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

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

Scrolled through the gigantic twitter thread of all the content Disney + is going to have. So much shite, it's kinda unbelievable. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the only new exclusives ready for launch will be a Lady and the Tramp remake and the Star Wars show The Mandalorian, right?

I'd probably pay a monthly fee just for Frozen if I had kids, have to be cheaper than a babysitter, but I'm surprised at how bad it seemed. I mean, it has Star Wars and Marvel, it has popular 'adult' stuff, but hasn't everyone already seen those? It seemed really sparse apart from that.

p sure this is mostly aimed at parents

esp w/ all the old TV shows. price of this plus another streaming service for grownups is wayyyyy cheaper than getting cable just to have nickelodeon and/or the disney channel, in terms of things the kids might beg and scream for.

xp. Yes, thanks for catching that. I watched the first version, but missed the remake series. Was that any good?

Eureka (on Netflix) was a goofy sci-fi show that I thought held up over its run. Good cast, fun scripts, etc.

I watched the trailer for Dark Matter on AppleTV+…. which is like a different take on Constellation, another show that just ended (and mercifully canceled) on AppleTV+? Why did they green light the same concept twice??

I don’t plan to watch it unless someone comes along and tells me it’s brilliant

Sometimes I see a trailer for a new futuristic psychological thriller mystery type show along those lines and realize what a gift it was to get six seasons of just a straightforward epic hard sci show like The Expanse.

Are any of these worth watching?

https://www.looper.com/680590/sci-fi-shows-that-fans-of-the-expanse-should-watch-next/

I too miss the Expanse.

Dark Matter was a good ensemble show. I liked the cast. Took me a while to recognize the female lead in her new role on The Rookie. Would recommend, though big caveat that it was hitting its stride when cancelled, so is incomplete.

Of that Looper list, haven’t seen Lost in Space or Altered Carbon, would like to eventually. Heard both are good.

Killjoys had a complete run, would recommend. More in the Firefly caper vein than a hard sci-fi show, but had a good arc over the series. Forgot about Defiance, which I liked, though can’t remember how/if it completes.

That list doesn’t mention Falling Skies, which had a decent, complete run.

I second Dark Matter, enjoyable ride despite the cancelation.

Discovery is pretty awful, I'm a Trek diehard and had to stop watching it.

Alerted Carbon has a great first season, but a boring second.

On the last rewatch Galactica's back half was better than I remembered, possibly because a couple of things that seemed terrible at first could be laughed at.

Only made it two episodes into Altered Carbon, it felt very "horny basic cable."

pgwp is talking about the new Apple show Dark Matter (based on the mediocre Blake 'Wayward Pines' Crouch book) and not the one where all the people wake up on a spaceship with their memories wiped xps

I second Dark Matter, enjoyable ride despite the cancelation.

Is Dark Matter canceled yet? I know Constellation is. I made it through one episode of Constellation and couldn't muster any sympathy for anyone (except Pullings, obviously) or any interest in the supposed mystery. I suspect Dark Matter is exactly the same. The other "what the fuck is happening" show on Apple we have now bailed is The Big Door Prize.

I'm finally getting around to Ripley, and I have mixed feelings about it. I think it's actually not very good in a lot of ways:

- The performances have a distinct odour of not having been directed much if at all - the actors left to their own devices. Dialogue is flat, almost like rehearsal level. Many long pauses. The only real life and brio comes occasionally from Scott who is of course a huge ham, and his mischievousness is like a breath of fresh air when he decides to deploy it

- The editing, which is not something I usually notice, is just very lugubrious. There are scenes which are clearly written as comedy but which the editing undercuts. The scene with the postman and the stairs and the suitcases, for instance, when Ripley first arrives in town, which some brisk editing could have rendered quite funny, falls kind of flat, despite Scott's best efforts

- The dialogue is just not that interesting. Do they ever talk about anything? Maybe this is how certain rich people are. But like... do the characters have an inner life? Hard to say apart from Ripley, whose inner life is conveyed through some hugely telegraphed moments of abasement

But here's the thing... I keep watching it. Why? I think it's two things. 1, there is just an incredible power to a story of a bad person doing bad things and whether they'll get away with it or not. 2, the PHOTOGRAPHY, FUCKING HELL. I have never seen ANYTHING like this. It's overwhelming on a level of like 3-D Imax or something. The razor-sharp precision of every shot is breathtaking. The ripples on the water. The bricks of a wall. And certain shots quite deliberately ape still photography of the period, so you feel as though you're actually inside a Vivian Maier photograph. It's just wild. I keep watching mainly so I can luxuriate in it. And the leaden editing actually helps here - lets me soak in each shot a little more.

New streamer up: Kino Lorber finally launched its own service.

https://kinofilmcollection.com/

of course i want to pay for it but boy do i ignore my mubi and ovid and criterion....they get lonesome. feel like a lot of stuff floats around all three as well. and now four. but i am a sucker for such presentation. i am a born clicker.

Is Dark Matter canceled yet?

The SyFy show from about 7 years ago is, not the current Apple TV show. The former was a Canadian ensemble with some middling production value but a lot of fun and want afraid to push the plot.

Agree with you, Leee, s1 of altered carbon was very entertaining but I tried twice to get into s2 and just couldn’t.

Xps I never saw the tv show but I loved the Wayward Pines books

The other "what the fuck is happening" show on Apple we have now bailed is The Big Door Prize.

Only way this would be acceptable is if it's an adaptation of John Prine/Iris DeMent's "In Spite Of Ourselves."

xpost to Tracer Hand. I’ve come round to the view that it’s really good. The spaciousness of the photography relates nicely to the spaciousness of the dialogue and indeed the sense that people are thinking before they speak more generally. this creates a great feeling of the exterior photography relating directly to their interior spaces in a way i’m not sure i’ve seen done as effectively before.

the photography is marvellous, like you say. i love the way it’s able toe recognise the variable moods of the med. it’s not the sun sex and sybaritism of the classic view. it’s more the med that would swallow entire fleets of ships with its storms. “wind dark” indeed.

it’s also a series that necessarily loves to dwell on people’s faces, necessarily. and they’re all up to it. i think you’re harsh on Scott being a ham - i think he’s a tremendous actor, probably one of the best around! he can convey a lot with body shape and face.

two caveats. he walks like he’s poo’d himself (this is consistent across roles) and he’s too built/swole in the torso. maybe that’s just a necessary hazard of being a modern day male actor.

but no, love it basically. great work with italian statuary and art. done with absolute relish.

agree on Altered Carbon, S2 is the low end of "okay" whereas S1 was a vv good story. The problem was probably due to the first season following the first novel in the series closely, and the second going off on its own to extremely diminishing returns. I really liked Kinnaman in the lead role, Mackie less so but i don't think that was his fault, he would have been as good as Kinnaman in the role if written better. it wasn't a v good storyline, and i never bought Renee Elise Goldsberry as the charismatic irresistible leader of a resistance movement whom Takeshi Kovacs would follow across time and space and as he changed host bodies over and over.

S1 of AC was excellent like everyone’s saying. i don’t think i made it halfway through E1 of S2.