this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
1806 points (97.7% liked)

Technology

60058 readers
2379 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

We are contacting you regarding a past Prime Video purchase(s). The below content is no longer playable on Prime Video.

In an effort to compensate you for the inconvenience, we have applied a £5.99 Amazon Gift Card to your account. The Gift Card amount is equal to the amount you paid for the Prime Video purchase(s). To apologize for the inconvenience, we've also added an Amazon Gift Certificate of £5 to your account. Your Gift Card balance will be automatically applied to your next eligible order. You can view your balance and usage history in Your Account here:

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] fubo@lemmy.world 262 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Remember, streaming only has a business model as long as it has a better user experience than piracy. That's why iTunes took off in the era of Napster. When a streaming service's user experience drops below that of digging up pirate treasure off a shitty ad-ridden torrent site, that service is not long for the world.

[–] Weslee@lemmy.world 126 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I cancelled Netflix and prime and went back to piracy a few months ago, it's been a nice blast from the past

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 108 points 1 year ago (5 children)

In addition to piracy, I've also been checking out DVDs from my local library. It's kinda fun.

Surprised myself because I half expected I'd miss the convenience of Netflix, but I haven't missed it even a little.

"Was I a good streaming platform?"

"No."

[–] Peaty@sh.itjust.works 56 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The benefit of the library DVD is it takes away the "What will we watch tonight?" conversation. You're going to watch the DVD.

[–] AliasWyvernspur@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It just switches the question to the library: "What will we borrow tonight?"

Source: experience from my Blockbuster days.

[–] RheingoldRiver@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

We used to rent movies every weekend when I was a kid, and we supported our local video rental store instead of Blockbuster. It was so much fun to decide what to rent! The staff there always knew so much about movies too, and we'd follow their recs often. We watched a bunch of classics and silent films that there's no way would get visibility on streaming libraries today. I wish I'd kept a journal of all the movies we watched, I remember almost no titles now.

[–] 0110010001100010@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

lol I remember those days. Standing there trying to decide what movie to rent. Good times...

[–] Peaty@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Yes but you have that discussion somewhere else. By the time your ready to be watching something you have made that choice

Checking one out is fun, too. It feels like an event vs. just watching anything out of boredom

[–] Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Shows are harder to come by though

[–] Peaty@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

That depends on your library

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

You can also buy used DVDs. Just got a stack of studio Gibili movies for a fraction of the price they cost when they were new. Still haven’t watched all of them, but some I have watched more than once.

[–] epyon22@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It was nice when you could actually watch almost everything on it. Once everyone else started taking peices of the pie it just feels like cable with more hoops now

[–] DoomsdaySprocket@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Every time I open a streaming service now, the things I want to watch are locked into an extra subscription. I generally end up just walking away rather than watching anything, and when I do dig around and find some thing else that is available on “my tier,” it absolutely wasn’t worth it.

Forget even piracy, I’m just not watching anything anymore. When streaming makes my chore list look more attractive, they’ve definitely fucked up.

[–] freeman@lemmy.pub 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The only reason I keep Netflix is kids.

We don’t really watch it otherwise.

Even my in-laws are now pirates using hacked amazon fire sticks that are being hawked around their retirement community.

My mother in law is like “I get every streaming service and channel for 1 dollar a day, isn’t that great”.

I’m all “if it’s simple and works for you yeah, absolutely. “

[–] proudblond@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We’re about to cancel Netflix despite my kids’ protests and start rotating. My husband just wanted to watch the new Castlevania and then we’re cutting and running — for a while at least. It’ll end up on the rotation again at some point.

If streaming services ever make us sign up for more than a month at a time, we’ll be hard-pressed to keep doing it the “right” way.

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is a great time to teach your kids Internet piracy and internet safety at the same time! Don’t click the pictures of the nice lady and you get to watch your show lol

[–] KnightontheSun@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

"These hot babes are most certainly NOT in your area."

I think this is an excellent notion and allows you to better shape their foray into the subject matter. They will be the cool kids, but you'd have to instill the "no talking about Usenet" type of rule. No boasting.

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a mini PC running Linux that connects to my TV via hdmi so we can watch anything!

[–] freeman@lemmy.pub 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have a mini-pc running a plex vm. And all the TVs are Rokus. So can watch anything, including live broadcast tv. And the roku is so simple kids can operate it, and do.

I have a Roku too, which I mainly use for work trips.

What I did at home was get one of those cheap rechargeable wireless keyboards with trackpad for like $10 so that we can browse for what we want to watch from the sofa.

[–] electrogamerman@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I would change that to:

"Was I a good streaming platform?"

"Yes, during your first year. Then all companies went greedy monkey savage and ruined it"

[–] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The thing that sucks is that a lot of new stuff isn't on physical media at all.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It can be:

Step #1: download it (🏴‍☠️)

Step #2: burn it

Step #3: enjoy owning a more lasting copy for almost free

[–] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

Well, yeah, but we were talking about going to the library.

I'm surprised what is, though. One of the movies I checked out was Knives Out.

[–] Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m about ready to do the same.

[–] Weslee@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I bought a raspberry pi, a SATA SSD and usb adaptor, and installed Plex now I'm the new netflix for my family, they send me movies and shows they want to watch and I put them on there, then they connect to my server and watch

It's been really good

[–] b3an@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Netflix will also be raising prices soon. Again.

[–] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Netflix recently stopped shipping discs, that was all I kept them around for anymore...

[–] MTLion3@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m just always spooked by viruses and shit.

[–] Weslee@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Use yts.mx, if you use any other site, try checking comments first if they have them, if not you can use torrent file viewer to check the download is actually a video file before downloading

Lastly you could try anti virus, but don't rely on it to do your job for you, they can catch most but not always all viruses

[–] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org -2 points 1 year ago

You can't get a virus from a video or music file. Viruses have to be executable.

[–] dansity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Paying 0.99 per song was how a better user experience? Music piracy was pretty big till Spotify. No service was even close before.

[–] FlounderBasket@lemmy.world 50 points 1 year ago

Being able to easily purchase a single song from a reputable source in the comfort of your home instead of going out to physically buy an entire album and then rip it to your computer was a better user experience, yes. Most users are technologically illiterate, and trying to pirate stuff just lead to them getting viruses.

[–] MamboGator@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

On top of what's already been said about technological literacy and security, I'd like to add that I WANT to support the artists who make things I like but the companies selling their works tend to ruin the experience by trying to squeeze every dime out of you.

For the last decade or so, digital storefronts have provided a pretty good experience, but it's starting to get a lot worse as the old companies go public and become beholden to shareholders, or as new companies enter the arena and split up what was once available all in one place.

[–] AnonTwo@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you have the local MP3 file you can do just about anything you want with it. Use it in just about any device. Transfer it anywhere. And never lose it.

I have Mp3s that are over 20-30 years old and have never needed to get them again.

And yes I go to piracy almost immediately if I can't get a local file. Just because of how many different ways i've used them over the years.

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

shitty ad-ridden torrent site

let me introduce you to usenet trackers

[–] Bob_Robertson_IX@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That was my first thought too. A seedbox, Sonarr & Radarr and a Usenet site and I've got everything I need for $15/month.

[–] orwellianlocksmith@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is seedbix, sonarr &radarr?

A seedbox is access to a server that someone else runs, and they typically have a policy of not asking too many questions, not keeping too many logs, and offer assistance in keeping things secure. It can be used for any number of things. I use mine to host bit torrent files and to run applications such as Sonarr & Radarr. These are open source apps that manage TV shows and movies.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Meanwhile *arr got off (user experience) and Netflix & co. are ad-ridden too.

[–] Cyv_@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I don't even have to torrent, I have like 3 sites I can just go to, search for content on, and stream video from like a shittier netflix. Adblock keeps them relatively sane, and I sometimes have to try different server sources, but otherwise it works fine.