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Comment by DuskStar | Hacker News Reader

> I'm willing to concede there are some people stealing who would pay but I can promise you it's nowhere near 100%.

Hell, if the situation with games is any indication there are people who will pirate the game after paying for it to get rid of always-on requirements or other intrusive DRM.

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I can tell you I know a number of people who pay for Netflix/Amazon Prime/Apple TV+/Hulu/HBO/etc and then turn around and pirate the same content because watching it though Plex/other is simply a better experience.

And frankly, I 100% understand where they are coming from:

1. What platform was I watching show X on?

2. Oh Platform X removed show Y? Well it's also on Platform Z but now I can't remember where I was in that show.

3. Oh, every Platform has a different UI/UX? Great...

4. Internet slow today? DDOS against Platform? Guess I'm not watching anything

5. Oh that's right, Platform X only work on Set Top Box A or B but not C... Guess I'll just watch this on my Phone since I can't get it on the TV

6. Going on a flight? Going to be without internet? Don't want to stream it on cellular? I hope Show X is on a Platform that supports offline watching.

7. Paid service != No Ads, you've got to deal with Hulu's BS and/or pre-roll or self-promotion crap

I know Apple TV is trying to address some of these issues and so is Amazon Prime Channels but it's all a Russian nesting doll of terrible.

All of this stands in rather stark comparison to using Plex/Emby/Jellyfin/etc:

1. All my content in 1 place

2. Content never removed except by owner, track show progress across all clients easily

3. Constant UI/UX even across platforms

4. If you are local there is no lag, remote will depend on your own internet

5. Apps for almost every platform (Phone, Web, TV, Tablet, Gaming Console, Roku/Chromecast/Fire stick, etc)

6. Offline sync options

7. No ads, no pre-roll (unless you set a custom one yourself)

Another issue: they all want you to have proprietary non-free DRM software in your web browser that is a big pain to install. None of these services "just work" like you'd expect, and users have to spend a lot of time configuring their browser for services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. And in the end all that configuration work just ends up making your browser much less secure with code from untrusted sources like Google Widevine (a company whose objective is to serve you ads that are personalized as much as possible by tracking your every movement and click).

Firefox tries to sandbox Widevine but this code is from a dirty company and you can bet it's trying to break out of that sandbox.

This is like, one of my top reasons for thinking there's undisputed superiority (FOR THIS USECASE) in Apple's platform. They own the full stack, so there's nothing to install and it does work exactly like you'd expect it to. Yes yes you have to then own their devices and I know not everyone is in love with that but if you want to consume content, that you pay for, and not fight against the tech you're paying for, it's either Apple or buying blu-rays

I suppose that addresses the grandparent’s concerns about ease of use, but it makes the problem of running opaque proprietary software controlled by the platform operator even worse.

It's not just the browser—my Apple TV will sometimes refuse to play a Neflix video because it claims I'm not connected to an HDCP TV. Of course I am, but some negotiation on the HDMI port failed and I have to switch away from the Apple TV and then back to it to force a renegotiation.

Surprise, surprise—I never have that problem with the Plex app.

8. If you watch using (most) web browsers you'll be limited to 720p

E.g. Netflix: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23931

I really cannot understand how I pay for a service and still get ads. It's ridiculous.

I'm talking about Hulu and Prime. Hulu, I kind of get. It's cheap. I pay $1/month using some special I bought into last year.

Prime though? Every time someone tells me how Prime is comparable to Netflix, it's not. Netflix may autoplay stupid crap while you're looking for a movie (a UX issue) but they don't show me a video ad when I turn on the app, nor do they show me an ad between episodes.

The media industry is doing it's best to try to refragment itself as it had done during the heyday of cable. Whereby you had to have this package, that package and this addon, that addon to get the content library that you truly wanted. When the main competitors were only Hulu and Netflix, it was simple to sign u an dmove on with your life.

Now, the content makers want to have their own streaming services (Disney), pushing the consumer back to that $160/month+ territory for access to media. It's kind of sad to see really.

Sad, yes, but unsurprising. In the heyday of cable, consumers in aggregate proved that they are more than willing to stomach complexity and fragmentation to have access to a wide range of video content.

Sure, many people complain about it, and nearly everyone wants the same thing for less money. But it's been proven that despite the complaints and cost, people are willing to pay.

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