Piracy always rises up from service issues. This is a service issue
HBO Max is removing features from my plan without reducing my price.
Submitted 11 months ago by Candybar121@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5389ae21-cd2f-49ee-8a9c-85236f278eef.png
Comments
dinckelman@lemmy.world 11 months ago
s1nistr4@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The trick is to pirate everything first and if it’s good then pay money afterwards to support the creators
CalicoJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
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.
DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
Piracy is a service issue. - GabeN
- Einstein
adamantris@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
and then all corporations go suprise pikachu face when piracy is on the rise :O
Quills@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
“Piracy is growing back!? How?? We had prattically killed it with our optimal services haven’t we??”
HawlSera@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Do what you want cuz a pirate lives free, you are a pirate.
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 11 months ago
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.
m3t00@lemmy.world 11 months ago
like retail suddenly writing off large chunks to ‘theft’ coinciding with move to self checkout. surprise
radioactiveradio@lemm.ee 11 months ago
HBO MIN
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 11 months ago
HBO MID at most
Tugboater203@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I came back in here just to up vote this. Perfect!
LillyPip@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’m old enough to remember when GBI was bes and their entire point was you paid for cable so you wouldn’t have ads. That was their business model.
Then sometime in the late 80s or early 90s (I dunno, that decade’s kind of a blur) I think they started sneaking ads in between shows, but not in the middle of shows. But you were paying a higher price, with a few ads. Then they started showing ads to everyone, and still making you pay. I’m still salty about that.
This was always going to happen. They’ll compound paying PLUS ads, and you’ll like it, because what choice do you have if all services doing it?
Fuck them all . 🏴☠️
Sciaphobia@lemm.ee 11 months ago
what choice do you have if all services are doing it?
Marin_Rider@aussie.zone 11 months ago
in Australia that was the whole selling point of foxtel when it launched. these days it has more ads than free to air TV and still costs like $60 a month for the basic package. most people only use it for sport
LillyPip@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Great example , thanks! Yeah, same thing.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Most cable TV channels still had ads, the revenue generated from subscribers would never have been enough to cover otherwise.
LillyPip@lemmy.world 11 months ago
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.
bustrpoindextr@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Your link literally states you’re wrong…
nephs@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Paying customers attention is so fucking valuable. People pay for something, maybe if we add ads they will pay for more things!
And most people are surprisingly not bothered by ads. So… Just criminalise the people that are, and there you go, infinite money making machine.
Agent641@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Thank you for being a loyal subscriber. Please hold still while we fuck you
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 11 months ago
“Thanks for the money, fuck you”
Candybar121@lemmy.world 11 months ago
They must think so little of me, as if I’m grateful for this?
makyo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This is it isn’t it? I’d complain and cancel but they don’t care about how I feel.
Candybar121@lemmy.world 11 months ago
maybe or maybe not. but they do care where you spend your money
Aux@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Cancel it, problem solved.
Darth_Vader__@lemmy.world 11 months ago
what they do is lure you in with unsustainable prices and once they got established slap you with real price. Because for the real price you wouldn’t find it worthy in the first place. But now that you enjoy it it’s more likely you’ll pay more than what you might initially do
PrinceFidget@feddit.uk 11 months ago
Man, they really are like drug dealers…
ZzyzxRoad@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
So right after I signed up at the beginning of this year, they switched from HBOMax to “Max.” I paid for a year in advance, and of course when I signed up there was nothing about them switching to a new brand. All of a sudden it was full of trash reality shows and ID Discovery true crime. I have no idea what possessed them to do that.
Then once it switched over I stopped being able to stream any new HBO shows on mobile and customer service won’t refund me any amount. Not that I can even communicate with them effectively. It’s all “chat” with AI or people who have no idea what I’m saying. Half the shows still won’t play on mobile for me.
TL;DR I paid for a year of HBO. They changed their selection a few months in. I lost mobile access to a bunch of their shows. And now I’m losing even more features before the year is up. That’s quite literally not what I paid for.
How exactly is any of that legal? Genuine question. What about the Federal Trade Commission? Isn’t there fucking anybody regulating these corporations in the US?
Dran_Arcana@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ask them for a refund, in writing, document everything, and if they refuse, take it to your state’s AG office. Obviously I can’t speak for every state, but mine has slapped around whirlpool when they refused to fix a defective fridge, dell when they refused to replace a monitor with dead pixels, etc. I’ve never had a bad experience. It’s amazing how a letter from your local AG’s office will suddenly make companies be less shitty to you.
bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 11 months ago
Letter to your state insurance investigation board also help claims magically settle faster
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 11 months ago
How exactly is any of that legal? Genuine question. What about the Federal Trade Commission? Isn’t there fucking anybody regulating these corporations in the US?
There are government websites you can report this to, though I do not know what effect that will have.
IANAL, but my understanding is that if you paid for a year for a certain set of services they have to give you those services for the whole year, or refund you your money.
Chocrates@lemmy.world 11 months ago
They also likely claimed during the merger that it wouldn’t effect customers. Of course we knew that was a lie.
CH3DD4R_G0BL1N@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
If you paid for a service you were not rendered, presumably with a credit card, and attempted remediation with the company, hopefully in writing or recorded in some form, you can do a charge back with your credit card.
ohlaph@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I had purchased a year in advance last fall and when it switched over, it only didn’t play on m9bile for me for a week, then I was able to stream on mobile regularly. However, with their changes, I chose not to renew my subscription. Their quality is degrading quite a bit, it was no longer worth it.
danc4498@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Don’t worry, they’ll raise those prices very soon.
HawlSera@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I have never seen a company actively promoting that they have less to offer. Jesus Christ will capitalism please just come to a crashing halt already
highfiveconnoisseur@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Time to start sailing the high seas!
kWazt@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Hehe, “start”
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 11 months ago
“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”
BoiLudens@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ja I got the email today, and I’m like, what new features? This is anti new features.
Candybar121@lemmy.world 11 months ago
if you want to try your luck, I suggest contacting their customer support to notify them of this issue. I did too.
wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one 11 months ago
Did you cancel during that call?
Because they put your concerns in a furnace, if you didnt.
KnightontheSun@lemmy.world 11 months ago
And what did that do for you?
FeetinMashedPotatoes@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The number of apps I just stopped using because of this shit is ridiculous. I feel most bad for older customers who probably don’t realize they’re losing features and paying more for their subscriptions. They probably don’t know how to properly sail the high seas either so they don’t have a choice when wanting to watch their favorite shows. Oh well fuck it, Max can keep this up until they want to join Netflix up on the dusty shelf of bullshit streaming services that can suck my dick.
iheartneopets@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Now that I’m canceling Max, I’m basically just left with Crunchyroll and Shudder as streaming services. They’ve all become so shit, I couldn’t stomach giving them any more money.
quams69@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yo ho ho and a bottle of fuck corporations
ohlaph@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Digital shrinkflation.
Frenky_Fisher@lemm.ee 11 months ago
“Thank you for being a loyal Max customer”
madcaesar@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Meanwhile the trusty pitate has none of these problems lol
Chocrates@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Got this too, I am pissed, though it won’t really effect me. May look into sailing the seas again.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
Love that it says “Thanks for beings a loyal Max Subscriber” then goes on to imply but fuck you and your loyalty.
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Shrinkflation isn’t just for meatspace products.
Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Heh, meatspace
erranto@lemmy.world 11 months ago
When contracts don’t include prices
eezeebee@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Thank you for being a loyal Max subscriber
Candybar121@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Like this is a gift from them?
max@feddit.nl 11 months ago
As a Max, I do not endorse this. Also, yarr.
xenoclast@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yarr? Yarr. Yarrr!!
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Stop giving them money then?
Candybar121@lemmy.world 11 months ago
AT&T includes the subscription with their cellular package, so they claim its “free”. I’m also not the head of the account.
Chr0nos1@lemmy.world 11 months ago
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
phillaholic@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Can’t imagine that’ll last much longer since AT&T sold them.
Fades@lemmy.world 11 months ago
They’re just trying to save you money!! Encouraging you to quit their fuckin scam and sail the seas
XEAL@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Holy shit, shrinkflation on a streaming service
Urge to kill rising…
CrowAirbrush@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I’d give them a call: “i don’t mind these changes for 65% of the previous fee, unless you want me to cancel right here right now”.
See if they are willing to compensate, if not just cancel and yarr matey.
It’s just entertainment in the end, nothing we can’t live without or have loads of replacements available.
reddit_sux@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Shrinkflation, hitting online world too.
That’s why I pirate. Jellyfin FTW.
Wermhatswormhat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I was a long time pirate back in the day, and thinking of sailing once again. However all my old booty spots are gone. What is Jellyfin?
pimeys@lemmy.nauk.io 11 months ago
A great UI to stream your movie files from your TV. A bit like Plex, but open source.
PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 11 months ago
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.
Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Tbh, all you need nowadays for most stuff is 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
Selmafudd@lemmy.world 11 months ago
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.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s like Plex, but with fewer features and a worse interface.
SpeakinTelnet@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
There’s now a whole ecosystem of applications to streamline the download of series (sonarr) and movies (radarr) using torrents or Usenet (prowlarr). Pair those with a good player like Jellyfin or Plex and you have a nice media center that for sure won’t stop working everytime your family tries to watch a movie…
KinNectar@kbin.run 11 months ago
@Wermhatswormhat
Check out Stremio, if you are used to streaming services it is the best equivalent.
@Candybar121 @reddit_sux
Decoy321@lemmy.world 11 months ago
jellyfin.org
lupec@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Add the *arr apps into the mix and you get super low effort pirating, legit changed my life when I set it all up lol
foofy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Sorry, what are the *arr apps? Not familiar with that stuff…
helios@social.ggbox.fr 11 months ago
I’ve tested jellyfin this week on my dedicated server. It’s cool but most of my files need transcoding to be played on the browser, which my weak server CPU cannot handle. The best option I found to stream any file format without eating up all server resources on this machine is to set up a simple nginx server with autoindex streaming the files to VLC. I use the “Open with VLC” browser extension to quickly open the links. Playback performance is quite good (scrubbing is fast) and everything plays well.
reddit_sux@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Cool
kratoz29@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I like Plex and Real Debrid too.
Wermhatswormhat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
On it’s like Plex.
snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world 11 months ago
reddit_sux@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It helps me organize what I download. I m trying *arr softwares now for content.