Is streaming killing the art of cinema?

I don’t know how you all feel about them, but I absolutely cannot stand them! I have a massive collection at home, yet I refuse to watch a single one because, in my opinion, they are single-handedly destroying movie theaters and video rental stores alike.
A few months before a movie even hits the big screen, companies like Netflix release it on Blu-ray, including titles I’ve been waiting years to see—but I simply refuse to watch them. It just isn't the same. That magic is gone—the feeling of heading down to a local Blockbuster to rent a new hit, only to find it's already checked out. That sense of anticipation while you wait for a reservation to come through, or spending hours wandering the aisles just trying to pick something worth renting... that era is dead because you know everything is just sitting there in a drawer at home. The worst part is seeing people watch something like *King Kong* or *Lord of the Rings* on a cheap Blu-ray and complaining that the movie itself is bad. Well, perhaps it's because you're watching it on a tiny 17-inch screen with pathetic sound and subtitles that are constantly out of sync. I am firmly against this trend, and I want to hear your thoughts...

Honestly, I feel like those of us who grew up during the era of sketchy rental shops back in the late 80s and early 90s just don't see the appeal of this DivX stuff 😬

Yeah, it’s a total wrecking ball... 🍿

I’d honestly love to catch all these movies at a proper film archive... or maybe some indie theater that specializes in the classics... it's just easier to drop a couple of bucks and experience everything on a massive screen rather than dealing with the alternatives... but when you don't have that kind of choice 😁😁😁

How on earth are you managing to pull down 31 files when you're crawling along at a measly 1 KB/s? 🤔 Is this some kind of high-level "hacking" trick with the BitTorrent client, or what?...

Joseph Lee3 said:how the hell are you pulling down 31 pieces with a measly 1 KB/s connection?! 🤔 is this some kind of "mule hacking" magic or what...

you see that little blue icon in the bottom right corner—the one with the 'L' and the backwards 'L'?
well, that little beauty is called "NetLimiter"

Lawrence Booth2 said:....

I suppose one might wonder if it's even worth the electricity bill, running a download at those speeds just to grab a movie😬

Maybe I should just send over a screenshot of my monthly utility statement instead.😁

nimblenomad41 said:see that little blue icon in the bottom right corner with the single L and the flipped L?
that software is called "NetLimiter"

thanks for clearing that up. I've heard the name floating around, but I never really dug into it since I'm pretty much tech-illiterate.

William White2 said:you really think wasting electricity downloading movies at that speed is worth it? 😬 let me just show you my utility bill 😁

yeah, sure—why don't you send over a screenshot showing how fast you're actually pulling these movies from the site
😁 😁 😁
I'm not interested in looking at movies that have like 300 seeders anyway... nothing worth the effort.

on my end, both upload and download are capped, so I’m stuck using NetLimiter—sometimes the connection just hangs for days and won't pull anything through, which is a total headache.

My intention was to diminish the influence of the Fed, yet I see them growing even more powerful by the day!!!!🙂 🙂

vidocq said:my whole goal was to make DivX classic less relevant, but honestly? It feels like I just made it even bigger than before!!!!🙂 🙂

Alright then, why don't you suggest a way for me to legally watch movies using nothing but screenshots?

Honestly, if it weren't for the DivX classic scene, I don't think I'd even be watching a tenth of the movies I've seen. A lot of these titles just aren't available in any other format unless you go out and buy them through Amazon or some other big retailer, and I just don't have that kind of money lying around. Not to mention, some of these flicks are impossible to find even there. So, I guess my bottom line is that DivX classic is a total lifesaver for me; it lets me dig up all these obscure, old, hard-to-find gems. I doubt I'm actually hurting the major studios much by doing this—most of these are either too old or just not commercial enough—which is a shame, really. I'd love to stick it to them more often, since I feel like they're the ones mostly responsible for the state of cinema today and why they keep churning out such mindless garbage in Hollywood.
There it is.
As for waiting for a movie to hit VideoDisc or getting all hyped up about a release, honestly, I don't miss that at all. I'd much rather spend my time waiting for those first crappy cam rips to pop up on torrent sites, hoping for a decent screener, or waiting for the mules to finally finish so I can grab a long-awaited treasure from DivX classic after four days of waiting. That's all.

I really miss those quirky little video store clerks—you know the type—who’d read out the titles of those cheesy porn-horror flicks I was always trying to hunt down 😁😁😁

Oh, and I also kind of miss that specific spike of anxiety when you realize a VHS tape has been rented out two hundred times already, just used as a vessel to dub over some other movie, 😁 and yet somehow, somehow, it's still available for rent

Ljelja said:thanks for clearing that up. I've heard of him, but I never really looked into it since I'm just a casual user.

The issue with this DSL connection I'm stuck with—and honestly, everyone else using it too—is that it prioritizes upload over download... basically, the second someone starts grabbing files from you, your own download speeds tank while you're trying to pull stuff from someone else... which is why NetLimiter is such a lifesaver—it lets you throttle that upload speed so you aren't constantly getting throttled yourself, plus it has a few other handy little features;;;

DivX movies aren't destroying cinema as an art form...

They’re destroying the film INDUSTRY, which are two completely different things... unfortunately. 🙂

I'm lucky enough to get my hands on heaps of movies before they even hit theaters (not via DivX), so I don't really care about them personally. But it’s such a shame—at least for the movie business and those struggling local theaters that seem to be closing down all over the US lately—that people would rather watch something in much lower quality just because they want to see it SOONER...

vidocq said:I don't know how you all feel about them, but I can't stand them. I have a huge collection at home, yet I can't bring myself to watch any of it. To me, they're just killing movie theaters and video rental stores.

If you aren't going to use them, send them my way. 😁

I disagree regarding the destruction of cinema; I see it as progress. There is absolutely nothing worth watching on cable TV these days, which makes DivX files the superior option. At least you get to choose what you actually want to watch...

nimblenomad41 said:my DSL connection—along with everyone else's, really—prioritizes uploads over downloads. Basically, the moment someone starts pulling files from you, your own download speeds take a massive hit. That's why NetLimiter is such a handy little tool for capping that upload bandwidth; it’s got a few other useful tricks up its sleeve, too.

It reminds me of that old Satchmo line: "We have all the time in the world..." 🙂

I'm just relieved that what I'm downloading finally has more than ten people seeding it; whether it takes five days or seven doesn't matter much now. In the meantime, I'll just finish folding the laundry—using a net limiter would probably just kill my productivity, much like a distracted housewife.🙂

Joseph Lee3 said:you know how Satchmo puts it: We have all the time in the world.... 🙂

I’m honestly just stoked that whatever I’m downloading has finally passed the ten-person sharing mark—now, whether it takes five days or seven to finish... well, in the meantime, I'll just be over here ironing the last of the laundry. At this rate, my ISP would probably throttle my speeds if they saw me acting like a suburban housewife... 🙂

haha, tell me about it. I just finished tackling the last of my laundry pile too... those things have been eating up all my floor space for days. My whole room basically smells like Downy right now. 👍

nimblenomad41 said:I totally get that feeling; I just finished ironing the last of my laundry, which had been taking up way too much floor space in my room for days now. My whole place smells like Downy 👍

Man... what, you don't have a housekeeper to bail you out? Honestly, I'd rather walk around in wrinkled shirts than actually face an iron myself.

All jokes aside, a net limiter is a solid little tool (though I haven't personally messed with one). It actually reminded me of the old ffdshow days; I used to have it installed all the time, but after I wiped my hard drive, it completely slipped my mind until just now. Definitely another must-have in the toolkit.

vidocq said:I was trying to make DivX less relevant, but somehow I’ve just made it even more essential!🙂 🙂

Look, vidocq, its importance is exactly what you'd expect—it’s all about the money driving the music. It’s honestly painful trying to watch something like "Barry Lyndon" on some mediocre DivX file, especially when you're stretching a 4:3 aspect ratio to fit a 16:9 widescreen TV. That’s just masochism. And don't even get me started on "Playtime"; it was shot on 70mm, so watching it on a Criterion Collection DVD is already a compromise, let alone on a compressed DivX file. But realistically, which theater am I supposed to trek to just to experience a masterpiece like "Playtime" the way it was intended? Am I really going to start buying return tickets to some niche indie cinemas in Cardiff? No thanks. Unfortunately, because of current industry standards, we have so few theaters left that actually offer these masterpieces in the formats they deserve. Plus, you’d have to hunt down and buy every single film in high quality, assuming it's even available on physical media to begin with. Personally, I only treat myself to the high-end versions of movies after I've watched them on DivX and realized my heart would actually break if I didn't own the proper version. If anything, that’s the direct benefit DivX provides to the film industry.

On the other hand, the entire artistic impact is pretty much ruined from the jump just by the concept of using a small screen. There isn't much else to say there.