this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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It's like they are trying to irritate people into canceling their accounts.

Imo, this one might actually be worse than the account sharing and cause people to quit. As soon as you have people messing around with their subscription version, it's all too easy to just say "nah, I actually don't want this anymore".

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[–] dinodrinkstea@beehaw.org 71 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Piracy my beloved🏴‍☠️

[–] briongloid@aussie.zone 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh my show is no longer available on my paid subscription? It's still right here on my server.

[–] athos77@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

That's the thing that's always bothered me about the online services. Sure, I can "buy" a movie or series or whatever, but I only have actual access to it so long as I still subscribe, the service has rights, and I have access (like, if I'm on a plane or ship, suddenly I can't watch something).

If I download a copy, it's mine for as long as the physical media lasts. I can keep it theoretically forever, I can put copies on my phone or the cloud, stream to my computer, my cousin's tv, whatever.

[–] sndmn@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 year ago

As Homer once eloquently said: "Nothing a month. We can afford that!"

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

When I was a poor kid I pirated, went to paying as a working adult, now I am back to buying random DVDs at thirftshops but if they keep this clown thing up, I will sail. These clowns have hard time understanding who controls the money flows here, shiti video streaming service is not a monopoly/utility...

[–] casino@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago

Time to sail the seven seas again. Yarrggghh 🏴‍☠️

[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 52 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The thing I don't get (I do - it's greed, FYI) is why the fuck they even care? If I'm paying for 2 or 4 screens on my Netflix account, why the fuck does it even matter which address they're playing at? Netflix were about to sting me because my stepkids (who are with us half the time) were using my account while at their dad's.

Believe it or not, Netflix finally drove me to Plex. I'd been holding out, still using Kodi, but decided the money I was saving could go towards a much nicer setup, and it did. A pair of HP DL380 G7s, Proxmox - the works.

Now my stepkids use my Plex server, and have both happily streamed the latest Black Mirror from it (shit season, BTW - another hump in the downhill shitshow that Netflix has become). And the savings from my cancelled Netflix sub will have paid for it over the next 12 months or so.

Thanks Netflix! Ya dumb cunts.

[–] doctortofu@reddthat.com 19 points 1 year ago

It's simple - you're paying for 2 or 4 screens, but you could be paying for 2 or 4 screens AND multiple accounts! That would give them more of your money, so it's their preferred option.

Love might be sharing a password, but profit is paying multiple times for the same thing, so here we are...

[–] tanglisha@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

They made record profits during quarantine, when everyone was stuck at home. Now they have two problems:

  1. Some of those people have cancelled because they're now busy.
  2. They're expected by shareholders to continue that kind of profit increase forever.

They don't actually care any more than they ever did, this is just an easy way to get money out of accounts they see as less likely to cancel because many people are using the same account.

[–] HectorBarbossa99@lemmy.fmhy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

how hard was it to do a plex server? did you just use an old pc or what did you use as the host?

[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

After some discussion with the Minister for War and Finance (my wife), we agreed I had a modest budget (~$300AUD) to spend on some old enterprise servers, which I did.

But I've seen plenty of posts where people are getting away with their old gaming rigs, and the like.

[–] Protowalker@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

I've got a PC that my job was throwing out and I put a CPU, hard drive and RAM combo I got on Craigslist (that's like gumtree) for $20USD in there and I've only ever had problems with 4k and HDR. Plex itself is pretty cheap perf-wise! Transcoding can be a problem but you can set it up to pre-transcode multiple quality options or just stream it original quality if you have the bandwidth.

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[–] kuraitengai@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I set up mine shortly after cancelling Netflix after the last price increase about a year ago.

Repurposed an old Raspberry Pi 3 that had been a Kodi setup. Added a spare 2TB PS4 external HD. Been working great the last year. But looking to get an actual NAS setup to replace paying for google photos (my wife), more Plex storage, and a python dev server. That’ll run my about $900 though.

The Pi3 with the PS4 HD was less than $130.

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

is why the fuck they even care? If I’m paying for 2 or 4 screens on my Netflix account, why the fuck does it even matter which address they’re playing at?

You and your family could be paying for 2-3 accounts instead, and also paying for the 2 or 4 screen plan on all of them if you want 4K.

Maybe you won't, but many will. And they'll offset you unsubscribing your one account.

Plus even if they increase their total subscriptions by only 10% it's still worth it, because they probably lost active users, so there's less actual load on their servers for the same amount of subs.

I dropped my 4 screen plan in October or November when I first heard about the upcoming sharing restrictions because it was actually being used from 3 or 4 locations, but unfortunately I think us cancellers are probably outnumbered by people who just created new accounts because they had to stop using someone else's.

[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think us cancellers are probably outnumbered by people who just created new accounts

Oh, 100% right there. Those of us that are both willing to cancel and capable of setting ourselves up with an alternative like Plex are, sadly, in the minority. I'm doing my bit, though. Have invited a couple of friends to my library and showed them how to use the app, and they've happily cancelled their Netflix as well.

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[–] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 42 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I like how they keep testing this crap on the Canadian market.

I dont know if were the best guinea pigs, I mean look at what we pay for telecoms. We're pretty passive when it comes to being gouged, other countries might not be so potato-like in their response.

[–] Liontigerwings@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

If the docile sheep up North don't go for, then there's no way the slightly less docile sheep South will go for it.

[–] Tigbitties@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

We're pretty passive when it comes to being gouged

God, this is so painfully true.

[–] mPony@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

| We're pretty passive when it comes to being gouged

Only if you include cell phone plans, internet access, air travel, housing, and food. Oh, and pet food.

[–] grte@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I already dipped. By the time I cancelled I wasn't using the service enough to justify paying for it monthly, anyways.

[–] yGns@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Me, too. In my country, I'm paying the equivalent of 13€ for Disney, Amazon, HBO and SkyShowtime combined. And although Netflix has some good shows, it's nowhere near enough to rival all of these together - no way I'm paying 10€/mo. just for it. Guess I'll pirate the few I actually miss.

[–] variants_of_concern@lemmy.one 7 points 1 year ago

I just cancelled everything, no more subscriptions for me, except for the yearly re-up on usenet indexers

[–] Ronno@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

Yeah, imagine running a company, with customers that simply pay the monthly, because it is cheap enough to cancel. But then you start annoying the users and reduce convenience, then increase the price. What could possibly be the end goal here?

[–] that_one_guy@beehaw.org 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I really should thank Netflix for finally motivating me to actually get off my ass and build my home server. After cancelling all of my streaming subscriptions, it really does pay for itself.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 year ago

Which is why I'm switching to jellyfin

[–] Rob@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fuck Netflix. I bought a firestick and threw Stremio and a vpn on there. Watching Black Mirror without giving those cunts a penny.

[–] Antik@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

I upgraded to the 4k max firesticks. I have my own Plex server, so I basically have my own personal Netflix.

Pirate bros!

[–] Peeko@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

My family dropped netflix in Canada as soon as the password sharing change went into effect. I got a radarr + sonarr + jellyfin server all setup and even my parents can very easily find what they want and have it ready to go, they don't miss netflix at all.

[–] LDRMS@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

We have a $23 plan with Netflix with 5 user profiles on it each from different locations and when the whole password sharing thing started and came into effect we thought “we’ll it was a nice run, Netflix”. Then the day came where we had to set the “main ip address” for the account and it’s been so weird. We all still have access to Netflix, each user literally uses a different ip address and 80% I’m on a vpn.🤷🏻‍♂️ 100% not complaining lol!!

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They were talking about for continued use the other people on your account would have to connect to your local network once a month to keep that device active. Easy with family member bringing over a laptop, difficult with a TV; unless you setup a vpn tunnel to your home router.

[–] LDRMS@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh that’s odd. We haven’t done that at all and everything is working same as before the whole issue happened.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

It may take a lot of time for their system to run through everyones devices and determine if they are past due or something

[–] normarcl@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How easy was it to setup the server? I'm slightly tech savvy but server stuff has always kinda of alluded me.

[–] Awwab@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

There are a ton of guides on how to setup an arr stack and Plex if your willing to spend some time figuring it out.

[–] Dagnet@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Do you have people from outside your network accessing it? If yes, how are you habdling that?

[–] SeatBeeSate@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago

Lol, so we got people to remove family accounts, paying more because they can't share anymore. Then people probably downgraded because it's not worth it more than $10 for one person. And now they're killing that too, so there's no reason to use Netflix?

[–] plum@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

I had actually thought about signing up for the basic plan because it is just me who likes it, but I was put off by the low quality.

Well - I guess now I’ll be officially sticking to Plex.

[–] thatsnothowyoudoit@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We left Netflix after I decided I didn't want to understand their rules.

"Number" of streams was easy to pay for and made sense. We paid for extra screens, so our parents could have easy access.

There are too many streaming options and services worth subscribing to these days, and more than any one person could watch so, well, not a problem.

Do I miss netflix, nope.

[–] unsunny@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I get that they’re being greedy, but provided you’re not set on watching one specific show, why pay for Netflix? Lots of cable TV providers are setting up their own services and taking their shows there instead of Netflix. Most of the Netflix originals either don’t last, aren’t even close to being good, or both; I feel like there hasn’t been more than two or three major hits from them a year in awhile (could be wrong though). In the past they had no big competitors so they could charge whatever, now it just seems like way too much.

(I guess that doesn’t mean the ad-supported tier going away, but who wants to pay and still have to watch ads?)

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[–] seluar@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Just canceled mine when they enforced the no non household sharing. Now sailing with the pirates.

[–] specialneedz@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Most people I know will be subscribed to one streaming service and switch every few months to get the shows they want. I’m expecting most streaming services to become a lot more “user hostile” as they try to squeeze out every penny.

[–] sickday@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

Sonarr and Emby were pretty much the only things I needed to scrap streaming services entirely.

[–] CookieJarObserver@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

Arrr 🏴‍☠️

[–] nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mullvad is 5.50$/mo, enjoy.

[–] Contend6248@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

They block port forwarding, essentially killing P2P for anything but public sites. There are better options.

[–] Zols@lemmy.one 6 points 1 year ago

Netflix’s catalog seems to just be dying you watch one thing on there and you’ve seen everything.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Wat.

Edit: Oh it's only for new people.

[–] wet_lettuce@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

It sounds like it's only for new people and when you are due to renew. At least that's how I read it.

So you might only have it until your term is up?

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 1 points 1 year ago

“nah, I actually don’t want this anymore.

This was my reaction quite a while ago. We got rid of our account because we just didn’t use it anymore and the price kept climbing.

This is just Netflix desperately trying to claw back some profit. They think they can siphon most people into higher-priced accounts.

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