One thing I want to debate about this is I remember how expensive cable used to be. It was like 120 bucks. Maybe you got like a $70 package or $80 package where you had barely any channels. I ain't spending that much on streaming services!! I don't know if I'm an outlier but I got Three and that's about it. I pay around 40 bucks a month.
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/piracy or
!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.comfor your convenience~
When you realize your streaming services cost more than cable did
Someone never actually paid for cable, huh? Maybe if you had a basic plan with no channels and you're now paying for all of the premiums, but that's not really a valid comparison.
I bailed on Netflix when I realized that damn, I'm going like a month with this on my phone and haven't really watched much, maybe one anime? Can I get something other than shitty anime, Netflix? Fun action flick from the last 5 years maybe? No? Never the good one, always the knockoff, the shitty sequel, nothing at all? Canceled Mindhunter? Because of course. Okay, no more pay money, and then I didn't miss it. That decision took a shameful amount of time to make.
This was way before the password share thing. I don't know what the rest of you are even doing. Stuff for the kids I guess.
I guess I do this bullshit, now, for entertainment, but this Suuuuuucks with a capital S, so the next step is to find the government chip that makes me scroll and metaphorically remove it. Fuck socials, too. Fuck all this shit anymore.
I'll weigh in.
I saw the writing on the wall when Netflix was forced to remove shows due to licensing.
Like many of you, I was on the "Yay Netflix" bandwagon for a while. And I remember the moment I realized I had to fish my black tri-point hat and eye patch out of the bin. It was the early 2010's and I was living in a single rental bedroom (student style). I had Netflix and I'm in Canada, but I was experimenting with ipv6, and I realized that Netflix's ipv6 geolocation stuff was flawed. I wasn't using a VPN, but my V6 address was a "US" address, so if I turned off IPv4, I could watch US Netflix. I was watching the show "Arrow", which I got really into early on. After a while, poof, it vanished. A bit of research and the license was pulled. It didn't take long for me to piece it together. They were going to make the show available on their own streaming platform.
Suddenly, I saw the whole picture. It was like cable, but worse. Each studio was going to have a streaming service and like cable packages, you'd have to subscribe to their streaming service to see their shows, while getting access to a bunch of crap you didn't care about, then have to find some way to track what shows were on which platforms and stay informed as to when new episodes were released, etc.... Same as with cable. I said to myself, hell no.
I got my hat and eye patch, hung my flag, and I've been sailing the seven seas since. Fuck that noise.
My main issue with it all (beyond the obvious cost) is managing, monitoring and using multiple services. I wanted a central dashboard of shows that will update with new episodes from shows I watch as they are released. I found Plex. I've been using it for something like 10 years or more, and I'm pretty happy about it.
Cable had the merit of channel flipping. You could easily flip from one studios station to another without barriers. Now, you have to go to a completely different app/website/whatever, to change. You probably have to log in, etc. It's a whole thing. What was a simple push of a button is now an entire ordeal. No thanks.
I knew this would be the eventual outcome and I was entirely right. My friends, if you haven't already, it may be time to dust off your own hats and eye patches and set sail once again.
The return of the pirate
Oh, better far to live and die
Under the brave black flag I fly,
Than play a sanctimonious part,
With a pirate head and a pirate heart
Away to the cheating world go you,
Where pirates all are well to do,
But I'll be true to the song I sing,
And live and die a Pirate King!
For I am a Pirate King!
And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King
I am a Pirate King!
I got back into torrenting media and using plex because of all this nonsense. I'm not watching ads on a paid service and I'm not subscribing to 6 services at a time just because every company wants their own Network+ service. I'm also not going to pay more because you decided to add ads to an existing "tier".
Then I learned through lemmy about real-debrid and stremio/torrentio and decided to try that. Now I've got the equivalent to these services for much less cost and the only difference is before I press play on an episode or movie, I just choose the cached torrent. No ads, don't even need the space on a hard drive, good quality, and almost everything is immediately available.
I get roughly zero commercials on Netflix. That probably varies somewhat depending on how you access it - I use a super old Chromecast bc my super old TV's app doesn't work anymore.
On the other hand, most shows I used to watch on it are gone now, leaving me either to watch the Shitflix content that's left, or just 1-2-3-it elsewhere.
🎶 Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me. We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot. Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho. We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot. Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho. 🎶
Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free, yarr harr fiddle dee dee!
Sorry, what are we talking about?
I think we need to remind companies why streaming started...time to sail the seven seas yet again, fellas!
I've been getting back into reading, buying up used books for pennies. It's been good for my head.
Arrrrrr!
You still can pay to remove ads sometimes, and you also get to pick what you're watching instead of waiting for whenever it's on TV. You also can cancel any time. Things are getting worse, but they're still immensely better than cable.
I grow weary of all the attempted comparisons between streaming and cable. Even if it cost the same (streaming is still cheaper), you don't have to call a tech to fix the dvr, which will wipe all your recordings... or pay per tv you own, rather than the number you are actually using. Of and you can watch it when you aren't even home. Streaming is sooo many 1000's % better than cable in soo many ways. Is it enshitifing, he'll yeah. But still way better.
Streaming is getting worse, but it's still way better than cable. Everything is on demand without having to fuss with a dvr, you can subscribe only to the services you want or rotate through them one at a time, and there are no contracts so you can cancel whenever you want.
Things could obviously be better, but we are nowhere close to how bad cable was/is.
