Piracy isn’t the only alternative to streaming! Please consider putting a side a certain amount of money each month to buy physical disks, making films isn’t free and buying disks is the best way to suport them. Then you can pirate the rest.
Previously, on Best of Netflix: price increases, flip-flopping on their account sharing stance (currently on “don’t do that”), removing shows without warning, iffy show recommendations by their algorithm, inability to watch shows offline etc.
So, if you’re not already pirating at this point I have to ask: what are you waiting for? Seriously, why are you giving these companies money?
Well, it’s not that difficult to cancel a subscription…
Don’t give them any ideas
Soon they’ll just tap into your partner and make them speak ads throughout the day.
You may want to watch the newest season of Black Mirror
Unfortunately I dont have a subscription to StreamBerry
Eh I wasn’t that impressed. The episodes seem so predictable now where I can basically guess it within the first couple minutes as soon as you realize what the episode’s gimmick is.
Is that a bad thing?
Coming Soon: A free Netflix offering will be AI-created drivel that is basically 30 ads jammed together into some incoherent plot.
/s but not really
I will personally rally an economic war against ALL for-profits!
Pirate Everything at This Point
Way ahead of you.
Smarttube
It’s the way of all subscription based entertainment. To increase profit eventually the choice comes down higher subscription fees or introduce ads.
And once ads are there, it’s a one-way street. Until adpocalypse.
If it’s in your systems in an open format it’s yours, if it’s outside your systems or wrapped in some kind of locked format that forces you to go through somebody else’s software it’s de facto theirs.
Due to my own experience in software development with 3rd party solutions from way back, I never adhered to Streaming solutions (even though I was tempted) and always stuck to getting my entertainment in a media format I controlled (legitimately for a long as I could, not so much once even physical media started having DRM) because I was aware that it’s risky to outsource so much control over one aspect of what you do (in this case entertainment) to an entity which, frankly, sees you as nothing else that microscopic fraction of their bottomline.
(The funny bit is that if Netflix would sell me their Series in an open file format that I could download and at a reasonable price, I would have sent lots of money their way, same as I spent lots of money on DVDs and even VHS tapes back in the day. In fact all throughout that period I was doing something like that for games: as soon as I discovered GOG with their DRM-free downloadable installers, I started acquiring all my games by buying them from GOG)
In the fullness of time, my caution seems to have been proven right.
I agree and I think games are a good example, especially with the Cloud Gaming trend that is trying to apply the same model from video streaming including both the advantages (to be fair, in particular instantaneous start, in theory) but also huge disadvantages (privacy, connectivity needed, no sovereignty, price increase, etc).
Stremio is everything I could ever want and more.
I used Stremio for a while and then I discovered it doesn’t seed and it is just a leech. Since then we have a Jellyfin server at home and we are able to watch everything in 4K without having to worry if the movie will play smoothly.
If I could, I would stop seeding to all the Stremio clients out there. Whenever someone brings up the seed issue most of the people say they don’t care.
Well, hopefully people will install the plugin, right?
Most won’t but that’s just reality.
My only criticism is that they have the big bang theory as the main thing shown right when you go to the website. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a few people just left as soon as they saw that.
Why would that be an issue? It’s a tv show like any other one.
I agree it’s full of stereotypes and bad jokes, but it’s a show that’s easy to watch and that doesn’t require concentration. I am a Physicist and an Engineer myself, very much a geek and generally considered to have a very twisted sense of humor, but I still enjoy watching this show, generally while doing other things on the side.
Is this how everyone used to say “use plex. It’s easy!” But plex was actually a piece of crap that most people couldn’t run properly?
No it’s like Netflix for torrents /real Debrid and really very simple to set up.
Download stremio.
Optionally pay for a Debrid service such as real Debrid (this will basically give you a smoother experience for a couple dollars a month)
Search torrentio
Choose the options (very self explanatory) and install the addon.
You’re literally done. Start playing any show/movie you like. It’ll work.
Plex is a solid meh/10 back end wise, provided you have the knowledge to run the docker container it’s not that bad.
Running it standalone is potentially effort.
My main issue with plex is it’s transition into enshittification as a service.
I love Stremio it is so simple to use and relatively easy to set up, I like the set it and forget it format it has (and your settings and setup are synced across all the devices you like).
With that said, geek me can’t leave aside Kodi for good, I have a Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 and that is where I use it, even when the setup I’ve for it is somewhat heavy (it makes my Shield struggle sometimes) I love thinkering with it, because… there is fun thinkering right?
My gf does Stremio almost always though.
Yep, link it with real debrid As you are, sailing the seas in style… Great UI. Evan has a calendar to keep track of your series.
I am an old pirate and I cringe when people bash debrid services for their pirate pride, honestly it is a life changer if you are willing to switch to fully stream (I still seed the content I gather with the Arr stack for my Plex).
It just seems silly to be like “I’m not going to pay for streaming, so I’m going to pirate” and then paying someone to do the piracy for you.
It might be silly, but do you know what else is silly? The price of the service, honestly 3 bucks per month should save you a ton of headaches that you would get if you want to stream torrents.
Isn’t the problem that legal streaming services don’t provide a good enough service/content? Even if you put the cash out to subscribe to all services, searching each one, one at a time, they still might not have the video content you want. The market failed us, and culture is locked away.
It’s basically a seedbox, people have been using those for piracy for years. It’s a convenient way to have access to an Internet connection that has several times more throughput than your home connection. You can configure Stremio to just grab torrents directly if you don’t want to use a debrid service.
I love it, but I wish there was a way to still seed while using it.
When using Stremio you are seeding. There’s a cache size that holds a specific size that you will be uploading back. As long as Stremio is running in the background you will be seeding.
While using Stremio alone without a debrid service?
I think you do… perhaps not in the healthiest way, but it is something.
Stremio is great.
Question, what even is a “Generative AI ad”?
Is the lead actress of the horror movie I’m watching look into the camera and tell me about the new coca-cola while she waits for the monster to come get her?
Maybe AI just manipulates the shows you’re watching so that the drink they have is branded or the cars on the road all seem to be Kias…
Oh like that one episode of The Boys
I actually haven’t seen one yet. I just assume it’s an AI voice, reading AI generated text, about something that Netflix’s data about you says you might like.
Already doing it
I totally get the anger with Netflix. I fucking hate them as a filmmaker. But I really don’t think a long term solution is pirating content.
BUY CONTENT YOU LIKE
Is it more expensive? Of course it is, that’s part of an equitable society. Also it means you end up with content you really like and not a bunch of junk.
IMO focus on purchasing physical content from creators or distributors who NEED to get paid.
It’s one thing to foolishly throw money at these big companies for blurays of an already very successful series while they’re throwing their old libraries in the trash or ‘the vault’ or just shoveling most of their money towards low quality reality garbage.
It’s another to buy a Criterion or BFI or Vinegar Syndrome bluray of something out of print that they need to recoup the costs of restoring and scanning.
If someone buys a bluray of an MCU movie they are a chump, firstly for liking that stuff, secondly for giving Disney more money for it when those things already earn piles of cash in theaters and that alone would be enough to keep them paying salaries and producing that stuff.
Spend money on independent film-makers/releases, on restorations, on series you like on the verge of cancellation.
Sadly I think the conclusion is already written, physical media’s days are numbered, the big companies are going to shut down the overwhelming majority of bluray and dvd production within 5-10 years is my feeling because why sell you for $20-$30 a copy of something when they can get your rent in the form of streaming monthly payments for the rest of your natural life?
And best of all with the rent they can push ads which further increase their revenue. That bluray is a one-time payment, ads for watching the movie on streaming are a continual revenue stream. I predict that they will either have completely killed off ad-free tiers of streaming to push most of their audience into an even bigger and more valuable ad pool to sell to advertisers OR the prices of the ad-free tiers will grow dramatically away from the ad-supported tiers. Right now it’s a few bucks a month, I suspect within 10 years it will be 170-300% the cost of the ad-supported version.
Vote with your wallet? This has never ended Google, Apple or Microsoft. These capitalist fantasies never work in the real world 🤣🤣
Pirracy is a service issue. People gladly pay when it’s not a shitty experience.
I was. Until they made that so difficult and time consuming that the barrier to entry was too high. Not because of the price. But because of availability. When Google play music was a thing? I bought music. When streaming took over I moved to Bandcamp. But Bandcamp doesn’t have everything. There’s no music stores anymore where I can just go and buy music. It’s all Amazon and similar.
I’d love to own the ghibli collection. But to get it I have to buy the DVD’s (and have a DVD player to play them on), or I have to pirate them. No digital store front seems to have the whole collection. This happens all the time with media that I’m willing to pay for.
I pay for the streaming services, but don’t stream. Maybe this is me trying to justify “theft”, but how I like to think about it is this: I pay for the streaming services. I have the technical know-how to either download directly or rip (screen record) any shows I want from any of the popular services, as well as to write the scripts myself to roughly automate this. I also have spare computers to do this 24/7. However, it’s actually better for the streaming service that I don’t do this myself, since they still get my money without me using the bandwidth. I pay for AMC Stubs A-list but don’t often see the movies in theaters, so I don’t feel bad pirating new releases. As for movies/shows not on streaming services, I could buy used dvd/blurays, rip them myself, then sell them back, but that would ultimately result in a near-net-zero cost anyway, so what’s the point of going through all that? In my mind, as long as I’m paying for these subscriptions pirating feels like it’s no longer an ethical/moral gray area.
Note that I only do this because I can afford to. When I was younger, I would pirate everything without worrying because if I couldn’t afford to pay the streaming service, they didn’t lose a potential customer if I pirated anyway. Now that I am better off and would definitely be paying for these subscriptions, I might as well, but still get to own the content I’m paying for. 120TB and counting!
Along with bandcamp, there’s Qobuz, 7digital, and HDTracks that I can recommend for digital music downloads. Those other three often have what bandcamp does not, much more common songs. Many in 24-bit.
Man. Google play music. Fucking miss that service.
Found so much good music… Still hurts me it died.
Me too boss
Buy the dvds and rip them…
Most companies stopped making both the discs and the drives/players. Not a long term strategy.
Yeah, just buy yourself a dvd/blu-ray player just to rip it, wait for the disk to arrive, connect it to your computer and set aside the time to rip it (if you even know how).
Such a reasonable alternative to setting up radarr one time and watching the movie immediately. Can’t have a digital storefront where I get to own my digital copy.
deleted by creator
So… buy the DVDs? Or any other Ghibli merch.
I’d love to know what you do when you can’t find a DVD still in print? Media companies like Disney and Paramount etc have been deliberately limiting the number of DVD’s and other physical formats available, putting whole movies and series “in the vault” for the purposes of manufacturing scarcity. Piracy is largely a matter of economic affordability and ease of access. I can pirate. The point is when I had these titles available to buy, I bought media rather than pirate it. I preferred to. And when it’s not easily available or locked to specific services I’m boycotting etc there’s few avenues left. I can appreciate that you were trying to give me a legal avenue to obtain what I want, but I feel like you missed the forest for the trees here.
I mean, if they really don’t want your money…
Like I said, other merch. Or mail them a check if you really really want to send them money.
Pretty sure all of Studio Gihibli is on Fandango/Vudu.
Looks like from a cursory search only 12 of them available of about 22.
If there was a Bandcamp for film and TV, then I would buy stuff there. DRM free.
But until then…
It’s made intentionally hard though. Try buying The Expanse Blu Ray collection for example. Season 4 literally only comes region A locked, and is not playable on non modified Blu-ray players if you’re in the EU. I was excited to buy it after getting a decent Blu-ray player so I could rewatch it with my partner who hasn’t seen it, but something dumb like that does put a damper on things, so we haven’t even bothered with it, despite downloading it.
I’ll buy music directly from artists on bandcamp and such, especially since they offer unlimited DRM-free FLAC downloads, but any other media at this point is just absurdly inconvenient. Everything’s just tied to dogshit streaming platforms.
If there were a DRM-free option to buy and download movies or shows for life, I’d definitely be buying what I can here and there. But everything is so locked down or encumbered with other bullshit that it’s not a viable option.
buying physical media and ripping yourself is the only viable option but it’s so inconvenient
Which works for some content, but a lot of childrens content is only available through subscriptions to Netflix/Disney+/Max.
To some extent you’re right. There’d be less content if nobody paid. But imagine current society without treats. I don’t know if capitalism without “panem et circenses” would start to crumble real fast.
I buy vinyl and buy flac music from artists I like.
But if your digital content isnt available in my region imma pirate it and assume the racist fucks have enough money.
If the argument is talk with money then giving them 0 and taking from them is the strongest argument you can have morally speaking. Piracy is more convient regardless.
