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Netflix, Lovefilm, etc. - souless and empty?
2+2=5
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Don't you think television broadcasting has more to it than on demand services?
With tv you know there's always someone behind the scenes filming it, directing, producing, announcing, etc. There are people involved in ensuring the channels are displaying something at any time of the day.
But you could literally sit in front of your tv and download anything you want without having a "real" person be involved in whatever you end up watching. There's nobody there ensuring you see something.
Or maybe I'm looking too much into it!
With tv you know there's always someone behind the scenes filming it, directing, producing, announcing, etc. There are people involved in ensuring the channels are displaying something at any time of the day.
But you could literally sit in front of your tv and download anything you want without having a "real" person be involved in whatever you end up watching. There's nobody there ensuring you see something.
Or maybe I'm looking too much into it!
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I sometimes have trouble sleeping and have to put the TV on to help me nod off. It simply will not work if it is a dvd / netflix etc it has to be something on tv. It is the comfort of feeling there is other people there with me in the room.
That being said, any other time I will happily watch netflix / tv progs on the laptop.
One thing I really miss is the local video shop and the whole process of going there, browsing, choosing, and having another human being serve you. I was a video junkie as a kid in the 80s/90s and I get ridiculously nostalgic for that whole routine and atmosphere.
While I love having access to loads of cool stuff with the click of a mouse, it's just not as fun somehow.
I also miss when you used to get good films on TV, especially when it came to older cinema classics.
Or is it that the TV moguls have designed programmes to make you think you have company, when in fact the programme was made 10 years ago, in Australia?
I only ever rarely visited video shops, it seemed too expensive and restrictive (2 nights for about £4 for new releases, and if you hand it in late you get further fees?!) On Love Film, I have a huge list of films I want to see too. Which is very handy, occaisionally, I take films off the list because I've seen them elsewhere too.
I think these services are a good addition to, rather than a replacement of, television or indeed buying dvd's too, though.
Torrents are illegal though.
Maybe but I meant it's more about the engineers and producers and other people who are behind the scenes all the time, keeping the channels running, switching to adverts or running the next program, etc.
No they are not.
Plenty of companies use torrents to distribute files.
i have now been without broadcast T.v since January and only use Netflix for on demand and lovefilm for Blu-rays. I don't miss TV at all, I don't miss the annoying adverts, the annoying presenters going on for 10 mins or more telling us what is content is coming on their other channels.
I timed BBC one once and it was 8 minutes of their own adverts, telling us what is coming on their channels, on the radio and other self promotion.
I was paying £145 a year for that, glad I am away from it.
Not sure it's such a distinction.
Presumably Netflix et al have engineers - just web ones, not TV ones.
Of course that was the days before videos.
I find most tv is bad though and tend to just play xbox or watch films instead.
I just want a menu of all programmes released in the UK and USA, to play at my leisure.
Announcers, readers, etc are not required. The TV news and weather are also things I'd like to eliminate. The internet and smartphone apps provide these services in a much more detailed and efficient way.
Unfortunately video on demand has some way to go. I tried Lovefilm and Netflix on demand, and the picture and sound quality are dreadfully abominable.
It's not the same discussing something that someone might have watched months ago or won't see for a long time.
When VHS videos went out of fashion, they switched to DVDs but then more broadband internet started killing off the stores with their high overheads.
You used to be able to go out on an evening, hire out a DVD, get a pizza and go home and watch the DVD with friends - all disrupted now.
With freeview there is usually something I can watch if I feel a need to sit down and watch TV, I'm a fan of documentaries and factual programmes so TV is still the clear winner for me. £3 a week for the beeb is superb value for money in my humble opinion.
I've not used those services because they don't seem to do pay per film so I use Blinkbox and Film4OD looks OK too but I've yet to try that one.
I'm sure they are still a fair few people working - big website don't run them selves - just they are now web programmers, data centre geeks and the like.
http://www.filmon.com is not bad, free or pay subscription, they broadcast a lot but not all the freeview channels, handy if your abroad as tvcatchup blocks non UK and the free subscription gives access to some old 'B' movies and other old junk which at times is nice to watch.
The torrent downloading we all know that goes on is illegal.