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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

#531

Post by mcv »

scarface74 wrote: post #364
coldtea wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that's their problem. My problem is having good original movies...

Obviously since they are making literally billions of dollars on the movies they make now -- they don't have a problem even without your money.

I don't see the MCU movies as a problem. They're doing some ridiculously bold stuff with the way they're bringing comic book attitudes to the big screen. From the weirdness in Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor Ragnarok, to wrapping up a dozen movies with dozens of main characters in Infinity War, and then ending the movie in defeat!

That stuff takes balls, and I'm enjoying it a lot.

It's true that superheroes do dominate the current movie landscape maybe a bit too much. Nerds won and now everything has to be SciFi, Fantasy, Horror or Superheroes. I wouldn't object to dialing that back a bit, but only a bit.

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

#532

Post by distances »

fragmede wrote: post #427
fhennig wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently rented a movie on amazon, and then I didn't have the option to get english subtitles, only subtitles in my native language. I wonder why that is, and I'm assuming it is because of some cumbersome contractual relations. On a DVD I'm pretty certain I could have gotten English subtitles. So now I'm paying, but I still get sub-par content? I ended up using a plugin to add the subtitles back in, but that plugin…

Go to a different country, and Netflix offers a different set of subtitles for a given title. Why can't I get Swedish subtitles in the US, for titles Neflix has the subtitles? I know this is to simplify the UI, but just offer it as an advances option, like they do for non-apathy mode (ie, stop playing at the end of one episode so I don't lose a day sitting on the couch).

> Why can't I get Swedish subtitles in the US, for titles Neflix has the subtitles? I know this is to simplify the UI

Not true. I'm pretty sure it's licensing cost. In Germany most movies have subtitles only in German, while a handful also in English -- all Netflix originals and maybe some others. Meanwhile, basically all series have English subtitles for some arcane reason.

For me Netflix is a series-only service, I've given up on finding any movie worth watching that would have English subtitles.

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

#533

Post by coldtea »

scarface74 wrote: post #363
coldtea wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not "easy" on mobile Short videos maybe, but I don't think I know anybody, young or old, who cares of streaming full movies on mobile. Maybe some outliers who watch their series on their commute... The vast majority watch movies when they are at home...

So are you saying that all of the media streaming companies are wasting money creating mobile apps based on the "people you know"? Is the whole industry under the delusion that their apps are needed? Should they focus on just “people you know” or the entire mobile market?

>So are you saying that all of the media streaming companies are wasting money creating mobile apps based on the "people you know"?

You make it sound like they waste some fortune on those, so it necessarily has to have a huge market to justify building one.

On the contrary, regardless of whether they have a big mobile watching userbase (and I'm wrong) or not (and I'm right), it still makes sense to have a mobile app.

First, the mobile app budget is a drop in the bucket compared to their operating costs (bandwidth, marketing, offices, license deals, etc). So there's not much of a waste even if nobody uses it, which makes making a mobile app available a no-brainer.

Second, it would bad (competition wise) not having one anyway, even if few really use it...

Third, even if it's just e.g. 10% that watches movies on mobile, why not get them too?

Fourth, it's note that they actually invest specially in their mobile apps to begin with. Usually they use some cross platform framework they use for their web and/or desktop version.

Fifth, do you have better numbers, or some other empirical observations from people you know? Do you see rampant movie watching on the go?

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

#534

Post by coldtea »

scarface74 wrote: post #467
TeMPOraL wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. What I call "working similarly" is the following: - I type "fili.cc" in my Firefox on Android - I don't like anything currently in suggestions, so I tap on the search box, type in "Avengers", and press Search - I tap the first result, as it is the movie I'm looking for - On the move page, I tap on one of the players listed - A video box loads, I press its Play button, then Full Screen button, and watch the movie…

And I get a blank screen on ios -- you know the platform that close to half the US mobile phone population in the US use and way more than half of middle and upper income households use. So do none of the "people you know" use iOS devices?

>And I get a blank screen on ios -- you know the platform that close to half the US mobile phone population in the US use and way more than half of middle and upper income households use.

The US is like 4% of the planet. The world is much bigger than New York, North Platte, Dallas, and Des Moines combined, and there are many countries where what the parent said is common place...

To put it in perspective, Netflix has something like 151 subscribers worldwide. The other 7.3 billion people use something else, and it's not Hulu or Disney...

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

#535

Post by cocoggu »

zanny wrote: post #338
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…

Remember Popcorn Time? When it worked, it was amazing. It has better UX than any regular content provider can provide because you don't even need sign in credentials or to enter a credit card. There is also no technical barrier to streaming torrented video on the web. Peertube etc demonstrate distributed video effectively.

Popcorn Time is still working and still awesome. I just watched a movie yesterday. I'm a Netflix subscriber, but living in China. Usually Netflix works fine with Astrill VPN, but not since 2 days, so yeah, I'm back on Popcorn Time thanks to their awesome geographic blockage.

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

#536

Post by scarface74 »

coldtea wrote: post #534
scarface74 wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I get a blank screen on ios -- you know the platform that close to half the US mobile phone population in the US use and way more than half of middle and upper income households use. So do none of the "people you know" use iOS devices?

> And I get a blank screen on ios -- you know the platform that close to half the US mobile phone population in the US use and way more than half of middle and upper income households use. The US is like 4% of the planet. The world is much bigger than New York, North Platte, Dallas, and Des Moines combined, and there are many countries where what the parent said is common place... To put it in perspective, Netflix ha…

That’s s very simplistic way of looking at the market. That’s like saying the total market for people who may buy tampons is 7.3 billion.

Do you really think the total addressable market for people who might buy a streaming service is 7.3 billion?

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

#537

Post by HeavyStorm »

I think the article doesn't tackle it from the correct perspective.

There aren't _many_ choices at all, because we don't hire the service for the service itself, instead, for the content, and content here is exclusive.

For instance, you have competition on the PC market: you can buy Dell, you can buy Lenovo, and while the outside may differ, inside, you have the same thing. You also have choices of Burger joints, because although we may prefer one to the other, whenever we want a burger, we can choose from anyplace.

This kind of content, TV shows and movies, however, is different. There's more uniqueness to each piece than a burger or a PC have. You can't interchange Game Of Thrones with Vikings and be really satisfied, worse, you'll probably want both.

So, right now, what we have is little choice - recent shows and movies are on a single platform, and just a few are on two or three different ones. So to have all content you want, you might need to subscribe to many different platforms.

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

#539

Post by thirdsun »

katbyte wrote: post #384
dfxm12 wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's disingenuous to call switching libraries "inconvenient". We're talking about opening a new tab or switching an app. A few finger budges for ~2hr of entertainment. I don't know what to say if you find that so inconvenient, especially compared to the effort it would take to go to a torrent site, find a high quality stream, make sure it has the right special features you're looking for, or what have you, to pirate…

> A few finger budges for ~2hr of entertainment. It's more like: check sites 1-5 looking for the movie, can't find it (or it a PPV download, OR the app/site doesn't support 5.1 DDS, its quality is bad) get frustrated go onto $torrentsite, sort by size, download one with most seeders & a larger file size wait 30-60 min and done. Netflix used to make it easier as their app UX and quality are high so it was a one stop s…

Another often overlooked technical detail: Streaming clients and supporting the proper framerate of the content. My projector supports 24p as do most other displays, but good luck making sure that Netflix' and other streaming service clients on various devices actually output 24p and not interpolated 60Hz leading to micro stutter.

I understand that many displays have decent interpolation features these days, which hide the issues, but they are still a solution to an unnecessary problem.

A bluray or a good rip of it delivers the film in proper fashion. It's a non-issue with pirated content.

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

#540

Post by esond »

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.

People don't use Netflix et al. because they want to follow the law. They use them because they're a better service and experience than the alternatives (PVR TV and DVDs).

When streaming services no longer offer a superior user experience, there's not much reason to use them. Maybe we'll see a new round of "You wouldn't download a car" ads.

I would happily pay for a service that let me download content to my personal machine, without DRM, and without restrictions. The price paid for that right now is breaking the law, and current enforcement of that law hardly a price to pay.

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