the last two episodes and ruin pretty much the entire series, eg. Game of thrones, and more recently, secret invasion.
Secret invasion really shocked me in its brutality in unceremoniously taking out loved characters.
But thanks for elaborating. :)
It’s worth checking whether your local library subscribes to Kanopy.
Will do, thanks.
And the writer’s strike shows that the artists don’t get paid anyway if you pay for content, so they can’t even play that card either.
We all knew that even before the strike too. Musicians get paid pennies on a dollar, and it’s the same with writers. Actors are probably treated the same way, if you’re not one of the hall of fame elites who get insane cash for garbage roles, after they’ve been in a Marvel movie once
Peacock HBO Max Showtime Disney. Fucking DC Universe was trying to be a thing.
Every media company wanted a streaming service but failed to deliver because of their hubris.
Hulu and Netflix have been my constant subscription services.
Disney is an absolute must if you have a kid, and a great value besides.
Otherwise it makes 0 sense except for maybe star wars sometimes.
We got Disney + for our kids and they couldn’t care less. The only thing they were interested in was The Mandolorian (bored after the first season) and the latest live action Spiderman (which was not available in Disney+ !!!). We’ll be canceling once our special deal is over. Maybe we’re lucky that our kids don’t care for it because that will save us some money.
Nah, my kids prefer Netflix. Even then, they prefer to play games instead. So I’ll be steering them toward video games instead of TV, and only for a limited time each day.
Disney is an absolute must if you have a kid and aren’t capable of raising them without parking them in front of the TV.
Downvoted for telling the truth. I know people raising kids who don’t plant their kids in front of a tablet or TV to watch Disney+ or YT ever. It’s possible if you spend some goddamn time with your child and have a creative mind.
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The era of cheap streaming is over, now begins the era of free streaming
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
Bettle Juicing at its finest
Long live 1337x and Stremio.
Didn’t 1337x just get caught injecting bit coin mining software into their stuff?
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ah yes! the good old video.mp4.exe
The rumor was it was put in a cracked game not a video lol
All you need is some popcorn and some time
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Ya’har me matey!
Sad thing is that most people are far too lazy and will just pay the streaming cost
Frear and the illusion of convenience is what makes them pay.
The internet is much faster now too
No worries, I wasn’t paying anyway!
🏴☠️ 🏴☠️ 🏴☠️
I jumped ship at price hikes and no account sharing.
Same, the only streaming services I have now are paid for by my phone provider for free. Besides that, I sail the high seas proudly
Back to piracy …
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That is an alternative I´m not going to argue against, you wholesome motherfucker 🌻 🌼 🌷
all the shows are shit.
That was one of the main reasons I cut cable years ago.
The amount of content worth watching (let alone worth paying for) had become far too low.
Combine that with the constant price increases and worsening of the content-to-commercials ratio, and it was a easy decision to make.
It’s going to be even worse for a while with the writers strike.
I would never pirate anything since it’s illegal and immoral.
But I imagine the selfish criminals that do like the fact they can limit their media consumption to the occasional worthwhile thing. They might even assuage their guilt by paying for it when possible after they establish it isn’t garbage.
If you could download a car, you bet your ass you would
That’s a far worse hypothetical crime than you realize: it harms the profits of billionaires. Why don’t you think about all those poor oligarchs you’re hurting?
How will they be able to buy politicians and judges if people stopped giving them money?
I honestly can’t tell if you’re trolling.
Also, “limiting their consumption to the occasional worthwhile thing” can also be written as:
“spend their well-earned time actually watching something worth the investment”
And “they might even assuage their guilt by paying for it…” as:
“if they find content they enjoy, they’d like to show that monetarily and hopefully boost the production of more content of that same caliber”
I just want those large, deep pocketed, sue-happy corporation’s legal teams to know I’m a good consumer that never violates DMCA or other intellectual property laws: it’s wrong. I mean, that’s what they say and obviously we should trust them.
I can’t imagine much worse than violating the inalienable rights of amoral multi-billion dollar industries, except maybe bragging online about it afterwards.
Zero guilt, never pay. Bonus: no guilt for dropping something midway through out of disgust at its poor quality, because you just wasted X dollars on it. You can go through hundreds of options without trying to evaluate them indirectly pre-purchase, and read-watch whatever you feel like whenever.
I actually feel more guilt dropping things I downloaded since I wasted bandwidth and storage on it.
If you haven’t spent extra money on that bandwidth and storage, what’s the problem? Just delete it and download something else?
But I spend more time and stuff on it then I would on a streaming service’s series.
For streaming I don’t lose anything by dropping a series, it’s not like I spent any extra money or time or anything getting the series.
Fair enough, that makes sense for streaming. I was thinking more along the lines of books and videogames, but this thread is about streaming.
In what world is it immoral? Where do your morals stem fom ? A child’s book ?.
Especially since these services will drop their original content after awhile…
Is Willow considered lost media yet?
Well, hell. I guess I’ll go back to watching less and buying DVDs. I’m not watching commercials on a service I pay for. That’s a non starter.
Worst comes to worse, I can dust off my eye patch, grab my parrot, and take to the high seas. I don’t wanna, I prefer to pay for stuff, but ffs, if they can’t be reasonable, I guess it’s back to arrr me hearties.
who the fuck pays to watch ads. what a ludicrous proposition. that’s the part that makes no sense to me.
People used to do it with cable TV. It cost a fortune and was full of ads.
No one pays to watch ads. They pay to watch movies and shows, which are (optionally) supplemented in cost by ads.
But you can watch those movies and shows for free. The only part you’re paying for are the ads.
…what are you talking about? No it’s not.
I assure you all movies and TV shows are absolutely free to the end user should they so choose
You mean should they choose to steal them? No shit, everything is free if you steal it. Not everyone wants to be a thief.
🪢 Heave-ho! Thieves and beggars!
Never shall we die! 🏴☠️Oh well, there’s plenty of space for all of ya here on the high seas, welcome aboard, mateys!
Seed your torrents folks
and thus began the second golden age of piracy
The great thing is it’s so much easier now. About 2 months ago I cancelled all my streaming subscriptions.
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Jellyfin / Plex downloads 📈📈📈
But Wednesday’s move to significantly bump prices, marked an acknowledgment by Iger of the media giant’s intent to squeeze more revenue out of streaming by pushing consumers to the advertising-supported plans, which have proven to be more profitable.
“The advertising marketplace for streaming is picking up,” Iger told investors on the quarterly earnings call. “It’s more healthy than the advertising marketplace for linear television. We believe in the future of advertising on our streaming platforms, both Disney+ and Hulu.”
This is extremely important for them. Netflix’s excellent deal for most of its streaming existence was obviously a thorn in the side of many other businesses. Even if streaming services can get you to pay an exorbitant amount of money on an ad-free tier, advertisers are frothing for the chance to advertise to you regardless. They want you to see their ads so badly. And let’s not forget all the big tech companies, Netflix included, were riding high during the free money days of 0% interest loans. Those days are over, and the bill is due. Wall Street wants its money. And we are all the ones who have to pay up. Cheap streaming is officially over.
This is why these companies, including Netflix, have all introduced ad tiers. Not only is it a great way for them to juice their revenue streams, but also every other company wants a permanent residence in your brain, and then some. Given the way things have been going since duo-eras of the COVID pandemic and corporate profit-based inflation, they don’t even need to collude on prices. All the execs need to do is look at the business press and say, “Hey, they’re getting away with increased prices and password sharing crackdowns. We can do the same thing. The pay pigs keep paying!”
I really cannot understand why advertising is such a huge business. Where does all the money spent on advertising really come from?
Is it really unclear? If you had never heard of a product, you would much less likely purchase it. If Coke stopped advertising today, they’d start a very slow but real loss of market to it’s competiton, be it Pepsi or whatever. Note that a LOT of advertising is not for you. It’s for the corporate buyer at name your favorite restaurant so that they think that they’ll get more consumers in the door because they have Coke products, as opposed to some other brand.
I suppose it’s not that unclear if you compare the revenue of all other industries combined to the revenue of the advertising industry. The ratio is pretty large and every type of industry buys ads, so it trickles down from everywhere.
I’ll be completely unsurprised when streaming companies start enticing or forcing us into term agreements.
You know it’s coming. Why would a streaming company want a consumer buying one month, binging a single show they’re interested in, then immediately cancelling the subscription after, when you could guarantee a 6- or 12-month revenue stream for them?
Rents work this way; it wouldn’t be a surprise if the same playbook was adopted by these neo-feudalists.
Am I the only one that remembers the “cut the cord” and “stop feeding the cable pig” nonsense? What happened to all that? Thankfully, none of this has affected me, then or now. I don’t usually bother with “programming” of any kind but, when I do, “arr mateys.”
The cable pigs moved into the streaming game, and used licensing to enshitify streaming
I mean it was nonsense to think it would solve your costs, but streaming is superior to cable TV from a tech standpoint for sure.
People should expect that yeah, new software is cheap when it’s rolled out, but it’s gonna get more expensive as time goes on, but I can understand why that wasn’t quite as apparent to people 10 years ago as it will be 10 years from now
That’s literally the opposite of how it’s supposed to be, new tech is expensive and only early adopters can buy in, then when the EA’s money comes in, it is spent to improve and make the tech cheaper, which allows it to be adopted by the masses. With streaming, all of the fat cats decided to start it cheap to get everyone hooked and moved over, then jacked up the prices because the shareholders aren’t satisfied with their draconic gold hoards.
I think the model that you’re referring to is generally more applicable to hardware, but since you can make free copies of an app, Uber for instance can keep things low cost till they eat the competition
Streaming is superior to cable TV in terms of convenience, perhaps, but video quality is often behind on paid streaming services vs. cable TV, particularly for live events like sports.
All I want is 4K or even 1080p hockey…
It’s an ironic end to the streaming wars. After pouring billions and billions of dollars into constructing supposedly revolutionary streaming platforms, and decimating the business models that had offered the industry stability for decades, the ultimate product looks awfully similar to what companies and consumers were trying to break free from in the first place.
I’ll still take streaming any day over cable.
No contract and you can put everything in rotation. Sign up for a month, binge, cancel, next.
The streaming companies are starting to get wise to that. They’ve started splitting seasons and releasing them separately so that you have to be subbed for 2 months.
I’d just wait until the second part is out, sub one month.
But you won’t see it at the same time as some others, the horror!
That’s a real concern if you’re at all worried about spoilers. It’s so easy just to have shit spoiled even if you try to avoid it. Passively hearing about it from school/workmates, social media, or even radio. The stupid radio spoiled the ending of Breaking Bad for me and I never got over it, I guess.
Might seem stupid, but it’s actually much more enjoyable to be watching something at the same time as others because you can sit and discuss it, come up with theories for how things will play out, and avoid having things spoiled for you. Nobody is going to be excited when you tell them you just started Game of Thrones last week because the show ended years ago and many people have already seen it all.
Well I’ll subscribe for the second month.
Congrats. Patience is a much-neeeded virtue, especially when it comes to TV series you like.
If you look at the world of Gaming, you see plenty if not most people being unable to refrain from instant gratification and just “having to have” the latest installment of some game series NOW at full price instead of waiting 6 months or a year go get it much cheaper.
I think there’s still some post floating around in Active in lemmy bitching and moaning about how this year’s installment of some (american) football game is $70 and a few about how great Baldur’s Gate 3 is (which you can only really know if ypu bought it full price in the first week as it just came out)
It seems to me that effect is even worse for things which are a social phenomenon (essentially, those things that people like to talk about it with each other) and that applies to TV Series and Films, not just games.
I mean, kudos for being able to refrain from Instant Gratification (I do the same too), it’s just that nowadays that doesn’t seem to be what most people do.
Or they could release one per week, two batches isn’t really “starting to get wise to that” imho. Either way, being patient is the best and only paying for one month
Not if they start to limit you to 3 episodes of a particular series per week
Don’t.Give.The.Mouse.Ideas.
I think it’s just the beginning. They’ll split seasons eventually into 3 or more parts. Or if you wait till all seasons are released, they’ll paywall earlier parts. They know people won’t wait that long, especially with how easy it is to have things spoiled by social media or among friends/co-workers.
Sign up for a month, binge, cancel, next.
That’s not going to last. As soon as they run the numbers and decide it’s worth it, they’ll create ways to lock you in.
The difference between watching something programmers and on demand is big. I still detest the newer prices though coupled with the decline in interesting content.
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I’m paying for Spotify and Netflix because they are very convenient. I’m not paying for another 5 subscriptions because they maybe have this one show I would like to watch. They worked hard on fragmenting the marked and now they will complain people don’t want to pay for 10 different subscriptions
Music services are almost a necessity to me because of the amount of music I listen to, but it’s also a different animal. They all have mostly the same library, so you won’t typically be subscribing to more than one.
The problem with streaming video services is that most people watch a couple genres, and there’s content in every genre on every streaming platform. I watch a lot of scifi, for example. So I would need to subscribe to Apple TV for Silo and Foundation, Paramount+ for Star Trek, etc…
I just jump from service to service to watch the shows I’m interested in. No way in hell I’m paying for them all at once.
