What killed it, well after reviewing some PS4 gameplay I noticed that it was having audio issues, like it would allow some sounds but not all. It was almost as if it was receiving a 5.1 audio output but was missing the centre channel. Even though the PS4 was set to stereo.
After trying various cables, configs, and boxes. I narrowed it down to this box. Not sure what killed it, whether it’s just old, or that it’s been powered on for over 5 years straight. But its long service will never be forgotten in the hours of Netflix and Disney Plus it passed through to my recorder.
I get and like HDCP. Mostly because of how easy it can be to bypass. I’d rather have a universal “we tried” standard, than an honest attempt to stop this. With today’s tech and online focused DRM, HDCP could be a lot worse, and I am happy where it is right now.
Like Adobe Digital Editions or Kindle for eBook DRM.
That’s the thing though: Ultimately, there is no stopping it with restrictive technology.
The only real way to stop piracy is to offer a good service for a good price.
Biggest evidence of that is Epic will give away games for free, but there will be people who prefer to pay for the Steam version over the free version.
That’s the biggest evidence that piracy is a problem of distribution and goes against the idea that those who pirates are against paying for a product.
I’m one of these people!
Second.
I also waited out the release of some games that launched on the Epic store first. I begrudgingly bought them on Steam, and I hope enough others did to discourage other companies from doing that in the future.
I do the same thing. I never got an Epic account, and really spend more money on GOG.
I enjoy the Epic exclusives because when it lands on Steam or GOG, it’s usually feature complete and less buggy.
Ehhh as much as I’d like to think that’s true, I think that has more to do with managing a bunch of clients and launchers. And also that those clients and launchers are full of spyware and bloatware and ads.
I used to not buy anything on Epic but then I got Heroic Launcher and now I’m not so terribly opposed to it. I have the Steam launcher and then I have HGL for Epic, GOG, and Amazon.
Yup, outside of legacy PC titles which will never get a re-release, a 1-2 combo shot of GOG and Steam, I don’t pirate games. I even took the time to find way to backup my games so I can get legal ROMs too.
Yep, GOG and Steam are pretty much the only ways I play games and I’ve bought a shitload of games from them both over the years.
Same, I have never pirated any game since the day I installed steam for the first time. It just makes buying games so much easier, and I don’t have to worry about drm or malware at all.
In my case, I rather pay a one-stop reasonable price for content than deal with the hassle of piracy.
They haven’t learned and the cycle starts again with streaming services doubling, then they wonder why they’re losing revenue.
The only legit media service I pay for now is YouTube. Before I get Amy lectures I am well aware of the issues with it, but also people still keep paying for Netflix as it cancels shows just as they start to grow, so… I’m a legacy google music sub, so moving over for me was a tiny cost increase to no longer mess with adblock on the site, though recently I do feel the YTM ‘radio’ algo is not as good as legacy google music. Self employed manufacturing stuff in my workshop all day either video or music is always on so its a bargain to me. My point being, that’s the only streaming sub I find worth paying for, out of everything. Maybe I’m an edge case but I just don’t see 4/5 of these services still existing in 5 years, its too much. Unless they can all survive on people subbing for 2-3 months a year
Or Cinavia on PS3.
I found a way to bypass one of those the other day for rented books found some tool on linux that did, so even that doesnt work