home theater, cord cutting, video streaming, a/v tech, and more!

[NTP66]

Gonna sprinkle in some Paramount+ stuff now, too.

[nocera]

The vast majority of people have never and will never pirate anything. A very small minority of people pirate everything. Then there are people who used to pirate until it actually became easier to subscribe to a few streaming services. That's where I fall. Somebody who would love to be able to subscribe and easily watch everything that I want to at a reasonable price and high quality. Unfortunately we're quickly moving away from that. There are now too many streaming platforms with too high of prices, ads, and lack of 4k content. I'm now looking into setting up a plex server for the first time in my life.

[dodint]

You don't want to pay for it, don't watch it. It's not a difficult concept.

I feel the same about avocados.

[CBear3]

You don't want to pay for it, don't watch it. It's not a difficult concept.

I feel the same about avocados.

Avocados are much more exciting to watch than say, grass though.

[faftorial]

You don't want to pay for it, don't watch it. It's not a difficult concept.

You never had homemade tapes of records/CD's?

[nocera]

You wouldn't download a car.

[NTP66]

Yes I **** would

[CBear3]

I think the biggest issue is again having to pay for a bunch of stuff you don't actually watch, just like cable. The bigger the bundles, the more like paying for 200 cable channels when you only watch 12 it is.

[count2infinity]

So, I’m one of those weirdos that still has cable. I noticed that sports net Pittsburgh left my line up about a month or so ago. I started looking into other options and then forgot about it over the all star break (no penguins games). I went today and found, much to my surprise, that it was back. Weird.

[NTP66]

I think the biggest issue is again having to pay for a bunch of stuff you don't actually watch, just like cable. The bigger the bundles, the more like paying for 200 cable channels when you only watch 12 it is.

Yep. I have the second highest tier in FiOS and watch maybe a dozen channels. Maybe. Why this tier? Because literally three channels require it. Verizon tried to do a la carte, but it was a half-assed, pathetic effort where you could buy the “cable news” and “sports” blocks. But if you’re a normal human being who watches comedy, sports and drama, you need every block. So dumb.

[tifosi77]

You don't want to pay for it, don't watch it. It's not a difficult concept.

I feel the same about avocados.

You lean very hard into this avocado thing. I think you like avocados way more than you care to let on.

(Fun fact: 'Avocado' comes the ancient Nahuatl word 'āhuacatl', which means 'scrotum'. )

[tifosi77]

You don't want to pay for it, don't watch it. It's not a difficult concept.

You never had homemade tapes of records/CD's?

Depends on what you mean by that. Mixtapes? Sure. Someone copying entire albums/discographies/catalogs of music? No, not since I was in college and thought I could rationalize it.

[faftorial]

You don't want to pay for it, don't watch it. It's not a difficult concept.

You never had homemade tapes of records/CD's?

Depends on what you mean by that. Mixtapes? Sure. Someone copying entire albums/discographies/catalogs of music? No, not since I was in college and thought I could rationalize it.

[dodint]

You don't want to pay for it, don't watch it. It's not a difficult concept.

I feel the same about avocados.

You lean very hard into this avocado thing. I think you like avocados way more than you care to let on.

(Fun fact: 'Avocado' comes the ancient Nahuatl word 'āhuacatl', which means 'scrotum'. )

That explains the nut.

[NTP66]

My Ring subscription was up in a few months, so I cancelled, got a pro-rated refund, then subscribed again for another year at the current rate.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I briefly looked into a homebrew system with a Raspberry Pi, but never bothered piecing it together. I'm just hesitant to having Amazon or Google up in my security system.

[NTP66]

I don't look at it as security from that aspect, just a video doorbell that records. I would never use Ring for my actual security system.

[skullman80]

We gave ring for our security system. Works great. No issues.

[tifosi77]

We had a Ring that was part of our ADT system (since upgraded to Nest), and a multi-camera system that is not. We have a home run with the controller unit and a small 22" display in the closet w our washer/dryer. But it's like they all automatically go into 'record' when the alarm triggers or anything. They just provide live monitoring, which is kind of useless.

[AuthorTony]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02 ... tell-subs/

No more Dolby Vision or Atmos from Amazon Prime until you pay for the "ad free" tier.

[Nuge]

Yesterday was the first time that I can remember actually opening the prime video app to watch something. It’s a complete afterthought for me at this point.

[NTP66]

What a load of horseshit. This just makes me want to pirate even more.

[dodint]

You say the same thing when a gentle breeze caresses your cheek.

[NTP66]

I would very much prefer to not have to resort to this, because it's additional work that takes time I'd rather be doing something else. These NTP66s have all forced my hand by separating into a dozen other services, and then adding new tiers onto paid platforms just for 4K/Atmos/whatever. Prime's implementation of 4K/Dolby Vision is already garbage, but now to pay extra for it? That's an insult.

[eddy]

I would very much prefer to not have to resort to this, because it's additional work that takes time I'd rather be doing something else. These NTP66s have all forced my hand by separating into a dozen other services, and then adding new tiers onto paid platforms just for 4K/Atmos/whatever. Prime's implementation of 4K/Dolby Vision is already garbage, but now to pay extra for it? That's an insult.

Sounds like you still get HDR/5.1 with the regular prime membership.