• @Flanhare@lemmy.world
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      10111 months ago

      I did that many years ago and the fact that all content is in one place instead of multiple apps is so nice.

      • @Kamikazimatt@sh.itjust.works
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        10111 months ago

        I miss the early days of Netflix when that held true too. If I remember right piracy was down too. But everyone wanted a piece of the stupid pie and we’re back to where we started all over again

        • Dojan
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          1611 months ago

          I think that’s what they mean. They sail the high seas and put all the booty in one place, like a Plex media server.

          • @Kamikazimatt@sh.itjust.works
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            511 months ago

            Yeah, I was agreeing and relating it to the good ol days when pirating for a one asp experience wasn’t needed unless you really wanted to.

            Now we’re back to that’s the only way to easily get it all in one place is pirating. Apple TV seems to sort of have that ability but it’s not seamless because it takes you to whatever app the video is on, which still means you have to pay for all the streams.

            • @MirranCrusader@programming.dev
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              811 months ago

              I’m just back to buying Blu rays. To me it’s the safer option, you legally own your product and you can host everything you want yourself still. MakeMKV is a great tool.

            • Paradox
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              111 months ago

              Plex and Google TV also work similarly, universal search that then opens the streaming app

      • Yuumi
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        1011 months ago

        It’s like if streaming platforms were good.

      • @penguin@sh.itjust.works
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        211 months ago

        Even when we had a few streaming services, we’d end up pirating some stuff that was available because we incorrectly assumed it wasn’t on one of them and it’s just too annoying to have to look up where something is every time.

        So we’d tend to go the piracy route first if we were seeking something out and only use the streaming services if we knew off the top of our heads where something was.

      • @valkyre09@lemmy.world
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        911 months ago

        I’ve been a Plex user for over a decade now. I’m not impressed with the direction they’re taking, but the alternatives aren’t quite there yet in terms of polish. I hope that by the time they fuck it all up there’ll be a better solution to switch to.

        • @the_medium_kahuna@lemmy.world
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          611 months ago

          I’ve used Plex off and on for a few years, getting more into it as streaming prices have been rising. What direction are they taking that you don’t particularly like? I’ve also seen Kodi - which I’m intrigued by. Any thoughts there?

        • @rambos@lemm.ee
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          311 months ago

          Are you talking about plex media server for local files? If you are still looking for polished alternative check jellyfin. It is amazing

      • @DigitalWanderer@lemmy.world
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        1311 months ago

        its always been a convenience issue, i want it easy to find a show not search through 5 apps, pay 5 times etc. Netflix took many pirates to port because it was easy and reasonably priced. Then everybody and their mother made their own streaming service…sails were raised again

        • @SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          611 months ago

          Most don’t like usenet since it cost money, but you’re absolutely right, usenet is the best way. It’s what I’ve been using for over a decade now lol

          • @omgitsaheadcrab@sh.itjust.works
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            711 months ago

            For the cost of one streaming subscription I’ve got all content, downloads at full speed and is private. Can’t imagine life without Usenet and sonarr/radarr now

              • DosDude👾
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                411 months ago

                Get yourself a nice newsgroup, and an nzb indexer(search site for newsgroups) . Install nzbget, sonarr and radarr and Google for the parts you get stuck on.

                I recommend a 2nd newsgroup subscription at a different place, because (in layman’s terms) to appease the dmca strikes they delete a single file of the download, and chances are a different server deleted a different file, so your downloads are complete enough to parse the rest together.

    • @smort@lemmy.world
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      211 months ago

      If not for live sports. That’s the only reason I’ve had “cable” off and on for the last decade

  • Kalash
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    14211 months ago

    Costs of streaming from my Plex server haven’t changed.

      • Kalash
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        411 months ago

        Ha, I’m pretty much exactly at 25TB as well. Though everything is 1080p max.

          • Kalash
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            211 months ago

            I used to have 4k stuff, but my server is used by few family members and friends, and streaming 4k was just taking up to much resources. Upgrading to a more powerful NAS is planed when money is availible.

            Also 4k uses conisderable more disk space and while I have 4k screen, I find 1080p with a good bitrate more than sufficiant for me. That saves a ton of storage.

  • @chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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    12411 months ago

    Still better than dealing with ads. That’s my red line.

    I absolutely refuse to watch programming with ads, free or paid. I won’t do it. My time is limited and I’m not every going to willingly hand over a portion of my life to advertisements.

    I’m never going back. If ad-free options go away or become too expensive, I’ll simply stop watching shit. There isn’t a price at which ad-supported programming becomes attractive.

    I’d love to see the Weird Al movie. I won’t, however, because Roku won’t let me pay to watch it.

      • citrusface
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        111 months ago

        What bells and whistles should one turn off - our server wouldn’t mind a facelift

        • @Lord_Boffum@lemmy.world
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          111 months ago

          I’ve heard tell that at the account level, individual users can turn off things like free movies & TV series, enhanced search results and all that to get a cleaner experience.

          I the web UI, mouse over your avatar, go to account settings, and disable pretty much everything under ‘online media sources’. Enjoy the pure, clean Plex experience. Just see what the server offers, no more, no less.

  • @PhiAU@lemmy.world
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    7711 months ago

    Back to the high seas it is.

    I’m not paying for 5 streaming services to watch 1 show on each. So now I’m paying for no streaming services.

    Convenience as a reasonable price was the deal. It it neither convenient nor reasonably priced any more.

    Cable TV all over again. Region locked DVD all over again.

  • @ScrivenerX@lemm.ee
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    7711 months ago

    This is a lousy article rehashing an article behind a paywall.

    The cost they have is $87 a month. There is so much that’s confusing about this. They don’t specify how many streaming services they are counting in that, but it’s a good guess that is about 5, each at about $17 a month. I feel I have too many streaming services and share accounts with family, and I can stream from about 7, pay for one and watch 1.5. If I couldn’t share accounts, I wouldn’t have the accounts. I pretty much watch star trek and whatever show someone tells me to watch.

    They also don’t specify what $87 a month gets you in cable. Around me that’s about basic cable prices, which is significantly less content presented in a less convenient format and is almost entirely reruns filled to brim with commercials.

    Not only is the article missing key information it also misrepresents the information it has.

    Note: I’m sure people will tell me to pirate everything, but there are reasons to not pirate. And it doesn’t address that this is a poorly written article giving incomplete and incorrect information.

    • GreyBeard
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      1111 months ago

      Personally, the lack of ads is a big one for me. I will not watch ad filled content. Any time I’m on vacation and turn on a hotel TV and have to deal with ads it is so frustrating. Especially now that content is made for streaming, so there aren’t logical ad breaks in the story. Just random hard cuts in the middle of content.

    • @_Tom_@lemmy.world
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      1011 months ago

      Yeah I’m curious how they get that number. I look at it as my math is Internet ($50)+Hulu Bundle ($21)+Prime($12) is $83/mo

        • @redeyejedi@lemmy.world
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          211 months ago

          Great point. I guess there’s maybe someone that doesn’t need internet in there home. But the average person these days can’t function without it.

        • @_Tom_@lemmy.world
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          111 months ago

          I was doing it to try to make their claim seem sane. Are people really on 4-5 streaming services?

          • @cheesemonk@lemmy.world
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            111 months ago

            There definitely are. My partner has Netflix, Prime, Peacock, and the Disney plus bundle. I feel like it isn’t that uncommon of a scenario tbh.

    • JoYo
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      011 months ago

      people that pirate give advertising its power.

      pay your content creators and don’t tolerate ads.

  • @LittleLordLimerick@lemm.ee
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    6611 months ago

    I pay for Hulu, Max, Disney+, Prime, and get Netflix for free. Half the time, I still can’t find the show or movie I want to watch. But 99.99% of the time I can find a torrent for it within 20 seconds of searching. Not only is pirating cheaper, but it’s more convenient and more user friendly these days.

    • 🇰 🔵 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️
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      2611 months ago

      I find it funny as hell that when I search for “where can I stream X?” Most of the time, I can only watch the thing on a pirate streaming site, unless I want to pay $15.99 for a single viewing on Amazon. lol fuck that.

      • @Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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        411 months ago

        My move is to go to the library and borrow stuff on DVD. I dunno where you are but up here in Canada you would be surprised what you can find legally for free if you got a library card.

    • @ScrivenerX@lemm.ee
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      1111 months ago

      I think more convenient and user friendly is a bit of a stretch.

      My wife gets confused by the remote and different profiles. My parents needed me to explain how to use Netflix more than once. Saying going to your PC and finding a torrent is convenient and user friendly isn’t true. But the point that having to search where to stream a particular movie or show isn’t user friendly is also true.

      • @LittleLordLimerick@lemm.ee
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        811 months ago

        I wouldn’t say that pirating is user-friendly, only that it can be more user-friendly than logging into and searching through multiple streaming services. That of course pre-supposes that you have some knowledge of how to torrent and where to find torrent files.

      • body_by_make
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        211 months ago

        Plex or Jellyfin (Jf is more preferred by the sailors, but I like Plex quite a bit)

          • @LittleLordLimerick@lemm.ee
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            611 months ago

            Plex is just a media server. You have to acquire content through some other means, then you can host it on a Plex server and stream it to any device that has the Plex app installed.

            I have a Plex server that my entire family has logins for, and I put whatever movies or shows people are interested in. Basically you can make your own mini Netflix.

            • @GreenMario@lemm.ee
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              211 months ago

              I got Plex on a RasPi3 and an external 2TB. I have to limit to 1080p/x264 but works quite well.

              If I want 4K I’ll buy the disc, downloading even Blu-ray quality is so goddamn big.

              • @LittleLordLimerick@lemm.ee
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                311 months ago

                Not quite, I think those just stream over Wi-Fi like Chromecast?

                Plex has a full media server application that your can run on a computer, and you can stream your media from it over the internet to any device that has the Plex client app.

                I have a Plex server set up and running on an old laptop in my bedroom with a huge library of movies and TV shows. It acts like basically any streaming service such as Netflix, but it’s my own stuff. I can watch from anywhere on any device that has a Plex client app. I can also send invitations to friends and family so they can access it, too.

          • body_by_make
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            11 months ago

            You don’t, you use Plex to make the experience of watching what you obtain easier. Netflix tier ease of use.

            • @Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world
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              111 months ago

              In what way ? I haven’t used Plex yet. It shows you what you have on your other streams. I tried to play a vid I have downloaded but it refused to play. Don’t get the hype.

              Would just use a pirate site and stream from thereb

              • @Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip
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                111 months ago

                Add a library in plex pointing to where your personal video files are stored. If you automate the downloads with the *arrs radarr, sonarr etc plex turns into basically Netflix for your local media.

      • @WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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        011 months ago

        Some times I think maybe humanity has reached too far with technology. You’re absolutely right, lots of people get easily confused over even very simple things. It’s depressing to think about.

        • @JGrffn@lemmy.world
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          We’re all specializing in different things, and sometimes we get stretched thin. It’s understandable that most people have a hard time with more technical aspects of the digital world (and even the simpler aspects of it, due to constant innovations and paradigm shifts), but in this scenario in specific, it can pay off to be the more knowledgeable technical user, since you could set up Plex with *arr services to automate everything, and then just serve Plex on a golden platter to friends and family. It’s what I’m doing, recently set up Overseerr and friends are already using it to request content, and a couple of other friends are helping with moderating request and fixing minor issues on Radarr and Sonarr. I’m even getting donations from them in order to expand storage and improve infrastructure. It’s great, and I strive to ease the subscription cost burden of those around me.

      • @Misconduct@startrek.website
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        11 months ago

        Torrents are the hardest way to access things that are streaming on various sites. Or so I’ve heard. If you don’t need to watch everything in 8k it’s actually really easy. Just need an ad blocker and a quick search online

    • @Gerudo@lemm.ee
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      211 months ago

      The wife and I are trying to watch all the conjuring/anabelle/nun movies. The movies are scattered across several services and makes it a pain to watch. Kodi is one search away from what I’m looking for.

    • @query@lemm.ee
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      011 months ago

      Download a file, run on any player, on any device. It’s always been more convenient, online services had to catch up to filesharing, not the other way around, and in many ways owe their existence to non-commercial entities showing how it could be done. They might figure out a good way of doing it, until the executives get involved and want to put their stamp on it.

  • @chakan2@lemmy.world
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    6411 months ago

    Lol…wtf is this trash article…Netflix is struggling to survive. Bullshit, they made 12B profit last year.

    The article makes it out like all the big players are at a loss…they’re not…they brining in Bs in profit.

    The price hikes are greed, and of course the consumers will pay it.

    • @zikk_transport2@lemmy.world
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      711 months ago

      No, it’s not. Turns out Lemmy.world does not like sea at all. In fact, they blocked “info kiosks” at ports near sea, so you have no idea about what is going on in the sea.

          • nik0
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            1211 months ago

            just make an account on dbzero and use that.

          • @teuast@lemmy.ca
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            511 months ago

            there’s really no investment cost to trying out an account on any of them, i’ve been using lemmy.ca because i have family in canada and it seemed appropriate, haven’t had any of the instability issues that i’ve had when using my .world account. there are plenty to choose from so honestly just go with whatever passes your vibe check

          • @alansuspect@aussie.zone
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            311 months ago

            Best to look for an instance that isn’t too big or too small, has stuff you’re interested in like local news or hobbies. Especially if they talk openly about the running of the instance, costs, what people can do to help, etc.

          • @Pea666@feddit.nl
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            211 months ago

            Not for any particular instance but I’m sure there’s a list out there somewhere.

      • @joel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        111 months ago

        It’s true they did, and it took me less than a minute to make an account on a new instance. An instance that I know will never block said community, because it’s hosted from here!

      • @maegul@lemmy.ml
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        3311 months ago

        Yea … lemmy.world is probably not the “everything” instance some people were hoping … but more the “vanilla” instance (which also has a place IMO).

        • Streetdog
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          11 months ago

          Vanilla instance for vanilla people.

          Edit: LMAO I’m on .world too folks (⁀ᗢ⁀)

          • Dojan
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            811 months ago

            Completely unrelated to the topic but isn’t it strange how vanilla has somehow become a negative? Vanilla ice cream being the default is because pretty much everyone enjoys vanilla. It’s a fantastic (albeit now very common) flavour.

            • scmstr
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              411 months ago

              High quality vanilla ice cream is easily the best. I’m talking, no eggs, very dense, no carrageenan or other crap like that, and actual vanilla bean. The stuff that tastes like tea and flowers and vanilla. It’s amazing. Also expensive, but it’s a treat I only get every few months.

              I highly suggest trying to find an ice cream like this around if you even can.

      • Overzeetop
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        1011 months ago

        It is a shame that once you’ve signed up for a community you’re not allowed to make a user account on any other instance.

        • @Firipu@startrek.website
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          811 months ago

          Yeah. And it’s a shame when they “ban” something, there aren’t like hundreds of different instances that can still easily access that content.

          Some smart people should really come up with a decentralized federated system so these “bans” become total non-issues.

          Ah well, one can dream.

          • Overzeetop
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            311 months ago

            Huh - a data network that routes traffic around missing or blocked nodes. That sounds like an advanced project from some kind of Defense agency. Someone should patent it - an Interconnected Network; I’ll bet it would be super popular. I wonder what they’d call it.

      • @Blizzard@lemmy.zip
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        411 months ago

        Heard about it. That’s a shame. There’s really nothing illegal there. Admins of my instance make a community voting before defederating.

        I think I read somewhere that’s it’s possible to migrate your account to another instance. The idea of Lemmy is that we’re not at the mercy of someone’s whims.

        • @bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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          411 months ago

          It is not possible currently to migrate an account. There are tools that let you migrate eg. Your list of subscribed communities, but your posts and comments can’t go with you.

      • Kalash
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        311 months ago

        The instance wasn’t defedared, but the piracy community was blocked.

  • @Snapz@lemmy.world
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    4811 months ago

    However, media execs acknowledged that the prices being charged by streaming services were unsustainable, and that a “crash” would follow – where companies would be forced to increase prices or go out of business.

    Absolutely nobody believes you.

  • @frippa@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    If anybody is interested: an old workstation/server costs about 100€, a 2TB external Hdd 50€, that’s about all you need to self-host your Netflix.

    to proceed flash a Linux distro of your choice (I recommend Debian 12 stable) follow a tutorial on YT on how to install it, it’s very simple.

    Download and configure jellyfin. Open the 8096/8099 port on your router.

    If you live in a country where downloading “Linux ISOs” is frowned upon, be sure to use a VPN while downloading the latest Linux Mint release for your jellyfin server.

    Load those fancy new kali Linux live CDs on your jellyfin servers, download clients for all your devices and enjoy!

    Guides for everything I said can be found online, expecially on YouTube.

    Just to add: jellyfin is free and open source: you know it does not spy on you and it does not build a profile on you to then sell your data to ad companies, a huge plus if you ask me.

  • @Fixbeat@lemmy.ml
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    4111 months ago

    The good thing is that you don’t have to sign up for all the services; sign up for a few. Once you see all the content that you want, cancel and sign up for something else.

    • Temple Square
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      4111 months ago

      Yep. Disney+ (for now).

      Netflix, HBO, and Hulu gradually cancelled over the last few years.

      What’s stupid of them is that if they’d stayed around $8-10/mo each (ad-free), I probably would have stayed subscribed forever. Now they each get nothing.

      • @JaffaBoy@lemmy.world
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        711 months ago

        Biggest blocker I get for doing this is the family plan… There’s at least one out two in the household who are watching Netflix to mean we keep it, and I don’t want to downgrade as they take away the HD streams… That’s my biggest peeve, HD/4K should be standard, not a premium (yes I know, it’s more data but we’re not in the 90’s anymore.

        It has pushed a lot of people back to piracy, what did these money grabbing schmucks think would happen

      • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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        111 months ago

        Or if they were willing to continue selling to Netflix instead of trying to pull off their own abusive service, they’d be more likely to get my money

    • @maegul@lemmy.ml
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      411 months ago

      I think the price hikes are basically relying on or incorporating this practice into their pricing models.

      I do wonder though if we’ll see changes made to the cancellation policies. I’ve certainly been expecting a change there for years.

      • @joe@lemmy.world
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        211 months ago

        I do wonder though if we’ll see changes made to the cancellation policies. I’ve certainly been expecting a change there for years.

        What kind of changes to the cancellation policies are you imagining?

          • @joe@lemmy.world
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            211 months ago

            That’s not a change in cancellation policy; that’s a change in package pricing and availability.

        • @maegul@lemmy.ml
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          311 months ago

          Well, rather the subscriptions. IE, no monthly subscriptions but 6-monthly or 12-monthly. Or cancellation fees.

          No idea if my expectation is valid, but it intuitively seems to me like an obvious way to grab some cash.

    • Streetdog
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      411 months ago

      I’m not in the US, and even though most (but not all) services adjust for local pricing, finding and keeping track of where something is (often isn’t, or not anymore) available to stream is more of a hassle (PITA really) than going to my favorite magnet site.

      Just like streaming music where 95% of the content I want is available on all providers, I’d pay for an all-in tv-streaming service. I do buy digital/physical copies of music through Bandcamp. It’s all about convenience.

      • @Fixbeat@lemmy.ml
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        311 months ago

        Roku helps with that as it has a global search. Maybe other streaming hardware does too. Not sure.

        I am happy and a bit surprised that music streaming ended up so good.

        • Paradox
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          111 months ago

          In my experience it’s pretty universal. My TV offers it (Android/Google TV), my Xbox has it, and Plex has it

        • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          But can you constrain that global search by the services you subscribe to? It’s not useful to find all the places I can’t watch something

          And can you constrain the search by language? One of the things that made Netflix easier to give up was the flood of search results in languages I don’t speak

        • Streetdog
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          11 months ago

          Roku isn’t available in my “area”, so it (still) says. It’s a bummer because I wouldn’t have any issues with paying to binge something at high quality.

          Edit: I have used justwatch.com in the past, but it isn’t always correct or up-to-date either.

        • @epimede@sh.itjust.works
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          111 months ago

          PlayStation of all places has this. I will often turn it on just to see if something is available on one of the services I share with family. Then I turn to sketchy streaming sites or the public library.