Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated • Hacker News Board

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#161

Post by dewey » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 1:07 PM UTC

dillonmckay wrote: post #152

dewey wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also depends on which country you want to watch through a VPN. The most desired countries like US / UK usually have a lot of working VPNs available as the VPN companies put a lot of resources into keeping them working. Using a VPN for a smaller country usually doesn't work in my experience.

I always liked the idea of using VPNs from different countries to see what local and regional shows and movies are offered in the respective region.

There’s also https://www.justwatch.com for that.

Disclaimer: I work there

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#162

Post by rusticpenn » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 1:27 PM UTC

michaelscott wrote: post #117

dagw wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since works get taken out of streaming, you might find things aren't available next month Either that or Netflix only has rights to the first couple of seasons (or in some cases the middle few seasons) so if you actually end up liking the show you're screwed since you won't be able to watch the whole thing. Another annoying problem is that in some cases and in some countries Netflix only has the dubbed version of a m…

Another weird corner case is when you want to watch a foreign language film, but because I happen to be in a country where I don't speak any of the local languages I also can't use subtitles (they don't provide English subtitles universally). This is probably an incredibly rare thing for most people though I admit.

Not rare if you are an english speaker living in Europe..

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#163

Post by netwanderer3 » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 2:09 PM UTC

chx wrote: post #67

voidwtf wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same old out of touch attitude that led to the “you wouldn’t steal a car would you” commercials. Nobody has to watch the content but they want to. You have fly-by-nights and unethical operations abounding that make everything only a google search away, sometimes with a single click. I agree that people should not be entitled to the intellectual property of others. However, like the war on drugs and sex ed…

> You have fly-by-nights and unethical operations abounding that make everything only a google search away, sometimes with a single click. Somebody uploaded the entire The Queen's Corgi on YouTube in pristine 720p quality (they must have had access to a BluRay to get this quality) and it's not even out in the USA yet (I am not even sure it'll even be released at all). No tricks, no visual artefacts to hide it, nothin…

You reminded me of "the scene" back in the old days where movie groups like Centropy and many others were releasing latest films on FTP servers which were typically running on 100Mbps dedicated connections, gigabit lines were quite rare back then and mostly reserved for the most elite groups like FLT (PC Games). Releases were usually "pre'd" on affiliated topsites before getting spread to other lower tier sites via FXP transferring method by individuals called "couriers" in exchange for download credits (usually at 1:3 ratios), and it would eventually reach other p2p outlets such as DC++. Most of those release groups had their own private channels on IRC where members were like family, and they were really just a bunch of geeks. Fun time!

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#164

Post by mikepurvis » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 2:10 PM UTC

raxxorrax wrote: post #109

mikepurvis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, and for those of us who had the GOG and/or Uplay launchers anyway, or already had our achievements fractured between PC and one or more console ecosystems, having to install the Epic Games one just wasn't that big a deal. Especially with the bait of free games, exclusives, and the crazy $10 off summer sale promotion. I got it for the Hades early access and to play Transistor and Rime for free.

Does it finally allow for offline execution of games? Epic just had some good deals for market dominance. Makes sense, since they now have the capital. There are some interesting exclusives, but I resisted in creating an account because I would regret it later. There might be better deals for developers in there, but that will undoubtedly change if the goal of market dominance is reached. It is an overall really bad…

Can you expand more on the "overall really bad choice for consumers"? Obviously it's missing a bunch of stuff that Steam has, like forums, ratings, cloud saves, offline play, shopping cart, wishlist, etc. But none of those are essential requirements, they're just features and can be built up over time.

They're doing a better revenue split than Steam, and they're subsidizing many purchases to offer more attractive prices. And they're offering some previous PS4 exclusives on PC for the first time, like Journey/Flow/Flower and the Quantic Dream games.

How is this worse for either consumers or publishers than a total Steam hegemony? I'm not trying to be combative, but I don't understand the mindset.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#165

Post by Zarath » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 2:40 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #9

Causality1 wrote: post #2

For me it's a simple equation that has as much to do with time and hassle as it has to do with money. I'm not going to juggle five different monthly subscriptions. I'll pay Netflix for their decent original content and all my old favorites like Star Trek. I'll buy a month of Hbo every couple years to catch up with them. I'm not going to pay $200 for a cable subscription and I'm not going to pay for Netflix and YouTub…

Am I the only one who doesn’t threaten piracy when I don’t get exactly what I want for the price I want? Is it really that unusual to not take things that you shouldn’t? I mean if Hulu doesn’t have a movie I want to watch I’ll just watch something else, I won’t go take it because I feel entitled.

Eh, it's one industry where consumers have a trump card. It's not like people haven't been creating free media content since the beginning of media anyway.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#166

Post by ryanmercer » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #121

oliwarner wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm disappointed, but not surprised in your measurement of success. Many tout record box office takings as clear success but I rather think that really reflects on inflation (both real and artificial). Look at admissions over time. I only have UK numbers to hand [1] but despite an increasing population, we're still at barely a tenth of our 1950 numbers. MPAA stats [2] seem to show the US in decline over the last few…

From the data in your link [1] Cinema attendance looks very healthy, and in fact in 2018 was at it's highest level since 1971 and is more than tripple it's low point in 1984. That much better than I was expecting and frankly in my eyes kills the 'Cinema is dying' meme stone dead. I don't understand how you can be looking at the same table and coming to such a different conclusion.

> Cinema attendance looks very healthy,

The problem with cinema attendance, at least here in the United States, is you can't trust the numbers anymore.

Take AMC, they have their A List that allows you to see 3 movies a week for a monthly fee, if you head over to /r/AMCsAList/ you will find a good number of people that will go see movies they have little interest in JUST to use all their 'free' movies each week so now you have someone that may have seen 2-3 movies a month, seeing 12 movies. Occasionally you'll even see threads over there where people brag about how many weeks long their streak of seeing all their movies is.

Similarly there was MoviePass (I think it's mostly dead now) that was allowing people to do the same for over a year.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#167

Post by Causality1 » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 3:08 PM UTC

pnw_hazor wrote: post #8

Causality1 wrote: post #2

For me it's a simple equation that has as much to do with time and hassle as it has to do with money. I'm not going to juggle five different monthly subscriptions. I'll pay Netflix for their decent original content and all my old favorites like Star Trek. I'll buy a month of Hbo every couple years to catch up with them. I'm not going to pay $200 for a cable subscription and I'm not going to pay for Netflix and YouTub…

We roll the same way. But I have Amazon Prime as well. My current working rule is no more than two video services. Amazon Prime may be hard to dislodge because my whole family uses my account. So when we turn HBO on in a few weeks to close out GOT, we will shutdown Netflix for awhile at least. Unless I can find 7 day free trial of HBO somehow

They offer a 4 week free trial actually.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#168

Post by michaelscott » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 3:46 PM UTC

rusticpenn wrote: post #162

michaelscott wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another weird corner case is when you want to watch a foreign language film, but because I happen to be in a country where I don't speak any of the local languages I also can't use subtitles (they don't provide English subtitles universally). This is probably an incredibly rare thing for most people though I admit.

Not rare if you are an english speaker living in Europe..

Funny enough my experience was in fact in Switzerland, providing only German and French subtitles (not even Italian), so perhaps this is less of a corner case than I thought.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#169

Post by dbancajas » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 3:51 PM UTC

bscphil wrote: post #64

Larrikin wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to setup a legal program like Plex and knowing how to pirate high quality versions of all the media you want are two different things. People bought into Hulu and Netflix when you could get nearly everything you wanted to watch on their services.

Plex is legal to use, but not all that easy to set up, at least in my experience. At least, I would expect anyone capable of using Plex longterm on a TV to also be able to pirate stuff. The point about legality wasn't about Plex, however. It was about paying someone to torrent stuff for you, which is still copyright infringement.

True. Running your own server probably costs more than 5$/month on electricity alone. No brainer if you do it yourself vs some other dude.

Re: Hollywood studios say they’re quitting Netflix – the truth is more complicated

#170

Post by chx » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 3:59 PM UTC

netwanderer3 wrote: post #163

chx wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You have fly-by-nights and unethical operations abounding that make everything only a google search away, sometimes with a single click. Somebody uploaded the entire The Queen's Corgi on YouTube in pristine 720p quality (they must have had access to a BluRay to get this quality) and it's not even out in the USA yet (I am not even sure it'll even be released at all). No tricks, no visual artefacts to hide it, nothin…

You reminded me of "the scene" back in the old days where movie groups like Centropy and many others were releasing latest films on FTP servers which were typically running on 100Mbps dedicated connections, gigabit lines were quite rare back then and mostly reserved for the most elite groups like FLT (PC Games). Releases were usually "pre'd" on affiliated topsites before getting spread to other lower tier sites via F…

You tell me... I was helping one of the admins of one of the largest second tier FTP sites in Central Europe because his English was not so great... so yeah, I remember this scene too quite well.