Subj : Media Servers
To   : Nightfox
From : Accession
Date : Sat Nov 04 2023 06:54:06

Hello Nightfox,

On Fri Nov 03 2023 16:59:56, you wrote to me:

 Ac>> Sure do. I'm not sure how you're able to do it, seeing as though
 Ac>> it would take me quite a long time to try to snag any/all TV
 Ac>> series we actually watch somewhat regularly. I don't have time
 Ac>> for that shiii.. lol.

 Ni> I've done that and generally haven't had a problem getting TV series I
 Ni> want to watch.

It's not that it's a problem getting them, it's the time taken to get them. We're not much for planning ahead when it comes to what we want to watch. So in my case, it would probably be something like, "hey we should get this series" and by the time I've downloaded it all we're already halfway through it on a streaming service.

 Ni> Yeah, I still use Plex quite a bit.  I haven't had cable in years, and
 Ni> I generally don't use streaming services (there really isn't a whole
 Ni> lot I can think of that I want to watch on them), so I'm not sure I
 Ni> want to spend the money on them.  But there are several shows I can
 Ni> get over the air (Jeopardy, etc.), and I've been using Plex as a DVR
 Ni> for those so I can watch them any time I want to.  Over the past few
 Ni> years, I feel like Plex has been increasingly useful for me, as I've
 Ni> been using it as a DVR, and for other things I want to watch, I can
 Ni> throw them on my Plex server and watch them fairly easily.  I've also
 Ni> ripped much of what I have on blu-ray (movies and TV shows) and put
 Ni> them on my Plex server so I can watch them whenever I want.

That sounds like it could come in handy, especially if you're not hooked up to streaming services. I never even thought of using PLEX as a DVR before.

In our case, though.. we don't have anything over the air. I tried fitting up every TV in the house with some antennas and analog doo-dads (because long before we moved in some 20 years ago, the antenna in the attic was bypassed for cable - and I don't feel like crawling up there to confuse myself with whatever shoddy wiring that was done in the 80s) and would get like 2 fuzzy channels, so I ended up taking everything back and getting a refund. Not worth the money for channels I'm supposed to get for free.

 Ni> One thing that bugs me about streaming services is that they could
 Ni> remove content at any time, or change what you can watch.  One time, I
 Ni> was watching a TV series on Amazon Prime that was included free with
 Ni> Prime, and then suddenly one day they changed that series so you had
 Ni> to pay extra to watch it.

Yeah, Amazon has done that to me before as well. I was binge watching Mr. Robot quite a few years ago. Watched the first 3 seasons, and was waiting on the 4th season to come out. When it came out you had to pay extra for it. I don't remember exactly what I did - I either grabbed the last season myself and put it on my plex server, or I waited it out, and eventually (maybe after the season was a year old or something) you didn't have to pay extra for it any more.

However, I don't think any other streaming service has done that to us. Granted, they all remove old content when it has ran it's course, but usually another service picks it up. The Office has been removed and picked up by another a few times now, for example.

Regards,
Nick

.... "Take my advice, I don't use it anyway."
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20231030
 * Origin: thePharcyde_ distribution system (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

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