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A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

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11–20 of 231 posts

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#11

If I am paying for something I am not watching ads. I will cancel the service and find something else to do with my time, but I will never willingly watch ads.

I knew this day would come and have been preparing. Every company I thought was trustworthy has proven me wrong. So now I’ve decided to provide my own services. I have a NAS and have digitized my movie and music collection and can stream it to any TV in my house. Netflix, Disney, etc can go pound sand. It has to be this way, as long as advertising remains legal, life will slowly approach a Black Mirror episode where…

I could say a bit about well paid engineers who don't pay for the content they consume - it's something I've observed everywhere I go, and I don't think it's one of our more attractive qualities (I'm in there too). I also agree that advertising is an insidious force that corrupts nearly everything it touches.

The funny part to me is that my parents do a fire safety puppet show for children and can keep them enraptured for half an hour with zero budget. For centuries, people have been entertained by Punch and Judy shows. It makes me think that maybe the $20M/episode stuff we do now is impressive, but perhaps a bit over-engineered.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#12
post #9

I finally broke down and paid for YouTube Premium. There is literally no other option to watch YouTube on a TV nowadays. It is absolutely mindblowing the level of nonstop ads they shove down your throat in-between (and during) every single video now. Completely unwatchable otherwise. And it's impossible to buy a dumb TV in 2022, so you're stuck with the official Android/Roku YouTube apps that have no ad-blocking capa…

There are ad-free versions of YouTube for Android TV.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#13
Media embedded advertising has already been a thing for years, but companies hate leaving money on the table so they cannot resist the temptation of showing more ads.

I wonder why it is that Steam hasn't had any issues remaining such a successful video game platform, while other forms of media have struggled to keep up.

You're competing with piracy, but you throw ads in my face. I can download any show or movie I want and have it playing in minutes without having to deal with multi platform bullshit. That's real convenience. Oh, and the show or movie never gets taken away because some execs decided to be greedy.

Although at this point I'm so fed up with most modern media that I've lost any interest to watch it, even if it's free and in a convenient format. Most stuff doesn't even seem interesting enough to pirate.

The age of mindless consumption is nearing an end. I'm hopeful that the future will be a mix of locally crafted consumption balanced with a healthy mix of content creation.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#14
post #10
post #9

I finally broke down and paid for YouTube Premium. There is literally no other option to watch YouTube on a TV nowadays. It is absolutely mindblowing the level of nonstop ads they shove down your throat in-between (and during) every single video now. Completely unwatchable otherwise. And it's impossible to buy a dumb TV in 2022, so you're stuck with the official Android/Roku YouTube apps that have no ad-blocking capa…

As far as I can tell, ublock origin still works without a hitch, so just hook up a laptop/ tower to the TV and run YT in a browser?

When casting to the TV you get ads, even though you don't in the browser! I just tried it, since I had the same idea.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#16
post #9

I finally broke down and paid for YouTube Premium. There is literally no other option to watch YouTube on a TV nowadays. It is absolutely mindblowing the level of nonstop ads they shove down your throat in-between (and during) every single video now. Completely unwatchable otherwise. And it's impossible to buy a dumb TV in 2022, so you're stuck with the official Android/Roku YouTube apps that have no ad-blocking capa…

Just take the Raspberry you are using for the PiHole, slap on Firefox+uBlock on there and you are good to go.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#17
post #9

I finally broke down and paid for YouTube Premium. There is literally no other option to watch YouTube on a TV nowadays. It is absolutely mindblowing the level of nonstop ads they shove down your throat in-between (and during) every single video now. Completely unwatchable otherwise. And it's impossible to buy a dumb TV in 2022, so you're stuck with the official Android/Roku YouTube apps that have no ad-blocking capa…

I’m using SmartTube app on the FireTV. Works pretty well, no ads you can also pair your phone and cast. Just make sure app is always up-to-date, youtube keeps changing things and breaks app from time to time.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#19

Media embedded advertising has already been a thing for years, but companies hate leaving money on the table so they cannot resist the temptation of showing more ads. I wonder why it is that Steam hasn't had any issues remaining such a successful video game platform, while other forms of media have struggled to keep up. You're competing with piracy, but you throw ads in my face. I can download any show or movie I wan…

> The age of mindless consumption is nearing an end.

How so?

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew this day would come and have been preparing. Every company I thought was trustworthy has proven me wrong. So now I’ve decided to provide my own services. I have a NAS and have digitized my movie and music collection and can stream it to any TV in my house. Netflix, Disney, etc can go pound sand. It has to be this way, as long as advertising remains legal, life will slowly approach a Black Mirror episode where…

I could say a bit about well paid engineers who don't pay for the content they consume - it's something I've observed everywhere I go, and I don't think it's one of our more attractive qualities (I'm in there too). I also agree that advertising is an insidious force that corrupts nearly everything it touches. The funny part to me is that my parents do a fire safety puppet show for children and can keep them enrapture…

Yeah I agree, you should still pay for the content. I buy the music off of Bleep and 7digital and own all the movies no torrenting. If I could do it over again I’d build the NAS myself to save some money since that was the most expensive upstart cost.
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