General

benstylus wrote:


Exactly... like my $7 a day latte addiction. Though it might just be 3-4 days a week. Some people are every day sometimes multiple times. 7x30= $210... damn

sinnie wrote:

I'm not surprised that they are trying to crackdown and fees are going up, but you might be the first person I've seen that says the shows are top notch. I've actually thought their quality has gone down dramatically and their litmus for success is so high nothing gets renewed. I've had Netflix since almost it's inception and think its probably the worst it's ever been and certainly the weaker of the premium streaming services. Only reason I keep it around on the paid with advertisement level is there are kids shows that can't be found anywhere else my kids enjoy.

HBO Max offers a ridiculous amount of content for the value so of course they are working to gut it now. Can't have a good thing for too long.

Netflix is still the best in terms of UX, and personalized recommendations and basically making sure im aware of stuff I should be interested in
But over the past year or so it’s probably been my 3rd favorite streaming after Disney+ and HBO Max. Amazon Prime was really good when it first came here but it’s kinda crapty now, although still a few exclusives (like the boys) that make sure i keep subscribing

We recently also got SkyShowtime, seems to be a Europe only thing. Promising library at first but stupid things like no way to change app language (it’s Croatian and cant be changed) and no app for PS5 or my Samsung TV means I kind of ignore it for now. Only 3 eur a month though (50% off lifetime) so whatever

beavis wrote:

It's weird, it goes against their entire business model.

They want people to watch their shows as soon as possible so they know there is interest in making more... but the whole point of Netflix as an alternative to cable is to watch whenever you feel like it, and not be tied to a schedule.

One of the big draws is to be able to binge-watch entire seasons at a time. Can't do that if they are leaking out an episode only every couple weeks.

And their propensity to cancel shows further pushed people to not bother getting invested in them until they are proven winners.

They make great documentaries, particularly true crime stuff. I've watched some interesting ones the last few weeks before my subscription ends. Hatchet wielding hitchhiker, I just shot my dad, the pepsi jet, unsolved mysteries. It just feels like they got greedy by constantly raising prices and removing content. My guess is they've sunk to much money into "original content" that they have to make that money back somehow. Our plan is to wait until maybe once a year when enough new stuff is added (ex: Witcher, last season of stranger things, etc) then sign up for 1 month and then cancel again.

I thought I read that there will be a function for those who use Netflix "on the go" where the main account profile will have to give out PINs or some code to those who want to use it to access their profile on the account?

HybridCRoW wrote:
Probably have to put your phone number on your account and when you try to access it they will send a code or link to your phone to verify the account to use it. My bank, credit cards and insurance does this to me now... I am a firm believer in if you pay for a service you can use it as you see fit... The thought that you can afford it because you spend that amount on stuff you don't need anyway is beyond ridiculous to me.... How much stuff do people cut out already to pay for stuff and there's no relief in sight.. If they crack down we can carpool to @MrBean mansion, chip in on movie's, split a pizza and watch them figure out how to stop us

Outside of YouTube TV, the only streaming services that I subscribe to are Netflix and HBO Max. Between the two of them, I have more than enough to watch. What I like about Netflix is the abundance of international shows. There's some good stuff out there.

Pretty sure Netflix has recanted this after less than stellar reaction.

we've never had Netflix. My parents get DirectTV, but we don't watch most of the channels. I know subscription service is the new model, but I really prefer one-and-done payment. With subscription, I'd feel like I'd need to make the most out of it each year or month to justify the expense.

I have Amazon Prime but I only use it for the free shipping and returns - I don't bother with any of the other features, though I did redeem one or two content freebies on Twitch (Amazon Gaming). I used to have PS+ but dropped that years ago - at the time I didn't have a PS4 so online play was free, and I rarely liked any of the free games they offered. I have a PS4 now and I wish they had a cheap option for just being able to access online play. Same with Amazon - let me have a cheap option that just has the shipping perks, I don't want the TV & movies, music, kindle books, audible, etc.

Kommie wrote:
Yes they did... We should start a Netflix group to celebrate...

Is anyone still leaching a Netflix account? Haven't put any work into this but ready to watch some stuff again and we use my brothers account. Mobile devices and tablets work, just not TVs.

We were thinking about making a shared email to simply get a code? I question how many times you're allowed to authorize a device off the home grounds though?

Assuming it best to just fork over the money, but curios if anyone has any viable workarounds.

Thanks

So, I was sharing from a co-worker and it did indeed cut us off. He also shares it to his mother in law and she was also cut off. We considered doing a bunch of hoops (VPN) to make it all work, but it just wasn't worth it to me.

Has anyone who has travelled run into issues with using their account? I wonder how it handles when you're using a hotel wifi. I guess I've not had issues tethering from my phone...

With the new system, at some point soon if not already, it will pop up when you try it from that hotel WiFi and tell you that you aren't at your home location. Then you can request a temporary code to say that you are traveling.

It isn't clear yet how often you can do that or for how long it lasts. (i.e. so you can't just have your buddy in his house share it and put in a code and be all set. It would be an ongoing thing.)

Yeah I could see someone saying "well I have two houses and I travel back and forth" which absolutely could be true for some. This seems like a BS system. I'm still subscribing because I'm still enjoying a lot of the shows on it.

I had an issue when HBO Max moved to Max although I don't see any confirmation they have cracked down on sharing.

When Max first came out, I was able to login fine, sister had a problem and got stuck in a password reset loop that never worked. Next day was reversed, sister is in fine and now I'm in a password reset loop that never works.
I've just left it off for now, going to try and log in in-person on my devices when I visit later in the year but I would think if there was a crackdown, there would be some info out for it.

Disney+ is next. Expect more to follow.

https://www.androidcentral.com/streaming-tv/disney...

I am in favor of this.

People should follow the rules and get their own accounts when they don't fall under the same household/family set out in the TOS, or drop the service.

Are the services too expensive individually? Maybe, but maybe people dropping them en masse will get them to realize it and lower their prices.

Password sharing just tells the bigwigs that they have an untapped potential market that they need to find ways to monetize. It tells them that what they are doing wrong is letting people share passwords, not that they are pricing their service too high.

Yeah I am in favor of this as well. However all the streaming services and individual subscriptions are making this crap more expensive than cable ever was. The only good thing is being able to pick and choose what you use, on a month to month basis. If I was a business selling subscriptions I would be furious over password sharing. That's your money, your product.

and unlike cable, you don't have to be married to an agreement for a year at a time. Done watching your show for the year, or the series is over? Cancel and move onto another.

sinnie wrote:

Or take a break from monthly fees entirely

Streaming is hemorrhaging money. None of the streaming service have enough content to justify their prices. HBO was the best, they realized this, and now they are splintering off content onto other streaming services. I think in a few years you're going to see 2-3 big bundled services for a price that is comparable to cable.

Ultimately the answer isn't subscription password sharing. It's what it has always been, commercials. Cheaper prices, more commercials. It's a volume game, more eyes means more you can charge for commercials. Honestly that is probably the biggest driving factor to getting rid of password sharing. They can't charge companies correctly because they can't figure out how many eyes they actually have on their product.

beavis wrote:

The other problem is that when Netflix opened the streaming dam, their prices were pretty low (maybe high for the available streaming content they had back then, but streaming was just a small part of their DVD rental business model at the time).

Because the price was introduced pretty low, everyone else also had to have a low price to compete with them.

Honestly, if I was watching streaming shows every day, even every few days, I think the current prices would be absolutely reasonable. But I don't. When I had Netflix, a lot of times I spent maybe 5 hours of watching time in a month.

I agree we will see a consolidation within a few years, and either a massive increase in ads, or a substantial increase in price.

I cant seem to drop Netflix. Every time I want to the release a new murder show or doc that my wife wants to see or some love is blind crap lol.... I do genuinely like the content Netflix puts out, though but it's going to be interesting to see how the writer strike affected the pipeline of content needed to keep these streaming platforms relevant fairs.

Yeah Netflix remains my favorite. Like my games, my backlog is very long. They just announced an animated Tomb Raider that looks AMAZING!

I get HBO / Max for free from my cellphone. Amazon because of Prime (but we never use it, but the Boys is great..) I ended Hulu because the non commercial package had commercials and was getting way too high.
I am trying out a 3 month trial of Apple TV right now (3 months with a phone/watch purchase right now!)

Password share as much as you can... These so called big wigs are raising prices and are only blaming pw sharing cause they are aware enough people will empathize with how hard they have it being filthy rich... I wish people would stop feeling bad for corporations that price people out housing, groceries, clothing, health insurance, streaming, etc...

FYI: THEY WILL CERTAINLY RAISE PRICES AGAIN AFTER THE PW CRACKDOWN... they will raise prices again and again and again and again...

BlueJava wrote:

One of these things is not like the others...

But if you think streaming is as important as housing/food/healthcare, you might have your priorities mixed up.

When you password share it gives them an excuse. The right way to fight greed is by walking away from it and not spending any money, not just only spending your 1/4 share of the group.

sinnie wrote:

You can get Hulu gift cards to pay for the service from Bing Rewards.

I miss when they gave out 1 year of Apple tv with the device purchases when the service was new to boost numbers. But I guess it's like the old preorder for Disney+ before that launched, 3 years for $2-something a month. Good times.

I was down on Netflix, mostly because their litmus for success of a show is so incredibly stupid, but they have released some quality stuff in the past 2 months. Like I said, for me HBO has the best content. Now that marvel isn’t releasing as much/waiting longer to put stuff on the network Disney + has become my least watched. I have a feeling it will merge soon with something bigger, maybe Hulu (which is being propped up by FXX shows.

That reminds me... I need to do a trial of Hulu or something so that I can watch the new Futurama...

Futurama is the show that just won't stay canceled.

Netflix is apparently going to be raising prices again this year. Using the writers strike as the excuse this time.

That seemed to be predicted to be coming as a result of the strikes. Discovery+ also raising the price.

Mostly seems to be the ad-free tiers going up, the ads must pay out pretty well on the cheaper tiers to not need to raise as much.

I'm always surprised that ads work that well. I mean, I just ignore them. For most networks, I have ad-free. But the Paramount+ deal was too good to pass up for their ad-supported service. The ads are like up to 120 seconds and usually shorter -- and we just ignore them. Like, I'll grab my phone for a second to check my email or something during that time. Does anyone sit and watch them?

The only ad that ever works kinda is they'll run a short 10 second thing at the very end for some other P+ show to watch. I MIGHT then check that out -- but, again, that doesn't really bring in the ad-based revenue.

I'm just always surprised that commercial ads actually work, I guess.

I'm not sure what's going on with Paramount+ but I have all kinds of issues with it. On one of my Roku boxes, the sound for just Paramount+ doesnt work about 25% of the time. The actual Roku and TV output sound fine but when I put on a show on P+ theres no audio. I end up having to reboot the box multiple times before it works.

The other issue I see with P+ is the picture quality. I have several shows like Andy Griffith, Cheers, and Twilight Zone on Blu Ray. The picture quality on Blu is literally 2-3x better than streaming. I understand with compression, an HD stream is slightly lower quality but we are talking SD vs HD quality difference. Not all shows are like this, some look fine but the 3 I mentioned look awful on P+.

Regarding Netflix, they have lost me as a customer with all these price hikes. I do like their documentaries but it's just not worth the price. If a show I really like comes out, I might purchase a single month but then I will cancel.

Archer wrote:

Well you can't expect the corporate execs to take a hit to their profits. So yeah they will pass it onto us. I still feel like Netflix is one that is fairly cheap monthly for all that I get out of it anyway. Of course I only watch maybe 1-2 hours a day at the max so it's not like I have time to binge anything right now. I'm probably their ideal idiot, lol.

sa330206 wrote:

Oh, yeah, the P+ app is crap. Like, worst of the ones that I stream with. I have a TV with Android, so it uses the P+ Android app for that -- and it just plain sucks. Gets confused about where it is. Sometimes shows one show and plays the audio from another episode. (I had that happen once for days. I had to wipe the app cache completely and log back in to get it to finally work again.)


Yeah, I think they have the non-HD licenses for them or something weird for some of that older stuff.

John wrote:

Their app really is complete trash on android. There have been so many issues with their app since they released it. But lately its gotten better with the last update they sent out, can't remember when that was. I'm actually not sure if it was their app that updated, or my android device that has somewhat fixed it with its own update. I have a generic little box I use that runs on android, and only this app has ever had issues. The biggest two are losing its place in a shows episode list, and telling me I don't have a license to play the next episode. That one requires me to restart the device to clear out the cache to fix it. The place losing issue still happens, but I can now get back to my place pretty quickly. Before it seemed like it was indexing the entire shows library and would take like 3-5 minutes before anything would load. Now its instant to load all the episodes, but I still have to scroll through to get back.

Netflix is by far the service I use and like the most for 'variety' sake, but jeez, getting really tired of the rising costs.

benstylus wrote:

Netflix has announced another price increase after the writer strike ends... I wonder what kind of nonsense you'll use to tell everyone it's good for them to give away more money... I guess you laugh about this the same way I laugh at idiots complaining about high gas prices...

BlueJava wrote:

If the price hike is that bad, I'm saying DON'T give them more money - just stop using their service instead.

There are at least three other leisure activities out there besides watching Netflix.