• @Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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      312 years ago

      It’d be a damn shame if you accidently downloaded cloudstream, an android app that allows you to download and watch offline, or just stream nearly any show or movie. I wouldn’t recommend the super stream source, as it almost always has a version available. Also, just in case, maybe don’t download tachiyomi to allow you to read any comics, manga, or graphic novels you want. It also has shitloads of hentai and pulls from almost every website imaginable.

      And avoid Anna’s archive, as it has tons of ebooks which might(I’m not a lawyer) actually just be legal?

    • @SoleInvictus@lemmy.world
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      You absolutely should not subscribe to a VPN before not visiting any of those sites. I can’t recommend www.privateinternetaccess.com or www.expressvpn.com at all, clearly having never used them. They’re also useless for circumventing cell network limitations on video quality. Completely useless, otherwise I’d use them to subscribe to a cheaper lower data tier but still get 4k video.

      • Rikudou_Sage
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        92 years ago

        Any guide on how to find the usenet groups? I’d hate to stumble upon them accidentally, so it’s best to be prepared.

      • Free Palestine 🇵🇸
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        92 years ago

        Btw, you should also never get a seedbox to torrent anonymously. You also need to stay away from private trackers.

    • @MadBigote@lemmy.world
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      142 years ago

      Imagine if people set up a Plex/Jellyfin after visiting those sites to have their own streaming service setup. Pure madness!

    • YⓄ乙
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      122 years ago

      Thank you for your service and I will never visit those websites.

    • @Stephen304@lemmy.ml
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      62 years ago

      Also definitely dont look into setting up sonarr, radarr, prowlarr, and overseerr in combination with Plex or jellyseerr in combination with jellyfin. Otherwise you could find yourself with an extremely low touch automated downloading and organizing system that you can let your friends log into to request movies and shows without them needing to bug you at all for it to be downloaded in your preferred quality, size, codec, etc and automatically show up in Plex/jellyfin as soon as it finishes downloading, all renamed and sorted into folders as you please. That would be horrible.

    • @firadin@lemmy.world
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      62 years ago

      So like what’s the actual deal with pirating content nowadays? I remember in the early 2000s it was don’t seed and don’t torrent just-released content and you won’t get caught. Are the companies more rigorous nowadays? Are they going after people and you really do need a VPN? Can you torrent content at a human-watchable pace (like a show or two a month, maybe a movie or two a week) and no one’s going to notice you?

      • @The_v@lemmy.world
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        122 years ago

        Depends on the country. In the U.S., instead of chasing users themselves, they have leveraged the Internet providers to act as enforcers. If you torrent something they first send you notice of violation from your Internet provider.

        If you continue to torrent, they can
        cancel your service or the copyright holder can start legal action.

        Honestly, I would never torrent anything anymore. There are great webpages that offer streaming for no cost.

        • Free Palestine 🇵🇸
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          52 years ago

          A direct download/streaming site can be shut down at any time. Torrents are resistant to censorship, as they are decentralized. Just grab a good VPN or a seedbox and you can torrent as much as you want.

      • @Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
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        22 years ago

        Just get a VPN and torrent like normal in the 2000s. Nothing has changed. Seeding is not really a big deal anymore because everyone’s internet speeds are so fast.

      • @locuester@lemmy.zip
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        They generally ignore it unless you become excessive and then they just warn you, nothing horrible. But if you do it over a VPN, they can’t do anything. Or do it from a cloud instance from Amazon, or Google, and then download the files locally from there.

      • @Krauerking@lemy.lol
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        12 years ago

        I personally love QBtorrent and the built in search engine, plus if you look for it there are block lists you can quickly install into it that blocks you from connecting to known IP addresses of copyright enforcers but I’d still recommend a VPN anyways for good measure from your ISP but those are cheap and easy too.

        I definitely seed a lot more than I did in the 2000s but I have fiber and unlimited data so that’s an easier ask.

        There are supposedly great private torrent sites but I’ve been ok with the ones everyone else uses and haven’t figured out if I need to do different.

    • Possibly linux
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      42 years ago

      Be careful putting that stuff on lemmy. Big studios aren’t afraid to sue

  • @Szymon@lemmy.ca
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    I dust off my robe and wizard hat.

    Plex is a great streaming alternative. Cancelling Netflix pays for the upgrade to gigabit Internet. Hard drives are cheaper now than ever. Usenet access remains safe and speedy. The DIY community for automation is thriving.

    Is that the Jolly Roger coming in to port? Welcome back old friends.

      • @Jarmer@slrpnk.net
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        622 years ago

        I MUCH prefer Jellyfin to Plex. Jellyfin seems to have active development whereas Plex is more interested in adding in a ton of “features” (aka garbage) that I never ever wanted and continues to leave YEARS old bugs out in the wild. I think it won’t be long until Plex enshittifies itself to death. They clearly have a financial situation that is not aligned with its users.

        • @GreenMario@lemm.ee
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          92 years ago

          Plex has a client on my TV and Xbox. How would I watch Jellyfin content on those?

          I say this a guy that got his RasPi3 Plex server running just good and stable a year ago and doesn’t touch it except to cycle in new content.

          • @mark3748@sh.itjust.works
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            82 years ago

            You could use Emby instead. Jellyfin is the FOSS version of Emby and Emby has apps for everything. I moved to Emby from Plex five years ago or so and it’s been great.

          • @Camilo@discuss.tchncs.de
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            12 years ago

            In the worst case scenario, you can access it via browser and then bookmark it.

            I do that on my tv for which almost no apps can be installed and found no issues so far. Even HDR media plays, which I found that it is (or was?) a paid feature on Plex

        • @Szymon@lemmy.ca
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          62 years ago

          I agree, I’ll give the software another try once I have more free time to learn and troubleshoot

        • @mammut@lemmy.world
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          52 years ago

          I think it depends on what client devices you have. Last time I checked, some content (like HDR) won’t play on Apple TV via Jellyfin unless you spring for a relatively expensive paid client (like Infuse). The open source client won’t work.

          • @EeeDawg101@lemm.ee
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            52 years ago

            Infuse is only $10 per year and that includes on your Apple TV and iPhone. It really is quite slick and looks really good.

            • @Jarmer@slrpnk.net
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              32 years ago

              Agreed. This is not expensive at all. 100% worth the value which is less than a dollar a month.

            • @whynotzoidberg@lemmy.world
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              32 years ago

              FWIW, my Plex Pass has worked to be much less than that since I purchased it.

              Much (not all) of the negative I see about Plex is associated with cost of a Plex Pass. If subscribing monthly, it costs more. If you play the long game with the Lifetime Pass, it’s dirt cheap and pretty darn solid.

            • @mammut@lemmy.world
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              22 years ago

              I’m only interested in one-time purchases, so I just saw the $75 and decided it was too expensive. It’s also just a hurdle to get over. Right now, my Apple account doesn’t even have a payment method associated with it, because I generally just use free / FOSS apps.

        • Obinice
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          12 years ago

          Unfortunately, there’s no Jellyfin application on my TV, or I’d swap :-(

        • @ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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          12 years ago

          Jellyfin feels like it’s 95% of the way there. I switched from Plex to Jellyfin back to Plex again a year or two ago, but I am thinking I should give Jellyfin another shot some time. There was some media that Jellyfin wasn’t able to play even without transcoding that Plex handled fine, but those transcoding issues could be solved by now.

      • @Szymon@lemmy.ca
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        I tried but the technical gap from Plex to Jellyfin was too intense for me to try and make work at this time of my life. Plex works well for my purposes and I paid for the phone apps when needed ($6 per device I think).

        I admire and support Jellyfin as FOSS and hope I can jump on when I have more time to make it work.

        • @Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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          82 years ago

          Yeah for sure, didn’t mean to imply folks shouldn’t use Plex just giving it a shout out as an alternative. I’ve used both and they are both pretty awesome. One of my friends set up a seed box with Jellyfin so I kinda cheated in leaving the tinkering to them but I don’t think it was too bad with the provider they went with.

        • BolexForSoup
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          32 years ago

          Exact same thing happened to me, i just couldn’t get it to consistently work.

      • MaggiWuerze
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        32 years ago

        I can’t for the life of me get HW encoding working with Jellyfin. Plex was just plug and play.

        i7-11800H

      • @three@lemm.ee
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        12 years ago

        worth checking out until you get to the cry for developers that they posted yesterday. fuck switching my media serving to a dying platform

    • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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      162 years ago

      Plex is cracking down on pirated content. They can’t do anything locally (yet) but they sent out a mass email about two weeks ago saying that anyone that hosts a Plex server in the cloud (they didn’t specifically mention Hetzner, but that’s who is largely being affected) will lose access on October 12th.

      • @CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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        202 years ago

        That’s because people were creating their own ‘streaming services’ using pirated content and selling access to it using Hetzner servers, which is very bad for all parties involved because it brings a lot of negative attention when actual profits are being generated from distributing pirated material.

        • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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          52 years ago

          Yeah, but it sucks for people like me who just set everything up a few weeks ago and are using it privately. I’ve hosted a massive Plex server locally for about a decade, but finally decided to stop doing everything locally. I had it running for two weeks in the cloud before I got the email from Plex. I just setup Jellyfin yesterday and all of my users will have to migrate to that.

          • MaggiWuerze
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            122 years ago

            That sucks for you, but you gotta understand Plex there as well I think. They know that all their clients are pirates, but they can’t just ignore something like that, lest risk catching unwanted attention.

      • Avid Amoeba
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        182 years ago

        People thought hosting copyrighted content on someone’s cloud and making it available to others was a good idea? 🤦🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️

        This is why we can’t have nice things.

        • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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          92 years ago

          It’s specifically people doing this and selling access to the servers en masse, like these servers have a hundred or more users each. The don’t care about the small fish that are doing this privately for no monetary gain.

          • Avid Amoeba
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            Yeah, I guess it’s often profit-driven. If you can get $5 per month from 100 people, you can probably clear hundreds of dollars per month. So that ten times, and this becomes quite a serious profit stream.

        • lazynooblet
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          72 years ago

          Sorry I don’t buy it. It stinks of puppeting for rights holders. I moved to Jellyfin as soon as that story broke. I’ve been a Plex pass user for over 10 years (albeit lifetime single purchase) and the only thing I miss is in-TV subtitle search.

            • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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              52 years ago

              I’ve been running both Plex and Jellyfin for years and I’ve had more problems with Plex than I’ve had with Jellyfin. It’s also easier to figure out what the issue is since it’s open source, I actually fixed a bug and added documentation for the “Native streaming” in JellyfinForKodi since I was able to dig deep into it.

              I’ve always found that Hardware (GPU) Encoding to be a pain to use, regardless of the platform. It also lessens the quality of the video compared to Software Encoding. Get yourself a stronger CPU and don’t mess with HE. I have a AMD Threadripper 2970WX in my home server and it laughs at transcoding 4K with uncompressed audio and Dolby Vision/Atmos. I can do 4 4K simultaneous transcodes with room to spare.

              People pay Plex for the ease of remote access. If you can read or watch a video, it’s really not that difficult to setup remote access for Jellyfin (they have the process fully documented). There’s a key thing here: if you setup the remote connection it removes any liability from the software creators (Jellyfin in this case). If you want to give them $120 or more because you can’t be bothered to figure out how to setup remote access yourself, so be it, but you’re also at the whim of the company.

            • lazynooblet
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              52 years ago

              You seem really sensitive to this.

              You have made the move to JF based on what you think Plex will do in the future

              Yes. Plex have access to my content, my usage history, my personal details, etc. Giving that sort of information away and trusting a for-profit company to do the right thing is naive at best. I feel happier now that the system is behind closed doors, even if I do miss out on a feature or two.

              Hence, you were disingenuously spreading nonsense and misinformation.

              Not really. Are you mixing my response up with others? I voiced an opinion, that was all.

              • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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                52 years ago

                They also responded to me me saying “Plex has been cracking down on Netflix style streaming services for 5 years” but then tell you “Plex isn’t cracking down on piracy, you’re spreading misinformation!” 🤣

                I’ve always hated the fact that Plex was sort of a black box, I’ve been using it for over a decade and always had random issues which we’re unable to be troubleshot because there was no information available. One long standing bug is sometimes when you setup a server it won’t connect to the Plex backend and doesn’t register on their end, so even if you visit the local IP of your server, there are zero server settings available. No one knows why it happens or how to fix it, there has been a big report open for it for ages and even the devs/support team are like 🤷‍♂️ when you ask them for help, and this is after paying for PlexPass. Granted it doesn’t happen frequently, but it’s still annoying as hell. “Claiming” your server when its run remotely (especially in docker) can sometimes be a huge pain as well.

                • lazynooblet
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                  42 years ago

                  You sure are incredibly trusting and protective of Plex. For a closed source system, unless you work for Plex, you are spreading misinformation by denying opinions contrary to your own. I would think myself naive to continue to trust in a company showing themselves to be taking action in favour of copyright holders.

        • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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          Plex’s (almost) entire user base is pirates, it’s the same with Kodi, Emby and Jellyfin. I don’t know of anyone that has legally ripped all of their DVDs and Blu-rays themselves, it’s just too much of a pain in the ass, and I know multiple people that have run servers for years.

          Plex is just covering their own asses from getting sued for “enabling the distribution of pirated content”. Kodi and Jellyfin aren’t big targets since they aren’t a business, they don’t sell a product, Plex (and Emby) does. Kodi and Jellyfin can’t get sued (or it doesn’t make sense to sue them) because they have the disclaimer that says “we make this for streaming content you own, we don’t host anything, we don’t support the piracy plugins, do what you will with it, we’re not responsible for your actions” but since Plex can route traffic through their servers (the Plex Relay) and the fact that they offer PlexPass puts them in hot water.

          Instead of Plex blocking the specific users based on email, specific IP or something else specific to that account, they said “fuck anyone using Hetzner, regardless of whether or not you’re violating our ToS.”

          I’ve paid for a lifetime PlexPass and have actually paid for it a few times over since it took years before I finally bought one. Yet, I get treated like I’m some mega-pirate making money off of them. They don’t give a shit about their users, all they care about is money and not getting sued.

        • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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          72 years ago

          Yeah, people act like Plex and other media servers are used for legally obtained content only. Plex is just covering their asses and they can’t block users hosting locally so this is a “here we did something, are you happy now?” to the copyright lawyers.

      • @Szymon@lemmy.ca
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        12 years ago

        Good to know, hopefully this creates a drive to make alternatives a little more user friendly to set up

        • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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          12 years ago

          It’s easy to setup remote access to Jellyfin… once you know what you’re doing. I’ve been doing it for years, and just recently gave Caddy a try as my reverse proxy and it literally takes 3 lines of code to create a SSL secured reverse proxy (literally just Jellyfin.yourfqnd.com { reverse_proxy Jellyfin:8096}).

          I’ve written a docker compose file for each of my categories of apps on my server: Plex, Jellyfin, Admin apps, and Pirating. The Caddy config file is simple so I just copy that to its app directory. My DNS and my CNAME records are already set.

          So after a bit of work writing the aforementioned scripts I can have my entire setup on a new server in about 5 minutes and one command.

          IDK if docker-compose works on Windows, but I’m happy to share it if you run Linux.

          • @Ringmasterincestuous@aussie.zone
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            Haha I’ve been scrolling down this thread and read these wholesome helpful comments and look up and it’s been you each time!!

            Cut that shit out!!

            👏 well done you beautiful soul 👍

            • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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              22 years ago

              Hahaha happy to help! Apparently two people didn’t like my comment above for some reason 🤷‍♂️

              I’ve been doing this for over a decade and have a lot of experience in what to do and what not to do!

    • @flames5123@lemmy.world
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      132 years ago

      Yep. Finally got Radarr and Sonarr with overseerr setup this summer because I need a GUI solution for my family. It’s been working pretty great so far!

      • @HeyMrDeadMan@lemmy.world
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        32 years ago

        I have the same but the one thing I can’t get working is accessing overseer from outside the network (ie internet). I’ve read guides of course but at some point they start talking about domains and certificate signing and I start to have a siezure.

        • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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          Look into Caddy, it’s by far the easiest web server/reverse proxy with automatic SSL support out there. Setup both Caddy and Overseer in Docker and then just simply write

          overseer.yourdomain.com {

          reverse_proxy overseer:overseer port

          }

          Assuming you have you own domain name and have DNS records setup.

          I was using Nginx and Let’s Encrypt for years but it was a bit of a pain in the ass. I just rewrote my entire Docker Compose script to use Caddy so I can deploy everything in about 5 minutes.

          • @kaitco@lemmy.world
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            12 years ago

            Any thoughts on using something like Caddy, or any other reverse proxy option, if you already have a VPN that you pay for?

            Currently I’m using Tailscale for my phone and tablet, but there’s not really an option for Roku outside of my home network. I’d like to give a friend access to my Jellyfin, but I can’t seem to get anything working other than Tailscale because I already pay for ProtonVPN.

            • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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              22 years ago

              Routing the reverse proxy through the VPN just complicates things. I’m assuming you mean you want to give a friend access to your Jellyfin server, not your Roku (not sure why you mentioned that), so just have Caddy listen on ports 80 and 443, and forward the ports on your router. Then setup the reverse proxy lines for Jellyfin in the Caddyfile. Assuming you already have DNS setup you should be good to go, just give your friend the URL. Caddy enables SSL by default so there really is no reason to route the traffic through a VPN tunnel. I’m pretty sure the Jellyfin docs have a section for using Caddy as a reverse proxy.

              • @kaitco@lemmy.world
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                12 years ago

                I’ll have to check again on the Jellyfin docs, but when I was las trying to follow the steps, I ran into an issue where some IP didn’t match something else and it told me I couldn’t continue.

                My friend uses a Roku so getting him to use Tailscale or anything like it isn’t really an option.

                • @pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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                  Yeah, I think you’re confused 😉 There is no need for your friend to use a VPN to access your Jellyfin server. All you need to do is make it publicly accessible and tell him where to find it (the URL).

                  It can literally be as simple as setting up NAT on your router (commonly known as port forwarding, linking the IP of the Jellyfin server and it’s port to a designated port on your router accessible via your public IP) and then giving your friend your public IP and the port that you opened. THIS IS HIGHLY DISCOURAGED THOUGH SINCE NOTHING IS ENCRYPTED.

                  It’s best to setup either Dynamic DNS (usually free, but you don’t get your own domain name, usually just a subdomain under their domain name) or buy your own domain name for cheap (like $10-$30 USD/year) and setup your A records (and CNAME records if you want) in the hosted DNS section. Once you have DNS working then setup a reverse proxy using something like Caddy (simple), Traefik (more complex), or Nginx (a full blown, complex web server) and Certbot/LetsEncrypt. SSL certs and reverse proxies can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but Caddy makes it dead simple.

                  From there just give your friend your URL (https://jellyfin.yourserver.com or however you have it setup). He puts that in the connection box in the Jellyfin UI and it should work as intended.

        • @cor315@lemmy.world
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          12 years ago

          I just set up a VPN with wire guard and duckdns. Connected my phone and works great. Some one will mention a show and I’ll pull out my phone and add it via overseer. Get it on plex in like 2 minutes.

    • @rizoid@midwest.social
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      72 years ago

      Is there any links/guides on how to get into the usenet side of things? I’ve been using torrents forever but people keep saying usenet is safer.

      • @Szymon@lemmy.ca
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        Google/learn about/consider these things

        VPN, Usenet provider (i.e. EasyNews), Usenet indexers (i.e. NZBgeek), Usenet client (i.e. NZBget), Managing your library (Sonarr, Radar, Prowlarr, Filebot),

        Media server & streaming (i.e. Plex, Jellyfin)

        I watch through my firestick or android phones

        I might be missing something, but there are lots of guides once you figure out what you’re looking for. A little technical know-how makes things go smoother and faster though.

        • @rizoid@midwest.social
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          42 years ago

          Thanks for the info. I’ve got. Sonarr radarr and prowlarr set up with qbitt right now and jellyfin. I’ll have to do some digging this weekend.

          • Maximilious
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            Worth mentioning that NZBget is no longer in development. It still works but there is a fork out of a new client someone is developing. I can’t recall the name but easily findable. This would be the equivalent of your torrent client.

            It’s nearing year end and you can get end of year deals soon on providers and indexers so off hold off until November\December. I think I got a lifetime NZBGeek membership last year for like $100 or something. It was my first time doing usenet but I actually switched my instances to use usenet indexers first over torrent indexers its that good.

          • @Szymon@lemmy.ca
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            There’s a few recent guides on Reddit that discuss this and automation. I got access to some private torrent trackers this year, but haven’t touched them since I got my Usenet subscription. I’ve been waiting decades for it to be this easy once you get it set up.

            If you already have that automation part going, this should be pretty straight forward. Add a Usenet download client to your *arr programs, put in the account info from your Usenet provider, add on your account info for nzb trackers, and it works just the same except with more consistency and speed.

        • @TaintPuncher@lemmy.ml
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          32 years ago

          I tried to get into Usenet but I’m old and unable to learn new tricks. I just looked at EasyNews and it’s $9.99 pm for 20GB :| so, like, a single 4K movie with Atmos. I don’t understand the allure of UseNet, perhaps because I am a dumb.

      • @CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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        12 years ago

        Running a VPN makes torrenting just as safe and you’ll be paying a subscription fee for Usenet so it’s a wash in my opinion.

    • @evanuggetpi@lemmy.nz
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      Stremio + Real Debrid is definitely not worth investigating. Avoid it at all costs. Keep giving these media companies more money. All the money. Disney needs your dollars.

  • @gohixo9650@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 years ago

    the capitalists are unable to understand that the “eternal growth” their books mention is not feasible in real world and in fact it is a bug. There are physical upper limits that cannot be overcome. There will not be unlimited people that will always enrol in a new subscription. They need to somehow understand that at some point a company may reach their ceiling. This is not reason to do whatever panic change in order to show growth in the numbers. It will just not happen.

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      252 years ago

      “And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds left to conquer.”

      – H. Gruber.

    • @NotYourSocialWorker@feddit.nu
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      222 years ago

      Ah but when the prices can’t go any higher they can always remove content, paying their suppliers less and getting cheaper hardware. I wish I was joking but these are the options that are left.

    • @eronth@lemmy.world
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      72 years ago

      The thing is, they do know this. They are perfectly willing to drive a company into the ground on the promise of annual growth, and they’ll dump it the moment it cannot serve them monetarily.

    • @Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Lies!

      It’s mathematically possible to have infinite growth as long as it’s in nominal terms and you have infinite inflation!

      (Joke aside, ponder on why central banks have a positive non-zero inflation target…)

  • Margot Robbie
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    782 years ago

    We should all know that Netflix’s method of “throwing money at the wall and hope one of the shows becomes a hit, cancel immediately after a season if it doesn’t work out” is completely unsustainable at this point, as this kind of dehumanizing disposablilty of production is the exact " industry disruptive" approach to expect from a bunch of arrogant Silicon Valley techbros, so this cost increase should not come as a surprise.

    Many long running shows have had pretty bad first seasons, “Parks and Rec”, the US version of “The Office”, and “The Simpsons” comes to mind, and these shows would never have even gotten off the ground if Netflix was running them, because as with all industries, it takes a while for people to find their footing and get to know each other to work together effectively.

    The real sad part is, the industry that has copied Netflix’s “disruptive” approach are now finding out that the emperor has no clothes and are desperately trying to pass the cost off to anybody else for their own survival, which is why it is more important than ever to fight for the dignities of the people who worked on your favorite shows for your entertainment.

    • @Metatronz@lemmy.world
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      242 years ago

      I could very well be mistaken and please correct me if I am. I remember reading that canning a show before season 3 or so was a way of getting around union costs that kick in for a ‘longer’ running show. A very anti labor strategy designed to cash in quickly then drop it so Netflix wouldn’t have to share the wealth.

      • @asyncrosaurus@programming.dev
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        2 years ago

        I thought it was a balance between new shows getting better engagement than old shows, and contracts lasting 3 seasons, which required re-negotiations in favor of the talent. Basically a business model hyper-focused on subscriber growth metrics instead of subscriber retention.

    • Neshura
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      232 years ago

      Imo they’re really poisoning the well. If they pump out shit show after shit show what will happen (and is likely already happening) is consumers wait until the second season for a show releases to make sure they’re not wasting their time getting invested into a show that will be canceled anyway. That will then lead to fewer and fewer shows actually becoming successful, eventually leading to people cancelling the subscription because the last time they watched anything (good) on Netflix was 10 years ago.

      • kamen
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        122 years ago

        I agree, but IMO part of the problem is people watching just whatever to pass time - and this is also going into the stats.

    • @MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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      62 years ago

      To be frank, I don’t think they care about anything else other than keeping people on the platform. Which is not such a bad goal to be had if they tried to achieve that with quality of service, good offering of entertainment, etc. What they are doing is desperately trying to create some long running series where on which people will get hooked and won’t be able to leave even if everything else starts sucking. Should this ever happen I think we can fully expect their next step to be reduced amount of licensing towards other shows and movies.

      But as you rightly put it, you can’t grow forever and ever increasing revenue can only be had in dreams.

      • Billiam
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        22 years ago

        Actually, I don’t think they care about retention at all, because to the industry retention = stagnation. They only care about new subscribers because that “shows” growth. They much prefer hearing “We increased subscriber counts by 10%!” over “We kept 100% of subscribers YoY!”

  • Boozilla
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    2 years ago

    Thanks for reminding me that I haven’t even watched Netflix in a minute. I cancelled it. Fuck them.

  • 👁️👄👁️
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    702 years ago

    They’re not even slowly raising prices, they are very rapidly raising them. We’ve reinvented cable.

    • @Isakk86@lemmy.world
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      62 years ago

      Actually, cable didn’t even raise prices this fast. We’ve, unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with capitalism, created something worse.

    • @MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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      52 years ago

      Perhaps they realized number of people that keeps paying versus number of people who cancel their subscription results in net positive revenue, so they are testing where the line is. All the while trying to fund some new content to get more people to come back.

      • 👁️👄👁️
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        22 years ago

        I wouldn’t doubt there’s collusion. It’s very convenient that none of these services are taking advantage of this and are seemingly raising all of their prices simultaneously.

    • @Touching_Grass@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Yea I didn’t but I’ll cancel this time.

      Should make an event with other people. Set a date and cancel all at the same time.

      I suck at modding communities but I’d help promote and join any if someone got it going.

  • Used/Denied
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    562 years ago

    Never mind the price, Netflix just doesn’t have stuff I want to watch anymore.

    • @rckclmbr@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      Netflix does have good shows, but they’re just so few and far in between. I stopped my subscription about a year ago, and haven’t missed it. I’ll resubscribe this month to watch Fall of the House of Usher, then unsub again just because there’s nothing to watch.

      Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if others are doing this, the streaming companies catch on, and we pay a bulk amount for a season a la early iTunes again

      • @DudeDudenson@lemmings.world
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        2 years ago

        They also actively pigeon hole users into a small portion of their content, they’ve been stripping away all search and discovery functionality over the years. They are going down the route of “our algorithm is perfect and knows exactly what you want so why would you want to do anything else”

        I bet there’s a ton of content you’d actually enjoy that Netflix will never recommend to you because it’s outside of what the algorithm thinks you want to see

        • Danny M
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          52 years ago

          I keep thinking about this, big tech companies and their recommendation algorithms that keep getting worse and recommending you content you don’t actually care about but is designed to keep you on their platform is probably one of the biggest bullshit they come up with.

          maybe I should write about this in longform next week

      • 8rhn6t6s
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        82 years ago

        I agree, I just hate that when they do have good shows they cancel it immediately 🤦. I cringed when they canceled 1899 and inside job.

  • rynzcycle
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    562 years ago

    Ah yes, because derivative reality shows and bottom-of-the-barrel adult cartoons are so expensive to produce.

    What the hell happened, you used to be good.

    Just cancelled, haven’t touched NF since I subbed to HBO (and even that is getting cancelled next month). Maybe its time to try Hulu.

    • @iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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      292 years ago

      Hulu will still show ads for some things, even if you pay extra for ad free. Pisses me off, they’re a terrible company. They’ll never get another dime from me.

        • @iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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          32 years ago

          Idk why you’re trying to tell me bullshit to something I experienced for myself, but okay. I can tell you that it did happen and it pissed me off, and it was enough to make me never want to go back. Plus (I’m not sure if this is still the case) they wouldn’t let me fast-forward commercials on programs I had recorded from their live TV programs. Even though I had also paid the extra there to get no/fewer ads. Something like $80 a month at the time.

          So yeah, no bullshit. Sorry to disappoint you.

          • @uberkalden@lemmy.world
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            32 years ago

            I don’t know what the fuck you paid for, but it wasn’t the ad free service the rest of us got. They have a web page dedicated to explaining the few exceptions they had to ad-free. Live TV is a separate thing from normal Hulu. Are you confusing the two?

            • @iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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              22 years ago

              Idk why you’re coming at me, dude. Does Hulu pay your bills or something? Like I said, I’m just describing my experience, idk why you’re being a confrontational ass about it.

              • @uberkalden@lemmy.world
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                12 years ago

                Maybe my language was confrontational, so that’s on me. You are describing something that is wrong, over and over. From what I can gather, you saw ads on Hulu TV and got mad since you are paying for no ads. They are two different services though and ad free doesn’t apply to the Hulu TV stuff. I asked if you were maybe confusing the two, but ignored that.

                • @iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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                  12 years ago

                  Honestly I don’t know why you care so much. This isn’t debate class, I don’t really need to defend myself to some rando on the internet who decided to make a corporation their white-knight crusade for the day. I detailed an experience I had with the company a few years back. That’s it. I’m not going back to them, because like most streaming platforms I think they’re shite.

          • @uberkalden@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Oh my God. Grow up. No one here even watched those shows

            Edit: I just checked. It’s greys anatomy. That’s it. And it’s out of their control. Now, if you watch that show, definitely a deal breaker. Cancel Hulu. Otherwise, what are we even talking about?

      • @Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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        82 years ago

        They’re not great, but I haven’t seen any ads on ad free. Their interface is weird as hell and it almost seems like they purposely bury things you’ve recently been watching which is weird.

        • @iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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          12 years ago

          It’s not on all things, only some programs, but it was enough that it upset me because they were charging me for ‘ad free’ and didn’t even warn me that some things would have ads.

      • @criticon@lemmy.ca
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        52 years ago

        No it doesn’t. At most it shows what channel produces the show you are watching and when to expect more episodes, and it takes less than 5 seconds

        • @iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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          12 years ago

          Yes it does, or it did when I was subscribed. It was usually on reality type shows like HGTV or other similar things. I also hated that it wouldn’t let me skip ads on things I had recorded on live TV. They also have had shitty no-account sharing policies since before Netflix enraged everyone with their plan for that. I remember them not letting me watch from my account because I wasn’t at my set home address.

          Don’t know what to tell you. Their services were charging way too much to be limiting features like that, and I’m not going back. At least YouTube TV lets you skip ads in recorded programs.

      • @firadin@lemmy.world
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        42 years ago

        They used to do that for a handful of shows due to streaming contracts, but last time I checked (~2019) it was literally two shows. Is it more now?

        • @iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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          22 years ago

          To me, it seemed to be any show that also showed on live TV stations or something? I didn’t know the exact reasons, but it did seem to happen with things affiliated with certain TV stations. But the fact that they do/have done it at all is enough to turn me off.

    • @Number1SummerJam@lemmy.worldOP
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      142 years ago

      I say we should collectively strike from streaming platforms to send a message. If you want to watch shows, collect DVDs from the library or thrift store and rip them to a USB drive. If you have a newer TV with a built in media player, it can read the video formats on the USB drive for quick access to your favorite shows.

        • @variants@possumpat.io
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          22 years ago

          but in this case me cancelling all my subscriptions led me to a great hobby and acquiring my own media instead of trying to figure out what streaming service has what is so much better, plus sharing it with friends and family so they dont need streaming services, at least not all of them is great

          • @Maalus@lemmy.world
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            22 years ago

            Sure. It won’t change Netflix, their pricing or their decisions though. Unless something really big happens (and by that I mean like 20% of all subscribers leaving) they won’t care.

      • rynzcycle
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        52 years ago

        Im at a stage where I am more than happy to pay for really good shows. It really isn’t about price, just value. It’s just been ages since NF made anything stellar.

        They said about The OA (I loved season 1)…

        Neflix describes The OA as “a big creative swing we were proud to take,” but says that when it comes to deciding what to renew and what to cancel, “viewing versus cost” is always what it takes into account.

        This philosophy means we get loads of average crap. They aren’t a regular network, why the hell are they acting like it.

        I’ve said before, because it’s linked with delivery, Prime seems to be the only service willing to take risks, and they make some great stuff because of it. HBO seems to be a distant second.

        • @Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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          12 years ago

          When I saw OA, I thought holy shit Netflix really gets it, this is amazing, I can’t wait to see what comes next. And now it’s like a special on the Johnny Depp trial and a bunch of depressing drama / horror shows. There was a brief golden age but nothing really good since Covid.

    • Maximilious
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      62 years ago

      Funny enough I just cancelled my Hulu after they jacked the ad-free price up to $18. It was $12 when I first subscribed about 6 or 7 years ago.

      I will say thier D+ and Hulu price doesn’t seem bad with the current promotion, but I’m getting D+ currently from family. I’ve always sailed the seas even when subbed to Hulu, but once D+ starts blocking sub sharing I’ll be shoving off for the long foreseeable future once again.

    • @SitD@feddit.de
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      142 years ago

      they outplayed you 😂 you might be paying $0, but you can’t stop them anymore from charging you 2x$0 next year

    • @FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world
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      122 years ago

      I canceled after they lost Star Trek. And then I never subscribed to the place that does have Star Trek now. Now I’m so annoyed with all of the price hikes that I may only ever subscribe to the high seas going forward. Lol

  • @TheDude@lemmy.ml
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    502 years ago

    I’ve been a Netflix customer for over 20 years. The recent password crackdown and constant price gouging led me to cancel their service yesterday. Yo Ho MF’ers.

    • @Archer@lemmy.world
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      72 years ago

      I canceled just after the CEO said that paid customers could be getting ads. Knew that was the beginning of the end

  • @Arethusa@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Sounds like Netflix is panicking and scrambling. The frequency of their subscription hikes increases and increases. Perhaps they think they can price hike their way out of the dissatisfaction they have delivered to subscribers. Keep trying Netflix, find that magic subscription price point that will surely cover for all the subscribers you’re shedding with your idiocy and will definitely not hasten your arrival to 0% revenue. Increasing that price won’t lose you more subscribers right? Of course not. Burn Netflix burn.

    • @Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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      112 years ago

      More like they took on a shitload of very low interest debt back when the fed rate was 0%. Now that the fed rate is 5.5%, they can’t just roll over the loans and have to start paying them back.

    • @JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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      92 years ago

      They’re finding the optimal price point. Each time they raise they lose some customers, but their increased revenue leads them to being more profitable afterwards. Eventually the price increases will result in so many people leaving that they’ll have to stop.

      Problem is, this strategy has exactly one direction: irrelevance. It can take a very long time to get there, but eventually you lose so many subscribers that your competitors have begun eating your lunch. The profits were solid so you didn’t care. It’s the normal business life cycle, and Netflix is well into the mature phase. We have worse quality and higher prices to look forward to.

      • @Arethusa@lemmy.world
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        32 years ago

        Netflix’s lowered revenue growth is the highlight. That’s what they and their investors focus on, with subscriber satisfaction being an afterthought. The price hikes haven’t shown any effect on that downward trend either. But hey, keep hiking I say. Fires burn bigger when fuel is added and these people can’t differentiate water from gasoline. Having washed my hands of this company, I’m looking forward to further scrambling when revenue growth is nil and then negative and the stock drops and drops and the corporatists wail.

  • GreenBottles
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    2 years ago

    it’s amazing that they think people are going to continue to pay them at these prices for no content

    • @TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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      342 years ago

      Some people seem to believe the customers are suckers who will eternally take the price hikes, but even the most gullible fool still doesn’t have infinite money. At some point they’ll have to cut something or the bank will cut it for them.

      Well, back to the seas it seems. It was fun while it lasted. One might as well pay for a VPN instead.

      • @jimbolauski@lemmy.world
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        102 years ago

        I’m sure they did the math they’ve calculated that the increases will offset the loss is subscribers. From the article it looked like the royalties will increase so less subscribers paying more is even more profitable.

        • @TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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          52 years ago

          It wouldn’t be the first time companies precisely calculate next quarter earnings and fail to account for the long term survival of their business.

      • @deafboy@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        The customers are suckers who will take a lot. Look up skylink satellite tv provider, and their “always free” tier that’s currently 6,90€ a month.

        They gave it for free just around the time analog tv was being decomissioned. And after they’ve captured the large userbase, who couldn’t switch back, they pulled the trigger.

        • @jantin@lemmy.world
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          32 years ago

          Huge +1 for Mullvad for their pricing model. 5€/month regardless of “plan” and you can buy as many or as few months as you like. I never feel chained to Mullvad, never worried about subscription running out or getting charged at random moments. Pay 5€, watch whatever you want on the foreign tv websites, forget about vpn for the next 3 months.

          • @Companion1666@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            If you love Mullvad’s pricing, you may check out iVPN’s one-week plan for $2. Like Mullvad, you don’t need an email address to register, just generate an ID and supports WireGuard. Personally, both Mullvad and iVPN have a similar connectivity performances.

          • Free Palestine 🇵🇸
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            12 years ago

            Mullvad also gives you free multi-hop. It’s not particularly useful for torrenting, but it’s great for privacy in general. But it’s not available in the mobile apps, so I will stick with IVPN.

    • @chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      232 years ago

      Every time Netflix changes anything, people freak out and say they’re gonna lose all their subscribers.

      And every time, Netflix makes more money than before, because they have awesome data analysis and have a very good idea of how many subscribers will leave and how much more money they’ll make from the remainder.

      I remember when they lost like 4% of their subscribers a few years back and everyone was all doom and gloom, but they’d raised their rates like 15%

      • Polar
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        152 years ago

        Exactly. No one I know cancelled. They just had to buy separate accounts while complaining.

        • @vithigar@lemmy.ca
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          42 years ago

          I’m the only person I know who cancelled. Like you said everyone else just complains about it.

    • @Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I keep hearing people say this no content thing. Meanwhile I just went through Castlevania, one piece, sweet tooth and Kingdom this past week and there’s like 30 shows and movies on my cue