This is my small rant against the ‘features’ that big streaming services provided vis a vis the convenience of pirating the same thing.
I have a mobile data connection only where the carrier offers me free data for six hours post midnight. I can queue torrents on my phone(Yes, I torrent mainly on phone via Flud for Android) for downloading at night; then transfer the downloaded files to my laptop much later for viewing on a slightly larger screen. I couldn’t have done the same with say, Amazon Prime Video. Even if I could get these streaming services to queue at certain time, due to DRM restrictions, the content would only remain playable on phone.
I know, my use case, is very unique and niche since most folks probably already have access to fast broadband networks. But Atleast, piracy, hasn’t let go of my hand even for such use cases. I appreciate it.
Also, I am not sure Amazon Prime Video even goes above 720p on Firefox for Linux due to Widevine certification thing; the last time I tried I was running into issues, hence, I stopped bothering with it.
Piracy is a service issue. If the streaming providers are going to punish me for using my preferred browser and operating system by limiting the quality, I will keep my money and get the video elsewhere.
There is also the issue of never knowing when the show will just disappear from the streaming service while you are in the middle of watching it because the licensing changed.
I know, my use case, is very unique and niche
It’s not. It’s as simple as “download and watch”, but thanks to DRM you can’t simply do it. Then pirating is the only way for you.
I concur. Streaming isn’t an option for everybody. Paid services removing the option to download thus force all those people who can’t stream, to pirate. They create the problem and provide no legal solution 🤷
DVD/Blu-ray sitting on my shelf; quicker to download & start watching, than it is to get up, find the disc, pop it in the machine, skip the disclaimers, ads, trailers, menus, etc.
I use multiple paid streaming services but still pirate any movies that I enjoy so that I have everything in one place (Plex). It feels redundant until I’m constantly looking online to see which service has whatever I’m wanting to watch.
FYI, JustWatch will tell you which services have whatever you’re trying to stream.
Now imagine if the DVD/Blu-Ray didn’t have any of that bullshit on it, and it just went to a menu, and just played when u clicked play.
My use case is also impossible or impratical with payed services. And pirated content just gives so much freedom with plex and jellyfin, start watching on my phone then resume on my tv, going rural?download that. I currently share my music with friends and viceversa so there’s a new album every week that I’ve never even heard!
But what really makes me not care, is the constant push and greed of payed alternatives. CD 15$? A book written centuries ago 20$? The same book but digital…also 20$. Netflix used to not have ads at all and was profitable. Then you learn that the tiniest amount of that money goes to the creators…for me it just makes sense to pirate.
I think Edge is the only browser on Linux that can display 1080p videos, not even chromium does.
But yeah I won’t install Edge, ever.
Sounds weird, I get 1080p on FreeTube app and that’s just a browser underneath.
I actually tried Edge on Linux when it was in preview stage(because MS Teams wasn’t fully compatible with Firefox, all features didn’t work) and it started as a rather okayish fork of Chromium with features like vertical tabs integrated. Then it only got worse as additional features were piped in from top. It became bloated and a cursory glance at it’s right click menu just gives it all(which isn’t customizable in Edge but can be done in Firefox via userChrome.css file).
