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Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

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Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#81

"Legacy" marketing wank. I signed up last year. They want 33% more ($150 -> $200) for absolute no value at all. A greedy profit-price spiral cash-grab is what it is. Canceling the day before the renewal and back to torrents I guess. https://auth.max.com/cancel-subscription

I haven't done it in over a decade. Is the bay still the way it's mostly done by casuals?

Nah, don’t use TPB, moderation is lax and selection is meh. On the public side, these days it’s all 1337, TG, maybe RuT. They’re all fairly well moderated and have good selections, even if some stuff has just the one guy seeding from his dialup in the middle on the ocean.

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#82
More reason to make sure to watch everything within a month and then unsubscribe for another 9-12 months. With Succession over I'm not even sure what I should subscribe for. I like How To With John Wilson, but am not paying this kind of money for that show alone.

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#83
post #72
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that baffling. For a time, they were trying to grow their subscriber base and luring them in with low prices. Now that they have their subscriber base, they want to get back to the revenue they were getting before. Realistically, entertainment companies weren't going to accept lower revenue than they previously had for their product. As the industry transitions from physical media and cable TV to streaming,…

> It isn't harder to pay than to pirate. lmao, you've obviously never watched anyone over 50 try and use streaming services in 2023. If I had a one use time machine, fuck killing Hitler, I'm using it to go to the day I taught my parents about Netflix.

People over 50 invented Netflix, dude. Try harder.

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#84
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that baffling. For a time, they were trying to grow their subscriber base and luring them in with low prices. Now that they have their subscriber base, they want to get back to the revenue they were getting before. Realistically, entertainment companies weren't going to accept lower revenue than they previously had for their product. As the industry transitions from physical media and cable TV to streaming,…

> It isn't harder to pay than to pirate. It's just getting more expensive. No, it's harder too. Shows I want to watch bounce between the various silos of un-indexed content, without notice, as licenses shift and expire. Each silo behind their own separate paywalls. New ones pop up and shut down. Their feature matrix changes. They introduce geo restrictions, device restrictions, they force you to sign in from your 'ho…

It's even more striking in comparison to music, where with a subscription to either Apple Music or Spotify you've covered pretty much the entire 'current mass-market music' ecosystem.

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dolby Atmos/Vision standards also provide HDR, dynamic brightness, and surround sound. People spend thousands of dollars on home theater setups to meet those standards. Max has almost completely stopped producing cinematic content, so I can’t imagine the upsell making much sense.

If you are spending thousands of dollars on a home theater, surely streaming was a no go from the start? Blueray is the only available option which has a chance of delivering the optimal experience.

A lot of people, myself included, are fine with “less than optimal”. Sure, I’d prefer a blu-ray for my favorite epics, but a great home theater system also makes streaming content a satisfying and convenient experience. There’s also a lot of content one wants to watch that never makes it to blu-ray

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It isn't harder to pay than to pirate. It's just getting more expensive. No, it's harder too. Shows I want to watch bounce between the various silos of un-indexed content, without notice, as licenses shift and expire. Each silo behind their own separate paywalls. New ones pop up and shut down. Their feature matrix changes. They introduce geo restrictions, device restrictions, they force you to sign in from your 'ho…

It's even more striking in comparison to music, where with a subscription to either Apple Music or Spotify you've covered pretty much the entire 'current mass-market music' ecosystem.

Something Apple Music tried to change by dumping money into exclusive deals. Which luckily failed.

I think the core difference is upfront capital investment required between music and TV/Film content. Which leads to different incentives and effects down the line.

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#87
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that baffling. For a time, they were trying to grow their subscriber base and luring them in with low prices. Now that they have their subscriber base, they want to get back to the revenue they were getting before. Realistically, entertainment companies weren't going to accept lower revenue than they previously had for their product. As the industry transitions from physical media and cable TV to streaming,…

> It isn't harder to pay than to pirate. It's just getting more expensive. No, it's harder too. Shows I want to watch bounce between the various silos of un-indexed content, without notice, as licenses shift and expire. Each silo behind their own separate paywalls. New ones pop up and shut down. Their feature matrix changes. They introduce geo restrictions, device restrictions, they force you to sign in from your 'ho…

One of my most common google searches is "what service is ____ on" because I never know where the hell to find anything.

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#88
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It isn't harder to pay than to pirate. It's just getting more expensive. No, it's harder too. Shows I want to watch bounce between the various silos of un-indexed content, without notice, as licenses shift and expire. Each silo behind their own separate paywalls. New ones pop up and shut down. Their feature matrix changes. They introduce geo restrictions, device restrictions, they force you to sign in from your 'ho…

One of my most common google searches is "what service is ____ on" because I never know where the hell to find anything.

I find justwatch to be reliable. Sometimes I even find something new to watch on there too.

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#89

"Legacy" marketing wank. I signed up last year. They want 33% more ($150 -> $200) for absolute no value at all. A greedy profit-price spiral cash-grab is what it is. Canceling the day before the renewal and back to torrents I guess. https://auth.max.com/cancel-subscription

I haven't done it in over a decade. Is the bay still the way it's mostly done by casuals?

Prowlarr. Just fire up the docker container and go. Self-hosted meta search, has a list of most tracker search sites you might want. Search all of them at once. Bring your ad blocker :-)

Stick the results in Jellyfin if you want a Netflix-like experience. It’s great. Watching something in Infuse on an AppleTV through my Jellyfin right now.

Re: Max is taking 4K away from its legacy ad-free subscribers

#90
I immediately canceled my subscription when I got that email. Easy decision since HBO doesn't even have any new content being released these days. Plus the idiotic rebrand to "Max" forced me to download an entirely new app and burned whatever goodwill I had towards HBO as a brand. David Zaslav is a totally incompetent moron.
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