With the simultaneous rollout of restrictions on account sharing and price increases/addition of advertising, I’m cutting back severely on streaming services.
I allowed my streaming subscriptions to grow without thinking about it. Without trying to remember the constant merging and bundling, I was subscribed to probably a dozen services at one point. They ranged from Netflix and HBO and Hulu to Shudder and Showtime. I had Paramount, Criterion, Disney, Peacock, and others. I’d do the typical thing where I’d search for a movie, find it is exclusive to a platform, and grab the free trial and forget to cancel. I excused it if I found a movie even every couple of months on it. There were still nights where it’d take an hour to find something I wanted to watch. I was probably closing in on $200/month all told, and I don’t have sports subscriptions.
I’m interested in learning what other people are doing regarding the price hikes and service compromises. Are you cancelling? Are you taking advantage of bundles with your internet services? Are you rotating on some interval? Or are you not changing at all?
I cancelled Netflix the day they blocked my elderly parents from accessing my account.
I was paying for 4 streams, it shouldn’t matter 1 stream was at my parents house, they were still getting their money.
Don’t worry Netflix, we still get to enjoy your content via torrents and my parents still get a convenient streaming app full media via Plex, so you can eat shit Netflix!
I canceled Netflix, but I stayed on their mailing list so I know about new shows I might like to watch. My frigate is now a submarine that goes beep, beep. (it has sonarr, I guess would be the main point I’m trying to make here)
Check out Overseerr if you use Plex, or Jellyseerr if you use Jellyfin.
It will show you popular and upcoming movies/tv shows, and you can integrate with with the arr suite to have users able to request and download the shows.
It’s fantastic, especially if you’re sharing your media server with others
Don’t use Plex, use Jellyfin. Plex tracks everything you watch and do. Jellyfin is free, open-source and self-hosted.
Are you going come here and setup my system, then install apps on mine and my kids devices and show them how to use it AND then travel to my parents house, install it on their devices and explain to them how to use it?
No? Guess I’ll stick with the free self-hosted Plex.
I see this argument a lot, and I’m sure you’re right, but I was curious, why don’t people set up a url for jellyfin that your family can access over the internet, then they just have to go to a website and log in? Would work for TVs or any device that connects to the internet
Tried Jellyfin and it was a pain to get running on my NAS (the only add on in the Synology store is a random community port that doesn’t work well and the apps for the TV are all janky). Will stay with Plex until they sort it all out.
I did the same thing and have the same attitude. I still watch what few Netflix shows are any good. They just aren’t getting any of my money any more 🙂
Cancelled all subscriptions apart from Usenet and VPN.
Now I just pirate it all and bang it on Plex. All in one place on all devices, easy peasy
I don’t disagree but it was hard enough getting my dad and grandma to work plex. I’m not changing now.
Plex is working really well for me at the moment.
My entire family uses Plex and I managed to get them using it years ago. I still occasionally have to help them setup a new device.
I’ve toyed with the idea of setting up Jellyfin for personal use, but I’m not ready to set aside the time it’d take me to get them on Jellyfin.
What’s specifically so much better about it? We’ve got years of watchlists and customizations to our Plex and it works flawlessly but if there’s a compelling reason beyond “it’s the new hotness” I’m all ears.
Because it’s FOSS. I’m sure there are other reasons but if I am putting my pirated stash somewhere I don’t want a proprietary program to have full access.
I’m not your down vote, but fuck Plex. Resource-intensive code to start, and also fuck their pushy cloud-first posture. I dropped them like a hot potato when they obfuscated requiring a cloud account to watch streaming locally. Shady stuff, especially when you’re self-hosting.
Jellyfin is WAY less intrusive. It just works for local streaming, and for discreet sharing among trusted affiliates. Maybe not as pooshed or feature complete as Plex, bit it’s far less obnoxious on my resources, and my affiliates
Was looking up Plex and I don’t understand it. For example I looked up a Netflix show and it asked me to subscribe to Netflix.
What makes it better? I’m lost
Plex allows you to host your own media and will match filenames to metadata. You point it to the folders for your movies and TV and it’ll start searching through and adding them to your Plex server as streamable media.
There are ways to automate the searching and downloading of your desired movies and TV. Pair it with Plex and you have your own personalized streaming platform with just what you want to see.
Yeah I run Plex with the Arr dockers.
I use an app on my phone and it’s all just done for you.
Someone recommends a show or movie? Open app, search for show and add it.
In the background the setup will automatically search the download providers you’ve setup (Usenet or torrents), filter them for the quality profile, download the files and place them in the correct folder ready to stream on Plex.
It’s so seamless once working.
Because it’s not a streaming service in the sense that it provides the content. The user provides the content; it just provides the streaming functionality.
I have a toddler who doesnt understand the concept of “We cant watch Gabbys Dollhouse anymore because Daddy is sticking it to the man.”
Nope, few more years before I can think about shitcanning any of them.
One day yes but we’re only just now learning how to deal with compromises, sometimes "How about Bluey? works sometimes it doesnt.
If you need some help on where to begin, msg me. I can get you up and running in under an hour, so long as you have a working computer with some hard drive space (or a portable HDD).
Edit: that goes for anyone else who needs help setting up as well.
Kid can operate a tv remote to find streaming shows. Yoohooing is a little out of their capability and would need a parent to constantly start shows.
Parent can set up Sonarr, add the shows, kid can watch them via Jellyfin.
There was a point in time where I paid for Netflix because it was simply easier than downloading everything.
That point has long passed, and I no longer pay for streaming.
200$ / month is insane, wow. From what I can tell, lots of people seem to start pirating way more. It looks like it’s common to be subbed to your favorite streaming service and put the rest on Plex.
Remember we’re a very small circle here, and the groups we run with are also pretty close knit, lots more in our groups may mean something but compared to everyone else it’s probably less than a blip.
