this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
338 points (98.6% liked)
Technology
73066 readers
2223 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Like clockwork I continue to not be subscribed to peacock, or any other streaming, for this very reason.
Pay X amount per month, for a selection of content you don't control, have no ownership of, cannot retain a copy of (longterm), and whose price is subject to change at any time.
Ooooorrrrrrr........I could buy physical media, and rip my own permanent copy, which never expires, andwhose cost is a one time purchase.
Why the fuck is physical media dying??? Oh, right. I live in the same country that willingly voted for trump, and are now shocked to learn he's a shitty person.
In other words, I'm surrounded by morons.
I don’t mind paying for a solid rotation of content to watch, I don’t have to own everything. People were mostly happy with blockbuster’s business model.
The streaming industry is a heaping pile of shit right now though, and everyone is trying to dial us back to the worst of cable again.
People only liked Blockbusters business model because there were no other options. Redbox came on the scene and decimated the company and they were even sued to get the distribution model changed so that they had to wait a month before they could rent new movies out. Now both companies are relics of the past since streaming became mainstream.
I guess that’s fair, and I had forgot going to a friends to watch their rentals together.
At least I definitely did not rip rented dvds to my hard drive.
⛵
🏴☠️
How do you know what to buy? There are all kinds of shows I watch (before knowing anything about them) that aren't worth buying.
Mate, there are so many free streaming sites out there. Just make sure to have a really good ad blocker turned on. That said, you may have to find a good few that work with your browser, and to find the shows you want.
We've cancelled every single subscription service that we had. We've been pirating content for over a year now, and get to watch every show, from every streaming service, in HD, the day after they are released. Never turning back. Next eventual step will be to sail the high seas. :)
I get my media from the local library and buy the ones I enjoy.
Ngl buying movies and TV shows is way worse than paying to stream them. If you buy them you're left with a library of movies and shows youve already seen.
The key words here being "left with a library". Your media, now and forever, at no additional cost, available whenever you want. I could not go back to netflix etc.
Then sell it on ebay. Used dvd box sets still go for ~80% of new.
There's just so few things that people actually watch multiple times. The things that people actually watch multiple times tend to be the same handful of movies and shows that rotates over the years. To do that you only need a very small library. Having a large media library is mostly just waste of space, even if it's digital is wasted because you're unlikely to watch 90% of it after the first time.
But, for me at least, not only having media when I'm at home is the real benefit. Not everyone wants to manage their own media server with remote access and the eventual debugging that follows with it.
I agree that a lot of shows and movies, especially the more recent ones, have little rewatchability. You could always replace those with an armful of whatever is current and on your watchlist after you are done though.
And personally i have a couple of evergreens and classics i enjoy watching again now and then, and it is nice to know i always have something to watch even if i cant afford the subscription any more / the stuff i like gets region locked / fucking licensing pulls the rug. It also feels a little empowering to have my own stuff that really is just mine and nobody can revoke my viewing permissions, in the face of endless enshittification.
As for the media server, i am not tech savvy enough myself to run one so i just bought a large ass external drive. When i am away from home i just bring that thing and can watch my stuff on any computer and generally also tv i plug it into.
I think if you're someone who really enjoys watching movies and likes watching multiple times then buying media is absolutely the way to go. But most people turn their brain off and just zone out to whatever.
For music I'd there is way more of a case for buying media to be the dominant way to consume music since your always listening to music over and over.