Selfhosted

The thing I hated about Netflix was the stress of knowing i was being watched with my viewing habits and that affected how they decided to cancel or continue shows.

Imagine being a customer at a restaurant and the chef is in the back watching you eat, saying things like:

"well, if he doesn't eat the whole thing in less than 10 minutes that means he probably hated it and won't continue to buy more burgers, so we should just remove it from the menu now and never serve that burger again."

Who the fuck wants to 'relax' and watch stuff when i know if I start watching something and stop after episode 1 because I liked it, realize my partner might also like it, and I wait 3 months to watch it together (not within their 30 day or whatever window), knowing that might contribute to Netflix canceling a show that I fucking liked in the first place!

SO RELAXING GUYS!

So no, I don't stream stuff anymore. I'm sick of paying for content that constantly gets canceled, and also experiencing stress while doing so.

This video was what convinced me to start up a Jellyfin server last month. It's fantastic. The peace of mind knowing that I have all my media stored locally, forever, is so satisfying.

I miss the days of people having their own bespoke collection of their favorite movies and shows. Everything is homogenized now. At least when I pirate, I'm still building my own personal media library. And I never have to worry about the show I like being removed later.

But I'm not gonna lie. The quality drop off in content caused by streaming services I think is a bigger issue

Netflix activity tries to make content that's not actually good enough to watch without browsing a phone. Second screen content, they call it. And I guarantee someone in a finance role realized they could make way more by doing just enough to keep people, rather than try to actively create amazing content, because it's soo much cheaper to not pay for good writers, or good set designers or actors when you could just find someone who's good enough. I think it's because the money people spend is recurring, linked to the service as a whole, and not linked to the individual work.. users have to vote by watching now, and some of the best stuff I've ever seen is also some of the least watched.

I'm all for this, but acquiring the media outside of streaming services in the first place is difficult, likely by design. There's no GOG for movies and TV; there's not even a Steam. My wife is basically permanently subscribed to Peacock because she loves Law and Order: SVU, to the point that she basically has the whole series on loop while she knits. I started looking this time last year into how to self-host all that, but I didn't even get to the point of finding out what Jellyfin is before I realized that it was impossible to legally acquire all the seasons on Blu Ray or even DVD. They want me to either subscribe to Peacock or buy a "digital copy", which is just rental streaming by another name. I'm not a skilled enough pirate to know that my ISP isn't going to mind my activity, and being a skilled pirate isn't even something I'm interested in being. Plus, my past experiences with piracy is that beggars can't be choosers, and the bit rate could be awful, or it would have huge watermarks from whatever Canadian channel the pirate recorded from, and that's not a great experience when it's supposed to be a gift anyway.

Unlike the video author, I'm not even bothered by algorithmic recommendations for media. I actually like it. The main reason I want to self host my media is because I don't watch so much of it that a subscription price makes sense very often. If my wife and I are just watching the same couple of things over and over again, why do I need a buffet of content I'm not going to watch at monthly subscription prices?

I love her.

Can't help it but think of a world with more ppl like her in it.