341–350 of 398 posts
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It’s unwatchable. I’m not being sarcastic. I pulled out some of my old DVDs, they look terrible.
"unwatchable" is ridiculous. I have plenty of 480p rips that I took from my DVDs, and they look just fine. Not remotely unwatchable.
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2 seasons per month? I started watching The Sopranos this week, I watched 1.5 seasons over the weekend.
Sure, but do you actually do this every weekend? I mean obviously there are people that consume a lot more movie entertainment than the average, but I'm personally getting nowhere close to 70 seasons per year. Bingewatching occasionally might not be enough to economically justify your subscriptions.
Several of these services launched around 2021 with introductory pricing, which is necessary for attracting new users to a new service. Most people I know don’t subscribe to every service and then leave it that way. They might have Spotify and 1-3 video streaming services at a time. They cancel one and start a different one when they want to watching something new.
A higher price alone for the same "tier" does not necessarily mean less value.
I'd want to also estimate the overall quantity and quality offered for the higher price. Obviously, quality is subjective, but for each of those services, does a e.g., 43% increase in cost come with a greater or less than 43% increase in available selection? Does it have more or less higher/lower-rated or more/less watched content? More/fewer shows that are truncated after the first one or two seasons?
I am still happy with my decision to never get entertainment subscription services. I buy CDs (that I rip) and BDs (that I let someone else rip, since that's a science in itself). This guarantees me access forever and I get to sell down the line, if I feel like it. It is way cheaper long term.
> It is way cheaper long term. I would think this is only true if you watch a small number of shows and rewatch them often
They all have piles of audiobooks, audio cds, dvds, a blu-rays for $1-$2 each. Sometimes big boxes at yard sales for a few bucks.
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Perhaps they consider it some kind of perk that is not "paid for" by the donation. The receipt states "No goods or services were provided." Or maybe they're lying, but I'm going with what the receipt says.
That sounds like the alcohol permit loophole. Instead of getting a permit to sell alcohol, just buy this $10 pack of peanuts and it comes with a free beer. This is known to come with hefty fines btw. That said, If the gift is insubstantial in value it’s allowable. Or they’re supposed to give you a statement of the value and you have to deduct the donation less value amount. My thought is maybe the content is or will…
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I wish we could get past this debate. Different people have different feelings. Bucketing into binary "good" and "not good" based on whether they have the exact same framing as you do is dehumanizing. Stop it. Respect other people. There is space for nuance: If you're spitting out raw LLM output and not looking at or reading it and requiring other people to use it as-is, while representing it as your own original wor…
> Different people have different feelings. Different people have different feelings about what we know call "the Holocaust". They're not equally worthy.
Don’t weaken how awful the Holocaust was.
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My CD collection is around 30 years old. Spotify is currently $13/month. $13 times 30 years is $4680. A lot of people could cover most of what they listen to with that much budgeted to buying CDs... and I'd remind people that the relevant price isn't list price but what you actually pay. Fetching a Michael Jackson album out of a bargain bin for $1 is that album for a $1, whatever someone else somewhere else somewhen…
> and I'd remind people that the relevant price isn't list price but what you actually pay. Fetching a Michael Jackson album out of a bargain bin for $1 is that album for a $1, If going to physical stores, sifting through bargain bins, accepting whatever nobody else wanted, spending the time to physically rip the CD, and hoping that second hand bargain disc wasn’t scratched is your idea of a good time then that’s gre…
One of the highest-value streaming subscriptions you can get is PBS Passport. You get it with a $60 donation to either a PBS TV or NPR radio station. The donation is tax-deductible and the PBS subscription is rich with high-quality content for both adults and children.
The last PBS produced video I watched (it was on yt) was on the current super El Nino, totally cool. But somehow they managed to segue into more than a few minutes of "Remind white people of what happened 300 years ago" right in the middle of it. No thanks. I'm here for science, and if your writers are mostly people primarily concerned with making sure they bow at the alter in every single video, I'm 100% out. It's l…
The explanation posits that this was only possible due to the multiplier of the rapidly expanding British empire. It is not posited as British/white people are bad, it is posited as society, politics and trade creating a multiplier effect. The whole point of this section in the video is to setup the final chapter of the video, asking the question, "Could this happen again?", which feels like a valid question given that society, politics, and trade have exponentially evolved since the 19th century.
This section of the video is portrayed so agnostically that I felt compelled to reply to your vague criticism.
Here is the video linked to the timestamp of the aforementioned section, which is only around 2 minutes long, so others can pass their own judgement: https://youtu.be/69o-8Mtd3Kc&t=330
Not sure how you can be here for the science if you're not willing to be here for the history.
I am still happy with my decision to never get entertainment subscription services. I buy CDs (that I rip) and BDs (that I let someone else rip, since that's a science in itself). This guarantees me access forever and I get to sell down the line, if I feel like it. It is way cheaper long term.
> It is way cheaper long term. Buying CDs would be so much more expensive than my Spotify subscription with the variety of music I listen to. Another helpful element of the streaming services is no incremental cost to try out a new movie or series. I can start a new show and drop it 15 minutes in if I decide I don’t like it. I will listen to 20 or more new bands each week on Spotify. It’s how I discover new music. Fo…
If I enjoy an album, I’ll listen to it some 15-20 times before picking favourite songs or simply moving on. What you’re describing sounds more like consuming albums, not enjoying them. My 2 cents :)
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Showing the CPI next to these price increases wouldn’t hurt. If anything, it shows the problem with a single measure of inflation.
CPI is based on prices such as these, so it provides no useful signal.