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Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

torrentfreak.com

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Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#431
post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> About 500-ish MB per hour of content for decent quality. That's still YIFY-quality video, which is a few steps below HBO/MAX, which happens to be among the lowest quality paid streams. ATV+ is killing it with 30Mbps 4K HDR+ video (it used to be as high as 48Mbps). Disney+ is close. The Netflix 4K plan serves up high 1080p bitrates, 2x better than their 1080p plan. Worth paying for.

Meh not everyone has a 4K 120Hz TV :) I still have an old 1080p 32" LG from 10 years ago and it looks fine. In fact I find the motion upscaling weird, it gives this creepy uncanny effect. I still download H264 too because not all of my devices support H265 yet. I was thinking about something new but they're just too expensive.

The first two paragraphs: you are me. The last one: I don't think about upgrading because my TV is off all the time. I watch it on a tablet or on my phone. I use a Raspberry with a TV hat to stream free to air TV on my home network and apps for the IP based content. My TV is the backup device.

About the subject of this thread, too many paid streaming services are maybe too inconvenient. If they are, the market will fix that. That is: some of them won't make enough money and close, or sell to a competitor, or just create content and license it to streaming services.

My preference would be not to pay per month but per view. There are months when I don't watch any series and months when there is something I like. About movies, maybe no movie at all for a year or two, then a few of interesting ones, including old ones that I never watched and I feel like to watch. The last one was Gilda, 1948.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#432

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

Also it's not even better. I have a netflix and disney+ account, and sometimes still watch their series on pirate streaming sites because it's less of a hassle. E.g. I can't watch HD disney+ in firefox. And netflix sometimes just brings stubborn error messages that I can't fix by reloading...

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#433
post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no security inside the HDMI cable itself. It's an HDCP negotiation between the source and the sink which occurs over an i2c serial bus along the pair of DDC pins. You may be able to get away with just an HDMI dummy plug: https://www.amazon.com/4K-HDMI-Dummy-Plug-3840x2160/dp/B07FB... I'm not sure if these dummy plugs handle HDCP. If not you can use one in combination with this splitter: https://www.amazon.co…

What is an HDMI dummy plug? I read the description, but didn’t get it. What does it do?

It makes the source think there is a display connected by responding with an EDID block. It may also handle the HDCP negotiation but I'm not sure about that. Technically an unlicensed device isn't supposed to be able to implement HDCP so while the Chinese manufacturers are totally willing to skirt around that, they also don't go advertising it.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#434

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

Back to legal threats and weaponizing the FBI

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#435
post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> About 500-ish MB per hour of content for decent quality. That's still YIFY-quality video, which is a few steps below HBO/MAX, which happens to be among the lowest quality paid streams. ATV+ is killing it with 30Mbps 4K HDR+ video (it used to be as high as 48Mbps). Disney+ is close. The Netflix 4K plan serves up high 1080p bitrates, 2x better than their 1080p plan. Worth paying for.

What is YIFY?

A pirate group that was known for releasing movies in small files, but with a decent quality.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#436
post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> About 500-ish MB per hour of content for decent quality. That's still YIFY-quality video, which is a few steps below HBO/MAX, which happens to be among the lowest quality paid streams. ATV+ is killing it with 30Mbps 4K HDR+ video (it used to be as high as 48Mbps). Disney+ is close. The Netflix 4K plan serves up high 1080p bitrates, 2x better than their 1080p plan. Worth paying for.

25% of all streaming globally is consumed on a mobile device. During the day (commuting to work, during lunch breaks) that number is much higher. Children's programming is also largely consumed on mobile devices (well, tablets). On small devices like that 4K HDR+ video is kind of meaningless.

It’s also kind of meaningless at regular tv viewing distances. I have a 4k tv but from my couch there’s no way I can tell 4k apart from 1080. And honestly, 480 movies (dvd resolution) still look fine to me too. They have a certain aesthetic softness to them that I quite enjoy. 30 seconds into a 480 film I stop noticing the resolution at all.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#437
post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No its a DRM issue, its why I run a hidden 25 foot HDMI from my computer to my TV as some broadcasts require the security inside the HDMI cable itself. (I could be wrong on this one but Widevine DRM handles this process I think)

There is no security inside the HDMI cable itself. It's an HDCP negotiation between the source and the sink which occurs over an i2c serial bus along the pair of DDC pins. You may be able to get away with just an HDMI dummy plug: https://www.amazon.com/4K-HDMI-Dummy-Plug-3840x2160/dp/B07FB... I'm not sure if these dummy plugs handle HDCP. If not you can use one in combination with this splitter: https://www.amazon.co…

The GP was trying to play back Amazon DRM content via AirPlay, so HDMI/HDCP should only be relevant to the "last-mile" connection between the AirPlay receiver and an external display (so, if the receiver is a Mac laptop's internal display or a smart TV, not at all).

AFAIK, DRM video playback over AirPlay only works from within iOS apps that explicitly support AirPlay[1], not via generic iOS/macOS screen mirroring.

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204289#iOS

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#438
post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> About 500-ish MB per hour of content for decent quality. That's still YIFY-quality video, which is a few steps below HBO/MAX, which happens to be among the lowest quality paid streams. ATV+ is killing it with 30Mbps 4K HDR+ video (it used to be as high as 48Mbps). Disney+ is close. The Netflix 4K plan serves up high 1080p bitrates, 2x better than their 1080p plan. Worth paying for.

Maybe your eyesight is a lot better than mine but I can't discern pixels at sub-1080p resolution, especially in a movie where everything is kinda smudged out and individual pixel values don't matter as much.

I grew up with analog TV where the colours used to bend and you had to kick the antenna with a stick after the wind moved it a bit. If I can tell the characters apart and the audio is synchronised, I don't need any better quality!

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#439

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

> The services have taken the piss and now they'll get the repercussions of it. Whose fault is it really that all content is not available on a single service? It's nobody's fault, it was inevitable given how things work. How could you "fix" it? You'd need legislation saying that all content must be made available for licensing at the same price for every service. But that's not enough, because why would HBO sell the…

It'll be naturally fixed by economics. We'll reach an equilibrium point where offering an exclusive streaming service becomes less profitable than simply licensing your content to another service or services. Obstinance will probably drag out the timeline, but it won't change the outcome.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was paying for Netflix 10 years ago in France for a short while, wanted some English subtitles for my wife for some US shows but there were only subtitles in French so had to download the same show elsewhere if you know what I'm saying... with English subtitles readily available. I also remember watching some shows like the first two seasons but then only to find out the third season was licensed by another streami…

I was living in the only english-speaking country in South America. Netflix wouldn't give me French subtitles or secondary audio because apparently south america=spanish for their divisions. I don't see how subtitles would fall under the broader licensing agreements. The subs/langs were available for the same titles in Canada. (More absurd because France is a part of South America via French Guiana).

This is a common issue across Europe. 40 million+ internal migrants (from one EU country to another), yet most shows on Netflix only have the local language for subtitles and often no option to avoid dubbing.

It's worse than when we bought everything on DVD. Region 2 discs (Europe) would have many soundtracks and many subtitles languages on the disc.

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