Streaming becoming cable 2.0 is one of the biggest disappointments in the entertainment industry.
Streaming is still better for now. Wait until you can only have bundled services with mandatory ads with a minimum year long commitment.
There was a time when almost everything was on Netflix. As a consumer, having all my content in one place for $10/mo is awesome, but according to capitalism, it is a problem that needed to be fixed.
The part that’s wildest to me is that nowadays with all the ways services are trying extract more value from their users (ads, increasing rates, reducing library size, restricting access to features, etc ) plus the DRM, the media consumption experience of just having the media files is so much better than the experience one can have through most of the streaming services or even DVDs with all of the unstoppable prerolls
Whether you rip your own DVDs (legally murky) or you’re just watching a bunch of public domain silent films, or pirating, it’s really hard to beat just having the .mkv and opening it in your player of choice.
About the only way to compete with that is one decent service with good quality, no ads, an extremely wide collection and minimally invasive DRM
Every time I head to the second-hand store I pick up a couple new CDs and DVDs. It’s great! I’m paying max $3.99 apiece and I’ll own them forever.
Or pirate for 0€.
I do love piracy and I do do it sometimes. But sometimes I don’t want to spend 20 minutes finding a torrent and then another 30 minutes to an hour waiting for it to download.
My main issue with it is that I have to pre-plan if I want to watch anything through that method.
Use Usenet instead, way faster downloads. Also lots of clients can stream torrents, so as long the torrent its being seeded well enough you can watch right away.
Worst case just go to one of the 100s of sites with free streams of basically every popular show and movie.
Any kickstart guide for a total noob?
This guide is pretty good, but I’ll also explains the basics here.
You pay a provider for access to Usenet files, which you locate through an indexer, and download through a client such as nzbget.
Picking a provider is the most complicated part. The guide explains how to choose one and r/Usenet has a page in their wiki for good provider deals. I use NewsDemon and they’ve been fine.
Indexers are pretty much the same as torrent indexers, they can be free or paid, public or private. NZBGeek has been great for me, and AnimeTosho is nice if you want to download anime.
The download clients work similarly to torrent clients with the addition of configuring the connection to your provider. Whichever provider you choose will have instructions for connecting to it.
Downloads aren’t peer-to-peer like torrents, so a VPN isnt as necessary, just make sure you pick a provider that doesnt keep logs. It also doesnt hurt to use one if you already pay for one and its not too slow.
One you’ve picked your provider and indexer, setting everything up is super easy.
If everyone did that, then they might start cracking down.
At the very least, though, this person should be service hopping instead of paying for 13.
No, the last time everyone did that Netflix was created, which has nearly killed the piracy for most people.
We’re just going back to the basics.
Under other US administrations, I’d picture a new model or iteration. Right now? Paramilitary busting down doors and more states banning porn for some reason
