Re:Apple is quietly pushing a TV ad product with media agencies
by varenc on Wednesday October 12, 2022 @02:44PM
(#33181230)
I pay for a bunch of streaming services, for semi-moral reasons, but I still pirate 99% of content.
Pirating is the only way to get accurate high-quality subtitles. I’ll automatically download them from Opensubtitles and then strip out the very distracting non-dialogue parts like “[ominous music]”. Also streaming services often have out-of-sync subtitles, like DS9 on prime video. With pirated content, I automatically get perfectly synced dialogue-only subs in the exact font, size, and styling of my choosing.
Other benefits of pirating include:
- knowing exactly what bitrate/resolution you’re getting. Streaming services love to downgrade Chrome users to 720p without making it obvious. Pirated content also often uses more computationally complex encoding letting you get more quality in fewer bits.
- easy playback of 4K content on the desktop. Often streaming services restrict 4K to certain hardware devices only. (where they can do L1 DRM protection)
- general playback flexibility. Instead of relying on each streaming service's bespoke interface, I can use my preferred media player (IINA/mpv) with all my favourite keybindings. Also, I can try out things like vapoursynth motion interpolation, to get pseudo-60fps, or real-time upscaling with Anime4K, which works pretty well on cartoons.
Pirating is the only way to get accurate high-quality subtitles. I’ll automatically download them from Opensubtitles and then strip out the very distracting non-dialogue parts like “[ominous music]”. Also streaming services often have out-of-sync subtitles, like DS9 on prime video. With pirated content, I automatically get perfectly synced dialogue-only subs in the exact font, size, and styling of my choosing.
Other benefits of pirating include:
- knowing exactly what bitrate/resolution you’re getting. Streaming services love to downgrade Chrome users to 720p without making it obvious. Pirated content also often uses more computationally complex encoding letting you get more quality in fewer bits.
- easy playback of 4K content on the desktop. Often streaming services restrict 4K to certain hardware devices only. (where they can do L1 DRM protection)
- general playback flexibility. Instead of relying on each streaming service's bespoke interface, I can use my preferred media player (IINA/mpv) with all my favourite keybindings. Also, I can try out things like vapoursynth motion interpolation, to get pseudo-60fps, or real-time upscaling with Anime4K, which works pretty well on cartoons.