3 ms·

I subscribe to Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon (although that's just a byproduct of prime), and am happy to continue paying ~£30/month (which is roughly what a basi

I subscribe to Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon (although that's just a byproduct of prime), and am happy to continue paying ~£30/month (which is roughly what a basic Cable package would cost me), and even pay the occasional £20 one off for a digital purchase of a "cinema" movie (see: Disney+'s recent releases, new bond movie etc). However, when studios resort to pulling tricks like [0], artificially limiting content (john wick 2 is available on netflix, but to watch the first, you have to purchase it on another service), or just being fragmented (which of the 5 apps on my PC has the content I'm looking for?) I start to get super frustrated at the services, and if this continues will either likely just stop paying for the content, or look elsewhere. The content needs to be easily accessible in high quality or it's going to lose to piracy. [0] https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a37170236/black-widow-scarlett-johansson-sues-disney-streaming/ https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a37170236/black-widow-scar...

kristofferR 5y ago
Yeah, I usually pirate-stream movies using Seren, since even if they are exist in 4K HDR quality, they are just low quality SDR 1080p on the Netflix 4K plan.
antihero 5y ago
I find it extremely annoying that I pay money each month to both Amazon and Apple for their video products, but if I actually want to watch most movies they still want £3.49 to "rent" (which I sometimes do if it is the beginning of the month) it and £8.99 to "buy" it. Some TV series that are over ten years old are still £50+ to buy a "box set" like we are some old morons. Absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully I have infuse on my ATV, so if the price is too high, I pirate.
honkdaddy 5y ago
If you do end up deciding to pull the plug on your streaming subscriptions (I did last year), an illegal but largely safe alternative is to pay for a Plex share. I pay about $3/mo for access to a fellow's server with another few dozen people and have access to hundreds of thousands of TV shows and movies. It's all a fairly manual process, and it takes some digging (I found mine on /r/plexshares), but when it works, it works great.
- BowBun 5y ago
  Yep, same. I'm in the same boat as others where my comfort with piracy is high enough that I continue to maintain my libraries that way despite paying for various streaming services. Find a few friends who think the same and have spread out tastes, and you can setup a nice Plex server that hits all the big names so you're not out of the loop. Whenever one of us wants something more specific, we attempt to find it ourselves. If we can't I'll ping the group and usually one of the others can find it through other sites. It's fun and communal!
- 300bps 5y ago
  Wow. I've given a few friends access to my 18 TB Plex library but never would consider selling access to it.
300bps 5y ago
For me it was when my daughter wanted to watch Friends but Netflix lost their license to display it and there was a point in time where you literally couldn't watch it anywhere. Yeah I don't have a right to watch Friends but that was some BS. Set up Plex, fired up my old IRC client and now new TV shows and movies from a half dozen streaming services automatically appear on my TV ready to watch whenever I want. I still subscribe to Netflix (get it free from mobile provider), Amazon Prime (use prime for delivery) and Hulu (got it for 99 cents per month for a year) but I don't really actually use any of them anymore.
mikepurvis 5y ago
My issue right now is that the Disney+ app on PS4 is trash (like, constantly freezing/buffering trash). Prime, Netflix, and Jellyfin-via-browser are all fine. So although we subscribe to D+, anything we want to watch on the TV ends up pirated into Jellyfin. Eventually I'll pick up a fire stick or set up a media PC, but I feel zero guilt about this in the meantime.
kyriakos 5y ago
Not just tricks. I pay for Netflix and amazon but want to watch Mandalorian, Disney is not available in my country so my options is either try my luck with a vpn or pirate it. If Disney did their homework and launched world wide they'd have my money. Same applies to HBO Max.
- ryan-allen 5y ago
  That's a shame. I hope they release there soon! We have Disney+ in Australia but I'm pretty sure we still don't have HBO Max. Though every service in every country has wildly different content. John Wick 1 might be on Netflix in the US but it's on another service in AU.
- maccard 5y ago
  Yep, I didn't even get into that. We were looking forward to watching the new season of star trek discovery in the UK, but paramount pulled it from Netflix globally for paramount plus which last I checked was still not available here. Honestly between piracy and a vpn piracy is a better option. You're still breaking the licensing either way, and with a vpn you run the risk of being banned from the service. Not to mention most 'watch service X in the USA' vpn services are shady as hell and I trust random torrents on the pirate bay more than them.
  - kyriakos 5y ago
    I went the piracy-way as I used to do during pre-netflix times unfortunately. I understand that disney and hbo probably have various licensing issues in different countries because they already have agreements with local providers for some of their content but this is a problem they have to fix if they want people to pay instead of pirating.

kristofferR 5y ago

Yeah, I usually pirate-stream movies using Seren, since even if they are exist in 4K HDR quality, they are just low quality SDR 1080p on the Netflix 4K plan.

antihero 5y ago

I find it extremely annoying that I pay money each month to both Amazon and Apple for their video products, but if I actually want to watch most movies they still want £3.49 to "rent" (which I sometimes do if it is the beginning of the month) it and £8.99 to "buy" it. Some TV series that are over ten years old are still £50+ to buy a "box set" like we are some old morons. Absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully I have infuse on my ATV, so if the price is too high, I pirate.

honkdaddy 5y ago

If you do end up deciding to pull the plug on your streaming subscriptions (I did last year), an illegal but largely safe alternative is to pay for a Plex share. I pay about $3/mo for access to a fellow's server with another few dozen people and have access to hundreds of thousands of TV shows and movies. It's all a fairly manual process, and it takes some digging (I found mine on /r/plexshares), but when it works, it works great.

BowBun 5y ago
Yep, same. I'm in the same boat as others where my comfort with piracy is high enough that I continue to maintain my libraries that way despite paying for various streaming services. Find a few friends who think the same and have spread out tastes, and you can setup a nice Plex server that hits all the big names so you're not out of the loop. Whenever one of us wants something more specific, we attempt to find it ourselves. If we can't I'll ping the group and usually one of the others can find it through other sites. It's fun and communal!
300bps 5y ago
Wow. I've given a few friends access to my 18 TB Plex library but never would consider selling access to it.

300bps 5y ago

For me it was when my daughter wanted to watch Friends but Netflix lost their license to display it and there was a point in time where you literally couldn't watch it anywhere. Yeah I don't have a right to watch Friends but that was some BS. Set up Plex, fired up my old IRC client and now new TV shows and movies from a half dozen streaming services automatically appear on my TV ready to watch whenever I want. I still subscribe to Netflix (get it free from mobile provider), Amazon Prime (use prime for delivery) and Hulu (got it for 99 cents per month for a year) but I don't really actually use any of them anymore.

mikepurvis 5y ago

My issue right now is that the Disney+ app on PS4 is trash (like, constantly freezing/buffering trash). Prime, Netflix, and Jellyfin-via-browser are all fine. So although we subscribe to D+, anything we want to watch on the TV ends up pirated into Jellyfin. Eventually I'll pick up a fire stick or set up a media PC, but I feel zero guilt about this in the meantime.

kyriakos 5y ago

Not just tricks. I pay for Netflix and amazon but want to watch Mandalorian, Disney is not available in my country so my options is either try my luck with a vpn or pirate it. If Disney did their homework and launched world wide they'd have my money. Same applies to HBO Max.

ryan-allen 5y ago
That's a shame. I hope they release there soon! We have Disney+ in Australia but I'm pretty sure we still don't have HBO Max. Though every service in every country has wildly different content. John Wick 1 might be on Netflix in the US but it's on another service in AU.
maccard 5y ago
Yep, I didn't even get into that. We were looking forward to watching the new season of star trek discovery in the UK, but paramount pulled it from Netflix globally for paramount plus which last I checked was still not available here. Honestly between piracy and a vpn piracy is a better option. You're still breaking the licensing either way, and with a vpn you run the risk of being banned from the service. Not to mention most 'watch service X in the USA' vpn services are shady as hell and I trust random torrents on the pirate bay more than them.
- kyriakos 5y ago
  I went the piracy-way as I used to do during pre-netflix times unfortunately. I understand that disney and hbo probably have various licensing issues in different countries because they already have agreements with local providers for some of their content but this is a problem they have to fix if they want people to pay instead of pirating.