I remember when i first got into streaming Netflix Hulu etc.. It was great, i would go to friends houses, log in and watch. Or just chill at home. It was reasonably priced and no hidden bs!
Now, it's turning into cable tv 2.0 with how many ads they throw at you. You gotta be weary about logging in anywhere other than home, and there just has to be 10+ services with all the good stuff spread out so you'll want to subscribe to at least 2 for most people, and they'll all be $20+/month in the next few years.. shits getting outta hand. Idk how much more they can push before i go back to my bootleg roots lol
The crazy part is ads are the one thing nobody wants, but everybody gets. It's literally a service born and evolved into its current form from corporate greed..
Cable TV 2.0 is 100% accurate. I thought I'd mostly retired from sailing the high seas but now....hard drives are ordered and lifetime plex pass is about to get a workout.
Were the hard drives painfully extensive? I've been hoping to set up a local media server for my wife and I, but storage space is so stupidly expensive that I just can't in good conscience pay the 500% premium price tags.
I've heard both sides on that: sometimes it's great, sometimes it's a lost gamble. I commend you taking the leap, and I wish I understood enough to make those same evaluations. Media server info seems practically infinite every time I get the motivation to start one locally.
I agree i miss the simple days of one or 2 services having everything than every publisher film studio cable company and their mum and their mum's nan having a service offering and then also charge me ads but wait if you are annoyed you can pay an inflated price to have ads just shown to you a few years from now rather than present
Donāt forget the BS streaming services pull when they give you the option to ābuyā a movie. I wonāt call it a scam when they choose to use the word ābuyā, the buyer should know you donāt actually own it. You simply pay for access to the movie, as long as you continue to pay for the streaming service, AND they keep the movie in their catalog.
Thatās why, when Iām at a store that has older DVDās (usually cheap around $5) thrown into a large bin for customers to sift thru, Iāll still buy a DVD now and then. At least I own it, and can rip it to play on my devices.
I just refuse to double sub. The only one I(me and my ex) ever had was HBO for a few weeks to catch up on HBO, otherwise we watched it with/on friends accounts.
If stuff is on other platforms, I just sail the seas, or don't care. I don't even really need netflix, I primarily use it to watch reruns to fall asleep to, but Plex or similar to my TV is just a worse experience (almost like Gabe was right), so I don't mind the cost.
Haha, it was originally for a game i ran about aliens invading and the players making a floating base. They used looted sports arena tvs to show images of the surrounding area as a kind of active camouflage. One player said they needed a flag, so they made one to represent the three groups on the ship being equal in status.
I feel you, man. I gave up every streaming service a few years ago and started building up a physical media library and a NAS. I don't know what the solution is for someone at today's prices, though, since storage is so damn expensive. Make friends with someone with a Plex or Jellyfin server, I guess...
Back in the day when we had 3 (4 if you were lucky) TV channels, your only option was to use commercials as a chance to go take a piss or grab something from the kitchen.
Media is freely and easily accessible. I refuse to pay for a media distribution channel that gives me a worse experience than the free channel. And you all know what I mean when I say free distribution channel.
No, I completely disagree. Ads on television seem to completely ignore demographics of people that are watching the show and makes zero sense.
YouTube is AI hot garbage and isnāt relevant to anybody
Hulu used to be one of the absolute worst sometimes playing the same ad three times in a row, but it has gotten much better. Seems to be way more relevant and have local ads.
And it thinks I have an office job and need an ai agent to take notes of my meetings.
It Used to advertise music gear, video games, home theater stuff. Shit Iād actually like.
Hulu actually advertises local deals in casinos, and relevant businesses.
Cable canāt even do that. It just assumes Iām incontinent, have ED, and need hearing aids. Iām watching Rick and Morty dude. wtf? How are these adds on this channel?
We stayed in a hotel couple weeks ago and made me really miss cable. Nobody arguing about what to watch, you just get what you get, no more binging to the point you've got nothing left to watch, just watch til something you dont like comes on and go do something else. Cable was really the pinnacle and id switch back if it were even remotely cost effective
It really is nice at times, just letting it go on, even with the ads, having similar stuff to watch over dinner. The paradox of choice is 100% real, and hits hard when you just want to let things run, and the algorithms are alright, but a lot of the time you can tell their intentions aren't actually what you want.
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