Edmilson 7,456 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 These days, everyone is subscribed to at least one streaming, mostly Netflix. And now there are more options than ever. How many do you use? I have: Netflix - this one is obvious, I use it since 2015 when it had way more third-party content. Prime Video - I'm a subscriber since February 2019, and it has a lot of decent movies in there, you just have to find them. Disney+ - I've been using it since Nov 2020, when it arrived here in my country, right in time for me to catch Mandalorian S2. HBO Max - I'm a subscriber since July of this year. Globoplay - A local streaming service run by Brazil's largest media corporation, Globo. It has a lot of movies, shows and novelas from here, but also some foreign stuff. For music, I use manily Spotify and YouTube. As a Prime member I can use Amazon Music too, but I it has mostly the same stuff I can find on Spotify. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naïve Old Fart 9,528 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 Round figures? Zero. bruce marshall and Jurassic Shark 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 We have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and Disney+ We also currently have Apple TV+, but as soon as Ted Lasso season 2 is over we'll cancel it until Season 3 comes out. Unless Foundation gets astounding buzz We'll probably also try Paramount+ sometime this winter for a bit, maybe when Halo comes out Haven't been tempted by anything on Peacock yet Not sure if Showtime has a standalone service or not but if not we'll subscribe to Showtime through Amazon for a month when Dexter Season 9 is wrapping up to watch that We also use some of the free ones - The Roku Channel and Pluto TV - from time to time Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,076 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 Spotify. Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 Apple +, Amazon Prime and Spotify. Hardly have time for more. Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 We've found Apple TV+ to have the least amount of interesting looking things to watch on it HBO Max has way, way more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Penna 3,690 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 Prime and Netflix, and I'm giving YouTube Premium a go with a free trial (if they roll out their premium 'lite' further, I'm very likely to continue). Also got Spotify as I actually use it loads, and the sound quality increase was noticeable. Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellosh 3,419 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 Zero Edmilson and Naïve Old Fart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Who 919 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 I have Netflix, Prime Video, a local service and for the moment AppleTV+ (Ted Lasso). Weirdly I use Netflix less these days due to total lack of integration into the TV app on my appleTV (which combines my watch list and up next list from all non Netflix streaming services and also has a very handy universal search that shows on which service a movie or show can be viewed with direct access to the apps. I might get Disney+ for Hawkeye. Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Penna 3,690 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 I've often considered dropping Netflix, as I mainly use it for watching old TV series that I could easily just buy. And especially since they dropped Top Gear. I just don't watch many movies these days - music gets my attention more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,504 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said: Round figures? Zero. Same here. I have access to Netflix, HBO and DIsney through friend and family accounts. Or promotional subscriptions. I occasionally use Spotify, but only the free version (so plenty of annoying ads). But then I'm in a special situation where I get screeners or press screenings, so I get access that way. And then I watch my physical media now and then (DVDs and Blu-rays). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryant Burnette 654 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 11. 12 if you count ESPN+, for which I have no use but is bundled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Koray Savas 2,251 Posted September 13, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted September 13, 2021 Jurassic Shark, Tallguy and Bellosh 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,076 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 I subscribe to the local newspaper. Bellosh and badbu 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toothless 963 Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 Netflix, PrimeVideo, Disney+, AppleTV+, Apple Music, Deezer. I’m thinking about getting rid of Netflix and Deezer though 🙂 Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Guernsey 2,284 Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV for me. The latter definitely has far fewer things than the others and we only really got it when my partner got a new iPhone and they were (not sure if they still are) giving away a year's free subscription to Apple TV if you buy a new Apple device. He really wanted to watch The Morning Show (which is pretty great), as well as Central Park (fun and quirky, with some great songs) and we recently watched the enjoyable but not-as-good-as-it-could-have-been Schmigadoon. Disney+ seems the most promising for the amount of content given how much studios they encompass. Plus there's less chance of things randomly disappearing as they skip from one service to another (or just drop off completely like The Middle which disappeared from Amazon the day after we watched the last episode... amazingly good timing but it's one of those shows I'd love to watch again) since all of the content is its own (or from Fox or Marvel or Pixar or Lucasfilm etc). However, we also subscribe to Cinema Paradiso which is a DVD and Blu-Ray by post service. We used to get Lovefilm but it was taken over by Amazon and, surprise, surprise (as Cilla would say), mothballed by Amazon. It's not as good as Lovefilm but has a pretty decent selection and is a good way to fill in the gaps of things that aren't available to stream. For example, we were watching The Americans (brilliant, highly recommended) on Amazon and it disappeared about 4 episodes from the end... absolutely infuriating but we were able to get it on DVD (oddly not Blu-Ray) from Cinema Paradiso. It since re-appeared on Disney+ but obviously we didn't know that at the time. Streaming is great but the Russian roulette of things randomly being dropped or swapping networks is massively annoying. As I mentioned before, they really ought to indicate how long is left before it's going to disappear (like BBC iPlayer does) so at least you can decide if you need to binge watch something or if it's worth bothering to start at all. Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNHFan2000 2,963 Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 Netflix, Disney+ & Prime. Outsode US so no HBO Max. Which they should fix. There's quite a lot of stuff on there that I want to see Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A24 4,333 Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 Netflix, Prime and Tidal. Don't watch a lot of Prime but it's not expensive and I like the free shipping deal. I will most likely stop with Tidal (it's better than Spotify though). Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holko 9,526 Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 One, the local film archive's service. Can't be arsed to deal with regional restrictions on top of these tens of services constantly nabbing stuff from each other. Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbu 123 Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 Spotify, Netflix, Prime, Apple+, Disney+ and Sky Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Alex 2,835 Posted September 14, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted September 14, 2021 Netflix HBO Max Disney+ Star+ Amazon Prime Apple TV+ And yet I can never find anything I want to watch.... Smeltington, Edmilson and badbu 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tallguy 3,389 Posted September 14, 2021 Share Posted September 14, 2021 Netflix Amazon Prime (which we really just get paid for shipping and it comes with a streaming service) Disney+ Hulu - no ads We just dropped HBO. We get IMDB with ads. I've been watching John Wick on Peacock. I'm sure we'll get Paramount+ when Picard comes out. When we cut the cord I did the math of cable vs. the streamers and included the cost of buying a series or two that I watch that aren't on Hulu. We came out way ahead. I should revisit that. Edmilson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Guernsey 2,284 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 22 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV for me. The latter definitely has far fewer things than the others and we only really got it when my partner got a new iPhone and they were (not sure if they still are) giving away a year's free subscription to Apple TV if you buy a new Apple device. He really wanted to watch The Morning Show (which is pretty great), as well as Central Park (fun and quirky, with some great songs) and we recently watched the enjoyable but not-as-good-as-it-could-have-been Schmigadoon. Disney+ seems the most promising for the amount of content given how much studios they encompass. Plus there's less chance of things randomly disappearing as they skip from one service to another (or just drop off completely like The Middle which disappeared from Amazon the day after we watched the last episode... amazingly good timing but it's one of those shows I'd love to watch again) since all of the content is its own (or from Fox or Marvel or Pixar or Lucasfilm etc). However, we also subscribe to Cinema Paradiso which is a DVD and Blu-Ray by post service. We used to get Lovefilm but it was taken over by Amazon and, surprise, surprise (as Cilla would say), mothballed by Amazon. It's not as good as Lovefilm but has a pretty decent selection and is a good way to fill in the gaps of things that aren't available to stream. For example, we were watching The Americans (brilliant, highly recommended) on Amazon and it disappeared about 4 episodes from the end... absolutely infuriating but we were able to get it on DVD (oddly not Blu-Ray) from Cinema Paradiso. It since re-appeared on Disney+ but obviously we didn't know that at the time. Streaming is great but the Russian roulette of things randomly being dropped or swapping networks is massively annoying. As I mentioned before, they really ought to indicate how long is left before it's going to disappear (like BBC iPlayer does) so at least you can decide if you need to binge watch something or if it's worth bothering to start at all. Forgot to mention music streaming... although given how little money artists make from it (supposedly the guy who setup Spotify is three times wealthier than Paul McCartney...), I pretty much never use them. I have Spotify mainly for when someone wants me to try something out, but don't use it otherwise. I have Amazon Music as a way to sample new soundtracks with a view to buying; I figure it's less per month than one album so if I decide against buying one album per month that I don't get much out of, it pays for itself... if you see what I mean. Although even then I don't use it much but it's occasionally useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstrox 6,651 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, and WOW Presents Plus We also get AppleTV but only as a year free trial that came with our iPad. We will likely do what Jay does when our trial runs out - sub for a month only for complete Ted Lasso seasons. Nothing else has interested us. All those streaming services together is like 1/3 the price of what our cable bill used to be, most channels we never watched. If there is the odd show that isn’t on those services, we’ll pay $10-20 to buy/stream the season. That might be one or two shows per year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,193 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Netflix. I've had a couple of Amazon Prime trial subscriptions, and the service was an all around awful experience every time (content-, quality-, and usability-wise). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 It's so weird when I hear people in other countries say that. In the USA, Amazon Prime easily has better picture quality than Netflix, without question. I have no idea why it'd be different from country to country Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edmilson 7,456 Posted September 16, 2021 Author Share Posted September 16, 2021 Agreed. The third party movies on Amazon Prime here are better than those of Netflix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Disney+/Hulu package Amazon Prime (more for the shopping benefits than the streaming service) Youtube TV Apple TV+ (free for a year, probably won't renew) I also pay for a decent VPN service so I can use the BBC iPlayer/Channel 4/ITV apps on my Apple TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeinAR 1,949 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 12 minutes ago, Edmilson said: Agreed. The third party movies on Amazon Prime here are better than those of Netflix. That isn't saying much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 We are talking about picture quality specifically, not the films themselves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstrox 6,651 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Netflix has a 4K upgrade, which I haven’t availed myself of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A24 4,333 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 3 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said: Netflix. I've had a couple of Amazon Prime trial subscriptions, and the service was an all around awful experience every time (content-, quality-, and usability-wise). I had several problems too with Prime. Out of sync issues, seeing the top part of the frame at the bottom of the screen, too dark image ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Guernsey 2,284 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Have to admit that I’ve never had any issues with the picture quality on any of the steaming services. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 At our house (Charter Spectrum cable internet, Roku smart TV) Amazon Prime - looks fantastic every time. Great 4K and HDR. Oddly, the interface itself to pick what to watch always seems to be really low resolution Netflix - looks fine. Never really blows me away, but no issues with it. Interface can be annoying, but gets the job done Hulu - fast, zippy interface, picture quality is always great, no complaints Apple TV - Constant stuttering. Literally every single episode of Ted Lasso we watch, it stutters 5-6 times during the first 5 minutes. Usually it's fine after that, but sometimes there are late episode stutter. Other than the stuttering, picture quality is fine, colors are bright and vibrant HBO Max - Easily the worst interface. Takes forever to fill in and get to where you can do anything once launching the app, slow to click around and pick things, just clunky overall. Once you get whatever you want to watch going, it always looks fine, but everything we watch always stutters at random points throughout. On top of all that, most of their library is only in HD and not 4K right now. Pretty disappointing, especially since they have the best content. TBS - We installed this app to watch season 3 of Miracle Workers, and it's by far the worst. Bad interface, and noticeably bad picture quality. Seasons 1 and 2 of the same show on the HBO Max app looked amazing, so TBS's app is messing with the master files somehow Britbox - We've only watched Fawlty Towers and Are You Being Served, so kinda hard to make any statements of picture quality based on that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeinAR 1,949 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 1 hour ago, Jay said: We are talking about picture quality specifically, not the films themselves Our netflix always look better than prime but most things we watch on prime are older Our HBO flys. Our Paramount is slow to loud but the picture is great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A24 4,333 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 4K on Netflix does blow me away sometimes. It looks better than when I play a movie on blu-ray even though Netflix is more compressed. Jurassic Shark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Guernsey 2,284 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Of course in one way they all suck bigly (as the Donald might say) due to the absolutely infuriating "skip through the opening credits/recap/end credits" or "jump to the next programme" feature which, even though you can usually reduce the impact, can't be turned off properly on any of the services I use. It's absolutely effing infuriating. Fine... have it as the default as 99% of people won't care but for those 1% who actually like to have the credits play and not be reminded to skip them or have them squeezed to a box you then have to click on to resize back to full screen, it would be good to have the option. Forcing me to do that is not going to make me devour more content, it's just annoying. ANNOYING. I'm quite annoyed. It would be so simple to be able to turn it off so the opening and end credits play uninterrupted. Best of all is Disney+ on something like the Bad Batch. You have to watch their little Star Wars logo ident (you know, the one with the various helmets and robot heads appearing with flashes of light with a weird mangled version of the Force theme) and cannot skip it, but when you get to the title card of the show, which appears for (at a wild guess) 3 seconds, you get the option to skip it. I mean... you can skip watching the 3 second title card. Even the most OCD child can last that long. Maybe not?! Shrug. PS. Anyone else reminded of the Silvestri's Predator with those little snare hits at the opening of the Bad Batch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstrox 6,651 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 I wish just one of these streaming services would have a well designed, simple interface though. All of them bury your “currently watching” and queue below tons of other crap. HBO Max is interminably slow on Roku and I hear it’s much worse and error prone elsewhere. Disney+ includes 5+ minutes of foreign language credits after everything, which stifles some of the functionality (moving to the next episode, replaying something, etc.) Hate the same things Tom hates. There should be toggles to turn off the skip pop-ups, the minimizing of credits, etc. Edmilson and Tom Guernsey 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, mstrox said: I wish just one of these streaming services would have a well designed, simple interface though. All of them bury your “currently watching” and queue below tons of other crap. Tom Guernsey 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 I wish more of them had an easily accessible "watch history" like Youtube does. On Disney+ there are a few classic (30s) cartoon shorts that my kids love to watch practically every day and I always have to search for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Yes, it is super annoying when I can't remember what movie I watched recently and go to look it up and the service has no view history feature at all. Netflix's is great, but all the other services either don't have one at all or is buried somewhere hard to find and use Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,482 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Netflix Canada, Crave Canada, Amazon Prime Canada. Ah, and all the old movies I want to see are generally not on these platforms. Spotify for the music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,193 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 30 minutes ago, mstrox said: I wish just one of these streaming services would have a well designed, simple interface though. I wish none of these streaming services combined the content and the delivery into one proprietary package. Before streaming, there was TV, and TV was (mostly) standardised - the TV stations broadcast the content, and you bought the TV that offered the best quality and the best usability by your standards. Now the interface and the entire UX comes with the content, and you can do fuck all to change that. I'd be much more inclined to pay subscription fees for streaming content providers if they used a standardised API that I could access through the player (hardware and/or software) of my choice. And, not unimportantly: Illegal downloads do give me that choice. In that regard, they are infinitely better from a usability point of view. Holko 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Penna 3,690 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 2 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said: ...but for those 1% who actually like to have the credits play and not be reminded to skip them or have them squeezed to a box you then have to click on to resize back to full screen, it would be good to have the option. Forcing me to do that is not going to make me devour more content, it's just annoying. ANNOYING. I'm quite annoyed. It would be so simple to be able to turn it off so the opening and end credits play uninterrupted. There is zero doubt in my mind that this is a deliberate design decision, which their algorithms and design teams have decided makes us watch more content, or in some way mutates viewing figures in their favour. For a company whose entire business mode revolves around retaining viewers and their subscriptions, there's no way in hell that this is a 'oh, we'll put it on our to-do list' thing. Also, for a business for whom the clarity and intuitiveness of their UI is critical, the idea they wouldn't be able to instantly throw a developer or two on something they needed changing is also ludicrous. I see it very simply: they want us to skip the credits and watch more stuff, every time. Jurassic Shark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Who 919 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 I like the TV app on my Apple TV (and other apple devices) as it combines every service, except Netflix, into one watchlist/watching row on top of the TV-app. It solved some issues I had with the interfaces and makes it much easier to just watch things or continue to watch things you started on earlier. I'm not a big fan of the "skip intro" either, though I do find it useful for watching multiple episodes of sit-coms. What actually annoys me more is the up next thing after you watch movies. With shows I understand the feature as it goes to the next episode (even if that can be annoying too if you want to listen to the score in the credits) but with movies, Netflix (and possibly some other services too) actually starts autoplaying a completely different movie after a 15 second countdown. Very strange after just finishing watching a movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 You can turn that feature off in netflix; You just have to go to netflix.com on a computer, you can't change it in the app (last I checked). Hulu I believe is the same way Some other ones, you have to reach for the remote and click something to hear the whole end credits. I know on Apple TV, as soon as the Ted Lasso credits start rolling I have to click "up" to prevent it from skipping to the next episode automatically. I think on Disney+ I had to click something too to hear the Mandalorian end credits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Who 919 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 I'll check that out for Netflix. Never used the browser version. Yeah, having to click the remote after an episode or a movie is pretty standard for streaming. With HBO Max finally coming to Europe in the end of October I do hope that the app will be better than the old HBO app which has been sluggish to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Guernsey 2,284 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 18 minutes ago, Jay said: You can turn that feature off in netflix; You just have to go to netflix.com on a computer, you can't change it in the app (last I checked). Hulu I believe is the same way Some other ones, you have to reach for the remote and click something to hear the whole end credits. I know on Apple TV, as soon as the Ted Lasso credits start rolling I have to click "up" to prevent it from skipping to the next episode automatically. I think on Disney+ I had to click something too to hear the Mandalorian end credits You can turn off the feature to jump to the next episode on Netflix, but you can't entirely remove the "skip" prompts or stop it from squeezing down the credits to a small box. At least not as far as I could see, but happy to be corrected. Amazon gives about 2 seconds to hit the right button but at least the pop up goes away quickly once you do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,364 Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 14 minutes ago, Mr. Who said: I'll check that out for Netflix. Never used the browser version. Yeah, having to click the remote after an episode or a movie is pretty standard for streaming. With HBO Max finally coming to Europe in the end of October I do hope that the app will be better than the old HBO app which has been sluggish to use. Here's the screen in the website and what you have to uncheck 1 minute ago, Tom Guernsey said: You can turn off the feature to jump to the next episode on Netflix, but you can't entirely remove the "skip" prompts or stop it from squeezing down the credits to a small box. That's right. It still shrinks the credits down but you can click to the left and back up again to return it to full screen mode. But the audio is not interupted Mr. Who 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riotengine 3 Posted September 19, 2021 Share Posted September 19, 2021 Amazon Prime Netflix Disney+ Paramount+/CBS (We've hardly watched this. We got it to watch Picard, and we watched only one episode) We won't add any other services, with the exception of Hulu when they start running The Orville. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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