This is my small rant against the ‘features’ that big streaming services provided vis a vis the convenience of pirating the same thing.
I have a mobile data connection only where the carrier offers me free data for six hours post midnight. I can queue torrents on my phone(Yes, I torrent mainly on phone via Flud for Android) for downloading at night; then transfer the downloaded files to my laptop much later for viewing on a slightly larger screen. I couldn’t have done the same with say, Amazon Prime Video. Even if I could get these streaming services to queue at certain time, due to DRM restrictions, the content would only remain playable on phone.
I know, my use case, is very unique and niche since most folks probably already have access to fast broadband networks. But Atleast, piracy, hasn’t let go of my hand even for such use cases. I appreciate it.
Also, I am not sure Amazon Prime Video even goes above 720p on Firefox for Linux due to Widevine certification thing; the last time I tried I was running into issues, hence, I stopped bothering with it.
Piracy is a service issue. If the streaming providers are going to punish me for using my preferred browser and operating system by limiting the quality, I will keep my money and get the video elsewhere.
There is also the issue of never knowing when the show will just disappear from the streaming service while you are in the middle of watching it because the licensing changed.
I know, my use case, is very unique and niche
It’s not. It’s as simple as “download and watch”, but thanks to DRM you can’t simply do it. Then pirating is the only way for you.
I concur. Streaming isn’t an option for everybody. Paid services removing the option to download thus force all those people who can’t stream, to pirate. They create the problem and provide no legal solution 🤷
What Piracy isnt legal?
DVD/Blu-ray sitting on my shelf; quicker to download & start watching, than it is to get up, find the disc, pop it in the machine, skip the disclaimers, ads, trailers, menus, etc.
I use multiple paid streaming services but still pirate any movies that I enjoy so that I have everything in one place (Plex). It feels redundant until I’m constantly looking online to see which service has whatever I’m wanting to watch.
FYI, JustWatch will tell you which services have whatever you’re trying to stream.
Google will do that if you just tell it what services you have. Google “watch (blank)” and it’ll show you all of them in descending order by price, if some of the options aren’t free.
Even better, Plex does have this feature integrated. So you can just search on Plex whether a streaming service or a server has that movie for you
for me, Plex is all about the subtitles. so goddamn customizable
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Now imagine if the DVD/Blu-Ray didn’t have any of that bullshit on it, and it just went to a menu, and just played when u clicked play.
Imagine it just had a video file named NameofMovie(YEAR).mkv
And then Special 1.mkv, Special 2.mkv, Menu.mkv
My use case is also impossible or impratical with payed services. And pirated content just gives so much freedom with plex and jellyfin, start watching on my phone then resume on my tv, going rural?download that. I currently share my music with friends and viceversa so there’s a new album every week that I’ve never even heard!
But what really makes me not care, is the constant push and greed of payed alternatives. CD 15$? A book written centuries ago 20$? The same book but digital…also 20$. Netflix used to not have ads at all and was profitable. Then you learn that the tiniest amount of that money goes to the creators…for me it just makes sense to pirate.
Agreed. Wife and I are going to start budgeting to save for our wedding + owning a home and the streaming services are a huge bill. Plus half the shit she wants to watch is being removed off services anyway so I gotta get them through other means. Annoying is what it is!
@kirk782 i pay for prime video too, and have to go to torrents because amazon refuse to go above 720p in linux.
Also my kids like a show that airs in english in april but in our country until september (because dubbing), and they want to watch it ASAP so, torrents again with community subtitles…
Corporations doesn’t care for user needs much less special cases.I too took my speeds for granted before I learnt many people I know have a cable connection worse than mobile. It’s 2023, in a big city. How does it make sense?
What I dislike about all these services is all of them have their own app\UI, many of them are awful and take time to figure out. There are plenty of refined software solutions for playing music and videos, they have plugins you can put your DRM overseer in, they exist for decades. Yet every one of them see their mission in reinventing the bycicle once again. I want my experience and my hotkeys to be consistent, to have the same quality whatever I consume. The only way to achieve that is to invest the same money into a big hard drive and then leech and seed.
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I dropped Netflix as soon as they did their password thing.
So you use VI, huh?
Hey, I’m thinking of switching my Jio SIM to VI. How’s the coverage and speeds for you? Is it cheaper and/or offers some actually useful side-perks?
The coverage will depend on the geographical area. For urban or semi urban, it doesn’t matter since both will likely work. However, rural is a different scenario. Jio does have a much wider 5G network, I guess.
In terms of perks, unlimited data for 6 hours each night and a weekend data rollover thing where unused daily data from weekdays is made available to you for consumption on weekends.
dang, rural people talk about data like we talked about text messages in 2006
It is slightly more expensive than jio 50rs more for each plan. Speeds depend upon your region. I get good coverage and peak speed of 11MB/s and usually around 2 - 3 MB/s. If you want the unlimited data then it is well worth it to port
the only reason I learned how to pirate in the first place is so I could see the Star Wars films in their original versions without having to use a VCR. I immediately realized how much better the subtitle options on Plex were and have pirated everything ever since whether I had legal access to it or not
I mean, technically, I could afford paying for all the needed streaming services I would need to pay for, to watch all the media I watch, as well as all the games I want to play, but I would not have enough money left for food for the month. And on top of that, I will get an inferior experience.
