I started pirating movies again after a decade

I was a happy Netflix user until 2018, before that I haven’t really pirated any movies (with very rare exceptions) for almost a decade but I recently started again. I’m was doing my monthly budgeting and realized I was paying for too many subscription services. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Shudder, Disney+, Hulu and Crunchyroll. My family likes to watch different types of content that is distributed on many different platforms.

I was never subscribed to these many services until a couple years ago. I was thinking which service I should cancel when I realized I had the option to cancel all of them this entire time. I’m torrenting again and I started saving a considerate amount.

The only service I’m paying for is Spotify which I think it’s fairly priced and offers all the music my family listens too (and it’s convenient). All the competitors pretty much offer the same content and that’s how streaming services should be.

I remember back in the day using eMule and BitChe (to look for torrents). Now I’m using Deluge as my torrent client and I I get my torrents from 1337x. What sites are you guys using?

CookieJarObserver,

Same, got tired of shit service.

If a fucking piracy website is better than the cooperate that should make people question why they even pay a single cent to them.

dub,

Same here. I was actually pretty okay with just going with Netflix and then maybe HBO. But then every one of their mothers has their own streaming service.

Back to the salty seas for me

imaqtpie,
@imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works avatar

I think the phrase you were looking for was “everyone and their mothers” 😅

mrmanager,
@mrmanager@lemmy.today avatar

Me too! After paying for three subscription services and not finding anything to watch after a while, and seeing services raise prices and even add ads, I decided enough was enough.

Piracy is really good these days. 4k movies. :)

quantum_mechanic,

Shit, I never stopped.

lichtmetzger,

Very similar situation here. Around 2017/2018 I had Netflix and Prime Video. I was able to watch 95% of the content I wanted to watch and only had to download some obscure 90’s SciFi series they didn’t have.

But the industry had to fuck it up and create too many platforms. We have Netflix, Prime, Disney+, HBO, Paramount Plus, Apple TV+ and many more. I am not subscribing to your service because one or two titles might interest me. It’s way too much cost for a lot less value I had in 2018.

I even wanted to make an exception for Apple TV+ because their series are absolutely amazing. But they force you to buy an expensive Apple device to watch the content in 4K on the Safari Browser. Go fuck yourself, Apple. It’s not even a technical issue, because they play the trailers in 4K but then switch to 480p with a terrible bitrate.

Don’t go to the big media outlets and start crying that piracy is too damn high if you make it more inconvenient to watch your programs legally than just downloading an MKV file from somewhere.

djmarcone,

It's like the old cable tv days where you had to get hundreds of useless channels and multiple packages and pay a fortune just to get the 3 channels you actually want.

LastoftheDinosaurs,

Make sure you aren’t downloading things manually unless you have to. Radarr, Sonarr, and Lidarr can be configured to download the latest media for you automatically. It’s not 2004 anymore :)

Bandananaan,

Thank you, I needed this! Now I need to get these set up

razibaba,

welcome again… and i stopped pirating movies and started streaming over internet on pirate website.

downhomechunk,
@downhomechunk@midwest.social avatar

Iptv, stremio, real debrid and torrentio ftw! I’m paying for things, but it’s a fraction of what we paid for all the subscriptions. And I can actually find things I want to watch!

Xylinna,
@Xylinna@lemmy.world avatar

It feels as though we are moving back towards cable with all the different services and none of them are really anything to brag about anymore. I canceled my Netflix when they raised the prices and stated they would end password sharing. I then canceled my HBOMax when they started pulling content I liked to watch and I had already previously canceled my Hulu account since they really didn’t have anything worth watching. Now I am down to Amazon, Paramount+ (as it is free with WalMart+), and Crunchyroll and I rather like have less choices as it gives me the push to go do something else besides watch TV.

CommiePatrol,

I haven’t torrented in ages but I also don’t pay for streaming. You can literally stream any movie or show online for free. Just use a search other than Google, I use Yandex for this purpose. Just search for the title and voila. The only catch is you won’t find 4k quality, only 1080p.

Eyeuhnluuung,

The no 4K is kind of a big catch

Sneckster,
@Sneckster@lemmy.world avatar

I cancelled Nowtv because it added adverts and you have to pay extra for 1080 which is ridiculous.

So I started watching some of their stuff on Beetv… Then I started looking at my other streaming services.

I stopped torrenting because streaming services made it more convenient. It no longer is.

SouthWest,

anyone?

theblueredditrefugee,

Deluge leaks your ip address if you use a VPN, I use QBittorrent for this reason.

greenkarmic,

You can configure Deluge so that it can only use the VPN interface and nothing else. This way if the VPN drops even just a second, you’re safe. You set this by entering the VPN IP in the the “Outgoing Interface” box in the Network settings. If the VPN IP changes, you need to update it (which can be automated using a script).

theblueredditrefugee,

Oh cool. I have no reason to switch back now that I have something that works, but it’s good to know

Ech,

Streaming services are bound and determined to make themselves Cable TV all over again. We had it good for a little while, at least.

crusty,

Streaming services shouldn’t be able to have exclusive rights to content similar to the way cinemas work. That way they would have to focus on making a decent service, which honestly most of them are pretty shit atm.

bufordt,
@bufordt@sh.itjust.works avatar

It all should be like radio. Report what you play and pay for it based on your viewers.

Digester,
@Digester@lemmy.world avatar

At least with cable TV you can get the highest tear subscription with all the channels. With streaming services you have to subscribe to a decent bunch just to have a broad variety of content, resulting in a much higher price than any cable TV subscription.

It’s a disaster.

Ech,

True!

3rdBlueWizard,

Cable cost well over $100 a month many years ago when I cancelled it. And 1/3 of the content is commercials.

Pretty sure you could subscribe to every major streaming service for less than that. And as long as you avoid Hulu, you won’t see commercials.

Things are WAY better now, even though it was better a little while ago when there was just Netflix.

Digester,
@Digester@lemmy.world avatar

I did the math, subscribing to every major streaming service is about $100. I got an offer to subscribe to Cable with my ISP for $29 a month. Obviously years ago Cable was more expensive but it doesn’t feel like we necessarily improved on convenience which streaming services are supposed to provide.

Content gets pulled constantly from these services and they often require dedicated hardware to stream HD content, Prime and Apple TV being an example. By the time I switch between 4 apps to find what I want to watch I’ve already fallen asleep.

In 2023 it’s just stupid having to rely on so many different subscription services to only have access to a portion of the available content (which gets constantly removed). All considering how anti-consumer these big corporations are I wouldn’t say things are WAY better. A few years ago Netflix alone had much more diverse content, was generally enough for most people and was cheaper overall.

Music services offer 99% of the available content in one app, if you switch to a different service you don’t miss out on content availability. If we had that for videos it would be perfect.

3rdBlueWizard,

Agree about the comparison with music. I wonder why we didn’t see balkanization there like we do for video.

Digester,
@Digester@lemmy.world avatar

Because they realized people are willing to pay for extra subscriptions. Production studios created their own services while keeping their IPs exclusive rather than licensing it to third parties. They make more money this way until people stop subscribing to every new service that comes out each month.

Music has the potential of undergoing the same path. I wouldn’t be surprised if major labels like UMG, Warner and Sony pulled content from Spotify and other services and creating their own. Let’s just hope people smarten up so this doesn’t happen anytime soon.

kttnpunk,
@kttnpunk@lemmy.world avatar

I just use illicit streaming sites nowadays, I wish I could afford more physical storage but I don’t really wanna hold onto every TV show I consume anyways. Way to go though, fuck these vastly overpriced subscription models!

Digester,
@Digester@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been using flixhq.to which is add-free and I’ve been pretty happy with it!

kttnpunk,
@kttnpunk@lemmy.world avatar

that’s great to know, these are all the sites I’m aware of atm: watcha.movie fmovies.to ww8.0123movie.net www.wcostream.org and anix.to

Digester,
@Digester@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks a lot, I’ll check them out!

_cerpin_taxt_,

unRAID and Plex is the way.

Guide is a little outdated, but works like a dream. Ibracorp (Google them) is also very handy.

ARxtwo,

I prefer Jellyfin over Plex. Plex has become too bloated. Jellyfin is free, open-source, and well maintained. I have it running on Docker on my NAS, feeding multiple devices, accessible on every platform I use, and it hasn’t failed me. I was a lifetime subscriber of Plex before I made the switch, and haven’t looked back.

LTT did a great video about Jellyfin. Keep in mind that this video is 5 months old, and they have had updates since.

_cerpin_taxt_,

Doesn’t Jellyfin not allow sharing outside of your network or something like that? I’ve got elderly family members and very non-tech savvy folks that I share with, and Plex keeps it simple. I can’t remember if that was the reason or something else, but I know there was a major downside to Jellyfin compared to Plex that just completely took it out of consideration for me.

ARxtwo,

You can create accounts for Jellyfin that allows people to log in. However, the way you serve it to them is your responsibility. In my case, I set up my system with DDNS to work off a personal domain that anyone can connect to with the correct credentials. It’s a bit more work to set up, but I like it better in the long run.

_cerpin_taxt_,

Oh yeah haha that’s way too much trouble. It just works with Plex. Also not trying to make it any more complicated than “it’s an app you can download and use anywhere you can use Netflix” for my users.

Z4rK,

As long as you’re aware that “it just works” with Plex means it is phoning home to Plex servers with all your logins, actions and movies then you’re good to go.

_cerpin_taxt_,

I’ve taken all of the proper precautions.

Z4rK,

Sounds good! Just be aware that Plex has been hacked in the past and handled communications about it poorly, and that it will probably happen again. It was what made me switch to Jellyfin myself, but doesn’t have to be a showstopper for you.

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