Below is a look at the most exasperating news from streaming services from this week. The scale of this article demonstrates how fast and frequently disappointing streaming news arises. Coincidentally, as we wrote this article, another price hike was announced.

We’ll also examine each streaming platform’s financial status to get an idea of what these companies are thinking (spoiler: They’re thinking about money).

Netflix starts killing its cheapest ad-free plan in June

Sony bumps Crunchyroll prices weeks after shuttering Funimation

Peacock is raising prices

Fubo cuts 19 channels

In a seemingly desperate push, many streaming services prioritize revenue and profits ahead of building the best streaming service for customers.

We could go on about how this might force people to reconsider their subscriptions, but we should publish before another service makes yet another policy change.

    • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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      8 months ago

      I haven’t done this myself because it’s obviously very illegal, but I’ve been told you set up a server with docker and set up the following containers:

      • gluetun for VPN (exit in Switzerland with a fallback to Spain) as these countries have the laxest regulation re downloading licensed media.
      • radarr for film
      • sonarr for tv
      • other *arr instances for subtitles, music, ebooks etc
      • qbittorrent piped through the Gluetun container
      • jellyfish, plex or XBMC in front as a player.

      But what do I know? I haven’t done it myself and only download large Linux distributions because I love distro-hopping.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        8 months ago

        You can also do all these in Windows. They have installers. Recommend Prowlarr for having all your torrent sites in one interface rather than setting them up repeatedly.

        • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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          8 months ago

          I’ve been told some use an app called LunaSea to to manage their arr instances. Apparently it brings all the arrs under one simple interface.

        • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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          8 months ago

          Me neither as I haven’t done it.

          But apparently it basically creates your own Netflix. You write a title you’d like to watch and within minutes you get a notification that it’s there, ready.

          • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            It’s a shame you’ve never done it. Maybe someone here has a link to some sort of tutorial for a criminal that wants to do it. Not me, just someone.

      • jkrtn@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Do you hear anything about how those people pay for the VPN, or does that not come up?

        • sunbeam60@lemmy.one
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          8 months ago

          Most people I speak to about this assume that the “good VPN” provider can be trusted not to keep logs.

    • 1111@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Stremio & Real Debrid is soooo much easier than the self hosted approach, and is a piece of piss to set up

      • ivanafterall@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        Honestly, it’s even solid without the Real Debrid addition (though I use Real-Debrid and think it’s great). Just add the Torrentio add-on and you’ll have tons of streams for just about everything.

    • variants@possumpat.io
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      8 months ago

      Personally I set up my own plex server, and have been recruiting family to switch from paid streaming services to me, plus I have a few friends and family with servers so between us we have plenty of coverage and fallbacks

    • modifier@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Plex server on a purpose built Linux box with about 34tb. I mostly use Usenet for sourcing stuff, because it’s so quick and comparatively private, but I also use torrents for some harder to find stuff. I also buy a lot of the more obscure music I want from Bandcamp and just download the highest quality version.

      I ran in parralel with my streaming services for a month, just in case I ever had trouble finding current shows we’re watching, but I’ve never had trouble finding good quality rips of shows the same day they are released.

      I just can’t tell you how good it feels to look at my TV, movies, and music collection and know that it’s mine. Every episode and song and film is mine to store and protect, and not subject someone else’s license agreements.

    • desconectado@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Stremio + Real debrid.

      Stremio is a platform to watch any media you like (works very similar to Plex), you can use it as it is, and install the plugins that are more useful to you (torrentio for example). If your country has strict laws, then you can use real debrid to convert the torrents to direct downloads, you just need to open an account in real debrid, pay a few dollars a month (no need to pay for a VPN as direct downloads are ok), and link your account to stremio, and then you’ll have access to lots of content.

      But I only use it to watch the latest linux distributions, nothing like spending a Sunday afternoon watching Fedora 40 while it’s raining outside.