Buy or Rent Streaming Movies?

[Shareefruck]

I do it because good flicks are so rare that it doesn't seem worthwhile to worry about the difference between 480-720p and Blu Ray quality for every single thing I try. Is streaming quality even all that much better than normal torrent quality anyways?

When I decide I like something, though, and I buy it and revisit it (or watch it in theatres), that's when I make it more of an "every bit of quality matters" ritual.

I think I have that sort of mentality where I have a tendency to want to re-watch things that I already feel strongly about over and over again rather than watch things that are new as they come out-- I don't feel that strongly about variety and how fun the discovery process is, and find it kind of a drag-- I just want to skip to the peak results and focus on them. I guess that's why I don't really get into the whole Netflix/streaming thing. It's putting the emphasis/weight on on-the-fly consumption. I'll carelessly spend the money/splurge on the full package, curated, and with all the trimmings, after I know it's something worth fawning over. Until then, I'll do whatever's cheapest/easiest to find out which ones those are (my moral justification being, I'll end up spending more than I ever would doing it the other way-- and it's also perfectly distributed rather than be at the mercy of what marketing dictates)

 

[sully1410]

Its a solid secondary thing to have but I'll be honest I still prefer Netflix to it

Just the functionality, the stream quality and the relatively small amount of bandwidth Netflix takes up, I'm not getting off that bandwagon for some time

Totally agree. Given a choice...I lean towards Netflix big time. I like rhe Kodi box because it has everything that Netflix doesn't have.

 

[Pink Mist]

I do it because good flicks are so rare that it doesn't seem worthwhile to worry about the difference between 480-720p and Blu Ray quality for every single thing I try. Is streaming quality even all that much better than normal torrent quality anyways?

When I decide I like something, though, and I buy it and revisit it (or watch it in theatres), that's when I make it more of an "every bit of quality matters" ritual.

I think I have that sort of mentality where I have a tendency to want to re-watch things that I already feel strongly about over and over again rather than watch things that are new as they come out-- I don't feel that strongly about variety and how fun the discovery process is, and find it kind of a drag-- I just want to skip to the peak results and focus on them. I guess that's why I don't really get into the whole Netflix/streaming thing. It's putting the emphasis/weight on on-the-fly consumption. I'll carelessly spend the money/splurge on the full package, curated, and with all the trimmings, after I know it's something worth fawning over. Until then, I'll do whatever's cheapest/easiest to find out which ones those are (my moral justification being, I'll end up spending more than I ever would doing it the other way-- and it's also perfectly distributed rather than be at the mercy of what marketing dictates)

Why don't you just use a library instead of torrenting everything?

Me personally, I use the library or Netflix to watch films I haven't seen before, and then buy Blu Rays of the films I really enjoyed and will come back to often.

 

[Shareefruck]

I'm not aware of a library that has the kind of impressive selection you guys are talking about. What's the advantage of doing that anyways, though?

 

[Pink Mist]

I'm not aware of a library that has the kind of impressive selection you guys are talking about. What's the advantage of doing that anyways, though?

You'd be surprised at the catalogs libraries have. Many major cities, especially those with universities, have great catalogs of films, including Criterion dvds. I rarely struggle to find a film that I'm looking for that is not in one of my city's libraries (city of ~800,000 people with two universities).

The major advantage for me personally is that ethically I don't support piracy, especially when there are legal (and free) methods of watching it.

Also the ability to watch bonus features, especially in the case of films part of the Criterion collection.

 

[Shareefruck]

You'd be surprised at the catalogs libraries have. Many major cities, especially those with universities, have great catalogs of films, including Criterion dvds. I rarely struggle to find a film that I'm looking for that is not in one of my city's libraries (city of ~800,000 people with two universities).

The major advantage for me personally is that ethically I don't support piracy, especially when there are legal (and free) methods of watching it.

Also the ability to watch bonus features, especially in the case of films part of the Criterion collection.

I'll keep an eye out, but ethically, I don't have much of a problem with it either way (it's just a legality thing-- if the concern is that profits are stolen from the artist, borrowing from the library doesn't really reverse that, does it?). I think it's treated too much like a black and white issue morally.

And when I get to the point where I'm interested enough to watch the bonus features, I'll just buy the damn Criterion because I'll want to give my money to it anyways.

 

[chicagoskycam]

I do it because good flicks are so rare that it doesn't seem worthwhile to worry about the difference between 480-720p and Blu Ray quality for every single thing I try. Is streaming quality even all that much better than normal torrent quality anyways?

When I decide I like something, though, and I buy it and revisit it (or watch it in theatres), that's when I make it more of an "every bit of quality matters" ritual.

I think I have that sort of mentality where I have a tendency to want to re-watch things that I already feel strongly about over and over again rather than watch things that are new as they come out-- I don't feel that strongly about variety and how fun the discovery process is, and find it kind of a drag-- I just want to skip to the peak results and focus on them. I guess that's why I don't really get into the whole Netflix/streaming thing. It's putting the emphasis/weight on on-the-fly consumption. I'll carelessly spend the money/splurge on the full package, curated, and with all the trimmings, after I know it's something worth fawning over. Until then, I'll do whatever's cheapest/easiest to find out which ones those are (my moral justification being, I'll end up spending more than I ever would doing it the other way-- and it's also perfectly distributed rather than be at the mercy of what marketing dictates)

Netflix and Directv have decent 4k, I'm not that crazy about Amazon.

 

[Shareefruck]

Yeah, I tried the Netflix (Canada) thing for a while, but I've stopped using it completely. It's good for browsing middle-tier shows/films when you're bored and you don't know what you're looking for, but the selection has too many gaps to reliably be a resource, I find. I don't even bother checking if something's on Netflix first before looking elsewhere for it anymore.

 

[Whiplash27]

Mixture. I do like owning movies, but I won't buy a movie for more than $10 ($15 if it's something I really want to see and it's not on Netflix/Amazon). Overall, it's still cheaper than going to the movies.

If I buy a movie I'll just rip it and put it on my server so that I can stream it whenever I want.

 

[member 51464]

Mixture. I do like owning movies, but I won't buy a movie for more than $10 ($15 if it's something I really want to see and it's not on Netflix/Amazon). Overall, it's still cheaper than going to the movies.

If I buy a movie I'll just rip it and put it on my server so that I can stream it whenever I want.

What are the startup and upkeep costs for your own server like?