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If you use a media player/manager like this, where do you get your movies? Is there a online movie store that you can download in appropriate format? There was

If you use a media player/manager like this, where do you get your movies? Is there a online movie store that you can download in appropriate format? There was a place for this before good streaming services existed but how do you legally obtain movies and store them on a NAS to feed into JellyFin? Are people ripping their blurays? I ot out of watching all the latest and greatest movies 10 years ago where we would just torrent everything into a folder called /movies. Now it's just the odd Netflix series so I am interested to know how people manage their movie collections and how they acquire them.

MrGilbert 7y ago
It's a valid point. I think it all boils down to: a) Grab a copy of your favorite show or movie as a blu-ray and rip that (which is illegal in most jurisdictions, as you have to break the copy protection). b) Watch it on Netflix and grab it from somewhere else (which is also illegal, because you don't own it if you have Netflix) c) Don't care at all and just download the stuff "from sources". d) Just watch open or initially free stuff. That's even harder. It's pretty hard to stay on the safe side for this kind of thing. Maybe we will see the same we had with the music industry some time ago: It's possible for me to get a FLAC album without DRM nowadays from perfectly legal sources. Not every album and every niche, but I can buy it and own it. Maybe the movie industry will have the same moment in the next decade.
- benboughton1 7y ago
  OK so in practice, most people utilisting this type of software are either bending or breaking the law to organise their movie collection the way they want to. I would really like to be able to manage my media on a NAS with a great piece of OS software that organises them with no ML smarts (when did people forget about alphabetical order and a few tags/categories) but what you gain in privacy and other benefits there you loose in fighting the uphill battle in acquiring the files, time, management etc. It has to be a hobby.
  - joshspankit 7y ago
    This issue is exactly why (imo) Plex has shifted to focus on features it’s core base actually doesn’t care about. They’ve been trying (desperately) to present Plex as a business supporting only legitimate and legal usage. First it was “curated” podcasts and “web shows”, then News(??), TIDAL integration, ad-supported media, and so on. Originally it was very clear that they wanted to help you organize and play all your content without judgement and with the most beautiful experience possible. Clearly Not Any More.
- eitland 7y ago
  > Grab a copy of your favorite show or movie as a blu-ray and rip that (which is illegal in most jurisdictions, as you have to break the copy protection). I was fairly certain this was allowed in Europe as long as you own the discs (or otherwise has a permanent right to watch the content?) Anyone knows the details?
  - blowski 7y ago
    It's technically illegal in most jurisdictions, but ignored if you're doing it for personal use - i.e. you're not burning 1000 copies, selling to your friends, or re-sharing on the network. The UK passed a law in 2018 that sort of decriminalised copying DVDs, but bypassing any DRM or TPM (technical protection measures) is still technically illegal. As far as I can tell.
  - MrGilbert 7y ago
    In Germany, a copy for private purpose is allowed. However, breaking the copy protection isn't allowed. There is a lot of uncertainty though: The wording of the law could allow "breaking" the copy protection if it is not secure (where you technically wouldn't break it any more). For instance, the DeCSS case would have been such an exception. Perhaps.
  - joshspankit 7y ago
    I’m not 100% on the details (everytime there’s a legal win, there’s a dozen lobby groups fighting against it), BUT in Canada it’s likely legal to “format shift” discs that you own by using the internet to download unencrypted copies of them. You’re not breaking encryption thus are safe from that can of worms, and assuming you’re not uploading (distributing is definitely a crime, even a single chunk of a torrent) and it’s for personal use I believe that the law is on your side.
bronco21016 7y ago
People are doing exactly what you think they’re doing. They’re building collections of content illegally from torrenting. With everyone creating their own subscription streaming service these days piracy is about to making a roaring come back and with the advances in software out there today it’s becoming easier than ever. You can go to reddit and find 100s of Plex servers that people open up to others for a small fee or even free. These servers contain nearly everything that’s popular. Why would you want to mess around with 2-3 HDMI dongles/boxes and 4-5 streaming services when you can have it all in one place for significantly cheaper and with little technical ability other than installing the Plex app and registering for a shared server? I suspect as time goes on Jellyfin will become the go to for these types of ‘services’.
- ValentineC 7y ago
  > Why would you want to mess around with 2-3 HDMI dongles/boxes and 4-5 streaming services when you can have it all in one place for significantly cheaper and with little technical ability other than installing the Plex app and registering for a shared server? I suspect as time goes on Jellyfin will become the go to for these types of ‘services’. This, except for most people maintaining their own private libraries, it probably makes more sense to use Kodi to play back files in a file system, than to rename everything to fit Jellyfin/Plex's fairly inflexible file naming requirements.
  - coppernoodles 7y ago
    There's software that can rename and sort your library for you though
    - ValentineC 7y ago
      I haven't figured out the balance between using renaming software (I've tried the free version of Filebot, but it has horrible latency for some reason.), and being able to remain a contributing member to certain media communities.
      - 7y ago

MrGilbert 7y ago

It's a valid point. I think it all boils down to: a) Grab a copy of your favorite show or movie as a blu-ray and rip that (which is illegal in most jurisdictions, as you have to break the copy protection). b) Watch it on Netflix and grab it from somewhere else (which is also illegal, because you don't own it if you have Netflix) c) Don't care at all and just download the stuff "from sources". d) Just watch open or initially free stuff. That's even harder. It's pretty hard to stay on the safe side for this kind of thing. Maybe we will see the same we had with the music industry some time ago: It's possible for me to get a FLAC album without DRM nowadays from perfectly legal sources. Not every album and every niche, but I can buy it and own it. Maybe the movie industry will have the same moment in the next decade.

benboughton1 7y ago
OK so in practice, most people utilisting this type of software are either bending or breaking the law to organise their movie collection the way they want to. I would really like to be able to manage my media on a NAS with a great piece of OS software that organises them with no ML smarts (when did people forget about alphabetical order and a few tags/categories) but what you gain in privacy and other benefits there you loose in fighting the uphill battle in acquiring the files, time, management etc. It has to be a hobby.
- joshspankit 7y ago
  This issue is exactly why (imo) Plex has shifted to focus on features it’s core base actually doesn’t care about. They’ve been trying (desperately) to present Plex as a business supporting only legitimate and legal usage. First it was “curated” podcasts and “web shows”, then News(??), TIDAL integration, ad-supported media, and so on. Originally it was very clear that they wanted to help you organize and play all your content without judgement and with the most beautiful experience possible. Clearly Not Any More.
eitland 7y ago
> Grab a copy of your favorite show or movie as a blu-ray and rip that (which is illegal in most jurisdictions, as you have to break the copy protection). I was fairly certain this was allowed in Europe as long as you own the discs (or otherwise has a permanent right to watch the content?) Anyone knows the details?
- blowski 7y ago
  It's technically illegal in most jurisdictions, but ignored if you're doing it for personal use - i.e. you're not burning 1000 copies, selling to your friends, or re-sharing on the network. The UK passed a law in 2018 that sort of decriminalised copying DVDs, but bypassing any DRM or TPM (technical protection measures) is still technically illegal. As far as I can tell.
- MrGilbert 7y ago
  In Germany, a copy for private purpose is allowed. However, breaking the copy protection isn't allowed. There is a lot of uncertainty though: The wording of the law could allow "breaking" the copy protection if it is not secure (where you technically wouldn't break it any more). For instance, the DeCSS case would have been such an exception. Perhaps.
- joshspankit 7y ago
  I’m not 100% on the details (everytime there’s a legal win, there’s a dozen lobby groups fighting against it), BUT in Canada it’s likely legal to “format shift” discs that you own by using the internet to download unencrypted copies of them. You’re not breaking encryption thus are safe from that can of worms, and assuming you’re not uploading (distributing is definitely a crime, even a single chunk of a torrent) and it’s for personal use I believe that the law is on your side.

bronco21016 7y ago

People are doing exactly what you think they’re doing. They’re building collections of content illegally from torrenting. With everyone creating their own subscription streaming service these days piracy is about to making a roaring come back and with the advances in software out there today it’s becoming easier than ever. You can go to reddit and find 100s of Plex servers that people open up to others for a small fee or even free. These servers contain nearly everything that’s popular. Why would you want to mess around with 2-3 HDMI dongles/boxes and 4-5 streaming services when you can have it all in one place for significantly cheaper and with little technical ability other than installing the Plex app and registering for a shared server? I suspect as time goes on Jellyfin will become the go to for these types of ‘services’.

ValentineC 7y ago
> Why would you want to mess around with 2-3 HDMI dongles/boxes and 4-5 streaming services when you can have it all in one place for significantly cheaper and with little technical ability other than installing the Plex app and registering for a shared server? I suspect as time goes on Jellyfin will become the go to for these types of ‘services’. This, except for most people maintaining their own private libraries, it probably makes more sense to use Kodi to play back files in a file system, than to rename everything to fit Jellyfin/Plex's fairly inflexible file naming requirements.
- coppernoodles 7y ago
  There's software that can rename and sort your library for you though
  - ValentineC 7y ago
    I haven't figured out the balance between using renaming software (I've tried the free version of Filebot, but it has horrible latency for some reason.), and being able to remain a contributing member to certain media communities.
    - 7y ago