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Where do you get your movies and TV shows?

I'm not exactly proud to say Bittorrent. I have started buying iTunes gift cards when they are 20% off like around Black Friday and also getting them for birthday and Christmas presents. I have about 500 movies, and I am slowly buying my favorites legitimately. I also have several TV series that I will start to work on. My complaint, though, is all the DRM. I like my Apple TV a lot but really dislike how TV Shows and Movies are displayed. I have Plex separated into Movies, Kids Movies, TV Shows, Kids TV Shows. You can't segregate the kids' content like that on iTunes to my knowledge (without a playlist). And it kills me how TV Shows are listed by season and not series. I don't want to see 11 seasons of Cheers and 11 seasons of Frasier list individually (just to name two series).
 
iTunes, DVDs, Netflix, And Hulu.

I buy movies more and more from iTunes, I love the connivence and I know they aren't blu ray, but if am happy with it.
 
On a 26" 720p screen then iTunes is perfectly fine.

Content comes from

iTunes
DVD Rips, not everything available in iTunes. For example Apocalypse Now is available in UK store but not the Redux version that I have on DVD. Ripit/Handbrake
TV Recording from Elgato. Export in ProRes422 from Elgato, and import into FCP X, Strip Adverts and padding from beginning and end. Export as a Master File and then Handbrake.

Use identify to get the Metadata for DVD/Recordings.
 
A lot of the TV shows in my video library come from my DVR through a digital video recorder. It's a little tedious as I need to play them in real time through the HD analog output while recording them on the HDPVR. Later, I convert the files to iTunes compatible .mv4 format with Handbrake and grab the metadata with Identify.

It's the antithesis of the easy one-click iTunes store purchase, but it's free and kind of a fun way to use all those spare CPU cycles on my various computers. :)

Since I play the programs out the analog port of the DVR, I don't have to do any decryption, so I don't think I'm violating the DMCA laws. It's really very similar to old style VCR time shifting of TV programs.
 
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I rip DVDs which I own to create digital content, and for the most part we don't watch TV. There's never anything good on anymore...
 
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2010mini said:
See this article comparing BD and itunes HD: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/03/the-ars-itunes-1080p-vs-blu-ray-shootout/

Bluray is still king. But for what it is, iTunes quality is not that bad.
Click to expand...
I've seen that article a million times, don't even have to click it. I've watched hundreds if not thousands of itunes encodes on my computer, and blu-ray destroys it.

Netflix also destroys it, when they are only using a 1 Mbps higher bitrate.

1080p Netflix


1080p itunes
 
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StinDaWg said:
I would if the content creators provided a service anywhere close to what I'm getting now. No DRM, no commercials, everything On Demand or via rss auto download ready to be played on your media device of choice, reasonable prices, not $20 for a digital copy of a movie in worse quality than Blu-ray that is restricted to certain devices, and might disappear at anytime in the future due to "licensing issues".

They are stuck in the past, just like music once was in the Napster era. I'm sure one day they'll come around and offer more consumer friendly streaming/download services, because eventually the younger market will demand it. Netflix is a good start.

I actually live in a household that pays for cable, every channel, even the premiums. But I have no use for it, so I don't pay for that portion of the bill. I have an HTPC that does everything I need, and I don't miss out on any shows at all. Watching via XBMC is a 100x better experience than the garbage cable box they give you. Picture quality is also better with madVR and ffdshow.
Click to expand...

I actually do the same thing, I want people to get the money for their shows, but I dont want them inflicting on me when/where and what device I can watch my shows on. So I pay for a full directv cable package, including DVR, I just never use it. I have a nice little sickbeard setup with plex, this way I can watch all my shows either at home, or at the office, or on the road with my phone/tablet. That is how it should be.
 
I buy Blurays or DVDs of movies, depending on the movie, that I then rip to watch. I don't care for iTunes downloads since they have to be authenticated to watch. I once tried watching a downloaded movie when the internet was on the fritz, only to find that I couldn't b/c it required authentication. I haven't downloaded a movie since.
 
StinDaWg said:
I actually live in a household that pays for cable, every channel, even the premiums. But I have no use for it, so I don't pay for that portion of the bill. I have an HTPC that does everything I need, and I don't miss out on any shows at all. Watching via XBMC is a 100x better experience than the garbage cable box they give you. Picture quality is also better with madVR and ffdshow.
Click to expand...

Similar situation here. I subscribe to Comcast TV/HSI as well as Netflix streaming. This costs me ~$2400/year. For that money I get a Netflix service that constantly drops from HD to SD resolution on a 60Mbps hardwired connection. Similarly, the vast majority of so-called HD channels on Xfinity suffer from macroblocking bad enough to render programs unwatchable.

Meanwhile, I also spend $96/year for an alternative service which completely saturates my internet connection, allowing me to download and watch programming at an acceptable high definition bitrate. Plex organizes serves this content in resplendant fashion to all my connected devices. It's shameful that the House of Cards/Game of Thrones/whatever episode I paid for looks worse than the version downloaded from some scene group in eastern Europe.
 
In order of availability
- Blu Ray at rental shop (3.5€)
- DVD at rental shop (3.5€)
- "Legal"* download at The Piratebay

If I really like the movie and think I can watch it a couple more times I buy it on BluRay (often second hand/old stock below 8€ incl shipping).

No TV shows here. No time for that.


*according to the Dutch law at the moment

Only crap thing is that TV stuff for kids, I have customers for that, is hardly ever on HD/Blu Ray. Only friggin DVD's.
 
Stephing said:
I buy DVD on store
Click to expand...

I only buy 3D Blu Ray DVD's nowadays....everything else is done through the cloud...I gave away all my dvd's to a friend as they were just taking up space...same goes for my CD collection...it's all in iTunes now, and all purchases are made from there too. I have two Blu Ray players and an Asus BRD writer...keeping it all on the R4 and in iTunes just makes more sense now.
 
I have netflix, hulu+, and Amazon Prime to stream movies. Everything else I have not purchased through iTunes, I get from friends whom I do not question their source....
 
StinDaWg said:
I have an HTPC that does everything I need, and I don't miss out on any shows at all. Watching via XBMC is a 100x better experience than the garbage cable box they give you. Picture quality is also better with madVR and ffdshow.
Click to expand...

What do you run XBMC on? A proper big PC, or one of those smaller android boxes?
 
I use Netlfix, Hulu Plus, and iTunes. I used to have a huge collection of DVDs and Blu-Rays, now it just consists of Harry Potter Collection, Superman Collection, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and Star Wars Complete all in Blu-Ray. As far as digital goes, I have quite a bit going on, I have slowly cut it down because I could use the storage and don't watch them as much as I used too.
 
I use my AppleTV to watch Netflix, iTunes rentals/buys and HBO GO. My BluRay player gets Amazon Prime, Vudu and others but I rarely use it. Sometimes I watch Xfinity OnDemand but I don't like the 16:9 cropping. If I think I want to watch a movie several times, especially if it's 3D, I'll buy the BluRay from Amazon. Waiting for my copy of "Gravity" that will arrive on Tuesday.

I don't steal movies. Have too much respect for myself and the people who work hard to entertain me.
 
I used to buy DVDs. it is really a tough task to keep the DVDs intact and complete. :(
Now I always watch TV shows on iTunes. It is more convenient.
 
Oliveg said:
I used to buy DVDs. it is really a tough task to keep the DVDs intact and complete. :(
Now I always watch TV shows on iTunes. It is more convenient.
Click to expand...

Make a digital copy of the DVD and store it away somewhere. Streaming to an ATV3 is more than acceptable 99% of the time.
 
oneMadRssn said:
What do you run XBMC on? A proper big PC, or one of those smaller android boxes?
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It's a regular pc running Windows 8 in a small HTPC case. It's about 1/3 the size of your typical desktop tower. I bought it for $300 6 years ago. Since then have added more ram, SSD, and GPU. Probably going to run it into the ground because I see no reason to upgrade it any further. Plays everything I can throw at it without a sweat, and plays most games at 1080p high/ultra settings.
 
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