The developer is stuck with the latest version

[Cats4U]

Cats4U, I agree with you about dumping streaming and StreamFab. Once again, StreamFab has proven themselves of being genetically incapable of producing a consistently working product. But your alternative would be to return to torrenting. My alternative is to return to physical media.

There's only one problem with that, physical media is on its way out. Manufacturing plants are closing and stores are starting to stop stocking them. I'm in the US, but this is happening worldwide. When I first moved to the city where I live, the largest employer in the county was a CD manufacturer. CD died, and they adjusted by switching to DVDs, Blu-rays and UHDs. They made disks for all the major record and movie studios. They went bankrupt, hundreds of workers are unemployed, and the huge building is vacant now. This is but one of many manufacturing plants in the US that have closed. The big story last year was that Best Buys was going to stop sales of physical media. Target said it was cutting back on physical media stocking. Rumors of Walmart either getting out of media or staying in, alternate in news articles. About the only store that I haven't read about stopping physical media is Amazon, but you can't sell it if it isn't being manufactured. Physical media is never going to completely disappear, same as vinyl records haven't totally disappeared, but you are going to have a hard time finding anything but the most popular blockbusters in the future, and you'll pay top dollar for it.

[Streaky]

There's only one problem with that, physical media is on its way out. Manufacturing plants are closing and stores are starting to stop stocking them. I'm in the US, but this is happening worldwide. When I first moved to the city where I live, the largest employer in the county was a CD manufacturer. CD died, and they adjusted by switching to DVDs, Blu-rays and UHDs. They made disks for all the major record and movie studios. They went bankrupt, hundreds of workers are unemployed, and the huge building is vacant now. This is but one of many manufacturing plants in the US that have closed. The big story last year was that Best Buys was going to stop sales of physical media. Target said it was cutting back on physical media stocking. Rumors of Walmart either getting out of media or staying in, alternate in news articles. About the only store that I haven't read about stopping physical media is Amazon, but you can't sell it if it isn't being manufactured. Physical media is never going to completely disappear, same as vinyl records haven't totally disappeared, but you are going to have a hard time finding anything but the most popular blockbusters in the future, and you'll pay top dollar for it.

Agreed 100%. I have a film library of about 10,000 titles - there's no way I could store that in physical media (and I'd probably be single if I tried).

[Marty92]

Cats4U Any Sign that an important Update will be released this Week ?

Apparently all Developers are on vacation this Week...

[peter777]

I just tested the competitor product with an "A" at the beginning. netflix is downloading but only in SD. After all: amazon downloads movies despite Hdmi cable on the monitor.. But i´m a bit disapointed! Uninstalled and hoping for a better competitor.

[smithbrad]

3. A large number of movies and series available on physical media, are unavailable on streaming.

Yes, but the opposite is also true. I've found there to be many TV series streaming in HD that are only available in SD on physical media. Specifically, I've found this true with many classic TV titles originating on film from the 50's through 60's. Generally speaking, I collect physical media first, but use StreamFab to download titles only available in HD via streaming as an upgrade over the SD only physical media.

There isn't a must have TV series available on Amazon in HD right now that I don't already own in physical media or haven't already downloaded, so I'm hoping they can fix this with Amazon. However, if/when that changes, I will likely switch to the competitor that has fixed the DRM issue with downloads from Amazon.

[peter777]

Yes, but the opposite is also true. I've found there to be many TV series streaming in HD that are only available in SD on physical media. Specifically, I've found this true with many classic TV titles originating on film from the 50's through 60's. Generally speaking, I collect physical media first, but use StreamFab to download titles only available in HD via streaming as an upgrade over the SD only physical media.

There isn't a must have TV series available on Amazon in HD right now that I don't already own in physical media or haven't already downloaded, so I'm hoping they can fix this with Amazon. However, if/when that changes, I will likely switch to the competitor that has fixed the DRM issue with downloads from Amazon.

...to the one with "A"?

[smithbrad]

...to the one with "A"?

That would be the one. Amazon is the most important site for me. I've rarely needed anything from Netflix. Those that rely heavily on Netflix don't seem to have a viable option right now.

[Chameleon]

That would be the one. Amazon is the most important site for me. I've rarely needed anything from Netflix. Those that rely heavily on Netflix don't seem to have a viable option right now.

Netflix is down for the count. It's completely unusable. Useless. So now, every module I have is either re-encoding or useless even if it is re-encoding.

[Cats4U]

Cats4U Any Sign that an important Update will be released this Week ?

Apparently all Developers are on vacation this Week...

I wasn't told anything about either thing. And by the way, neither Developers nor vacation was listed in the reply from Support that some users received in response to writing to Support. Please don't start false rumors.

[giQz]

From a forum post by a StreamFab competitor, here is the allegation that the DRM issues have been fixed except for Netflix.

We are working on Netflix 24/7. We have all the other DRM issues fixed. Netflix is the only outstanding DRM that we have to contend with.

This implied that the Amazon DRM problem was fixed, but how true is this, I wonder? Or perhaps, they used a workaround like a web-rip re-encode versus a direct stream download, maybe, if I may ask?

[Cats4U]

From a forum post by a StreamFab competitor, here is the allegation that the DRM issues have been fixed except for Netflix.



This implied that the Amazon DRM problem was fixed, but how true is this, I wonder? Or perhaps, they used a workaround like a web-rip re-encode versus a direct stream download, maybe, if I may ask?

Why are you asking here? Ask them. Redfox1 or one of his henchmen will probably bite your head off for asking, but at least you are asking in the right place.

[giQz]

Why are you asking here? Ask them. ******1 or one of his henchmen will probably bite your head off for asking, but at least you are asking in the right place.

Well, they ain't talking, so I got curious, maybe someone here knows.

[NewMelle]

All the titles I've grabbed with the "competitor" from Amazon are 1080p and NONE failed. Not quite sure what a "work session" is but hopefully it is to address this issue. Now and then I can grab a title with SF in 1080p but more and more there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. Just grabbed Freelance in 1080p and I could have sworn that was recently added.

[Marty92]

I have now also switched to the competitor so that I can download all videos from Amazon.

I can confirm that the competitor can download all new videos from Amazon in 1080p without any problems.

The only thing I don't find so practical is that you can't easily switch between CVBR and CBR.

If SF ever manages to fix the DRM problems, I will probably go back.

[smithbrad]

It has been a month since the top banner was updated. I realize there is a "it will be done when it is done" aspect to this. However, being in the software development field myself, I wouldn't be able to go this long without providing at least weekly updates to the customer(s) as to the current status. I mean is there a systematic approach being employed here, if so, how is it proceeding or are they just using the spaghetti against the wall approach to see what sticks. I would hope the comfort level towards coming up with a solution is better now then back on February 24th, meaning they should be able to make some kind of statement as to how close they are. Otherwise, this is appearing more and more like what we have now is going to be the new status quo going forward.

Some have already moved over to the competitor, if for no other reason than to get Prime working. Others of us are riding the fence. The longer this goes on without any useful update regarding progress or ballpark timelines for a solution, the angrier some will get if they buy into a competitor just to have StreamFab put out a solution a short time later.