Thread

1. avgDev · 1790264764 · focus · HN ↗

   Oof. I guess sailing the high sees is back on the table.

   We are back to cable pricing, but shows and movies are all over the place and now we need multiple apps to track us.

   1. joshstrange · 1790265240 · focus · HN ↗

      We are worse than cable pricing at this point from what I can see.

      It's absurd that piracy is the _best_ user experience. 1 app, 1 place for your content, no licensing deals to worry about, no outrage pulling old episodes, local streaming, the list goes on.

      You literally cannot pay (legally) for a better experience, and that makes me sad.

      1. hypendev · 1790266795 · focus · HN ↗

         Exactly this.

         Streaming services have become the worst of all worlds.

         As an EU citizen, even tho I pay for Netflix and Prime, I cannot access most of the content there as even tho it exists on the service because it's not available in my country.

         Amazon prime has 2 good shows and just a bunch of D-tier movies or some 35+ year old ones. It's mostly worthless.

         Netflix region locks a whole lot of content or removes it after some time. I can't watch some great movies and TV shows because "oh we don't have rights for this region".

         Meanwhile, piracy provides a user experience that not just lets me access all of their content - one I'm already paying for - anywhere, but also lets me access movies and shows that would otherwise not be found anywhere else, including regional movies and short movies.

         1. andrew_lettuce · 1790267165 · focus · HN ↗

            Content rights are micro managed too, unlike ever before so you get things like a streaming service buying a title in one language but not the one you want. This doesn't stop them from returning it in your search results though

            1. mrguyorama · 1790271485 · focus · HN ↗

               I watched Star Trek TNG on Netflix like four times.

               I have never subscribed to Paramount+ and people who liked TNG are saying things that make me think that was the right choice. I just don't watch TNG anymore. That's fine, it's not like content is scarce. Good content is somewhat scarce, but there's decades of known good history to dig through.

         2. TheOtherHobbes · 1790267564 · focus · HN ↗

            Prime's local content issue can be fixed with a VPN.

            1. sgskinner · 1790272519 · focus · HN ↗

               Ah yes, always use a vpn when torrenting.
            2. hypendev · 1790338873 · focus · HN ↗

               Doesn't seem to work for me, always shows the same
         3. kyriakos · 1790270539 · focus · HN ↗

            Netflix had an advantage with own productions which is dying now. Shows are cancelled left and right so people don't want to invest time. Also looks like full season dumps is affecting the long term profitability of productions. People watch a season in a couple of days and forget about it, if a new season is planned it takes 2 years to be released by which time viewers forgot the show existed.
      2. dessimus · 1790267229 · focus · HN ↗

         ...and no pre-roll or mid-roll ads, since just about all of the streamers are going to ads in every tier.

         1. joshstrange · 1790267759 · focus · HN ↗

            It's pure joy to be able to always answer "I haven't seen it" when someone starts with "Have you seen that ad...".

            The disrespect that streaming companies show their customers is insane. I'm sure most of the customer don't even know what they are missing, the hoops they have to jump through, the mental load to switch between all those terrible, hostile UIs, etc...

            1. dessimus · 1790275923 · focus · HN ↗

               TBF, no ads was the original promise of cable tv too. The same media companies figured they could con younger generations with the same broken promises as their parents and grandparents.
      3. yreg · 1790267283 · focus · HN ↗

         How is that absurd?

         Of course with piracy you can have all the content available everywhere forever.

         How do you expect a law-abiding company to match that with content they don't own? Unless we abolish copyright.

         1. joshstrange · 1790267550 · focus · HN ↗

            It's absurd because in a sane world we'd have rules similar to playing music on the radio. If all the content providers provided a stream/video to resellers (and couldn't refuse to license/sell) then we could have a company that did the same thing as pirates can build, legally.

            Instead the content is silo'd in a bunch of massive companies that don't care about UI/UX and exist only to force more ads down our throats.

            This isn't about being law abiding or not for the sake of it, it's about the best experience _at any price_ is unobtainable without breaking a law.

            And yes, I'm in favor of abolishing copyright and/or significantly limiting/curtailing it. Some short exclusivity window (<5 years, ideally <1 year) and then anyone can redistribute it paying small royalties for another <5-10 years, then it's public.

      4. scottyah · 1790267634 · focus · HN ↗

         I really like AppleTV, and find it to be a much better experience than pirating ever was. For one, the resolution is always great, secondly, I don't have to know what I want to watch, and third pretty much everything on there is good. My habits have changed though, I don't spend nearly as much time watching tv compared to the college days.

         1. joshstrange · 1790267899 · focus · HN ↗

            > I really like AppleTV

            The service? The Hardware? The App on the hardware? (Great job naming Apple...)

            I agree that the Apple TV is the best experience one can have. It can be further enhanced by using a single app (Plex/Plezy/Jellyfin/Infuse/etc). Jumping between streaming services and their hostile, horrible UIs is such a pain. The Apple TV app was meant to improve that situation but without buy-in from all the streaming providers (which they will never get) it's always going to be playing second fiddle to the high seas.

            1. freeone3000 · 1790268501 · focus · HN ↗

               They do, in fact, have that buy-in. It’s a prerequisite for having an app that does video on Apple TV: the same video stream provider that does listings for search in-app is also used out-of-app, with results lifted and recontextualized. Everything from Netflix to Disney+ to Crunchyroll is listed in app.

               1. joshstrange · 1790269069 · focus · HN ↗

                  > It’s a prerequisite for having an app that does video on Apple TV

                  It's not. Netflix is a _very new_ addition (last year) to the Apple TV app (which is ironic seeing how Netflix was highly integrated into ATV before they moved to apps on the ATV).

                  All of your services might be represented at this point in time but it can (and has) changed over time.

            2. scottyah · 1790271616 · focus · HN ↗

               Hah fair point- I'm just talking about the service that provides the content. It's just an app on my TV.
         2. literallyroy · 1790276779 · focus · HN ↗

            You can’t just watch it through Apple TV though can you? Aren’t lots of shows only through certain services and it just links you there?
      5. f33d5173 · 1790273292 · focus · HN ↗

         Movies are expensive to make, and watching them on streaming gives almost no money back to the studio. The intention is that if you want to watch a movie, you should pay the $5-10 it costs to do so on any of a number of platforms. Then you get the great user experience of putting any movie you like into the search bar and pressing "play", and the studio gets appropriately compensated. Putting a movie on a streaming service is a way for studios to double dip, to get a smaller amount of money from people who don't care which movie exactly they watch. If you have a particular movie in mind to watch, or don't like the fare on whichever service you're subscribed to, you should be paying a la carte for movies instead. If you aren't, don't pretend it's some moral stand and not just you being a cheapskate.

         1. joshstrange · 1790273925 · focus · HN ↗

            > If you aren't, don't pretend it's some moral stand and not just you being a cheapskate.

            sigh please read what I wrote, I didn’t say piracy is morally justified, I said it’s annoying that paying all the services for access to content (side note: I don’t care about movies, when I watch anything it’s normally TV) you get an objectively worse experience when compared to someone who pirated the same media.

            Spotify was able to crush music piracy because they provided a better experience. I find it annoying that the same is not true for video. There was a small golden era of Netflix then it all went to shit.

            Lastly, the economics of stream vs buy (license or physical media) is completely irrelevant to this discussion. Mostly because there is plenty of media I care about that is near impossible or completely impossible to buy physical media (my preference, then ripped to Plex). If every show I wanted was available on BluRay or similar quality then this wouldn’t be a discussion, or at least not one I cared about. I find it frustrating that there is no legal way to acquire all the content I want and so I’m forced to pay for shitty streaming platforms.

      6. joquarky · 1790286610 · focus · HN ↗

         Also no revising the show due to expired music licenses, change in the director's mood, etc.
      7. windexh8er · 1790306989 · focus · HN ↗

         There's literally no reason to pay anymore. Even if you want to do the right thing they moved the goal posts every year, if not more. Paying for no ads? Have ads anyway!

         Zero options to get the content you want at a fair price. Plus, OpenAI and Anthropic have paved the way for everyone: any content you can find online is fair game! I don't download any content. But, hey, if my agent does? I mean OpenAI and Anthropic can't control their agents. How could I possibly be expected to?

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