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Disney is gouging customers with a near doubling of subscription costs.
(sh.itjust.works)
Disney is raking its customers over the coals with a 75% price hike for their annual subscription (originally $80.) People wonder why piracy is on the rise.
A) I often rewatch things, especially shows like Family Guy just to make noise while I do something else.
B) there's lots difficult to find media like the 1960s Dr Who series or the entire works of Buster Keaton that can't just be streamed whenever.
C) I share with several friends and family, just because I've seen it doesn't mean they have.
D) Control/security over my collection. When I want to watch a piece of media, I know its there and available. It hasn't disappeared from whatever service (free or paid) had it last I looked.
And finally
E) No internet access required. If my internet is out, or I want to go somewhere I won't have internet: I still have full access to my media. (files can be freely moved to mobile devices that won't have network whenever I feel like it)
/edit. As a side note; I've also automated media acquisition via radarr+sonarr. I just open a self-hosted web page, search for a title, click 'add+search' and 20min later it's been found, downloaded and is available to watch. My users can even request media via Ombi without having to ask me. I don't have to spend any time looking for media ever (be that a streaming link or a torrent).
If that works for you, cool.
I will not support a Russian service, nor will it accommodate my needs.
The biggest reason for this route is that, once setup, finding/watching whatever I or my family wants is as close to effortless as It can be. I don't have to deal with shady services, nor am I at their mercy (referring to access and content availability). This is particularly important when sharing with friends/family that are not tech savvy. If they have an issue, I can actually do something about it and don't have to hold their hand through some shady third party site or worry that they've gotten themselves into trouble. Once it's been downloaded, everyone I've shared with can access it at anytime hassle and worry free. I (and the rest of my users) don't have to use caution browsing or streaming from my platform, while I do with random sketchy services. A problem made much worse with alcohol.
No I don't. Now that my server is setup (which it has been for 7+ years), I spend 0 time or effort searching for media files or sources for them.
As I said, I open my own self-hosted web page, search for a title (results from IMDB, The TVDB, and TheMovieDB), and click 'add'. The software does all the rest: from finding a download link to actually downloading the files, to renaming and sorting them into my media library, even grabbing all the metadata like synopsis, cast, ratings, posters, and a trailer to present it in a netflix-style interface.
My users can also open a webpage hosted by me and request media with the same lack of effort, to be acquired automatically, typically ready to watch in under 15min.
Half the time we don't even have to do that as the software is also monitoring various lists from IMDB, automatically adding media that gets added to those lists, as well as grabbing every new episode of every show in my library as they release.
My library literally builds/expands itself. Most of the time whatever we wanted to watch has already been grabbed, and the few times it hasn't, it'll be available in as little as 3min once requested. (note: just because it's been downloaded, doesn't mean it's gotta be kept forever. Some stuff does get rotated out.)
I am the known service my users come to. They don't have to trust a third party, deal with their restrictions/whims, or worry at all.
That third party could at anytime remove your access, disappear/go offline, decide to (intentionally or accidentally) host malware, fall prey to the law, remove the content you wanted, or any other plethora of problems with dealing with third parties.
As long as I've got power; I've got literal years (played back to back, no breaks) of content to entertain me and my family. I'm dependant on nobody in that aspect.
Unless all you ever watch is newly released mainstream media this is blatantly false. I have never ever encountered a streaming service with anything close to the range of media my cricle enjoys.
Ontop of all this; my server will also transcode between formats and quality settings on the fly so users with poor connections or device's that can't directly play the stored format can still stream without buffering. I've never known a service outside the big name streaming platforms to do this (YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, etc). Several of my users have garbage internet, but will happily watch media in a reduced quality to avoid buffering. Awesome for mobile data too; I regularly watch media on my bus ride home from work.
That's the power of usenet. My downloads are limited by disk speed, not my connection. Didn't believe it myself until I had it running. I used to use torrents which were slow af.
Exactly the damn problem; you have to look for, depend on, and trust some other service to have it available to stream when you want to stream it.
I just throw names at my server whenever I happen to hear of something interesting to watch (often while I am at work) and it finds it for me. I can then watch and share it with as many people as I like without involving anyone or anything else whenever I want to.
/edit: for the record, I'm not the one downvoting you.