The decline of legal streaming, through the dividing up of content onto multiple expensive streaming platforms, has pushed me away from legal options onto the black/grey market where I can get much more content for much less on a more convenient single platform.

I'm back to sailing the high seas and dumping my loot into Plex.

I see an irony in the fact that I can't read this damn article without paying for yet another media / news subscription service. Stop linking to pay walls Lemmites!

The irony of a pay-walled article from one of the 50+ news websites requiring subscriptions complaining about fragmented streaming services is palpable.

Yo ho fiddle de dee

Being a pirate is alright with me

Piracy

/thread

Just sails the seven fucking seas

The irony is this article requires a subscription to view it…

https://web.archive.org/web/20230909100630/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/09/streaming-services-netflix-max-cost/675264/

I blame Disney in particular. People are just so short-sighted.

This was a Very inevitable situation due to the fragmentation of Programs that are scattered across multiple Networks.

If only there was a solution to this problem of greed….

Yaaargh mateys, you do be asking the wrong questions.

Jellyfin is a great alternative system. You just have to get the shows and movies somewhere which also isn't that hard cough cough

https://jellyfin.org

To bypass the paywall: https://archive.ph/GO7mu

Ne'er should one relinquish control of thine own vessel. Back to the seas shall we voyage mateys!

Also, 12ft.io

Is there any reason to not pirate the movies?

If I have to google which streaming service a PBS show is on for my kid to watch. Something's messed

Friendly reminder that PLEX is a great, free service, you just have to put in the effort to build up a media collection. High capacity HDDs are very cheap now, so storing a large media collection isn't particularly expensive.

They also offer a lifetime "Plex pass" which adds some neat, but non-essential features, like auto-skipping intros and credits sequences for instance. It's not necessary, but it's a nice way to show support for what they do.

The amount of media we have instant access to has reached a level that I find intimidating rather than inviting. Consuming media is becoming more of a chore than a pleasure. Dividing the available media into more services is a plus for me, if I am honest.

I have access to a streaming service, and if they don't have anything I'm interested in, I just walk away and read a book, play a game, put on some music, go outside, or do my chores.

The days when I thought there were things I "should" watch/read/play/listen to are long gone. Not being driven by what is "the thing to do" makes life so much better.

Not having much choice also makes life easier. There were times when I spent more time clicking around in the flood of what I could consume than I did choosing and enjoying. Now, if I can't decide in less than 5 minutes, I take it as a sign that I should do something else.

The basic problem with media is that copyright creates a monopoly for 100 years or so depending on various factors. This means that unless you're into Arthur Conan Doyle or whatever, the media landscape is fundamentally monopolistic.

The prices keep going up and I have already set a max price in my mind for each subscription I'm on based on the content they provide over the year. I as a consumer don't have infinite money.

I'll pay for a few streaming services that can keep something I want to watch in stock year around. For the ones that can't, their shows go onto a seedbox with plex and sonarr.

I have just about the opposite problem, as someone who has been known to pirate in the past. I find there is so much content out there that it's harder for me to decide what to watch over where to go to find it.