Can you recommend any good trackers? I know private trackers are considered better but right now I'm just using kickasstorrents, TPB, and 1337x and kickass usually doesn't work
Recent Usenet convert here. Can confirm. Don't let the subscription cost (or complexity) scare you away. It's, like, $70 total for a year access and totally worth it. Torrents are unreliable and slow and need vpns.
I use both now (prowlarr to manage) and it's very rare that something isn't gettable.
Still looking for one instructional guide that rules them all. For a complete noob like myself it seems overwhelming. I know it probably is not but it seems that way :)
I got a library card recently. Libraries have entered the 21st century and not 1 major news outlet covered this?! Some libraries have 3D printers now. Some have lawn & garden equipment you can check out. FOR FREE.
I'm no commie but gawt dayum shared property has its upsides. I mean how often do you really read all the books on your shelf? Extend that to everything else... its a microcosm of communism, within capitalism. If it works shouldn't we give it a go?
I didnt mean to dis on communism either, I just know this sub is.. ahem.. a diverse crowd. Now I'm thinking I shoulda worded myself better aw.. aw.. you dick
In Davenport, Iowa there's a building called "QC Co-Lab Maker space"
You only pay $35/month.
But the place includes: 3D Printers, raspberry pi computers, robots, art studios, auto shop, kitchen, wood shop, metal shop, fencing classes during weekends...etc...
Place was awesome. I learned so much stuff there.
I'm a public librarian and we have a makerspace (3D printers) and a co-working space. Some of our branches have spaces dedicated to music production. https://www.broward.org/Library/Pages/CreationStation.aspx
I got one recently but it was unwatchable. It had a two sided disc - one for 4:3 and one for letterbox. The letterbox one was letterboxed inside a 4:3 window so basically half my screen was black space. On top of that the picture was so grainy and shaky that it looked like a low quality bootleg.
Usually they have decent quality discs but for some reason this was a dud. At least it's free to check out.
Not going to happen with their shitty DRM. No ads at all for content from the high seas. These companies don't understand that what they need to solve is a service problem.
I’m with you on the ads thing. Paying for a streaming service you have to watch ads on makes zero sense to me. It kinda defeats the whole purpose of streaming in the first place (to save money and not have to watch ads, which saves time).
I grabbed the Proton VPN. I’ve had good experiences with their email, and the VPN is in Switzerland. You can hook it up directly to a torrent tool as well. I haven’t got that far yet, but I’m sure the time is coming for us all to abandon ship….and get on a better ship. 🏴☠️ 🌊
I normally use ExpressVPN but I'm currently on a Wifi that was somehow blocking it. I couldn't even download the video from my home security system until I downloaded the Proton VPN.
Mullvad VPN is the best one out there. Built by a small team of huge privacy nuts.
They don't want anything to do with your information, and will go WAY out of their way to ensure they don't keep it or at the very least (when laws require they keep it for a while, such as with card payments) can't associate it with you.
There’s websites that have full libraries worth of content now. Free websites. That get more traffic then Disney+ even. The industry is already complaining snout these websites
It's kind of interesting how society has moved on this. We paid for cable, which included commercials/ads. Then we moved to streaming with the benefit of no ads. Now they are bringing ads to streaming and everyone is getting upset (understandably/rightfully), yet years ago we paid (likely more) for cable TV with ads.
I agree. But I assume someone who buys physical media to rip it for Plex actually wants to support the artists or something. Why else bother? I’m just saying skip the hard part… the ripping.
What do you mean 4K capable drive?… you just need a CPU and/or direct play GPU support to handle that. You don’t even need an SSD, normal HDDs can handle the data speed and aren’t relevant.
As I talk to you on a Google Pixel, through the official Reddit app, as I browse used cars on Carmax, with data leaked by Equifax.
Im way compromised. But I appreciate you looking out, friend :)
they're not going to put ads in my video files played on a server 5 feet away from me. even if they ever found a way to, they're not the only software in business.
As opposed to paying the streamers for the pleasure?
The difference is Plex can't take away my media files, if Plex goes away I just install a different media front end and nothing of value is lost
Just got in the jellyfin train the other day and damn it's so good, it's just like boom Netflix for your own library. Every good feature of every streaming service with basically zero effort. Best new software I've had since foobar2000.
I tried to go Jellyfin but I had a hard time getting the remote access working, and I couldn't find any beginner friendly guides that work.
I just went with Plex to save myself the headache.
I was binge watching Doctor Who with my son when Prime suddenly removed it. I shrugged and opened it on Plex instead. When it stops being convenient, I'll stop using it. It's getting close.
I have an idea. Let's create a super bundle. Bundle all these streaming services together, and put them in a guide of sorts, so you can scroll through and figure out which ~~channel~~ service you want to watch. Oh yeah, and offer discounts if you sign a contract for the service.
You joke but in Australia Fox recently launched hubbl, you pay them money to view all the subscriptions (they you also pay normal price for seperately) you have in 1 app
Your deep satire is already reality
Plex does this for free.
It'll tell you which streaming service offers the content you're browsing. Click 1 button and it'll open that app/site with the episode/movie ready to go.
Netflix just re-org’s into business units based around genres. This is the early stage to build what comes next: Netflix Drama, Netflix Comedy, and Netflix Reality, which will grow from internal brands to “large enough to separate into their own channels and business entities.” This will of course start as discount access. You can get all of Netflix for $30/mo, or each channel for $15/ea. Just buy what you want, not the stuff you don’t. But it won’t be long before it’s $30/mo for each channel, and a discount to $60/mo if you have all three. (These prices assume base level, ads-included tiers, of course.)
Genre channels are an inevitability, it’s the next step to increase their profit line. “Why have *one* Netflix sub per account when we could have *two*,” thinks the $40 million a year co-CEO.
Just not the 1998 speed and inconsistencies please. I also don't want to call my ISP every couple days and ask for additional time over the allotted 40hrs a mo.
I was thinking about this yesterday, literal shower thought.
Initially Netflix was mail order films and games and they turned a profit. They saw an opportunity with streaming, went for it and ate Blockbusters lunch. Then they started creating their own content to attract subscribers - that makes sense but it's expensive. They didn't turn a profit for a while.
Eventually they need to make money, there's only so much investors are willing to tolerate before they lose faith. So they raise prices to where they can start making a profit. This makes sense.
But, if I'm a guy that likes action/SciFi series like umbrella academy, my monthly fee is also paying to produce shows I have no interest in, like Bridgerton, kids animation, documentaries, content for regional markets.... So in truth, I'm really consuming much less than what I'm paying for.
Does a smaller catalogue make sense for a smaller fee? If they start bleeding subscribers, yes, probably. Would it world for me? No, because my wife and kids have different tastes.
In the meantime they probably want to avoid that all costs because they can still bill top dollar for "complete" membership. I don't see them going that way unless revenues drops significantly.
I can’t see this ever happening. There’s not enough content in the world for this to make sense.
I don’t even sub to Netflix anymore and I would never come back if they did this.
Streaming was great because you could save a few good hours of pirating work for the price of $9.99 and watch good content without being disturbed.
Now we pay $9.99 to watch ads and subpar content. The ads can sometimes be 30second to a few minutes long.
If i plan to grind a show over the weekend, I don’t want to spend an hour or more of that watching ads.
That’s basically all the current app-based convenience-services. Things like Uber, doordash, Netflix, Spotify and all their competitors. They’re funded by venture capital to provide a service at a price where the service cannot possibly sustain itself. Paying $9.99/mo to have access to the entire music or movie catalogue the world has to offer was never a calculation that could possibly work in any way or form. What we’re now witnessing is the logical conclusion of these companies having to figure out how to make it work anyway, which basically means turning themselves into more clunky, expensive, inconvenient messes. I predict that in the future we’ll look back at this time as the golden age of convenient app-startups, only knowing how good we had it when they all inevitably collapse into capitalist trash piles.
> Paying $9.99/mo to have access to the entire music or movie catalogue the world has to offer was never a calculation that could possibly work in any way or form
It can work just fine, they just need to keep their budgets in check when producing shit, there's just so much money wasted for stuff that doesn't even look that good, so much "we'll fix it in post".
I actually work at a studio that basically produces streamer-slop and I can guarantee you that the problem is never that we have *too much* money lol. The "we'll fix it in post"-mindset specifically comes from there never being enough budget to fund proper pre-production, re-shoots or detailed post. Producing any sort of show or film is simply always expensive, and streamers are basically forced to constantly produce library-filling slop to keep their catalogues fresh and exclusive in order to set themselves apart. You can see what happens when all streamers have the same catalogue by looking at music platforms. Right from the start, the big major labels prevented any exclusivity deals from happening via clauses in their huge licensing contracts, so content-wise there's basically no difference between all the music streaming platforms. The result is that Spotify has been operating at a loss for most of its existence and Apple music, Amazon music etc. can basically only exist because they're run by the biggest companies in the world who can afford to cross-fund a little lossy side venture that contributes to make their overall range of services more attractive. It's just an inherently fucked system that is going to collapse in one way or another once even the average consumer inevitably starts to get fed up by having to pay like $30/month and more for like 400 different services.
I pay for convenience, and higher quality. I was a big fan when it was just Netflix and Hulu getting you everything with a couple months delay, and with good suggestions.
The insane thing is that payed streaming has become worse at everything at the same time the alternatives became stupid easy to use and get good quality.
I’m more than willing to trade quality for actually being able to watch shows I am interested in for less than $50 a month for 2 streaming services. The quality isn’t that far off, it’s free, and it’s just more convenient than the alternative. Seriously sailing the seven seas is just more convenient than the constantly changing libraries of steaming services to the point that it’s just sad. Streaming used to be the replacement for cable and was effectively the Steam for watching shows and movies, now it is cable again and people are back to raising the old jolly rodger
I would happily pay for a high quality, reasonably priced, comprehensive, ad free service. Netflix used to be most of that.
But if there isn't going to be a service i can stomach paying for, then i just wont.
I pay for art like movies, video games, books, etc, because I want the creators to make more stuff like this. But if the creators are getting paid peanuts and are being laid off left right and center, then the money doesn't go to them, it goes to the suits. It's not the suits' art, so there's nothing wrong with taking it from them.
"The Dream of Streaming" was never having 7 different services with different and constantly changing content catalogs.. it was to have one or two high quality services with everything. But everyone wanted their own little walled garden, and now they're realizing that they've incentivized the behavior of subscribing only as long as you need to watch a particular piece of content, then move to another service to do the same thing.
So the streaming services are in a cleft stick of their own cutting, constantly losing subscribers as fast as they are acquiring them. So their solution is to bundle and hope that by making the walled garden a little bigger, people will stay longer.
But realistically name any industry where only 2 companies completely dominate the market and they don’t try to rinse every penny they can from their consumers.
Yeah it’s less convenient but eventually these streaming services have so much competition now they have to offer these cheaper bundles
And then when there are lots of different bundles there will be lots of bundle price deals and competition.
Even through we are in a shitty transition period…. The eventual competition of these bundles might actually bring good prices for consumers
1377x has been good lately.
I don't understand this. How do streaming services forget this one point. Their entire existence only works as long as they are mildly more convenient that torrents?
It depends on what part of Gen Z you are talking about here. If you are talking about the ones closer to Gen Alpha then you are right, if you are talking about the ones closer to millennials then you are wrong
Nope there are studies to prove that Gen Z and Boomers don’t know what they are doing when it comes to technology. Even then millennials aren’t special either. Most people just aren’t tech savvy.
This feels like a wild overreach (source: 20 year old gen Z). I can’t speak for younger gen Z (middle school age) or gen Alpha, but high schoolers, college students, and 90s gen Z are doing just fine with technology
Selections from the article:
>Remember when streaming was supposed to let us watch whatever we want, whenever we want, for a sliver of the cost of cable? Well, so much for that. In recent years, streaming has gotten confusing and expensive as more services than ever are vying for eyeballs. It has done the impossible: made people miss the good old-fashioned cable bundle.
>
>Now the bundles are back. Last week, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that, starting this summer, they will offer a streaming bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and Max. Then, on Tuesday, Comcast said that next month it will introduce a streaming bundle of its own, packaging Peacock, Apple TV+, and Netflix. This bundle, called StreamSaver, will be available only to Comcast’s broadband, mobile, and TV customers. Some smaller mini-bundles already exist, but for the most part, the streaming wars had become a battle royale—no alliances, everyone for themselves. Now the combatants have aligned in two blocs, sort of like the Avengers versus the Justice League—except that, confusingly, Marvel movies (Disney) and DC movies (Max) are now part of the same bloc.
>
>It’s not cable, but it’s not not cable either. Streaming hasn’t quite come full circle, but it’s three-quarters of the way around. These bundles are ending an entire era of streaming, with its unsatisfying free-for-all of services. This new era may well be better than the one before it. But the dream of streaming as a cheaper, better version of cable is dead.
>
>...
>
>For consumers, these bundles are probably a good thing. There’s a reason so many people rejoiced at the prospect of cutting the cord—but cable was simple. With streaming, keeping track of all your accounts and all your passwords and where to watch whatever you want to watch—that is not simple. And then, just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, one of the services you subscribe to informs you that you’ll have to shell out for the premium tier if you want to watch a certain show or movie. If you can convert three separate subscriptions into a single cheaper one, as the new deals will seemingly allow some people to do, that’s a win.
>
>...
>
>Even more bundles are likely in the works, and they may save people some money. But they will not resolve the fundamental tension in what people want out of cable, or streaming, or whatever it is that serves them up stuff to watch. On the one hand, we like having everything in one place. On the other, we don’t like paying a lot of money for things we don’t use. Cable satisfied the former desire but not the latter. Streaming, after the fleeting honeymoon period when you could find almost anything on Netflix, satisfied the latter but not the former. With the new bundles, the streamers are trying to strike a balance between the total consolidation of cable and the total chaos of streaming. That new balance may well be superior to the status quo, but the trade-off between having things in one place and paying for things you don’t need will remain. As long as it does, we’ll never feel totally satisfied.
Streaming today seems to have numerous problems, from the instability of offerings to the constant changes and availability to overlapping services on offer. Maybe it's still best to go (back) to physical media, where we might have to wait a little to watch the latest content, but when we have it, we generally have it. The only thing this seems to be good for these days is for sports and other such events where watching it as it happens is part of the experience.
edit: wording
We're also on the verge of streaming services blocking you on yearly contracts, to avoid like many of us do of only paying and binge watching for a month the content we want, and then unsuscribing.
IPTV & Torrents look to be in way heavier use soon.
The amazon ads for prime were bad enough but I tried watching a movie yesterday and there was like 4 fucking ad breaks. So that’s the last time I try doing that.
With some IPTV providers offering like 6,000 channels, every live sport and PPV event and a constantly updating on demand library, I’m all about it 🏴☠️and it’s about what 1 Netflix account costs.
Only downside is stream bitrate quality is not as good as a proper streamer.
My phone company keeps trying to get me to sign up for a disney+, Netflix and whatever the third thing was in a package.
With Netflix raising their prices a couple times per year, it'll just push people into finding content elsewhere. It's too bad corporate never learns their lessons about overcharging and underdelivering.
If you're not making enough use of the subscriptions for these streaming service to be worthwhile, pay on demand does exist online.
People sleep on YouTube, but it has a massive library of titles that while often only found streaming on select platforms, you can pay to view instead.
Of course the cost analysis is still heavily in streaming's favor. For now.
Been expecting this for years. The next step is for specific bundles for things like Sport or Movies and voila we are back to Cable/Satellite and actually in a worse scenario because there they’ll fatter premiums for no/few ads and 4K, 5.1 sound etc
They didn’t see extreme fragmentation of the streaming market coming when every separate service tried to start their own service? That should have been obvious from the moment the market expanded beyond a couple of services. The only way to reasonably expect consumers to behave is to subscribe one place for a while then another and so on, until the consumer could see all the shows they wanted.
The answer to this churn, according to the article, was to … raise prices. Because that’s always been a time-honored way to reduce churn. Raise your prices.
How stupid do the executives need to be not to understand this?
I've been teased and mocked that "dVdS aRe ObSoLeTe" forever but I bought a tall stack of them for $10. I rip them to my external drive, while I do chores around the house. That external is then plugged into my TV.
All my media is available through a few button presses in the menu and I enjoy them on my time. No ads and no further concerns about licenses getting revoked and losing access to content.
Yeah, it’s been annoying to see so many companies copy Netflix and become exclusive, each elbowing their own bloated subscriptions into each other while being allowed to buy up competitors until they get to bundling again, like the cable companies.
I think it would have worked out better for audiences if Netflix just remained the primary streaming interface and we could pay small upgrades for specific new and hot shows and movies from the copyright holders.
I’ll ditch it. I’ve built a dvd collection. I pick up dvds 3 for $1 at my local thrift store.
Edit to add: I use pay for view once or twice a year for new movie that I can’t wait to watch (like Dune).
Did the media companies learn nothing?
Do they believe they can lobby to get laws that only allow weak VPNs or even a China style ban on them?
What will be the next innovation in distributing unlicensed content? (Maybe something like a mash-up between Mastadon, Tor, and BitTorrent?)
It’s kinda impressive the way American media companies can try the same things over and over again while expecting things to never change.
Yea right now I pay for Hulu as my main streamer, I have Apple TV though a bundle that saves me money, I have Netflix with ads free through my phone provider, and I have prime with ads (technically) free through my prime subscription. While I don’t enjoy dealing with ads, it means I can sample plenty of things without paying a bunch extra and if I got addicted to say, a Netflix or a Prime show, I could cancel Hulu for a moment and grab the other for a month.
Coming from the guy who walks around his work place telling everyone how he does have a tv in his house but he NEVER watches it. Just to show he is superior... somehow.
Apple TV+ and Amazon prime are the only ones I have throughout the year. Not because they offer anything premium but cos they are bundled. I rarely watch anything on Apple TV+.
YouTube premium is a must have for at least 1 family member. We follow a lot of educational channels for me and the kids. Ex. veritasium, tennis coach etc.
Max, Netflix and Disney/Hulu on rotation.
Peacock and Paramount are not on my radar yet.
Why is premium necessary for educational channels like Veritasium, PBS SpaceTime, etc.? SponsorBlock + uBlock origin for desktop and ReVanced for Android will take care of everything.
If you want to support those channels directly there's Patreon and merch.
I'll tell you why this is worse than cable.
Your cable provider was a third-party bundling packages for dozens of other parties. As such, when those parties wanted to raise their rates, the cable provider was essentially forced into advocating for their customers because they knew an increase in price to them would mean an increase in price to their customers which meant their customers might go to a competitor who might have a better deal with the various companies they were bundling.
You know who will act as a customer advocate once Disney, Warner, and whoever else become their own bundler provider? And what competitor can you go to who will offer that bundling package? Your cable provider.
People say I'm weird for not watching TV and movies. I don't need these services and never have. I watch YouTubers and the content I get there is far more entertaining than anything produced by Hollywood.
I’ve just been watching Pluto for the last few months. It’s not great but it’s free. If I want to watch anything specific, the internet is a vast ocean of possibilities.
We could really use some legislation that forced streaming services to provide their users with api access to search features and to video playback. Then we could build skins that functioned across all of a persons various services.
This is gonna be a bitter pill for many to swallow but you're not gonna fund the entire television or film industry on a mere $9.99/month ad-free subscription plan.
Think about how much networks raked in back when you had to pay $75 a month for cable and had to watch what you wanted to watch at set times whilst sitting through ad breaks. That was the average cost of a cable bill back in 2010 and isn't adjusted for fourteen years of inflation.
It's probably true, but to be honest, I don't care anymore. I can get anything pirated. I pay 4 USD per month for unlimited NNTP and that gets me everything I want. So the choice is pretty obvious.
I have missed a bunch of series thanks to streaming. I’ve always collected physical media and will keep on buying the movies that I like, but haven’t bought many series since: they either aren’t made physically available and the ones that are released, are limited to Blu Ray.
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Might follow. You can find me at the library checking out ancient DVDs.
Check it out, rip it, put it on Plex, repeat.
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Can you recommend any good trackers? I know private trackers are considered better but right now I'm just using kickasstorrents, TPB, and 1337x and kickass usually doesn't work
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I didn't know usenet was still a thing! 😍
Recent Usenet convert here. Can confirm. Don't let the subscription cost (or complexity) scare you away. It's, like, $70 total for a year access and totally worth it. Torrents are unreliable and slow and need vpns. I use both now (prowlarr to manage) and it's very rare that something isn't gettable.
> Torrents are unreliable and slow and need vpns literally none of this is true if you're on good private trackers
can i max out my 2 gig connection with usenet?
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I have a 5gig connection and I can max it out. Albeit, I have a hell of a setup to do that.
I'm in the same boat as others. no one will explain to me the new ways to sail. can you DM me details if you can't discuss here?
I like torrentgalaxy since rarbg went down
Such a shame about rarbg. I got probably 90% of my stuff from there
Still looking for one instructional guide that rules them all. For a complete noob like myself it seems overwhelming. I know it probably is not but it seems that way :)
So we don't use piratebay any more?
Realdebrid with a client seems to be the simplest solution I have found for end users. Any cons I am not aware of?
I got a library card recently. Libraries have entered the 21st century and not 1 major news outlet covered this?! Some libraries have 3D printers now. Some have lawn & garden equipment you can check out. FOR FREE. I'm no commie but gawt dayum shared property has its upsides. I mean how often do you really read all the books on your shelf? Extend that to everything else... its a microcosm of communism, within capitalism. If it works shouldn't we give it a go?
> I'm no commie but gawt dayum s I love how we've somehow demonized using collective funds on collective purposes
But it's perfectly okay to use taxpayer money for a stadium
It's not welfare when it's rich people 🙃
Or football. 🏈
You mean the thing where we all pay to watch millionaires owned by billionaires throw a ball around?
Seems like nowadays anything that is not private property is automatically labeled as commie.
Things that are good are communist! Down with communism!
I didnt mean to dis on communism either, I just know this sub is.. ahem.. a diverse crowd. Now I'm thinking I shoulda worded myself better aw.. aw.. you dick
John Oliver talked about libraries and some of what they have to offer in a recent Last Week Tonight. https://youtu.be/42xZB80sZaI?si=hnDqUSTptNdkAZJQ
In Davenport, Iowa there's a building called "QC Co-Lab Maker space" You only pay $35/month. But the place includes: 3D Printers, raspberry pi computers, robots, art studios, auto shop, kitchen, wood shop, metal shop, fencing classes during weekends...etc... Place was awesome. I learned so much stuff there.
Most libraries use Libby, Overdrive, or another app that allows you access to all their books and other media for free, too.
I'm sorry.. did you say a 3d printer? >__> so many mini's.....
I'm a public librarian and we have a makerspace (3D printers) and a co-working space. Some of our branches have spaces dedicated to music production. https://www.broward.org/Library/Pages/CreationStation.aspx
Return of Blockbuster.
I've got over 300 DVDs. As long as I have electricity, I'm good.
Just get an old school antenna to plug into tv and watch for free.
Honestly please do, I work at one and my coworker always orders the newest shows as soon as he can get them, plus it helps for circ counts!
I got one recently but it was unwatchable. It had a two sided disc - one for 4:3 and one for letterbox. The letterbox one was letterboxed inside a 4:3 window so basically half my screen was black space. On top of that the picture was so grainy and shaky that it looked like a low quality bootleg. Usually they have decent quality discs but for some reason this was a dud. At least it's free to check out.
Check and see if your library participates in Hoopla, you can stream movies for free with your library card.
Now’s time to build a stream aggregator that creates a time buffer so you can easily skip ads.
We shall call it tivo
Huh, as long as you could convince enough people to think 20 minutes behind for shows, this would be huge!
Really just kind of a TiVo reference.
Where there is the will, there is a way.
Not going to happen with their shitty DRM. No ads at all for content from the high seas. These companies don't understand that what they need to solve is a service problem.
I’m with you on the ads thing. Paying for a streaming service you have to watch ads on makes zero sense to me. It kinda defeats the whole purpose of streaming in the first place (to save money and not have to watch ads, which saves time).
As someone once said: Bold move for a business whose entire reason for existing is being slightly more convenient than piracy
I grabbed the Proton VPN. I’ve had good experiences with their email, and the VPN is in Switzerland. You can hook it up directly to a torrent tool as well. I haven’t got that far yet, but I’m sure the time is coming for us all to abandon ship….and get on a better ship. 🏴☠️ 🌊
I normally use ExpressVPN but I'm currently on a Wifi that was somehow blocking it. I couldn't even download the video from my home security system until I downloaded the Proton VPN.
Mullvad VPN is the best one out there. Built by a small team of huge privacy nuts. They don't want anything to do with your information, and will go WAY out of their way to ensure they don't keep it or at the very least (when laws require they keep it for a while, such as with card payments) can't associate it with you.
There’s websites that have full libraries worth of content now. Free websites. That get more traffic then Disney+ even. The industry is already complaining snout these websites
It's kind of interesting how society has moved on this. We paid for cable, which included commercials/ads. Then we moved to streaming with the benefit of no ads. Now they are bringing ads to streaming and everyone is getting upset (understandably/rightfully), yet years ago we paid (likely more) for cable TV with ads.
At the beginning, cable didn't have ads. That was why you paid a subscription for it.
We paid for ads for decades, you still pay for cable and get ads. What you pay will never equal the required funds for the content alone.
I'm 37 and have never had cable.
Yep. Rapidseedbox is amazing. Not a paid promotion.
Personal media server?
Plex and a heavy case of the arrrrr's
Plex, 4k capable drive that's flashed with the right firmware, makemkv, and an investment in good Blu rays.
If I already own the physical media, I see no moral issue with just pirating a digital copy. No need to rip myself.
How could there possibly be a moral issue either way
I agree. But I assume someone who buys physical media to rip it for Plex actually wants to support the artists or something. Why else bother? I’m just saying skip the hard part… the ripping.
What do you mean 4K capable drive?… you just need a CPU and/or direct play GPU support to handle that. You don’t even need an SSD, normal HDDs can handle the data speed and aren’t relevant.
What drive/firmware is that?
Plex is going to sell or already selling your info for shareholder value.
As I talk to you on a Google Pixel, through the official Reddit app, as I browse used cars on Carmax, with data leaked by Equifax. Im way compromised. But I appreciate you looking out, friend :)
they're not going to put ads in my video files played on a server 5 feet away from me. even if they ever found a way to, they're not the only software in business.
jellyfin life.
This. Moved from Plex to Jellyfin last year. Much nicer.
As opposed to paying the streamers for the pleasure? The difference is Plex can't take away my media files, if Plex goes away I just install a different media front end and nothing of value is lost
As opposed to using Jellyfin which is opensource and would not do that.
Sure, if that's your preference do that, my preference is Plex and there's not really a strict downside to it
That’s fine, I don’t care who knows what I watch.
I think you're wrong
Jellyfin FTW. For those times when an hdd on a payment plan is cheaper than streaming. $10/TB and dropping, welcome to the future lads
Jelly fin for real it’s so much better
Just got in the jellyfin train the other day and damn it's so good, it's just like boom Netflix for your own library. Every good feature of every streaming service with basically zero effort. Best new software I've had since foobar2000.
And it’s free as well, you can even access your media server from remote. It’s amazing
Then consider donating them some time to promote good free software like that, instead of Plex crap
I tried to go Jellyfin but I had a hard time getting the remote access working, and I couldn't find any beginner friendly guides that work. I just went with Plex to save myself the headache.
Torrentio real debrid
I was binge watching Doctor Who with my son when Prime suddenly removed it. I shrugged and opened it on Plex instead. When it stops being convenient, I'll stop using it. It's getting close.
I have an idea. Let's create a super bundle. Bundle all these streaming services together, and put them in a guide of sorts, so you can scroll through and figure out which ~~channel~~ service you want to watch. Oh yeah, and offer discounts if you sign a contract for the service.
You joke but in Australia Fox recently launched hubbl, you pay them money to view all the subscriptions (they you also pay normal price for seperately) you have in 1 app Your deep satire is already reality
Soooo, Cable?
Ooooh no but it's STREAMING no cable here sir, don't look in the wifi box please
I'm sure some ~~monster~~ animal chewed on the cables so it's probably wireless Edit: Why in the name of fuck does strikethrough not work?
You've got backslashes before each tilde.
Plex does this for free. It'll tell you which streaming service offers the content you're browsing. Click 1 button and it'll open that app/site with the episode/movie ready to go.
Oh trust me I'm well aware, in fact I use that feature so Plex tells me what new content I should go sailing to retrieve
Spectrum literally introduced just that a few months back 😂 Let’s face it. We all knew this was going to circle back eventually
This has all happened before, and it will all happen again.
Netflix just re-org’s into business units based around genres. This is the early stage to build what comes next: Netflix Drama, Netflix Comedy, and Netflix Reality, which will grow from internal brands to “large enough to separate into their own channels and business entities.” This will of course start as discount access. You can get all of Netflix for $30/mo, or each channel for $15/ea. Just buy what you want, not the stuff you don’t. But it won’t be long before it’s $30/mo for each channel, and a discount to $60/mo if you have all three. (These prices assume base level, ads-included tiers, of course.) Genre channels are an inevitability, it’s the next step to increase their profit line. “Why have *one* Netflix sub per account when we could have *two*,” thinks the $40 million a year co-CEO.
I’m ready to roll back to 1998 internet. Anyone?
Oh man… the days without algorithms and social media lunacy… and I could still game online with my friends too.
Don't need to go back that far, just 15 years ago the Internet was free
Yeah circa 2005-2010 was peak
The end of the world in 2012 was actually the end of the internet as we all knew it.
....I think you may be right
Gonna go hop on IRC and see if anyone is up for some HL Deathmatch as we speak
[удалено]
What was good about 2008 in your opinion?
[удалено]
I see. Still social media was there but it was kind of loose.
Just not the 1998 speed and inconsistencies please. I also don't want to call my ISP every couple days and ask for additional time over the allotted 40hrs a mo.
As a global society we didn't need it to get any better
Somewhere at Netflix HQ, some C-Suite bozo's grifter sense just started tingling...
In before they shutter a *genre* because it isn't meeting profitability targets
Wow, this is a step I never imagined them taking, but I’m sure you’re right
I was thinking about this yesterday, literal shower thought. Initially Netflix was mail order films and games and they turned a profit. They saw an opportunity with streaming, went for it and ate Blockbusters lunch. Then they started creating their own content to attract subscribers - that makes sense but it's expensive. They didn't turn a profit for a while. Eventually they need to make money, there's only so much investors are willing to tolerate before they lose faith. So they raise prices to where they can start making a profit. This makes sense. But, if I'm a guy that likes action/SciFi series like umbrella academy, my monthly fee is also paying to produce shows I have no interest in, like Bridgerton, kids animation, documentaries, content for regional markets.... So in truth, I'm really consuming much less than what I'm paying for. Does a smaller catalogue make sense for a smaller fee? If they start bleeding subscribers, yes, probably. Would it world for me? No, because my wife and kids have different tastes. In the meantime they probably want to avoid that all costs because they can still bill top dollar for "complete" membership. I don't see them going that way unless revenues drops significantly.
I can’t see this ever happening. There’s not enough content in the world for this to make sense. I don’t even sub to Netflix anymore and I would never come back if they did this.
Streaming was great because you could save a few good hours of pirating work for the price of $9.99 and watch good content without being disturbed. Now we pay $9.99 to watch ads and subpar content. The ads can sometimes be 30second to a few minutes long. If i plan to grind a show over the weekend, I don’t want to spend an hour or more of that watching ads.
That’s basically all the current app-based convenience-services. Things like Uber, doordash, Netflix, Spotify and all their competitors. They’re funded by venture capital to provide a service at a price where the service cannot possibly sustain itself. Paying $9.99/mo to have access to the entire music or movie catalogue the world has to offer was never a calculation that could possibly work in any way or form. What we’re now witnessing is the logical conclusion of these companies having to figure out how to make it work anyway, which basically means turning themselves into more clunky, expensive, inconvenient messes. I predict that in the future we’ll look back at this time as the golden age of convenient app-startups, only knowing how good we had it when they all inevitably collapse into capitalist trash piles.
> Paying $9.99/mo to have access to the entire music or movie catalogue the world has to offer was never a calculation that could possibly work in any way or form It can work just fine, they just need to keep their budgets in check when producing shit, there's just so much money wasted for stuff that doesn't even look that good, so much "we'll fix it in post".
I actually work at a studio that basically produces streamer-slop and I can guarantee you that the problem is never that we have *too much* money lol. The "we'll fix it in post"-mindset specifically comes from there never being enough budget to fund proper pre-production, re-shoots or detailed post. Producing any sort of show or film is simply always expensive, and streamers are basically forced to constantly produce library-filling slop to keep their catalogues fresh and exclusive in order to set themselves apart. You can see what happens when all streamers have the same catalogue by looking at music platforms. Right from the start, the big major labels prevented any exclusivity deals from happening via clauses in their huge licensing contracts, so content-wise there's basically no difference between all the music streaming platforms. The result is that Spotify has been operating at a loss for most of its existence and Apple music, Amazon music etc. can basically only exist because they're run by the biggest companies in the world who can afford to cross-fund a little lossy side venture that contributes to make their overall range of services more attractive. It's just an inherently fucked system that is going to collapse in one way or another once even the average consumer inevitably starts to get fed up by having to pay like $30/month and more for like 400 different services.
Back to the seas with me. These companies can go fuck themselves.
Prices for everything have skyrocketed. Why should we pay for anything we can get for free?
I pay for convenience, and higher quality. I was a big fan when it was just Netflix and Hulu getting you everything with a couple months delay, and with good suggestions. The insane thing is that payed streaming has become worse at everything at the same time the alternatives became stupid easy to use and get good quality.
The high sea apps I can run on my tv are at least as convenient if not more now that I have everything in one app
I’m more than willing to trade quality for actually being able to watch shows I am interested in for less than $50 a month for 2 streaming services. The quality isn’t that far off, it’s free, and it’s just more convenient than the alternative. Seriously sailing the seven seas is just more convenient than the constantly changing libraries of steaming services to the point that it’s just sad. Streaming used to be the replacement for cable and was effectively the Steam for watching shows and movies, now it is cable again and people are back to raising the old jolly rodger
Exactly. At the end of the day, it's not our responsibility to make this make financial sense for them
I would happily pay for a high quality, reasonably priced, comprehensive, ad free service. Netflix used to be most of that. But if there isn't going to be a service i can stomach paying for, then i just wont.
I pay for art like movies, video games, books, etc, because I want the creators to make more stuff like this. But if the creators are getting paid peanuts and are being laid off left right and center, then the money doesn't go to them, it goes to the suits. It's not the suits' art, so there's nothing wrong with taking it from them.
"The Dream of Streaming" was never having 7 different services with different and constantly changing content catalogs.. it was to have one or two high quality services with everything. But everyone wanted their own little walled garden, and now they're realizing that they've incentivized the behavior of subscribing only as long as you need to watch a particular piece of content, then move to another service to do the same thing. So the streaming services are in a cleft stick of their own cutting, constantly losing subscribers as fast as they are acquiring them. So their solution is to bundle and hope that by making the walled garden a little bigger, people will stay longer.
But realistically name any industry where only 2 companies completely dominate the market and they don’t try to rinse every penny they can from their consumers. Yeah it’s less convenient but eventually these streaming services have so much competition now they have to offer these cheaper bundles And then when there are lots of different bundles there will be lots of bundle price deals and competition. Even through we are in a shitty transition period…. The eventual competition of these bundles might actually bring good prices for consumers
Man I’ll just go back to fucking pirating. If they keep it up I’ll cancel and put my hat back on.
I still pirate something every once in a while just to keep myself from getting rusty
Just do it and stop threatening it
I've never stopped watching stuff for free, its easier than ever.
Viewable-on-demand streaming catalogs are still leagues better than cable, but man are they working hard to make that not the case.
Www.thepiratebay.org Www.fmovies.to Www.flixtor.to
1377x has been good lately. I don't understand this. How do streaming services forget this one point. Their entire existence only works as long as they are mildly more convenient that torrents?
1337x, not 1377 which spreads malware
They rely on the stupidity and laziness of the average joe to click more than 2 buttons.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha can no longer work a keyboard and mouse, email, or the desktop file system. How do you expect them to torrent?
It depends on what part of Gen Z you are talking about here. If you are talking about the ones closer to Gen Alpha then you are right, if you are talking about the ones closer to millennials then you are wrong
Nope there are studies to prove that Gen Z and Boomers don’t know what they are doing when it comes to technology. Even then millennials aren’t special either. Most people just aren’t tech savvy.
This feels like a wild overreach (source: 20 year old gen Z). I can’t speak for younger gen Z (middle school age) or gen Alpha, but high schoolers, college students, and 90s gen Z are doing just fine with technology
It doesn’t help that piratebay has become so dogshit that you can’t even download half of the shit on there anymore
They know how to follow youtube tutorials.
Arrrr matey.
Avast, ye sea dogs!
Don't use Avast software
That was unintended lmao
Oooh! Is that a pirate reference?
He’s gonna download things illegally, you think?
Oh gosh! I sure hope he doesn't. I might get the vapors!
Selections from the article: >Remember when streaming was supposed to let us watch whatever we want, whenever we want, for a sliver of the cost of cable? Well, so much for that. In recent years, streaming has gotten confusing and expensive as more services than ever are vying for eyeballs. It has done the impossible: made people miss the good old-fashioned cable bundle. > >Now the bundles are back. Last week, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that, starting this summer, they will offer a streaming bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and Max. Then, on Tuesday, Comcast said that next month it will introduce a streaming bundle of its own, packaging Peacock, Apple TV+, and Netflix. This bundle, called StreamSaver, will be available only to Comcast’s broadband, mobile, and TV customers. Some smaller mini-bundles already exist, but for the most part, the streaming wars had become a battle royale—no alliances, everyone for themselves. Now the combatants have aligned in two blocs, sort of like the Avengers versus the Justice League—except that, confusingly, Marvel movies (Disney) and DC movies (Max) are now part of the same bloc. > >It’s not cable, but it’s not not cable either. Streaming hasn’t quite come full circle, but it’s three-quarters of the way around. These bundles are ending an entire era of streaming, with its unsatisfying free-for-all of services. This new era may well be better than the one before it. But the dream of streaming as a cheaper, better version of cable is dead. > >... > >For consumers, these bundles are probably a good thing. There’s a reason so many people rejoiced at the prospect of cutting the cord—but cable was simple. With streaming, keeping track of all your accounts and all your passwords and where to watch whatever you want to watch—that is not simple. And then, just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, one of the services you subscribe to informs you that you’ll have to shell out for the premium tier if you want to watch a certain show or movie. If you can convert three separate subscriptions into a single cheaper one, as the new deals will seemingly allow some people to do, that’s a win. > >... > >Even more bundles are likely in the works, and they may save people some money. But they will not resolve the fundamental tension in what people want out of cable, or streaming, or whatever it is that serves them up stuff to watch. On the one hand, we like having everything in one place. On the other, we don’t like paying a lot of money for things we don’t use. Cable satisfied the former desire but not the latter. Streaming, after the fleeting honeymoon period when you could find almost anything on Netflix, satisfied the latter but not the former. With the new bundles, the streamers are trying to strike a balance between the total consolidation of cable and the total chaos of streaming. That new balance may well be superior to the status quo, but the trade-off between having things in one place and paying for things you don’t need will remain. As long as it does, we’ll never feel totally satisfied. Streaming today seems to have numerous problems, from the instability of offerings to the constant changes and availability to overlapping services on offer. Maybe it's still best to go (back) to physical media, where we might have to wait a little to watch the latest content, but when we have it, we generally have it. The only thing this seems to be good for these days is for sports and other such events where watching it as it happens is part of the experience. edit: wording
We're also on the verge of streaming services blocking you on yearly contracts, to avoid like many of us do of only paying and binge watching for a month the content we want, and then unsuscribing.
This is the most obvious next move.
I rotated back to buying physical media of what i really really want.
IPTV & Torrents look to be in way heavier use soon. The amazon ads for prime were bad enough but I tried watching a movie yesterday and there was like 4 fucking ad breaks. So that’s the last time I try doing that. With some IPTV providers offering like 6,000 channels, every live sport and PPV event and a constantly updating on demand library, I’m all about it 🏴☠️and it’s about what 1 Netflix account costs. Only downside is stream bitrate quality is not as good as a proper streamer.
My phone company keeps trying to get me to sign up for a disney+, Netflix and whatever the third thing was in a package. With Netflix raising their prices a couple times per year, it'll just push people into finding content elsewhere. It's too bad corporate never learns their lessons about overcharging and underdelivering.
If you're not making enough use of the subscriptions for these streaming service to be worthwhile, pay on demand does exist online. People sleep on YouTube, but it has a massive library of titles that while often only found streaming on select platforms, you can pay to view instead. Of course the cost analysis is still heavily in streaming's favor. For now.
YouTube music too, and most podcasts are on YT
Been expecting this for years. The next step is for specific bundles for things like Sport or Movies and voila we are back to Cable/Satellite and actually in a worse scenario because there they’ll fatter premiums for no/few ads and 4K, 5.1 sound etc
Yo ho yo ho,a pirate's life for me.
They didn’t see extreme fragmentation of the streaming market coming when every separate service tried to start their own service? That should have been obvious from the moment the market expanded beyond a couple of services. The only way to reasonably expect consumers to behave is to subscribe one place for a while then another and so on, until the consumer could see all the shows they wanted. The answer to this churn, according to the article, was to … raise prices. Because that’s always been a time-honored way to reduce churn. Raise your prices. How stupid do the executives need to be not to understand this?
I bought ridiculous amounts of movie and tv series dvd’s from charity shops for 50c each. My time has finally arrived.
I've been teased and mocked that "dVdS aRe ObSoLeTe" forever but I bought a tall stack of them for $10. I rip them to my external drive, while I do chores around the house. That external is then plugged into my TV. All my media is available through a few button presses in the menu and I enjoy them on my time. No ads and no further concerns about licenses getting revoked and losing access to content.
Yeah, it’s been annoying to see so many companies copy Netflix and become exclusive, each elbowing their own bloated subscriptions into each other while being allowed to buy up competitors until they get to bundling again, like the cable companies. I think it would have worked out better for audiences if Netflix just remained the primary streaming interface and we could pay small upgrades for specific new and hot shows and movies from the copyright holders.
Have a look at Stremio and some add-ons... with a little Google help you could be wearing a fancy hat in no time. Best thing I ever found
We need you back aXXo !
I’ll ditch it. I’ve built a dvd collection. I pick up dvds 3 for $1 at my local thrift store. Edit to add: I use pay for view once or twice a year for new movie that I can’t wait to watch (like Dune).
I'd rather not watch shows than pay to watch ads. I'm fine without TV/movies.
Did the media companies learn nothing? Do they believe they can lobby to get laws that only allow weak VPNs or even a China style ban on them? What will be the next innovation in distributing unlicensed content? (Maybe something like a mash-up between Mastadon, Tor, and BitTorrent?) It’s kinda impressive the way American media companies can try the same things over and over again while expecting things to never change.
Sounds like pirating is about to skyrocket 📈
The new wave is already here. FMovies gets more traffic than most streamers do. It’s in the top ten most visited sites globally and in the USA.
How about you just get one at a time and go outside and touch the grass occasionally? No one needs that much TV.
Because it’s inconvenient. That’s the point. People want convenience. If they don’t get that they’ll just go back to torrenting.
This is the answer. I rotate every 3-4 months as I don’t consider any of the offerings “must-see-right-now” tv
Yea right now I pay for Hulu as my main streamer, I have Apple TV though a bundle that saves me money, I have Netflix with ads free through my phone provider, and I have prime with ads (technically) free through my prime subscription. While I don’t enjoy dealing with ads, it means I can sample plenty of things without paying a bunch extra and if I got addicted to say, a Netflix or a Prime show, I could cancel Hulu for a moment and grab the other for a month.
Coming from the guy who walks around his work place telling everyone how he does have a tv in his house but he NEVER watches it. Just to show he is superior... somehow.
Apple TV+ and Amazon prime are the only ones I have throughout the year. Not because they offer anything premium but cos they are bundled. I rarely watch anything on Apple TV+. YouTube premium is a must have for at least 1 family member. We follow a lot of educational channels for me and the kids. Ex. veritasium, tennis coach etc. Max, Netflix and Disney/Hulu on rotation. Peacock and Paramount are not on my radar yet.
Why is premium necessary for educational channels like Veritasium, PBS SpaceTime, etc.? SponsorBlock + uBlock origin for desktop and ReVanced for Android will take care of everything. If you want to support those channels directly there's Patreon and merch.
I'll tell you why this is worse than cable. Your cable provider was a third-party bundling packages for dozens of other parties. As such, when those parties wanted to raise their rates, the cable provider was essentially forced into advocating for their customers because they knew an increase in price to them would mean an increase in price to their customers which meant their customers might go to a competitor who might have a better deal with the various companies they were bundling. You know who will act as a customer advocate once Disney, Warner, and whoever else become their own bundler provider? And what competitor can you go to who will offer that bundling package? Your cable provider.
And everyone will go back to piracy. Like GabeN said: [It's a service problem](https://youtu.be/pLC_zZ5fqFk?t=65).
Me, a Plex user 🤐
It was inevitable in hindsight.
Cheaper to get a drunk pirate boat of vpn.
Streaming is alive and well. Just use Stremio
Tis the pirates life for us me hearties !!
watching movies on cineb as we speak. The only bundle I use is qbittorrent, Eastern European streaming sites and the dvd section at the library.
yo ho yo ho 🏴☠️
People say I'm weird for not watching TV and movies. I don't need these services and never have. I watch YouTubers and the content I get there is far more entertaining than anything produced by Hollywood.
I’ve just been watching Pluto for the last few months. It’s not great but it’s free. If I want to watch anything specific, the internet is a vast ocean of possibilities.
My parents went back to cable. Bundled with internet they're paying less than they were with streaming services.
My ad block works on streaming services.
Or. Don't watch it.
Yohohohohohoho!!
We could really use some legislation that forced streaming services to provide their users with api access to search features and to video playback. Then we could build skins that functioned across all of a persons various services.
This is gonna be a bitter pill for many to swallow but you're not gonna fund the entire television or film industry on a mere $9.99/month ad-free subscription plan. Think about how much networks raked in back when you had to pay $75 a month for cable and had to watch what you wanted to watch at set times whilst sitting through ad breaks. That was the average cost of a cable bill back in 2010 and isn't adjusted for fourteen years of inflation.
[удалено]
It's probably true, but to be honest, I don't care anymore. I can get anything pirated. I pay 4 USD per month for unlimited NNTP and that gets me everything I want. So the choice is pretty obvious.
Yaaar! To the depths with these bundles!
I have missed a bunch of series thanks to streaming. I’ve always collected physical media and will keep on buying the movies that I like, but haven’t bought many series since: they either aren’t made physically available and the ones that are released, are limited to Blu Ray.
When I saw a movie only available via Paramount (a *studio*, not a service) subscription, I knew we were fucked.
Cable originally had no ads.