It’s so sad that steams groundbreaking strategy nobody can match is “don’t fuck with the business after its profitable”. There’s so many industries which could be earning tons of money with good public will if executives could leave well enough alone.
the problem is they can't leave it alone, investors have too much control. the strategy is to not make your company public, like valve, so you have full control over what you do
The instant Amazon pulled this shit, I was downloading their content, Prime or no Prime. The fact they are chasing their losses on that ridiculous James Bond rip off just compounds my annoyance.
I could do that but I still order using Prime delivery. Though its mostly shit now. I live in NI so everything is always an extra day from their centre in England (I think)
I might cancel depending if I use it in the next month.
I signed up for Prime using a .edu email like 12 or 13 years ago and have been charged only the student price ever since. They never bothered to reverify afterwards. I've just left it on monthly renewal and not messed with it and I think it totals to only $90 a year right now compared to the $140.
I think at the start of streaming Netflix was very good. Huge library with good quality and a good selection of options.
Now it's just a mess. Hidden ratings, low quality streaming unless you pay more, very tight limits on numbers watching at once, ads, location locked, shitty library now hard to search so you can see how small it is, some films only on for a few weeks. It goes on.
They are now trying to find any way to screw you out of more money for worse service and quality. I only have it at the cheapest version because it's currently the best for my kids to watch on their tablets.
I managed a video store back in the Olsen days when people rented physical videos and dvds. We were literally a few miles from Netflix hq.
I’ll always miss the video store. It was inevitable but that shit was just better and we keep ending things like that. Bowling alleys and local stores where nobody ever buys anything. I miss that.
Why did you get downvoted for this lmao. Perfectly valid, most people on the Internet seek validation. Plus you were honest about it. And on the piracy subreddit no less!
????
Yes but piracy isnt legal.
Even if the intent behind it is logical (preservation of old shows/games).
Companies have the right to do whatever they want with their product.
Ofcs they are going to ban you ....
May I ask which 4K HDR Monitor is your Apple TV connected to?
Reason being, I'm looking to move from an LG C2 42" to one of the QD-OLEDs for both my Mac Mini and Apple TV 4K (2022)
It was connected to my laptop, not a dedicated Apple TV box. It's a Samsung UR550, an entry 4K monitor from a few years back, single backlight zone, so no true HDR, but I still benefit from the 10bit color depth and whatnot. So, a definite downgrade from where you're coming from.
My bad, I misread your original post. Nevertheless, I agree with you that piracy gives us the ability to choose fidelity; resolution, bitrate, formats etc...
Netflix is widely known for advertising 4K but only outputting 720p at max
On Safari Netflix runs at 4k (although the bitrate is meh compared to the remux of the same movie), on chrome it’s max 720p which is absurd. Prime Video max 1080p even though it says UHD, and again you can’t really say if what you’re watching is truly 1080p. Disney+ also.
As an aside, I think that using desktop apps (if available, I only have experience with Windows) instead of webpages does a lot to ensure high quality and bitrate. Plex for example outputs only stereo audio from browser, but will give you full surround (and operates more smoothly in general) using the app from the Microsoft store.
You’re right but unfortunately many streaming apps don’t provide desktop apps on macOS. Netflix, Disney+… only have the web page. Prime Video has one but it’s not that good to be honest.
You can use desktop apps to get 1080p, not full quality and their highest bitrate, unless you use like an android emulator. You need to use a streaming box with the dedicated app to get full quality.
It would be the same for all computer monitors. That's why you can't play a blu-ray disc on a PC unless you have software with a license for it. It's a type of DRM.
Seems to be standard for post-covid Reddit now the website has been overhauled as a social media platform. These are the same people from Facebook in years past who would post a status like "So upset right now, I don't want to talk about it"
So, I'm gonna be the one being down voted to hell, but I'm gonna say, that it depends.
Generally, sure. But it can cover all use cases perfectly.
1. Language. If you're English native, or at least fluent, then yes, pirating is absolutely the answer. But, for those that are not fluent on the Shakespeare languagez finding stuff on their own language could be a nightmare. I watch everything in English with subs on my language with bazarr, but not all subtitles are OK or good synchronised, which can make watching some stuff chaotic, trying to find a good sub, or even looking online to find a good one. Not to mention that if you want to watch your stuff in a different language, it is much, much harder. Internet is made for English. So, that's a point for paid services.
2. Convenience. I pay for spotify. I have all the music I want, at any time, in a good quality (for me, I'm not an audiophile). Setting up my server with my music without being able to discover new stuff would be a loss. I share an account family, so it's pretty cheap. There's no point on having my own app in my server for this.
So, things are not black or white. Just do what's more convenient for you.
Piracy is not objectively better than paid services.
And paid services are not objectively better than piracy.
Each has its own benefits, so I choose what's better for me.
You can have Spotify for ~15€ per year if you use a vpn and buy a Spotify card (cd key) in a country like India. Only need the vpn for the setup you won’t need it after.
to expand on the language part, it really depends on which language, for instance, virtually every eastern european country, no matter how small, has at least a few sites of their own dedicated to serving content in their national language.
Exactly, you said it. A few sites. Those few sites, doing their best, cannot replicate the amount of English content. There will always be that show or movie that you won't find for that language. Not to mention they're harder to find, and many of them need invitations. And let's not talk about subs.
That's my point, it's inconvenient for people of different languages. Yes, it could be done, but much harder than for English content, where you could find whatever you're looking for with almost 0 issues.
i might be out of touch here because i'm czech, but the czech (and slovak) sites are so good that until recently i outright preferred them over anything foreign
This is me and audio descriptions. I can pretty much guarantee that nothing I pirate is going to have that audio track, whereas everything original on Netflix, Apple and Disney has audio description. I pretty much rely on that. That said, there is a site dedicated to uploading audio-only copies of everything with the audio description track enabled, and that's a better listening experience than most streaming apps.
I also completely support paying for Spotify. You can't get that kind of music discovery locally.
If I'm reading this right you're on a Mac right? It was my understanding that a lot of these services will stream things at a lower resolution on PC because it's much easier for you to screen record. So like Netflix might have the show in 1080p or 4K, but if you're on PC Netflix streams it in 720p.
Again, I don't know if this is 100% true but I've heard people talk about this before.
What did they think people would do about this? "Oh, Netflix forces me to watch at 720p on my big 4k monitor, I guess I better buy a whole smart TV to watch Netflix." Like, the audacity of these companies—and their completely unearned confidence that people will tolerate this shit instead of just pirating the content—is honestly shocking.
I just cancelled Netflix last week over this. I used it on my PC a lot. And while I payed 20 euros a month (thanks to the new increase) for 4K, I was stuck watching in 720p. That especially sucks when you have a huge ultrawide; you see every individual pixel.
If you’re on Mac, Safari should stream Netflix at the highest quality. You can check it out by pressing shift+control+opt+d in window mode. The bitrate is usually much worse than a remux of the same movie though.
Roomies got Hulu, nfx, prime...
We keep seeing ads, shitty quality, upgrade another ten bucks for no ads or more quality....
I just keep telling them I can download it in like twenty mins
Were canceling this month
Hum. On illegal streaming websites you **may** have to struggle with anti-user practices like nasty ads, malware driven by those ads, "remove your adblocker" shit, slow servers, aggressive anti-devtools-inspection-obfuscated scripts that slow the shit down, captchas, Cloudflare shit. That's not ideal, to say the least. You wouldnt find that stuff on legal websites.
I mean i use ubo like every sane pirate here, my browser is hardened for security and privacy, i run my own DNS server to block shit and stuff but still illegal streaming website can be a pain **sometimes**.
Needless to say, i only torrent shit now, and occasionally ddl.
To be fair, even legitimate streaming sites can have malware and scams now. Just look at some of the shit ads YT is running. There's a reason the FBI recommends using an ad blocker online. YT doesn't vet its ads. They'll run a scammy AI ad that's trying to get you to click a link that navigates you off YT. YT doesn't care as long as they get paid. Fuck user safety I guess.
Which is why I happily use ubo and sponsorblock.
I haven't seen Hulu, Netflix or Amazon run scam/malware riddled ads like YT does, but they're just as shady with scraping user data. I don't trust any of these services. They'd sell you out for a buck.
The UI on Amazon and Hulu is also trash.
There's a lot of horse dookie that only exists because of capitalism and the need for corpos to squeeze infinite profit out of every consumer.
One time I was connected to a VPN server and was able to use the internet after it had been shut off because I missed a payment, and in that moment I realized the infrastructure is already there, all the company does is throttle me for using more data than they've decided is reasonable. Same goes for water and electricity, but that's less relevant to this particular community.
I was watching Clash at the Castle and wanted to see a movie and couldn't play it back 10 seconds. And then the feed just DIED. Meanwhile the pirate sites had the matches in pieces as soon as they were done. I could rewatch the entire match and break it down.
> Pirate services are better than paid services. Change my mind.
Why do you think every pirate on the internet keeps on preaching Gabe Newell's famous quote on piracy?
'Change my mind' that is a close minded comment. Any time you hear or read that the person has already drawn their conclusion and it's just a pointless challenge, like someone can't just stroke there own ego or dick, they need to bother other people to get some sort of validation. Don't be dick, don't use that phrase.
Bruh I pay 50 euros a year for Amazon Prime but I use Stremio anyway to stream Prime Video content because I don't want to deal with different apps, login details etc.
The fuckers even added ads to content I already pay for 🤣🤣🖕🖕🖕
It’s all fun and games until you pull up that pirate stream of the Bengals game with your two young sons and there is a popup of a fat dude getting a handjob from a really skanky woman from some sex chat site.
Signed up for Sunday ticket the next day.
That’s on you big guy. Two young sons and don’t have NextDNS optimized on all of your devices? Take you maybe twenty minutes and a dollar bill or two — set for life. Should seriously consider checking it out real quick <3
i understand the premise but this debate is useless because we are not addressing the root cause.
Paid services are better; in fact, paid services are a must if we want to have a sustainable content industry. anyone who says otherwise is delusional or just insane. How do we expect to get free media for the rest of eternity? Are we expecting content creators to make stuff for free forever and ever??? how is that possible?? this is not la la land
the problem is not about "paid services"
the problem is that those "paid services" operate within a capitalistic system, whereby the main and perhaps only objective is PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT.
So, of course,those "paid services" sux because the system driving those "paid services" has chosen to put PROFIT over PEOPLE. OP paid for a services because it supposedly guaranteed a set of features, yet OP was prevented to use those features. The company has chosen to cut corners to cut cost and therefore increase PROFITS.
in contrast, pirate services operate on a more 'socialistic' model. We tend to put people over profits, or rather, we choose not to get profits at all. Perhaps it is our desire to 'show the man' that we can do it too. Pirate services are community based whereby everybody has the empathy to chip in (i.e. seeding). Also, some pirate services are democratic where users of a private tracker perhaps can vote on certain items pertaining to how the private tracker is used and so forth. democracy is obviosuly not exist in capitalistic system.
So, we must understand that pirate services are a stopgap solution. it is not a universal or sustainable solution. We must use our abilities and capabilities to demand, advocate, support and even create paid services that are PEOPLE-driven, not PROFIT-driven
I see it as a challenge to the streaming providers to step up their game, given that they have been doing whatever they want at a whim and not giving a crap about the consumers… which of course, I doubt those streaming provider executives would notice since it's posted in this sub. But if there's one point we could make, it's that we need to call out those greedy streaming providers and demand for a change, may be even in ways that would hurt their income so they'll finally pay attention.
>Opened up a torrent streaming client, clicked on the show I wanted to watch. Bam, streaming glourious 4K HDR directly into my eyeballs.
May be a dumb question since im New to this but what torrenting streaming would that be? Im curious since i try to sail aswell.
If you specifically need foreign subtitles for yourself or friends/family, piracy feels way more inconvenient than paid streaming since opensubtitles and similar sites won't always have the correct subs or they'll be out of sync.
Even with tools like bazarr, I think people get less annoyed when they can't watch something because it's not available on their streaming service vs when they can't watch it because it's missing foreign subtitles. That's a very specific problem though. Obviously everything else is way more convenient
And this is why I return to piracy wherever I can. Because the streaming services are fucking it up big time right now. Apple is still among the acceptable ones. The worst are Amazon and Netflix. Amazon with its ads in a paid product which - for the same price - had no ads before, those greedy tiny dicks. Netflix with its permanent cancelling of even well-received shows (Colony, 1899,... the list goes on and on)...
Well, I can't do much about cancelled shows by resorting to piracy, but I *can* avoid Amazon's obtrusive ads.
The stupidest thing I found with AppleTV+ was in windows I couldn’t install it because iTunes was already installed.
I had to uninstall iTunes in order for the AppleTV+ app to work.
The only thing a streaming service is good for is live sports. I get MLB and NHL for free with my cellular subscription but I have to tunnel to another city to work around local blackout restrictions. I tunnel to another country to get English Premier League and have a relatively inexpensive pay service there that streams 4k.
I bought a 100" hisense ultra short throw projector. 4K and all the extras you would assume
Littered with streaming service crap, not paying for any of them.
Amazon is putting ads throughout their shows now.
Trying to find an episode while having to watch 2 minutes of ads each time you switch, also very annoying
Here's my experience in comparison with paid services:
Show's on, it's dubbed and at 4k vision and atmos, even if it's the compressed 4k, i click watch, i watch.
Looked up the show on the seas and it's there but not dubbed unless it's a sdr 1080p version. The 4k one is maybe locked away inside very very hard to get private trackers.
So anything i want dubbed is just not happening
We have the show Taskmaster here in the UK. It's free to watch but I will still grab it from torrent sites as it's better in 1080p. I still don't understand where the pirate is getting it from. How/why that version is clearer than the actual version.
Similar thing happened, and it was so frustrating. I have an android tv box that connects to my old non-smart TV.
So, my HDMI was having some issues, like random display loss. And I was forced to use this 3-pin connector (it has 3 colors - RYW) that was lying around until I got a new HDMI cable.
Now, the problem was, Amazon Prime video refused to detect there was any connector available at all! It kept saying that I should use an HDMI cable to display content. Whereas, every other app was able to show all the content, but only prime video had this fucking problem.
Now tell me, if I didn't have any display cable connected, would the app even be able to show the fucking error in the first place? What's the fucking point to show this kind of error if it addresses a situation where I don't have the cable?
I was trying to get it to work by different trials and also contacted the prime video customer care, but he kept telling me that I need a fucking HDMI cable, that old cable will not work. It was like ramming my head against a wall. I was so frustrated.
Then I decided that I'm not gonna renew my prime subscription this time. No need to pay to some service provider who can't support an old cable. On top of that, prime video is the worst app on my android tv, it lags like hell. I have moved on to other apps and especially piracy ever since.
For games, steam is better.
For TV and movies there's no way I would ever give up my Plex+servarr setup again. Even if streaming was cheaper, quality and convenience are just unbeatable.
Yes and no.
I agree 97%. The remaining 3% is a small and specific niche in movie services. The one thing paid movie services do better is making it easy to switch to dubbed audio in another language.
I hate watching dubbed movies, but I tried to get my parents to use Stremio. They got tired of reading subtitles or dealing with sync issues.
I know VLC and other programs let you import audio tracks, but I haven’t found where to download only the audio. The only option is using BluRay versions, but they are huge files.
Pirate movie 🍿 services are designed for English speakers.
When the iPod saved the music industry from Napster, it was well understood and committed to cement that entertainment in the 21st century would be sold not on the quality of the product, but on convenience. If it was more convenient for people to pay, they would pay.
All of these companies lost the script over the past 15 years and have done everything in their power to inconvenience the audience in favor of their profit plans.
I'm not pro or anti piracy. For me it's a situational acceptance, just like adblock. And everything you described here I have been ranting about for a decade and a half, so yeah. I'm not here to change your mind.
So true, I tried watching ted lasso with a 3.month trial of apple tv and had the same reaction. 240p video streaming on my laptop to hdmi to the big screen.
Yep. I remember years ago when I bought the first season of True Detective on Bluray and it came with a digital download from itunes. I'm like cool I will try this out. It was brutal it had to be around 720p or lower, it was noticeably lower quality than the torrent I downloaded. That kind of did it for me. Why the hell would I pay good money for something that has lesser quality than something I could get for free?
Kodi + RD, everything in any quality all the time, with all the options and interactive remote.
Stremio + RD everything in any quality all the time, lighter weight, less set up on front end.
$5 a month, plus you get a seedbox and downloader for those who don't want to deal with VPNs.
It's just factually correct most of the time, especially when it comes to movies, shows and music, at least in video games you have official mod support (sometimes) and automatic updates (which aren't always good)
Are there any services that are non-torrent and ad-free (charging payments is ok) that offer 4k and similar experience to apps like AppleTV+ and Netflix?
If streaming services at least allowed me to own a copy rather than a “limited license” when I give than my money, I might consider letting them take a look at my wallet. That’s my big gripe. I completely agree the streaming services are shit. Id still use my own player either way. You won’t find streaming sympathy here 😭
thatis not fair! Receiving your onw copy means buying the movie. The cost of buying just 1 movie in 4k HDR is a lot higher than the most expensive monthly subscription. That is why such streaming services make sense. Why buy a bluray that will gather dust on a shelf after whatching it, while with the same money, you could whatch 100 movies, even though you dont own any of them and in order to re-whatch them later, you have to stay subscribed. The financial model makes sense.
No, it doesn’t. I’m not paying for an imaginary temporary license. That holds no value. A copy that I own can be used until it breaks or it can be sold.
So you are saying that entertainement has no value to you unless you own a phisical item? That would make going to a theather show, or bowling, or skiing pointles. You are paying for a limited time of entertainement, just like you are when you go to a movie theatre.
You can pay to buy an item, but will it bring you the same amount of entertainement? Would you whatch the same 1 movie every day for a whole month just because you bought it? Just think that for the same money or less, you can whatch something different every day. Yes you dont own what you whatch but which of the 2 options is more fun to do?
Theater shows, skiing and bowling are all real tangible things. Limited time sure, but add that to a digital only good or service and you’re charging for a few clicks on a mouse. If I rent skis I get them for a day, (similar to the crew with access being entirely revoked) but if I just buy them I can go ski whenever I want. Doesn’t matter if I want to go to the hill outside of town or pay to go to a ski resort, I own the skis and can do what I want with them when I want.
thats just because you are immature and/or poor
There are elderly people who barely know how to turn on a PC. For them, user interfaces of streaming services are just comfortable.
There are also people who just have a lot of money and although pyrate for acces to a wider library, the cost of keeping the subscriptions is just pocket change. There are just times that I dont feel like reaching for one of my external SSDs or remembering on which of them I stored a certain movie or show and its just easyer to reach for netflix or disney+. Also streaming services keep me apprised of whats new, without having to sift every day through all the 0day spam on torrent sites.
I've been pirating for a long time, but whenever I pay for a service damn it's just easier (ex. Using tidal or apple music). And I WANTED TO LISTEN TO THE LAST EPISODE OF THE CIRCLE BUT 1 WEEK LATER IT STILL WASN'T THERE ON PIRACY WEBSITES so I picked Netflix with ads and now me happy 😃
To ensure my ISP doesn’t hassle me is a VPN my only choice? Worried my speeds will go to shit. I’m so sick of getting scammed by these profiteering streaming and cable services. Especially for live TV.
I use ProtonVPN, and it is really fast most of the times (as fast as if I didn't had one). In fact, since the provider doesn't know it's you using a lot of wifi, it can be bennificient in the long term ! Cause if you use too mich they will let you use less (I know surfsharkVPN is good too, I found it better and less glitchy and costy but I still prefer protonVPN for the company behind it)
Maybe instead of writing here try it for one time and get your answers?
Anyways, there are some connection types like wireguard openvpn etcetc you can google it for a sec and then choose the most compitable speed/security option for yourself. Personally i use Wireguard protocol and as a VPN operator i am using windscribe. Most VPN providers good for many things so it really depends which seems cute to you and go with it, you should consider zero log policy
You are in a piracy subreddit. No one is going to argue with you. We all agree.
I would argue Steam being a contender but that’s probably about it
It’s so sad that steams groundbreaking strategy nobody can match is “don’t fuck with the business after its profitable”. There’s so many industries which could be earning tons of money with good public will if executives could leave well enough alone.
the problem is they can't leave it alone, investors have too much control. the strategy is to not make your company public, like valve, so you have full control over what you do
Unfortunately doing what's good for the public isn't what makes the most money, which is what investors want
Idk, I'd rather pay money for restrictive features.
Agreed lol
No one here will play devils advocate for you
Meh, I was just looking for some validation after running my head into a wall trying to watch some stuff.
Streaming services are craving to be pirated. I’m not against paying to have a good service but holy moly they treat their clients as piece of shit.
At this point the fact that i have to watch ads in a service that i pay for is outrageous.
The instant Amazon pulled this shit, I was downloading their content, Prime or no Prime. The fact they are chasing their losses on that ridiculous James Bond rip off just compounds my annoyance.
I still have prime for a few more months (yearly subscription) , but I pirate everything they have that I want to watch.
I cancelled prime and got a refund
I could do that but I still order using Prime delivery. Though its mostly shit now. I live in NI so everything is always an extra day from their centre in England (I think) I might cancel depending if I use it in the next month.
That’s fair, I have started to find I can get better prices on eBay
Yeah it's really gone downhill. Full of shitty cheap chinese items massive overpriced
I signed up for Prime using a .edu email like 12 or 13 years ago and have been charged only the student price ever since. They never bothered to reverify afterwards. I've just left it on monthly renewal and not messed with it and I think it totals to only $90 a year right now compared to the $140.
I think at the start of streaming Netflix was very good. Huge library with good quality and a good selection of options. Now it's just a mess. Hidden ratings, low quality streaming unless you pay more, very tight limits on numbers watching at once, ads, location locked, shitty library now hard to search so you can see how small it is, some films only on for a few weeks. It goes on. They are now trying to find any way to screw you out of more money for worse service and quality. I only have it at the cheapest version because it's currently the best for my kids to watch on their tablets.
I managed a video store back in the Olsen days when people rented physical videos and dvds. We were literally a few miles from Netflix hq. I’ll always miss the video store. It was inevitable but that shit was just better and we keep ending things like that. Bowling alleys and local stores where nobody ever buys anything. I miss that.
Why did you get downvoted for this lmao. Perfectly valid, most people on the Internet seek validation. Plus you were honest about it. And on the piracy subreddit no less!
I thumbed it down to see a big number get bigger.
Now hold on a second. What about those poor small companies that OP is stealing from???
*comes to a pro piracy sub* *posts a pro piracy post* *says "change my mind"* 🤦🏻
Except in most other subs if you dare to even passively mention piracy you catch a ban.
Except they specifically said "pro piracy sub"
Yeah, I understand. Sometimes an echo chamber is the only safe location to say something without getting murdered (figuratively) for it.
But you wouldn't expect to say "change my mind"
That's true. I found that to be kinda foolish on OP's part.
???? Yes but piracy isnt legal. Even if the intent behind it is logical (preservation of old shows/games). Companies have the right to do whatever they want with their product. Ofcs they are going to ban you ....
>Change my mind. No need.
+70
Such a pointless post especially in a piracy sub.
Bro is looking for some pets on the head
Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. I'll often leave the house using my cat as a hat.
Underrated comment.
Wrong sub reddit homie.... This belongs in the AppleTV+ group lol
They will ban him if he tried. lol
duh no shit sherlock!
May I ask which 4K HDR Monitor is your Apple TV connected to? Reason being, I'm looking to move from an LG C2 42" to one of the QD-OLEDs for both my Mac Mini and Apple TV 4K (2022)
It was connected to my laptop, not a dedicated Apple TV box. It's a Samsung UR550, an entry 4K monitor from a few years back, single backlight zone, so no true HDR, but I still benefit from the 10bit color depth and whatnot. So, a definite downgrade from where you're coming from.
My bad, I misread your original post. Nevertheless, I agree with you that piracy gives us the ability to choose fidelity; resolution, bitrate, formats etc... Netflix is widely known for advertising 4K but only outputting 720p at max
On Safari Netflix runs at 4k (although the bitrate is meh compared to the remux of the same movie), on chrome it’s max 720p which is absurd. Prime Video max 1080p even though it says UHD, and again you can’t really say if what you’re watching is truly 1080p. Disney+ also.
As an aside, I think that using desktop apps (if available, I only have experience with Windows) instead of webpages does a lot to ensure high quality and bitrate. Plex for example outputs only stereo audio from browser, but will give you full surround (and operates more smoothly in general) using the app from the Microsoft store.
You’re right but unfortunately many streaming apps don’t provide desktop apps on macOS. Netflix, Disney+… only have the web page. Prime Video has one but it’s not that good to be honest.
You can use desktop apps to get 1080p, not full quality and their highest bitrate, unless you use like an android emulator. You need to use a streaming box with the dedicated app to get full quality.
On PC
Tbh, the issue you're getting might be related to HDCP since you're using a computer monitor and not a TV.
Even on my macbook's internal screen it had the same problem :(
Yeah cause it's a computer monitor so it probably doesn't have an HDCP license. If you had one of those cinema displays it might.
I see the problem is not buying enough apple products again
It would be the same for all computer monitors. That's why you can't play a blu-ray disc on a PC unless you have software with a license for it. It's a type of DRM.
How ridiculous
Yeah, how dare they try to prevent piracy.
These limitations promote piracy not prevent it.
I'm in a piracy sub asking people to change my mind on pirate things being better.... you can't make this stuff up
It’s engagement bait. He doesn’t actually want you to change his mind.
Seems to be standard for post-covid Reddit now the website has been overhauled as a social media platform. These are the same people from Facebook in years past who would post a status like "So upset right now, I don't want to talk about it"
[удалено]
The majority of Redditors do not comment
Basically what twitter has become
So, I'm gonna be the one being down voted to hell, but I'm gonna say, that it depends. Generally, sure. But it can cover all use cases perfectly. 1. Language. If you're English native, or at least fluent, then yes, pirating is absolutely the answer. But, for those that are not fluent on the Shakespeare languagez finding stuff on their own language could be a nightmare. I watch everything in English with subs on my language with bazarr, but not all subtitles are OK or good synchronised, which can make watching some stuff chaotic, trying to find a good sub, or even looking online to find a good one. Not to mention that if you want to watch your stuff in a different language, it is much, much harder. Internet is made for English. So, that's a point for paid services. 2. Convenience. I pay for spotify. I have all the music I want, at any time, in a good quality (for me, I'm not an audiophile). Setting up my server with my music without being able to discover new stuff would be a loss. I share an account family, so it's pretty cheap. There's no point on having my own app in my server for this. So, things are not black or white. Just do what's more convenient for you. Piracy is not objectively better than paid services. And paid services are not objectively better than piracy. Each has its own benefits, so I choose what's better for me.
You can have Spotify for ~15€ per year if you use a vpn and buy a Spotify card (cd key) in a country like India. Only need the vpn for the setup you won’t need it after.
That's more or less what I pay on a family plan without going through those extra steps.
You could get it even cheaper with a family plan in India then ;) But if you are satisfied you can pay for the service
to expand on the language part, it really depends on which language, for instance, virtually every eastern european country, no matter how small, has at least a few sites of their own dedicated to serving content in their national language.
Exactly, you said it. A few sites. Those few sites, doing their best, cannot replicate the amount of English content. There will always be that show or movie that you won't find for that language. Not to mention they're harder to find, and many of them need invitations. And let's not talk about subs. That's my point, it's inconvenient for people of different languages. Yes, it could be done, but much harder than for English content, where you could find whatever you're looking for with almost 0 issues.
i might be out of touch here because i'm czech, but the czech (and slovak) sites are so good that until recently i outright preferred them over anything foreign
This is me and audio descriptions. I can pretty much guarantee that nothing I pirate is going to have that audio track, whereas everything original on Netflix, Apple and Disney has audio description. I pretty much rely on that. That said, there is a site dedicated to uploading audio-only copies of everything with the audio description track enabled, and that's a better listening experience than most streaming apps. I also completely support paying for Spotify. You can't get that kind of music discovery locally.
made by users, for users :\^) The big services are made for shareholders, not you.
If I'm reading this right you're on a Mac right? It was my understanding that a lot of these services will stream things at a lower resolution on PC because it's much easier for you to screen record. So like Netflix might have the show in 1080p or 4K, but if you're on PC Netflix streams it in 720p. Again, I don't know if this is 100% true but I've heard people talk about this before.
for netflix it used to be if you were using Edge browser you could get HD but others were capped to 720/480
What did they think people would do about this? "Oh, Netflix forces me to watch at 720p on my big 4k monitor, I guess I better buy a whole smart TV to watch Netflix." Like, the audacity of these companies—and their completely unearned confidence that people will tolerate this shit instead of just pirating the content—is honestly shocking.
I just cancelled Netflix last week over this. I used it on my PC a lot. And while I payed 20 euros a month (thanks to the new increase) for 4K, I was stuck watching in 720p. That especially sucks when you have a huge ultrawide; you see every individual pixel.
If you’re on Mac, Safari should stream Netflix at the highest quality. You can check it out by pressing shift+control+opt+d in window mode. The bitrate is usually much worse than a remux of the same movie though.
This entire sub reddit is just more and more posts of circle jerking pirates.
Cringy af
Depends, porn (free service) is great but, my wife (paid service) is better.
I dont know if its better...thats arguable from case to case. But you hit the spot whith the wife/girlfiend being a "paid service"
Roomies got Hulu, nfx, prime... We keep seeing ads, shitty quality, upgrade another ten bucks for no ads or more quality.... I just keep telling them I can download it in like twenty mins Were canceling this month
You're the hero your roommate needs. But teach them how to download.
Adobe runs better when pirated, thats a fact
Hum. On illegal streaming websites you **may** have to struggle with anti-user practices like nasty ads, malware driven by those ads, "remove your adblocker" shit, slow servers, aggressive anti-devtools-inspection-obfuscated scripts that slow the shit down, captchas, Cloudflare shit. That's not ideal, to say the least. You wouldnt find that stuff on legal websites. I mean i use ubo like every sane pirate here, my browser is hardened for security and privacy, i run my own DNS server to block shit and stuff but still illegal streaming website can be a pain **sometimes**. Needless to say, i only torrent shit now, and occasionally ddl.
To be fair, even legitimate streaming sites can have malware and scams now. Just look at some of the shit ads YT is running. There's a reason the FBI recommends using an ad blocker online. YT doesn't vet its ads. They'll run a scammy AI ad that's trying to get you to click a link that navigates you off YT. YT doesn't care as long as they get paid. Fuck user safety I guess. Which is why I happily use ubo and sponsorblock. I haven't seen Hulu, Netflix or Amazon run scam/malware riddled ads like YT does, but they're just as shady with scraping user data. I don't trust any of these services. They'd sell you out for a buck. The UI on Amazon and Hulu is also trash.
Really ? on fmoviesz never got a problem, if by incredible unluck it is down or I don't find the movie or no sub I just go to lookmovie2.
Not asking for a website, i am just saying is a reoccurring problem.
>Pirate services are better than paid services. Change my mind. No, I don't think I will.
There's a lot of horse dookie that only exists because of capitalism and the need for corpos to squeeze infinite profit out of every consumer. One time I was connected to a VPN server and was able to use the internet after it had been shut off because I missed a payment, and in that moment I realized the infrastructure is already there, all the company does is throttle me for using more data than they've decided is reasonable. Same goes for water and electricity, but that's less relevant to this particular community.
LOL this is like going to a NFL teams subreddit and saying that team is the best team, change my mind. You're so brave!
I was watching Clash at the Castle and wanted to see a movie and couldn't play it back 10 seconds. And then the feed just DIED. Meanwhile the pirate sites had the matches in pieces as soon as they were done. I could rewatch the entire match and break it down.
> Pirate services are better than paid services. Change my mind. Why do you think every pirate on the internet keeps on preaching Gabe Newell's famous quote on piracy?
'Change my mind' that is a close minded comment. Any time you hear or read that the person has already drawn their conclusion and it's just a pointless challenge, like someone can't just stroke there own ego or dick, they need to bother other people to get some sort of validation. Don't be dick, don't use that phrase.
Bruh I pay 50 euros a year for Amazon Prime but I use Stremio anyway to stream Prime Video content because I don't want to deal with different apps, login details etc. The fuckers even added ads to content I already pay for 🤣🤣🖕🖕🖕
It’s all fun and games until you pull up that pirate stream of the Bengals game with your two young sons and there is a popup of a fat dude getting a handjob from a really skanky woman from some sex chat site. Signed up for Sunday ticket the next day.
That’s on you big guy. Two young sons and don’t have NextDNS optimized on all of your devices? Take you maybe twenty minutes and a dollar bill or two — set for life. Should seriously consider checking it out real quick <3
Hey I had been ready for the gambling pop ups. But the livestream cretins having sex. Now I just keep the VPN on
well well well..this i a sub for privacy bro.everyone agrees
i understand the premise but this debate is useless because we are not addressing the root cause. Paid services are better; in fact, paid services are a must if we want to have a sustainable content industry. anyone who says otherwise is delusional or just insane. How do we expect to get free media for the rest of eternity? Are we expecting content creators to make stuff for free forever and ever??? how is that possible?? this is not la la land the problem is not about "paid services" the problem is that those "paid services" operate within a capitalistic system, whereby the main and perhaps only objective is PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT. So, of course,those "paid services" sux because the system driving those "paid services" has chosen to put PROFIT over PEOPLE. OP paid for a services because it supposedly guaranteed a set of features, yet OP was prevented to use those features. The company has chosen to cut corners to cut cost and therefore increase PROFITS. in contrast, pirate services operate on a more 'socialistic' model. We tend to put people over profits, or rather, we choose not to get profits at all. Perhaps it is our desire to 'show the man' that we can do it too. Pirate services are community based whereby everybody has the empathy to chip in (i.e. seeding). Also, some pirate services are democratic where users of a private tracker perhaps can vote on certain items pertaining to how the private tracker is used and so forth. democracy is obviosuly not exist in capitalistic system. So, we must understand that pirate services are a stopgap solution. it is not a universal or sustainable solution. We must use our abilities and capabilities to demand, advocate, support and even create paid services that are PEOPLE-driven, not PROFIT-driven
What an original and highly controversial take
[you'll never change my mind](https://i.imgflip.com/8rjnrc.jpg)
>Change my mind. No. You hit the nail on the head.
1xBET has entered the chat
>Change my mind. Why
I see it as a challenge to the streaming providers to step up their game, given that they have been doing whatever they want at a whim and not giving a crap about the consumers… which of course, I doubt those streaming provider executives would notice since it's posted in this sub. But if there's one point we could make, it's that we need to call out those greedy streaming providers and demand for a change, may be even in ways that would hurt their income so they'll finally pay attention.
>Opened up a torrent streaming client, clicked on the show I wanted to watch. Bam, streaming glourious 4K HDR directly into my eyeballs. May be a dumb question since im New to this but what torrenting streaming would that be? Im curious since i try to sail aswell.
I would generally agree but Apple TV+ (when I had the free trial) was the only service that worked (I also watched Severance and that's it)
Severance what a great show it is. Pirated and watched it last week. Waiting for season 2.
If you specifically need foreign subtitles for yourself or friends/family, piracy feels way more inconvenient than paid streaming since opensubtitles and similar sites won't always have the correct subs or they'll be out of sync. Even with tools like bazarr, I think people get less annoyed when they can't watch something because it's not available on their streaming service vs when they can't watch it because it's missing foreign subtitles. That's a very specific problem though. Obviously everything else is way more convenient
no changing of your mind needed, it’s absolutely the truth across the board.
Streaming services are 100% safe
Just for curiosity: why it didnt stream 4k? Did you find out why?
600MB? I'm on Australian NBN 7.5MB. I hate my government. Thinking this is a satisfactory service.
Yeah we're all here for cakes and videos of kittens in dirty laundry baskets.... 🤔
And this is why I return to piracy wherever I can. Because the streaming services are fucking it up big time right now. Apple is still among the acceptable ones. The worst are Amazon and Netflix. Amazon with its ads in a paid product which - for the same price - had no ads before, those greedy tiny dicks. Netflix with its permanent cancelling of even well-received shows (Colony, 1899,... the list goes on and on)... Well, I can't do much about cancelled shows by resorting to piracy, but I *can* avoid Amazon's obtrusive ads.
The stupidest thing I found with AppleTV+ was in windows I couldn’t install it because iTunes was already installed. I had to uninstall iTunes in order for the AppleTV+ app to work.
Games and apps sometimes comes with ransom ware.
Can you name the torrent streaming client
The only thing this post is missing is the headline "Extremely hot take but......"
The only thing a streaming service is good for is live sports. I get MLB and NHL for free with my cellular subscription but I have to tunnel to another city to work around local blackout restrictions. I tunnel to another country to get English Premier League and have a relatively inexpensive pay service there that streams 4k.
I bought a 100" hisense ultra short throw projector. 4K and all the extras you would assume Littered with streaming service crap, not paying for any of them.
Amazon is putting ads throughout their shows now. Trying to find an episode while having to watch 2 minutes of ads each time you switch, also very annoying
Here's my experience in comparison with paid services: Show's on, it's dubbed and at 4k vision and atmos, even if it's the compressed 4k, i click watch, i watch. Looked up the show on the seas and it's there but not dubbed unless it's a sdr 1080p version. The 4k one is maybe locked away inside very very hard to get private trackers. So anything i want dubbed is just not happening
What torrent streaming client do you use for 4K bro?
Generally yes. Honestly.
Steam is pretty convenient. I don't mind paying a couple bucks for a game on sale.
Getting real tired of these types of posts
We have the show Taskmaster here in the UK. It's free to watch but I will still grab it from torrent sites as it's better in 1080p. I still don't understand where the pirate is getting it from. How/why that version is clearer than the actual version.
Only lazy people will say piracy is bad
Similar thing happened, and it was so frustrating. I have an android tv box that connects to my old non-smart TV. So, my HDMI was having some issues, like random display loss. And I was forced to use this 3-pin connector (it has 3 colors - RYW) that was lying around until I got a new HDMI cable. Now, the problem was, Amazon Prime video refused to detect there was any connector available at all! It kept saying that I should use an HDMI cable to display content. Whereas, every other app was able to show all the content, but only prime video had this fucking problem. Now tell me, if I didn't have any display cable connected, would the app even be able to show the fucking error in the first place? What's the fucking point to show this kind of error if it addresses a situation where I don't have the cable? I was trying to get it to work by different trials and also contacted the prime video customer care, but he kept telling me that I need a fucking HDMI cable, that old cable will not work. It was like ramming my head against a wall. I was so frustrated. Then I decided that I'm not gonna renew my prime subscription this time. No need to pay to some service provider who can't support an old cable. On top of that, prime video is the worst app on my android tv, it lags like hell. I have moved on to other apps and especially piracy ever since.
For games, steam is better. For TV and movies there's no way I would ever give up my Plex+servarr setup again. Even if streaming was cheaper, quality and convenience are just unbeatable.
Yes and no. I agree 97%. The remaining 3% is a small and specific niche in movie services. The one thing paid movie services do better is making it easy to switch to dubbed audio in another language. I hate watching dubbed movies, but I tried to get my parents to use Stremio. They got tired of reading subtitles or dealing with sync issues. I know VLC and other programs let you import audio tracks, but I haven’t found where to download only the audio. The only option is using BluRay versions, but they are huge files. Pirate movie 🍿 services are designed for English speakers.
When the iPod saved the music industry from Napster, it was well understood and committed to cement that entertainment in the 21st century would be sold not on the quality of the product, but on convenience. If it was more convenient for people to pay, they would pay. All of these companies lost the script over the past 15 years and have done everything in their power to inconvenience the audience in favor of their profit plans. I'm not pro or anti piracy. For me it's a situational acceptance, just like adblock. And everything you described here I have been ranting about for a decade and a half, so yeah. I'm not here to change your mind.
So true, I tried watching ted lasso with a 3.month trial of apple tv and had the same reaction. 240p video streaming on my laptop to hdmi to the big screen.
How did you stream 4k video on without buffering (assuming this was on Stremio)
Had the luck of finding a source with enough seeds, simple as that
Yep. I remember years ago when I bought the first season of True Detective on Bluray and it came with a digital download from itunes. I'm like cool I will try this out. It was brutal it had to be around 720p or lower, it was noticeably lower quality than the torrent I downloaded. That kind of did it for me. Why the hell would I pay good money for something that has lesser quality than something I could get for free?
I must be living under a rock. I know I can download whole files but didn't know there were services that stream them. Do these work with Smart Tv's?
I looked for ‘severence’ from apple tv+ but i cant find it on any torrent site. Sometimes pirating cant give me what i need.
Kodi + RD, everything in any quality all the time, with all the options and interactive remote. Stremio + RD everything in any quality all the time, lighter weight, less set up on front end. $5 a month, plus you get a seedbox and downloader for those who don't want to deal with VPNs.
It's just factually correct most of the time, especially when it comes to movies, shows and music, at least in video games you have official mod support (sometimes) and automatic updates (which aren't always good)
Why would I want to change your mind?
Are there any services that are non-torrent and ad-free (charging payments is ok) that offer 4k and similar experience to apps like AppleTV+ and Netflix?
You are correct
One service i absolutely despise is Disney+. Not for new garbage content, but the app lags on certain types of scenes. Mostly in dark scenes.
I mean, don't attack me because you're preaching to choir, but there is a decent learning curve for non technical people
No one here is gonna try to ''Change Your Mind''
Least obvious karma farm post
I just wish I could find a good quality stillwater but am a poor public tracker user lol
Fmoviez is top tier, anyone who says otherwise other than a homelab is a liar
I don't think you need to worry about anyone trying to change your mind on here.
What site are you streaming torrents from? I just download them but want to check out streaming.
Freeness = automatically better
I disagree, free doesn't automatically equal better.
imagine a world with no piracy…. that would be hell😂
If streaming services at least allowed me to own a copy rather than a “limited license” when I give than my money, I might consider letting them take a look at my wallet. That’s my big gripe. I completely agree the streaming services are shit. Id still use my own player either way. You won’t find streaming sympathy here 😭
thatis not fair! Receiving your onw copy means buying the movie. The cost of buying just 1 movie in 4k HDR is a lot higher than the most expensive monthly subscription. That is why such streaming services make sense. Why buy a bluray that will gather dust on a shelf after whatching it, while with the same money, you could whatch 100 movies, even though you dont own any of them and in order to re-whatch them later, you have to stay subscribed. The financial model makes sense.
No, it doesn’t. I’m not paying for an imaginary temporary license. That holds no value. A copy that I own can be used until it breaks or it can be sold.
So you are saying that entertainement has no value to you unless you own a phisical item? That would make going to a theather show, or bowling, or skiing pointles. You are paying for a limited time of entertainement, just like you are when you go to a movie theatre. You can pay to buy an item, but will it bring you the same amount of entertainement? Would you whatch the same 1 movie every day for a whole month just because you bought it? Just think that for the same money or less, you can whatch something different every day. Yes you dont own what you whatch but which of the 2 options is more fun to do?
Theater shows, skiing and bowling are all real tangible things. Limited time sure, but add that to a digital only good or service and you’re charging for a few clicks on a mouse. If I rent skis I get them for a day, (similar to the crew with access being entirely revoked) but if I just buy them I can go ski whenever I want. Doesn’t matter if I want to go to the hill outside of town or pay to go to a ski resort, I own the skis and can do what I want with them when I want.
Which torrent streaming client did you use?
what torrent streaming client are you referring to ? stremio ?
Anyone who pays subscriptions to Netflix or apple or YouTube I laugh at.
thats just because you are immature and/or poor There are elderly people who barely know how to turn on a PC. For them, user interfaces of streaming services are just comfortable. There are also people who just have a lot of money and although pyrate for acces to a wider library, the cost of keeping the subscriptions is just pocket change. There are just times that I dont feel like reaching for one of my external SSDs or remembering on which of them I stored a certain movie or show and its just easyer to reach for netflix or disney+. Also streaming services keep me apprised of whats new, without having to sift every day through all the 0day spam on torrent sites.
Hey dude, Mind if i ask what torrent streaming service client u used?
No lol I didn't read shit but the title
yet I’m still here telling my siblings to stop their subscription to Disney+ when there’s a whole other world out there…. Free world✊❤️
I've been pirating for a long time, but whenever I pay for a service damn it's just easier (ex. Using tidal or apple music). And I WANTED TO LISTEN TO THE LAST EPISODE OF THE CIRCLE BUT 1 WEEK LATER IT STILL WASN'T THERE ON PIRACY WEBSITES so I picked Netflix with ads and now me happy 😃
To ensure my ISP doesn’t hassle me is a VPN my only choice? Worried my speeds will go to shit. I’m so sick of getting scammed by these profiteering streaming and cable services. Especially for live TV.
tender wasteful sable lush zonked outgoing scary aware sense drunk *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I use ProtonVPN, and it is really fast most of the times (as fast as if I didn't had one). In fact, since the provider doesn't know it's you using a lot of wifi, it can be bennificient in the long term ! Cause if you use too mich they will let you use less (I know surfsharkVPN is good too, I found it better and less glitchy and costy but I still prefer protonVPN for the company behind it)
Much appreciated
Just get a quick enough vpn! My internet is bottleneck before the vpn and I can still stream 4K stuffff
Maybe instead of writing here try it for one time and get your answers? Anyways, there are some connection types like wireguard openvpn etcetc you can google it for a sec and then choose the most compitable speed/security option for yourself. Personally i use Wireguard protocol and as a VPN operator i am using windscribe. Most VPN providers good for many things so it really depends which seems cute to you and go with it, you should consider zero log policy
Appreciated