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Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

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

#681

Post by zelphirkalt »

anonzzzies wrote: post #387
Strom wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but if you always have to spend a lot of time finding something to watch, then that shows up in their analytics as increased engagement. Allowing you to remove garbage would make you spend less time in their app.

I mean, I read stories about their excellent software teams who optimise the user experience all the time and their analytics are superb etc. Then when I use Netflix (not a lot) I notice that it keeps recommending me movies and shows I just f’ing watched. I have the same thing with YouTube and Prime. Are these devs just really bad or is there some motive here I don’t understand? I am not going to watch anything again…

This seems to be a reocurring pattern to me. The tech giants hire supposedly the best talend on the market for all their six figures, yet their products and platforms perform subpar for mny users. To me it seems, that all their talent is directed into the wrong channels and therefore cannot bring their skills to bear on something that makes an actually great product for those users.

You can have the best engineers and bright minds, but if your product sucks or your ethics are non-existent, and you don't let those engineers act outside of the limitting borders of the product, then they will not be able to make the product shine. They might be able to make a more dystopian version of your product, within the guidelines and ethical framework.

And lets not forget, that ethics of the engineers also play a big role. A decent developer with good ethics might make something, that the best engineers would never have even considered making or releasing to the public.

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

#682

Post by epolanski »

I'm baffled at the amount of users arguing that piracy is easier than those streaming services.

It feels like such a mental gimmick.

1) finding and downloading torrents requires know-how

2) finding and downloading subtitles that match the audio is often a chore and requires know-how, often time consuming

3) using a decent player on most devices and finding the files on the filesystem requires know-how, especially on mobile devices

While I understand that users on HackerNews are more tech savvy and don't find any of those particularly troublesome, to compare it to the ease of launching Netflix is just mental gymnastics. Average users won't find any of this convenient and will require to acquire know how in search engines and setting up players.

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

#683

Post by histories »

dns_snek wrote: post #664
histories wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some things they could compete on, just because I'm overthinking this: - price (do I have to pay or do you offer free with ads?) - content quality (do you have 4k movies?) - organization (can I filter by director? Do you have a collection of all the Oscar-nominated movies from this year?) - advanced controls (can I make a playlist of tv episodes? Maybe I want to watch a series in a different order than it was broadca…

> content quality (do you have 4k movies?) No, that arguably makes it even worse. You're adding a whole new dimension to the problem of "where can I watch this". Remember, the UX you're competing against is: 1. Open Kodi, 2. Open a 3rd party add-on that shall not be named, 3. Pick any movie or show that exists, 4. Select any available quality, from 100 GB 4K HDR releases to 1 GB 480p transcodes, 5. Play, anywhere, on…

I was drawing a comparison with Qobuz and the lossless tracks.

So maybe everyone has 1080p movies, but that streaming service has 4K.

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

#684

Post by dns_snek »

midasuni wrote: post #511
charcircuit wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What is the benefit to the rights holder in having a “secure device” The goal is to make it expensive for it to even make it to a pirate site. We will get to the point where it will require a new hardware exploit to be found for each show that gets cracked. As the industry gets better at security the price per exploit will go up to eventually not be economical to continue doing.

Given it just needs to be done once, and a hdcp stripping device is easy to get, how does that work?

It doesn't, it's a coping mechanism for companies to be able to say they're "doing something". If DRM worked, I wouldn't be able to watch it on my bootleg setup in an hour or less after it officially releases on streaming platforms.

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

#685

Post by Jhsto »

izacus wrote: post #495
PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

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…

Yeah, also pirated content has: - 4K HDR video, not whatever the heck the buggy client delivers. - Atmos/TrueHD audio track that actually works, not whatever the broken app delivers (I'm looking at you Sky and rest of the ilk that still deliver HBO content with stereo). - Subtitles for ALL the languages, not just one or two. And those languages don't disappear when I go on a vacation, leaving me stuck with german aud…

One of the awful things about the subtitles is that series episodes wont be released before the subtitles are done. This might introduce a couple day lag to release window -- and at that time all the discussion online has already happened.

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

#686

Post by Lex-2008 »

kelnos wrote: post #298
derac wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are websites you can go to and stream any tv show or movie for free in a couple of clicks. It's impossible to get cheaper and easier (ip law) than that.

Don't those have their own problems, though? Like their domain gets blocked, so you have to find it again. They video quality is just kinda ok, and if you want a copy to stream to your TV, it's either not possible, or won't look very good. Years ago my partner used to use some of these sites to watch some foreign-language shows that are just not possible to get in the US at all, and it just always seemed so sketchy a…

These sites might be advertising things that usual ad networks would prefer to stay away from, like online casinos. Moreover, in some countries, it might be explicitly forbidden to advertise gambling.

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

#687

Post by jowea »

epolanski wrote: post #682

I'm baffled at the amount of users arguing that piracy is easier than those streaming services. It feels like such a mental gimmick. 1) finding and downloading torrents requires know-how 2) finding and downloading subtitles that match the audio is often a chore and requires know-how, often time consuming 3) using a decent player on most devices and finding the files on the filesystem requires know-how, especially on…

Is most of piracy still this style of downloading torrents?

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

#688

Post by mi_z »

dathinab wrote: post #661
mgoetzke wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They cannot help themselves. Just like buying and watching a DVD/bluray was much worse than a pirated copy, as the DVD/bluray made you sit through an increasing amount of unskippable content. From "do not steal this" to "not for kids" or, worst of all, "did you see this other content?". Btw. Ads in front of streaming content I just selected, to tell me about other streaming content on the same service I did NOT selec…

Wait there was unskippable content on DVD/Bluray?? What nonsense is that. That makes no sense at all.

The person is acting like it's several minutes. It's maybe 20 seconds at most. A studio logo or some piracy warning. You can buy Blu Ray players that let you skip it though. Much worse is minutes of ads throughout what you watch.

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

#689

Post by genman »

izacus wrote: post #495
PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

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…

Yeah, also pirated content has: - 4K HDR video, not whatever the heck the buggy client delivers. - Atmos/TrueHD audio track that actually works, not whatever the broken app delivers (I'm looking at you Sky and rest of the ilk that still deliver HBO content with stereo). - Subtitles for ALL the languages, not just one or two. And those languages don't disappear when I go on a vacation, leaving me stuck with german aud…

Subtitles are a huge issue also when you are an expat. What irritates me the most is leaving out the original subtitles or original audio. I consider this especially hostile behavior.

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

#690

Post by mi_z »

rekoil wrote: post #529
izacus wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, also pirated content has: - 4K HDR video, not whatever the heck the buggy client delivers. - Atmos/TrueHD audio track that actually works, not whatever the broken app delivers (I'm looking at you Sky and rest of the ilk that still deliver HBO content with stereo). - Subtitles for ALL the languages, not just one or two. And those languages don't disappear when I go on a vacation, leaving me stuck with german aud…

I personally find that Spotifys offline content has worked reliably over the years. You just gotta remember that when you get a new device you have to go to library and click download and then leave Spotify open for a few hours. Spotify is also a great example of how to beat piracy. I haven't downloaded an mp3 file since I got a Spotify Premium account in 2007. OK that's probably a slight overstatement, but it's near…

Spotify isn't a great example because barely anyone makes money with it. It only works because the musicians are exploited to the max. The reason this won't happen with film and TV is because of unionisation. Why not just buy discs? People keep repeating that discs are dying but so many releases are coming out there is way more than I can buy.
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