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Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

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Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#271

Post by rblion »

For me, I've realized that 80% of media is not worth my time. Unless it's something that is 'can't miss' like Martin Scorsese's movie that is debuting on Netflix or Planet Earth II, I can skip it. I use my family's Netflix account, I don't have my own.

I've tried to keep up with the Marvel universe but it's next to impossible at this point. All my favorite shows (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Sopranos, Game of Thrones) are completed now too. I go to the movies once or twice a year now, at most.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#272

Post by guitarbill »

Qwertystop wrote: post #267

> “Consumers want choice — but only up to a point,” said Kevin Westcott, Deloitte vice chairman and U.S. telecom and media and entertainment leader, who oversees the study. “We may be entering a time of ‘subscription fatigue.'” Missing the point hard here. To the degree that "consumers want choice", I would expect the choice they want is the choice of media, not the choice of subscription services. People don't subsc…

Right. It isn't a choice if I can only watch/play/listen to/consume in one place.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#273

Post by triceratops »

imglorp wrote: post #121
hunta2097 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a model for rotating streaming provider. You can easily watch a year's worth of a provider's [good] content in 3 months. Just change provider every 3 months to a different one, then binge it all. Maybe a service that automatically deactivates your account at the best point in the billing-cycle? If you could do it without too much overlap you could actually do it on a monthly basis: Jan - Netflix Feb…

> binge it all Yeah until they spread out releases of a program over long periods to force you to keep a subscription. Eg Hulu and Disney (1). The reason people pirate is they want to watch WHAT they want, WHEN they want, in the REGION they want and on the DEVICE they want. The content makers want to control all those things. https://thestreamable.com/news/disney-is-saying-no-to-binge-...

So sign up once it's all out. Or sign up periodically and catch up on all the ones that have come out so far, then cancel.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#274

Post by ybahubali2018 »

hendersoon wrote: post #34
scarface74 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Your circle” unless it includes families with small kids, isn’t Disney’s primary audience. Most normal middle class people aren’t going to go through the trouble of pirating movies and setting up a Plex server and then worry about setting up their router to get a good connection while they are away from home and even then deal with the abysmally slow upload speed of the typical home network instead of spending $8 a…

You don't understand how low-friction piracy is these days. Only techies deal with automation and Plex. Most people just buy a "fully loaded" android box which lists thumbnails for all the latest movies and TV shows on various file storage sites. They select a thumbnail and the movie plays. Nothing local at all, all streamed.

I am quite curious to know the existence of such services or hardware. Any pointers?

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#275

Post by oliwarner »

"Choice" here is just a euphemism for "yet another $10.99/month subscription". The more services, the less content I want each has. The more services/apps/etc I have to engage with, the less I want to engage with any of them. That is to say, it's not just as expensive as corded packages, it's harder to actually use. It's the opposite of what it should be.

Content needs F/RAND licensing, possibly with a temporary block on creators self-distributing to try and right the market and get some competition going.

If you think it's getting bad, just wait until Disney starts flexing.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#276

Post by triceratops »

JustARandomGuy wrote: post #266
hos234 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any recommendations?

For Star Wars, the storyline is now split into Legends (pre-Disney acquisition) and the new canon Disney Star Wars storyline. For the Legends storyline, I loved the X-Wings series of books (basically how the Rebels defeated the major parts of the Empire): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BJST00W . My favorite book in the series is The Bacta War, there's a lot of small ship action instead of the movies where huge fleets a…

> My favorite book in the series is The Bacta War

Another X-Wings fan! Bacta War was awesome, I must've re-read it like 10 times :-D

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#278

Post by lostgame »

StavrosK wrote: post #265
lostgame wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> torrenting is pretty effortless compared to figuring out which streaming service what you want to watch is on, figuring out how to get that, evaluating other content it has trying to justify the price, figuring out how to use it, and figuring out how to get it to your TV Damn. You just nailed this. In fact, hearing it this way makes me confused as to why anyone would ever use a streaming service to start. I live i…

Can you not just do that now with Google Movies or whatnot?

Still limited to the selection at Google Movies.

You can do this now with Netflix - but they will ship you DVD's.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#279

Post by tombert »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #159

No shit. Valve worked out the key to combating piracy in the early 2000s. To quote Gaben himself: "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to y…

I've said this for years.

Piracy, in many cases, offers a superior product to streaming. If I go to ThePirateBay, I'm virtually guaranteed to find whatever movie I'm looking for, in 1080p (or even 4k nowadays) quality, without any DRM, which can then be easily streamed from Plex or Emby on any of my devices with no regards to regions, often with more options for subtitles and audio tracks (if you're watching anime).

I have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, and frankly I already hate having to search all three for a movie, just to find that they don't have it anyway; I already pay enough for these services, I really have no interest in signing up for yet another just to make my search for a movie even longer.

Spotify (and nowadays Apple Music for me) has made it so that I've completely stopped torrenting music, since they offer a superior product to ThePirateBay. It has nearly any song I'm looking for, in decent quality, and there aren't banner ads for "Hot MILFs in my area!" all over the place in a convenient app that works well on my phone. They made the legal option superior, and as a result I don't mind paying the ten bucks a month for it.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#280

Post by on_and_off »

sbarre wrote: post #6

"May" drive them back? This has already happened in my circles.. People who had cut the cord but all but walked away from casual piracy and signed up for Netflix and HBO (and probably Prime Video because they had Amazon Prime already) are openly talking about the fact they're definitely not signing up for more streaming services, and are seeking out torrenting again for the stuff that's being pulled from Netflix (esp…

It has already happened to me as well.

Look, I want a convenient way to watch movies. I would even be ready to pay more than I do right now to Netflix to have a library of ALL the movies I want to watch.

1 library, not 10, especially if they may or may not contain the movie I want to see.

My honeymoon period with Netflix and co is over.

- I feel that their original content has dried out : there is even more of it, but it rarely interest me these days and I feel like the quality has dropped in favor of quantity.

- Let's say I want to watch Blade Runner. I want the "final cut" (IMO the best version, it is the director's cut, unlike the "director's cut" which isn't one in this case). Well, I have just checked, this movie is not on Netflix. If it was, I would not have the choice of the cut. I would not be able to e.g. listen to the team commentary either. That's the first movie that sprung to my mind, but that's a good example of my experience with Netflix.

A rolling library of content like what Netflix and co have is not what I want. At all. I want an ever growing one.

I like to be able to get my content "legitimely" (quotes because if you watch old movies, chances are you are not paying the artists but the mega corporation who bought the rights to it but that's OT), and I am not looking for solutions to "cheat the system". However, right now torrenting sites are becoming again the most efficient (and in some cases only) solution to access the content I would like to watch.

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