It feels so futuristic

And this is exactly what is pushing people back to piracy. It's easier to get all your movies from the pirate bay than it is to find it legally and pay for it.

Yuup, this is why i started pirating again, which i haven't done in a long while.
- Yup I have access to 3 streaming services. When we look for something it's the same story fail on 1 fail on 2 fail on 3 find it in 5 mins via other means
But seriously don't use the pirate bay. There are way better public trackers out now.
- Go on...
- Forgive my ignorance, but why is tpb not a good place to download from anymore?
- Such as?
Or if you want to stream it, you can check movie-web.app. It's a great service.
- Definitely saving that website. Was previously using lookmovies2.to, but that looks way better.

Honestly I put up with doing that when the prices were better. After damn near 15 years I had to dust off the hat and sail the seas. It forced me to learn how to set up a home server which I've never even entertained the idea of until now.

I'm about to be in the same boat (pun intended). I think I'm going to learn to use Linux and set up a home media server at the same time.
- Call me if you need help ;p
- Kind of a cool hobby, you will have your problems in the begging but as soon as everything is set up stable, it is quite convenient. I personally use openmediavault (Debian based) as my host OS and Docker containers for all services I host. I can highly recommend Jellyfin for your own media streaming service
- I used the guide from this guy when I built mine and it was immensely helpful in getting the storage system up and running. That docker-config file shared in another comment is also pretty handy.
  https://perfectmediaserver.com/
- I have a fledgling Plex server, on windows not Linux, and it has been shockingly easy so far. I would say I'm better than the average person at tech stuff but I'm far from some uber nerd who knows the ins and outs of everything computer related and I'm doing just fine so far
- I've got a docker-compose file that will spin up a full Usenet stack plus Transmission on a VPN and Plex if you want it. Way easier to implement than installing them all as services on Linux.
Yrah, I went land lubber for a few years there too. Now I'm back flying the black flag and teaching friends. I'm starting to learn about plex too.
- I just made a jellyfin server myself but have a ton to learn about it.

What really annoys me is paying for the biggest Netflix package to get 4K content, then you watch a somewhat recent (non-Netflix) movie like The Equalizer (2014) and it's 1080p or less with a terrible bit rate.

That movie is available in 4K HDR. I know because I downloaded it to my Plex server and switched to watching that after 15 minutes of watching macroblocking and pixelation artefacts via the legal method.

Your next step is to stop paying for the shit version. Things only change when you hit their wallet
What annoys me ever more is that despite paying for the 4K tier of the streaming platform, and the 'best tier' on my Internet plan. If I were to watch a not insignificant amount of 4k movies - I would hit my 'data cap' and be unable to use the Internet at all for the rest of the month.
- What are you referring to here?

Don't forget that when you search you also need to wade through AI-generated SEO trash that doesn't actually tell you which service it's on.

I'm so fucking done with the garbage AI articles that give nothing. Do nothing. Just waste time and space to try to eat up and revenue I don't even give because I have ad blocker sup to wazoo. If I had any way to punish them for the damage it's doing to the internet I would in a second.
- I feel exactly the same way. I was searching on google for niche item x to buy. First couple of results were paid ads, then came 10+ dropshipping sites I've never heard of before. I miss the old internet
Section 1
What is streaming? To understand what streaming is, first we have to explain how the Internet works.
The Internet...
The Universe...
Goddamn it just gimme the fucking information already!
I use aggregators like Plex and Google TV to tell me, but even then it's a pain and not always correct

It's almost like they want us to pirate shit.

It's a consequence of only thinking one quarter at a time.
If all the content creators pooled their content into one platform and split the profit based on viewership, they'd be making far more money on the deal. I'd gladly pay $50/month for access to everything in one place.
- Isn't that just YouTube TV?

When pirating becomes easier and more convenient than using the legit services, you're doing something very wrong...

Genuine games being sold with cracks to remove the DRM instead of recompiling it without the DRM because the DRM doesn't work on modern machines and they can't be arsed to recompile and actually fix anything so even they resort to piracy.
It's absolutely ridiculous.
- Yeah I still haven't forgiven EA for making me waste 15 fucking dollars on a fucking sport demo disc that didn't fucking work on my computer, and I had to reinstall it uninstall it so many times that I used up all five of my installs, because apparently you don't get those back when you want install. Fuck you EA
- Excuse me, what?
  Got any links for that? I’d love to read more about it, that seems really stupid but also believable considering our current market.

I pirate it, simple

He's a Pirate theme starts
Just as annoying, only cheaper.
- I type it in Radarr or Sonarr and let my -arr stack work its magic. Depending on how popular a show or movie is, I can watch it in a few minutes on my Kodi TV. Wouldn't really call it annoying.
- If you find it annoying, you're not doing if right
- Nah I got a website that has all the media
- I'm in an invite only site that I'm not going to name and there hasn't been a single instance of something not being uploaded there that I wanted to watch.
- Just use stremio+torrentio+ a debrid service for easier + cheaper

Just Watch is a great app for finding out where something is.

Yes. It is fucking ridiculous that we need an app to find this stuff, but at least there’s an app…

:/ This doesn’t seem to take regional differences into account.
- Guessing by your username, you could ve interested in www.werstreamt.es (the pun with the spanish TLD is kinda great, ngl)
- I don't know about your region, but for the Netherlands at least there is a local site. The other reply said Spain, so https://www.justwatch.com/es ?
  Accurate for NL at least.
movie-web.app is also a stellar source for finding out where movies can be streamed!
This shit is never up to date tho I swear
- I've been using it for many years and never once has it been wrong. Hell they even show you things added that day that are on your streaming services. Like down to individual episode releases.

Yo ho

Kill the dvd and blu ray.

Because nobody wants that stuff. It’s old and uncool. Streaming is it.

Now we own nothing.

I own a self-managed server full of content - does that count?

Just pirate it.

Or buy that DVD
- I have nothing that reads discs and haven't for years.
- I can't find the DVD tray on my chromecast, should I flip it over?
- Disc prices are stupid now as well. Streaming seemed to kill off the year old bargain bin discs, so instead of picking something up for £3 or £5, the 4K discs are all like £25 each. They can suck my balls if they think I'm paying that.
  Bring back DVD prices, and I'd cheerfully own some 4K discs again.

I've been on three, and Prime's decision to have ads on a paid for service has seen me cancel that.
Swapped it for a VPN and went on a smash and grab of all the stuff that hasn't been on streaming for the last few years, and frankly, the others are on borrowed time now as well. Mike Flanagan is almost single-handedly keeping my Netflix subscription alive.
- Freebee on Prime is the absolute worst. They don't even offer the OPTION to pay more to not have ads on Prime videos.
  I'm already paying for Prime, so I fell 100% justified in pirating ANY content they throw ads onto.
Well password sharing used to be a bigger thing
I just pay for a vpn.
- K thats not like a silver bullet, is it? I feel like thats sort of orthogonal even tho in letter you may be able to access all the shit. We need like a "Beeper" app for streaming services or something, I dunno
Password sharing.
- Might as well just pirate then because sharing passwords is not allowed either. It was deemed too consumer-friendly and thus abolished.

Shiver me timberrs

What do you mean? Arrr...
- let's sail the seven seas again me hartey

Yarr!

Just pirate lol

This is by design. It's the intent of copyright law to make getting copyrighted content a miserable deal for the customer and a great deal for the copyright holder, because the thinking goes that this encourages content creation. No technology is gonna change that, only changing the law will.

You can still buy a DVD tho

There are a lot of streaming-only movies and shows. I don't think Glass Onion has an official physical release, for instance.
- Get a DVD burner

I haven't had the need to sail the seas, since BluRays are still being pressed, and the local library has a bunch of them. Free of charge. Also found a use for my old PS3.

Yeah this meme (and most the folks in this thread) acting like you can't just buy the disc still.
(Obviously there is some digital only stuff so I get pirating that but I see tons of obscure stuff coming to disc still)
- It’s still not that easy.
  “Hey this series seems cool, and 3 years ago it got a Blu-Ray release! …aand it’s sold out with the cheapest copy on eBay for double the price”

laughs in plex server with 24TB of content

I'm only at 12 but have 22 more coming soon. Can't wait.
Is anyone aware of any lemmy communities for running a home media server?
- There's three that I sub to: selfhosted, runityourself, and selfhosted. Not sure what's with with the latter two, I subbed to them both to be safe lol.
Just upgraded my nas from 23 to 48tb 😎 so much space for 5.1 audio and 4K 10bit HDR
- My NAS chokes on 4k content so it’s all 1080p for streaming. For 4k I put them on my old gaming PC because it has a GPU that can actually push the content smoothly

Try living outside the USA, lots of times stuff is just plain unavailable and if it is available the only way to know is just manually checking every service since googling just tells you where is streaming in the US.

Stremio has everything tho 😉

Does Justwatch.com have a region for you. I'm in New Zealand and it's invaluable.
- So it didn't used to work but seems like it is now.

I just stopped watching movies. I refuse to pay for 7 different streaming services. I refuse to watch 720p content with terrible bitrate on my Linux system. It helps that most movies and series that came out in the last 15 years are straight up garbage. If I really like and want to watch something I get the bluray, so I can re-watch it in the future.

buy a dvd, get unskippable ads

God and I've heard that Blu-rays can get patches to update the ads.
That's right I forgot about that shit. VHS for the win.
1 buy DVD
2 rip ad free content to home media server
3 (no) profit?

This is why I pirate anime and then buy manga to support the authors. I’m not gonna give streaming services a dime when piracy site I use has better features and services.

Buy those discs before they go away!

I started buying blu rays for the movies I really care to watch more than once. I can rip it to my Plex server and if I decide I don't want it I can go back to the local used movie shop and trade it in for some new discs.
I will pirate movies I already own the physical disks for. It's quicker and easier than finding the disk (and likely having to sit through the ads that are on it).
- It's not piracy if you own the movies ???
That's the neat part. As they're a physical object.... They don't 'go away', their license doesn't expire.
You can just borrow them down at the library and rip them yourself, or buy them at a local discount store.

Yeah honestly I'd rather some VPN provider get my $15 so I can torrent in peace rather than giving it to one of ten different streaming providers so they can pay some executive to dream up new ways to extract value from me for sitcoms from the 90s.

I just torrent or stream without a VPN. Is that unsafe?
- Depends on country. Most places, no danger whatsoever.
- Eh the only thing is copyright holders might complain to your ISP, who might send you a nasty letter. I'm not sure if they actually close accounts over it
- I am not a lawyer, add salt as necessary.
  There are a few instances of people getting sued, but usually your ISP will get a DMCA notice and send it to you and so long as you remove the content they've DMCA'd you're usually fine. I also believe that in Canada there's a $5000 limit to the damages they can recover so it's usually not worth it for them to hire a lawyer, which again, I am not.

You can still buy DVDs can't you? What I miss though is being able to rent movies at a place with a big assortment.

Do they still come with unskippable ads telling me to not download a car?
- Never understood that. First off, I would download a car and secondly the only people that see that ad are the ones who did not pirate the movie/show, so wrong audience.
- Not if you rip them or put them into a software player. You can automate the ripping easily today and you are on the fine side morally speaking and get extras and deleted scenes if you want them.
Yes, you can even get them and blue rays for quite cheap too.
Check out your local library. Mine has a decent size collection. Not necessarily the latest stuff, but it's nice to browse. And of course it's free.

I want an app I can watch shows and be notified when they are available on streaming services I use

Radarr and sonarr
JustWatch is the app. I save interesting shows and movies and get notifications on my phone when they are added to services I use.

I think God for all the illegal streaming sites out there. Because God knows that it's not safe to torrent these days

Not safe? Setting up a VPN isn't that hard.
- It's honestly a single click at this point with many of the GUI clients offered by VPN providers, and there's so much competition out there that VPN service is one of the few things in the world actually getting cheaper.
- Yes but the free ones throttle you
Because God knows that it's not safe to torrent these days
It's safer to use illegal streaming? What's so unsafe about torrenting?
- Uploading is infringement. Downloading is not. Streaming is downloading. Torrenting is both.
- Direct streaming/downloading doesn't give your IP away (just to the server), torrenting does.
Though some streaming sites are torrents in the background.
This is why you use Usenet.

Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free.

Image Transcription: Twitter

Chase Mitchell @ChaseMit

Definitely the future of television I had in mind was me having to google every movie I want to watch to see if it's currently in one of it's one-month windows on any of the seven streaming services I pay for. This is way easier than buying a DVD. I love it.

What a duck, yohoho and a bottle of rum!

Blu-rays and dvds are so cheep on eBay. It sucks the studios are stopping physical copies to try and curb piracy.

Meanwhile I’m living in the real future with Kodi.tv

🏴‍☠️

I went back to reading books. It's nice.

I mean I usually just google it, or, most smart TVs now have this built in feature where you can just search it and it appears on whatever relevant service usually. The problem arises when it becomes region locked, or when you can't afford seven services which are now costing like 15 bucks a month for no ads, or how every service uses a different frontend for their video pipeline and they all work like trash and are laggy garbage. It's still way better than normal TV or buying DVDs, though, the only upside to DVDs was bonus features, otherwise they just take up a bunch of space and it costs like 40 or 50 bucks for a new movie.

Just taking a moment to say there are dozens of places out there hosting these current shows and movies and not giving a single wide about copyright. Piracy isn't even necessary anymore, just dig through some sketchy websites some of them even upload before the torrents come up

Oh yes, it was so much easier to get in a car, drive to the store, check if they have it in stock, deal with the checkout person, drive back home, deal with that annoying wrapper, pop the disk in the drive, watch the 5 different ads at the beginning of the DVD, to then finally watch the movie. Way easier than a Google search. This generation has it so hard.

I don't follow your logic. You were describing the perfect 80s date night (well, the parts excluding coke and depeche mode), but phrased it like it was a bad thing. I would go broke if a blockbuster or family video opened in my area, and I aleady have every movie I could ever need on my NAS.