But Is It on Netflix? - Streaming Video Service Thread: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube TV, AT+T Watch, Philo, Playstation Vue, HBO Max, HBO Now, Facebook Live and many more

although do people really torrent tv shows and movies that much anymore when you can find a free stream of almost anything?

for me it's most helpful when the tv show in question just isn't commercially available in my region

Worth noting that YouTube Premium also includes YouTube Music (and formerly Google Play Music).

a recent streaming experience with hulu, trying to start an episode in the middle:

click episode, cannot seek to middle, 90 seconds of commercials
seek to middle, 90 seconds of commercials
accidentally clicked on another episode while trying to close the app on my fone, 90 seconds of commercials starts
click original episode again, 90 seconds of commercials
close hulu, torrent entire season of show, cancel hulu

i won't front: all video streaming services are flawed in a dozen ways that piracy frankly is not.

My friends who are subletting my place have like 6 subscriptions and when I stay there I have to leave the room when they are trying to find something to watch (which always ends up taking a minimum of 20 minutes). A lot of the user interfaces are completely horrid.

wish the cinema was cheaper

xp -- ha - i have netflix, amazon, hbo (through amazon), britbox, acorn (which i should cancel because it's pretty much the same as britbox -- i had acorn first), and MhZ --

omg the user interfaces -- yeah some are really bad -- some are not awful, but are crap when it comes to subtitle options

i watch stuff via roku -- my roku is about 6 yrs old at this point and seems to be "dying" -- is this just standard planned obsolescence?

among the most frustrating things is that depending on your device, the interface and remote controls are totally different! You can't even play Criterion on an Amazon Fire and you can't play Mubi on a Playstation. Prime is easy to explore on a Fire but nearly impossible on a Roku. Everything's fucked!

I do Netflix and will do Disney+. More often than not, if I want to see a movie badly enough I buy a physical copy or, if that isn't an option, just watch that shit on YouTube or whatever. I watched a shitty, washed-out '30s movie on Internet Archive this weekend because it appears to have never been released via any legit home video format. Does that count as a streaming service?

youtube and archive.org certainly remain the people's netflix if netflix isn't already the people's netflix

I still pay for cable (and the Criterion Channel) but need to talk to people who get TCM through other services.

i'm dumping cable as soon as we get fiber internet installed at the end of the month, and signed up for Hulu Live. This looks like it'll save me about $80 a month for basically the same channels and faster internet than the shitty Comcast service I have. Still have netflix, amazon prime, and hbo through hulu. I'll pick up disney as well.

oh yeah, and we use the latest generation Apple TVs. I had a Roku that was a few years old and yes, it crapped out. The apps developed by the providers become too resource intensive for the devices.

"That netflix standard plan for me is $8usd a month but it's another country's pay structure I guess." how is this possible?

i use vrv sometimes for anime and amazon until my last ill-advised prime resub runs out next year, and that's it.

Moving to the Los Angeles area with its video stores and cinemas means not having to really care about any of this shit and it rocks.

We cut the cable 2-3 years ago and had Vue for about a year until a price hike, then Sling. The current fight between Fox and Dish/Sling has cramped my baseball watching, so I'm going to drop all channel-package delivery in the next few weeks and not worry about it until the next season of Better Call Saul starts. Dropping Sling and not renewing MLB.tv next season will free up more than enough $$ for Disney, which my wife wants to get. Otherwise, we have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, CBS (for my wife) and Criterion (for me). Our donation to our PBS affiliate is just big enough to give us access to everything on the PBS channel.

When Filmstruck shut down, Fandor offered subscribers a special deal -- I think it was $25 for a year? Anyway, I got that but probably won't renew it.

Netflix & Prime, but in Australia we can also access iView and SBS On Demand, which are half-decent public broadcaster options.

I signed up for Youtube TV so I could talk my mom into ditching her cable bill (you can share accounts with 2-3 people) and it's been the best cable replacement I've experienced. No buffering, standard TV Guide style menu, good enough channel selection. I'm so used to going straight to Netflix or Prime I rarely think of opening the app unless I want to watch sports, though.

Netflix and mlb.tv are free w/ my cell phone, I keep forgetting to cancel HBO Now, keep Prime out of habit, pay for the Criterion Channel so I can feel guilty when I'm too numb at the end of the day to watch something with subtitles and just turn on a CW sci-fi show on Netflix instead.

I have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime. I watch all of these via roku as well as a fair amount of free YouTube and Twitch. I also use roku to play music via Spotify, as the TV plugs straight into my stereo.

The quality of film selections on Netflix seems to have really plummeted lately. Amazon has the best selections of those three.

I'm strongly considering Disney+ because I'm a sucker and want to watch the Star Wars shows.

akm xpost. I set up my netflix in Chile so the fees are 4,990; 5,990; and 8,990clp for the 3 tiers. There is currency fluctuation of course but it's been in the $8 range at least for the last year (I just checked) regardless if I am using it in the US or Europe.

"The quality of film selections on Netflix seems to have really plummeted lately. Amazon has the best selections of those three."

netflix has totally shifted their focus to original programming, only 1/10th of which is worth watching. but it's still so cheap I keep it.

we have netflix, hulu, amazon prime, and recently became members of our local pbs station to access content on the pbs app. I am constantly advocating to my partner that we pause one or all of them, bc we only ever use them to watch one show at a time and will often go months without opening the others. She doesnt want to be burdened with the annoyance of stopping and re-starting multiple subscriptions throughout the year as shows come and go, which is a reasonable thing to find annoying. For movies I almost entirely watch DVDs from netflix.

I'm constantly astonished at how shitty the movie offerings on all of these are, and yet somehow still seem to get worse every year. Was just flipping through hulu yesterday bc I forgot they had movies and the 'classics' tab included Poltergeist II, Mr Mom, and like 25 public domain westerns.

although do people really torrent tv shows and movies that much anymore when you can find a free stream of almost anything?

yes, I do this all the time for TV shows and movies. Wouldn't know where to look for free streams, and besides I value the picture quality and curated content of the big private torrent sites.

a recent streaming experience with hulu, trying to start an episode in the middle:

click episode, cannot seek to middle, 90 seconds of commercials
seek to middle, 90 seconds of commercials
accidentally clicked on another episode while trying to close the app on my fone, 90 seconds of commercials starts
click original episode again, 90 seconds of commercials

This is all too real. Lots of the time if theres a TV show I like that is available on DVD i'll just buy the DVDs, which most of the time can be found used for <$10 on amazon or ebay, specifically to avoid experiences like this.

I mostly just use streaming services for TV shows. WRT movies, it's consistently baffling to me that streaming services should ever pose any real threat to physical media sales. The selection has always been spotty and terrible. The notion of just throwing up my hands and being all 'hey, if it's images moving on a screen, I'll watch whatever (dopey giggle)!' is so loathsome. I'm highly-selective when it comes to the garbage I view, thankuverymuch.

My local library added Kanopy access for cardholders and, while I have underutilized it, it's awesome. Up to ten films per month, pretty interesting selection.

yeah, new york public library opting out of kanopy was understandable given the cost, but a bummer

we can also access iView and SBS On Demand, which are half-decent public broadcaster options.

SBS On Demand alone is an incredible resource of more good films than any human can watch - foreigners can browse titles (but not play anything) at https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movies

Especially since they recently added a dedicated movie channel.

the only torrent site I know of anymore is 1337x and the selection is crap, venturing into the private tracker thing was awful when I wanted to download more movies, impossible to keep a ratio up and you probably ought to have a seedbox for privacy and blah blah blah
Easier, as it turns out, to just pay $5 to rent from iTunes or something.

I have Netflix and sometimes Mubi (through scribd) and Criterion Channel. Sometimes I split a crave tv account, which is a canadian service that includes HBO. I think these make more sense than cable, where you have to schedule what you want to watch and still have to sit through commercials. but come on people, bundle a bunch of these services together, there's too many right now.

i torrent tv shows that aren't on netflix or hbo. i just found 1337x a few days ago, when all the tbp mirrors went down together.

The biggest private torrent tracker for TV shows doesn't require you to maintain a ratio. I download all my TV from there, everything's properly curated and searchable with various HD and SD options available so no need to go with public trackers. For movies yes the biggest tracker requires you to maintain a ratio but I've never had any difficulty doing that and I don't have a seedbox. Just keep seeding and don't go overboard downloading and you're good.

Y'all mentioned PLEX upthread, its all we use in our household: 2 TVs, 2 playstations, 2 AppleTVs, a 2 TB server, and PLEX is the glue that sorts it all out. Tho we mumblemumblepiratebaymumble.

But without it how could we ever watch all 20 jillion seasons of Law and Order as we have been doing of late.

NZBs all the way...

We pay from Netflix and Prime, I assume I am paying for American Prime because we get American content rather than australian. It’s probably due to the DNS jiggerypokery I do to make BBC iPlayer work, id happily pay for a Brit box service, if australia had one, I guess I could pay for it through US amazon. Kanopy from the library is in there too.

ABC iView and SBS on demand are great but with the absolute worst interfaces. We also love the NHK world app to watch free English language Japanese tv app. I also VPN in to japan to get the free content Fuji on Demand and TBSOD, I’d love be able to pay for Paravi but can’t get it work properly with the VPN.

Top it all off with iTunes purchases and rental. Generally prefer to pay for content if there is a way (including watching adverts) but geographic licensing can make this almost impossible to do.

All watched through Apple TV (although Netflix is watched through the app on the LG smart TV)

i’ve had good luck with r/redditbay ymmv

Just recently ditched Hulu, almost nothing there I want to see. Ones I pay for: Netflix, Amazon, Criterion, Shudder, and Night Flight. The latter was an impulse move after being swept up in a wave of nostalgia. Probably won't renew it.

Anyone got BFI player? My annual sub to Mubi is going to expire soon and thinking of dropping it, unless they come up with a £22.99 deal for the year. Which I suspect was a one off.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/search-party-season-3-hbo-max.html
one of many culls from network/cable partnership synergies yet to come no doubt, but TBS is migrating Search Party over as an exclusive to HBO Max
i imagine cable is going to start being a place where things sink or swim and the hits get pulled for streaming services

i think my 6 yr old roku finally crashed fatally -- got a new one for $40

re: Plex. I don't think that's a legitimate competitor. I mean all it does is stream things that you have to download from somewhere to your devices. You may as well just say "I torrent everything I want to watch". It doesn't have working built-in capabilities to stream things directly off the web, to my knowledge; at least the few times I tried to do stuff like that via channels it barely worked.

Probably a conversation for this thread, but the plex + sonarr combo mentioned there gets closer to what you're after, although you're still downloading a local copy first.

apparently people running plex friend sharing networks is a thing, the idea being different people in your circle might rip/torrent/download different things and you browse their selection. I think a friend of a friend is in such a group and I’ve considered talking my way in

oh yeah, plex networks is the BEST but i need to figure out how to set that up. i feel like an ILPLEX network would be fucking awesome.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/23/20697751/piracy-plex-netflix-hulu-streaming-wars

going to have to tidy up my library if we do that

i would maybe like to have this conversation. 77 perhaps?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/apple-launches-house-studio-band-brothers-pacific-follow-up-1246746

Apple is ready for takeoff. The tech giant has handed out a nine-episode order for Masters of the Air, the follow-up drama to HBO's limited series Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Additionally, Apple is officially launching its own internal studio, making the series the first that it will own in-house. Apple's Worldwide Video heads Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht will also oversee the unnamed studio in a move that brings them back to their roots as head of Sony Pictures TV.

Sources say HBO released the series — focused on historian Donald L. Miller's nonfiction book Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany — ages ago and before WarnerMedia became its new corporate parent. The decision, sources say, was based on the price tag for the series, which is said to clock in at an estimated $250 million

I'm watching the ILM doc (everyone in thread does a double take - no, it's industrial light & magic) on disney, pretty entertaining even if it's 95% male and 100% white. I'm insanely jealous of the fun they had, and the creativity they got to exercise, in their day job. The first two episodes are entirely on Star Wars, there's fun bits I haven't seen before (R2D2 falling over on set - ok it's funnier when you see it), lots of storyboards and model work, and it's good to see Lucas talking with enthusiasm about it all, you almost start to like him again - then he completely blows it at the end of ep 2.

Mulaney's show is really kind of a disaster at this point, if netflix wants to keep it going later this year, retooling it would be a good idea. Way too much reliance on audience phone calls. I get that it's trying to not adhere to the standard late night format, but that format works for a reason.

i still get thrown off by his new chin every time i see him

The audience phone calls are so tedious. I’ve still yet to finish any of the episodes

the main problem with the calls is that every single one someone can't hear well and the timing gets all thrown off. I felt bad for the widow in this week's who started to go on a little too long and Pete Davidson was making "hang up" motions with his hand.

Contrary opinion: I'm finding the show to be really funny! The clunkiness is part of the charm, i think

The calls do kinda kill the momentum, I agree, though I feel like the whole weird, semi-unpredictable, oft-unsatisfying interaction is kind of the point, like putting the professional non-celebrity on the couch

I'm guessing he felt bad about cutting off that caller on the 2nd episode, boy that was a rough unending story

(Also how great was that Crimson Tide thing with the rabbi)

I felt bad for the widow in this week's who started to go on a little too long and Pete Davidson was making "hang up" motions with his hand.

Yeah, for me the problem isn't the calls, it's that the comedians don't want to deal with civilians at all, and Mulaney can't decide whether he wants to take an interest in the calls and the expert opinions or appear cool in front of his pals.

Chris Gethard had (has?) a podcast called Beautiful/Anonymous, random caller talks to him for exactly one hour and then the phone call goes off automatically. It was good.

xpost Yeah, that's my problem with "funny people" rather than scripted comedy shows--the comedians trying to one-up each other and coming off as egotistic morons.

Like Pete Davidson seems like someone I'd never want to watch in anything, unless it was written by someone with talent.

Yeah, for me the problem isn't the calls, it's that the comedians don't want to deal with civilians at all, and Mulaney can't decide whether he wants to take an interest in the calls and the expert opinions or appear cool in front of his pals.

Hell or High Water - improved as it spent less time hitting you over the head with 2008 crash references, if only they could have cut out the aren't we buddies racism too

Watched Your Name Engraved Herein, a film about two boys in Christian military school in Taiwan at the end of martial law. They're in love, of course, but only one can really admit it. Lovely if, yknow, typical of this sort of film.

We really enjoyed the first Episode of the studio which is on Apple TV so no one will ever see it. We both loved how much it leant stylistic on Robert Altman’s the player, to the extent that Seth Rogan seems to be wearing Tim Robbins suit from the poster in most of the episode but wearing it like someone who is trying so hard to be Tim Robbins’s character, but also failing miserably at it.

Well done and lots of genuine laughs.

The ending making Martin Scorsese double over in tears of rage and misery and getting thrown out by Charlize Theron was a great payoff and a really deft use of a celebrity cameo.

Yeah i loved the first episode too! I like the choice to style it in a late 60’s style but be set in modern-day, it just kind of adds an extra aesthetic layer of enjoyment esp w locations like the Lloyd Wright bldg, OHara’s house, Rogen’s car, etc

xp also the Bryan Cranston character is literally named Griffin Mill

i had a hard time getting into the Studio. Will attempt again when in a different mindset.

i have this thing where i have always liked Seth Rogen, and i feel a weird sense of trust when he’s running shit. i just like him, i like his taste in stuff. idk. Like that Pickle movie he did? so lovely!

We have a new streaming media thread at 2025 Rolling Streaming Media Thread and this one has 8300 posts. Any objections to my locking this one?

nope!

please do!

OK!
that internet address again is 2025 Rolling Streaming Media Thread