Pick one, they’ve had all the movies / TV shows I wanted to watch, which are not all mainstream.
If there’s an exception and there’s something you don’t find it there - well, do you, but I really don’t understand how piracy is the default answer to convenience with people claiming they have the willingness to pay.
Someone else commented about the local video store - also an option, if not something I’d do myself (does redbox count?)
I wonder why that is, and I'm assuming it is because of some cumbersome contractual relations.
On a DVD I'm pretty certain I could have gotten English subtitles.
So now I'm paying, but I still get sub-par content?
I ended up using a plugin to add the subtitles back in, but that plugin works on pirate streams too. Could've pirated it in the first place.
Why is that even necessary? Youtube offers you the full list to choose from and I don't see users writhing on the ground clutching their skulls in agonizing confusion. Users can handle a list of languages just fine.
This industry thinks too little of users.
Not true. I'm pretty sure it's licensing cost. In Germany most movies have subtitles only in German, while a handful also in English -- all Netflix originals and maybe some others. Meanwhile, basically all series have English subtitles for some arcane reason.
For me Netflix is a series-only service, I've given up on finding any movie worth watching that would have English subtitles.
For some reason I also get different subtitle options on my phone than I do my television despite both being on the same network (no vpn).
I also hate that they offer a show with audio in the original language, but no subtitles for the same language. So you have to be either mostly fluent or forced to watch the dubbed version.
For the same inscrutable reasons that the film industry insists on schemes like DVD region locking, they are also generally against making a single version of a movie with all subtitles available.
Subscription services fees can quickly add if not managed properly, so the convenience they offer completely evaporates if you force customers to juggle their subscriptions between different services to cover all their needs.
To customers that "services juggling" is pretty much the exact opposite of "convenience", but signing up for everything, all the time, is not an option for many as that would cost some serious money.
So what will most likely end up happening is that people stick to one, maybe two, services covering most of their needs, and just get whatever else they want trough means that don't require them to manage a subscription, like piracy.
It should also be mentioned that even piracy does offer paid subscriptions, where users pay money to get more convenient and reliable access to content, that's pretty much what Usenet and all debrid are.
But unlike legal streaming services, their libraries are not compartmentalized and limited by publishing rights.
Forget about streaming services, you can rent nearly every big screen movie ever from iTunes, Google Play, or Amazon, instantly for $3-6 dollars. Adjusting for inflation, these prices are very much comparable with what video rental stores used to offer. iTunes alone has more than 100k movies (for perspective Netflix doesn't even have 10k).
Many in this thread (and to a lesser extent the article) are acting like movie watchers want to pay money, but it's just too complicated to do so. Renting a movie on iTunes/Play/Amazon is at least as easy as torrenting something, and the selection is massive.
"If I can watch any movie ever for $10/month, I'll do it, but otherwise I'll just pirate them" is a very strange viewpoint IMHO. I would like unlimited groceries for $10/month, but I'm not going to just to stealing them because that's not an option.
For heavy consumers, the renting fees will add up quickly and the selection on those stores is not as flawless as you make it out to be.
To this day Amazon still demands more money for anything better than SD quality, information about supplied subs/dubs is spotty at best, if they are even supplied at all. Bonus content? Completely missing.
Why deal with that when for nearly the same amount of money you can often order a complete Bluray and own the movie in a physical format? Not just a "temporary license to stream"?
> "If I can watch any movie ever for $10/month, I'll do it, but otherwise I'll just pirate them" is a very strange viewpoint IMHO.
Then it's good nobody here claimed anything like that. But you are still stuck in this "all pirates are cheap freeloaders" mode, when in reality piracy usually happens in addition to the user already being a heavily paying fan of the medium [0]. Piracy supplements that when it's more convenient/not legally available/past the monthly budget.
[0] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evkmz7/study-again-shows-...
For whatever reason, it seems that certain eras of film from various countries are just missing from streaming catalogs. Not only are the films missing, but they can be incredibly hard to find on services due to naming and translated names. Recently, I was trying to watch Cure aka Kyua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cure_(film)), good luck asking Siri to find this movie. The name "Cure" brings up nothing related, and "Kyua" is essentially not recognized. I found 1 or 2 films by the director, by searching his name directly. It's a cluster, and it's frankly a shame that I have to resort to piracy when I'd absolutely be willing to pay for such movies.
I expect this wouldn't be in much demand since, at least for me, one viewing is usually plenty. Which is why the rolling updates don't bother me much. For those few that warrant repeat viewings I can get a physical copy.
The tough thing to find even with rental would be some foreign movies, e.g. Korean.
The local ones start selling vape pens and CBD oil and then they closed up shrug
Video store is not an option - there are none. Sometimes I've resorted to ordering, but it's gotten to the point where it feels like enough of a pain compared to streaming that I have on occasion bought things on Prime that I have sitting in one of my DVD boxes rather than spend the time to find the DVD.
Back to torrenting I went.
1. BluRay
2. MakeMKV
3. Kodi
This is relatively future proof because unless I either get a bigger living room wall or sit uncomfortably closer to the screen 1080p is indistinguishable from 4k. I get whichever cut I want all the commentaries &c. I have all the discs in 3-ring binders with disc holders just in case there is a cut or featurette or whatever I'd like to watch at some point in the future.
Note that Disney has announced they are no longer going to re-release their back-catalog on physical media, so if you are a fan of their stuff, get the used BD now before it goes way up in price. I expect other studios will follow suit as well.
I chose not to get cable when I first moved in on my own in 2004 and allowed myself to buy TV shows and movies I wanted budgeted to the monthly cost of cable (I rarely actually ran up against that budget; at one point craigslist loaded with TV shows and movies for pennies on the dollar). I now have enough movies and TV shows to last me a very long time.
Only downside: I won't get to see GoT season 8 until December.
Have you heard of a thing called cable?
True, after Netflix anchored it's price at a reasonable level for it's offerings, I probably would not pay 10x more. But a service that made it easy to watch everything under one interface could get more money out of me than Netflix.
By one interface I mean search and/or browse in one place, click a video, optionally pay or subscribe with one click if needed, rinse, repeat. No switching between different catalogs, launching different apps, anything like that. Launching a different app for viewing is acceptable if it's super slick.
Amazon Prime has most of this (and x-ray is cool), so it tends to get my money more than other services, but it still doesn't have anywhere near every title I want to watch, and it's sometimes expensive enough that I will switch to a different service for a significant discount.
All of it is about convenience to access content. Netflix had it at first when its library was "fresh". But since it is a rolling library instead of an ever growing one, it almost never has the movie I want to watch.
Blade Runner is the first example that came to mind and I believe that it is a good one. it is an acclaimed movie that should be very easy to find online.
I would be ready to pay more for a Netflix like service with "everything". Actually I used to pay for multiple services at once.
Would I pay 10 times ? I don't think so, personally I don't value such a service that highly but that's a subjective opinion (just like somebody could rightfully say that for them Netflix or Spotify are too costly) and a bit of a straw-man IMO.
If you're looking for an ever growing library of specific movies you want to watch, with the special features you want to consume, it sounds like you just want to buy movies. Netflix and co. were never that and were never advertised as that.
Additionally, I am in 6 countries for 9 months of this year. It is inconvenient that YouTube TV tells me the $35 I am paying them buys me absolutely nothing, despite the app saying "some content and local channels" will not be available, Netflix forces me to stop halfway through a series because I crossed a border. That's not convenient.
Piracy just works.
It took me one year to transfer my google account to another country.
I am not doing it again.
They are the only ones allowed to license the work in a region, so providibg a movie or selection requires separate licensing agreements for every country or region it is served in.
Businesses that manage to take fees for nothing due historic reasons need to be eliminated.
My gut prediction is that if a service has a strong correlation to the desired content, E.G. Disney+ for "kids", it MIGHT work out, at least in the short term. HOWEVER, for wider culture, and particularly with different "tv networks" and studios with content libraries split among many services, the friction of not having a single place with everything, of not having a 'streaming store', will drive many to routing around the insanity and accessing the culture they want on terms they're willing to agree to.
Short version:
* have everything, I mean it.
* cost less than basic cable (total)
* completely ad free (probably)
* offline caching is a must (road trips)
* capable of playing on anything I want (DRM free)Interesting way of saying "corporate exclusivity agreements", which is what this ends up being in 99 out of 100 cases.
It's more like: check sites 1-5 looking for the movie, can't find it (or it a PPV download, OR the app/site doesn't support 5.1 DDS, its quality is bad) get frustrated go onto $torrentsite, sort by size, download one with most seeders & a larger file size wait 30-60 min and done.
Netflix used to make it easier as their app UX and quality are high so it was a one stop shop. Now i just find torrenting easier to make sure its high quality with 5.1.. however i may not be the norm.
I understand that many displays have decent interpolation features these days, which hide the issues, but they are still a solution to an unnecessary problem.
A bluray or a good rip of it delivers the film in proper fashion. It's a non-issue with pirated content.
It's a stupid and frustrating experience and every time it happens is a reminder that my interests as a customer rank dead last after all of these companies slice and dice their cultural fiefdoms into separate packages to squeeze a little extra revenue. Calling it a few finger budges is reductive, it's an insulting and tiresome rigmarole of hoops that I have to jump through just because they wanted to squeeze some more money.
Look, I want a convenient way to watch movies. I would even be ready to pay more than I do right now to Netflix to have a library of ALL the movies I want to watch.
1 library, not 10, especially if they may or may not contain the movie I want to see.
My honeymoon period with Netflix and co is over.
- I feel that their original content has dried out : there is even more of it, but it rarely interest me these days and I feel like the quality has dropped in favor of quantity.
- Let's say I want to watch Blade Runner. I want the "final cut" (IMO the best version, it is the director's cut, unlike the "director's cut" which isn't one in this case). Well, I have just checked, this movie is not on Netflix. If it was, I would not have the choice of the cut. I would not be able to e.g. listen to the team commentary either. That's the first movie that sprung to my mind, but that's a good example of my experience with Netflix.
A rolling library of content like what Netflix and co have is not what I want. At all. I want an ever growing one.
I like to be able to get my content "legitimely" (quotes because if you watch old movies, chances are you are not paying the artists but the mega corporation who bought the rights to it but that's OT), and I am not looking for solutions to "cheat the system". However, right now torrenting sites are becoming again the most efficient (and in some cases only) solution to access the content I would like to watch.