4 ms·

>hassle of BitTorrent What do you mean? I hadn't noticed.

by Herring 16y ago

loire280 16y ago
In my experience these are the shortcomings of using bittorrent: 1. It can take several minutes to find a decent release for titles that are older (>5 years) or less popular. 2. Older/Less popular items are poorly seeded, meaning I potentially have to wait overnight for the download to finish. (A new episode of a current series, however, usually comes in as fast as my broadband connection can handle). 3. Unless you know all of the release groups by heart, you have to spend a minute or two sifting through search results to find a release in a usable format in good-enough quality. Often I have to settle for something that plays fine in mplayer/vlc instead of something I can stream to my PS3 connected to my TV. 4. Maybe about 1/20 times I finish a download only to realize that it's A) not in the right language or burned-in with foreign subtitles B) terrible quality C) incomplete. Sure, I get to keep the files, and often I can find stuff that streams on all my devices without hassle, but I watch stuff infrequently enough that the effort and possibility of failure is bothersome. I'd gladly pay to be able to choose a show and watch it immediately, assuming that the library of available content was large enough.
- walkon 16y ago
  You forgot 5.) It's often illegal
MichaelSalib 16y ago
Using BitTorrent to pirate media incurs some legal risk; there is always a chance that a media company will decide to sue you. Now, the odds of that happening are low, but once they decide to sue you, you will almost certainly lose thousands of dollars, even if you end up winning. In a sense, you can think of the money spent legally purchasing all (or most) of your media as an insurance policy -- you're paying for the right to enjoy media without having to worry about losing tens of thousands of dollars. Low probability high cost scenarios might not trouble younger unattached folk, but I found they weighed more on my mind as I grew older and started a family. YMMV.
- Vivtek 16y ago
  Well, I'm primarily just talking about the hassle of finding what I want on BitTorrent. The legal aspect rankles but isn't really my main concern. With NetFlix, I just pick things out of a list, no popup porn ads, no searching for a tracker that actually has seeds, no bait-and-switch. Just movies, delivered about as fast as I can watch them anyway.

>hassle of BitTorrent What do you mean? I hadn't noticed.

by Herring 16y ago

>hassle of BitTorrent What do you mean? I hadn't noticed.

In my experience these are the shortcomings of using bittorrent: 1. It can take several minutes to find a decent release for titles that are older (>5 years) or less popular. 2. Older/Less popular items are poorly seeded, meaning I potentially have to wait overnight for the download to finish. (A new episode of a current series, however, usually comes in as fast as my broadband connection can handle). 3. Unless you know all of the release groups by heart, you have to spend a minute or two sifting through search results to find a release in a usable format in good-enough quality. Often I have to settle for something that plays fine in mplayer/vlc instead of something I can stream to my PS3 connected to my TV. 4. Maybe about 1/20 times I finish a download only to realize that it's A) not in the right language or burned-in with foreign subtitles B) terrible quality C) incomplete. Sure, I get to keep the files, and often I can find stuff that streams on all my devices without hassle, but I watch stuff infrequently enough that the effort and possibility of failure is bothersome. I'd gladly pay to be able to choose a show and watch it immediately, assuming that the library of available content was large enough.

walkon 16y ago
You forgot 5.) It's often illegal

MichaelSalib 16y ago

Using BitTorrent to pirate media incurs some legal risk; there is always a chance that a media company will decide to sue you. Now, the odds of that happening are low, but once they decide to sue you, you will almost certainly lose thousands of dollars, even if you end up winning. In a sense, you can think of the money spent legally purchasing all (or most) of your media as an insurance policy -- you're paying for the right to enjoy media without having to worry about losing tens of thousands of dollars. Low probability high cost scenarios might not trouble younger unattached folk, but I found they weighed more on my mind as I grew older and started a family. YMMV.

Vivtek 16y ago
Well, I'm primarily just talking about the hassle of finding what I want on BitTorrent. The legal aspect rankles but isn't really my main concern. With NetFlix, I just pick things out of a list, no popup porn ads, no searching for a tracker that actually has seeds, no bait-and-switch. Just movies, delivered about as fast as I can watch them anyway.