Editing Introduction to a Self Managed Life: a 13 hour & 28 minute presentation by FUTO software (section)

== Streaming Services: Paying More for Less ==

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=== Netflix’s 4K scam ===

Modern streaming services are equally dishonest when they try to upsell customers to a higher priced plan for higher quality video. Modern media companies are obsessed with control and want you to view and listen to content on completely locked down platforms. This is to the point where you have to build a special computer or use a television that is [https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features-a4840102036/ blatant spyware] to watch the content you paid for in the advertised bitrate &amp; resolution.

'''I don’t use the Netflix application on my LG television to watch Netflix because my television attempts to collect &amp; sell my personal data without my consent from the moment I turn it on. I find this unacceptable.''' I am happy to pay to watch content; but I am not going to give up my data &amp; my privacy to do it, nor do I wish to trust such an unscrupulous piece of hardware that '''''opts me into this by default.'''''

Netflix will upsell you to 4k, but '''nowhere on their plans page, pricing page, or help page do they tell you that you will receive a low bitrate, 720p stream if you use firefox on GNU/Linux - or a very low bitrate 1080p stream in chrome''' The only way to get a high bitrate, 4k stream is as follows:

<blockquote>The requirements to actually get 4K streaming working on a PC are buried in documentation and frankly absurd. You need:

* Windows 10 or newer (not necessary when pirating)
* HDCP 2.2 compliant monitor and GPU (not necessary when pirating)
* GPU with HEVC hardware decoder (not necessary when pirating)
* 4K monitor (even if you just want higher bitrate, or to view 1080p content on a 1080p monitor, which is not a problem when pirating)
* 4K HDR monitor (some services won’t deliver 4K without HDR, which is not a problem when pirating)
* PlayReady 3.0 support (not necessary when pirating)
* Microsoft Edge or the Windows Store app (pirating is cross platform &amp; operating system agnostic)
* Intel processor with SGX enabled (AMD processors are unsupported, enjoy your oxidating 14th gen intel CPU; by the way, piracy is processor/platform agnostic &amp; works on all)
* No DisplayLink products or similar display adapters (piracy plays on any display product)

As someone who repairs motherboards professionally, I find it unreasonable to expect average consumers to verify all these requirements before subscribing to a service that prominently advertises “4K streaming” as a feature. For comparison, game publishers clearly list their system requirements right next to the purchase button.

Even more frustrating is that these restrictions exist purely due to DRM requirements, not technical limitations. The same content can stream perfectly fine at full quality to smart TV apps, proving the bandwidth and technology exists to deliver high-quality streams to any capable device.
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=== The Hidden Quality Gap ===

Just as Sony doesn’t have the balls(or the integrity) to place their re-defined concept of what it means to ''“purchase”'' something on their product page; '''Netflix doesn’t have the balls to list their series of limitations on 4k playback on the plans &amp; pricing page.'''

Netflix '''''KNOWS''''' conversions will go down if consumers understand the hoops they’d have to jump through to get a higher quality stream, ESPECIALLY if they knew that they could pay for the higher quality plan and get an even WORSE VIDEO QUALITY than they’d get on the normal plan just because they weren’t using hardware anointed by netflix to properly f the user in the ass.

In the words of Eteel from reddit:

<blockquote>Publishers advertise the requirements needed to run the game, and they do it freely—literally next to or below the button you press to buy the game. And that’s even though no one actually, realistically expects to run Cyberpunk 2077 in 4k with raytracing on GTX 1080 TI. That in no way compares to the reasonable base-level expectation that you’d be able to play a video in 4k using Chrome.

Netflix advertises no such information. They do have a help page listing which broswers support which resolution, but in order to get to it (or to even find out that it exists), you need to search for why you’re not getting 4k in the first place, and in order to search for why you’re not getting 4k in the first place, you already need to have bought the service thinking you’re going to get 4k using Chrome…

And here’s what Netflix doesn’t tell you even on this help page: they don’t tell you that while Chrome does support 1080p, it does not support high-bitrate 1080p. Playing Vikings: Valhalla on 1080p on Edge gets you 3000 bitrate while on Chrome gets you 1000 bitrate. That’s a significant difference they don’t advertise.

There’s still more to say about this, but I digress.

And to address this comment of yours:
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<blockquote><blockquote>What would that be? I understand criticism of DRMs but endorsing piracy as a solution for consumer issues would set a crazy precedent. Would it be okay for me to shoplift items that are too expensive for me to purchase? What if the cheaper ones quality doesn’t meet my demands?
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<blockquote>It’s not okay to shoplift items that are too expensive, but it is also not okay for Ubisoft Connect to advertise buying a license to play a game as buying the game. It literally has a button that says “Buy the game,” but when you read the fine print, it tells you that you don’t actually own the game even if you buy it (in contrast to buying a shirt which you own.) In actuality, if you buy one of their games, they still withhold the right to remove it from the store, in which case you’d be unable to play it even though you bought it. In essence, they redefine the word “buy” to not mean “own” despite the fact that in common language usage, we have always understood the two terms to exist in connection to each other.
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Keep in mind that even the 3 mbps 1080p stream is '''garbage'''. When you pirate, you have the option to download a full bitrate video file. You can download movies &amp; television shows that have '''50 mbps bitrate with high quality encoding settings''', and often '''completely uncompressed blurays.'''

Or, you can stream a piece of media using netflix at 3 mbps. 1 mbps if you’re using the wrong web browser. Or processor. Or screen cable. Or whatever.

And download button? screw your download button - you can watch it until you can’t, and if you want a higher quality copy, sorry pal - you’re stuck with 1 mbps in 2024, even though a 50 mbps copy was available on usenet 14 years ago.

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