Signed up for Paramount+.........for Star Trek. Plugged it into my home cinema set up expecting to get a Dolby Digital or DTS signal. Nothing, Just plain old stereo. Did some Googling and apparently this is all they offer. I'm not sure if the stereo signal is even Dolby Surround encoded as that's effectively an obsolete format right now. There's some movies on there I might have watched, but I don't want vanilla stereo. Star Trek used to be on Netflix who offer the full works.
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Why is Paramount+ stuck in the 1980s?
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nlogax
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Paramount have said 4k and surround audio is coming to the UK platform but no date yet confirmed. You'll need a US P+ subscription accessed via vpn if you want those features right now.
The whole role out of Paramount+ has just been a farce Internationally. Deciding a couple of days notice to scrub their Netflix deal for distributing Star Trek Discovery and not even been able to say when it would be available beyond "the spring" (as I recall) before backtracking and making it available on a streaming service no-one had heard of but still only airing at a fixed time like traditional TV was just ridiculous.
No doubt the main effect was just driving people to sail the seven seas looking for booty rather than watching legally and giving them money.
I think it was Gabe Newell of Valve (a video game company) that piracy of any sort of media is mostly a distribution problem. Fix the distribution and most people will pay. Wise words to this day I think!
I was discussing this with a friend the other day. TV is so far behind in in terms of how its distributed. I don't really download or use a VPN because I don't want to pay. I have Netflix/Prime/Disney+ and I watch most of my content through their platforms but I still downloaded Halo and watched it. I had no idea it was coming to the UK eventually so I downloaded it and watched it earlier. When I Was in college... Me and a group of friends were getting tapes (yep VHS tapes) of the Next Generation !
Its getting better but supply doesn't meet the demands of a modern and connected world.
This all started way before the current cost of living crisis.
"in hindsight"
py_megapixel
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It's absolutely correct.
I dislike DRM* in general, but if it's a frictionless experience and I'm not paying extra for the privilege of buying something restricted, I will put up with it. Unfortunately it often isn't a frictionless experience.
Take e-books for example. If you want to read books electronically you generally have two options. The most popular option is to buy a Kindle from Amazon, and buy all of your books from Amazon, which is easy, but then you're locked into their ecosystem - you can't generally load books bought elsewhere, or use your local library's e-book loan service.
Or you can buy a non-Amazon device, but then if you want to load a book, you have to use Adobe Digital Editions. ADE is an appalling piece of software. Last time I looked at the website, it was only officially available for Windows 10 and Intel-based Macs (good luck if you have a Linux machine, a newer Mac, or if Microsoft updated your PC to Windows 11 without asking your permission first). Now, the "Tech Specs" page is broken!
But there is nothing else that can decode books encoded with Adobe's proprietary DRM system, which is what almost every publisher uses - so where's the incentive for them to improve it?
*Digital Rights Management - the technical term for electronically imposed restrictions intended to prevent redistribution of copyrighted material (with various degrees of success).
Agreed. In fact it was worse than traditional TV as there was no mechanism to record or catch up on an episode, so if you weren't available at the time of airing you missed it
I only signed up for Star Trek. I've only one episode of Strange New Worlds to go, and once I've watched that I'll just cancel my subscription so I'll only have paid £6.99 for a month's viewing. At least until the new seasons next year.
DRM's been a pita for decades. I remember back in the early '90s I bought the Robocop 3 game for my Amiga. It came with a dongle you had to plug into the back of the computer for the game to work. After a couple of plays it stopped working and I had to return the game. Boots didn't have another copy so I had to do without and never got to play it again. It was an enjoyable well reviewed game too.
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Thanks.
WelshBluebird
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The whole Strange New Worlds saga was even worse than Discovery. They didn't even bother to give us an alternative other than just to wait. So no doubt lots people just pirated it.
Absolutely. I recall at one point Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show in the world. Big cause of that was that it wasn't simulcast around the world. It would be broadcast Sunday night in the US and then, best case, Monday evening wherever you were (in places like Australia it was even further behind). Certainly in my case being a student and then unemployed wastrel for much of its run I didn't want to wait until it aired on Monday night (being able to mooch of my mums Sky subscription) I wanted to watch it when I got up on Monday. Once it started being simulcast so you could watch it on catch up anytime on Monday, guess how I started to watch it...
There's been a few other shows like for me. The Expanse before it was on Amazon I don't think you could watch at all in the UK so that leaves one option. Another show, The100, was on E4 but weeks behind the US. Guess what my response to that was?
Mad. Piracy isn't a problem of morality and people being willing to steal something because they don't see a downside it's entirely self-imposed delivery issues causing media companies to leave money on the table.
Ha! Good point, I hadn't even thought of that. Almost like going back to the 1970s before Betamax and VHS were widespread.
Arrr me hearty you may just be right in that!
I think Valve and Steam pretty much put game piracy in the grave under his leadership.
Both Discover and SNW have been a mess. But I still refuse to pay for P+ because of how they handled Discovery originally. Strangely though Lower Decks has totally avoided falling into the issue, which is wonderful as its the best NuTrek by far.
We were a whole series behind on The Expanse at one point because of ridiculous syndication rules.
Absolutely. And all people do is sail the seven seas.
100% just a shame they stopped making video games at the same time!
Sounds about right
Which is mad as it just means that they're leaving money on the table. Of course I doubt the bean counters see it that way but that's what they're doing. People want to buy your product. Stop making the customer experience of piracy more attractive than that you provide yourself...
In a similar way, I'm driven around the bend by classical music historic live performances that are released to the Japanese market only. The only people who buy this stuff are obsessives / completists so releasing this material in Europe/US doesn't cannibalise sales of existing product and the existence of downloading / streaming means that the release costs are small...
But no, either spend silly money at HMV Japan (after postage, import levy, VAT, handling fees) OR join a file-sharing site...
But no, either spend silly money at HMV Japan (after postage, import levy, VAT, handling fees) OR join a file-sharing site...
Is exactly why I watched whichever season of The Expanse it was on the high seas.
Too many execs have seen Netflix and Prime and not been happy only getting the money from licensing fees and wanted money direct from the consumer. With the possible exception of Disney+, no studio has the range of content to make it worthwhile when you compare to the range Netflix and Prime have.
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