The decline of legal streaming, through the dividing up of content onto multiple expensive streaming platforms, has pushed me away from legal options onto the black/grey market where I can get much more content for much less on a more convenient single platform.
They were never competing with cable but with piracy. Of all media sellers it seems Gabe Newell was unique in understanding that
By all accounts Gabe isn't also a gargantuan piece of shit, which also sets him apart from the other media sellers.
Somehow my mind read over the isn't and I had to deeply think on Wtf I missed and couldn't come up with shit
I'm back to sailing the high seas and dumping my loot into Plex.
Same here on Jellyfin.
I was always 100% on board with paying 50-100 bucks a month for being able to watch anything I wanted, whenever I wanted, in perpetuity — for the rest of my life.
Instead, capitalism chose to fracture all content behind multiple paywalls that don't even host the content I want to watch, or censor/change it so that I can never watch the OG versions I want to watch, so I've instead been spending 50-100 bucks a month on computing hardware to download it and host it myself for over a decade.
I'll continue to fucking do it too, because these soulless sociopath leeches don't deserve a cent from me. They don't even fucking pay their content creators or staff a decent wage, and will spend 10x more just to screw their workers. At this point I'd prefer them to fail and collapse, so I'll continue not giving them money — I'm doing my part!
Use your local library! Thousands of Blu-ray/DVD titles for free you can check out and rip freely. And then you don’t have to worry about any nasty letters from your ISP.
I see an irony in the fact that I can't read this damn article without paying for yet another media / news subscription service. Stop linking to pay walls Lemmites!
If there just was a way to micro pay for a single article. But no, it always has to be subscription based.
The irony of a pay-walled article from one of the 50+ news websites requiring subscriptions complaining about fragmented streaming services is palpable.
Yo ho fiddle de dee
Being a pirate is alright with me
Piracy
/thread
The sad thing is that people would pay if it just wasn't so frustrating. I remember coming home from a NYE 10yrs ago or so, and had made up my mind to watch the latest season of Vikings. I was ready to pay for it, and there literally was no legal way for me to get it. So I sailed the high seas.
The streaming services have managed to completely forget their business model of being marginally more convenient than piracy.
As for me, though, I'll start ripping my DVDs. I'll sail the high seas when I have to, but I'd may as well get hard copies of my favourite films and TV shows.
Just sails the seven fucking seas
It is so much more convienient. I had Disney+, Amazon and Netflix a year ago and it was too much to bother to open the apps and search if they have what i wanted to watch, only to find out it was on HBO or whatever.
Too fragmented. I want my piracy all in one sea
The irony is this article requires a subscription to view it…
This was a Very inevitable situation due to the fragmentation of Programs that are scattered across multiple Networks.
If only there was a solution to this problem of greed….
Piracy ftw. I can’t be bothered signing up for all this shit.
Warning. Do not look for Servarr apps or how to set them up on a home system of your choice like Unraid or it's alternatives. Doing so may be a violation of local copyright law.
Yeah and whatever you do definitely don't use Jellyseerr for Jellyfin setups or Overseerr for Plex setups
Jellyfin is a great alternative system. You just have to get the shows and movies somewhere which also isn't that hard cough cough
Ne'er should one relinquish control of thine own vessel. Back to the seas shall we voyage mateys!
Also, 12ft.io
My favorite part of every conversation about a new show someone tells me i "just have to see" is when they "oh yeah do you have xstreamingservice?" And i tell them i have me ways
"Oh you should definitely check out Mr. Inbetween"
"Is it on Netflix?"
"idk it's on my plex"
If I have to google which streaming service a PBS show is on for my kid to watch. Something's messed
The amount of media we have instant access to has reached a level that I find intimidating rather than inviting. Consuming media is becoming more of a chore than a pleasure. Dividing the available media into more services is a plus for me, if I am honest.
I have access to a streaming service, and if they don't have anything I'm interested in, I just walk away and read a book, play a game, put on some music, go outside, or do my chores.
The days when I thought there were things I "should" watch/read/play/listen to are long gone. Not being driven by what is "the thing to do" makes life so much better.
Not having much choice also makes life easier. There were times when I spent more time clicking around in the flood of what I could consume than I did choosing and enjoying. Now, if I can't decide in less than 5 minutes, I take it as a sign that I should do something else.
Friendly reminder that PLEX is a great, free service, you just have to put in the effort to build up a media collection. High capacity HDDs are very cheap now, so storing a large media collection isn't particularly expensive.
They also offer a lifetime "Plex pass" which adds some neat, but non-essential features, like auto-skipping intros and credits sequences for instance. It's not necessary, but it's a nice way to show support for what they do.
Jellyfin is an open source alternative without any subscription or fees
The basic problem with media is that copyright creates a monopoly for 100 years or so depending on various factors. This means that unless you're into Arthur Conan Doyle or whatever, the media landscape is fundamentally monopolistic.
The prices keep going up and I have already set a max price in my mind for each subscription I'm on based on the content they provide over the year. I as a consumer don't have infinite money.
I'll pay for a few streaming services that can keep something I want to watch in stock year around. For the ones that can't, their shows go onto a seedbox with plex and sonarr.
I have just about the opposite problem, as someone who has been known to pirate in the past. I find there is so much content out there that it's harder for me to decide what to watch over where to go to find it.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
