(2013-04-29, 19:52)Doctor3D Wrote: [ -> ]I`ll probably pick up a Roku or something..everything is going digital - and set-top boxes that are authorized to stream from all these services popping up is really the best way to watch online content.
Honestly, I have to disagree. I have my HTPC setup with Linux and XBMC. I spent a fair bit of money on it. It has worked wonderfully. I want to use it. YouTube, Hulu, tons of other addons, and most importantly my TV tuner/PVR run through it. I can even run video games and any other computer programs I want to run through it (can't do that with a silly set-up box). It's a seemless, unified GUI environment that I never have to switch away from. I don't want to have to get yet another box to have to switch TV inputs and get used to multiple UI's for one stupid service. And if that box ends up not supporting another service I want to use, do I need yet another box? My TV doesn't have unlimited inputs.
No. The "best way" is not for me to buy yet-another-device, but for content services and producers to get their heads out of their low, dark places and realize that DRM hurts their customers and doesn't prevent piracy (in fact promotes it), and that the more ways they can get content to their customers, the more customers they will have lining up to pay for their service. They need to open their content back up so that it can be viewed on whatever devices the customer wants to view it on.
When I first started using the Amazon plugin, I had some minor issues, and contacted Amazon support for help. While the person who replied back said the XBMC addon wasn't officially supported, they also said that they knew it was possible, seemed ok with me using it, and helped find the best way to get help for it. I was very happy with the level of support I got from them, despite using something they didn't officially sanction. I was given the impression that while it wasn't supported, it also wasn't shunned. That gave me hope in the company, and I proudly supported them, bought almost everything from them, told everyone I knew to use them instead of Netflix. I was a regular Amazon evangelist! I started buying up the movies I wanted to watch that weren't on their "free" list. Now, suddenly, I don't have any usable way to watch any of the movies I purchased the access to. My young kids also used their hard-earned allowance money to get movies, and don't understand why they can't watch them anymore. Contacting Amazon support now is an ever-deepening downward spiral of disappointment. They will not let me watch movies I bought the rights to watch. And no, I don't want to buy a much more limiting and limited device just to do it more inconveniently. So, until they unblock the access, I will no longer buy anything from them. Until then, I will tell everyone I meet to never use their service.
They're losing me and many others, not because we don't use an officially-supported device, but because they and their product sources have put their own selfish business strategy ahead of their customer's needs and wants. Sadly, the old "the customer is always right" mentality no longer exists. It's now, "the customer will use what we demand, or nothing at all." And they get away with it.
I saw a post with Jeff Bezos standing on stage with a presentation behind him saying, "We want to make money when people
use our devices, not when they
buy our devices." (underlining was like that on the presentation) But, obviously their underlining and wording belies the truth: the operative word isn't "use", it's "our".