Alternatives to illegal resources
How developed are legal services for the provision of movies, TV shows, books in Russia? I wanted to move away from pirate trackers in favor of official resources - at first glance, the task is trivial, since the right holders, in theory, should make every effort to conveniently access their content. After all, no one has any difficulties finding juice in the store? But it was not there…
The post can be viewed as an addition / continuation to “What if I want to watch movies legally?” Written by maep .
At the very beginning of the search, I formulated the conditions that, in my opinion, should satisfy the ideal resource. Probably, the requirements are too high - now I understand that. But at an early stage I expected the following from the material provided (in order of decreasing importance):
That everything will turn out to be not so easy, I realized when I saw the number of legal online cinemas in Runet. Yes, if the law tells us to move away from the shadow methods of consuming information and at the same time indicates a large number of correct sites, then be sure that this is the case in reality: Amediatheka , Videomore , Tvzavr , Zoomby , ivi , Play , Stream , Now , Tvigle , Pokazhekino , Megogo .
The choice is really big! And everything would be great, except that competition plays into the hands of non-users. These projects do not compete with each other in the quality of the provided product, service and price. Not. They just divided the content. And if you like several popular TV shows, then, most likely, they are scattered competently on all of the above sites, some of which, by the way, will have to be paid for (for example, a subscriber is provided in ivi, but not everything is available for it - for some materials requested amount).
What unites these sites? Terrible design, hype, disgusting players. Aloofly, perhaps, the Adediatek stands - a pleasant design and (oh my God!) The presence of English tracks for some TV shows; but also a very annoying minus (in addition to an insignificant amount of content provided, namely, one that you cannot find, of course, on analogues) - the existing TV shows on the service are incomplete (for example, Sons of Anarchy - there are only the fifth and sixth seasons ).
')
The Poster is a common resource that helps to sort out this disgrace, where links are placed to the series of these online cinemas (namely, players, that is, you watch the content without leaving the poster, which is not bad, the site is quite beautiful). However, judging by the update frequency and the fact that the top of the "expected" series hits, gaining only 20-40 "likes", the creators of the aggregator, already aware of the error, tear their hair on their heads.
Naturally, all this does not in any way solve the original problem, and I could not stop the search for the ideal resource by giving up so quickly.
Then I began to consider the service from Google. Regarding music, there will never be any problems with this (exactly like in iTunes). With films worse - mostly just new items. Books in general are in trouble: the service is absolutely not familiar, for example, with A. Sapkowski and almost does not know D. Martin (it turns out that in order to get to know these writers, I need to look for other ways / services). It is also worth noting the disgusting imposed reader, the inability to pick up the book you just bought, and read it on another application. This drawback is deprived of liters , where works can be downloaded in any convenient format and read, for example, from the Moon Reader . True, all the books that are on liters are posted on Google Play, so you won't find anything on the last new one. In some cases, the lack of unbearable.
By the way, it is worth noting an interesting DRM protection, a meeting with which cannot be avoided if you want to read something in English. What do people who support this system count on? Especially considering the fact that from all this fuss and headache of the user separates a couple of mouse clicks and conscience. But why should I have a conscience when publishers do not have it?
Another significant disadvantage associated with Google Play - regional restrictions . It is absolutely incomprehensible to me how many times I must pay the copyright holder so that he finally calms down.
Disheartened, I climbed on netflix and hulu , thinking that this would definitely be the answer to all questions. The advantages are well known: all foreign serials are available, good quality and service, make for people. But it was not there. The first minus of this approach is the need to set up a VPN connection and pretend to be American (this is all simple, but, firstly, unpleasant, and, secondly, will it be possible for a long time?). And then the sad features of each service.
Netflix - everything is just fine, but sooner or later you will come across the fact that you cannot watch the series in good quality from the computer, as he says, “available in hd on your TV” . And I have no desire to figure out how to show that the TV is in the states, and, generally speaking, I do not have a TV.
Hulu - everything is just fine, but sooner or later you will face the fact that you cannot watch the show at all. He is not available there. But there is a link where you can see it, supposedly. Consider the problem on the example of the series "The Killing".
So, we are sent to the AMC website. Yeah, but there, too, you can not see the series ... But there is a link to Netflix. But there is "available in hd on your TV". Hmm, there is still a link to amazon . Wonderful. After paying a Hulu subscription to watch the series, I have to pay again either on Netflix or to buy episodes on Amazon, which are too expensive there. In general, on Amazon you can also pay a subscription, having the opportunity to watch almost everything for free, except for the fact that you really need (just like on ivi). And if the series is not available by subscription, you can buy it. For example, all three seasons in The Killing hd will cost only $ 75. And a little more about Amazon. Unlike other foreign resources, it was distinguished by an amazing quality - it declassified my location (I used vemeo; with the chrome hola extension, nothing happens either).
At this point, I already realized the futility of further searches and decided to choose illegal online cinemas that meet all my requirements. It was much easier.
hdout.tv is an ideal option for watching TV shows (there are a lot of them there), from the minuses you can select only an unsuccessful player (and it is even more unfortunate than your Internet is slower).
ARRR.tv is a good resource. Minus - a relatively small number of TV shows, the removal of early episodes (that is, you will not find the first season of the Game of Thrones there).
Turbofilm - everything would be fine, but at the moment the feeling is that the administration decided to close the resource within a year, and at the moment it is slowly dying, taking money from the remaining subscribers. Feedback does not work, new series and episodes are not added to some old ones, errors are not corrected. It also depresses the need to "change the country."
watch.is is ideal for watching movies. There is no subscriber, an incredibly large selection.
Once it seemed to me that in some few years the problem of legal services in Russia would be resolved, that this was a matter of technology and everything would be just fine. From a technical point of view, it is easy to create an online viewing platform with all the requirements indicated at the beginning of the article. However, copyright legislation iron sticks bound all available means to implement such an idea. In addition, at the moment legal services are forced to compete with pirated ones. Moreover, the struggle for users is not on an equal footing - pirates have long since managed to “shape the minds” of their consumers: not only that people are used to downloading for free, but also because everyone likes to get what they want. One gets the impression that Russian services are going to gain popularity only by tightening the need to respect copyright, but in no way by convenience, quality, or price.
The post can be viewed as an addition / continuation to “What if I want to watch movies legally?” Written by maep .
Requirements
At the very beginning of the search, I formulated the conditions that, in my opinion, should satisfy the ideal resource. Probably, the requirements are too high - now I understand that. But at an early stage I expected the following from the material provided (in order of decreasing importance):
- Quality (for example, high resolution in video, layout for books (if I download a book for free , I immediately find several options and then choose the best of them: pay attention to the table of contents, vocabulary footnotes, etc. - in other words, readability))
- Variability (for movies / TV shows this is the presence of sound tracks and subtitles, for books - different formats)
- Quantity (the requested material must be on the same resource so that you do not have to register for additional ones)
- Player (normal buffering, speed, no glitches)
- Design of the site (in order to avoid bitter tears with each visit to the site)
- Adequate administration (courtesy, timely responses and assistance)
Russian services
That everything will turn out to be not so easy, I realized when I saw the number of legal online cinemas in Runet. Yes, if the law tells us to move away from the shadow methods of consuming information and at the same time indicates a large number of correct sites, then be sure that this is the case in reality: Amediatheka , Videomore , Tvzavr , Zoomby , ivi , Play , Stream , Now , Tvigle , Pokazhekino , Megogo .
The choice is really big! And everything would be great, except that competition plays into the hands of non-users. These projects do not compete with each other in the quality of the provided product, service and price. Not. They just divided the content. And if you like several popular TV shows, then, most likely, they are scattered competently on all of the above sites, some of which, by the way, will have to be paid for (for example, a subscriber is provided in ivi, but not everything is available for it - for some materials requested amount).
What unites these sites? Terrible design, hype, disgusting players. Aloofly, perhaps, the Adediatek stands - a pleasant design and (oh my God!) The presence of English tracks for some TV shows; but also a very annoying minus (in addition to an insignificant amount of content provided, namely, one that you cannot find, of course, on analogues) - the existing TV shows on the service are incomplete (for example, Sons of Anarchy - there are only the fifth and sixth seasons ).
')
The Poster is a common resource that helps to sort out this disgrace, where links are placed to the series of these online cinemas (namely, players, that is, you watch the content without leaving the poster, which is not bad, the site is quite beautiful). However, judging by the update frequency and the fact that the top of the "expected" series hits, gaining only 20-40 "likes", the creators of the aggregator, already aware of the error, tear their hair on their heads.
Naturally, all this does not in any way solve the original problem, and I could not stop the search for the ideal resource by giving up so quickly.
Google Play and Liters
Then I began to consider the service from Google. Regarding music, there will never be any problems with this (exactly like in iTunes). With films worse - mostly just new items. Books in general are in trouble: the service is absolutely not familiar, for example, with A. Sapkowski and almost does not know D. Martin (it turns out that in order to get to know these writers, I need to look for other ways / services). It is also worth noting the disgusting imposed reader, the inability to pick up the book you just bought, and read it on another application. This drawback is deprived of liters , where works can be downloaded in any convenient format and read, for example, from the Moon Reader . True, all the books that are on liters are posted on Google Play, so you won't find anything on the last new one. In some cases, the lack of unbearable.
By the way, it is worth noting an interesting DRM protection, a meeting with which cannot be avoided if you want to read something in English. What do people who support this system count on? Especially considering the fact that from all this fuss and headache of the user separates a couple of mouse clicks and conscience. But why should I have a conscience when publishers do not have it?
Another significant disadvantage associated with Google Play - regional restrictions . It is absolutely incomprehensible to me how many times I must pay the copyright holder so that he finally calms down.
Foreign services
Disheartened, I climbed on netflix and hulu , thinking that this would definitely be the answer to all questions. The advantages are well known: all foreign serials are available, good quality and service, make for people. But it was not there. The first minus of this approach is the need to set up a VPN connection and pretend to be American (this is all simple, but, firstly, unpleasant, and, secondly, will it be possible for a long time?). And then the sad features of each service.
Netflix - everything is just fine, but sooner or later you will come across the fact that you cannot watch the series in good quality from the computer, as he says, “available in hd on your TV” . And I have no desire to figure out how to show that the TV is in the states, and, generally speaking, I do not have a TV.
Hulu - everything is just fine, but sooner or later you will face the fact that you cannot watch the show at all. He is not available there. But there is a link where you can see it, supposedly. Consider the problem on the example of the series "The Killing".
So, we are sent to the AMC website. Yeah, but there, too, you can not see the series ... But there is a link to Netflix. But there is "available in hd on your TV". Hmm, there is still a link to amazon . Wonderful. After paying a Hulu subscription to watch the series, I have to pay again either on Netflix or to buy episodes on Amazon, which are too expensive there. In general, on Amazon you can also pay a subscription, having the opportunity to watch almost everything for free, except for the fact that you really need (just like on ivi). And if the series is not available by subscription, you can buy it. For example, all three seasons in The Killing hd will cost only $ 75. And a little more about Amazon. Unlike other foreign resources, it was distinguished by an amazing quality - it declassified my location (I used vemeo; with the chrome hola extension, nothing happens either).
Pirate services
At this point, I already realized the futility of further searches and decided to choose illegal online cinemas that meet all my requirements. It was much easier.
hdout.tv is an ideal option for watching TV shows (there are a lot of them there), from the minuses you can select only an unsuccessful player (and it is even more unfortunate than your Internet is slower).
ARRR.tv is a good resource. Minus - a relatively small number of TV shows, the removal of early episodes (that is, you will not find the first season of the Game of Thrones there).
Turbofilm - everything would be fine, but at the moment the feeling is that the administration decided to close the resource within a year, and at the moment it is slowly dying, taking money from the remaining subscribers. Feedback does not work, new series and episodes are not added to some old ones, errors are not corrected. It also depresses the need to "change the country."
watch.is is ideal for watching movies. There is no subscriber, an incredibly large selection.
Conclusion
Once it seemed to me that in some few years the problem of legal services in Russia would be resolved, that this was a matter of technology and everything would be just fine. From a technical point of view, it is easy to create an online viewing platform with all the requirements indicated at the beginning of the article. However, copyright legislation iron sticks bound all available means to implement such an idea. In addition, at the moment legal services are forced to compete with pirated ones. Moreover, the struggle for users is not on an equal footing - pirates have long since managed to “shape the minds” of their consumers: not only that people are used to downloading for free, but also because everyone likes to get what they want. One gets the impression that Russian services are going to gain popularity only by tightening the need to respect copyright, but in no way by convenience, quality, or price.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/288950/
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