Thus it goes with the free market. I think consolidation will likely be good for the consumers in this streaming era. It’s not tenable to continue to have a hundred $12.99 subscriptions to every...
Thus it goes with the free market. I think consolidation will likely be good for the consumers in this streaming era. It’s not tenable to continue to have a hundred $12.99 subscriptions to every niche of content producers.
The state of streaming services is what pushed me to ramp up my Plex server and acquisitions for it, and to share it with as many of my friends and family as possible. I tell them to ditch those...
The state of streaming services is what pushed me to ramp up my Plex server and acquisitions for it, and to share it with as many of my friends and family as possible. I tell them to ditch those subscriptions and just text me what they want. It’s easy enough to get if it’s on a streaming service somewhere already.
If you get tired of taking requests from people (I sure as hell did): · Spin up Ombi · Create a shared user · Pass the link and credentials out to all of your friends and family. They can send a...
If you get tired of taking requests from people (I sure as hell did):
· Spin up Ombi
· Create a shared user
· Pass the link and credentials out to all of your friends and family.
They can send a request for a new show/movie to Ombi, which will automatically add it to Radarr/Sonarr, which will automatically start pulling it down.
Just passing by to say that there is also Overseerr which is a nice alternative to Ombi ! Your plex users may connect to Overseerr using their plex accounts.
Just passing by to say that there is also Overseerr which is a nice alternative to Ombi !
Your plex users may connect to Overseerr using their plex accounts.
Ombi supports OAuth with Plex. If people are connecting to your Plex, they already have Plex accounts. You can import your Plex users automatically into Ombi and have them auth in.
Ombi supports OAuth with Plex. If people are connecting to your Plex, they already have Plex accounts. You can import your Plex users automatically into Ombi and have them auth in.
Hey, I have a Synology NAS setup, I want to start exploring more of how to go about hosting this stuff to a plex server, how do I even get started learning about this stuff? Do you have any...
Hey, I have a Synology NAS setup, I want to start exploring more of how to go about hosting this stuff to a plex server, how do I even get started learning about this stuff? Do you have any recommended guides or YouTube channels to check out with some beginner level information?
Here's what you should learn: • basic Linux commands (ls, apt, cd, cp, mv, rm, chown, chmod) • how to navigate a *nix OS and where the log files are stored • how to use git to clone a repo and...
Here's what you should learn:
• basic Linux commands (ls, apt, cd, cp, mv, rm, chown, chmod)
• how to navigate a *nix OS and where the log files are stored
• how to use git to clone a repo and pull for changes/updates
• how to set up a MySQL/PostgreSQL database
• how to use nginx/Apache/caddy as web server/reverse proxy • how to use docker/docker-compose. This one is the one that will help you the most, but having the foundational knowledge is essential for troubleshooting, and it might just help you get a job in IT.
When I was first getting started, Digital Ocean's guide for Matrix was an absolute godsend.
https://trash-guides.info/ I found this site extremely helpful when getting this all set up on my Nas. I basically built a docker compose file from the containers available on...
I found this site extremely helpful when getting this all set up on my Nas. I basically built a docker compose file from the containers available on https://www.linuxserver.io/ for whatever things I wanted to run.
In hindsite, I wish I had gotten a little more powerful of a system, but I stumbled on all this after initially just trying to set up plex on it and hadn't planned for the rest.
I run my stack on an HP 290 and an HPS01 which are Celeron level procs (both builds including upgrades was sub $500) but with quick sync can each decode up to 21 streams via hardware acceleration....
I run my stack on an HP 290 and an HPS01 which are Celeron level procs (both builds including upgrades was sub $500) but with quick sync can each decode up to 21 streams via hardware acceleration. I use the other box to re encode my h264 to h265 to save about 30-50 percent disk space with tdarr too.
Just don't ask about my spending on NAS and storage arrays lol
That’s a pretty sweet setup. I might look into the IPTV when I have the chance to build a media server. Your service idea sounds great on paper but, aside from licensing, the majority of your...
That’s a pretty sweet setup. I might look into the IPTV when I have the chance to build a media server.
Your service idea sounds great on paper but, aside from licensing, the majority of your operating costs will be on storage. “Cloud” services are very expensive to maintain; that’s assuming you can convince companies to let you rent their IP’s.
Ps: see also: the battle between Netflix (when it had lots to offer) and ISP’s in the U.S.
I'm a little bit behind on the home media stuff. What are the differences of plex to something like jellyfin? I've been using a jellyfin server for just my wife and I for a couple years and it has...
I'm a little bit behind on the home media stuff. What are the differences of plex to something like jellyfin? I've been using a jellyfin server for just my wife and I for a couple years and it has been great. I just only ever see people mention plex.
Plex is the older one that people more traditionally use. They have slightly different capabilities but are overall very similar. The main difference if I’m remembering correctly is that Plex...
Plex is the older one that people more traditionally use. They have slightly different capabilities but are overall very similar.
The main difference if I’m remembering correctly is that Plex offers a paid Plex Pass that unlocks additional software features like mobile downloads, while Jellyfin is completely free software.
I'm pretty ignorant to how this stuff works, 2 questions: the media on Plex serves, I assume is mostly pirated content is that true? Say you own the box set DVD that you paid for, can you rip it...
I'm pretty ignorant to how this stuff works, 2 questions:
the media on Plex serves, I assume is mostly pirated content is that true?
Say you own the box set DVD that you paid for, can you rip it to mp4 and host it on plex for others to watch, is that legal?
On number 2: that really depends. Morally I think it’s okay. In the US, you are legally allowed to make copies for personal use. You are not legally allowed to circumvent copy protections. The law...
On number 2: that really depends. Morally I think it’s okay. In the US, you are legally allowed to make copies for personal use. You are not legally allowed to circumvent copy protections. The law doesn’t really go into if you can circumvent copy protections to make copies for personal use. It also does not specify if letting others watch counts as personal use (likely not, but it will depend on the extent of sharing). Practically speaking, these laws are never enforced unless you are sharing with many people. So grab MakeMKV and start ripping.
Same here except with Jellyfin. Still have a rather small collection on a 10 year old 1TB hard drive which is far from ideal but I’m currently just saving up for other purchases so this will have...
Same here except with Jellyfin. Still have a rather small collection on a 10 year old 1TB hard drive which is far from ideal but I’m currently just saving up for other purchases so this will have to do. My parents do have a 6TB Synology NAS setup w/ RAID so I want to figure out how to get Jellyfin running on that.
While I do miss some of the convenience of streaming, especially being able to watch a show the moment I initially think about it, being able to have absolute control over how and when I can watch TV/movies is amazing.
There are 4tb hard drives on Amazon with 3 year warranties for under $40. This one has a 5 year warranty and is $39.99. This is the first one I saw so there might be slightly cheaper ones. I...
There are 4tb hard drives on Amazon with 3 year warranties for under $40. This one has a 5 year warranty and is $39.99. This is the first one I saw so there might be slightly cheaper ones.
I grabbed 2 4tb drives with 3 year warranties and they've ran perfectly fine for a few months now storing my media files.
I remember a decade or so ago when everyone was paying $100/month for cable, all everyone wanted was "a la carte" TV options. Now that we more or less have that, people are complaining about the...
I remember a decade or so ago when everyone was paying $100/month for cable, all everyone wanted was "a la carte" TV options. Now that we more or less have that, people are complaining about the number of streaming services they "need" to subscribe to. You used to have to call your cable provider to make any changes to your TV programming, which usually involved being on hold for 20 minutes or more (I think I hit 2 hours once and ran out of cell phone minutes). I feel like I'm sounding like an old man, but this was only 10 years ago. Now it's about 5 clicks to cancel or restart a streaming subscription. The complaints probably mean that there is room for improvement on the system of having many streaming services in terms of usability, but I bet consolidation or bundling will end up costing people more on average.
Is it a la carte? What's my Netflix price to subscribe to English period dramas and Peppa Pig? That's all the rest of my family watches. I want to watch sports. But the only way for me to get PVR...
Is it a la carte? What's my Netflix price to subscribe to English period dramas and Peppa Pig? That's all the rest of my family watches.
I want to watch sports. But the only way for me to get PVR features is still a cable subscription. Yes, sports streaming exists. But the sports streamers don't offer PVR, in order to force you to subscribe to cable.
This doesn't sound at all like what I said I wanted a decade ago.
Well, much more so than before. If you think about each streaming service as a channel or collection of channels, each one is I think less than $15, so it's pretty close. If you want individual...
Well, much more so than before. If you think about each streaming service as a channel or collection of channels, each one is I think less than $15, so it's pretty close. If you want individual shows or movies you can purchase or rent those digitally too.
Sports is definitely an exception, but that's just one aspect that hasn't managed to escape consolidation. So more consolidation is definitely not going to help. Basically, I feel like things have generally gotten better, but it seems like some people are asking to go back to how it was, which was worse.
Sure, but twenty years ago I just bought DVDs and watched sports over the air. Streaming is a substitute for DVDs, not cable TV. The struggling RSN landscape bodes well for sports consolidation,...
Sure, but twenty years ago I just bought DVDs and watched sports over the air. Streaming is a substitute for DVDs, not cable TV.
The struggling RSN landscape bodes well for sports consolidation, at least for certain markets. Unfortunately those of us in more profitable ones will likely be screwed for some time yet.
Well, I still do that. I kind of wish I didn't have to though. Sometimes my reception isn't that good for certain channels, so I'd prefer the streaming model if it weren't so overpriced. The...
watched sports over the air
Well, I still do that. I kind of wish I didn't have to though. Sometimes my reception isn't that good for certain channels, so I'd prefer the streaming model if it weren't so overpriced. The complicated contracts relating to this are one of the reasons why sports streaming hasn't happened as much.
Streaming is a substitute for DVDs, not cable TV
Streaming is a substitute for both. Most of the type of TV show watching that was done on cable is now done through streaming services. Streaming services are where the show is first available, whereas DVDs have historically been released much later after the air date.
Right, but as someone who was never about watching the latest shows and discussing them around the watercooler streaming is a substitute for DVDs, period. Ironically, I now have cable since it's...
Right, but as someone who was never about watching the latest shows and discussing them around the watercooler streaming is a substitute for DVDs, period.
Ironically, I now have cable since it's the only sensible way to watch hockey and baseball in 2023. Cable has replaced OTA, streaming has replaced DVDs.
Oh, I was thinking about how we used to have watch parties for Game of Thrones, or how people might say "hey have you watched the new season of Stranger Things?" No one asks about anything that's...
Oh, I was thinking about how we used to have watch parties for Game of Thrones, or how people might say "hey have you watched the new season of Stranger Things?" No one asks about anything that's happening on cable TV anymore, so streaming has largely replaced it for TV shows. Since you can watch the whole archive as well, it's also replaced DVDs.
It's not "everyone." A decade, two decades, even three decades ago my family didn't have cable. We had broadcast TV and Blockbuster, followed by Netflix in the DVD era. We jumped onto streaming in...
It's not "everyone." A decade, two decades, even three decades ago my family didn't have cable. We had broadcast TV and Blockbuster, followed by Netflix in the DVD era. We jumped onto streaming in the early days of "Netflix Instant Play."
I suspect a majority of millennials born after 1990 have never paid for cable in their life. I've come across people in the younger side of Gen Z who don't even know what cable TV is.
I distinctly remember using Reddit in 2007-2008 and everyone, myself included, wanting one Netflix subscription for all movies and TV shows, at the price of the time. Cable wasn't something anyone wanted, as Netflix was an alternative to BitTorrent.
It's the same problem then as it is now. The media conglomerates control the content. They refused to sell channels a la carte to the cable companies. Which made cable prices high. Now they cut...
It's the same problem then as it is now. The media conglomerates control the content. They refused to sell channels a la carte to the cable companies. Which made cable prices high. Now they cut out the middle man (cable companies) and put their shows behind their own services. I don't really see anything changing in the near future.
If their streaming services need more profits, they'll probably start offering more temporary deals to get customers back. Like how Hulu occasionally offers me a 3 month deal for $2/month and I do it and then cancel.
I really don't agree with this. Just look at what Netflix has become now that they are producing the majority of their content; it started with some good stuff, but most of the stuff they're...
I really don't agree with this. Just look at what Netflix has become now that they are producing the majority of their content; it started with some good stuff, but most of the stuff they're making now is fluff. Their prices haven't gone up very much, but the quality of their productions has plummeted. They likely can't do better because all of their subscribers complain any time they suggest raising prices. If we go back to consolidation, the prices will just be higher and there will be less choice for content we will actually want to watch. Stealing a comment from @devilized :
And when that happens, we'll be back to where we started: one $80/month subscription for everything, but you only care about one or two shows.
I strongly suspect that the flat monthly fee for streaming services is unsustainable in the long run. There is an expectation that the services will keep releasing new and interesting things, and that's both expensive and risky. Taking Netflix as the example again, they have released a lot of content that I really enjoyed but very obviously wasn't the success they were hoping it would be, and that seems to be true of just about everyone; who hasn't complained about them canceling a show they enjoyed? And on the other hand there are smaller streaming services which aren't huge juggernauts. Right now I have Disney+ largely just because it's bundled in with Hulu, but Disney+ very rarely releases content that I actually want to see, and a lot of it is fluff that I feel that Disney probably thinks they couldn't sell otherwise.
As much as I hate FAST with a passion (because I hate ads with an even stronger passion), I can see why they're getting so much investment. Unlike the more popular options, FAST services actually get paid relative to how much you watch them. They have a very strong financial incentive to purchase or produce engrossing long-form content, because if you're not watching they aren't making money.
What amazes me about Netflix is how eager they are to shit on their popular series (or any series, actually). There is no rewatchability since they are just cancelled without given a proper...
Just look at what Netflix has become now that they are producing the majority of their content; it started with some good stuff, but most of the stuff they're making now is fluff. Their prices haven't gone up very much, but the quality of their productions has plummeted.
What amazes me about Netflix is how eager they are to shit on their popular series (or any series, actually). There is no rewatchability since they are just cancelled without given a proper ending. They're purposely turning their catalog into a graveyard. It is like a book author leaving the last 50 pages blank or ending a movie with 30 minutes of runtime left. Who would want to go back and watch that and who would that make happy?
Give the series an ending and people will be inclined to rewatch it while waiting for the next season of Sweet Tooth or whatever.
Netflix is incredibly metrics driven. They make fluff because that's what people want. It's what audiences engage with, what they watch in long bursts and what retains subscribers. It's no...
Netflix is incredibly metrics driven. They make fluff because that's what people want. It's what audiences engage with, what they watch in long bursts and what retains subscribers. It's no different than the sad state of cable TV, or how the internet has been taken over by vapid social media.
I don't like it, but it's simply the problem with market economics: they produce an equilibrium of profitable mediocrity in every market. Whether it's electronics (enjoy your pretty, no serviceable computer/phone), food (McDonalds exists), or entertainment.
Ugh most of their income comes from advertising but they’re charging $6 for the ad supported version. I just can’t stand ads anymore, so if I want to watch peacock or paramount or whatever I get...
Ugh most of their income comes from advertising but they’re charging $6 for the ad supported version.
I just can’t stand ads anymore, so if I want to watch peacock or paramount or whatever I get one at a time of the ad-free tier for a month, watch the few good shows and then cancel. This can’t be sustainable on their end, no wonder they lose money.
In fact the linked article on indiewire is basically unreadable without an ad blocker, there are both inline ads and autoplaying video and I think we’re all being driven crazy by this stuff.
I'm curious about how the economics work out for this. Someone paying $12 for the non-ad supported version vs someone paying for the $6 ad version, are they actually making more money off the...
I'm curious about how the economics work out for this. Someone paying $12 for the non-ad supported version vs someone paying for the $6 ad version, are they actually making more money off the latter?
I Googled it and it sounds like CPMs for Peacock are around $40. Which seems high, but I guess it kind of makes sense as fairly premium inventory. So as long as you watch 150 ads per month or more, Peacock is making more money off the ads-enabled user. Which probably isn't super hard. I bet they can easily cram 5 or 10 ads into a half hour show. So 15-30 half-hours/month? Not that far fetched. That sucks.
I only have Peacock because of Indycar, and I hate it. It's a much worse experience than F1TV. Doesn't ask if I want to start at the beginning or live, just jumps to live, no alternative angles or...
I only have Peacock because of Indycar, and I hate it. It's a much worse experience than F1TV. Doesn't ask if I want to start at the beginning or live, just jumps to live, no alternative angles or streams, randomly goes to a blank screen while it shows commercials to those on ad plans (making me miss parts of the race). I have no interest in any of their other content, and as the Indycar experience is nearly unwatchable I'll probably cancel.
Exactly, I was so confused at first, but then it kept happening and I figured it out. They don't even tell you why it's happening. And they do it right in the middle of the race, even during...
Exactly, I was so confused at first, but then it kept happening and I figured it out. They don't even tell you why it's happening. And they do it right in the middle of the race, even during exciting moments. It's awful.
For Indycar, I have to use pirated streams. In particular, Sky Sports streams. Because when NBC goes to commercial and the NBC commentators go silent, the Sky stream still shows the race. Which I...
For Indycar, I have to use pirated streams. In particular, Sky Sports streams. Because when NBC goes to commercial and the NBC commentators go silent, the Sky stream still shows the race. Which I think Peacock also does (at least on Peacock pirated streams I've seen)? It's just weird that there's no commentary while the ads are playing on NBC.
But Sky has their own commentator who comes on during those NBC breaks. So it's much more like F1TV (whether F1 Live or International feed), where there's commentary the whole time.
Indycar is unwatchable, and especially brutal compared to F1. This is why I will never get into it and they’ve probably already lost the war to F1 unfortunately.
Indycar is unwatchable, and especially brutal compared to F1. This is why I will never get into it and they’ve probably already lost the war to F1 unfortunately.
The problem is, I honestly am starting to enjoy Indycar more than F1, the stakes feel higher, unlike Max just driving off into the distance each race. There's some seriously exciting moments...
The problem is, I honestly am starting to enjoy Indycar more than F1, the stakes feel higher, unlike Max just driving off into the distance each race. There's some seriously exciting moments almost every race as well. But yeah, the coverage is horrible, EXCEPT for the wonderful rotating cameras on each car. I much prefer that view to the bodycam F1 likes to switch to that shows little more than the steering wheel.
Additionally, because it's not as popular, I can actually afford to go to the races. Driving down with my wife in August to watch the triple header in Indy this year.
I’ve just started watching Indycar through IndyTV and a VPN just because of the horrendous advertising through the official Peacock stream. I just hate how every single sentence from the...
I’ve just started watching Indycar through IndyTV and a VPN just because of the horrendous advertising through the official Peacock stream. I just hate how every single sentence from the commentators has to include a minimum of 528450842 brand names. The overseas streams are much better in my experience.
Yeah I've never had a reason to even try Peacock. I'm entering phase where I will cancel most of my streaming services, go back to renting movies. And when there's enough content I want to see on...
Yeah I've never had a reason to even try Peacock. I'm entering phase where I will cancel most of my streaming services, go back to renting movies. And when there's enough content I want to see on the streamers - that is fully released, not 1x a week, I will subscribe and watch and then cancel.
Like anything else they have some OK stuff. They tend to focus on TV and specials rather than movies (they did a couple Psych specials, they're bringing back Monk for a new special, they're also...
Like anything else they have some OK stuff. They tend to focus on TV and specials rather than movies (they did a couple Psych specials, they're bringing back Monk for a new special, they're also doing the Community movie assuming it actually happens).
Girls5Eva, MacGruber, The Resort, and Killing It are some comedies that come to mind. They also continued AP Bio for a couple seasons on Peacock after it was canned from NBC proper, and it got pretty weird. I liked Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin but would only really recommend it to people who had fun with the movies.
There's also a biopic miniseries about Angelyne, which is apparently quite good -- haven't seen it myself though.
I guess I'm in the minority based on all of the other comments in this thread. For me, Peacock has produced some of my favorite shows in the past few years. The Resort, Poker Face, We are...
I guess I'm in the minority based on all of the other comments in this thread. For me, Peacock has produced some of my favorite shows in the past few years. The Resort, Poker Face, We are Ladyparts, Based on a True Story, and Mrs. Davis have all been great.
For me it’s the community movie. Part of me wants peacock to die soon after they launch the movie so that it’s kind of the second streaming service community kills hah
For me it’s the community movie.
Part of me wants peacock to die soon after they launch the movie so that it’s kind of the second streaming service community kills hah
I've always done that but lately our subscription services keep offering is crazy deals. My SO found a deal for Walmart Delivery ($50) that came with a year of Peacock, some subscription to Panera...
I've always done that but lately our subscription services keep offering is crazy deals. My SO found a deal for Walmart Delivery ($50) that came with a year of Peacock, some subscription to Panera that offers a free fountain drink every 2 hours, money off gas and a few other perks. So now we have Peacock.
We bounced Disney+, Hulu, AMC+ and a few others between us for awhile. She'd sign up for an introductory offer (usually like 3 months for $5) and cancel. I'd sign up a month after it ran out for the same deal. By the time mine expired they'd offer her a promotion to come back.. We ended up with a year of Disney+ and Hulu for something like $30 for the year. So now we have Disney+ and Hulu.
I don't know how but she keeps finding these deals on streaming services. We have Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, Prime1, Curiosity and a few more for a little over $100 for the year.
The only full price service we have currently is Netflix due to The Witcher and another 2 series she watches with her mom. I had actually cancelled Netflix but she got hooked onto the 3 series while the subscription was running down, lol.
1 I consider Prime Video/Movies "free" since we mainly got it for the shipping and music (which has been getting more and more enshitified lately)
Did they lose $650 million, or did they "lose" $650 million? Hollywood accounting always finds ways to lose money on paper while the companies laugh all the way to the bank. I'm not inclined to...
Did they lose $650 million, or did they "lose" $650 million? Hollywood accounting always finds ways to lose money on paper while the companies laugh all the way to the bank. I'm not inclined to take NBC at their word on this.
Honestly of all the major subscription services, Peacock has always felt like the weakest to me. It’s never had anything I’ve felt worth paying for to watch.
Honestly of all the major subscription services, Peacock has always felt like the weakest to me. It’s never had anything I’ve felt worth paying for to watch.
I wholeheartedly agree. There is no sustainable programming on Peacock. I however subscribed for the month of July, just as I did last year, purely to watch the World feed of the Tour de France....
I wholeheartedly agree. There is no sustainable programming on Peacock.
I however subscribed for the month of July, just as I did last year, purely to watch the World feed of the Tour de France. And I’ll probably do the same again next year.
No ads, 6 hours per day. Quality commentary with loads of insight, and did I mention no ads?
Added bonus is that I was also able to watch the Tour de France Femme (on mute due to shitty non world feed), and see Lotte Kopecky deserve her 2’nd place on the podium.
All that in one month.
Not really surprised. I only have Peacock because during the Men's World Cup they had the Spanish broadcast and were offer a year for $1 a month. I might keep it because I really like how many...
Not really surprised. I only have Peacock because during the Men's World Cup they had the Spanish broadcast and were offer a year for $1 a month. I might keep it because I really like how many sports are on it. I just need to find myself watching more of them before I commit. As it is GT car is already streamed free on Youtube. I want to watch Indy but just never really find the time.
I signed up because Xbox Game Pass gave me two free months of premium + no ads. Then I bought a year subscription for $20 total. The only two shows I watch are Two-and-a-Half Men and George Lopez.
I signed up because Xbox Game Pass gave me two free months of premium + no ads. Then I bought a year subscription for $20 total. The only two shows I watch are Two-and-a-Half Men and George Lopez.
Thus it goes with the free market. I think consolidation will likely be good for the consumers in this streaming era. It’s not tenable to continue to have a hundred $12.99 subscriptions to every niche of content producers.
The state of streaming services is what pushed me to ramp up my Plex server and acquisitions for it, and to share it with as many of my friends and family as possible. I tell them to ditch those subscriptions and just text me what they want. It’s easy enough to get if it’s on a streaming service somewhere already.
If you get tired of taking requests from people (I sure as hell did):
· Spin up Ombi
· Create a shared user
· Pass the link and credentials out to all of your friends and family.
They can send a request for a new show/movie to Ombi, which will automatically add it to Radarr/Sonarr, which will automatically start pulling it down.
Just passing by to say that there is also Overseerr which is a nice alternative to Ombi !
Your plex users may connect to Overseerr using their plex accounts.
Ombi supports OAuth with Plex. If people are connecting to your Plex, they already have Plex accounts. You can import your Plex users automatically into Ombi and have them auth in.
have you heard of overseerr?
I had heard of it, but I already have Ombi spun up and working fine so I never looked into it.
Hey, I have a Synology NAS setup, I want to start exploring more of how to go about hosting this stuff to a plex server, how do I even get started learning about this stuff? Do you have any recommended guides or YouTube channels to check out with some beginner level information?
Here's what you should learn:
• basic Linux commands (
ls,apt,cd,cp,mv,rm,chown,chmod)• how to navigate a *nix OS and where the log files are stored
• how to use git to clone a repo and pull for changes/updates
• how to set up a MySQL/PostgreSQL database
• how to use nginx/Apache/caddy as web server/reverse proxy
• how to use docker/docker-compose. This one is the one that will help you the most, but having the foundational knowledge is essential for troubleshooting, and it might just help you get a job in IT.
When I was first getting started, Digital Ocean's guide for Matrix was an absolute godsend.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-git-on-ubuntu-20-04
I think they used to have one for Nextcloud that used git and not Snap but I can't find it now.
I hate sitting through tutorial videos when I could just be reading the information I need.
https://trash-guides.info/
I found this site extremely helpful when getting this all set up on my Nas. I basically built a docker compose file from the containers available on https://www.linuxserver.io/ for whatever things I wanted to run.
In hindsite, I wish I had gotten a little more powerful of a system, but I stumbled on all this after initially just trying to set up plex on it and hadn't planned for the rest.
I run my stack on an HP 290 and an HPS01 which are Celeron level procs (both builds including upgrades was sub $500) but with quick sync can each decode up to 21 streams via hardware acceleration. I use the other box to re encode my h264 to h265 to save about 30-50 percent disk space with tdarr too.
Just don't ask about my spending on NAS and storage arrays lol
That’s a pretty sweet setup. I might look into the IPTV when I have the chance to build a media server.
Your service idea sounds great on paper but, aside from licensing, the majority of your operating costs will be on storage. “Cloud” services are very expensive to maintain; that’s assuming you can convince companies to let you rent their IP’s.
Ps: see also: the battle between Netflix (when it had lots to offer) and ISP’s in the U.S.
I'm a little bit behind on the home media stuff. What are the differences of plex to something like jellyfin? I've been using a jellyfin server for just my wife and I for a couple years and it has been great. I just only ever see people mention plex.
Jellyfin is open source; Plex is not
Plex is the older one that people more traditionally use. They have slightly different capabilities but are overall very similar.
The main difference if I’m remembering correctly is that Plex offers a paid Plex Pass that unlocks additional software features like mobile downloads, while Jellyfin is completely free software.
Plex Pass most importantly enables hardware transcoding so you can enable GPU use instead of only CPU use.
I'm pretty ignorant to how this stuff works, 2 questions:
the media on Plex serves, I assume is mostly pirated content is that true?
Say you own the box set DVD that you paid for, can you rip it to mp4 and host it on plex for others to watch, is that legal?
On number 2: that really depends. Morally I think it’s okay. In the US, you are legally allowed to make copies for personal use. You are not legally allowed to circumvent copy protections. The law doesn’t really go into if you can circumvent copy protections to make copies for personal use. It also does not specify if letting others watch counts as personal use (likely not, but it will depend on the extent of sharing). Practically speaking, these laws are never enforced unless you are sharing with many people. So grab MakeMKV and start ripping.
Same here except with Jellyfin. Still have a rather small collection on a 10 year old 1TB hard drive which is far from ideal but I’m currently just saving up for other purchases so this will have to do. My parents do have a 6TB Synology NAS setup w/ RAID so I want to figure out how to get Jellyfin running on that.
While I do miss some of the convenience of streaming, especially being able to watch a show the moment I initially think about it, being able to have absolute control over how and when I can watch TV/movies is amazing.
There are 4tb hard drives on Amazon with 3 year warranties for under $40. This one has a 5 year warranty and is $39.99. This is the first one I saw so there might be slightly cheaper ones.
I grabbed 2 4tb drives with 3 year warranties and they've ran perfectly fine for a few months now storing my media files.
I grabbed 2 such drives
I remember a decade or so ago when everyone was paying $100/month for cable, all everyone wanted was "a la carte" TV options. Now that we more or less have that, people are complaining about the number of streaming services they "need" to subscribe to. You used to have to call your cable provider to make any changes to your TV programming, which usually involved being on hold for 20 minutes or more (I think I hit 2 hours once and ran out of cell phone minutes). I feel like I'm sounding like an old man, but this was only 10 years ago. Now it's about 5 clicks to cancel or restart a streaming subscription. The complaints probably mean that there is room for improvement on the system of having many streaming services in terms of usability, but I bet consolidation or bundling will end up costing people more on average.
Is it a la carte? What's my Netflix price to subscribe to English period dramas and Peppa Pig? That's all the rest of my family watches.
I want to watch sports. But the only way for me to get PVR features is still a cable subscription. Yes, sports streaming exists. But the sports streamers don't offer PVR, in order to force you to subscribe to cable.
This doesn't sound at all like what I said I wanted a decade ago.
Well, much more so than before. If you think about each streaming service as a channel or collection of channels, each one is I think less than $15, so it's pretty close. If you want individual shows or movies you can purchase or rent those digitally too.
Sports is definitely an exception, but that's just one aspect that hasn't managed to escape consolidation. So more consolidation is definitely not going to help. Basically, I feel like things have generally gotten better, but it seems like some people are asking to go back to how it was, which was worse.
Sure, but twenty years ago I just bought DVDs and watched sports over the air. Streaming is a substitute for DVDs, not cable TV.
The struggling RSN landscape bodes well for sports consolidation, at least for certain markets. Unfortunately those of us in more profitable ones will likely be screwed for some time yet.
Well, I still do that. I kind of wish I didn't have to though. Sometimes my reception isn't that good for certain channels, so I'd prefer the streaming model if it weren't so overpriced. The complicated contracts relating to this are one of the reasons why sports streaming hasn't happened as much.
Streaming is a substitute for both. Most of the type of TV show watching that was done on cable is now done through streaming services. Streaming services are where the show is first available, whereas DVDs have historically been released much later after the air date.
Right, but as someone who was never about watching the latest shows and discussing them around the watercooler streaming is a substitute for DVDs, period.
Ironically, I now have cable since it's the only sensible way to watch hockey and baseball in 2023. Cable has replaced OTA, streaming has replaced DVDs.
Oh, I was thinking about how we used to have watch parties for Game of Thrones, or how people might say "hey have you watched the new season of Stranger Things?" No one asks about anything that's happening on cable TV anymore, so streaming has largely replaced it for TV shows. Since you can watch the whole archive as well, it's also replaced DVDs.
Oh for sure, I was speaking only about my own use case.
It's not "everyone." A decade, two decades, even three decades ago my family didn't have cable. We had broadcast TV and Blockbuster, followed by Netflix in the DVD era. We jumped onto streaming in the early days of "Netflix Instant Play."
I suspect a majority of millennials born after 1990 have never paid for cable in their life. I've come across people in the younger side of Gen Z who don't even know what cable TV is.
I distinctly remember using Reddit in 2007-2008 and everyone, myself included, wanting one Netflix subscription for all movies and TV shows, at the price of the time. Cable wasn't something anyone wanted, as Netflix was an alternative to BitTorrent.
It's the same problem then as it is now. The media conglomerates control the content. They refused to sell channels a la carte to the cable companies. Which made cable prices high. Now they cut out the middle man (cable companies) and put their shows behind their own services. I don't really see anything changing in the near future.
If their streaming services need more profits, they'll probably start offering more temporary deals to get customers back. Like how Hulu occasionally offers me a 3 month deal for $2/month and I do it and then cancel.
And when that happens, we'll be back to where we started: one $80/month subscription for everything, but you only care about one or two shows.
And when that happens, we'll be back to where we started: ██████████
I really don't agree with this. Just look at what Netflix has become now that they are producing the majority of their content; it started with some good stuff, but most of the stuff they're making now is fluff. Their prices haven't gone up very much, but the quality of their productions has plummeted. They likely can't do better because all of their subscribers complain any time they suggest raising prices. If we go back to consolidation, the prices will just be higher and there will be less choice for content we will actually want to watch. Stealing a comment from @devilized :
I strongly suspect that the flat monthly fee for streaming services is unsustainable in the long run. There is an expectation that the services will keep releasing new and interesting things, and that's both expensive and risky. Taking Netflix as the example again, they have released a lot of content that I really enjoyed but very obviously wasn't the success they were hoping it would be, and that seems to be true of just about everyone; who hasn't complained about them canceling a show they enjoyed? And on the other hand there are smaller streaming services which aren't huge juggernauts. Right now I have Disney+ largely just because it's bundled in with Hulu, but Disney+ very rarely releases content that I actually want to see, and a lot of it is fluff that I feel that Disney probably thinks they couldn't sell otherwise.
As much as I hate FAST with a passion (because I hate ads with an even stronger passion), I can see why they're getting so much investment. Unlike the more popular options, FAST services actually get paid relative to how much you watch them. They have a very strong financial incentive to purchase or produce engrossing long-form content, because if you're not watching they aren't making money.
What amazes me about Netflix is how eager they are to shit on their popular series (or any series, actually). There is no rewatchability since they are just cancelled without given a proper ending. They're purposely turning their catalog into a graveyard. It is like a book author leaving the last 50 pages blank or ending a movie with 30 minutes of runtime left. Who would want to go back and watch that and who would that make happy?
Give the series an ending and people will be inclined to rewatch it while waiting for the next season of Sweet Tooth or whatever.
Netflix is incredibly metrics driven. They make fluff because that's what people want. It's what audiences engage with, what they watch in long bursts and what retains subscribers. It's no different than the sad state of cable TV, or how the internet has been taken over by vapid social media.
I don't like it, but it's simply the problem with market economics: they produce an equilibrium of profitable mediocrity in every market. Whether it's electronics (enjoy your pretty, no serviceable computer/phone), food (McDonalds exists), or entertainment.
Like... A cable package?
We all clamored for ala carte services.... Well... We got em.
What we didn't want was $12 a month for each damn service.
Ugh most of their income comes from advertising but they’re charging $6 for the ad supported version.
I just can’t stand ads anymore, so if I want to watch peacock or paramount or whatever I get one at a time of the ad-free tier for a month, watch the few good shows and then cancel. This can’t be sustainable on their end, no wonder they lose money.
In fact the linked article on indiewire is basically unreadable without an ad blocker, there are both inline ads and autoplaying video and I think we’re all being driven crazy by this stuff.
I'm curious about how the economics work out for this. Someone paying $12 for the non-ad supported version vs someone paying for the $6 ad version, are they actually making more money off the latter?
I Googled it and it sounds like CPMs for Peacock are around $40. Which seems high, but I guess it kind of makes sense as fairly premium inventory. So as long as you watch 150 ads per month or more, Peacock is making more money off the ads-enabled user. Which probably isn't super hard. I bet they can easily cram 5 or 10 ads into a half hour show. So 15-30 half-hours/month? Not that far fetched. That sucks.
I only have Peacock because of Indycar, and I hate it. It's a much worse experience than F1TV. Doesn't ask if I want to start at the beginning or live, just jumps to live, no alternative angles or streams, randomly goes to a blank screen while it shows commercials to those on ad plans (making me miss parts of the race). I have no interest in any of their other content, and as the Indycar experience is nearly unwatchable I'll probably cancel.
So if you pay extra to remove the ads, you just get a blank screen instead of an ad? That's nearly as bad as the ads!
Exactly, I was so confused at first, but then it kept happening and I figured it out. They don't even tell you why it's happening. And they do it right in the middle of the race, even during exciting moments. It's awful.
For Indycar, I have to use pirated streams. In particular, Sky Sports streams. Because when NBC goes to commercial and the NBC commentators go silent, the Sky stream still shows the race. Which I think Peacock also does (at least on Peacock pirated streams I've seen)? It's just weird that there's no commentary while the ads are playing on NBC.
But Sky has their own commentator who comes on during those NBC breaks. So it's much more like F1TV (whether F1 Live or International feed), where there's commentary the whole time.
Ahh thanks for the info, sounds like a VPN and Sky or IndyTV are going to be in my future!
Indycar is unwatchable, and especially brutal compared to F1. This is why I will never get into it and they’ve probably already lost the war to F1 unfortunately.
The problem is, I honestly am starting to enjoy Indycar more than F1, the stakes feel higher, unlike Max just driving off into the distance each race. There's some seriously exciting moments almost every race as well. But yeah, the coverage is horrible, EXCEPT for the wonderful rotating cameras on each car. I much prefer that view to the bodycam F1 likes to switch to that shows little more than the steering wheel.
Additionally, because it's not as popular, I can actually afford to go to the races. Driving down with my wife in August to watch the triple header in Indy this year.
I’ve just started watching Indycar through IndyTV and a VPN just because of the horrendous advertising through the official Peacock stream. I just hate how every single sentence from the commentators has to include a minimum of 528450842 brand names. The overseas streams are much better in my experience.
Yeah I've never had a reason to even try Peacock. I'm entering phase where I will cancel most of my streaming services, go back to renting movies. And when there's enough content I want to see on the streamers - that is fully released, not 1x a week, I will subscribe and watch and then cancel.
Like anything else they have some OK stuff. They tend to focus on TV and specials rather than movies (they did a couple Psych specials, they're bringing back Monk for a new special, they're also doing the Community movie assuming it actually happens).
Girls5Eva, MacGruber, The Resort, and Killing It are some comedies that come to mind. They also continued AP Bio for a couple seasons on Peacock after it was canned from NBC proper, and it got pretty weird. I liked Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin but would only really recommend it to people who had fun with the movies.
There's also a biopic miniseries about Angelyne, which is apparently quite good -- haven't seen it myself though.
I guess I'm in the minority based on all of the other comments in this thread. For me, Peacock has produced some of my favorite shows in the past few years. The Resort, Poker Face, We are Ladyparts, Based on a True Story, and Mrs. Davis have all been great.
For me it’s the community movie.
Part of me wants peacock to die soon after they launch the movie so that it’s kind of the second streaming service community kills hah
I've always done that but lately our subscription services keep offering is crazy deals. My SO found a deal for Walmart Delivery ($50) that came with a year of Peacock, some subscription to Panera that offers a free fountain drink every 2 hours, money off gas and a few other perks. So now we have Peacock.
We bounced Disney+, Hulu, AMC+ and a few others between us for awhile. She'd sign up for an introductory offer (usually like 3 months for $5) and cancel. I'd sign up a month after it ran out for the same deal. By the time mine expired they'd offer her a promotion to come back.. We ended up with a year of Disney+ and Hulu for something like $30 for the year. So now we have Disney+ and Hulu.
I don't know how but she keeps finding these deals on streaming services. We have Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, Prime1, Curiosity and a few more for a little over $100 for the year.
The only full price service we have currently is Netflix due to The Witcher and another 2 series she watches with her mom. I had actually cancelled Netflix but she got hooked onto the 3 series while the subscription was running down, lol.
1 I consider Prime Video/Movies "free" since we mainly got it for the shipping and music (which has been getting more and more enshitified lately)
Did they lose $650 million, or did they "lose" $650 million? Hollywood accounting always finds ways to lose money on paper while the companies laugh all the way to the bank. I'm not inclined to take NBC at their word on this.
Honestly of all the major subscription services, Peacock has always felt like the weakest to me. It’s never had anything I’ve felt worth paying for to watch.
I wholeheartedly agree. There is no sustainable programming on Peacock.
I however subscribed for the month of July, just as I did last year, purely to watch the World feed of the Tour de France. And I’ll probably do the same again next year.
No ads, 6 hours per day. Quality commentary with loads of insight, and did I mention no ads?
Added bonus is that I was also able to watch the Tour de France Femme (on mute due to shitty non world feed), and see Lotte Kopecky deserve her 2’nd place on the podium.
All that in one month.
Best $10 spent anywhere & anytime.
Not really surprised. I only have Peacock because during the Men's World Cup they had the Spanish broadcast and were offer a year for $1 a month. I might keep it because I really like how many sports are on it. I just need to find myself watching more of them before I commit. As it is GT car is already streamed free on Youtube. I want to watch Indy but just never really find the time.
I signed up because Xbox Game Pass gave me two free months of premium + no ads. Then I bought a year subscription for $20 total. The only two shows I watch are Two-and-a-Half Men and George Lopez.