The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#391

Post by tvanantwerp » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:22 AM UTC

samfriedman wrote: post #206

While it's true that BitTorrent as a protocol has significantly fallen out of favor as the go-to technology for John Q. Pirate's needs, there are still many niche torrent sites that stay alive by differentiating on quality and community. Most of these sites are invite-only, and each tend to specialize in a specific type of media. One site might accept only movies, another TV shows, a third comic book scans, and a fou…

> BitTorrent as a protocol has significantly fallen out of favor as the go-to technology for John Q. Pirate's needs...

Out of curiosity, what would you say is the go-to technology for pirates now?

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#392

Post by taneq » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:24 AM UTC

brooot wrote: post #291

phil248 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Torrenting for me has always been about convenience, not money. I recently wanted to watch a new show called A.P. Bio. It's free on NBC's website. But after struggling through one episode with lags and ads with no volume control, I gave up and just torrented the show. Until they master such exotic technologies as "streaming video" and "volume control" they're going to keep driving people to torrenting. Netflix figure…

This is how Steam basically single handily defeated video game pirating. Newell himself is on record saying that piracy is an issue of not making something accessible enough, and he was obviously right. People will pay for convenience. We are no longer in the age of, "I want to watch/listen/play something, lets drive to the store". If the platform they use sucks, it will have the same problem. Last pirating site I wa…

Convenience, sure, but don't forget that games on Steam are often deeply discounted compared with off-the-shelf prices. PC games (at least in Australia) are often $60 - $90 on the shelves. Many of these games can be had on Steam for $20 or less, and sometimes for only a few dollars in a bundle or on sale.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#393

Post by jen729w » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:27 AM UTC

phil248 wrote: post #205

jimmies wrote: post #62

I can't read the article because the website is down. But I have something to say about torrenting movies. Late last year, my old parents who don't speak English came to visit me for a couple of months in the US. I'm just a graduate student with a limited budget, and my mom is car sick so we couldn't go out every night. I didn't want them to waste time on Facebook after dinner until we went to bed, so I had to think…

Torrenting for me has always been about convenience, not money. I recently wanted to watch a new show called A.P. Bio. It's free on NBC's website. But after struggling through one episode with lags and ads with no volume control, I gave up and just torrented the show. Until they master such exotic technologies as "streaming video" and "volume control" they're going to keep driving people to torrenting. Netflix figure…

This. Me and my lady enjoy watching [some abysmal show that I won’t admit to] which is currently broadcast on one of the Australian networks. I don’t own a TV receiver, so everything is streamed.

Their site is so pitifully bad I refuse to use it. I tried, I really did. But when the ads break and you’re forced to reload the stream, only to be put back to the start, with no ability to skip forward? Sorry, no.

I wait a day and torrent the show with the ads removed. And I don’t feel the tiniest bit bad about it.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#394

Post by ryandrake » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:35 AM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #275

8draco8 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The law/studio deals have to change. Netflix offers great movies and they lock it down to certain countries. For example I am big fan of Back To The Future. I can watch may favourite movie every month when I'm in UK but when I am in Poland then no luck. Same goes in other direction. While being in Poland I downloaded via Netflix National Lampoon Animal House to watch on plane. I watched half of it on plane then tried…

I don't understand what is the profit for movie companies in narrowing down their own market. The movie company sold the rights to show that movie in the UK to some other company instead of Netflix, probably for more money than Netflix offered them. Also, you're paying a fixed monthly fee, and unless you're part of the small minority that travels a lot, you're not likely to drop Netflix over not being able to watch c…

Licensing a movie in such a way that it can be played in France but not Poland seems as ridiculous as licensing it such that it can be played in Pennsylvania but not Minnesota. When will this Stone Age practice go away?

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#395

Post by pepe56 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:35 AM UTC

phil248 wrote: post #205

jimmies wrote: post #62

I can't read the article because the website is down. But I have something to say about torrenting movies. Late last year, my old parents who don't speak English came to visit me for a couple of months in the US. I'm just a graduate student with a limited budget, and my mom is car sick so we couldn't go out every night. I didn't want them to waste time on Facebook after dinner until we went to bed, so I had to think…

Torrenting for me has always been about convenience, not money. I recently wanted to watch a new show called A.P. Bio. It's free on NBC's website. But after struggling through one episode with lags and ads with no volume control, I gave up and just torrented the show. Until they master such exotic technologies as "streaming video" and "volume control" they're going to keep driving people to torrenting. Netflix figure…

Cannot agree more. It's only convenience for me as well. An mp4/mkv file has no ads, doesn't care about my browser version and will play perfectly on the plane or in any country. Ah, and I can have it in any language available with any subtitles. Sorry, but all that proprietary crap out there can't beat that.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#396

Post by qwerty456127 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:40 AM UTC

> Better Legitimate Alternatives

By no way can a vendor-locked, regionally-policied, DRMed thing be considered a "better alternative", IMHO. I would rather pay twice (or even more) the price of the legitimate alternatives to just legalize the usage of unlimited, no-nonsence, DRM-free standard-format files exchange if only this was legally possible.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#397

Post by ryandrake » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:43 AM UTC

dingo_bat wrote: post #370

Semaphor wrote: post #78

The reason why for me, someone with a netflix and amazon prime account in Germany, bittorrent is neither dead nor declining (for movies and TV shows): a) Being on time. If you want to take part in the online discussion about tv shows, you have to watch them on time. For a ton of shows I can't even buy episodes on the day they come out. Torrenting is still the far superior choice. b) Languages. Yes netflix, I know tha…

> Quality. I don't care that your algorithm thinks my network is not fast enough for HD. Just let me tell it that it's wrong. Or I could torrent and download something in actual HD within just a few minutes. This is so true. I have a decently fast connection (75mbps) and Netflix's own speed test tells me the pipe really is that fat. YouTube can play 1080p60fps content without breaking a sweat. But Netflix is always b…

Maybe your ISP is specifically throttling Netflix, but not their speed test?

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#398

Post by PhantomGremlin » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:47 AM UTC

RobertoG wrote: post #350

phil248 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Torrenting for me has always been about convenience, not money. I recently wanted to watch a new show called A.P. Bio. It's free on NBC's website. But after struggling through one episode with lags and ads with no volume control, I gave up and just torrented the show. Until they master such exotic technologies as "streaming video" and "volume control" they're going to keep driving people to torrenting. Netflix figure…

You made me curious about the show, so I went to the NBC page. It says: "Sorry, this video is not available from your location."

Oh, God no!

I like to watch the first episode of a new show to see if I'll like it. But this is one show I deeply, I say again deeply regret watching. I'll never get those 22 minutes of my life back.

The show is cringeworthy. It's one of the un-funniest sitcoms (can they call it that?) I've ever seen. It's that bad.

Everything has a price, but I wouldn't watch another episode unless they paid me $100. And if the second episode was as bad as the first, they would need to keep doubling that payment for each additional episode.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#399

Post by AznHisoka » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:54 AM UTC

jimmies wrote: post #62

I can't read the article because the website is down. But I have something to say about torrenting movies. Late last year, my old parents who don't speak English came to visit me for a couple of months in the US. I'm just a graduate student with a limited budget, and my mom is car sick so we couldn't go out every night. I didn't want them to waste time on Facebook after dinner until we went to bed, so I had to think…

This. X 100.

Bittorrent and VLC gives you 100% control over how you view content. And subtitles are a huge part of the watching experience for many people.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#400

Post by Libturd » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:01 AM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #195

djsumdog wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love bandcamp. It only takes 10% to 15%, unlike Apple/Google/Amazon which take >= 30% from artists. Really I prefer buying CDs at shows. Artists usually get to buy CDs from their own labels for $1 each, where if you buy it on Amazon/iTunes, they have to pay their label back for the recording costs, so they get like $0 until they hit some number (usually a few thousand). So if I buy a CD for $12, they're probably ge…

To be fair, most bands I but from don't have the "problem" of having a label to worry about ;)

omg so hip!!!