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You can only use Hulu inside the US. Which is part of my point. When i last looked at this stuff, Netflix also wasn't available here, and most other distributors only had 90% german dubbed versions in their libraries. Apparently Netflix is now available, but they probably also only stock the sucky german versions.
As i said, i have an amazon prime account currently, and a lot of the stuff on it is only available in german dubbed versions for inexplicable reasons. I have no interest in watching the german dubbed version of anything. And i see no reason why it is so hard to get the original version of series on these services, or why they have different packages based on which country you live in, it is ridiculous. I find this especially annoying in the cases where something is made available for free on the internet page of the creator, but only in specific countries. Like Doctor Who, which is free if you are in the UK, and simply very hard to get access to if you are not. Why are my eyes worth less than those of an englishman?
I guess people in the US don't even realize how silly this stuff gets when you are NOT in the US, and don't want shitty dubbed versions of shows. And i don't see why i should get worse service then someone living in the US on something that is on the internet. I do not think nation borders should matter on the internet. Basically, piracy is mostly a service problem. If there was a service that would allow me to watch all of the series, in the original version, when they are available, for a reasonable price, that would be better than piracy (I don't actually pirate a lot anymore anyways, since i don't actually watch a lot of series). It is the same thing that steam did to video games. You have a service that allows people to get what they want hassle-free via the internet, without stupid barriers like "No you only get the shitty german version"(steam does a bit of that, but not too much), for a cheap price. We are talking about stuff that was available for free on TV before anyways.
Obviously, video is moving in the same direction, but they have it a lot harder than video games since they have to fight the established structure of TV stations, with silly distribution rights based on country and whatever else legal bullshit is the problem. I don't really have a lot of tolerance for that shit.
There should simply NEVER be an "This is only available for people inside country x" on anything in the internet in my opinion. Those popups are utter BS. Of course, if you live in the US you probably don't know them.
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On December 10 2014 14:26 Sub40APM wrote:Show nested quote +On October 16 2014 04:22 aksfjh wrote:I'm happy for this, but I fear for the backlash from cable companies on my internet Exactly. Comcast-TimeWarner is going to control most cable and throttle you for cutting it. Americans will end up paying the same as if they had cable and internet except they wont have a television. I thought the whole 'net neutrality' thing was going to help with that threat. Or do you just think that they are going to find another way around and still be able to throttle people's internet?
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One of the potential loopholes in the current proposed net neutrality rules is data caps. ISPs can theoretically impose severe data caps on their consumers and ask for bribes from content providers so their content doesn't count against data caps.
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I almost kind of hope Comcast loses their shit and goes hardcore against their customers. It could spur a demand for Google Fiber (for us city/close suburban folk). I would support my government paying for some Google fiber under the condition it would have relatively universal access.
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Northern Ireland20731 Posts
On February 10 2015 02:42 Simberto wrote: You can only use Hulu inside the US. Which is part of my point. When i last looked at this stuff, Netflix also wasn't available here, and most other distributors only had 90% german dubbed versions in their libraries. Apparently Netflix is now available, but they probably also only stock the sucky german versions.
As i said, i have an amazon prime account currently, and a lot of the stuff on it is only available in german dubbed versions for inexplicable reasons. I have no interest in watching the german dubbed version of anything. And i see no reason why it is so hard to get the original version of series on these services, or why they have different packages based on which country you live in, it is ridiculous. I find this especially annoying in the cases where something is made available for free on the internet page of the creator, but only in specific countries. Like Doctor Who, which is free if you are in the UK, and simply very hard to get access to if you are not. Why are my eyes worth less than those of an englishman?
I guess people in the US don't even realize how silly this stuff gets when you are NOT in the US, and don't want shitty dubbed versions of shows. And i don't see why i should get worse service then someone living in the US on something that is on the internet. I do not think nation borders should matter on the internet. Basically, piracy is mostly a service problem. If there was a service that would allow me to watch all of the series, in the original version, when they are available, for a reasonable price, that would be better than piracy (I don't actually pirate a lot anymore anyways, since i don't actually watch a lot of series). It is the same thing that steam did to video games. You have a service that allows people to get what they want hassle-free via the internet, without stupid barriers like "No you only get the shitty german version"(steam does a bit of that, but not too much), for a cheap price. We are talking about stuff that was available for free on TV before anyways.
Obviously, video is moving in the same direction, but they have it a lot harder than video games since they have to fight the established structure of TV stations, with silly distribution rights based on country and whatever else legal bullshit is the problem. I don't really have a lot of tolerance for that shit.
There should simply NEVER be an "This is only available for people inside country x" on anything in the internet in my opinion. Those popups are utter BS. Of course, if you live in the US you probably don't know them. In the case of the likes of Dr Who it kind of makes sense to me. BBC is a state broadcaster and funded by a TV licence that any UK home with a television is theoretically meant to pay, that's how it gets its funding and that's the tradeoff for 'free' content without commercials. I'm surprised though that it hasn't been exported to Germany in some palatable form, it's one of the BBC's big earners iirc.
I'm totally with you on the general point you are making. I'm one of those freaks that really doesn't like to pirate, but will do so because some content is just so fucking difficult to obtain.
Netflix's library is immeasurably better than when I first signed up to it and my god I would pay a shitload of money per annum (and I mean a relative shitload) for a similar service with close to everything on it.
Incidentally, try out Netflix if indeed it is available in Germany. Once you subscribe you can use a VPN or whatever to change the region and unlock a lot of content. I have no idea as to what the situation is with regards German dubs and whatnot, (I despise live-action dubs, don't mind animated ones) but many of the anime series I've watched have the option of either Japanese audio or the English dub depending on your preference.
Aside from the very occasional programme or live event fuck television, it has genuinely denigrated into a mess of complete nonsense 'reality' bullshit that I and most of those I associate with have next to no interest in.
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Yeah, we have similar state broadcasters here in germany, for which i pay ~20€ a month despite not even owning a TV. Because i could possibly watch the shit they produce on my computer. Not that i do. Because they don't produce anything even close to Doctor Who in quality. They mostly do talkshows and very, very german police murder shows. I didn't actually know that BBC works like that.
And yeah, i'm thinking about getting a netflix subscription at some point. The main question would be how good their library is, since i usually tend to watch random weird shows, usually not necessarily new ones but just something i just came across and want to watch, so a deep library of weird stuff would be good. Is there any way to actually search their library without subscribing?
And like you, i generally prefer to aquire my media legally, but in many cases it is either very hard or absurdly expensive to get. I am not going to pay 3-5€ per episode of some show i am probably only going to watch once. I could go into the cinema for the same amount of time for that money. And i am not quite sure why movies and series seem to lack behind in reasonable distribution compared to video games. I guess it is because of the legacy of TV companies which are obviously based on incredibly outdated tech. I have no idea why TV is even still a thing, it just loses to on demand video distribution in every possible respect.
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On February 10 2015 02:42 Simberto wrote: You can only use Hulu inside the US. Which is part of my point. When i last looked at this stuff, Netflix also wasn't available here, and most other distributors only had 90% german dubbed versions in their libraries. Apparently Netflix is now available, but they probably also only stock the sucky german versions. I don't live in the US either and just used a free VPN which only required one firefox addon.
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So basically, you need to use a VPN to use those services and lie about where you are from (And probably also commit some sort of crime in the process), because your money is for inexplicable reasons worth less than that of americans, and even if it were, you still couldn't buy it at an increased pricepoint because of ????
And somehow that is reasonable?
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Well, they certainly did like my money. And I also doubt it's a crime. In Australia it's fine for example:
A spokesperson for Attorney-General Robert McClelland told The Australian last week: “In relation to the use of VPNs by Australians to access services such as Hulu and Netflix, on the limited information provided there does not appear to be an infringement of copyright law in Australia."
Anyway, agree with everything else that you said.
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On February 10 2015 02:42 Simberto wrote: You can only use Hulu inside the US. Which is part of my point. When i last looked at this stuff, Netflix also wasn't available here, and most other distributors only had 90% german dubbed versions in their libraries. Apparently Netflix is now available, but they probably also only stock the sucky german versions.
As i said, i have an amazon prime account currently, and a lot of the stuff on it is only available in german dubbed versions for inexplicable reasons. I have no interest in watching the german dubbed version of anything. And i see no reason why it is so hard to get the original version of series on these services, or why they have different packages based on which country you live in, it is ridiculous. I find this especially annoying in the cases where something is made available for free on the internet page of the creator, but only in specific countries. Like Doctor Who, which is free if you are in the UK, and simply very hard to get access to if you are not. Why are my eyes worth less than those of an englishman?
I guess people in the US don't even realize how silly this stuff gets when you are NOT in the US, and don't want shitty dubbed versions of shows. And i don't see why i should get worse service then someone living in the US on something that is on the internet. I do not think nation borders should matter on the internet. Basically, piracy is mostly a service problem. If there was a service that would allow me to watch all of the series, in the original version, when they are available, for a reasonable price, that would be better than piracy (I don't actually pirate a lot anymore anyways, since i don't actually watch a lot of series). It is the same thing that steam did to video games. You have a service that allows people to get what they want hassle-free via the internet, without stupid barriers like "No you only get the shitty german version"(steam does a bit of that, but not too much), for a cheap price. We are talking about stuff that was available for free on TV before anyways.
Obviously, video is moving in the same direction, but they have it a lot harder than video games since they have to fight the established structure of TV stations, with silly distribution rights based on country and whatever else legal bullshit is the problem. I don't really have a lot of tolerance for that shit.
There should simply NEVER be an "This is only available for people inside country x" on anything in the internet in my opinion. Those popups are utter BS. Of course, if you live in the US you probably don't know them.
I feel your pain. Have you tried a VPN with a host based in the states to connect to? You can bypass region locked content. I use one (provided by work so I don't have a clue what they cost, probably ~10 euro a month)
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See at that point it just becomes easier to simply pirate the stuff i want and not have to deal with all the silly hassle. Which is silly. It should be easier to get something legally as opposed to pirating it. I will not pay for a VPN (and figure out how that stuff actually works) just so i can buy stuff in the US. That is just ridiculous.
I can already bypass region locked content. I'd just like to be able to do that legally. Region locks are utter nonsense in an interconnected global internet. And since i am not even convinced that it is more illegal to lie about where i live for a contract by using VPNs, i really don't see the point of that.
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Netflix is available here now for quite some time, but the number of shows are pretty limited and pretty much always one or two seasons behind US release. Investing into a vpn makes sense though because torrenting here without one is pretty risky.
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On February 11 2015 09:28 Simberto wrote: See at that point it just becomes easier to simply pirate the stuff i want and not have to deal with all the silly hassle. Which is silly. It should be easier to get something legally as opposed to pirating it. I will not pay for a VPN (and figure out how that stuff actually works) just so i can buy stuff in the US. That is just ridiculous.
I can already bypass region locked content. I'd just like to be able to do that legally. Region locks are utter nonsense in an interconnected global internet. And since i am not even convinced that it is more illegal to lie about where i live for a contract by using VPNs, i really don't see the point of that. As long as "physical lines" separate countries in the real world, there will be digital lines in the digital world. And I doubt this will change anytime soon. Germany also has the biggest dubbing market in Europe. So getting the proper versions is always quite hard, especially if you want it timely.
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https://www.sling.com/ You want 200+ non bullshit channels, and you wanna pay only 20 bucks a month? Do you live in the US? Well.. here you go..
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Sling TV is now available on the Fire TV.
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Not sure if this fits here but I stopped watching TV long ago, now I'm getting myself a TV for Twitch, YouTube and Plex. Should I get a Chromecast or a Roku?
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Today Sling TV is adding the highly anticipated AMC and IFC channels to it’s core $20 package. It is also releasing it’s Hollywood Extra package today. (The channels should be added by the time you read this post. If they are not live now, they will be live shortly.)
In addition to AMC and IFC, Sling TV’s “Best of Live TV” $20 core package delivers ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, ABC Family, Disney Channel, CNN, El Rey and Galavision; some of the most highly watched TV channels.
The “Hollywood Extra” package will include EPIX, EPIX2, EPIX3, EPIX Drive-In, and Sundance TV for $5 a month. Replay feature allows customers to watch content that has aired up to seven days prior without a DVR. (Video-On-Demand content for EPIX channels and Sundance TV coming soon.)
“AMC Networks is pleased to have reached this comprehensive new agreement which will deliver our popular and valuable entertainment and news content from our entire portfolio of networks on Sling TV,” said Bob Broussard, President of Network Sales, AMC Networks. “Sling TV is an exciting new service designed to deliver content to consumers who are outside of the traditional television eco-system. With this agreement, we are joining a number of other respected providers of sports, entertainment and news content to ensure that we are capitalizing on innovative technology and new opportunities to reach as many people as possible.”
Source
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I picked up SlingTV. Right now, I'm not impressed. In fact, it is basically unusable due to server-side problems that the service has. I spend more time buffering than watching TV. I've called customer support a couple times now. They admitted that they're having problems. If they don't get their act together soon, I'm out.
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