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Pirating the Pirates

711 points · 405 comments · piotrgrabowski

  1. Insanity · · focus · HN ↗
    Tangentially related, I've been toying with the idea of just buying all my film and series content again rather than maintaining subscription services. My SO and I watch TV maybe once a week yet we maintain a subscription to Crave & Netflix.

    I'm pretty sure it'd work out cheaper to just buy box-sets of a series when we start watching it but haven't done the deep dive yet.

    1. rudolftheone · · focus · HN ↗
      If you do go the box-set route, you might want to be careful about which editions you buy.

      Alec from Technology Connections[0] about a year ago put out a video detailing frustrating trend: many modern DVD box-set re-releases of popular series are being quietly downgraded in quality.

      Basically publishers are taking content originally authored for dual-layer discs and cramming it onto cheaper single-layer discs to cut costs. The result is aggressive over-compression, terrible macroblocking, and sometimes outright playback issues.

      It really sucks: you try to do the "right thing" by paying for a legitimate, physical copy to own your media and you end up getting ripped off with crap.

      [0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Hzz_d9Y44ZE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Hzz_d9Y44ZE

      1. aspenmayer · · focus · HN ↗
        Have you seen this video?

        <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=RfjH4lO241I" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=RfjH4lO241I

        Apparently Alec has contacted the studio that makes the discs; they don’t make single-layer discs for the Frasier box set. Alec seems to have purchased a bootleg sold at retail.

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