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I also am drawn to piracy just so i can get a high enough bitrate to look good on a modern display!

romwell 2y ago
>I also am drawn to piracy just so i can get a high enough bitrate to look good on a modern display! Then there's languages and subtitles, and publishers still don't get that shit right. FFS, I can't watch a Ukrainian movie in Ukrainian outside Ukraine, because the publisher only released the English version on US streaming services. And if I want to watch a film with a soundtrack in one language (the original, perhaps) and subtitles in another (out of the ones I speak that it better translates to), sayonara, we're hitting the torrents. Oh, and go figure, sometimes you just don't have a reliable Internet connection where you want to watch a movie. Unbelievably, but it does happen if you go outside the house.
- WorkerBee28474 2y ago
  > FFS, I can't watch a Ukrainian movie in Ukrainian outside Ukraine, because the publisher only released the English version on US streaming services. I suspect there's a cost associated with licensing the Ukrainian version that will not be recouped in markets outside Ukraine.
  - romwell 2y ago
    >I suspect there's a cost associated with licensing the Ukrainian version that will not be recouped in markets outside Ukraine. About a third of Ukrainians are currently outside Ukraine due to war. Even setting that aside, [citation needed] that providing additional soundtracks comes with an additional cost to the streaming service, and if so, that this additional cost is upfront (and not per stream). If the publishers are so idiotic as to kill Ukrainian language distribution outside Ukraine with their fees, that just shows that piracy is necessary. Knowing people in Ukraine, it's less likely to be stupid greed than plain old stupidity (like Daenerys, the officials and executives in Ukraine kind of forgot that Ukrainians outside Ukraine exist). This is a discussion for another time, though.
    - aguaviva 2y ago
      About a third of Ukrainians are currently outside Ukraine due to war. More like about 15 percent as of Feb 2024, per the UNHCR. https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/ukraine/ https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/ukraine/
      - romwell 2y ago
        >More like about 15 percent as of Feb 2024, per the UNHCR. Please, do some due diligence before making comments like this. You are incorrect. Your link counts refugees. It does not count: - people who left Ukraine and permanently settled abroad - people who left Ukraine on work visas - people who ended up under Russian occupation etc. Ukrainian population has plummeted by 25% due to the 2022 invasion alone[1]. The war didn't start then, either. Crimea and Donbas were occupied since 2014. 3 million people in occupied territories[2], technically, never left Ukraine. Another red herring is the phrasing as refugees or asylum seekers. The latter does not nearly account for everyone. With millions of Ukrainians having family abroad due to war, and, at this point, millions of those settling permanently abroad, millions of Ukrainians are eligible to immigrate to reunite with their families abroad. Working families, mind you, Ukrainians integrate well, and not refugees anymore. I am a Ukrainian living in the US. I have evacuated my MIL from Kyiv the first week of the 2022 invasion. She ended up living in the US until her death from cancer this year, and she is not counted in your stats. As all Ukrainians, she had a 90-day right to stay in the EU, visa-free. She didn't cross the Ukraine-Polish border as a refugee. She had an active Canadian visa from a couple of years ago when she visited her daughter there, so she didn't enter Canada as a refugee. From Canada to the US, we used the United 4 Ukraine program when it was instantiated[4], a remarkable achievement of Biden's administration. You may note that it is distinct from "temporary protection" status, and requires someone in the US to sponsor you. It is a parole status; my MIL didn't enter the US as a refugee or asylum seeker. Her friend, whom we managed to get onto the same evac train, remained with her daughter in Spain. She was eligible to do that years earlier. Reuniting with a family member doesn't make her a refugee or asylum seeker. I can go on and on with examples, that's not the point. My point is that the only accurate measure of the population drop is looking at the number of Ukrainians who remain in non-occupied territory of Ukraine to gauge the impact of the war on the population. You will not find this number. If the government of Ukraine were to publish it, there'd be panic. You will only find estimates. And when you add up the estimates of how many people ended up abroad, you'll see that a third of the population is quite reasonable (a quarter of prewar 44 million is a lower bound estimate). [1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/22/ukraine-population-has-plummeted-by-10-million-since-russias-invasion-un https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/22/ukraine-population... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-occupied_territories_of_Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-occupied_territories_o... [3] https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/12/7446142/ https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/12/7446142/ [4] https://www.uscis.gov/ukraine https://www.uscis.gov/ukraine
- zdw 2y ago
  To add to this, if you're trying to learn a language, not being able to watch video in the original audio language AND with subtitles in that language is also problematic, as people don't have perfect pronunciation. Heck, Americans watching British or other historically commonwealth shows turn on the subtitles half the time just to deal with the unfamiliar-to-them accents. Frequently subtitles are available for every language except the original on many services... which seems insane.
  - romwell 2y ago
    >Frequently subtitles are available for every language except the original on many services... which seems insane. I didn't even bother bringing up accessibility, since it's so laughably broken (if not outright ignored) with all current streaming services. It is, at best, an afterthought. None get even close to matching the functionality of a plain old DVD. Or, since we are in 2024 - an MKV file with multiple audio and subtitle tracks, which the pirates care about providing, and the streaming services do not. _______ PS: if you're trying to learn a language, US companies often refer to subtitles in the language of the audio track as "closed captions" rather then "subtitles"[1], with the target audience being hearing impaired people. Look for the "CC" button, or "accessibility" options, and you may find what you look for. YouTube provides automatically generated subtitles for many videos (of varying quality) with the [CC] button in the video controls. [1] See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning

>I also am drawn to piracy just so i can get a high enough bitrate to look good on a modern display! Then there's languages and subtitles, and publishers still don't get that shit right. FFS, I can't watch a Ukrainian movie in Ukrainian outside Ukraine, because the publisher only released the English version on US streaming services. And if I want to watch a film with a soundtrack in one language (the original, perhaps) and subtitles in another (out of the ones I speak that it better translates to), sayonara, we're hitting the torrents. Oh, and go figure, sometimes you just don't have a reliable Internet connection where you want to watch a movie. Unbelievably, but it does happen if you go outside the house.

WorkerBee28474 2y ago
> FFS, I can't watch a Ukrainian movie in Ukrainian outside Ukraine, because the publisher only released the English version on US streaming services. I suspect there's a cost associated with licensing the Ukrainian version that will not be recouped in markets outside Ukraine.
- romwell 2y ago
  >I suspect there's a cost associated with licensing the Ukrainian version that will not be recouped in markets outside Ukraine. About a third of Ukrainians are currently outside Ukraine due to war. Even setting that aside, [citation needed] that providing additional soundtracks comes with an additional cost to the streaming service, and if so, that this additional cost is upfront (and not per stream). If the publishers are so idiotic as to kill Ukrainian language distribution outside Ukraine with their fees, that just shows that piracy is necessary. Knowing people in Ukraine, it's less likely to be stupid greed than plain old stupidity (like Daenerys, the officials and executives in Ukraine kind of forgot that Ukrainians outside Ukraine exist). This is a discussion for another time, though.
  - aguaviva 2y ago
    About a third of Ukrainians are currently outside Ukraine due to war. More like about 15 percent as of Feb 2024, per the UNHCR. https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/ukraine/ https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/ukraine/
    - romwell 2y ago
      >More like about 15 percent as of Feb 2024, per the UNHCR. Please, do some due diligence before making comments like this. You are incorrect. Your link counts refugees. It does not count: - people who left Ukraine and permanently settled abroad - people who left Ukraine on work visas - people who ended up under Russian occupation etc. Ukrainian population has plummeted by 25% due to the 2022 invasion alone[1]. The war didn't start then, either. Crimea and Donbas were occupied since 2014. 3 million people in occupied territories[2], technically, never left Ukraine. Another red herring is the phrasing as refugees or asylum seekers. The latter does not nearly account for everyone. With millions of Ukrainians having family abroad due to war, and, at this point, millions of those settling permanently abroad, millions of Ukrainians are eligible to immigrate to reunite with their families abroad. Working families, mind you, Ukrainians integrate well, and not refugees anymore. I am a Ukrainian living in the US. I have evacuated my MIL from Kyiv the first week of the 2022 invasion. She ended up living in the US until her death from cancer this year, and she is not counted in your stats. As all Ukrainians, she had a 90-day right to stay in the EU, visa-free. She didn't cross the Ukraine-Polish border as a refugee. She had an active Canadian visa from a couple of years ago when she visited her daughter there, so she didn't enter Canada as a refugee. From Canada to the US, we used the United 4 Ukraine program when it was instantiated[4], a remarkable achievement of Biden's administration. You may note that it is distinct from "temporary protection" status, and requires someone in the US to sponsor you. It is a parole status; my MIL didn't enter the US as a refugee or asylum seeker. Her friend, whom we managed to get onto the same evac train, remained with her daughter in Spain. She was eligible to do that years earlier. Reuniting with a family member doesn't make her a refugee or asylum seeker. I can go on and on with examples, that's not the point. My point is that the only accurate measure of the population drop is looking at the number of Ukrainians who remain in non-occupied territory of Ukraine to gauge the impact of the war on the population. You will not find this number. If the government of Ukraine were to publish it, there'd be panic. You will only find estimates. And when you add up the estimates of how many people ended up abroad, you'll see that a third of the population is quite reasonable (a quarter of prewar 44 million is a lower bound estimate). [1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/22/ukraine-population-has-plummeted-by-10-million-since-russias-invasion-un https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/22/ukraine-population... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-occupied_territories_of_Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-occupied_territories_o... [3] https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/12/7446142/ https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/12/7446142/ [4] https://www.uscis.gov/ukraine https://www.uscis.gov/ukraine
zdw 2y ago
To add to this, if you're trying to learn a language, not being able to watch video in the original audio language AND with subtitles in that language is also problematic, as people don't have perfect pronunciation. Heck, Americans watching British or other historically commonwealth shows turn on the subtitles half the time just to deal with the unfamiliar-to-them accents. Frequently subtitles are available for every language except the original on many services... which seems insane.
- romwell 2y ago
  >Frequently subtitles are available for every language except the original on many services... which seems insane. I didn't even bother bringing up accessibility, since it's so laughably broken (if not outright ignored) with all current streaming services. It is, at best, an afterthought. None get even close to matching the functionality of a plain old DVD. Or, since we are in 2024 - an MKV file with multiple audio and subtitle tracks, which the pirates care about providing, and the streaming services do not. _______ PS: if you're trying to learn a language, US companies often refer to subtitles in the language of the audio track as "closed captions" rather then "subtitles"[1], with the target audience being hearing impaired people. Look for the "CC" button, or "accessibility" options, and you may find what you look for. YouTube provides automatically generated subtitles for many videos (of varying quality) with the [CC] button in the video controls. [1] See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_captioning