Thinking of ditching Virgin Media. Can I save/ transfer all my film purchases with them?

[two sheds]

I mean thats pretty clear. You pay a monthly fee. It's quite open.

Is it? My last experience of them was buying Windows 7 for which (as I recall) I got a dvd, no monthly fee involved.

 

[Elpenor]

I’m happy to own mine


Average purchase price 50 pence or so. Also a lot of stuff I like isn’t even available to stream that easily. I got out of the habit of torrenting when I didn’t have a laptop for a few years.

Am probably good as long as dvd players are available. Maybe I should stockpile a spare one just in case?

 

[MickiQ]

But isn't that illegal?

There is a clear difference between 'own' and "have'

 

[Spymaster]

In the days of Amazon Firesticks, why is anyone still buying movies from Virgin or Sky?

 

[two sheds]

What is this Amazon Fire Stick?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

What is this Amazon Fire Stick?

A very cheap, but quite powerful device Amazon sell you to watch their content. Luckily it's easily used for other things.

 

[Elpenor]

A very cheap, but quite powerful device Amazon sell you to watch their content. Luckily it's easily used for other things.

So like a Chromecast basically but also integrates with Amazon products?

 

[WouldBe]

Is it? My last experience of them was buying Windows 7 for which (as I recall) I got a dvd, no monthly fee involved.

Same here then free upgrades from Microsoft website.

 

[two sheds]

Is it 365 that is monthly payments?

Accepted that it's out in the open, but still seems excessive to me.

 

[WouldBe]

Is it 365 that is monthly payments?

Accepted that it's out in the open, but still seems excessive to me.

Think so but I've got office 97 that I paid for and is more than adequate for my needs. To stop windows trying to get me to upgrade to 365 I've uninstalled it.

 

[Lord Camomile]

In the days of Amazon Firesticks, why is anyone still buying movies from Virgin or Sky?

Because Amazon.

Obviously no media company is anything close to decent, but the shades of shit still matter some.

 

[BristolEcho]

Is there anywhere you can actually buy digital versions of things and own them?

I buy my music on bandcamp and download it so I'll always have a copy of that file as long as I back it up.

I've never found anything that works that way for films etc though.

 

[two sheds]

I'm waiting for Youtube to start charging for everything they host.

 

[Epona]

There's a bit of a theory that we're in what may well be regarded as a "dark age" by future generations in centuries to come, because so much of what we do - our media, our art and creativity, our personal records etc. are stored digitally rather than being physical things that will continue to exist once the servers they are currently hosted on are taken offline.

 

[Spymaster]

Because Amazon.

Obviously no media company is anything close to decent, but the shades of shit still matter some.

Really?

People would seriously rather fork out a few hundred quid a year, than buy a £30 firestick and stream whatever you want forever, just because it’s Amazon?

 

[BristolEcho]

There's a bit of a theory that we're in what may well be regarded as a "dark age" by future generations in centuries to come, because so much of what we do - our media, our art and creativity, our personal records etc. are stored digitally rather than being physical things that will continue to exist once the servers they are currently hosted on are taken offline.

It will all have been burnt in the climate crisis anyway.

 

[savoloysam]

Really?

People would seriously rather fork out a few hundred quid a year, than buy a £30 firestick and stream whatever you want forever, just because it’s Amazon?

With Amazon you first have to pay the rental then have to pay another fee to watch anything decent. It's just another rip off.

 

[existentialist]

At the end of the day it’s not going to stop me switching, or contact a local newspaper to express my rage, but it’s most definitely a racket as far as I’m concerned. I never asked to receive film purchases in digital format only. AFAIAC, when you buy a film nothing has changed legal ownership-wise since folk were first able to buy films for home viewing in VCR format in the late 20th century. Whether video cassette, laser disc, DVD, or digital download, if you buy a film from a film distributor or provider, you own that particular licensed copy of the movie for personal use in perpetuity. The fucking cheek of the cunts…

TBH, I felt pretty much the same when CDs came out. On the face of it, it was a technological advance that allowed for a more robust medium and better sound quality. To the record companies, it was just a way of wringing extra revenue out of their intellectual property. So I was quite gleeful when the whole CD ripping and encoding thing became a thing, and eagerly participated. Initially, I was very noble, and made a point of only grabbing ripped CDs of records I already owned, but that didn't last long.

 

[Spymaster]

With Amazon you first have to pay the rental then have to pay another fee to watch anything decent. It's just another rip off.

No you don’t. You need an Amazon account but you can set up a free one. You don’t need Prime. .

 

[Lord Camomile]

Really?

People would seriously rather fork out a few hundred quid a year, than buy a £30 firestick and stream whatever you want forever, just because it’s Amazon?

I dunno, I just try to steer clear of as much Amazon stuff as possible, so I've honestly never really spent too much time figuring out what a Firestick does.

How does it differ from a Chromecast?

 

[two sheds]

TBH, I felt pretty much the same when CDs came out. On the face of it, it was a technological advance that allowed for a more robust medium and better sound quality. To the record companies, it was just a way of wringing extra revenue out of their intellectual property. So I was quite gleeful when the whole CD ripping and encoding thing became a thing, and eagerly participated. Initially, I was very noble, and made a point of only grabbing ripped CDs of records I already owned, but that didn't last long.

existentialist Yep - charge people for vinyl plus cassettes plus CDs and cost of CD manufacture was only 1p as I recall.

 

[existentialist]

No you don’t. You need an Amazon account but you can set up a free one. You don’t need Prime. .

You can also sideload things like Kodi onto a Firestick, and go full-guerilla on the streaming thing. Although even that tends to be monetised - if you want access to the best range of streams, you need to pay a subscription to some shady organisation.

 

[existentialist]

existentialist Yep - charge people for vinyl plus cassettes plus CDs and cost of CD manufacture was only 1p as I recall.

Given the fragility of, in particular, cassettes, it always seemed unreasonable that you couldn't, say, take a damaged cassette into a record shop and get a replacement for some nominal fee. Definitely a case of them wanting to have their cake and eat it. And who can forget "HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC"? Er, no, home taping is (or at least could be) making a backup of something you have paid for a legitimate right to listen to.

I don't shed any tears for the "losses" media companies have to endure. And even less so when you discover how very little the actual producers of the content (eg, y'know, actual MUSICIANS) get in relation to the revenue the companies take.

 

[Spymaster]

I dunno, I just try to steer clear of as much Amazon stuff as possible, so I've honestly never really spent too much time figuring out what a Firestick does.

How does it differ from a Chromecast?

As Existentialist says, you can sideload Kodi onto it quite simply then load a build onto that which will enable you to stream pretty much anything, past or present. That doesn't cost anything other than the price of the stick. If you seach "Amazon firestick" on here, you'll find a couple of threads where how to do it is discussed in detail. It's not dficult. The other advantage is that you get acess to stuff that's not on a lot of platforms.

 

[Lord Camomile]

As Existentialist says, you can sideload Kodi onto it quite simply then load a build onto that which will enable you to stream pretty much anything, past or present. That doesn't cost anything other than the price of the stick. If you seach "Amazon firestick" on here, you'll find a couple of threads where how to do it is discussed in detail. It's not dficult. The other advantage is that you get acess to stuff that's not on a lot of platforms.

But you can stream anything from your laptop to a Chromecast?

 

[Spymaster]

You can also sideload things like Kodi onto a Firestick, and go full-guerilla on the streaming thing. Although even that tends to be monetised - if you want access to the best range of streams, you need to pay a subscription to some shady organisation.

Not on a Kodi build you wouldn't, although there are a couple of sites which will clean-up your stream results for a small subscription (I think about 30 dollars a year) but you don't really need those. They just make acessing the streams a bit easier.

Or you could just go here and stream shitloads for free, or pretty much everything ever made for a VIP subscription.

 

[Spymaster]

But you can stream anything from your laptop to a Chromecast?

I don't know what a Chromecast is, but if it does what I explained above, why would you need to pay Virgin, or anyone else, for content?

 

[two sheds]

Is it just me - but I've not seen anything 'new' (i.e. less than 10-20 years ago) and particularly Hollywood type stuff that I've wanted to download. I really enjoy b&w film noir for example, and am currently working my way through Dr. Finlay's Casebook episodes that I used to watch in the 60s and loving them.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

But you can stream anything from your laptop to a Chromecast?

You can. But it's a much neater solution, works more like a better smart TV. I've owned both and I found the Firestick 4k a slicker experience.

You can also sideload things like Kodi onto a Firestick, and go full-guerilla on the streaming thing. Although even that tends to be monetised - if you want access to the best range of streams, you need to pay a subscription to some shady organisation.

Yes. Its much older, but I still think bit torrent is much better, unless your after sport or live TV.

The Plex app makes it like your own personal Netflix.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Is it 365 that is monthly payments?

Accepted that it's out in the open, but still seems excessive to me.

Yes. Microsoft makes very little out of home users. Most companies prefer having it as an operational cost rather then a capital one.

The only client I support that doesn't do it this way is a school, as they get stupidly cheap licences (but they'd also get very cheap 365 subs).

Microsoft really don't care if as a home user you pirate their stuff. If anything it works to their advantage. You know their tools when you go to work.