Rank your streaming services

[cam_calderon]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

A Statement of Claim is not like the notices your ISP sends you. It means the content owner got your info from the ISP and they will take you to court if you don't pay up. Ignoring it will mean a judgement against you.

I believe Troutman when he says they get calls about them regularly. They're common enough that I wouldn't pirate without precautions, or at all if I wasn't technically savvy.

As for the ethics of pirating, I actually enjoy supporting creators, especially small, independent ones. I pirate stuff I can't buy legally or have bought legally that I want to enjoy in a different format, or all in one place (Plex).

The steaming companies suck, but not paying them means they don't pay the actual content creators. The SAG and WGA strikes show you they already do that enough. So pirate if you need to, but don't bitch that there isn't much out there to watch.

Thanks for clarifying, I'll admit I didn't know exactly what a statement of claim was. That said, if troutman, who I presume is a legal professional, only gets a couple of calls per month regarding them I can't imagine that will put many would-be pirates off.

I don't even bother with a VPN. I've paid for, on average, probably two streaming services per month for the last eight or so years. I rent a couple of films per year on youtube, I still go to the cinema occasionally.

If a big studio wants to come for me through the courts, I guess it wouldn't be undeserved, but I think I'm ok ethically.

[MoneyGuy]

1. Prime
2. Netflix
3. Disney+

To the person who said ~$10 is too much, it’s reasonable. I’m happy to pay those bills. (We should dump cable.)

[CliffFletcher]

15 years ago, it cost $10 dollars to rent a couple movies from Blockbuster on a Friday night. It cost $35 for a boxed set of one season of a TV show. It’s incredible how devalued video entertainment content has become in the eyes of consumers.

[Blaster86]

Prime (MGM Paramount+)


End of list.


Dumped Netflix two years ago. Just dumped Crave this year. Never bothered with Disney.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

15 years ago, it cost $10 dollars to rent a couple movies from Blockbuster on a Friday night. It cost $35 for a boxed set of one season of a TV show. It’s incredible how devalued video entertainment content has become in the eyes of consumers.

Except cable was $30. And internet was another $30. Now both are double that.

And there are six streaming services at another $10-25 each.

Sure we get more content but it costs way, way more now. Even people who had fancy cable packages paid way less in total 15 years ago.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

1. Prime
2. Netflix
3. Disney+

To the person who said ~$10 is too much, it’s reasonable. I’m happy to pay those bills. (We should dump cable.)

If you're talking about me (as I'm the only one who mentioned cost) then no I wasn't speaking to "$10 a month is too much", that's oversimplifying what I said.

I was speaking to the saturation of too many streaming services in the game with a small smattering of good shows and movies each. But if you paid for each one just to occasionally watch something actually good you'd be paying $50-70/mth or $600-$840 a year.

They prey on the average consumer looking at things in monthly terms instead of annual, hook line and sinker. "It's only $10/mth, for this one and this one and this one and this one, $10/mth is nothing!!!!".

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by cam_calderon

How about media companies not extort and gauge their customers? It's a two-way street.

That's when they're not busy exploiting their labour.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Except cable was $30. And internet was another $30. Now both are double that.

And there are six streaming services at another $10-25 each.

Sure we get more content but it costs way, way more now. Even people who had fancy cable packages paid way less in total 15 years ago.

It really doesn’t. People don’t think of how much renting multiple movies a week at $4 a pop added up to. And forget how common buying DVDs and boxed sets at $20-$40 each was. Hollywood relied on those sales to make many movies profitable. I worked out what I spent on video entertainment 15 years ago:

Mid-tier cable package (no movie channels): $60/month
Internet: $30/month
3 movie/TV season rentals a week: $12/week or $50/month (not including late fees)
Buying 1 DVD or 1 season of a TV show every month or two: $20/month

Total: $160 in 2007 dollars, or $225 in today’s dollars.

Our expenses today:

Cable: 0
Internet: $90
Netflix+Crave+Disney+Apple: $60
Sportsnet or DAZN (seasonal): $30

Total: $180

And that’s with the largest item, internet, providing far more utility than it did 15 years ago, with a vastly larger catalogue of content to choose from, and far more convenient ways to access that content.

[taxbuster]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

A Statement of Claim is not like the notices your ISP sends you. It means the content owner got your info from the ISP and they will take you to court if you don't pay up. Ignoring it will mean a judgement against you.

I believe Troutman when he says they get calls about them regularly. They're common enough that I wouldn't pirate without precautions, or at all if I wasn't technically savvy.

As for the ethics of pirating, I actually enjoy supporting creators, especially small, independent ones. I pirate stuff I can't buy legally or have bought legally that I want to enjoy in a different format, or all in one place (Plex).

The steaming companies suck, but not paying them means they don't pay the actual content creators. The SAG and WGA strikes show you they already do that enough. So pirate if you need to, but don't bitch that there isn't much out there to watch.

Torrenting - which involves downloading shows and - typically - "reseeding" them - which is re-uploading and thereby sharing them, can be reasonably easily traced back to you unless you use a GOOD VPN. Not located in one of the 5 eyes countries, preferably. Or one that doesn't actually maintain logs (although most do, but advertise that they do not). Proton and Mullvad are good in that respect.

It's relatively easy for a movie studio or their legal proxy (patent trolls) to get a Norwich Order to force an ISP to provide contact info for a given Canadian IP address. Voltage is currently trying to get a "reverse class action" against pirates in Canada. So far unsuccessfully. Mostly.

Streaming a movie from a site though is different and somewhat legally arguable as it is little different from accessing material elsewhere on the Web and typically does NOT involve sharing or redistribution. As far as I know to date, there have not been successful cases against Canadians for simple streaming from other sites.

But...if you get a Statement of Claim...the troll has likely already obtained a Norwich Order against you and knows exactly who you are. And they should NOT be ignored.

https://torrentfreak.com/filmmakers-...canada-220505/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...rder-1.5100700

[taxbuster]

Now...back to streaming sites:

We use a random assortment of:
Netflix (meh)
Amazon Prime (with Britbox, and occasionally Acorn or Masterpiece)
MHz Choice (European and foreign-language....mostly excellent and non-Hollywood)
Apple TV (meh)
Occasionally pirated streaming for things not available in Canada

Mario (Flames) although I currently have a Bell Satellite sub on which I only watch...hockey. Kind of a waste of money.

Music: Quobuz - the best high-res music available

Note: Amazon is essentially free for me as I use Prime for business purchases and deliveries regularly.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Crave’s inability to broadcast in 5.1 is infuriating. It’s been an issue for a few years in firestick. Used to work, then it didn’t, then it worked again. Now I’m noticing multiple programs say 5.1 but it’s not. Sopranos says it’s in 5.1 but I only get stereo audio despite my receiver thinking it’s getting a 5.1 signal.

I don’t know how many programs it affects but new movies are true 5.1 but a bunch of legacy content seems to have the issue.

How is your streaming service like 5 years old and broadcasting in 5.1 is still beyond your technical abilities? Jesus Christ bell sucks.

[jayswin]

Crave hbo is the worst streaming service I've ever experienced from a technical issues standpoint.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Sopranos says it’s in 5.1 but I only get stereo audio despite my receiver thinking it’s getting a 5.1 signal.

Were these early season episodes? I've read that the first three seasons of the Sopranos only have a stereo mix, so even if your receiver shows DD 5.1 only the L/R channels have audio.

[ajr4013]

Weirdly if I cast it from the IPhone app I get Dolby 5.1 but I still don’t think it’s fixed on the Roku app. Not to mention logging me out randomly. Awful all around.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by accord1999

Were these early season episodes? I've read that the first three seasons of the Sopranos only have a stereo mix, so even if your receiver shows DD 5.1 only the L/R channels have audio.

Oh that could be it. I was watching from the start for like the 9th time.

I’ll check back in when I make it to S3.