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Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

theguardian.com

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Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#81

Post by mystraline »

vhanda wrote: post #6

All streaming services should have a pay per minute system as an alternative to the fixed monthly subscription. That way, I'd happily use any service to watch whatever cause it would be convenient, instead of piracy. And it would be a reason for them to really improve their recommendation systems.

What these companies would "sell" would be DRM crusty shit that wouldn't work on my devices. And the 'Authorization servers' would be decommissioned at some unstated future date. Hell, even Microsoft couldn't manage to maintain these DRM servers.

If MS cant, why would I expect any company to properly maintain them?

https://community.spiceworks.com/t/how-to-play-content-prote...

So, unless these are MP4's or MKV's with correct subtitling and appropriate audio, I'm not going to pay a cent here.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#82

Post by dilDDoS »

I actually think pirating encourages a healthier approach to watching TV/movies. I've fully made the switch to pirating instead of subscribing to any streaming services, and it's led to me thinking more critically about what I want to spend time downloading and watching rather than just flipping mindlessly through endless amounts of readily available garbage on a streaming service.

I do still have Kanopy though, which is great for me but obviously depends on your library.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#83

Post by 6thbit »

sunrunner wrote: post #24

"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem" -- Gabe Newell [1] And I think he was largely correct, although the term _service_ seems like it now has to do a lot of heavy lifting as it now encompasses: - Availability by Company - Availability by Global Region - Stream Quality - Advert Policy (why does the lowest tier need to be ad supported? What am I paying for aside from being upsold?) - Qu…

Love how this same quote was used in celebration of streaming back in Netflix’s early days as the solution, and now to show the new industry found on those very same ideas as the problem.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#84

Post by nicce »

mystraline wrote: post #81
vhanda wrote: post #6

All streaming services should have a pay per minute system as an alternative to the fixed monthly subscription. That way, I'd happily use any service to watch whatever cause it would be convenient, instead of piracy. And it would be a reason for them to really improve their recommendation systems.

What these companies would "sell" would be DRM crusty shit that wouldn't work on my devices. And the 'Authorization servers' would be decommissioned at some unstated future date. Hell, even Microsoft couldn't manage to maintain these DRM servers. If MS cant, why would I expect any company to properly maintain them? https://community.spiceworks.com/t/how-to-play-content-prote... So, unless these are MP4's or MKV's wit…

Lets go back to old good CD/DVD era.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#85

Post by theoreticalmal »

monster_truck wrote: post #71

I was trying to watch The Big Short the other night, after checking 7 streaming websites I came to my senses and downloaded the 4k rip off the pirate bay I was trying to put on a show for background noise this morning. Just two nights ago I was able to sign in with my cable provider and watch it. Now it's telling me there's a network (as in the channel the network is on) authorization error, customer support can't te…

Fantastic movie by the way. Worth rewatching a couple of times

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#86

Post by WD-42 »

ta1243 wrote: post #68
sunrunner wrote: post #24

"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem" -- Gabe Newell [1] And I think he was largely correct, although the term _service_ seems like it now has to do a lot of heavy lifting as it now encompasses: - Availability by Company - Availability by Global Region - Stream Quality - Advert Policy (why does the lowest tier need to be ad supported? What am I paying for aside from being upsold?) - Qu…

I cancelled prime when they told me they were putting adverts on Went to resubscribe, no option given for no adverts, no money from me.

This is what did it for me too. Why would I pay for a crappy UX and ads? But all these companies need numbers to keep going up, so they keep tightening the screws.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#87

Post by 6thbit »

seatac76 wrote: post #38
crooked-v wrote: post #9

To really sum it all up in one place, check out the absurdity of the official guide on where to watch the Pokemon cartoon: https://www.pokemon.com/us/animation/where-to-watch-pokemon-... And that doesn't even actually list the movies, which are even more fragmented.

Thanks for sharing OP, that is just ridiculous, makes cable looks like a sane option.

With cable you didn’t get this fragmentation cause you also didn’t get many options.

Watch at 8am or at 6pm, whatever episode airs that day, probably a rerun or a skipped.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#88

Post by turnsout »

themafia wrote: post #75
godzillabrennus wrote: post #45

I started buying Blu-ray discs and ripping them to my computer, where I run Plex. Why? I had a long-time subscription to HBO Max, but a few years ago, I went to watch Westworld, and it was gone from HBO. I ended up buying a season on Apple for the price of a monthly subscription to HBO. I cancelled my HBO subscription. I realized that second-hand Blu-ray discs of shows were selling for dirt cheap. I spent $40 to buy…

Are you over 40? I ask because I'm over 40 and I've had enough of this too. Also check out cafedvd.com.

Same. I'm 45 and lately I've been thinking about picking up a Blu-ray player. Not a drive to rip discs—a player to hook up to my TV. It's definitely an elder millennial thing, but I just want to own a physical copy of the movie and not have to worry about where it's streaming or whether the one I "bought" on iTunes has been quietly swapped for another version.

The sad thing is, I don't think Blu-ray is long for this world. But I at least want plastic copies of the classic movies I know I'll go back to.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#89

Post by devilbunny »

rgblambda wrote: post #43
whobre wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I swear I liked the old Netflix with DVDs better. I could rent pretty much any movie I wanted.

Netflix found that while it was a nice advertising tool to boast about the broadness of its catalogue, most customers rarely ordered the more niche stuff so it wasn't particularly profitable.

> most customers rarely ordered the more niche stuff

I'm sure that's true, but the flip side is that the niche stuff is what pulls in the hardcore film buffs. And guess who those of us who aren't big film buffs turn to when picking films and services? The hardcore film buffs we know.

They may not generate a ton of revenue if you look only at "how many people request obscure movie X", but having those movies pulls in the people who will, in turn, influence others.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#90

Post by LtWorf »

neves wrote: post #10
not_your_vase wrote: post #3

About 10 years ago Netflix became available in the country where I was living back then. I was very excited about it, I was on their email list for years, waiting for the announcement. As I got the email that they are available, after work literally the first thing I did was to grab my credit card, and subscribe. I found 4-6 movies I wanted to watch, but when I saw that they had Godfather 1 and 3 without 2, I had a g…

If a movie has a Netflix label in it, it is a sure signal of a bad movie with a boring script made based on data.

That has been my experience as well. When I see that logo it's a bad omen on how the film is going to be.
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