this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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It made me so thankful for piracy. What an abysmal experience. First of all, I’m on mobile and they make you use the app. There is literally no way to get around it except TOR, no using browser, even on desktop mode, as somone like me who is deaf, it means I can’t have my special accessibility extensions which sucks.

So I get to the app ready to watch my show. Bam Adds! Worse than youtube! It’s like an add every 5-10min that lasts from 5-40s. Who the hell can actually enjoy a movie or a TV show in these conditions?

I was like fine, I’ll download it to watch offline then. Nope, that’s blocked now. So I figured I’d tinker with DNS and see if I could manage to block those adds. That didn’t work.

I’m so glad piracy exists. I see streming services have gone full circle. No better than paying an absurd amount for a TV channel plastered with adds. Urgh. I’ll make sure to stay away from disney restaurants now so they can’t legally kill me since I watched an episode of futurama on their platform.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've been back to the high seas for a while.

Before I get into it, I'll give an honourable mention to the RIAA/music industry, which is largely just putting all of the music on every platform and letting users choose which one they want to use. This is the way, and I'm happy to pay one service to get access to the stuff I actually want to hear.

Back to video/MPAA. Are you all on crack? I saw this coming back when Netflix was the only licensed media game on the internet.... I was subscribed and enjoying some shows, the shows then.... Went away, they disappeared. After looking into it, the show I was enjoying was pulled when a copyright was revoked by the publisher, so Netflix no longer had the right to distribute the show.

I saw the writing on the wall. That publisher was going to make their own Netflix competitor with their stuff on it, to try to extort more profit from the streaming stuff. Clearly their c-suite thought that people would be willing to pay for just their content separately from Netflix. I saw that writing and noped right the fuck out. Grabbed my tri-point hat and flag from storage and set sail, and I've never looked back.

The copyright holding asshats, ruined internet streaming, because everyone wanted to be their own thing. They splintered the entire online streaming thing into a bunch of disparate platforms all with some subset of the media available via streaming. It's worse than cable, honestly.

IMO, the only good move that's happened for streaming (but horrible for so many other reasons) was Disney gobbling up all the other media studios and production companies, then putting all their stuff on one service. There's a few holdouts, but by and large the two biggest players right now are Netflix (the OG) and Disney (+)... So a bunch of good media ended up on D+, and so it's kind of "the" streaming service... For better or worse (mostly worse, as OP points out).

I'm still firmly on my ship, sailing the high seas. Unless they go the way of music, and allow all shows on every platform and you pick your platform based on your preferences, I'll stay on this ship. Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I haven't set foot on 'dry land' since Napster started.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

I made the foolish mistake of thinking things had finally started to make sense when Netflix happened, and I got my hopes up that going legit would be viable.

Oh well

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What bought me back to piracy was the twatting about between several apps, only to find that what I wanted wasn't on any of them.

If they want me back, they'll have be more convenient than piracy. And piracy is pretty damn convenient these days.

We're talking one service, all content that isn't still in cinemas, 4K HDR, 5.1 audio. Let's be reasonable, £30 a month with no ads at any time. Feel free to have ad tiers and lower quality if you're charging less or even showing for free. That's not my thing, I'll pay for the good shit tier. I don't need 8 screens at once or whatever nonsense Netflix know you won't use. It's just me, and my big television and sound system.

Music managed this. There's no reason video can't other than greed. I'm done asking nicely.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

Jellyfin and Youtube are seemingly the only web interfaces I can willingly endure.
For youtube though it's only with Premium/ublock origin and some custom filters like blocking channel membership banners.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

They didn't manage, they've just offer good enough for you not to care. In case of movies or series you care because they are a lot more limited

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

D+ dropped support for my tablet since the Android version is too old, but I just ran Firefox in desktop mode and that worked. I don't know whether it made a difference that it's a tablet vs phone though

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Could I inquire what accessibility tools and software you use? I generally want to be well educated on these things, but I’ve been considering something like this for myself. Real time captioning software or something like that. I often have headphones or earplugs in for sensory reasons. Even gaming sometimes I’d prefer to not have to hear discord and still communicate with people.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

This app live captions any output to your sound device locally https://github.com/abb128/LiveCaptions

Whether I mute my output device, or selectively mute a tab or app it still works fine.

There's a similar feature baked into Win11, not sure whether that is processed locally/privately though

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Extensions that turn audio into sign langauge. Makes it easier to follow than captions for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I know a bit of ASL and am learning more! That was my other thought for live captioning. I’d like to eventually get gesture based input working to, but that will be a dive into computer vision and all that. I’d still be interested in the name of that extension!!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I know Auslan (australian sign language) but yes

https://github.com/SamChenYu/SignSync

Also this one https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/signup-sign-language-for/gbllbjbhbafgdcolenjhdoabdjjbjoom

I use BSL as it’s closest to Auslan on it but I think they also support ASL and Indian Sign Languave

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago

Thank you so much for the info!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

an add every 5-10min that lasts from 5-40s. Who the hell can actually enjoy a movie or a TV show in these conditions?

Everything comes full circle...

As a kid watching TV, about 30% of the runtime of a show was commercials. Us old people are used to that kind of advertising presence, hell, people used to watch the Super Bowl specifically for the commercials!

Not saying it's a good thing, just saying that the corporate CEOs of today grew up with it, so it's "normal" to them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I have D+ here in Canada and have never seen an ad. It is actually a pretty good deal here as it includes STAR (hulu equivalent). I only watch it on my TV but I dont think it would be any different on mobile as it is still the D+ app.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

I grew up with ads in cable tv, but I never got used to them and I deep resent the emotional manipulation that ads attempt so I will turn a show / movie off if I can't skip the ads. No show is worth being mind flayed by ads.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Honestly, after the SAG-AFTRA strike and hearing about how ads pay for actor and writer royalties, I've gotten less mad about them.

But ofc part of that factor is I pay for the ad-free version on the only streaming service I have (Disney Trio) and I buy or download (in rare case) everything else I want to see. The only ads I come across are on Rings Of Power. It's easier to bear ads if you don't have to watch many of them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Ads should never have to be a source of income for anybody, in the same vein that paying for tips having to be a source of income.

The problem are the fat-cats hoarding all of the money so they can piss it away by flaunting and throwing down those millions so that we can suffer ads at their expense. That is a problem.

Millions are spent on marketing, that's not a secret. You should sit down and think sometime, where those millions could've been spent on than just shoving ads and ads down our damn throats.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Just curious—what accessibility extensions do you use on desktop?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (2 children)

D+ has the buggyst app of and of the services I've tried, you'd think such a major monopoly could afford to fix bugs several years in...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

On what platform? I've never had an issue with it on Roku or Google TV, and I used it HEAVILY this Spring and Summer.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Interesting, becouse I've had it crash often on both of those

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago

you'd think such a major monopoly could afford to fix bugs several years in..

Cute but you misunderstanding the situation... A monopoly can afford NOT to ;)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

There had been at least 2 anime shows I've watched that were really good and I was surprised they didn't have much publicity at all. Turns out, both of them are licensed by Hulu/Disney+ outside of Japan. I really shouldn't be surprised.

The shows are Summertime Rendering and Undead Unluck, btw.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 2 days ago (2 children)

There is nothing that bugs me more than the intentional enshittification of mobile websites/apps.

I don't want all your shitty apps.

Why do I need an app on mobile, but the website works fine in desktop mode?

Why do mobile browsers even allow shitty sites like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to forbid you to save images.

I wouldn't even care, if every second image search result wasn't one of these horrible sites.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Oh my god yes.

Every fucking time I open reddit on my phone the entire website goes grey and they offer me to use the app... Unless the content is NSFW in which case they tell me I have to use the app.

Fortunately old reddit still works to get around that but it doesn't have a mobile page layout

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I rarely visit Reddit, but when I do, I use Oldlander to make it bearable: https://github.com/OctoNezd/oldlander

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's even better workaround - stop going to reddit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As much as I'd love to, it is still one of the best places to read up on recommendations for stuff, be it hardware opinions or obscure book recommendations. It is certainly a better place for tech reviews than most of the other sites you find using search engines which just do stuff like "This is the best on a budget. This is the best for that. This is the best overall. Here is where you can buy all of that."

Those sites never feel like they do a genuine review of stuff but instead try to sell you something. Plus they feel like they are copy pasting from each other.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I don't really use reddit anymore but I have an android app called stealth that lets you browse. Can't login, but for web links and such its much better than old.

You can subscribe to subs as well, but you can't reply.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 days ago

The app is intentional, with browsers they can't control which extensions you run, and therefore can't force their ads on you. With the app they can control the environment and you are legally not allowed to modify their app because trademark....

[–] [email protected] 73 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In 20 years Disney SWAT team will kill you for making this post.

Tap for spoiler~~joke~~

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Disney+ has ads? I'm in Germany and I don't see any. Where are you?

edit: removed comment about browser, as OP meant on the phone

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Switzerland. But I think you can get add free plan for double the money.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why even bother? It's legal to pirate movies and tv shows for personal use in Switzerland!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

A lot of people have no idea how to. I've been pirating movies for like 20 years now, and while it's not that hard for me, i once tried to find a movie in german for my nephew and i completely gave up. Everything that is English i can watch in a minute.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh, they do have an plan with ads. You can't really complain about ads if that is what you subscribed to, I guess. The price difference is €6 vs €9/month in Germany, btw.

The no browser support on phones kind of sucks though.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Talk about missin the point bro. That point being "paid services are universally inferior to free ones even when excluding the variable of cost"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's a trade off. "Free services" typically require more leg work and can come with legal or security risks. I used to have a great XBMC & torrenting setup years ago. I spent significant time customizing it and various plugins, extending scripts etc. I had fun, and took necessary precautions. Millions wouldn't. Some are happy to pay €9/month to another evil corp for convenience (where it works for them).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Your setup is (was?) awesome but it's not necessary these days. An online search for free media streaming sites and an ad-blocker (but of course) brings up sites with at least the same polish as Netflix (the only site i have experience with) and full 1080p. When i briefly used my sister's Disney+ and my in-laws' prime, it was noticeably worse than my favorite bookmarked free streaming sites, not to mention i needn't wonder if the service owns all the seasons of the show i wish to see

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

Resolution doesn't mean much, those sites you are referring to use extremely low bitrate encodes that look terrible. Yes, streaming services (in my experience Netflix is the main offender) can sometimes deliver dogshit quality streams too due to their adaptive bit rates, but the ceiling is way higher than those sites that pull from DDL file hosters. If you are consistently suffering from very low quality paid streams then you likely have some kind of network issue affecting the adaptive bitrate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I agree that there are many great free streaming sites out there, with 1080p and good quality.

But quality is still an advantage of paid services (or acquirung the larger files in other ways). Streaming with higher bitrate costs way more bandwidth (= money) while being marginally better.

It's noticeable though, if you have a good, large enough display. Especially darker scenes suffer from low bitrate. On my phone I don't notice it at all.

That's even true for high bitrate. E.g. I've even compared a Reacher WEB-DL to BluRay remux, and the latter was noticeably better — not that it's worth the additional storage usage.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

agree with that

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