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How do you access movies? tv/purchase/rental/streaming/purchased-download/torrent?


This is how i view movies.

1) tv - this is getting rare. I generally don't have the patience to sit through ads, even fast forward if recorded. But it occasionally happens.

2) purchase - if I am to purchase a DVD, it's generally at a 2nd hand store where they are about $1-$2 these days. As cheap as renting. I rarely buy brand new, maybe at Christmas.

2) rental - Where I live, we have rental kiosks and a few blockbusters left (they're dying, 3 closed down within the last 18 months.) I recently joined a blockbuster and it's a good store, but the owner is a bit of a di/ck. He wants weekly rentals back by 6pm or there is a 40 cent late fee on each, on the same day. Whereas another blockbuster gives a 3 day leniency on weeklies. Even though he's a di/ck, I feel like this may be my last rental blockbuster experience, so I'm going to play by his rules.

3) streaming - I actually don't watch many movies on netflix. Their selection isn't great, but I have watch a few. I'm more into their tv series.

4) purchased-download - I only did this once, as I was making a trailer as a project. But legally downloaded movies don't work inside of Adobe Premiere, as they are locked! I actually had to illegally download the movie to make a trailer out of it.

5) torrent - yes, I torrent. Not a lot but every now and then I will. My view is that if I were to digitally rent a movie, it shouldn't be expensive. It's $5.99 to rent a movie, which is more expensive than going to the actual video store and renting. Shouldn't digital be half the price of a business that pays rent, electricity, wages, etc? So I feel that it isn't fair to charge this. If digital rentals were $2-$4, I probably would do it.

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I go to the cinema once or twice a week, on average... It's still the best way to watch a movie, on the big screen , with a crowd. Luckily there are still a few cinemas here that have big screens and can seat lots of people...

At home, i watch most of my movies, about one every other day, on my projector, in a dedicated room with a good sound system, as for content:

- I prefer blu-rays... There are no rentals here so I buy them online, or when I travel. The best quality and given my set up, it makes a difference. I buy a lot of aclaimed older movies, or those by directors I like or that seem interesting. I have a stack of 50+ that I haven't seen yet, a third of them are international movies... I use a blu-ray player, but I also put my blu-ray movies on my home server, for easy access for the family on all devices...

- Apple TV rentals... I use the iTunes rentals on AppleTV for most of my viewing (50%). Every other week there are a dozen or so movies listed at 99c and a few of these are usually worth a watch. Also, the iTunes library has a lot of movies that are not on Netflix. At $4 - 6 per rental it's not that bad considering the quality is pretty good. I rewatched Dunkirk in HDR and it was superb. I can only imagine what the blu-ray/UHD disc version is like. I don't buy any iTunes movies, but have redeemed codes from my blu-rays so end up getting those in my AppleTV library as well...

- Netflix... I don't watch TV series, so the Netflix options are far less interesting to me than iTunes. However, I do manage to watch some of the movies on there as well as some of the newer Netflix movies, but those have been usually not very good, with a couple of interesting exceptions... I recently watched The Host and Brazil on there as well as Mute... I use the Netflix App on my Apple TV...

- Amazon Prime... Not much to watch in my location as it's just the TV shows. I use the app on my AppleTV.

I might get a UHD blu-ray player later this year, but I'm in no rush.

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You are the opposite to me, the last thing I want is other people in the theater. If I had a home theater set up I probably never go back to a theater again. If the people there are not enough reason to skip it the overpriced tickets and concessions are.

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Yeah... i get it, but I still find that for the dramas and genre movies that I see the crowds are moviegoers rather than just mall shoppers, so tend to be into the movie and non-disruptive...

Horror movies and comedy work very well with an audience... For dramas it doesn't make a difference...

But with theatres becoming smaller (pointless!) and people on smartphones being the norm (Snapchatting key scenes, etc..) I admit that the appeal of a home cinema, or at least a decent TV and speakers/soundbar + sub starts to become aparent...

Still, when done right, a big theatrical movie experience with friends is hard to beat... I saw Dunkirk first in cinema this way... Definitely worth it...

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1) Streaming - I barely have enough time to get through the lists I have on Amazon Prime and Netflix and that makes up the bulk of my movie watching. I use other streaming services as well, TubiTV, AsianCrush, Midnight Pulp and I have Shudder on extended free preview though I probably watch the least on there. I won't be keeping that one, not enough content to actually be paying for it.

2) Netflix DVD - I am down to one movie at a time now, but it still is far superior value than using something like RedBox or buying DVDs for one time viewing.

3) Purchase Blu Rays/Digital - I have limited my purchases to limited edition releases of films that interest me, though I will occasionally purchase a disc for a difficult to legally watch foreign film. I almost never buy digital releases, I prefer the physical release.

4) Renting - Waste of money, but will do it for the wife. She has less patience.

5) Movie Theater - Bigger waste of money, but will go for certain films and situations. Last two were a bust, TLJ and Winchester.

6) TV - At this point only have the cable because of the wife, rarely if ever watch a movie on there.

7) Torrents - When I was younger I could come up with reason to do this, now that I am older its different. If you can get it legally where you are, downloading this way is stealing.




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Torrenting might seem harmless and fun until you get caught. Remember a decade ago they cracked down on downloading music from Limewire and the like? People were forced to pay back as much as the high six figures.

KODI seems risky too. The UK is already cracking down hard.

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I remember Napster.

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Yeah they can track you if they want and send you a legal notice to pay. This happened to those who downloaded 'Dallas Buyers Club'.

In Australia they have blocked the torrent websites but with the TOR browser you can still access.

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Good question.

My #1 is your #2. Like, exact same. I bought over 150 movies under 5$ each so it's like I had a videostore in my house.

#2 Netflix

#3 TV recorded so I can skip commercials

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I prefer to view movies in the cinema, on the great, big wide movie theatre screen(s), the way in which they're truly MEANT to be seen. I go solo, or with family or friends, depending on the situation, and what movie(s) are playing. My all time favorite film is West Side Story, and I've even made special road trips to the opposite end of the Bay State or to neighboring states to view a screening of the film West Side Story in a real movie theatre.

As another poster on this thread put it, there's nothing like seeing films as they're really and truly meant to be viewed; on a great big, wide screen, in a real movie theatre with the lights down low, either solo or with friends/family.

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Netflix and my XBox One has Kodi so I stream from a build as well.

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If you insist on using Kodi, at least get yourself a VPN.

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I plan on it. Thank you.

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