HBO Max is removing features from my plan without reducing my price.

A great UI to stream your movie files from your TV. A bit like Plex, but open source.

Plex and Jellyfin are two ways to host your own content. Basically, instead of streaming from a Netflix server, you’re streaming from your own server.

Plex was the original, and Jellyfin is the FOSS alternative. In short, you run the program on a computer somewhere, and tell that program where all of your media is stored. It’ll scan your media depending on the library type (movies, TV shows, music, etc,) automatically pair it with the appropriate metadata, and make it available for streaming via the computer.

You can combine this with the arr suite (Radarr, Sonarr, etc) to have your torrent client automatically download new content as it comes out. Basically, the appropriate arr program listens for when new content gets released, then automatically tells your torrent client to search for that content (based on specific rules like language, bitrate, capture method, etc) and download it automatically. This pairs nicely with Plex/Jellyfin because you can use automatic torrent management to drop the files directly into the right folders for your server to scan and make available.

It does have a few drawbacks. One of the most annoying is port forwarding. Lots of VPNs have stopped offering port forwarding, because some creeps figured out how to use it to share/trade CSAM anonymously. But Plex and Jellyfin require an open port in order to be made available outside of your network, and you don’t want to run the server+torrents without a VPN. Some VPNs allow port forwarding, but randomly assign the port every time you connect. So it may work fine for a while, but will require occasional attention when that port changes.

There’s also the issue with needing a computer that’s turned on all the time. Some people (like myself) just run it on their home desktop. But that means I needed to set up Wake On LAN to be able to boot my computer up remotely, or just be okay with letting it idle all the time and never sleep. Personally, I chose to enable WOL, so I just remote into my network and send a magic packet before trying to stream. But that’s an extra step some people won’t want to do every time. If you have an old computer sitting around gathering dust, it can be a great weekend project.

Tbh, all you need nowadays for most stuff is a VPN , Qbittorrent and 1337x.to

Download speeds are such that a 1.5gb film takes about a minute to download (in Europe, not sure about third world countries lol)

If you need something more obscure, look up how to add the search engine to Qbittorrent

Nevermind that shit, Stremio + Torrentio + Real-Debrid. I'm fucking done with these greedy-ass companies. I was paying Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Apple, Paramount , MLB.tv and HBO, and pretty content to do so, and they all continually removed content and adjusted their pricing to reduce what I was getting for my money. They finally pushed me beyond my tolerance limit a few months ago and I've been back to sailing the high seas for the first time in 20 years.

I have more content now, all at acceptable quality options, all with good subtitles instead of the mess HBO was, and all on the same platform instead of having to jump between 7 different apps. I'm done with them and I'll stay done with them until they pull their heads out of their asses.

Edit: if you get a cheap computer, a Chromecast, a FireTV, or what I have - an Nvidia Shield TV, then you get even get a nifty remote controller and a good standard browsing platform for everything.

I'm like you, hadn't pirated outside of games since early 2000s and just started again. Wait until you see the shit we have now, it's mind-blowing how far it's come.

And with Jellyfin if you have the upload speeds you can even host for family etc, so anyone sharing your Netflix now can just login to your Jellyfin server, for them it will be a comparable experience.

It's like Plex, but with fewer features and a worse interface.

Sorry, what are the *arr apps? Not familiar with that stuff..

And as an added bonus: If I buy the blu-ray, I don't need to keep the massive 4k remuxes on my server. It's a win-win.

You know, I can actually see this happening and them not understanding why its climbing. I'm sure you could make a great comedy sketch out of it.

In the early days they didn’t; that was the whole point of them. You paid a subscription specifically not to have ads like free broadcast television did.

It only lasted like a decade, but it was their whole selling point.

e: keep in mind, too, that broadcast tv at the time was where all the good content was. HBO only showed movies that had already been in theatres (thus the name Home Box Office) and Showtime’s hook was soft-core porn. (‘Do your parents have Showtime?’ was sleepover code for ‘can we watch kinda-porn after the ‘rents have gone to sleep?’) There wasn’t the dearth of original shows/movies we have now. They weren’t studios back then.

e2: sorry for multiple edits, but also bear in mind that when HBO first came out, people were watching their content on televisions like this, which was so inferior to movie theatres that ‘it’s in your home advertising free!’ was basically their whole selling point at first.

Your link literally states you're wrong...

Letter to your state insurance investigation board also help claims magically settle faster

They also likely claimed during the merger that it wouldn't effect customers. Of course we knew that was a lie.

Until each and every one of us reading this commits to expending the energy, and sacrificing the leisure time, to actually pursue what small options we have, this is only going to get worse.

Did you cancel during that call?

Because they put your concerns in a furnace, if you didnt.

And what did that do for you?

Honestly, that's the only reason I have Max, because it's "free" with my cell plan. If I was paying for it, I would have cancelled it a long time ago. I almost never use it

But they're jumping through hoops having to pay a bunch of different companies subscription fees to use their apps that have no common interface so its literally nothing but hoops.

All you have to do is ask c/piracy or any community really where to get some Plex or jellyfin access

When it comes to indie stuff or blockbusters that were huge risks for the studios like Dune, you should pay for it if you have the ability. Pirating doesn't directly hurt most of the people who worked on the film, as they usually get payment upfront. It does hurt them in the future, as studios won't finance similar future projects or projects with those creators. This is why you should pay for risky movies that are of higher quality.

If Dune didn't make the money it did, the franchise would have ended there. I was surprised it did as well as it did, as while I never doubted that it would be a good movie considering the people that made it, I was convinced it wasn't something most people would appreciate. The director's last film, Blade Runner 2049, was better than the first movie, but not enough people saw it in theaters. I was blindsided by Dune even getting made, let alone being a financial success.

Bottom line, pay for movies you want people to make more of if possible. Pirate shit you don't care about. If you can't pay for media because of financial hardship, pirate away. Investors have made streaming services suck for consumers while squeezing workers into having little disposable income or time. They deserve piracy, as it's the harvest they have sown. Property is a social contract, and by not letting workers see the benefits of ownership, they have every right to not respect it.

Good question for the brilliant minds at askouija