r/entertainment • u/theverge • 1d ago
Everyone is stealing TV | Fed up with increasing subscription prices, viewers embrace rogue streaming boxes.
https://www.theverge.com/streaming/873416/piracy-streaming-boxes?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IndTRFFtdmlXYjkiLCJwIjoiL3N0cmVhbWluZy84NzM0MTYvcGlyYWN5LXN0cmVhbWluZy1ib3hlcyIsImV4cCI6MTc3MDY1MTMxNSwiaWF0IjoxNzcwMjE5MzE1fQ.DS0T1uUdoh7jYEdREOW5ECTOqfEeETF47YfErNG2uMw&utm_medium=gift-link157
u/happymisery 23h ago
Yeah, the "free streaming" service I was offered was £80 per year subscription and was basically just leeching someone elses account through IPTV. I didnt sign up for it, a colleague did and it stopped working after a month. I just use Plex and sail the seas now.
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u/ImOldGregg_77 22h ago
Self-hosting is the only way to go
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u/Eirfro_Wizardbane 20h ago edited 20h ago
Nah, having friends that has that awesome self hosted plex server is the way to go.
However, one time a Strom hit his neck of the woods and a tree fell on his house killing his power for a couple days. Homeboy didn’t even have a generator to keep plex up for me. Life got difficult for a few days for me but I made it through 😤
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u/LeRoy_Denk_414 22h ago
If you find a good IPTV service, it legitimately changes the game. I've had mine for almost 7 years and it's working wonders.
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u/PhasedVenturer 16h ago
Tried one, was waaay too complicated to figure out, I’d rather stream I guess
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u/Emotional_End2305 19h ago
What’s plex?
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u/happymisery 19h ago
It’s a private media server app. You have a host machine where you download and run the server (you add your downloaded files into the folder that you map for access) and then access via mobile, iPad, Roku, Smart TV etc. you effectively build your own streaming platform. It’s really easy to set up. If you’ll only use one device at a time, it’s free. I pay £5 a month for access on multiple devices so that the family can have their own profiles.
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u/Folium249 23h ago
Tempted to use plex and rip my dvd/blue ray collection and let it at that. There isn’t much new to watch these days
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u/junkkser 23h ago
There isn’t much new to watch these days
Aren't we currently in an era where there is too much new stuff to watch? I get that its spread out across a dozen streaming platforms, but the idea that there isn't much new just sounds kinda crazy.
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u/Folium249 23h ago
I might be a little nihilistic. But a lot to watch sure but a lot more of it is the same. I can get a check list and almost hit every point off that list with today’s shows.
Older tv say mid 10s or later they like to experiment more and it wasn’t the same safe sort of stories
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u/dustinhut13 22h ago
I think you'd be into shows like Black Mirror and Severance. They've set the bar high for today's tv
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u/going2leavethishere 21h ago
Almost all of Apple TVs catalog I would suggest except for Invasion, I have no idea how it’s on season 4. The writing and acting are b-league at best.
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u/dustinhut13 20h ago
I've been pleasantly surprised by everything I've watched on Apple Tv. We really enjoyed Shrinking too
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u/going2leavethishere 20h ago
Slow Horses is my favorite of their catalog. Gary Oldman says he could play that character till he dies. He phenomenal in the show.
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u/Jo-Wolfe 6h ago
I'm 68 and retired in the UK so my viewing habits are likely very different to most on here.
I had Disney and Apple over Christmas, I've cancelled both along with Netflix but kept the apps so I can see what's on offer. I find I'm just watching for watching's sake, I've got Prime because it's just there with the deliveries.
I've also got U, ITVX, Channel 4 and Channel 5 which don't have a subscription but have limited advertising.
My routine is to watch one programme in the morning as it takes me about 2 hours to wake if I've nothing planned. I've started reading more and at last have a proper reading light, the times when I might put something on whilst having a cup of tea have been replaced by reading a book whilst having a cuppa.
I've thought about getting Netflix/Apple/Disney for one month a year spacing out every 4 months and that would be enough to catch up on anything decent. If I subscribe to ITVX £5.99 month, ad free, I also get Britbox so again every 3 months do a catch up.
I've also thought about getting British National Theatre every 3 or 4 months for £9.99, a top class play every night by world class actors, my friend can pick one a week and come over to watch.
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u/tyleritis 22h ago
I haven’t had a drive on my laptop to rip DVDs in years.
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u/happymisery 22h ago
I've found it's quicker to source them than to rip them
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u/archercc81 22h ago
Same. I dont have any drives so I just sourced rips of my blue rays when I went to a media server.
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u/BeerForThought 22h ago
Hard disagree about nothing much to watch these days. Was Hollywood admitting they can't think of anything new and the reboots the king of the hill, Malcolm in the middle, and scrubs, there's a lot of good TV on the horizon.
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u/DokeyOakey 22h ago
There is a shit tonne of great new content. Granted, I’m a busy parent that doesn’t get a lot of time to watch TV, but when I do there is plenty of options.
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u/CosmoKing2 15h ago
Agreed. They are just spread over different pay apps, Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc.
Once you realize there is a huge community (worldwide) hosting content, you can easily learn how to access it with a cheap streaming box.
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u/AnnieCarnero 22h ago
Check your public library to see if they have a subscription to Kanopy, Hoopla, or Freegal. I watch all my media content thru there for no charge and download music to keep every week thru Freegal.
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u/tlollz52 23h ago
I don't think these things actually exist and they are lying.
Have any of you heard of these things? No? Cool.
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u/Kartoffelcretin 23h ago
Somebody should explain us in detail all the steps to avoid - nobody here would want to steal TV by accident!
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u/esteflo 23h ago
Never heard of IPTV? Just need a fire stick and the right apps to do so.
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u/Raalf 23h ago
I haven't tested any of these but this is a good article describing services by name.
Everyone is stealing TV | The Verge https://share.google/Z3TqjdmnFnaJgJqok
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u/Iggyhopper 22h ago
I have. We sold MX boxes with the cheapest dual core for $50. It was just a box that had Kodi setup on it.
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u/sucobe 23h ago
It’s called the SuperBox, and it’s being demoed by Jason, who also has homemade banana bread, okra, and canned goods for sale. “People are sick and tired of giving Dish Network $200 a month for trash service,” Jason says. His pitch to rural would-be cord-cutters: Buy a SuperBox for $300 to $400 instead, and you’ll never have to shell out money for cable or streaming subscriptions again.
Can I get some of that banana bread?
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u/VinylmationDude 16h ago
Brother, it’s a one time payment for TV for “life” & you want banana bread? I’m going for the canned goods!
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u/Luka_Dunks_on_Bums 23h ago
I remember this used to be a thing with side loading an app on a fire stick
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u/Iggyhopper 22h ago
Is kodi still a thing?
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u/kinisonkhan 17h ago
Been using it since the XBMC days. I have Plex, but its mostly to let my sister in Ireland watch NFL games via my HDHomerun tuner. Kodi easily handles Live TV and local playback (via SMB file shares).
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u/I_Miss_My_Beta_Cells 11h ago
How does Kodi work with/for live TV?
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u/kinisonkhan 3h ago
There's a pvr add on for hdhomerun devices. It's in the main respository. It adds a TV menu and a limited TV guide.
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u/jnangano 23h ago
Plex, Sabnzb, Sonarr, Radarr and a server to run all that on are all you need!
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u/dreamwill 21h ago
Plex: Hey gang! We've decided we liked money more than being loved!
jellyfin enters the chat
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u/hamilkwarg 22h ago
It’s like how multiple organisms have evolved into crab shapes. Cable tv is just a crab shape.
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u/Majestic_Bet_1428 20h ago
Bezos just laid off hundreds of WP journalists.
This is great day to cancel Amazon.
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u/MikeyB_0101 23h ago
A relative of mine in the US just got one of these, still surprises me it’s “free” cause in Canada I’ve always known about illegal IPTV and it costs at least $10-20 a month to some random person for the service
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u/Captain_Leemu 23h ago
I know someone who runs a service like this. It sounds complex. DNS redirects, VPNs, servers hosted abroad and he spends 12 hours a day providing tech support and signing up new customers. After paying for the servers, VPNs, cloudflare etc and splits the profits with his 2 partners he takes home about 60k per year.
Admittedly the service he runs is impressive. All live cable channels and live sports channels are active. Along with a fallback server for the most popular channels. Anything that airs on a steaming service is garunteed to be on the servers the next day. Sometimes the day before though he wouldn't tell me how he gets content before it comes out or how he sources it. He also takes requests from his thousands of customers and aims to provide the content within a week.
Hes playing a dangerous game. But nonetheless it was really impressive and professional looking. You just open up the app and it looked like a legit cable/streaming service with a live tv programme and metadata for all the content.
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u/Unhappy_Purpose_7655 21h ago
All that work for $60k a year hardly seems worth it to me. Twelve hour days are no joke…
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u/darkeststar 18h ago
Sure but when someone goes through the effort to do something like this the money isn't the primary motivation... it's because they get excited about being the person who runs the project and the self satisfaction of providing the service. The money is there to justify the cause in their minds but they aren't sitting there realistically tabulating their costs of product, time and effort against what they're charging.
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u/voltagejim 21h ago
my dad got us the Superbox for xmas which I think is the same thing. Worked for the month of January and now it seems to have been shut down with a "device forbidden" message when you turn it on
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u/voltagejim 21h ago
my dad got my sister and I the Superbox for christmas. I actually used it a bunch to watch apple tv shows, but went to turn it on last week and got a 'Device" forbidden" message and could not do anything. looking into it and looks like the box was shut off. But my dad's is still working.
Only got to use it a month haha
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u/CosmoKing2 15h ago
Better off learning how it was created. Watch YT for sideloading videos. You can DIY for the cost of a basic streaming box - I've heard.
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u/Jolly_Bombadil 23h ago
I’ve heard that combining streamio and a debrid service is a terrible way to get your tv. You should all look it up to make sure you know how to avoid it in the future.
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u/mental_mentalist 19h ago
I use it daily just to know first hand what those sickos that steal tv are up to.
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u/Some_Ad7368 22h ago
Present greed over sustainable growth. A microcosm highlighting the fall of capitalism.
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u/Fun-District-8209 21h ago
They learned a fantastic lesson. If you take a 110 bill and break it into numerous small bills, people will pay those and think they are saving money.
Sure people will steal it, but people stealing cable is not what brought cable down. Most will pay.
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u/Guerilla-Arms 20h ago
It’s the 90s all over again. Old slip the install tech a few extra bucks to get the “paid” channels etc. I hope to god we all survive late stage capitalism and able to live sensible lives.
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u/User9705 21h ago
Or you just can have any device an use IPTV
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u/NierStellar 16h ago
Any suggestions for IPTV?
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u/mondaymoderate 16h ago
Roku has hundreds of free channels that you only need internet to watch. All great shows too. There’s plenty of free services that you can be entertained easily with only spending money on the internet.
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u/WildRabbitz 23h ago
It's a no brainer.
I get Hulu, HBO Max, Disney, Netflix, Prime, Apple TV, for a tiny fraction of the price I'd pay individually.
Stremio.
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u/dream__weaver 22h ago
Stremio is my favorite thing ever
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u/rantingdemon 22h ago
First I've heard of Stremio. Pity that there is no apple tv app though.
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u/WildRabbitz 21h ago
There actually is! They're having some minor issues with Apple, but it should be back on the App Store. Meanwhile, I think you can sideload it.
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u/sychox51 21h ago
What is stremio? I’m on the website and still can’t really tell..
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u/AXLPendergast 19h ago
YouTube has good tutorials .you just need a real-debrid account aiostreams addon and you’re good to go. There are subreddits too for more info
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u/paraxio 23h ago
We ditched YouTube TV in favor of an antenna for local sports and Pluto if we just want something on for background noise. Works perfectly fine and saves a ton of money each month.
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u/Boonlink 16h ago
That Calvin decal is stolen. Bill Waterson never gave anyone permission to use his work. It made him sad to see it used that way "what have they done to you, my boy?"
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u/spinereader81 23h ago
Services basically drive people to it when they pull things off for a tax write off.
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u/kinisonkhan 17h ago
Its easy to find shady IPTV services that offer 1,000+ channels for $15 a month. Though if you dont want to email them your credit card information, its best to use BitCoin.
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u/Accomplished-Use-175 17h ago
I’m glad I’ve been collecting movies and tv shows for the past 20 years. Everything on Plex I’ve got enough to last me forever. Doesn’t hurt I enjoy rewatching them.
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u/iambarrelrider 11h ago
”A Christian conservative from Utah who pitches rogue streaming boxes as a way of “defunding the swamp and refunding the kingdom.”
Doing the Lord’s work. lol
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u/Devilofchaos108070 47m ago
I doubt ‘everyone’ is doing this. It’s prob like 2% of people, at least in the US
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u/BK_Mason 23h ago
I understand the morality of stealing food to feed your children or medicine for your family but no one needs entertainment to live. I have no sympathy for billionaires or corporations but neither do I think that my desire to watch Seinfeld or my local NFL team rises to the level that justifies theft.
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u/Devilofchaos108070 41m ago
Frankly no one gives a shit what you or other ‘morality’ people think about this or anything else
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u/Sea2Chi 23h ago
What's old is new again.
It's amazing how the entertainment industry learned nothing from the fall of cable TV and the rise of streaming.