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Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

joe-steel.com

131–140 of 289 posts

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#131
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something a bit twisted about using my kids for their own financial gain. Hence my pirating of said shows - no issue getting those repeat views in via Plex/NAS.

I keep thinking about Plex but I struggle with the idea of teaching my kids that stealing is okay. Like, for a little kid: "This kind of theft is okay, this kind of theft isn't." seems nuanced for a little kid.

For what it's worth, I have two toddlers. They're still at the age where they don't know the difference between Plex and Disney+, but I too have wondered how I'll tackle that subject with them down the road.

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#132
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you though? NordVPN for instance comes to $67.5 for the first year and then $120 every year. I know there are cheaper options too, but not that much. Plus they still have to buy the subscription. And then dealing with the hassle of the VPN.

Private Internet Access is $40/yr. I interpreted the VPN option to imply violating copyright.

Even less for their annual Black Friday sale

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#133
post #125
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was also the period where Netflix et al discovered that shows become more costly to make and less likely to get brand-new subscribers around season 3. So it’s hard for me to give that statistic any weight.

> This was also the period where Netflix et al discovered that shows become more costly to make and less likely to get brand-new subscribers around season 3. This isn't the only reason I stopped watching shows, but its certainly a contributing factor. Kinda gets old seeing some cool first season setup a bunch of interesting story arcs, great show, etc and then cancelled.

Yeah, if Netflix wants to do short shows, they should follow the British model of TV series. Short series but with a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Not this bunch of half started stories that just stop.

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#134
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its free but limited use per person over the month. great service. Libby is also free if you have a library card and want to use it for more than streaming.

Libby and Hoopla: free books, audio books, movies. Just to add: Kanopy gives you 15 free movies per month. Not enough for binging TV shows but certainly enough for 15 quality movie watching sessions per month.

Must be library dependent. I only get 5 movies per month.

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#135
post #15

Basically there was a finite amount of content and a lot of it appeared on Netflix. Then 4+ services launched and a near fixed amount of content was divided by 4. Then they doubled the price. So now for a worse discovery experience you are effectively paying 8x the price.

I also enjoy every streaming service solving many technical problems the others have already solved.

The most painful one for me right now is that Paramount+ has all their videos rendered with black bars top and bottom. So when I watch the latest Star Trek New Worlds and Star Trek Discovery on my 34" 1440p ultrawide, it literally has a black border all the way around the edge. Watching the same episode on Prime Video, it entirely fills my screen.

I've reported this to them a couple times over a year and they haven't done anything about it. I imagine, most likely, this is possibly some kind of combination of compatability with some devices that need videos rendered at a certain resolution and not wanting to have too many different encodes of videos. But it is quite annoying not to be able to have the video fill my screen.

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#136
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something a bit twisted about using my kids for their own financial gain. Hence my pirating of said shows - no issue getting those repeat views in via Plex/NAS.

I keep thinking about Plex but I struggle with the idea of teaching my kids that stealing is okay. Like, for a little kid: "This kind of theft is okay, this kind of theft isn't." seems nuanced for a little kid.

Why do people think it is OK to steal media? I never understand it. After university, I reduced my media stealing habits by 99+%. During/before uni, I was broke and could not afford to buy media. (Not an excuse, but just the reality.) After uni, I had a job so I could afford to buy some media.

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#137
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why Max bought exclusive rights to Sesame Street. This is why Amazon has Nickelodeon. The services know it's harder to do the streaming juggle when you have kids.

There's something a bit twisted about using my kids for their own financial gain. Hence my pirating of said shows - no issue getting those repeat views in via Plex/NAS.

Selling you a product that you want your kids to have, but at a price you do not agree to, is twisted?

Pretty interesting philosophy.

I should tell that to my kids' swimming school. Or their daycare.

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#138
post #15

Basically there was a finite amount of content and a lot of it appeared on Netflix. Then 4+ services launched and a near fixed amount of content was divided by 4. Then they doubled the price. So now for a worse discovery experience you are effectively paying 8x the price.

I also enjoy every streaming service solving many technical problems the others have already solved. The most painful one for me right now is that Paramount+ has all their videos rendered with black bars top and bottom. So when I watch the latest Star Trek New Worlds and Star Trek Discovery on my 34" 1440p ultrawide, it literally has a black border all the way around the edge. Watching the same episode on Prime Video…

Isn't that just a regular aspect ratio issue? If the content is filmed in 1:2.4 and you're trying to watch it on a 16:10 screen, it's always going to be letterboxed.

In that case, if it doesn't look letterboxed then it's either stretched (deformed) or parts of the video are cropped/lost.

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#139
post #45
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> kids love repeat content Then may I suggest a DVD player?

Honestly, streaming easily wins when you consider the entire family can stream on any screen in the house and Disney DVDs are actually pretty expensive.

It's worth it to not be spied on. Kids who grow up on streaming will have surveillance-advertising profiles before they're old enough to understand what they're consenting to.

Re: Please Pay for a Year of Nothing

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone has experience with cancelling and switching services periodically so that you can access all the content, but not at the same time?

I don't but know folks who do. They keep track of things they want to watch until they get to the point where subscribing for a month makes sense then cancel at the end of the month. The hard part is keeping track of what you want to watch and what service it's on and whether it's still there when you want to watch.

justwatch.com helps a lot with this. For each show, it tells you in which steaming service it is available. You can also track and wishlist everything.
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