4 ms·

I have a hard time getting too worked up over this in the case of Amazon, because I have a heck of a time getting them to stream even SD content without horribl

by cwyers 12y ago

I have a hard time getting too worked up over this in the case of Amazon, because I have a heck of a time getting them to stream even SD content without horrible buffering issues.

random28345 12y ago
That's why I pay for Prime (and Netflix, et. al.), and torrent the content. Admittedly, I feel a little bad about paying providers of DRMed content, it sends the wrong market signal. But if I didn't pay these content providers, I wouldn't have a mechanism of signalling that I enjoy watching certain TV shows and movies.
- balls187 12y ago
  If you cancel your subscriptions will you delete your torrented content? What if content is removed from Netflix?
  - redblacktree 12y ago
    I get what you're saying, but this is the edge case. I applaud GP for doing the right thing in the 95% case.
    - balls187 12y ago
      It's not really an edge case, is it? Does a netflix subscription give you rights to torrent movies that exist on Netflix? If so, what happens when they no longer exist. Does the parent commenter check Netflix first before downloading a torrent? I'm not passing judgement, but merely pointing out that a netflix subscription doesn't grant you the license to download and store content, in fact, it's likely expressly forbidden in the TOS. ETA: Not to sound self righteous, I torrented a copy of TES4: Oblivion for the PC day-1, after buying it from Amazon. It was being shipped, but I wanted to play it immediately.
      - MacsHeadroom 12y ago
        >Does a netflix subscription give you rights to torrent movies that exist on Netflix? When did anything remove my right to copy data freely anyway? Copyright is an illegitimate joke.
        balls187 12y ago
        That's an ignorant view of copyright. I'm a photographer, and I prefer to keep control of my work. I'm glad copyright laws exist to prevent others from using my art without properly gaining consent. Sure you can feel like you can copy my photos, but then others should be able to copy your source code. After all, it's just data.
        MacsHeadroom 12y ago
        > but then others should be able to copy your source code. As a FOSS activist and kopimist, that is exactly what I believe.
- skuhn 12y ago
  I agree with the concept of buying a license to the actual content and then consuming it however you want, which ought to be the way the world actually works. However, if you don't actually stream the content from Prime / Netflix / et. al., my guess is that they probably aren't paying out accordingly on the back end.
gdulli 12y ago
And in the case of Netflix HD it's not buffering, it just dynamically drops down to super-low res for however long it needs to which is kind of worse, you're not even getting what you pay for. Not that it's necessarily Netflix's fault, it's just inherent to streaming. Which makes the push for 4K streaming a puzzling choice at best.
- TD-Linux 12y ago
  Right, we already have incredibly bitrate-starved 1080p. But now you can have four times as many pixels for your compression artifacts!

by cwyers 12y ago

I have a hard time getting too worked up over this in the case of Amazon, because I have a heck of a time getting them to stream even SD content without horrible buffering issues.

random28345 12y ago

That's why I pay for Prime (and Netflix, et. al.), and torrent the content. Admittedly, I feel a little bad about paying providers of DRMed content, it sends the wrong market signal. But if I didn't pay these content providers, I wouldn't have a mechanism of signalling that I enjoy watching certain TV shows and movies.

balls187 12y ago
If you cancel your subscriptions will you delete your torrented content? What if content is removed from Netflix?
- redblacktree 12y ago
  I get what you're saying, but this is the edge case. I applaud GP for doing the right thing in the 95% case.
  - balls187 12y ago
    It's not really an edge case, is it? Does a netflix subscription give you rights to torrent movies that exist on Netflix? If so, what happens when they no longer exist. Does the parent commenter check Netflix first before downloading a torrent? I'm not passing judgement, but merely pointing out that a netflix subscription doesn't grant you the license to download and store content, in fact, it's likely expressly forbidden in the TOS. ETA: Not to sound self righteous, I torrented a copy of TES4: Oblivion for the PC day-1, after buying it from Amazon. It was being shipped, but I wanted to play it immediately.
    - MacsHeadroom 12y ago
      >Does a netflix subscription give you rights to torrent movies that exist on Netflix? When did anything remove my right to copy data freely anyway? Copyright is an illegitimate joke.
      - balls187 12y ago
        That's an ignorant view of copyright. I'm a photographer, and I prefer to keep control of my work. I'm glad copyright laws exist to prevent others from using my art without properly gaining consent. Sure you can feel like you can copy my photos, but then others should be able to copy your source code. After all, it's just data.
        MacsHeadroom 12y ago
        > but then others should be able to copy your source code. As a FOSS activist and kopimist, that is exactly what I believe.
skuhn 12y ago
I agree with the concept of buying a license to the actual content and then consuming it however you want, which ought to be the way the world actually works. However, if you don't actually stream the content from Prime / Netflix / et. al., my guess is that they probably aren't paying out accordingly on the back end.

gdulli 12y ago

And in the case of Netflix HD it's not buffering, it just dynamically drops down to super-low res for however long it needs to which is kind of worse, you're not even getting what you pay for. Not that it's necessarily Netflix's fault, it's just inherent to streaming. Which makes the push for 4K streaming a puzzling choice at best.

TD-Linux 12y ago
Right, we already have incredibly bitrate-starved 1080p. But now you can have four times as many pixels for your compression artifacts!