Speaking as a Brit, the only way to get TLoU was to subscribe to Sky TV, which (as far as I’m aware) requires a 12 month contract. Fuck that, quite frankly.
So I took to the high seas because I could.
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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/edit; Woops, meant to be a top-level comment, not a reply...
Now tv doesn't require a contract like that, in fact we just used a trial which they're very generous on giving out to people multiple times. So when a site like that comes out we use a trial if there's one available and then depending on the runtime we might only have to pay a month and it's pretty cheap if you just get TV shows and not movies.
Now TV is fucking awful though. They still think 1080p and surround sound are luxury optional extras.
It's basically just cybersquatting on shows so nobody else can have them, and remind you that you could watch them in decent quality if only you weren't such a cheapskate and would subscribe to full Sky.
Additionally, even though Fox sold their shares in Sky years ago, I still can’t divest them in my head from the Murdoch empire.
I mean, doesn't Netflix also charge extra for 1080p? Also I'm not a massive fan of Now, I only get it when there's a show I really want to watch on it.
Netflix also won’t serve 1080p if you are on PC. Even though you have specifically paid for 1080p or higher.
... How would you even measure that?
/edit: ah, popular downloads from one particular torrent provider. Not the wider picture.
Add on pirate streams, usenet, and the other half a billion torrent sites and those numbers muddy a bit...
I don't think it said just 1 specific torrent provider. But even then, as long as it was a decently sized generic torrent provider, what makes you think it would not be representative of the bigger picture?
They explicitly state these are Torrent Freaks numbers. Along with:
It should be noted, as Torrent Freak does, these statistics only reflect a portion of any pirated content this year. The stats are specifically for single-episode torrents, rather than season-wide packages, and even more specifically they’re based on data from the torrenting platform BitTorrent. Just as television has grown and evolved across new formats in the last decade or so, so has piracy, with more and more people turning to sites hosting streams of pirated content, rather than “traditionally” pirating content through downloaded, local copies.
These numbers only reflect piracy of one type and among that type only one, very public, provider. (and not even their entire community, just those that download episodes one by one) That's quite a limited scope. Lots of pirates don't like such public services and/or use other protocols/methods of acquiring media.
Personally, I don't even use Torrents at all anymore, let alone Torrent Freak, yet I pirate hundreds of hours of media every month. I've also been hearing far more commonly in the last few years about people using pirate streaming services instead of downloads.
If you want the full picture, you've gotta expand your demographics. When you only ask the straight white men, all you get is what straight white men think, instead of the whole community's opinion.
law of large numbers: it's probably fairly representative
I can't be bothered to figure out which streaming service it's on. Also my *arr stack is fully automated and shared with ~15 people so the cost per person is very low considering my nas and nuc use ~100W combined, that's $12/mo for 15 people based on my local electric rate. I would gladly put my plex/jellyfin server in the closet and pay for a subscription if I could pay $12/mo to legally watch any show / movie on however many screens I want from wherever I want. But until then, my arrstack is both cheaper for the features and more convenient in content availability.
As a comparison, to subscribe to every major streaming service would be upwards of $90 per month.
As someone who is into tech but doesn’t understand what you’re saying here, is there a glossary, or wiki that I could read up on your setup? Looking to swap to the high seas this year but wanna do it in a way that’s smart and convenient.
I'm not sure if the piracy megathread or FMHY megathread cover the *arr stack specifically, but they have lots of information so I'm recommending them broadly for anyone wanting to ingest information about piracy.
Regarding what the arr stack even is:
Tldr, you set up a list of public and/or private trackers in Prowlarr or Jackett. In Radarr and Sonnar you set up movies and shows respectively that you want to keep track of. Rad/Sonarr check those trackers for releases for your tracked media matching criteria (like resolution, size, language, etc).
When it finds a matching release, it sends the torrent file or magnet link to your torrent client to download. When it finishes, Rad/Sonarr hardlink or copy the file to a library location and organize/name them according to rules you set.
You can point Jellyfin or Plex to that library location and all the media will be organized so it can easily figure out what media is there and grab metadata for it (cover images, description, ratings, etc). Then you can watch that media through Jellyfin/Plex or an app that plugs into them.
The *arrs also work with usenet if you'd prefer that over or in addition to torrenting with a vpn.
You’re welcome
Because it was also the best show of 2023?
Also DVD release was held back from the initial advertised date (or at least if it wasn't, nobody had it for at least a month from then). Plenty of the supposedly legit sets online - including on Amazon etc - were also clever counterfeits (I ended up with one)
I'd put money on Australia being the top country to pirate it, no one wants to give Foxtel money to watch a HBO show.
REALLY tried to like it. Watched the whole thing but then afterwards, I felt like I had watched nothing. The farther away I get from the show, the more I dislike it. All of the acting was great. And when they got away from the video game, the story was wonderful. But I felt like I was watching a video game - which I was in a way. And I felt like it was trying way to hard to be profound. It's sad because I thought that "Chernobyl" was one of the best things I've ever watched on television.
Edit: Completely realize that this post was not about TLoU but just needed to get this off my chest. When everyone raves about it, I feel like I've been taking crazy pills. On the subject of the post, yes, streaming services are getting way too expensive and I think we'll reach an inflection point soon where they will all start collapsing at once.
I didn't even understand how to watch it in Germany (eventually figured it out, but the high seas were easier to sail).
I did buy the UHD Blu-ray set of this season though, because I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The most popular show is also the one most pirated...
Amazing stuff
I don't see the draw. Do people like Pedro Pascal because they feel bad for his GoT character? I don't have anything against him as a person or an actor but he seems like your average TV grade actor. Someone you would have seen ages ago in a show like LOST and forgot about. Good for him but I don't get why people online act like he's the best thing to happen to television
There's also other cast on the show that are all really great actors...
Because Now TV is a piece of shit.
It's one of the few shows that peaked my interest as I love zombies and post apocalyptic worlds but I only got thru like 4 or 5 episodes until I stopped watching as it was utter garbage as are most things that's on TV nowdays. That's why I don't feel like paying for it either. I don't seem to be in the target audience for most things.