Ask HN: How many still use torrents to download Movies instead of using Netflix?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6984222

by leoplct • 13 years ago

8 15 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Nowadays there are many services to stream movies/tv shows such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon etc..

Do you find always what are you looking for?

Do you use Torrents when something is missing?

wattson12• 13 years ago

People outside the US have much less choice (both in services and content)

I've had netflix for about 6 months (using unlock-us to access all regions) and have probably torrented only 10-20 movies in that time (down from a few a week)

arkokoley• 13 years ago

In most countries, other than US, UK and a few others, these services are either not available, or the internet speeds are not fast enough to stream movies. For eg. in India, we the avg speed we get is around 20KBps. So its ptrtty much impossible to strem via Netflix, Hulu or amazon.

Torrent is the best (read only) option we have. I myself download about 3-4 movies and several seasons of tv shows a week.

wisienkas• 13 years ago

People do use Torrents quite actively still. Mainly because movies are out way faster than on netflix and you have to use third-parties to access the US-netflix which contains way more movies than danish netflix. Also in danish netflix you are forced to watch most movies with subtitles :/

codegeek• 13 years ago

Primary reason to use Torrents is to get the latest movies that are not out on Netflix yet. I am still waiting for the movie "Escape Plan" and even though i m not big into torrents, it is making me go that route.

hawleyal• 13 years ago

There is nothing on Netflix.

dirktheman• 13 years ago

Netflix has a pretty good collection of mainstream movies and series. Big plus is that my wife and (young) children can use it, too. I do use newsgroups sometimes to download series (X-Files) or older movies (Bullitt) that I can't find on Netflix, but I'm downloading substantially less than before.

yen223• 13 years ago

I do. Netflix, Hulu, etc are not available in my country.

I do have a Spotify account though.

fit2rule• 13 years ago

We don't have Netflix here in Europe, so I guess you're only asking this question to a small number of Internet users.

I would totally use Netflix if it were available to me. I tire of downloading torrents to watch films and shows - if the producers of this content were more tech-savvy, I'd be quite happy to be paying for it. As long as it worked.

fredr2• 13 years ago

Netflix have started entering Europe since a few month back, it's currently available in i.e Sweden where I live

UnoriginalGuy• 13 years ago

"Europe" is a big place. The UK, Ireland, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, and Finland all have Netflix.

I cannot speak to how good it is in all of those regions but in the UK it is quite good, not quite as good as the US, but well worth the ticket price.

bprieto• 13 years ago

As of today, it is not available in Spain.

fredr2• 13 years ago

I use Netflix and iTunes through my apple tv. I've gotten too lazy to download anything via torrents.

jasonkester• 13 years ago

Netflix/Lovefilm, etc. are a good way to justify that you've "paid" for that thing you're downloading off bittorrent.

There are so many ways that the paid content providers just can't hang, that even if something is available from them, you'll often get better service by just downloading the equivalent torrent.

So thanks, Lovefilm for sending that Mission Impossible DVD in the mail with so much DRM that it won't play in any of the DVD players in any of my 3 machines using any of their various operating systems. No, don't trouble yourself sending out a replacement disc. I've already watched the movie (turns out there's this website you can type movie names into and simply download them in HD. Who knew?) But thanks for making the effort.

And thanks, NFL GamePass for selling me access to all the games this year for $150, but it turns out that you'll also need to not let your Auth servers go down, say, four minutes before the game kicks off because that way I'd be able to actually watch it. But again, don't sweat it. Somebody actually cut together a nicer, higher resolution version of the same game and stuck it online.

It works out fine, actually. The studios, rightsholders, etc. all get my money like they wanted (and I wanted to give them). And I get to watch the stuff they tried their best to let me watch using their sorta broken infrastructure.

Sorted.

onedev• 13 years ago

I always torrent. I usually always find what I'm looking for the day it goes on air (new TV shows like Shark Tank).

pasbesoin• 13 years ago

I've refrained from illegal torrenting and the like.

However, Netflix' streaming content in the U.S. has been getting steadily worse, from my perspective, over the past couple of years.

Numerous films and distributors that used to be on there, are gone. "Owners" creating their own channels or shopping around for "better" deals, I guess.

New additions seem to consist largely of TV series -- a few big names, and a bunch of lower-tier stuff -- and B movies as well as an increasingly poor selection of foreign films (including a lot of Korean stuff, amongst others). Sure, they picked up "Iron Man" and a couple of other big names, but these are really outliers. Most of what they are adding and maintaining is "meh", at best.

I'm not willing to sign up for a gazillion different, fragmented services. So, from my perspective, "legal" streaming is already beginning to -- or well on its way to -- failing.

My bandwidth hungry neighbors and increasingly crappy and overpriced ISP aside, the technology actually works pretty well, these days.

It is, once again, the business side that is failing.

Finally, with respect to this, and to O'Reilly Safari and a few other things, I've come to the opinion that temporary, fee-based access to a online library is a bad financial decision. I wish I'd taken the fees I've paid, and just purchased titles. DVD disks and e-books or real books.

And while I'm not a "file sharer", I have no problem with the idea of stripping the DRM from said purchases, for my own use. I'll be damned I'm going to let e.g. a dispute between Amazon and some publisher or some problem with my account result in the compulsory "unpurchasing" of a title, or my entire library, that they've "sold" to me.

I haven't done it yet -- most of my ebooks are DRM-free through O'Reilly -- but they are pushing me in that direction.

Ask HN: How many still use torrents to download Movies instead of using Netflix?

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