Streamfab has become a waste of $$

[Marty92]

Wilson.Wang, I would like to give some positive feedback here too.

I think it's great how quickly the developers sometimes respond to problems that arise.

For me, StreamFab is clearly superior to the competition and I don't regret my lifetime license.

[Mike_M]

Hi all,

Sorry for this to trouble you.

For the HBO Max 1080p problem, we are still working on it, than the other tools, we are working on a different solution, and it to be ending...

And if you have used the other tool (A*S) recently days, you will find that it already can not download 1080p video quality when downloading the new released videos from HBO Max and Netflix.

For the Apple TV 480p problem, I have to say that it's the DRM problem...

And we always work and make StreamFab work stable and give you the best downloading experience, fixing bug, improve the download speed, new features...

Thanks for your support and understand.

Wilson

Hi Wilson Wang!

I see these two products StreamFab and "Competitor" more as complementary.

Plus they inspire each of you to look at stuff and consider changes that benefit users.

Like Amazon Prime grabbing the higher sound files in StreamFab that you did recently.

It's *really* nice to have both when one is hiccupping or catching up on issues.

I only purchased the other product after your HBOMax DRM issue previously but I'm glad I did.

StreamFab is a *lot* more versatile and has a lot of added stuff/menus/etc. that I like - Like MPD/M3U8/Youtube and streaming services that I'll occasionally also use.

The "Complementary" product is a rather simplistic program, but adds to options for users when encountering difficulties here, increases file # availability and when something may be hiccupping and also covers my main programs that I use except for Peacock which they say is next.

1. For instance right now StreamFab edits out credits on Paramount+ TV content when it's PIP (Picture in Picture) and the "Complementary" Software plays them as normal.
2. StreamFab has always been quirky for me with Hulu in getting a file and having to login/logout muliple times to actually get it - "No problems with "Complementary" product.
3. "Complementary" product is having issues right now with a lot of Netflix files only doing 960x540's when StreamFab does 1920x1080 and they have to add them evidently as encountered in their software.
4. The Speed of the "Complementary" product was underestimated in the email comparison DVDFab sent because it has setting that you can adjust the download speed to "Unlimited" - it's really speedy you are making some adjustments that helpl
5. I normally like H265 which you do more in products, but not an issue since I drop H264 into DVDFab from "Complementary" software to convert at 60%
6. Just bought the products I didn't have for DVDFab "Lifetime" and *really* liking your AI Upscaling to 2x - for instance a 45min episode of a 720p upscaled to 2X with your software uses both the GPU and CPU and takes a little over 2 hours to process to 2560x1440 H265 as opposed to taking 3 times the amount of time to 1080p that takes 3 times longer. So 2X upscaling with your AI product is *really* cool. The 2X output is great and I guess the time differences is related to doing a simple 2X instead of rescaling to 1080p and programming/algorithms. - 2X for me right now until I can afford a better GPU 3080/3090? - maybe next year.
7. Can you *please* look at Roku module and it's slow speed? Pretty Please?

I'm sure there's other stuff that I didn't mention since above is just off the top of my head.

Mike

Win 10/64 pro, RTX Super 2070, No VPN, US CST, DVDFab "Lifetime", StreamFab "Lifetime", "Commentary Product" Lifetime, DVDFab customer since at least 2008 :-)

[artsunlimited]

Hi all,

Sorry for this to trouble you.

For the HBO Max 1080p problem, we are still working on it, than the other tools, we are working on a different solution, and it to be ending...

And if you have used the other tool (A*S) recently days, you will find that it already can not download 1080p video quality when downloading the new released videos from HBO Max and Netflix.

For the Apple TV 480p problem, I have to say that it's the DRM problem...

And we always work and make StreamFab work stable and give you the best downloading experience, fixing bug, improve the download speed, new features...

Thanks for your support and understand.

Wilson

Hi Wilson - you're kind of missing the point here. The fact is that A*S HAS been consistently providing 816 and 1080p downloads from HBO - from a week after the DRM shakeup at the end of April until quite recently, whereas STREAMFAB HAS STILL NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET AROUND THE HBO DRM FOR THE PAST SIX MONTHS.

So all your "whatabout" and finger-pointing at the competition (for what's actually a recent setback) has done here is highlight StreamFab's half-year long failure to provide a service that your competition could - and did - handily come through with - and within a week of that DRM shakeup. Oops.

To continue to trot out "We are still working on it" SIX MONTHS LATER is a glaring admission that either 1) you badly need newer, more competent developers with better priorities, or 2) that your definition of "working" vastly differs from mine.

Of course AppleTV has a DRM restriction - we all bought this product because of your claims that it could get around that, so to tell me that "it's the DRM problem" when your sole job is to maintain the software we bought from you that circumvents that DRM is...well, my choice is pretty much to laugh or to cry here. Let's just say that it makes your next to last sentence extremely questionable in its claims of stability.

To keep insisting that you're actually maintaining this product only further erodes your credibility, because its user base can clearly see more and more services with questionable success rates added, while major streaming services like HBO remain shamefully neglected.

[bwnautilus]

I too am disappointed in SF's lack of progress in getting DRM working on streaming services that I'm subscribed to. I'm virtually limited to what Prime has via it's 3rd party channel subscription service. I rarely d/l anything from Netflix - their content selection has gotten pretty bad.

After reading the comments in this thread I see there are some ppl who are going back to using torrents. I have zero experience with torrents. I'm guessing ppl these days are using a cloud seedbox service? Is there a preferred seedbox provider that is recommended?

Thanks

[jpp72]

After reading the comments in this thread I see there are some ppl who are going back to using torrents. I have zero experience with torrents. I'm guessing ppl these days are using a cloud seedbox service? Is there a preferred seedbox provider that is recommended?

Thanks

Honestly i don't understand why people use torrents when Newsgroups are better in every way.

• You will NEVER get a threatening email because you downloaded something copyrighted
• You always get the maximum speed your connection can handle
• You can schedule TV Shows, Movies, Comics, Books, Music and even XXX to be downloaded automatically
• You can set rules to say download the latest episode of a TV Show as soon as it is released, and replace the file once another, better version is released (Better audio, better resolution, amazon bitrates, etc)
• You can have all metadata, along with posters, thumbnails, trailers, etc... downloaded and generated automatically
• You can have all files downloaded post-processed automatically as soon as the download is done
• You can have all files moved to the appropriate folders and trigger updates for Kodi or Plex to add them to the library

There are plenty of other advantages of newsgroups vs torrents but just the safety from copyright trolls and the speed is enough for anyone really.

The programs that do all the automations also work with torrents but not as nicely as with newsgroups.

More info here: https://wiki.servarr.com/

[weavermovies]

Honestly i don't understand why people use torrents when Newsgroups are better in every way.

I've never used "torrents"..... or "Newsgroups".....

I subscribe to what Confucius said..... "Man who not want pocket picked should not sew more pockets on pants".....

OK!..... He didn't really say that..... I just made it up but it adds a little something..... Don't you think?..... But I digress.....

However..... to satisfy my curiosity..... I did click on the link which you provided at the end of your post.....

Of course there is always the possibility of my misunderstanding the information..... but from what I read..... I ascertained the cost for the "Starter Service" of the company you seem to be recommending is $99.00 per month..... which on an annualized basis amounts to $1188.00.....

Seems a bit pricey..... unless of course that includes my choice of either Halle Berry or Charlize Theron to come and serve popcorn during the viewing of videos.....

Don't you think?

[Cats4U]

You don't know much about torrenting, do you? I can honestly say that each of those bullet points also apply to torrenting. The last time I got a copyright infringement notice was more than 10 years ago when I was still using public torrents sites. Now I belong to 3 general private sites and one private site that specializes in TV shows of the British Empire (England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and Australia). I don't even use a VPN on these sites because entrance to them is vetted so completely. In the extremely rare times that I can't find what I want at one of my private sites I will break out my VPN and visit a public site for the lone exception. Anyone that relies totally on public torrents is a damn fool.
I started out with newsgroups (we still referred to it as Usenet back then) and at the time I loved them for all the reasons you stated. The reason I moved over to torrenting was that over time more and more files became passworded. Where as previously everything was available free to everyone, it became blocked unless you paid someone or visited a certain site that looked like it's only purpose was to give you a virus or to get your private information. I honestly don't know what it is like now and whether it has changed back because it has been many, many years since I used it. I still have a copy of Forte Agent and News Rover laying around here somewhere.
Just to complete the story, I was also involved heavily in recording TV shows using Windows Media Center and SiliconDust HDHomerun tuners. That ended with Microsoft leaving WMC out of Win10 and I didn't feel like going through the hassle to trick it into working. That's an extremely shortened history but since I could go on endlessly about it, I'll choose not to. Let's just sum it up by saying that that is how torrenting became my primary source. Unless you want to count the $260+ spent each month for Comcast cable. That is an issue for another day but it involves my wife being a Luddite and addicted to TV shows.
Despite spending to Comcast, I, believe it or not, started to feel guilty about getting everything for free via torrenting. I know, I know, it makes no sense but that's the way it was. With the whole world starting to turn to streaming, I had to figure out how to replace torrenting with paid-for streaming to nullify my guilt. I know, crazy, but dem's the facts. After much research I found StreamFab. If only they could have one version where all the major streaming sites worked at the same time. For me, they are so close but I still have to get all my Paramount shows via torrent. Very frustrating. If I didn't spend the outrageous sum for my lifetime license I'd be gone right now, nevermind the guilt.

[AGuyWithAComputer]

Of course there is always the possibility of my misunderstanding the information..... but from what I read..... I ascertained the cost for the "Starter Service" of the company you seem to be recommending is $99.00 per month..... which on an annualized basis amounts to $1188.00.....

Seems a bit pricey..... unless of course that includes my choice of either Halle Berry or Charlize Theron to come and serve popcorn during the viewing of videos.....

Don't you think?

One of my buddies uses newsgroups to get all his stuff for his plex. I don't know which service he is using, but there is no way he's paying that munch a month for it.

He's got everything automated running off his synology. Most of the time he has a show before I do. Especially movies. I usually have to wait till it's out on dvd/bluray and have netflix ship it do me to rip.

[bwnautilus]

One of my buddies uses newsgroups to get all his stuff for his plex. I don't know which service he is using, but there is no way he's paying that munch a month for it.

As it turns out I have a subscription to a high speed Usenet server that has almost all the groups. Next time you talk to your buddy would you mind asking him which groups he downloads from? Hopefully the rar files are not password protected.

Thanks.

[Chameleon]

I really do not use all the different providers, I use a lot though and they seem to work on my little TV fine. Just sayin.

[mobriskie]

I probably do not download as much as others on here. It's probably a 50/50 mix of movies vs TV show series.
For movies if it is an "ok but not fantastic movie" then I use SF so long as I can get it in 1080P with 5.1 ATMOS and subs. If it is a "big hit" movie then I'd rather get the 4K version so that sends me off to one of my torrent sites via VPN.
For TV series if it is just an interesting series then I will grab it 720p but something like House of the Dragon then I'd rather have 1080P or 4K.

Anything less than 720P and I'm just not going to bother. With a 65" Samsung Q8C and an LG C2 77" full Atmos setup I'm not going to look at blob pixels that look like I'm watching Pac-man or Minecraft.

I'd like to use SF more but the issues downloading anything above what I consider "OK" TV shows or movies means I'm heading off to my select torrent site because SF just isn't going to come through for me.

I have the Lifetime so I'll continue to watch this unfold but if I was just walking in the door today I would not buy my license.

[jpp72]

Of course there is always the possibility of my misunderstanding the information..... but from what I read..... I ascertained the cost for the "Starter Service" of the company you seem to be recommending is $99.00 per month..... which on an annualized basis amounts to $1188.00.....

Seems a bit pricey..... unless of course that includes my choice of either Halle Berry or Charlize Theron to come and serve popcorn during the viewing of videos.....

Don't you think?

IDK where you went but i did not link to that. I linked to the Wiki for all the different versions of software.

Radarr is for movies and the link is https://radarr.video/
Sonarr is for TV Shows and the link is https://sonarr.tv/

[jpp72]

You don't know much about torrenting, do you? I can honestly say that each of those bullet points also apply to torrenting. The last time I got a copyright infringement notice was more than 10 years ago when I was still using public torrents sites.

Why the need for the insult? I do know about torrenting and of course you don't get copyright emails on private trackers. Doesn't negate the fact that you have to maintain a ratio and you won't get full ISP speed on a brand new torrent while you have no ratios for newsgroups, you get full speed right when it is uploaded and nobody knows what you download. If your private tracker gets busted, LE will know all that you have downloaded unless they zero out the logs but the fact that you have a ratio, you can still see what you are seeding.

Most newbs will not get invites to private trackers so at first, they will probably go to public trackers.

Anyone I know who was a diehard torrenter and i showed them newsgroups has switched. If you want to talk about not knowing about something, Forte Agent is ultra ancient and anyone who knows a little bit will be using SABnzbd or NZBGet and when using an NZB indexer, you get all the releases, no password needed to unrar ever.

If you remember Agent's interface and slow search, loading headers, etc... It has come a LONG way from that.

Look at what my computer has downloaded just in the past 12 hours with zero intervention from me. It has downloaded, unrar'd, generated metadata, added episode thumbnails, moved the files to the appropriate rack server, and added them to Plex and Kodi. I didn't have to lift a finger.



When SickBeard came out (first usenet "pvr"), it was a total game changer. I loved it so much that i bought the domain, made a website for it and gave it over to midgetspy (the author) as a thank you. It has since been forked into countless projects and i only stopped using it when sonarr came out as it was miles ahead which is saying a lot.

If i do want to find something specific and forego the automation, metadata and user interface of most NZB indexers is excellent:







Anyway, we could go back and forth arguing just like Apple vs Android fanboys and get nowhere. Stick to torrents and i'll stick to newsgroups and close this matter

[jpp72]

One of my buddies uses newsgroups to get all his stuff for his plex. I don't know which service he is using, but there is no way he's paying that munch a month for it.

He's got everything automated running off his synology. Most of the time he has a show before I do. Especially movies. I usually have to wait till it's out on dvd/bluray and have netflix ship it do me to rip.

Your buddy is not paying more than $99 per year. If he's smart, he waits for Black Friday and they have deals like $3 per month if you pay for the year

He's not paying for the software. He's paying for a Newsgroup provider. You can use free ones but speeds are not good and shit gets deleted ultra fast because of low HDD space dedicated to Usenet. When you pay for a service, they have dedicated connections to internet backbones and crazy amounts of disk space so something posted 12 years ago is still available to you and at the full speed of your ISP provided connection.

https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/the-best-usenet-providers

[jpp72]

As it turns out I have a subscription to a high speed Usenet server that has almost all the groups. Next time you talk to your buddy would you mind asking him which groups he downloads from? Hopefully the rar files are not password protected.

Thanks.

You do not need to know the groups. You need to get on an NZB Indexer. There are good public ones but of course the private ones are better. Install NZBGet, add NZB Unity extension to Chrome and you will be able to send downloads to NZBget in one click.

Here is a screenshot of some of the NZB Indexers i use. My Sonarr and Radarr have all of them configured but if i do manual stuff, i usually go to the first two.

Also, check out https://usenetreviewz.com/nzb-sites/