To you. Most people have no idea computers have this capability, as I discovered over the holidays when I told my brother-in-law and cousin that you could hook a computer up to your TV and watch Hulu on it. They looked at me like I had three heads.
here is a thought, how about the networks torrent THEIR OWN SHOWS, seriously they (like record labels) are so stuck in 1989 that is impossible for them to embrace new tech, if Showtime loaded up a high quality torrent of Dexter at the same time Dexter aired but put in a few SHORT commercials to generate some revenue people would be all over that shit. (when I say short I mean short enough so that people wont bother reaching for the mouse, i.e. not the usual 30sec-1minute adds) yes its true people would then take that torrent and rip out the adds and re-host it but the thing is they ALREADY do that.
so why not give it a try? oh yeah because torrents are evil and will put them out of business.
my monitor is a 27.5" viewable with a 22" second monitor. hooked into the stereo for big booms and all that. my pc has been the home entertainment center for almost a decade now. its amazing how slow people are to catch up.
Anedcote != data, yadda yadda yadda, but:
I loved the first season of Heroes and was disappointed in the second. I gave up in the third. No, I will not watch it on TV now. I may be more likely to watch it downloaded to at least see if it’s slightly less crappy.
What you seem to want, and what the TV & advertising industry want, is for people to obediently serve the family a nice nutritious dinner cooked with the products they told you to, and have everyone settled in on the couch (with a cat and a dog attractively huddled about mom & dad’s feet), watching the advertising box, exactly when the networks tell you to be sitting in front of the advertising box.
Well, those days are gone. If you want to advertise at me, you’re going to have to catch me where I am, because I’m not on that couch, doing what you want me to be doing, when you want me doing it.
We’re not going back.
You have to wonder what they think they are gaining by not doing this. A torrent file with commercials on a site that isn’t more infected than a third world hooker would become vastly more popular than a torrent file with no commercials. It would probably strike a severe blow to the sophistication of the illegal torrent community.
I’d know that I would pay an annual subscription fee if all the networks started doing this. Especially since I could cancel my cable and save that monthly bill. Do they not do it because of pirating? Probably nobody will take the time to remove the commercials, so who cares if the torrent is pirated? The ads are still there, still getting seen.
There’s no reason to suspect this. As with other types of piracy, it’s somewhere in between. The idea that every single person would’ve otherwise paid for the legitimate product is absurd. Of course the other extreme position, that not a single extra person would get the product legitimately if piracy weren’t an option is also absurd.
How are you counting wealth, here? Newspaper classifieds existed to facilitate sales transactions between people who had no other practical route to get in contact. If craigslist performs the same function for free today, and the people go about making their transactions, only no one paid a middleman in this case, is that wealth really “lost”? It seems like the same thing was accomplished with less effort. The only way to count this as lost wealth is if you think middleman fees in this instance are the best way to quantfy it.
Not very accurate, from what I understand - they tend to overestimate the amount of pirated copies because it’s easy to double or triple (or more) count one user’s download. There’s no central location or method to track torrents completely - they are making a guess based on certain data and criteria.
Well, not only that, but lots of people have computer monitors that are better display devices than their TVs. TVs have actually been catching up in this regard - back in the days of SD CRTs, computer monitors were usually way ahead of them. Now since modern TVs are basically just big LCD monitors, there’s relative parity. But someone with a nice 22" or 24" LCD on their computer is not at all ill-equipped to watch video programming - even though the monitor is smaller, you’re much closer to it and the resolution (per area) is higher, plus they are often of higher quality in other regards to TVs.
Yes and no. There are very easy low risk methods of getting torrents from reputable sites, it’s not like the old peer to peer Kazaa days of garbage. But if given the chance to get equal or better quality with similar levels of difficulty, I tend to go the legit route. I watch shows on the network sites if they are offered in high quality.
Incidentally, what’s the practical difference between someone that uses a TiVo to skip commercials very efficiently and someone who downloads a commercial free version? I guess with the TiVo you get a half-second here and there of an image of a commercial, but not much.
One issue I can think of is that when a show is torrented, lots of people the world over get to see the show, but the producers and networks don’t have to pay anyone a single penny extra. Once the networks start giving it away, there’s still a lot of people who expect to get paid.
not really. it costs a ton to host - bandwith, server, etc. the costs in piracy are spread throughout the host of pirates on individual hard drives with individual internet connections. it would/does cost a pretty penny for the networks to each host their own show. That’s why the shows that ARE hosted online right now are limited and most definitely don’t host previous seasons.
another reason why networks don’t host is because torrents of episodes is in itself is becoming an outdated method of piracy. sure some people like having the eisodes saved but a lot of people just watch it streaming. it doesn’t take up disk space, you can watch it instantaneously, and since it’s already been put online, it’s still reaccessible. (also the liability is shifted… ancillary benefit…).
networks can NEVER harness the power of the internet. pirates have too many resources (when pooled) for the networks to compete with. a billion computers working together 24/7, with access to shows on ALL channels just presents a better product than any invididual network can offer. the icing on the cake? it’s free. it’s really a lost cause unless the networks come up with something truly innovative. playing catchup like this isn’t going to work.
The nice thing about torrents though, is once you seed the file all you have to host is the tracker file, which is a lot cheaper than serving up the whole file every time someone wants it.
Why do Hulu and other legal video streaming sites block non-American users? It seems like they’re just as willing to watch the thing with ads as anyone else, they’re just not given the opportunity to do so.
I’m assuming Hulu was only given distribution rights in the United States, so that the existence of Hulu won’t discourage foreign networks from buying their own distribution rights.
Because that robs local Networks from their advertising needs when showing the show, be it weeks or months later.
Not all adverts will work in all markets, and to be Gillette! The best a man can get! honest a fair amount of us are used to watching shows without commercial breaks. Some of us even Gillette! The best a man can get! prefer shows where there isn’t a break written into the script in order to buy stuff.
Gillette! The best a man can get!
That’s another thing. I can’t believe networks still pit their best shows in death matches with the other networks’ shows. How stupid is that? A good show has to die because it didn’t beat the other network’s slightly more popular show in the same time slot and the rest of the week you get crap.
Yeah, I never understood that myself. It got even more specific - they’d target the same audiences. I remember when Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development had the same time slot - wtf was the point of that? There are 2 or 3 not-for-retards comedy shows on TV, and you line them up against each other?
I know, they’re still competing for my Monday at 8 PM slot, like that matters anymore.
Like hell. The bulk of the video viewed in my household is downloaded from torrent sites, and I’ve never had any reason to be even vaguely concerned about virus. An .avi file is pretty darned safe.
As to “costing” people money, I would like to know how.
Lost & 24 are my “most downloaded:”
1: Watch at air, gossip on SDMB in real time. 2: Download torrent for widescreen, non-commercial second viewing. 3: Buy DVD box set.
I can admit that I downloaded two seasons of Heroes without knowing when it was on. Didn’t get through the second season, though. Still, a popular show is going to make its money from advertising and aftermarket sales, regardless of whether or not anyone watches the cussed commercials. Hell, even if I didn’t watch 24 at air, Ford got their money’s worth out of the deal. Like everyone else, I came away from that show with an irrational desire to drive an inefficient and ugly American vehicle and wrestle with Christmas trees, because that’s what badasses do. It’s a viable business model, even if you take the broadcast right out of it.
I also buy Lux soap exclusively and drink Lipton tea because it’s brisk, because of advertising dollars spent in the 1930s and '40s – I appreciate a good sponsor as much as the next guy. (Can’t find Blue Coal anywhere, though.)
Let me reply snark with snark:
What you seem to want is high-quality entertainment without having to pay for it. When all that’s left is reality shows, talking heads, and game shows… well, you get what you pay for. Reality shows haven’t proliferated since 2000 because they’re cheaper, they’ve proliferated because diminishing revenues demand diminishing costs… and fewer things are cheaper to pay for than reality shows and Wheel of Fortune
And all those arguments that it’s not convenient for you to watch the shows legally, here’s a novel suggestion: Instead of stealing the damn things and making up lame excuses as to why stealing them is ok, Don’t Watch The Shows. It’s not as if a TV show is a life and death issue, and it’s not as if anyones life will be dramatically altered if they don’t catch the thrilling conclusion to whatever show they’ve been following.
I’ve been following Lost since day 1. If I can’t watch this last season, my life won’t be over, it won’t be diminished, as a matter of fact… it will still go on.
Aha, so they’re around not because they’re cheaper, but because they’re cheaper?
How does this benefit anyone? What utility is served?