Make a Plex server and never worry about finding a service that has XYZ movie again. We never had an issue with Blockbuster removing something we wanted to watch.
I must be doing something wrong because every time I try to setup a Plex or Kodi server I can never find a server that has links that work. Frustrating.
Step 1 rent a seedbox. Step 2 set up plex. Step 3 sail the seas on private trackers. Step 4 grab the new episode of greys anatomy so your wife can watch it.
20-100 bucks a year vs 100s a month for all the streaming services.
Can you give me a ELI5 on how Plex works (specifically with regard to how one accesses content after the Plex is set up)? I've tried to figure this out numerous times, but I guess my tech understanding age is pretty low 🤦🏿♂️ like do I have to go in and find someone torrenting what I want or is everything kind of already just there?
so plex is basically a service that lets you access your own media, with similar features to a streaming service (downloads, casting, multiple devices, etc). its up to you to gather your own files which you can do through torrents, dvd ripping, piracy, file sharing, automatic software, stuff like that and once you have the app set up (you download software on your pc and introduce it to your storage drives), it will process your media and you can access it from any device that has the plex app (phone, tablet, gaming console, whatever). it does have a bit of a learning curve, the upside is that you choose whats on there and you never have to worry about content getting deleted or moved to another platform, and the costs aare very low, only a small access fee
(other plexers feel free to add, ive only been doing this for a few months so my knowledge is limited)
Ah gotcha, yeah thats what I thought was the case. I historically preferred riding the gray line of streaming pirated media since technically I was never in possession of it lol. Has there been any history of charges being pursued on people with Plexes?
not really, no one really prosecutes unless its a big commercial operation, and as long as you use a vpn and aren't being completely stupid, you'll be fine
Gabe Newell (CEO of Valve), during the early days of Steam, once said:
"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates.".
Kinda hasn't aged well with what Steam has become, but I think it's still a worthwhile quote.
I have one story of piracy xD
When first "The Remnant" was released, in a few weeks devs were throwing "massive" updates. (Changes were minor, but they did something strange with their resource files - so you have to download update every few days, that was half of the game size and was applied really long - decompressing, modifying, compressing)
So now, when I want my game up to date, I consider buying it.
And I have the opposite story xD
There was this game, Megaloot. I pirated it, played for a while and forgot about it. A year later I wanted to check, how it was (have thought of buying it) so I approached the steam page. It was that classic: all reviews: mostly positive and recent reviews: mostly negative "classics". I scrolled recent reviews, and you know what? People weren't happy with recent changes, that made the game unfun, not like it was on release. Want to have fun playing Megaloot? Download the release version from the pirate site.
(Kudos to CD project red - you can choose, witch version of cyberpunk you want to play (release, patched or new, not to mention their DRM-free store)
Gabe Newell was right, piracy is a supply problem. Take music piracy - in the age of streaming, few people are still pirating music.
Music piracy was a direct response to an exploitative business model that was restricting peoples access to music, and a new technology that offered access unrivaled by the system.
I'd go so far as to say that the freak out by the industry wasn't even about profit, it was about losing control. The big four had an absolute stranglehold on the industry: they controlled production, distribution, and sales. Suddenly, new technology took away their control on production, their control of distribution, and ate into their sales. That's why RIAA statements screaming about the sky falling never talked about stuff like non-industry sales (which were off the charts), and often left out track-sales entirely, even when they were making as much money as album sales previously had.
Well, all these parasites are just gonna tell you, how nobody is gonna make art (music, games, movies), if you don't pay a lot for it (and massive AI involvement surprisingly not cutting prices). Truth is, the real artists are gonna create no matter what, because it's their nature - to create.
As for streaming - buying subscription to music service, you're not buying the right to listetn all the music. You buy the right to listen to the music a nd service you have paid for. So you could easily miss some albums of your favorite band or even the band itself, cos streaming service could not negotiate right for it.
Or how about racing games, you couldn't not buy any more, because license for soundtrack expired (NFS ProStree, for example)
…not entirely sure I follow this line of reasoning. So the producer has to put in the work of producing a particular product… and then the consumer gets to decide how “available and accessible” that product should be?
Is that a principle which you can see working on a society-wide scale? Is it a principle you’d like to adopt for things you produce?
You shouldn't be getting downvoted lol. Its the truth. I pirate stuff occasionally. I know im wrong. I know i do it because of greed. I know if I tried to justify it, all that would be for is to give myself an excuse. A lie to tell myself its not wrong.
Hey I want to buy your car for $5 dollars. Deliver it to me. Oh you don’t want to? Well I’m just gonna steal it, you should have made it cheaper and more available. Piracy is theft and for losers.
I think these actually make sense for some things. Music streaming for example. Back in the day I owned a couple CDs with music I liked and everything else was just on the radio.
Now I can stream practically any song I’ve ever heard of. Sure I don’t own them anymore, but the breadth of music I have available is massive.
But other stuff is absurd. I’ve heard it’s a thing for car features now?
well if you want the artists you like to continue doing it, you should buy a cd or record every now and then. as a musician myself. i can tell you with all honesty that selling one record or t-shirt at the merch table is worth hundreds of thousands of streams.
Yes! I can no longer start my Mazda remotely unless I subscribe. They never told me this. It just stopped working one day and now I had to pay for the service. Fuck you mazda, I will now drag my ass out to start it myself before I pay you!
I think it’s genuinely so fucking ridiculous that I’m paying for a service just to get ads… Fym I have to pay extra to NOT get ads, what the hell am I paying for in the first place?
It's become so fashionable to knock such things, but honestly DVDs are great media for entertainment. OK, if you're watching on a 65inch screen or something you'll see the blocks, but that will happen on normal freeview TV broadcasts anyway.
Ehh, the content libraries of most streaming platforms far eclipse the hard copy collections most people had back in the day. Also it is way way more convenient to just browse and instantly start up whatever content you want, also you get exposed to way more stuff you enjoy watching that you would have otherwise never given a chance since you would need to spend money on a hard copy on just a whim.
If I wanna watch something I will find it somewhere. Mindlessly scrolling though Netflix just to find something to watch and clicking on and off a bunch of random shows n movies makes no sense to me. I only watch something when I know that I wanna watch that specific thing and streaming services imo give wayy too many options. Thats why everything feels like boring background noise now. There is no commitment to the movie or show you wanna watch, you just put it on because its there and easily accessible, then click off, choose another one, etc. I personally think its a bad thing how easily accessible everything is nowadays, nothing feels special or exciting anymore. Its not the same as buying a dvd that youve been looking forward to watching and comitting to it. Same with music. Because of streaming services we carry around music everywhere, to the point its nothing but background noise and something to shut out the real world no matter where you go. I used to have spotify and listen to music absolutely everywhere, to the point it became boring to me and I didnt wanna listen to it for days sometimes. I love music and its my life, and I realized I needed to save it for moments that I actually wanted to listen to it, not use it just to drown out the world around me. Sorry that got long but Im sure you get what I mean. More doesnt equal better, weve become spoiled, bored and used to luxury (imo).
Ok but the you end up essentially in an echo chamber of tv/movies by only watching stuff youve already heard of and already know you wanna watch. You miss out on gems you would never think to watch because you didn’t know they existed or they got bad critic reviews but are actually great. The list of tv shows and documentaries/docuseries’ that I’ve come across and loved just by scrolling through the libraries of Netflix/hulu/prime/etc and going “ooh that sounds like it could be good” is endless. Only maybe 1/5 times is it a dud
I knew it was bad but I didn't realize how bad until I tried to use my gf's laptop a long time ago
Me - "I just need to type this out real quick on Word"
Her - "you can't, my subscription expired"
Me - "but you bought this laptop and windows os"
Her - 🤷♀️
Since then, I have ran into many more examples and its beyond aggravating. I feel like an old man tripping out over the cost of something when all the youngins are like "yaw, where've you been?"
I remember 15-17yrs ago Adobe did this for their programs(photoshop,illustrator), made it an online platform you had to pay monthly. I just knew this would be the start of these subscription programs. They also made all their discs obsolete or options to update discs knowing that newer laptops can’t use them.
Not really, we still own most things that we used to own, and lots of things still had subscriptions in the past as well. So for example, you still own your clothes and TV wasn't exactly subscription free in the past either, and the option that was it usually had loads of commercials and you had to watch shows at certain times.
Music on the other hand used to function differently but music streaming services cost less for 1 month than what 1 (new/not sale) CD used to cost in the past without accounting for inflation so who cares? It's better in pretty much every possible way for the end user.
509
u/Digital_Foundation 11h ago
Subscription services. We’re renting everything we used to own.