New streaming services give you the same convenience you had in the 90s

And ads. Lots of ads.
- Did they say ads?
  
  If it weren’t for those pesky content breaks every now and then, they could serve even more ads. Won’t somebody think of the shareholders?
  
  it's implied

I'm old enough to remember the promise that cable TV was paid so you wouldn't have commercials...it lasted what, 6 months? The channels without commercials cost extra...le sigh
- Yep. It was pretty clear streaming services were always going to end up the same way from the start. Even YouTube has, although that was harder to predict when it was mostly 30s cat videos.
- The predictable backstop of subscription plus the nearly limitless potential upside of ad sales is just too tempting in the long run for media companies. They get to have their cake and eat it too. Spotify, Amazon, Netflix and have all eventually given in, despite insisting they never would. Shareholder owned media companies will always gravitate to this model. It's the only way to maximize quarterly revenue growth.

Pretty wild to want to add channel when:
their interface is garbage
their content is pretty lacking
If they play any "pay for that channel", it's insta unsub
- I’m already thinking about it. I can’t watch new content outside the service, so if I’m torrenting for long term storage regardless, why am I paying in the first place?
- only reason I still have disney+ is because my cousin used to borrow it from me. then I stopped paying for it and he was too lazy to make his own account to he just started paying mine. I've had free disney+ for year and a half now
  
  Wow that kinda took an unexpected turn. Doing something nice does come back around sometimes huh?
- The most frustrating thing about their interface is that if you've already watched an episode of something, then try to watch it again, it'll immediately minimize it to start the "next episode" countdown.
  It's been ongoing.
  And Disney+ is so crowded with garbage now that they've integrated Hulu's content into it.
- The ads are coming! the ads are coming! -Modern Paul Revere
- I always have trouble watching Disney streams. Bad quality, buffering, slow loading. I usually just pirate the show and switch to Plex because apparently I can run a better streaming service than Disney.
- I like to sail through the 7 seas: No ads, no monthly payments, all content in only one website. Best deal! Aye aye!🏴‍☠️
- I've dropped all streaming services, well save for my YouTube Music/Premium subscription I got grandfathered into when Google Play Music was brutally murdered.
  At this point, I'll just find alternatives.

its so tiresome to have all these services constantly made worse. these days it feels whenever a new thing comes out, it has about two or three years before it's run into the ground in pursuit of the almighty dollar.
and this kind of thing is also happening to movies/tv shows/video game franchises. it feels like no matter how good it starts, you only get (at most) 2 or 3 sequels before the executives get their hands on it and run it into the ground. sure there are exceptions to this, but they are few and far between. and its becoming even more common for shows/video games to simply disappear if the parent company decides to remove them from online stores/streaming platforms.
all around, it just feels like things are becoming less and less permanent
- You're describing capitalism. That's literally what happens to everything when capitalism is unchecked.
  "Hey, we're getting pretty good at producing food. Let's put corn syrup in everything and make cheap food addictive."
  "Hey, we just noticed that frightened people buy more guns. Let's make sure criminals can always buy guns so that we are arming everyone!"
  "Land is the one thing they aren't making more of. Let's drive prices up while interest rates are low so that people have to spend all of their income on rent or die in the streets!"
  When profits are the only motivation, then products and services will only get so good before the investor class starts looking for ways to take advantage of leverage instead of innovation. Unregulated markets create opportunities for unbalanced relationships between producers and consumers, and it is always built on the lie that you can influence the markets by "voting with your dollars," as though enshittification is what we want, what we deserve.

man, piracy, i mean owning physical media, seems like a better and better method of enjoying media.
It's a good thing every show ever has been released on physical media. Right? Right?
- If pirating it and saving to a thumb drive counts as physical media, then yeah, I guess.
  
  you can buy blank blurays, and probably burn them.
  You didn't hear it from me, but uh.
- they hyped up X-Men 97 for months and then didn't bring it to my region. i don't even know how there would be copyright issues since it's an original. they just want me to stop paying and start sailing.
  
  gotta love when they just don't release something regionally, because copyright moment.

Let me guess: which channels you have access to depend on your subscription level? Fuck these jerks.
- And they make sure that you have to buy the full package to get what you want.
  New movie releases only costs $10 per streaming on the platinum-full-extended-live-ultra-package.

Honestly this is a nice feature for some kinds of shows. Sometimes I don't want to watch a show from the beginning in order for certain kinds of shows. The only problem is this feature is coming as streaming services are fracturing and becoming less and less usable.
- Right, give me Seinfeld shows on random. TNG. Fucking early seasons of Family Guy. Community to an extent. So many sitcoms that you can really watch a random episode and be good to go. Sometimes it's midnight and you're too drunk to go to bed and don't want to think about what you're going to watch.
  
  Right, give me Seinfeld shows on random
  There used to be a website that was exactly that.
- Yeah one thing streaming has never been able to replicate is a shuffle mode. Pirating, I can just load everything into a VLC playlist and mix it
- yeah a ten minute script for your local media playershould be able to manage this.
  edit: or 'shuffle' I'm a fucking idiot. I'm literally using that for music right now.
  
  DizqueTV
- ya it seems like a no brainer for streaming services. not sure why it's being poked fun at. if you dont like the feature you dont have to use it

If they do it like Paramount I'm all for it. I like just throwing on the Star Trek channel rather than deciding what episode of which series I want to watch. That's part of why I get so much use out of Plex's Live TV channels. Only difference is paramount doesn't have ads on their channels
- Live TV is handy for sports, but sort of out of date for the modern habit of binge streaming a series.
  I don't really want to watch TV starting from the middle of an episode in the middle of a series. I'd much rather just jump to where I was in my Dropout queue and start watching whatever show is next in the list.
  
  Not everyone wants to binge a show from start to finish
  For example, I really enjoyed the episodes of the office that I have watched. It was many years ago and it was only random episodes I caught while airing on TV.
  Went to Netflix to watch at started on episode 1. From what I hear season 1 isn't the greatest. I got through a couple episodes and then thought to myself, this is going to take so many nights of watching to watch them all in order. Never watched another again.
  Now if I could turn on the television and say S6EP7 was playing I'd probably enjoy watching it. Might even watch the next episode too.
  With classic TV you also get the feeling that you're watching the show with others.
  Channel 1 is having a Harry Potter bingeathon. I catch it on episode 3 and continue to watch it. I've seen them all multiple times so I don't really care where I start. But it's nice knowing others are having a HP bingeathon with me on a Saturday afternoon. If I was sitting there with my plex server, I could play any HP. But I'm never going to put it on and if I did it would just be me watching the show.
  
  Tbh, I have trouble binge watching most shows. I can't watch more than 2 or 3 of the same show at a time. Idk why I have trouble with it more than others. After, I usually have to switch to a different show, or a different activity, like video games.
- I have playlists set up in Plex that I use like a TV channel. One's all [adult swim] cartoons, another is old sci fi, another is just documentaries. Best part is no commercials.
  
  I'd say the best part in this scenario is not having to use Paramount's garbage software.

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ argh, matey

I've kinda wished services would do something a bit like this for a while:
One channel for new stuff, based on your recommendations—just gives you a load of random tastes of shows without you actively picking through things
One for stuff you rewatch. For example, if you've watched always sunny or peep show through a couple of times, put random episodes on this channel for when you just want something in the background
- Gonna need some machine learning for this. How much AI in your streaming service are you comfortable with?
  
  As someone very hesitant about AI I'm comfortable with it. It's a streaming service, not my email inbox.
  
  AI and ML based recommendation engines in streaming services have been a thing for as long as there have been steaming services
- There was a chrome extension a few years ago called ottoplay that did something like this, would take your Netflix Hulu and YouTube accounts and set up channels like comedy movies and shit like that, would play random episode non stop.
- For the rewatch, on Plex you can build playlists and shuffle them. I do this for my kids, one wants Bluey and the other wants Peppa pig. I let the random gods decide what comes on next.

YES! FINALLY! I FUCKING LOVE LINEAR TV PROGRAMMING!
- Not being funny, I actually do love linear programming. I miss the days when I'd just turn on the TV and there's be a random episode of the Simpsons or King of the Hill, or something with stupidly many episode like one of the thousand Law & Orders.
  Picking something to watch from the beginning is a chore, and now I feel invested if I don't end up being in the mood. Stuff that's just "already playing" is something I dreamed of recreating when I started (not)pirating everything. "It started 5 minute ago but this is a good episode " was how I grew up watching TV (and even movies).
  
  You can do this with Plex, which I find occasionally nice
  but the enshittification...
  I know, I know, I'm just relating to a comment. It's also a feature on other sites
  Personally I'd like a "live" TV with 1-episode DVR. As in, I can tune in to a random whatever and if I find it actually interesting I can hop back to the start of the episode and enjoy without having to completely miss the before bits.
  
  I occasionally go to pirate sites that do this. You just go and tune in to a channel with a chat of other people who are just watching whatever plays.
  I enjoy watching cartoon network and discovery when I stay at a hotel, reminds me of my youth.
  
  I think my favorite part is the fact that everybody (with the exception of telecasts) is seeing the same thing at the same time, so it was more of a social event like sports. It was so great back then.
  
  Ideal would be a playlist you build and hit randomize. You pay for it. No commercials. I don’t think there’s a service that does this…

They're really gonna make people start pirating out of spite lol
- Started a while ago, matey.

Minus ad breaks, I missed this aspect of content consumption. Choosing to watch a random episode of a random show just doesn’t happen and I missed being able to just “see what’s on”. I spent a fair amount of time setting up random “channels” I can tune into that play random episodes from tv shows on my media server and it’s great.
- A lot of newer shows cannot be watched randomly though because the episodes actually build upon each other.
  If you take older shows like TNG or X files: you could easily jump back in after missing half a season. The episodes were written to be mostly self-contained, because missing an episode or two because of life was very very common. Season finales were often a major exception, and were therefore also majority advertised so people knew to plan around them.
  If you write a show for streaming, however, there is no concept of "missing an episode". So the writers are freed from that constraint, and subsequently write shows that are only meant to be watched in their entirety, in order.
  
  Interesting to see it as being freed from a constraint rather than a crutch that viewers can be relied upon to watch all episodes. IMO writing satisfying one episode arc that also makes up part of a wider arc is much more difficult, and many shows now really have just a single arc that only gets good in the last third, making it essentially a 6-8 hour movie rather than an episodic show.
  
  Yeah, you can definitely see a trend towards more HBO style shows as streaming took off.
  I remember watching an episode of The Wire, and somebody else watched it with me and didn't like it because they didn't know what was going on and the story wasn't resolved in an hour. I'm like 10 episodes in, and this ain't Columbo.

And companies wonder why film piracy is on the rise... 🤔

Lol all this time these media companies have had to change their models to align with market forces, we've watched them hem and haw, drag their feet, etc. this step shows they never wanted things to change at all, and they have the power and the money to keep change from happening. finally we see them at their end game, harnessing the Internets power for something so tiny. To them, the only benefit to this technology is cutting out the middleman and b bringing able packages to you without negotiations with a cable service.
Their minds are so small, but this and worse is their greatest dream. It's a terrible, venal world that small minds lead us to isn't it?
- And with channels and continuous running shows comes more potential for commercials which will always be the end goal...
  "They're paying us for the service and advertising is paying us! It's a win-lose! My favorite kind!"

The only good thing about streaming services is theoretically they aren't region tied.
- They usually are though. Most content (excluding their own) is not available in all regions due to licensing issues.
  
  Most content (excluding their own) is not available in all regions due to licensing issues.
  Actually, even including their own for some dumb reason. For instance, Paramount holds the rights to Star Trek, but there's no way for me to stream some of the shows legally, because Paramount+ isn't available where I live.
  Which to me makes no sense. It's just a freaking website, globally accessible, hosting content they own...

The only thing I really miss about cable over a media server on shuffle is the ability to know what is going to come up next in the shuffle.
And if they could add bumpers like on adult swim that would be awesome, too.
- That doesn't sound like too difficult of a feature to add to a media server. Just generate a playlist instead of picking the next thing on demand. Could add constraints like "choose show at random but select next sequential episode of that show from the previous one shown" or "fully random but do not repeat anything for x time/things".
  Makes me wish I had that stuff set up to experiment with.
  
  I've been pondering how to do this on my home server for a bit now. Haven't put any effort into the actual coding yet, but the thought is there. Maybe searching for a solution isn't that terrible of an idea.
- wouldn't even be hard to add, someone's probably already coded it for something.
- DizqueTV

The more things change....
- Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
  
  great song

This has been the plan for decades.
Telecom companies existed before the internet and have made every effort their television fiefdoms would have the right to own it as well.
Then again the only bastion of defense against this has been a parade of old ass people who don't own computers and were handed a smartphone 15 years ago but only want campaign donations in exchange for not understanding the problem.
So it really wasn't much effort at all to turn the internet into TV 2.0.

Can we get rid of IP laws pretty please
- we need to change them, not get rid of them. i think completely getting rid of IP laws would benefit big corpos like Disney. they would do to any small creator what Amazon does to small shops. they already try to do it as much as possible, but they'd be much more free to crush everyone else smaller than them.
  
  how would they crush smaller frontends for content and smaller streaming services if they both have the same content and those smaller front ends are capable of giving me, as it stands, a much better ad free financially free faster lighter weight more customizable product experience?

VPN, random port, docker, and jellyfin.
The golden age of streaming has passed.

I can't see this sticking. The only people I know who have cable are my Boomer parents. The model is dead.

Only for $300/month, with a 2 year contract
- With ads!
- And endless options for renewal

Have they already added commercial breaks?
- Amazon did. They kept the price the same, added commercials, then offered to remove the commercials for an additional $4/month.
  
  How to create value:
  Take something away. Ask for money to return it.
  Business genius. /s

I don't mind this sort of setup on Pluto TV but it's free so... Yeah.
Also, they do free streaming as well so you don't even have to use the live TV function.
- Pluto is good but I wish they had an API

You all should check out criterion channel. Definitely more art house style but a great value.

They pretty much already have that though...
- Yeah, been that way for a while. I assume either this tweet is old as fuck, or they're adding more paid for ones. Or some regions don't have it that way yet.
  The discoverability on D+ is awful as well. There's loads of older stuff and all it wants to show me is shitty "reality" TV I couldn't give a fuck about, and have never watched. I'm only on it now because the wife is halfway through Buffy and can't remember where to find it again if I torrented it and I can't be arsed with the aggro.

🏴‍☠️🦜
- exactly

So same old broadcast thing, but with internet, a framework designed to send a different data to each user.
Meaning you will be wasting way more energy with the same stream going in different packets to people.
Sure, that would definitely be cheaper.

How are these super low resolution screenshots taken? Is anyone still using phones with a screen resolution that low?
- This screenshot is a WEBP file.
  I image it started life as JPEG, and then lost pixels every time it was re-uploaded. At some point, it was either converted into a WEBP file and uploaded to Lemmy, or Lemmy converted it into one. Either way, it always uses about 70% compression for WEBP files, so you end up with already compressed file getting compressed again.
  I just tested uploading a WEBP file to Lemmy, and the picts-rs backend made it a) bigger and b) worse.
  
  Except WEBP, unlike (most versions of) JPEG, can be compressed without quality loss. This is probably a mix of reuploading a JPEG and a bad encoding by Lemmy's side. It should be fixed if you uploaded an already webp encoded image, so lemmy doesn't try to reformat it, but for a sequels meme it's not worth the time

How long would this last?

The Solution: Stremio+Torrentio

I actually wanted this feature for so long. You may ask why not just get cable and yes I could but my area is a bit remote and doesn't have cable.

- There are a lot of movies I've seen half of, a million times, or ones I'd never watch but have seen a million times because, I or my mother respectively, put on TBS, TNT, etc

And prices will commensurately reflect that

Disney+ has a problem where they are very strong but in very specific genres. I go for the Marvel and Star Wars stuff, but am not interested in kids or teens stuff. Depending on the details, this could make it nicer by filtering out the stuff I will never be interested in
- Spoiler alert, but they aren't gonna slash their prices so you only pay for what you want. They are gonna bill you yhe same, take away all your options, and then charge you another $4 a month for Marvel, and another $5 for Star Wars.
  
  Then they'll make you watch commercials.
  
  And they will package the Marvel with stuff you don't want but make you pay for to get the Marvel and the same for Star Wars.
  The high seas sure looks inviting again...
  
  Probably, but they’ll lose a lot of people who keep their subscriptions.
- I use it for Marvel and Star Wars too (especially with the somewhat renewed faith in live action offerings thanks to Andor),but also watch shows like Dave, The Bear, Extraordinary, Abbot Elementary, The Orville etc on Disney+. This is in the UK. I believe some of those show on Hulu where that service exists.
- I go there to watch simpsons and futurama and king of the hill and all that crap that I have seen like 10 times (for simpsons and futurama not enough) but it still makes me giggle when I'm high

Cable is better than streaming in 2024. Like seriously... It's all in one place, and it's cheaper than subbing to all the services.
They finally did it. They ruined streaming.
- This is pure fantasy. Cable did not have everything in one place for cheaper. Unless you paid extra you only had the default channels where you had to watch everything at a specific time or pay extra for a PVR to record and even then you didn't have access to entire backlogs of TV shows. If you wanted to watch front to back a show you had to pay $100+ for the box set.
  Also ADs ADs ADs ADs ADs ADs.
  Yeah streaming is getting worse and worse but if you told me I had to choose between cable and a single streaming service I'd pick the streaming service every time.
- Streaming is still leagues ahead of cable. Don't sub to all of them at once (you can only watch one at a time anyways), plus I bet even the ones with ads are still way lighter on them than cable is.
  Plus, as long as these channels don't replace on demand selection, they don't make anything worse. It's just a new way to use the streaming service.