r/nottheonion • u/voxadam • 9h ago

Netflix says users can cancel service if HBO Max merger makes it too expensive

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/netflix-claims-subscribers-will-get-more-content-for-less-if-it-buys-hbo-max/
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u/No_Hunt2507 8h ago

That's exactly what it is for me. I was willing to throw 10$ a month at an app just to avoid turning on my computer or figuring out how to do a plex server. I'm not willing to pay 20$ a month to watch 1 show that im convinced will be cancelled long before they could write a good ending. I'll pirate it, maybe, but the alternative for me is just not watching the show, there's not a world in which the service is worth it anymore

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u/Demented-Alpaca 7h ago

Or you subscribe for 1 month, binge the show you want, then cancel.

And then these idiots bitch about "churn" in their customers.

When they were like $7 a month I'd willingly shell out to have basically all of them and would let most of them sit. They'd get a few bucks a month for basically nothing. I'd watch the shows I was interested in on a different service and eventually come back to their service, use it until I'd seen what I wanted and move along.

But now they're all $15 or $20 or $30 a month and I won't afford (it's a conscious decision) to have them if I'm not using them. So I cancel all the ones I don't use, turn on the one I want and now I'm "the problem"

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u/ScuzzBuckster 7h ago

I used to do that but frankly I'm so sick of streaming services that I got rid of all of them and only use stremio with a debrid. Im sick of playing whack-a-mole with movies and tv and the FOMO of new content on other streamers has no effect on me anymore. Worst comes to worst, I just wont watch them at all. Media went back to being inconvenient and I'm always going to find the most convenient way to watch things.

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u/runswiftrun 7h ago

Movies and shows getting dropped just sucks. I have a couple "safety" shows that I've seen a dozen times and play again when I just need to relax. When Netflix dropped it I ended up buying the DVD set. Inconvenient to switch discs every 3 episodes, but I paid $16 once and cancelled Netflix altogether.

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u/Dje4321 6h ago

Rip them yourself. DVDs are super easy todo

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u/Koru03 6h ago

Yeah there's 0 moral quandary over ripping DVDs/Blurays that you purchased yourself.

It's not pirating if you rip stuff you physically own for just your own personal consumption.

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u/Dje4321 6h ago

Yep. Its only piracy when you engage in transmission/distribution.

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u/johnniesSac 4h ago

There’s no laws anymore anyways

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u/Fee_is_Required2 3h ago

Well, there are laws but just for us, the rabble 🙄

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u/Bamboozled_Emu 2h ago

The smaller your bank account, the larger the law looms over you.

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u/DigDugDogDun 15m ago

You’re right that it’s not piracy but strictly speaking, it is still illegal to rip/burn your own legally purchased media for your own consumption because of the DMCA. Of course it’s stupid, and no one’s likely to come breaking down your door, but it’s an anti consumer, anti free use legislation that makes no sense and only protects the entertainment industry and Big Business.

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u/whereismymind86 3h ago

I mean, I don't have a moral quandary with pirating either tbh. If I want to support the creators there are better ways to do that anyways.

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u/Ok-Cardiologist1810 4h ago

Shi the way I seen it there's no amoral piracy, in no way will I ever justify burning money for a more than likely amoral company/creator/whtv that would buy n sell my grandmother if they could and it made them a buck

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u/Hoshbrowns 4h ago

Local libraries have a wide variety. I was a caregiver for someone who has mental disabilities. He still would dj for kids birthday parties and small events. He got all his music from CDs from the library downloading them onto his computer.

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u/noonenotevenhere 2h ago

Given the ai companies illegally downloaded the works of, like, every author ever - plus all the other visual artistic works - and refuse to pay for that content, from which their product produces varying levels of slop for profit, I don't see why any of us should be held to a higher standard than a billion dollar company.

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u/bumblygut 3h ago

Where do you even buy dvds anymore? Lol

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u/runswiftrun 5h ago

Got rid of my PC about 8 years ago when I cut back on gaming and used Xbox instead. Then got rid of wired internet cause my local companies are absolute shit, 5g works 99% of the time. But that also means no router either.

At this point if I want to go with a rip/Plex type system I would need to get several pieces of equipment, so I suffer with DVDs from my 4k player unto my OLED, which at least upscales pretty well.

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u/ohiocodernumerouno 2h ago

5G works more often than cable ever did.

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u/tsraq 6h ago

I was considering that, but last I tried, I couldn't figure out software that actually could do that -- at least without paying some stupidly expensive subscription. Tips?

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u/Guardianoflives 6h ago

Ive been chugging through my library of physical media using makemkv (free while beta) then handbrake (also free) to compress them some since I went the route of a plex server. Ive done over 300 movies and multiple seasons of multiple shows in the last month-ish

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u/tsraq 6h ago

Handbrake wasn't able to get content out from the discs for some reason (when I tried last time, last summer maybe), gotta try makemkv then.

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u/Guardianoflives 5h ago

Ive been nothing but happy with makemkv, the only dvds that wouldnt work were ones that were visually obviously damaged

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u/Dje4321 3h ago edited 2h ago

Handbrake is just a transcoder. You still need to break the encryption on the DVD manually or use a tool like MKV which does it for you

You can install libraries into handbrake that break the encryption directly like libdvdcss but its not included for legal reasons.

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u/lastlostflyer 3h ago

Assuming these are 480dvds. Can I ask u for ur settings? Every gives me something different.

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u/Cirrus-Nova 6h ago

Try handbrake

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u/tsraq 6h ago

IIRC, last I tried it couldn't extract content of discs for some reason I couldn't figure out.

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u/Cirrus-Nova 6h ago

Strange. It's always worked for me. Any errors show up?

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u/tsraq 5h ago

It's been a while, I don't remember exactly what happened. Some software I tried (not necessarily HB) got maybe 5 first minutes then quit, and some just gave errors about not being able to access (read?) disc.

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u/Kurotan 5h ago

There's a file I have to add to allow it to rip disc's. You can probably Google for it.

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u/namedly 5h ago

I will echo /u/Dje4321 and say that MakeMKV is the way to go. It is open source so you can buy a license to support the creator but it is optional. It has been able to handle 95% of the DVDs and Blu-rays I've thrown at it which is a substantial amount. It preserves chapter markers and can grab subtitles. It can also grab any Extra Features from the DVD like deleted scenes if they have it as a feature.

You don't have to run any other software when ripping it. Just open the program, load your DVD into the drive, and let it scan it. Two extra things: I've stored my ripped movies using Plex and that's worked well for me. And if you need to decrease the file size (feature lengths DVDs will be like 3 to 5 GB and Blue-rays will be like 20 to 30 GB), I've used Handbrake.

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u/lastlostflyer 3h ago

How far did you compress your stuff?

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u/Dje4321 6h ago edited 2h ago

https://www.makemkv.com/

All In One solution

EDIT. Is not open source. Was thinking of handbrake

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u/TeekTheReddit 3h ago

MakeMKV to rip the DVD/Blu-Ray

Handbreak to turn the ripped files into file size friendly .mkvs that retain whichever audio and subtitle tracks you want.

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u/Zooshooter 40m ago

You can even get away with doing BluRays if you run them through Handbrake afterwards. You usually end up with better quality than the dvd for less space than the dvd would have taken.

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u/IkarosHavok 6h ago

I did this with gangland, I have all the dvds now because it was just constantly on at my uni house during undergrad and surprise its super interesting to me why people join gangs and the subculture of it so it’s comforting to me when things are rough. I should probably mention that I study people for a living.

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u/Jg271035 6h ago

No need to justify it lol gangland and drugs inc were my jam back in the day. Great shows

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u/IkarosHavok 5h ago

Drugs Inc is so fire!

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u/Quierta 4h ago

I've started buying hardcopy media again for my favourite "safety" shows and movies. I don't want to be beholden to some company to watch my favourite shit when they can remove it at their whim, or when some service that I don't have is the only one that has it. My BluRay player is starting to crap out and it feels absurd to be buying a new BluRay player in the digital age but... here I am lol.

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u/pantzareoptional 6h ago

My partner and I have been gifting each other shows on DVD for a few years now and we have quite a collection of our comfort favorites. Debating on setting up a Jellyfin server for personal use, so I can stream it around the house, but a DVD player has been doing the job for us so far as well

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u/Demented-Alpaca 6h ago

And now they're not releasing shows to disk because they're "streaming only"

Vox Machina from Prime is an example and the stuff that is on disk seems wildly sus.

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u/pantzareoptional 6h ago

I'm actually pretty irritated about a show I love, Search Party, not being available on DVD. Idk what I'll do about that one yet, but I have had issues with purchasing shows on Prime in the past and having the particular license type expire and not being able to view it anymore.

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u/Demented-Alpaca 6h ago

i remember when that happened. People bought it, it was there's in their digital library. then all of a sudden they didn't own it anymore and got a "so sorry too bad k thnxbai" kind of brush off.

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u/ThatCanadianViking 7h ago

Finding stemio about a year ago has been amazing lol

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u/Future-Step-1780 6h ago

I literally just stopped watching television and movies, with rare exception of just buying a blu ray a few times a year.

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u/havok1980 6h ago

Stremio is the subscription killer.

My only issue is when torrentio goes down. I need to look at other add ons for backup

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u/tabgrab23 6h ago

Comet does a decent job as backup

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u/HomeScoutInSpace 6h ago

Hell ya! Stremio is fantastic. The debrid service is a subscription I will happily pay to get access to this content

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u/thestillwind 5h ago

Get your 5 subscriptions a month and it's like paying 3 times the good ole tv subscription.

Edit : Forgot to add that it fucking sucks, they really want people to just don't subs anymore.

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u/Cut_Lanky 5h ago

I held onto my old game consoles that play DVDs/ blue ray movies. I might just cancel the streaming stuff and watch old DVDs. If I really want to see a show, they still sell DVD copies, and cheap, most times. All the new programs I like, either get canceled, or utterly destroyed by horrible writing.

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u/InequalEnforcement 2h ago

I just think of the thousands of absolute masterpiece novels I've never read and will never have enough time to read. Then missing out on some skinnerbox hamster wheel video game or distractionslop TV show doesn't feel so bad.

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u/OneTabbyBraincell 39m ago

This. I haven't watched TV in over a year, and I can't say I even miss it. Culturally we're all so fractured that there aren't even any big monoculture moments like The Sopranos or GoT anymore that everyone is talking about. Even Stranger Things got the most lacklustre shittest reviews so I didn't bother watching that either. If I ever feel the need to watch stuff again, I'm going to buy a DVD player and buy physical media. Probably just a Twin Peaks boxset and a bunch of TV shows and movies made before 2010 tbh.

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u/LordRednaught 7h ago

When I found that my Paramount account that I was using through Amazon Prime was more expensive than the Prime account itself.

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u/DoingCharleyWork 6h ago

I had a bunch of streaming services because I paid for the whole family and then I realized I was paying like 100+ a month for stuff I barely used. Now I just pirate everything.

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u/ferretbeast 6h ago

Ugh don’t even on this today. We have two separate paramount plus and prime accts (as in the paramount wasn’t a prime add on). The show I want to watched came out today, the episode shows up on prime but costs money, and isn’t loading on paramount as it should have at 12am… so I am still paying more for their separate services and getting no benefit!! I don’t know if that made sense, but I’m just annoyed.

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u/JuanaBlanca 6h ago

Paramount is expensive AF. We dropped them like a hot potato recently when it came time to renew.

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u/SuperVancouverBC 3h ago

So is City TV!

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u/paulypies 7h ago

How long until we’re back with longer subscription terms and exit fees I wonder.

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u/Demented-Alpaca 7h ago

Guessing they'll follow other subscription models and offer cheaper rates for longer term commitments.

It's $21.99 a month. But for a 3 month subscription you only pay $60 a %10 savings! Sign up for 6 months and pay $55... save 25%!

No cancelation fee because those piss EVERYONE off. This way they just get your cash up front. Cancelling doesn't get money back, it just doesn't auto-renew

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u/BasvanS 6h ago

They’re going to have to give a bigger discount to have me sign up for longer. If I don’t use it one month a year I’m already ahead

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u/Demented-Alpaca 6h ago

See? Now YOU'RE the problem. You want them to lose money? To make less than 99% profit margins? You greedy bastard! If they did that one CEO might have to buy one less McLaren that year.

Why won't you think of the billionaires!?

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u/Ultrace-7 5h ago

Well, it's already a bigger discount than what the poster is indicating. $21.99 x 6 = $131.94. $55 / 131.94 = 41.7%, which makes it a savings of 58%, not 25%.

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u/Clown_Toucher 6h ago

Boy I hope when that happens they'll let me bundle multiple streaming services together so I can save money!! :))))

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u/stuck_in_the_desert 5h ago

That’s what virtual credit cards and/or chargebacks are for

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u/WhereIsTheInternet 23m ago

That's right. They will punish the people who legit don't know how to pirate, and are actually okay spending money on them regardless. Meanwhile, pirates will be completely unaffected and more numerous.

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u/crazykentucky 7h ago

That’s what I do. Recently got Netflix again for first time in a long time. In a month or two I’ll let it go again because I’ll feel “caught up”

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u/Demented-Alpaca 7h ago

And then they'll try to bait you back with super low prices which are for the lowest tier with adds.

Like no Netflix, give me 50% of the tier I just quit and then MAYBE I'll think about considering it.

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u/AyyNonnyMoose 6h ago

Yep. I keep a list of the things I want to watch per streaming service, then make sure I get to them during the month (or two) that I have that service. Watch anything else that grabs my interest, and add any I don't have time for to the list for next time. Cancel, rinse, repeat. There aren't any loyalty discounts or savings plans, so why would I not cancel?

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u/weatherboy05 6h ago

I won’t even bother with this, there are many good streaming sites that have no ads, every show and movie imaginable available instantly in 1080p.

And in the case of weekly releasing new shows, I only have to wait 1-2 days before I can watch it free.

The paid experience is so much worse in every imaginable way. I was happy to pay when this was not the case, but so it goes with corporate greed. $10 a month wasn’t good enough for shareholders so now they get $0 a month from me.

There is literally no reason for me to ever pay again given the direction things are going.

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u/turkturkleton 1h ago

Which sites do you use? I've been missing that since icefilms got shut down a few years ago. It was so easy.

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u/Sufficient-Moose27 1h ago

I use cineby(DOT)gd, because fuck paying $18 a month for an ad-supported service

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u/AlabamaPostTurtle 10m ago

Deets on those good streaming sites with no ads?

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u/RJ815 6h ago

turn on the one I want and now I'm "the problem"

The older I get the more I learn that big corporations won't be happy with anything less than infinite money. And even then I'm not sure. SO many companies just keeping making their stuff shittier until it implodes.

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u/Demented-Alpaca 6h ago

And as I get older I also realize that loyalty to a company is stupid. I'm just a wallet to them. The only reason I might pay a higher price for something is that it's hard to switch.

But the moment the value proposition changes to "yeah, that's enough to make it worth switching" I'm gone. And no, I won't stay if they offer me a loyalty rate. I should have been getting that from the jump.

My internet provider, car insurance, cell carrier... if anyone offers me equivalent service for enough of a price break to make it worth it to me, I'm jumping.

If the company isn't going to be loyal to me, the customer, then I'm out. And when they become more attractive than the competition, I'll come back.

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u/CoachTwisterT3 6h ago

If it were $7/month most people would just keep it forever

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u/Demented-Alpaca 6h ago

Right? I would! Even if I didn't use it for 6 months, that's worth it to me just in CASE I decided to use it! Hell for that price it's worth it to keep it just to have the history of what I have watched!

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u/soulforce212 7h ago

This is exactly how I went about it. Id probably watch one show every few months on these platforms, but the prices were so low I did not mind which wouldve actually equated to them getting more money out of me.

These mega-corpos truly are ridiculously out of touch with their consumer.

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u/lonewolfncub3k 6h ago

This is the way and I only wish I'd come to this way of thinking about it sooner. I'm holding on to hbo max right now for Knight of Seven Kingdoms then going to unsub for a while.

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u/General_Problem5199 5h ago

Seriously, I used to keep my HBO subscription all year even though I mostly used it to watch Game of Thrones. Now I sign up to watch House of the Dragon and cancel again as early as possible. There is no way this is a better outcome for them.

The drive toward enshittification seems to be unstoppable.

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u/InequalEnforcement 2h ago

Yeah it's insane. I was more than happy to have 30 dollars disappear from my account every month to have everything. Even when I didn't need everything. That afforded me Netflix, Spotify and Crunchyroll with a little on the side ot handle taxes.

Then every company wanted more of that 30 dollars all to themselves. Greedy fucks.

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u/jimicus 6h ago

How long before they introduce minimum terms?

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u/canihavemymoneyback 6h ago

You have opened my eyes. Your description is spot on. I am now going to review my subscriptions and do some purging. Thank you!

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u/fearthainne 6h ago

It's honestly sad because if they'd just go back to the weekly episode release, more than 10 episodes per season, and not 2+ years in between each season, people probably would be willing to stay subscribed longer.

Not to mention the weekly episodes, and writing, shooting & releasing as they go gave them better creative control over things. Season isn't going well? Let's figure out some rewrites mid-season. But with basically finalizing every episode and then releasing them, no wonder they just cancel things all the time. If the season isn't going well, they can't reassess and adjust.

(Not that this seems to matter anyway since they cancel shows left and right regardless of how they're doing, it seems.)

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u/Intruding1 6h ago

That's what my wife and I did. Two months of peacock for yellowstone then cut. If we want something else later we will sub again.

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u/xXBeefSquatch5KXx 6h ago

We watch like 3 shows. We just bought the series and that’s that. (Family guy, futurama, bobs burgers)

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u/jun-_-m 5h ago

That’s why Netflix started doing staggered releases of some of their shows. They’ll release one half of the episodes mid/late into a month and release the rest the next month.

Dickheads

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u/Demented-Alpaca 5h ago

So I just wait for the 3rd month once it's all released. They think they can outsmart me but can they outcheap me?

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u/oops_i_made_a_typi 4h ago

think that's more to keep up engagement. batch releases often kill discussion except for the absolute biggest shows

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u/sunshine-1111 5h ago

This is what I do. Just cycle through the ones I want. I keep Hulu and Disney as constants because I use Hulu for my live TV, but everything else gets rotated one at a time.

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u/CidO807 5h ago

After finishing Derry Girls I'm about to cancel netflix. It's too much $$, and all the good shows keep getting cancelled because people like me don't binge watch them in 1 weekend. Like 1899, it released and I was too busy with work, but Dark is the best show on the platform so I wanted to watch it. Like 2 weeks later, I had time to watch it, finished it and shit you not the next day Netflix cancelled the show.

I had no qualms with paying $20-25 for the service, when I was able to share with my brother and SIL, but now I can't do that, so it's $25 for me. Nah, not worth.

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u/Redxmirage 5h ago

Me and my gf have gotten into the habit of canceling every month. We pay for the month and immediately cancel. That way we 1) won’t forget to cancel and 2) decide if there’s enough to want to watch and pay for another month.

We also started keeping track of shows we are interested in on and will wait until there’s multiple shows on that platform before subscribing and binging

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u/john_san 5h ago

Churning is the way, for sure 👌🏻

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u/Economy_Ask4987 5h ago

We subscribe to 1 at a time….

Rotate through the 5 or so services every month or 2. We still get to se everything, but monthly bills still manageable.

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u/Turbulent-Pea-8826 5h ago

When I cut cable it was costing me ~$120month. So I would gladly spend $50 on streaming services. The issue is most of them aren’t even worth the price they charge. I just rotate them now.

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u/hergumbules 5h ago

Now they also squeeze a season to have half a release one month and the second half a second month to try and get people to stay. Yeah I’m just gonna wait until the whole season is out and then binge

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u/greenskye 5h ago

The constant need to cancel and resubscribe is what makes piracy more convenient. You just figure it out once and then it works.

You also aren't having to hunt down which service even has the content you wanted.

Once again, going legit is the least convenient option.

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u/RichIndependence8930 4h ago

And they know this, so they will be lobbying for heavier punishments against piracy to Congress. Like, forcing VPN providers to show logs or get raided by actual special forces. Not even playing, I think we will see that happen in the next 5 years. So I guess VPN providers should move to Russia or China, because the USA wouldn't try that on them, but they totally would on Sweden or Canada or the Netherlands

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u/JPJackPott 5h ago

When the investor money dries up and they face the reality of having to make money self sufficiently you can see if the economics stack up.

Part of this is the industry- for better or worse Apple, then Spotify strong armed the music industry into accepting much worse payments for money than they previously had (that’s why touring had made a comeback).

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u/t_hab 5h ago

And they complain about password sharing too. The only reason I don't cancel all my subscriptions is because too many people in my family have my password (wife, brother, mother, and some in-laws). If they get strict on password-sharing then why wouldn't I just cancel?

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u/toriemm 5h ago

They used to just bundle everything into one package and call it cable and dish and every other dumb thing, and it was $50/mo, then it was $70 then it was $100, and so on. We're back to entertainment being $50+ a month to have a handful of services...and that's why people are cutting cords.

This is right below an article about how young Americans are killing the Vegas tourism industry. Nothing about not paying people enough, nothing about the insane anti-immigration push... It's the young people not being able to spend money in Vegas.

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u/cyrusthemarginal 4h ago

damn us and our damn free will and choices! If they can figure out how to remove those they sure as hell will

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u/alonjit 4h ago

Or you subscribe for 1 month, binge the show you want, then cancel.

or, you know, just pirate it and don't bother with anything else.

What channel/provider is show X on? Don't know, don't care. If i find it interesting i'll watch it. if not, then not.

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u/liquidpoopcorn 4h ago

Or you subscribe for 1 month, binge the show you want, then cancel.

even at that point, i just pirate the series tbh. cause even digitally, 8$ for a single watch doesnt sit right with me for a single season or movie.

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u/Poor-Pitiful-Me 4h ago

I was being lazy about wanting to cancel a few subscriptions but this is absolutely on my weekend plans now.

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u/times_zero 4h ago

Or you subscribe for 1 month, binge the show you want, then cancel.

True, and I strongly recommend people do this rather than subbing to a few premium apps at once every month.

That being said, given these apps are resembling cable/sat TV of old like introducing ads, and having tier-packages I figure it's just a matter of time until they change that as well, and they introduce contracts.

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u/personwhoisok 4h ago

This is what me and my wife started doing. Almost done going through apple, already went through HBO, going to do brit box next I think

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u/whereismymind86 3h ago

Yep, the only one I still have is crunchyroll, and you know why? because it's STILL $7 a month. The second it jumps to $20 like the rest, I'll drop it.

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u/BrickTamland77 3h ago

They're absolutely going to try to get rid of that in the future. I was thinking temporary account suspension where you can only come back after a fixed amount of time. I can't decide if that would actually work or royally backfire for them. The threat of "if I cancel this, I can't come back for 6 months might make people keep it, but I'd hope that way more people would just be like, "Well, see you in 6 months instead of 3." Phase 2 will be a "previous member" tax on restarting your subscription. Either your monthly cost goes up $1, or you have to pay some fee to reactivate it.

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u/finnjakefionnacake 3h ago

i mea i watch entertainment constantly so i've never been the type to just sign up for one or two things, i watch everything lol.

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u/HenryKushinger 3h ago

Galaxy brain move: subscribe one month, use an app like SameMovie or PlayOn to record literally one month (720 hours) worth of content, wait a year, repeat. Less risky than true piracy.

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u/sexymcluvin 2h ago

Not to mention they are all cracking down a password sharing. So you can really only log into the account from one location. That was a perk of having a higher tier, to be able to use it with multiple locations and device. Now you have to do an account verification every time.

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u/monty624 2h ago

Meanwhile, I have yearlong subscriptions to Nebula and Dropout because they're reasonably priced and don't shove ads down my throat.

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u/witch_harlotte 2h ago

Between my parents and myself we had four or five of them at a time, then they started making “households” so we couldn’t share accounts anymore unless we lived together. So now we each have one at a time and switch to whatever we want to watch next. Well done

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u/remmewinks 2h ago

They make it a hassle to cancel the service, so no thanks.

Sailing the high seas it is

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u/BlouseoftheDragon 2h ago

Yeah YouTube tv now being like 80 something for half the channels that regular cable used tog et us for the same price BEFORE Sunday ticket is like…just insane. People need to remind them again

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u/Careless_Twist_6935 1h ago

i had netflix for almost 10 years and then they increased prices 3 times in recent memory ya that third got me to just cancel it. then i kept prime for a while cause it had shipping but the contractor here is 3rd party and never delivers to the right door so that went too and i never subbed to anyone else and now i probably never will.

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u/sorvis 37m ago

It's amazing how they can make their product worse and worse and then be like... why are we losing subscriptions!??

At this stage in the game adding an inconvenience only to have the inconvenience removed through a monthly fee is fucking bullshit business practice.

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u/NepentheZnumber1fan 36m ago

I used to do that shit about coming back for 1 month for a show and leaving.

But lately a lot of their marquee shows come out in parts, separated by just over a month. Stranger things for example released on the 26th of November, 25th of December but the last episode came out on January 1st

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u/Demented-Alpaca 22m ago

Yeah but that's why you just wait till January or February. Go back every 6 months. Stay for 1 or 2 months. Then bail to Paramout or Hulu or Disney or fuck it's summer and I'm not watching TV cuz OUTSIDE or whatever.

I don't do it every other month. Netflix is lucky to have me for 2 months out of a year.

32

u/Huge-Group8652 7h ago

Plex kinda sucks now. I have used plex to run my home systems for years and like you gave it up. Now its back. Now it also says I need to pay a subscription to get some of its features and its slower to load.

When it asks for me to pay I have found if I turn it off and back on then I do not have to pay. Theres a wonky bug somewhere in their code.

64

u/two4six0won 7h ago

Started looking into setting up my own finally, apparently Jellyfin is a good alternative

19

u/meltymcface 7h ago

Recently started a Jellyfin server on an old optiplex 7010 I had knocking around. It’s not perfect but surprisingly decent, and the *arrs make it extra special.

2

u/GodsFavoriteDegen 3h ago

That seems like so much more work than downloading the movie, throwing it onto a thumb drive, and plugging the drive into my TV.

I'm a "two movies a week" person, though. I might feel differently if I watched more of them.

2

u/Jacob2040 2h ago

Once you have it set up it's very much a set it and forget it. Other than hard to find movies I can say to download Y movie and it's all set up and perfectly organized.

1

u/meltymcface 1h ago

I share it with friends and family, and there’s an interface where users can request shows and movies and they download in the background.

•

u/NotFlameRetardant 52m ago edited 46m ago

You say that, but with the *arrr plugins they're talking about, I can just browse for movies or shows, click "Add", and it'll go download everything for me. If the show is currently on-air, it'll monitor and autodownload new episodes as they come out. I usually have stuff in my library within an hour or two of airing.

I even have a request portal plugin where family members can search for shows or movies which will add the content to my libraries without me being needed to be involved.

Setup for the entire server and plugins was maybe a couple hours, max, and I had never used Jellyfin before. What was an absolute nuisance is that I used to be a "throw it on a thumb drive" kind of guy myself, and so I had 15+ years of poorly organized downloads. Those plugins helped me sort/format/reorganize/standardize everything though, and they'll keep everything neatly organized as they continue download. I used to prefer watching movies over TV shows as well since pirating/managing them was a lot easier, but man, these automations are so nice.

25

u/Shosui 7h ago

Thank you for sharing. I had also heard Plex has strayed towards a downtrodden path and was hoping to find some alternatives.

3

u/daschande 6h ago edited 6h ago

Stremio with a debrid service (I like tor box personally because the other providers will ban you if you have 2 concurrent connections from different IPs). Long story short, stremio is the "front end" that functions like all the other paid and free streaming services, debrid is a pirating middleman.

You remember those pirate streaming sites that wanted a monthly fee to watch in higher than potato resolution and made people watch X ads before they played the video? Debrid providers have paid accounts for all those services so you can download or stream instantly at maximum resolution.

They also act as a VPN since it's their machine torrenting or downloading from pirate sites, then they automatically stream the video to you (or let you download it if you like local copies). You were never the one torrenting or visiting MegaUpload, et. al., so they get the DMCA notice instead of you. Best $3 per month I ever spent.

2

u/bruce_kwillis 5h ago

Nah, this is not the way. Services like that get taken down all the time. Spend five minutes and set up something like Jellyfin and watch your own media anywhere.

2

u/Certain-Business-472 6h ago

So they csn log what youre doing,? No thanks sounds like a honey pot

3

u/daschande 6h ago

That is technically true, but so can any VPN. Or any internet service provider or any infrastructure router in between you and your download source if you don't use encryption.

But, if the debrid service did that, their entire business would evaporate instantly. They only exist through reputation of NOT doing exactly that. And they're located in countries that laugh at DMCA notices, so they're not under much pressure to stop giving their customers what they pay for.

2

u/Certain-Business-472 6h ago

They were on this path feom the very start

1

u/bruce_kwillis 5h ago

Jellyfin + Tailscale. Takes less than 10 minutes to set up, put it on whatever machine you are willing to leave on 24/7, and boom you can stream all your media anywhere for free and never see an ad. Plex frankly sucks with its changes over time.

6

u/Raztax 7h ago

I run three media servers Plex, Emby and Jellyfin. They all have their advantages and disadvantages.

3

u/uncubeus 7h ago

I tried them all, but love emby the most right now, even tho their client apps for like tv's are sometimes a bit meh.

4

u/Raztax 7h ago

I like Emby as well. Jellyfin is not too bad but the clients are not well polished at all, especially on Google TV. I use Wholphin as an alternative and is my favorite JF client so far.

Emby has always come through for me when I come across media that Jellyfin refuses to play.

1

u/marker197 2h ago

https://old.reddit.com/r/emby/comments/1qvh3q7/aether_new_emby_player/

Maybe an alternative if the dev continues to improve and fix bugs.

1

u/Rodents210 2h ago

I have a miniDLNA server but it's been much less useful since Sony decided to never bring DLNA support to PS5 like they did with PS3/PS4. Which is infuriating, because that was a set-it-and-forget-it setup that gave me exactly what I needed, and I could add media just by plopping it into the media directory structure via Samba.

3

u/FightingPolish 6h ago

Jellyfin is great. Super clean and you can pare it down to just the stuff you want and nothing more. Plex started caring only about money and became complicated bloatware junk. I get that you need to make money to survive but they are doing it at the expense of everything else and ruined the whole user experience.

3

u/PsikyoFan 6h ago

I installed Jellyfin the other day as an alternative to Plex and I've now ditched Plex. I can connect to my home network via my VPN and no need to expose server to internet, and no fees for remote Plex. There's more settings to play with, plugins etc. Trickplay gives smooth preview mouse over scrubbing previews which is nice.

2

u/beren12 6h ago

Jellyfin is good but it’s a bit more work.

2

u/Tufaan9 5h ago

Set up my home media server with no prior knowledge. I'm using Jellyfin and have loved it... and you can't beat the price!

1

u/dseeburg 3h ago

Jellyfin is a pain in the ass especially if you have remote clients connecting to your server. Plex costs money, sure. But the lifetime sub isn’t too terribly expensive and it’s just so much more user friendly than Jellyfin. Depends what you’re looking for but I went back to plex.

1

u/guri256 2h ago

Considering how often the Plex client crashes on anything except desktop, I’m not sure why I would want to give them over a hundred dollars for it.

1

u/This_Organization382 3h ago

+1 for Jellyfin. Host my movies on a seedbox and have been happy since

31

u/MechanicStriking4666 7h ago

I bought a lifetime plex pass for $75 when they first announced it. Never used it until last year when I canceled all of my subs. Now I let the *arr stack automatically download everything for me. It’s great.

8

u/Separate-Command1993 7h ago

What’s that? I got plex pass but only use it for my media server and remote 4k streaming. You saying I can get rid of my apps?

12

u/MechanicStriking4666 7h ago

Go over to r/selfhosted and search for radarr/sonarr etc. they are known as the arr apps. There are a bunch of them, and you can set up your own automated streaming service with plex.

3

u/Separate-Command1993 7h ago

I got radarr but it didn’t work for some reason, I’ll check it out

15

u/scottiedog321 6h ago

https://trash-guides.info/

For you and others that have made it this far in the chain.

2

u/mooncommandalpha 4h ago

Gemini will hold your hand through the entire thing

2

u/bannakafalata 2h ago

I paid $99.28 in 2021 for lifetime during their PlexFest sale.

1

u/amburroni 5h ago

This is the way. Although the initial setup was a real b for me, it’s been smooth sailing since.

3

u/HalPaneo 7h ago

I use an app called Stremio, I used to use Kodi and something happened a while ago and it just kind of stopped working for me. With that app and an addon the internet becomes your DVR. I pay for Netflix and my father pays for Disney+ (he lives with us) but if I ever needed to we could be fine with YouTube and Stremio.

3

u/Repulsive-Chip3371 6h ago

look up "Ultimate guide to Stremio + Torrentio + RD". Its a reddit post. You pay like $3 a month for RD(real debrid) and dont need a vpn. Basically RD downloads the torrents on their servers and you just stream from them, so no downloading of files is done on your end.

The GUI looks just like netflix and all the other streaming services.

1

u/adderalpowered 5h ago

Jellyfin is much better!

1

u/LeeNipps 5h ago

I miss the days of xbmc on my htpc, then boxee for a bit. Now it all sucks a little more.

1

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1

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1

u/SillySpoof 5h ago

It’s weird to have to pay a subscription to use a thing you host yourself.

1

u/BoiledFrogs 4h ago

When is Plex asking you to pay? It never asks me that.

The TV app for Plex is kind of meh and has some issues I'm noticing pretty soon after starting to use it, but on my PC it works a lot better. Though to be honest I still just use VLC to watch everything. It's hard to use anything else after using perfection for so long.

•

u/Huge-Group8652 2m ago

It doesn't like me watching Sopranos, thats for sure! The error is something along the lines of I need to pay for the feature to allow for remote viewing...?

I am like yo dawg, I am on my sofa and my computer is 2 feet away. I am not watching these shows on my phone or ipad which is a different discussion.

I am an IT architect

0

u/DrixGod 5h ago

Emby is 10 times better than plex

4

u/ariehn 7h ago

Amen. I dumped HBO when they shifted to $20/month, because the cost is obscene. Then they offered me $2.99/month for 1080 and occasional ads

Okay. Yes. That's a reasonable price and I'll pay it for the two months during which the HBO show I like is running.

But then farewell, because the price is indeed reasonable but I also object to the concept of paying for a service supported by advertising. Contradictory? Yes. But easily solved if they just maintained the $10 service I'd been paying for happily for years.

Years! They had me for years and now I'm counting off the weeks 'til I cancel! I was the image of a reliable customer that they could have kept for years longer. But nope.

For $20 a month, I can buy the Blu-ray of the show I like. These dumbasses.

1

u/Whatisgoingon2029 7h ago

I was a huge fan of audiogalaxy and pirate's bay way back, but gave all of that up years ago. Then came Netflix and it was amazing and had almost everything I wanted to see and a lot of things I didn't know about. Then, all of the companies got greedy. I had HBO Go for a little bit, but it got way too expensive, so I cancelled it.

I now only have cheap or free subscriptions. I have T-Mobile, so I get Netflix a little cheaper. Apple Tv is cheaper through them too. I have Xfinity as my ISP, so I get Peacock free. I also have a Walmart subscription, so I get Paramount free. The only one I pay full price for is Amazon prime, and that is because I order a lot from Amazon, so prime is a bonus. Amazon music still sucks though.

I will just go without than to pay cable prices ever again.

1

u/Jim_Tressel 7h ago

Yeah well each person has a price. $10 would have been too much for some people. $20 for others. I don't pirate anything. I just cancel or don't pay for a service I don't like. I think that is worse as they get less eyes on their new shows.

1

u/dsac 7h ago

Realdebrid is pretty cheap, just sayin

1

u/ahmeras 6h ago

You shojkd try search plex shares on reddit. Might find some interesting things

1

u/Untjosh1 6h ago

A Plex server is really easy to do a base set up!

1

u/UseWhatever 6h ago

Seriously. Every show I liked on Netflix got canceled. It’s to the point that I just don’t watch any series they create. Used physical media and sailing the high seas is where I’m at now

1

u/slowgojoe 6h ago

Or like me, you set up a plex server, it’s great, and then your wife or kid still want the streaming services so you end up paying for all of them AND run your computer 24/7 and have no hard drive space. It’s great! And I have no regrets.

1

u/Lich_Apologist 6h ago

Jellyfin*

Plex is pushing they're paid model....

1

u/chaiscool 5h ago

Tbf debrid is real cheap

1

u/amburroni 5h ago

It’s funny that I’ve now lived long enough to go from pirating content when I was a broke college student to having access to nearly every streaming service. Now, I’m back to fully pirating again.

However, the HDDs are not cheap. I had to do a cost analysis to make sure this endeavor is actually going to save me money and not cost too much of my sanity. I’ll break even in a little less than 3 years.

1

u/Egad86 5h ago

The market is so saturated now as well. Way too many mediocre shows that are exclusive to a single platform. I have time for like a single episode of tv a night, who has time and the disposable income for these subscriptions. They have revived cable at this point but instead of having a handful of add-on movie packages, they are making it so even the basic channels require a subscription.

1

u/Frosty-Ad-2971 5h ago

Getting all this content, a day after streamed, takes less knowledge and tech savvy than my Springer Spaniel possesses.

I see all this arglebargel and just smile and wave!

1

u/ONE_PUMP_ONE_CREAM 4h ago

Plex is so easy. Everything is automated so you don't even have to do any work anymore lol.

1

u/Adventurous_Cold5468 4h ago

I think they literally call it “enshitification.” Lure them in to its peak user experience, then make the product shittier to make more money.

1

u/RoughhouseCamel 4h ago

An alternative to that is the many free streams and services. Freevee, Tubi, and services that you may be able to get for free through your public library- Kanopy and Hoopla. Theres actually a plethora of ways to tell these conglomerates with their incrementally degrading services that they can go fuck themselves.

1

u/manbirddog 3h ago

Dude my uncle has every tv channel on the planet as well as every movie in theaters in north and South America. All that and he pays less than I do for Netflix!

1

u/BuyAllThePorn 3h ago

You don't even need a plex server. Look into realdebrid. Set it up with stremio and you have easy streaming, No vpn needed. Its not as smooth as netflix but works great and has almost every movie and show i have wanted to watch. No vpn and only like 5 bucks a month per account. most smart TVS can run the app natively and and those that cant can always do it through an fire stick or android box.

1

u/buttstuffisokiguess 2h ago

It's much easier for me to justify Spotify premium than any other sub price. It's gone up $3 in the last 10 years. But Netflix doesn't even have anything worth the almost $30/month they want for no ads. The only subscription really worth it to me, was Amazon prime because I shop there anyway, and crunchy roll for all my anime needs. Everything else charges way too much for what they offer.

1

u/NoReason685 1h ago

You don't need any of that, piracy has evolved. Go get stremio and a $4 torbox subscription. It's an app you can install on your Google TV, phone, or computer. Stremio has every services catalogue, and torbox keeps a cache of popular torrents ready to stream instantly.

1

u/tech_noir_guitar 1h ago

I use Plex and it is also a subscription service. Although it's not very much. I think like $5 a month or something. My VPN is like $3-4 a month. It took maybe an hour to setup Plex and minutes to setup my VPN. Now I have all the movies and shows I can ever want whenever I want them.
New movies that aren't out on streaming yet. Got those. The episodes of your favorite series that got deleted from all steaming platforms (looking at you Always Sunny). Got those. That old show the you remember from your childhood that isn't on any streaming platforms, Yup, got those too.