[merlinsbrain]

If you’re willing to pay, why not rent from the iTunes Store / Amazon Prime?

Pick one, they’ve had all the movies / TV shows I wanted to watch, which are not all mainstream.

If there’s an exception and there’s something you don’t find it there - well, do you, but I really don’t understand how piracy is the default answer to convenience with people claiming they have the willingness to pay.

Someone else commented about the local video store - also an option, if not something I’d do myself (does redbox count?)

[fhennig]

I recently rented a movie on amazon, and then I didn't have the option to get english subtitles, only subtitles in my native language.

I wonder why that is, and I'm assuming it is because of some cumbersome contractual relations.

On a DVD I'm pretty certain I could have gotten English subtitles.

So now I'm paying, but I still get sub-par content?

I ended up using a plugin to add the subtitles back in, but that plugin works on pirate streams too. Could've pirated it in the first place.

[fragmede]

Go to a different country, and Netflix offers a different set of subtitles for a given title. Why can't I get Swedish subtitles in the US, for titles Neflix has the subtitles? I know this is to simplify the UI, but just offer it as an advances option, like they do for non-apathy mode (ie, stop playing at the end of one episode so I don't lose a day sitting on the couch).

[partialrecall]

> "I know this is to simplify the UI"

Why is that even necessary? Youtube offers you the full list to choose from and I don't see users writhing on the ground clutching their skulls in agonizing confusion. Users can handle a list of languages just fine.

This industry thinks too little of users.

[tomc1985]

And designers, kings/queens of the "you think you want this feature, but our user tests show that you actually don't"

[fragmede]

That's the worst. For mature products, all that A/B testing does is test how close the old UI is to the new UI. Users are scared of change, to the point that when Ebay wanted to change the color of their banner, changing the color instantly was a travesty to their users so instead, Ebay transitioned the color slowly, over months, to yellow.[0]

[0] https://theuxblog.com/blog/redesigning-user-experience

[distances]

> Why can't I get Swedish subtitles in the US, for titles Neflix has the subtitles? I know this is to simplify the UI

Not true. I'm pretty sure it's licensing cost. In Germany most movies have subtitles only in German, while a handful also in English -- all Netflix originals and maybe some others. Meanwhile, basically all series have English subtitles for some arcane reason.

For me Netflix is a series-only service, I've given up on finding any movie worth watching that would have English subtitles.

[kjaftaedi]

This bothers me a lot as well.

For some reason I also get different subtitle options on my phone than I do my television despite both being on the same network (no vpn).

I also hate that they offer a show with audio in the original language, but no subtitles for the same language. So you have to be either mostly fluent or forced to watch the dubbed version.

[jaredklewis]

Are you truly certain it is just to simplify the UI? I am not sure for Swedish, but I do know that US films subtitled in Japanese often have different licensing arrangements than the unsubtitled version.

For the same inscrutable reasons that the film industry insists on schemes like DVD region locking, they are also generally against making a single version of a movie with all subtitles available.

[freeflight]

> I really don’t understand how piracy is the default answer to convenience with people claiming they have the willingness to pay.

Subscription services fees can quickly add if not managed properly, so the convenience they offer completely evaporates if you force customers to juggle their subscriptions between different services to cover all their needs.

To customers that "services juggling" is pretty much the exact opposite of "convenience", but signing up for everything, all the time, is not an option for many as that would cost some serious money.

So what will most likely end up happening is that people stick to one, maybe two, services covering most of their needs, and just get whatever else they want trough means that don't require them to manage a subscription, like piracy.

It should also be mentioned that even piracy does offer paid subscriptions, where users pay money to get more convenient and reliable access to content, that's pretty much what Usenet and all debrid are.

But unlike legal streaming services, their libraries are not compartmentalized and limited by publishing rights.

[jaredklewis]

Your comment doesn't address the parent's question.

Forget about streaming services, you can rent nearly every big screen movie ever from iTunes, Google Play, or Amazon, instantly for $3-6 dollars. Adjusting for inflation, these prices are very much comparable with what video rental stores used to offer. iTunes alone has more than 100k movies (for perspective Netflix doesn't even have 10k).

Many in this thread (and to a lesser extent the article) are acting like movie watchers want to pay money, but it's just too complicated to do so. Renting a movie on iTunes/Play/Amazon is at least as easy as torrenting something, and the selection is massive.

"If I can watch any movie ever for $10/month, I'll do it, but otherwise I'll just pirate them" is a very strange viewpoint IMHO. I would like unlimited groceries for $10/month, but I'm not going to just to stealing them because that's not an option.

[freeflight]

Renting is an even worse exercise than subscribing to a streaming service.

For heavy consumers, the renting fees will add up quickly and the selection on those stores is not as flawless as you make it out to be.

To this day Amazon still demands more money for anything better than SD quality, information about supplied subs/dubs is spotty at best, if they are even supplied at all. Bonus content? Completely missing.

Why deal with that when for nearly the same amount of money you can often order a complete Bluray and own the movie in a physical format? Not just a "temporary license to stream"?

> "If I can watch any movie ever for $10/month, I'll do it, but otherwise I'll just pirate them" is a very strange viewpoint IMHO.

Then it's good nobody here claimed anything like that. But you are still stuck in this "all pirates are cheap freeloaders" mode, when in reality piracy usually happens in addition to the user already being a heavily paying fan of the medium [0]. Piracy supplements that when it's more convenient/not legally available/past the monthly budget.

[0] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evkmz7/study-again-shows-...

[benbristow]

But you can download the movie for free, watch it as many times as you want and spend that money on other stuff...

[fetus8]

What happens if I'm willing to pay, but said movie isn't available in my local region on any of the digital store fronts? It happens all to frequently to me. I know I'm definitely an outlier, but I genuinely have no real choice sometimes, but to pirate a movie. You know what happens when I really like said unavailable movie? I usually pop on Amazon and buy a bluray copy if it's available.

For whatever reason, it seems that certain eras of film from various countries are just missing from streaming catalogs. Not only are the films missing, but they can be incredibly hard to find on services due to naming and translated names. Recently, I was trying to watch Cure aka Kyua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cure_(film)), good luck asking Siri to find this movie. The name "Cure" brings up nothing related, and "Kyua" is essentially not recognized. I found 1 or 2 films by the director, by searching his name directly. It's a cluster, and it's frankly a shame that I have to resort to piracy when I'd absolutely be willing to pay for such movies.

[slothtrop]

Is there yet an option to hold a digital copy of film DRM-free forever, as with music?

I expect this wouldn't be in much demand since, at least for me, one viewing is usually plenty. Which is why the rolling updates don't bother me much. For those few that warrant repeat viewings I can get a physical copy.

The tough thing to find even with rental would be some foreign movies, e.g. Korean.

[gbear605]

Another good option is your local library system. They almost certainly have the dvd, and for free too.

[blacksmith_tb]

They will likely also offer free streaming (though I realize that is "another service" in the sense that you again have to log in, search and browse) like Kanopy[1] which does offer a lot of older films, foreign films, and documentaries.

1: https://www.kanopy.com/

[criddell]

Doesn't Netflix still do DVDs by mail? That might be a good option as well.

[zainhoda]

Yes. About a year ago, I resubscribed to Netflix DVDs because the library is so much better than what's on streaming. I feel like people have forgotten that the DVD library is enormous and has basically every movie you'd ever want -- and now that fewer people use it, you don't have long wait times anymore.

[criddell]

I've never bothered to resubscribe to Netflix DVDs because I've always been able to find what I'm looking for as a rental from Amazon or iTunes.

[dawnerd]

It's a shame they haven't adopted UHD. That'd give me a reason to re-subscribe.

[Scoundreller]

US only though.

[drdeadringer]

Yes they do. I am a Netflix DVD-by-mail customer.

[bluedino]

Our Family Video store recently closed. They were building new stores, I heard they were growing....

The local ones start selling vape pens and CBD oil and then they closed up shrug

[vidarh]

I have both Prime and Netflix, and depending on region there is plenty that neither of them have.

Video store is not an option - there are none. Sometimes I've resorted to ordering, but it's gotten to the point where it feels like enough of a pain compared to streaming that I have on occasion bought things on Prime that I have sitting in one of my DVD boxes rather than spend the time to find the DVD.

[Scoundreller]

I gave the iTunes rents thing a try. It wouldn’t let me play it on my TV.

Back to torrenting I went.