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Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

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Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#241

Post by scarface74 »

ryandrake wrote: post #213
scarface74 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Your circle” unless it includes families with small kids, isn’t Disney’s primary audience. Most normal middle class people aren’t going to go through the trouble of pirating movies and setting up a Plex server and then worry about setting up their router to get a good connection while they are away from home and even then deal with the abysmally slow upload speed of the typical home network instead of spending $8 a…

Why does everything have to be "streamed" these days? Hard drives are cheap. Just have a file and playback locally or on your LAN. No special set up of some server, your router, etc. Given the $/GB curve throughout the years you'll likely never run out of space. Do people really need to do a significant amount of movie watching outside their own LAN/home?

So where are these files going to come from? Buying them from some place like iTunes or Amazon Prime Video - which is more expensive? Going through the trouble of finding a good rip on a torrent site? Ripping them themselves?

Do people really need to do a significant amount of movie watching outside their own LAN/home?

Asking this question is close to the old Slashdot meme “I haven’t owned a TV in 20 years, do people still watch TV?” Of course people watch video on mobile devices and they have for over a decade.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#242

Post by scarface74 »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #218
scarface74 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any TV except the ones in most hotel rooms that lock down the HDMI input and the ones that don’t exist in most cars. Then you have the issue of the kids fighting over what to watch and wanting to watch video on their phones and tablets.

I use VLC on iOS to copy movies and shows to my iPad from a Windows share. Works perfectly fine. In some ways it's better than Netflix/Amazon offline mode since I know my files will always work in VLC whereas I don't know ahead of time which streaming content allows offline mode or not.

Yes and the typical household is going to download movies from torrent sites and use VLC.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#243

Post by noelsusman »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #81
coldtea wrote: post #22

Why don't major services (Netflix, Disney, HULU, etc) come together to build a best of breed shared service, that operates vendor-neutrally, and each gets to keep all the profits from people watching their stuff? Each could still have its own promotions, bundles, etc (e.g. pay X more to watch new movies from Disney), but at least the base proposition can have a single subscription price and some pay as you consume mo…

You just invented the Cable TV network. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television_in_the_United...

This is what confuses me about the current conversation around streaming services. It seems like everyone just wants cable again.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#244

Post by sp332 »

an_opabinia wrote: post #211
sbarre wrote: post #6

"May" drive them back? This has already happened in my circles.. People who had cut the cord but all but walked away from casual piracy and signed up for Netflix and HBO (and probably Prime Video because they had Amazon Prime already) are openly talking about the fact they're definitely not signing up for more streaming services, and are seeking out torrenting again for the stuff that's being pulled from Netflix (esp…

> People who had cut the cord... As long as you don't care about the zeitgeist... That's not really what it's about. You have no idea how utterly janky Plex and torrenting is. People on Hacker News find IT stimulating, so their experience is basically moot. It's like trying to predict trends based on a nerd's hot take of the iPod. It has always been about enforcement. Seen in this lens, the hassle of pirating movies…

I run a Plex server and several of my friends do too. If you're OK with the defaults it's really easy to run.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#245

Post by PaulHoule »

pessimizer wrote: post #234
an_opabinia wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People who had cut the cord... As long as you don't care about the zeitgeist... That's not really what it's about. You have no idea how utterly janky Plex and torrenting is. People on Hacker News find IT stimulating, so their experience is basically moot. It's like trying to predict trends based on a nerd's hot take of the iPod. It has always been about enforcement. Seen in this lens, the hassle of pirating movies…

> That's not really what it's about. You have no idea how utterly janky Plex and torrenting is. I don't know anything about Plex, but torrenting is pretty effortless compared to figuring out which streaming service what you want to watch is on, figuring out how to get that, evaluating other content it has trying to justify the price, figuring out how to get it to your tv, and figuring out how to use it. The only thin…

The Plex server is basically OK, the trouble you have is with the Plex clients.

I bought an Xbox One instead of a PS4 even though I like the anime games on the PS4 because the Xbox One has a perfect Plex client and the PS4 client is known to be "janky"

I struggled with cheap Android TV devices and broke down and bought a NVIDIA Shield TV because it has a perfect Plex client too with adequate hardware.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#246

Post by pedrogpimenta »

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #210
sbarre wrote: post #6

"May" drive them back? This has already happened in my circles.. People who had cut the cord but all but walked away from casual piracy and signed up for Netflix and HBO (and probably Prime Video because they had Amazon Prime already) are openly talking about the fact they're definitely not signing up for more streaming services, and are seeking out torrenting again for the stuff that's being pulled from Netflix (esp…

I agree with you here, to a degree. It seems the model of “one place” for all movies would be (and has been) a huge boon for viewers. But eventually I think that “one source” would become monopolistic, and we would see consumer abuse and degraded service. If you doubt it, Who would of thought anyone would abuse their monopoly on search? Or social? Or online retail? I guess I don’t know the best long term solution....

We could have "all the content" on several different platforms. It's like going to different supermarkets, they'll have the same products. Still, you might prefer one or the other for any other reason. Instead, we're going 100% on the other direction...

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#247

Post by paulie_a »

pessimizer wrote: post #234
an_opabinia wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People who had cut the cord... As long as you don't care about the zeitgeist... That's not really what it's about. You have no idea how utterly janky Plex and torrenting is. People on Hacker News find IT stimulating, so their experience is basically moot. It's like trying to predict trends based on a nerd's hot take of the iPod. It has always been about enforcement. Seen in this lens, the hassle of pirating movies…

> That's not really what it's about. You have no idea how utterly janky Plex and torrenting is. I don't know anything about Plex, but torrenting is pretty effortless compared to figuring out which streaming service what you want to watch is on, figuring out how to get that, evaluating other content it has trying to justify the price, figuring out how to get it to your tv, and figuring out how to use it. The only thin…

Kodi plus an add-on is actually easier to navigate than a lot of paid services. And it's not torrenting so no worries about a copyright infringement notice.

I go paid services first but many times it's so janky i say fuck it and launch the add-on and it works.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#248

Post by epanchin »

sbarre wrote: post #6

"May" drive them back? This has already happened in my circles.. People who had cut the cord but all but walked away from casual piracy and signed up for Netflix and HBO (and probably Prime Video because they had Amazon Prime already) are openly talking about the fact they're definitely not signing up for more streaming services, and are seeking out torrenting again for the stuff that's being pulled from Netflix (esp…

I subscribe to a few services, but I travel for work and half of them don’t work abroad. Haven’t yet gone back to torrenting, but I do sympathise with those that do.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#249

Post by nickthegreek »

robertoandred wrote: post #219
esond wrote: post #113

There's something to be said for the cord-cutting software ecosystem supporting more-than-casual piracy experiencing huge improvements. If you have the hardware, you can host your own media using Plex as a server, and Sonarr to manage your library and automate acquisition of new TV episodes. Plex is one of the best pieces of software I've ever used. It Just Works™. You need a decent internet pipeline to support remot…

Everything's free when you steal. Lame argument.

pirate. I keep seeing people use the word steal in this comment section.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#250

Post by jerf »

cptskippy wrote: post #137
beardedwizard wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me more about how R. Kelly and Disney fans are similar. Share your point by point analysis and include examples. Maybe you would like to bring Taylor Swift into the discussion? Your comment is a poorly disguised insult.

It's unclear which you ascribe to but it's curious that you don't take offense to either being compared to Evangelicals. In either case, they're both almost a Cult of personality. The fans are so adorant of their object that they often overlook glaringly evil deeds. At the same time, the level of manipulation exhibited and the devotion demanded by the personality is extreme to the point that outsiders see it as absur…

"The fans are so adorant of their object that they often overlook glaringly evil deeds."

This verges on the tautological though, given that "fan" is short for "fanatic"; you're complaining that fanatics are fanatics. Well... yeah, but so? I don't think you can directly impute the behavior of the fans on to the target of their fandom. (You can draw some indirect conclusions, but it involves at least a few steps of lower reliability and propositions people will find debatable.)

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