Live data from Hacker News

Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

thewaltdisneycompany.com

681–690 of 788 posts

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#681

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...a solution that has long been found in the music business. Perhaps you're fortunate that everything you want to listen to is on your preferred music streaming service, but what they offer is far from everything in the music industry's catalogue. Ask any classical music fan what they think of streaming services and you'll hear a tirade against the woeful offerings that streaming services make available.

This is why I love Google Play Music, you can basically upload any kind of personally-acquired (legally or not) music to the service and it will seamlessly and transparently integrate with the platform itself and let you stream them wherever and whenever like any other. They are stricter than Spotify with regional licenses unfortunately. I listen to a lot of Japanese artists that are on Spotify but not on GPM in Euro…

I used to use Google Play Music, and it was very nice. But for anyone who has a reaaaaalllly big library I might suggest something like Ampache (http://ampache.org/).

It's totally open source, has a relatively decent web player, allows you to stream your music anywhere, allows you to create accounts for others to have access to your music, can connect with Plex/subsonic to work with other devices/clients. I use DSub on my phone, and can sync music offline (like GPlay Music). Only downsides really is that it requires a web server and the initial import can take some time if your library is very large.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got the urge to watch Total Recall, the original version. (Please don't judge me!) Is it available on Netflix where I am? Nope. HBO? No. Amazon Prime video? No! Now, Amazon does offer a digital rental - for 8 bucks! I never thought I'd say this, but I'm starting to miss video rental shops.

What about iTunes? [1] [1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/total-recall/id1040020260

It seems I have to install their software on my computer to see what the price is. I'm being curmudgeonly here, I know, but I'm not keen on installing iTunes, my previous experiences with that and other software on Windows were not that great.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#683

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This and I want as much content as possible in 4K/HDR, I’m really sick of the second tier streaming services being limited to highly compressed 1080p. If a service came along that truly had the TV and films I wanted with a preference for 4K content, I’d happily pay $40-$60AUD a month for it. Right now I subscribe to: - Netflix - Stan - Apple Music - Usenet related services - Audible - Plex Premium - Getflix content u…

I'd pay more than £40 for it; right now I pay £12/month for a TV licence (basically a BBC subscription fee), £20/month to sky, and £7.50/month to Netflix. I've also paid £7.99/month for Amazon for a few months to try out prime video, but never found it worthwhile. That's just for TV/movie content. I don't want to manage 4/5/6 subscriptions.

Doesn't that pretty much become Sky Movies?

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#684
I don't want to stream, which puts me in the minority. I want services similar to GOG.com or Steam. I want to buy something digitally, have it stored remotely, but allow me to pull it down locally and have it so I can take it elsewhere if I want. That way old, unpopular or niche media can exist on the platform forever and I get my content on my devices when I want it. No fancy monthly subscription with a subset of content, I'll buy each piece of content and pay full price for it.

I realize this is not the 'vision' Hollywood has for their media and most people just want to stream content and not own it anyway, but all of this is very anti-consumer.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#685
post #112

Maybe when I am 60, 70 or 80 the film industry will get their shi* together and finally agree on a solution that has long been found in the music business. For a truly complete platform, I would FOR SURE pay more than the 10$ a month for Netflix. 20, maybe 30! But then I want it ALL. All films they have in storage. I mean, it is 2017 and there are a lot of films I can't find on Netflix, Amazon Prime or, when I am in…

...a solution that has long been found in the music business. Perhaps you're fortunate that everything you want to listen to is on your preferred music streaming service, but what they offer is far from everything in the music industry's catalogue. Ask any classical music fan what they think of streaming services and you'll hear a tirade against the woeful offerings that streaming services make available.

...and jazz. I'd pay €50/month without blinking for the entire ECM catalog for example.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#686
post #658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the only alternative to paying for something you don't own is to steal it and pretend that you're somehow justified because you don't agree with the way the law is written? In any other industry market forces would be in effect forcing business to either compete or go under. Could you expound on this a bit? Disney owns the rights to distribute the products that it has spent billions of dollars to create and you ta…

> So the only alternative to paying for something you don't own is to steal it and pretend that you're somehow justified because you don't agree with the way the law is written? Well laws are meant to be interpreted rather than followed verbatim. But that genuinely wasn't the point of my post and I'm certainly not advocating piracy. That doesn't mean I have to agree with how the movie industry is run either. My point…

Part of what makes Disney Disney is that their content is extremely guarded and restricted. This makes the perceived value higher.

Let's take straight-to-DVD movies for example. Anytime a movie is released straight-to-DVD, that immediately signals to the market that it's a lower-budget, lesser-quality movie. Yet that's a far more effective way to get it the widest possible distribution than screening it in select theaters for a $14 admission fee.

This is essentially what Disney does. Disney has earned a brand that distinguishes its movies from any other movie producer out there. When Disney makes a movie, people want to see it, because Disney has a certain standard of quality. That's not to say that I think every movie Disney makes is gold, just that every movie that Disney makes is perceived as gold by the public. The reason for that is that Disney guards its IP perhaps more stringently than any company. They don't make all of their movies available to everyone and they don't have buffet-style streaming ala Netflix. Anytime a potential competitor arises, they buy them. They now own Marvel and the Star Wars franchise, as well as Pixar and probably several others that I'm forgetting.

I'd argue that if Disney did stream all of their movies online for a flat rate to any and all who will add it to their lineup for an affordable rate (YouTube TV, Directv Now, Sling, Hulu, etc.) they would instantly lose a huge part of what makes their brand so powerful.

They actually did this in the 80's- they had their own channel that you had to get a separate cable box for to stream it into your home.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#687
Netflix and Prime effectively anticipated this by commissioning and owning in-house content.

If the whole industry turns into balkanized streaming sites that each only offer their own stuff, then the result will be that insufficiently popular studios will go bankrupt rather than being low level viable as B-list content on someone else's site.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean no offense, but I found amusement in this post. It used to be that people hated cable bundles so much that they would say they would rather pay $10/month a channel for the few they watch rather than the $80/month for a bundle of hundreds of channels with only a few worth watching. Now that we have that, are we living the dream? No, we want it for a tenth of the cost.

Maybe because people have a little bit more pricing data than they used to and know what $10 of programming is worth. Your $80/mo cable bundle is split something like: $12 taxes, $43 ESPN, $9 Viacom and the rest split by everyone else. $10 buys a lot.

Source for the $43 claim? I thought it was closer to $6 a month.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#689
post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a solution to (1) you can use youtube-dl https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/ It supports downloading only the audio.

But why would you download a (probably illegal) rip that is poor quality, when the act of downloading and keeping the rip is probably illegal in itself (not exactly sure about that) from a platform that is notoriously unsuitable for music when you could just download high-quality release from a music tracker specially optimised for this use case? I mean, if you are ok with doing something (probably) illegal, why not…

I agree with your sentiments, but to play devil's advocate grabbing music from youtube protects you from DMCA notices from your ISP, is always available (no having to wait for seeds/peers on more obscure music), and is much safer (for an average person) where content on public trackers has some risk of containing malware/virus/etc.

Re: Disney acquires own streaming facilities, will pull Netflix content

#690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...a solution that has long been found in the music business. Perhaps you're fortunate that everything you want to listen to is on your preferred music streaming service, but what they offer is far from everything in the music industry's catalogue. Ask any classical music fan what they think of streaming services and you'll hear a tirade against the woeful offerings that streaming services make available.

This is why I love Google Play Music, you can basically upload any kind of personally-acquired (legally or not) music to the service and it will seamlessly and transparently integrate with the platform itself and let you stream them wherever and whenever like any other. They are stricter than Spotify with regional licenses unfortunately. I listen to a lot of Japanese artists that are on Spotify but not on GPM in Euro…

Note: Groove Music does the same thing. You can upload anything you want to your OneDrive account and it will be seamless in the app. No Groove payment required at all.
Post reply on HN