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Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#231

Post by joshstrange »

LaundroMat wrote: post #220
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Piracy is competition to bad content behavior. It's a meaningful consumer response to monopoly, balkanization and other anti-consumer practices.

Asking for a friend of course, but what would be the best setup for a Netflix/Prime/...-like experience for own media for a family of not-too-digitally-savvy users? That friend uses Kodi (and a NAS) now, but it's still a bit arduous to use for his family. She wants profiles, availability on any device over wifi and 4G and movies and series only.

I couldn't speak directly to this of course but some kind of Plex/Sonarr/Radarr/NzbDrone/NzbHydra/Deluge/Jackett running in docker containers with a GPU or Intel QuickSync for transcoding is something... Maybe throw in Tautilli for monitoring and something like Ombi (There is probably something better now) to make requesting easier and you are off the races. I mean, in theory of course.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#232

Post by [deleted] »

breakfastduck wrote: post #194
oblio wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are social. I don't only watch a movie or a TV show for the intrinsic entertainment quality, I also do it so that I can talk about what I watch with others. That artsy Swiss movie from 1929 is not as popular a theme as the latest episode of Ozark.

I get your point but I don't think not having friends to talk to about a piece of media with is necessarily a good reason not to engage with it.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#233

Post by cgriswald »

LaundroMat wrote: post #220
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Piracy is competition to bad content behavior. It's a meaningful consumer response to monopoly, balkanization and other anti-consumer practices.

Asking for a friend of course, but what would be the best setup for a Netflix/Prime/...-like experience for own media for a family of not-too-digitally-savvy users? That friend uses Kodi (and a NAS) now, but it's still a bit arduous to use for his family. She wants profiles, availability on any device over wifi and 4G and movies and series only.

Plex: https://www.plex.tv

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#234

Post by adaisadais »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.

You’re looking at this wrong.

This is a massive opportunity for someone to do what iTunes did to music and what Spotify did after. It just might end up being Amazon...

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#235

Post by dtjb »

jtdev wrote: post #148

I suppose Bezos and co. will use MGM to push their cultural and political narrative much like they have done with WaPo... I'm fully on the boycott Amazon program at this point, having previously been a Prime member and heavy user of Amazon/AWS/WaPo/etc.

WaPo seems pretty consistent pre and post Bezos.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#236

Post by bovermyer »

ACS_Solver wrote: post #128
someperson wrote: post #17

This makes it very likely that the beloved Stargate franchise will return as an Amazon Prime exclusive franchise, which will be great news for those of us like myself with appetite for 60+ more seasons of that show (after the 17 seasons that have already been made). I watched the sci-fi show "The Expanse" on Amazon Prime Video. Season 4 (the one made by Amazon Prime Video) felt like it had a tenth of the budget compa…

SG-1 is a great show. It holds up surprisingly well for its age. Strikes a great balance between serious and light-hearted, and the self-contained episodes often have interesting ethical or social issues. I'm also fond on how the early episodes emphasize that humans are new to interplanetary travel and are still figuring things out. There are several episodes where SG-1 travels to another planet and actually messes t…

I haven't finished Atlantis or Universe yet. They're on my to-watch list.

As for franchising into other media... there's a brand new tabletop role-playing game that'll be launching later this year. I wonder how the Amazon deal will affect it.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#237

Post by refracture »

xixixao wrote: post #26
someperson wrote: post #17

This makes it very likely that the beloved Stargate franchise will return as an Amazon Prime exclusive franchise, which will be great news for those of us like myself with appetite for 60+ more seasons of that show (after the 17 seasons that have already been made). I watched the sci-fi show "The Expanse" on Amazon Prime Video. Season 4 (the one made by Amazon Prime Video) felt like it had a tenth of the budget compa…

I started watching SG1 again (I saw it incomplete as a kid). It’s incredibly good. It pushes rationalism and feminism in a sane way that I’m not sure would happen in today’s environment. It’s incredibly rich in historical references and concepts. It’s rarely dumb and often preempts cliches. It’s still worth watching imho (and is much less known that Star Trek in US).

My parents watched a lot of sci fi TV when I was kid, SG-1 is the only show that I ever actually sat down and watched more than the occasional episode of.

I remember being struck by a scene that was (I believe?) pretty early in the series where Sam's about to fight some guy hand to hand; Jack protests this (but not in a way that makes it clear whether he thinks a woman shouldn't do it or if he's just unsure of her fighting skill), but once getting told what level she had trained to he immediately backs off.

It gave me (who was at most 13 years old I think) the impression of what good respect between the sexes should look like.

I could also be mis-remembering this because it's been a really long time though.

Good show.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#238

Post by bwb »

Is it weird that I am excited about this? I want tech to rethink how distribution is done, and if I have to watch them buy shit and then get anti trusted to spin it out so be it :)

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#239

Post by dhimes »

andy_ppp wrote: post #188
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.

I still think DRM should be banned and paying for content should be super cheap - say per movie $1 for HD file download and $2 for a 4k version. For me I'd literally spend hundreds of dollars per year on content that I can own going forward. The funniest thing of course is I bet the studios would make more money than trying to charge me $4.99 to rent movies and absurd sums to "buy" them...

My wife and I are no strangers to "buying" on-demand movies we enjoy. But our experience with Verizon FIOS is that every couple of months those titles "aren't available." Our "Purchased" area is empty.

Last night was one of those nights. We settled in a bit early for TV (minor celebration) and decided we had time to re-watch a movie, and our kid-still-at-home would join us. But we couldn't get it and ended up watching some junk (background while we talked mainly) and, of course, losing the kid's interest.

The alternative was to try to call CS and spend perhaps an hour troubleshooting.

If, however, we owned our own physical copy we could have watched it.

My evening, crippled by tech failures of the vendor, and no recourse for compensation for loss of use or our time.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#240

Post by bovermyer »

ctrlc-root wrote: post #221
ACS_Solver wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SG-1 is a great show. It holds up surprisingly well for its age. Strikes a great balance between serious and light-hearted, and the self-contained episodes often have interesting ethical or social issues. I'm also fond on how the early episodes emphasize that humans are new to interplanetary travel and are still figuring things out. There are several episodes where SG-1 travels to another planet and actually messes t…

Well, I don't know about succeeded, but they did have two more movies that take place after SG1: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929629/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942903/

Those movies just wrap up plot lines left over from the show. They're basically extended episodes.
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