• _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Hmm, pay $20 a month apiece for 20 different shitty streaming services that use ads, or $6/month for Usenet access and $1/month for indexer access, and get every movie and TV show for nothing extra…

    Choices, choices.

    • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      What’s the easiest/best way to start with UseNet? I’ve wanted to give it a try for the longest time - but it just feels like such a daunting task to try and figure out…

      • _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        It’s not complicated. The Usenet provider gives you access to Usenet, and the indexer lets you search it for whatever you want. You then download it with a Usenet client. You can do it manually, much the same way as you download a torrent from any site. if you’ve downloaded a torrent before, you would be able to manage Usenet with no issues at all.

        Or, if you’re willing to spend a few hours setting up the Servarr apps on an old computer like I did, you can automate the whole thing. I recommend this option, because you do it once and then you have a seamless way to fetch files from torrent and Usenet both without ever doing anything more than typing in the name of the show/movie. The Servarr apps search for, download, and import media into my library so that I can stream them to all my devices using Jellyfin (or Plex, if you like corpo apps). They even fetch proper subtitles for everything, and I also have it set up so after I’ve watched an episode, it’s deleted to make room for something else. It’s as easy as Netflix, at a fraction of the cost.

      • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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        1 day ago

        What are you talking about? Of course I got the BIOS from my PS2 using a flash drive. Of course I manually backed up physical games I own. I would never illegally download.

  • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Would you like to see a film? It’s $60 to enter the movie theater. A chair to sit in is $10. You wanted to see the film? You need the glasses to unscramble the screen image. $40. Audio? That’s for due paying subscribers $4.99/mo. You want to exit the theater? $120. In case of fire? Cleaning up your ashes generates a $200 fee.

  • hihi24522@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    Yes, remember it is totally immoral to pirate things from corporations who actively make everything worse for everyone.

    Here’s a guide to what sites you should avoid so you don’t accidentally get movies, shows, books, music, etc. without paying FMHY.net

      • phlegmy@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        I’m a bit old school with things like this.
        I’d much rather avoid downloading a 4k rip and watching it offline.
        But I’ll be sure to avoid these sites, too, if I’m ever in the mood to watch something when I’m away from my ‘linux iso storage and acquisition’ machine.

  • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Or you can buy it for $30, but no you can’t have a digital copy. And if, in the future, the service folds, then you can no longer watch it.

    • samus12345@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      That reminds me, I love the hannya/jolly roger fusion on Majima’s flag in the upcoming Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii! (Which I would not be pirating even if it weren’t Denuvo)

    • But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Sure, but let’s not pretend like it’s just a one click like streaming legally. My wife and kid would have zero clue how to go about it. But I agree, every time I wanna watch something in particular it’s never on any of the networks, or in one of the ones I don’t have.

      Also you can’t get everything through torrents, only popular stuff or current stuff, anything else you might be lucky to get one seeder or two

      • AnonomousWolf@lemm.eeOP
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        3 days ago

        If you setup streamio it’s literally as easy as using Netflix. And it has everything, it’s extremely rare that i find anything that i can’t watch

        • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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          44 minutes ago

          Except it defaults to something like iMDB in how it lists series and shows and their reviews… And not a single way to watch them. You then have to do quite some digging to find the right addons, and not all links are equally valid…

          I understand they avoid liability this way but damn they make it difficult to actually watch something, and even if you manage to get it to listen to Torrrent trackers they don’t really seed back and that makes me feel like scum and that comes from someone who watches films for free.

      • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        Personally Ive got a pirate streaming service which has a mobile app and desktop website to stream anything from Netflix, apple, Disney, Hulu, prime, etc pretty much every service out there and new episodes pop up within a day. It’s no different than opening up the Netflix app. It’s pretty damn easy and convenient. Not perfect as sometimes it lags and you need to watch in lower quality but so much more convenient having everything in one spot than needing to search 5 different apps for something to watch.

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        3 days ago

        My wife and kid love watching stuff on Plex. We might even watch some Dog Man tonight if we have time, then maybe I’ll get to continue The Expanse with my wife after the kid goes to bed.

        I set some stuff up automatically, but still do a bunch more manually because it’s easy enough. Once I’ve set it up, the user experience and the A/V quality are excellent.

        I’ve even started putting a bunch of FLAC albums into Plex to use it for my music streaming. We Get YouTube music for free but it can get obnoxious to actually use throughout the day.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        My wife and kids have a clue - they just tell me to download it. The little ones will learn their piracy lessons on coffee shop wifi, not at our home.

      • daisykutter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        If you are tech savy you can get almost whatever you want with a one click, just like legal streaming, and eve with more quality

        If you aren’t you can hook up a plex server from a friend or use things like magisTv or similar

  • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    The average US household spent over $500/yr on streaming services in 2024, which was actually down YOY!

    At that sort of expense, you would be much better served buying (or if you’re technically minded - building) a NAS at home and then just…

    … yaaar! 🏴‍☠️

    That way, you keep access to the media without having to worry about licenses expiring or the internet going out.

    • undeffeined@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      I agree with the sentiment but if a large majority would stop using these services and pirating wouldn’t it result in either less entertainment or more crackdowns?

      • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
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        3 days ago

        Nope. It resulted in the original Netflix, aka a service that actually worked and had everything we wanted for a time. Direct reaction to mass piracy and actually reduced it by 90℅ iirc.

        You also can’t crack down on non centralized services and the more decentralized nodes, the harder the job becomes and the more expensive. At some point it will become uneconomic to go after pirates.

        And, yes there will be massively less movies & shows which is very good. We live in a fresh hell where billionaires push out half baked shit every week and the only way to tell them is to not buy it.

        • undeffeined@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          Good points, thanks for taking the time to explain your point. I strongly agree with the on about the quantity of slop churned out nowadays.

          • tiramichu@lemm.ee
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            3 days ago

            The slop is an unfortunate consequence of the streaming model.

            Because there is so much content on streaming and it’s so readily accessible, watching a movie isn’t an “event” anymore in the way it was when DVD or VHS was the only option. And when you pair this with second-screen devices (phones) then it all adds up to people treating movies as background entertainment while they scroll their phone or do something else.

            And because of that, the way shows and movies are produced has changed, too. The reason everything seems like homogenous cookie-cutter crap is because it is. In fact Netflix have specifically been asking producers to dumb content down so viewers can still understand it even when they are only paying half attention.

            Of course, there are still talented people out there making great movies and shows, but they are increasingly drowned in a sea of copy-paste mediocrity.

            And I do feel sorry for all those perhaps equally talented but less senior writers, directors, editors and artists who might never get to produce a movie they are truly proud of, because they’ve been captured by the streaming content factory that demands of them only a constant treadmill of dumbed-down slop, cheap and quick and instantly forgettable - and that people will only ever half-watch.

            • undeffeined@lemmy.ml
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              3 days ago

              This is indeed a crying shame. I do not understand the concept of watching a movie while scrolling on my phone but maybe that’s just because I grew up with VHS and normal TV programing.

              Again, thanks for the detailed reply, it was very interesting!

              • AoxoMoxoA@lemmy.world
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                3 days ago

                I found a VHS player at a second hand shop and got into buying and watching VHS before the pandemic and it was actually relaxing. Even with DVD/Blu ray I can’t get as immersed as I was with watching VHS. I would know that at night I was going to watch D.A.R.Y.L and just kick back and not get off the couch. It was a whole thing…power surge fried my player and haven’t found another one yet

                • undeffeined@lemmy.ml
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                  3 days ago

                  Sad to hear about your player, sounds like you had good thing going. There’s something different about the experience, I agree with you.

        • Florencia (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 days ago

          They really should have just built their own Netflix but profits get split amongst the copyright holders. Every single one of their analysts was warning them what would have happened if they couldn’t solve this real world game theory problem.

      • Affidavit@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        The current model has its own issues. The amount of series that are cancelled after the first or second season is ludicrous. Also, and I’m not sure if it’s related to streaming or the constant writer’s strikes, but series have reduced from 16-26 episodes per season from the height of the piracy-era to 6-10 nowadays.

        If the reduction in piracy led to this deterioration in quality, then I can’t imagine it could get any worse if everyone started pirating again.

        Personally, I reckon it will incentivise the numbskulls in charge that no one is going to pay for 48 separate streaming services and they’ll be forced to adapt (likely via packaging/merging streaming services together).