Complaint Amazon, Netflix... DRM-Fix

[NewMelle]

DVDalibaba, NewMelle
I do understand the frustration, I am not happy either. However, my frustration doesn't really go against SF but towards Copyright holders, Content rights owners, streaming platform terms of service, and especially to those who make the laws that using any software or means (such as DVD/StreamFab) circumventing any copy protection (DRM) is a violation of law. It's downright outrageous that a law forbids to posess legally purchased content (CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, or even streaming platform content) by copying their content to some local media store such as a private media streaming server (i.e. Plex).
Just because SF and other download providers counter copyprotection I will stay loyal to them (for a certain time at least), even if it will take a bit until they can offer again the service we pay(ed) for and take for granted that it works. We all know, that SF and others are operating in a legal grey area which may or may not affect the functional lifespan of their services.

I might be more forgiving if there was far more interaction between development and the customers. Perhaps even daily updates. What are the priorities, progress, barriers etc. are and where they stand. At least we would see movement but at present only silence. Others having cracked the DRM long since is only a secondary complaint but the silence compounds this. Although it may not be true, it implies indifference. What really chafes my ass is it is being sold with zero mention of the numerous issues and also sold as a fully functional product. The last thing I want is someone else falling into the same trap we are stuck in currently.

As far as lifespan is concerned I learned my lesson. I will not buy a lifetime license again. I paid for a 2 year license of the other solution (one year was only $16 less). That way should this situation arise again I have a backup one way or the other. No more lifetime licenses unless it is for something like Reaper who thumbs their nose at the money hungry issue-prone resource hogs ProTools and Cubase.

Nothing is more annoying than buffering and stuttering or audio going out of sync. So I guess all these streaming services are only catering to those who have reliable broadband internet access (we're rural and we get a crappy 8Mb here at best). Basically "So sad, too bad. Move into the city." SF and applications like it allow us to watch our movies and shows without these aggravating annoyances. The streaming services are only concerned with one thing and one thing only. Making as much money as they can. Not to provide quality content or bring entertainment to the masses. Just money.

Same with broadband. If there aren't enough suckers on a run there won't be a run in that area. Where we lived last was also once rural (once meaning suburbia had moved in and stunk up the place) and also had crappy i-net (6Mb at best). There were three new subdivisions less than 1/8 mile from us on our road that had fiber. Their reason for not running fiber further down the road past me was "not enough potential subscribers." They simply wouldn't rake in enough dough. Satellite i-net is a joke and if you've never experienced it you're all the better for it.

So in a way I completely agree with you. Those with the money want more and when they get it, what do they want? Even more money of course. Amazon really pissed me off adding ads to their "Included With Prime." Freevee I can see. Now I'm paying them for the privilege of watching shampoo and tampon commercials? I'm an old guy and I'm almost bald for ***** sake. Or, I can pay even more to avoid some of them. We buy a lot of movies on Amazon and we expect to own them from there on out, not just until Amazon sees fit to take it down. So yes, I completely agree they are overbearing and driven by greed and WE are the ones footing the bill and feeding that greed.

I am still going to voice my aggravation regardless. I paid for something I am not getting and am an old biker with a bad temper. I am sure I could find far more colorful ways to express my opinions. Trust me, I've been holding back, just ask my Wife. I can see a month, on the very outside two. We are now pushing three with ZERO from the developers. A little communication would go a long ways.

[Kattanders]

DVDalibaba, NewMelle
very glad both of you responded :-)
Absolutely agree with you, better communication and status updates would really relax this situation - unfortunately this doesn't happen.
The option to to sign up somewhere else exists but for now I have no need for that yet - Disney still works and for Amazon I also can still get what I want.

I grew up with copying VHS tapes (even accepting, that not only the recordings were of pathetic quality, but even the copy protection would result in a video going bright and dark). SVHS and a digital video mixer made things better. Years later we were encoding MPEG-I to VCD keeping computers run for days and nights for just one movie. I also remember when DVDShrink came out and we would rent DVDs on an hourly basis and "shrink" 'em. FAB-Decrypter came in handy for the candidates shrink and RegionFee would fail on. For years DVD quality (SD) was satisfacotry. Then came blueray (HD). My first stream recording was a Netflix serial I had to have and ended up using a screen recorder with 60fps 50 minutes per episode. Next came the idea of Plex and the huge task to get all my DVDs into Plex and for the bluerays I "invested" in the life time Fab Blueray ripper and finally realised how bad DVD quality actually is. StreamFab was the solution and begining of last year I bought the life time for Amazon, Disney, Netflix and youtube. All of a sudden everything was just so, so easy. As a Star Wars fan I was in the cinema, had bought the VHS tapes, then the DVDs and even the bluerays (bought it often enough, right?) and didn't feel one bit bad about downloading 'em in full HD finally. Also I bought quiet a few titles on Amazon over time when they had bargains like 99Cent a movie (and I still feel entitled to download them - I mean I bought them).
The happyness ended all of a sudden on 25th of Feb. this year. What was taken for granted no longer worked :-( - I guess you all know this feeling?
Then came updates with apparently "useless" features and all the negativity about "recoding". Still, recoding allows to download new DRM protected material -
and whether you like it or not, SF still delivers - just not in the way we obviously expect it.
So far I still seem to be able to get all I want - just takes longer and with try and error I could overcome the "problems" of re-encoding.
I do want H.256 and what I cannot get in that codec I request the download in H.264 best quality offered and run it through handbrake or vidcoder using hardware NVEC to recode it to H.265 which takes maybe 20min for a movie. If I request H.265 and only get H.264 (means, that SF will recode based on the bitrate requested for H.265 which is much lower than needed for decent H.264). Therefore I stop the download and request it in H.264 best qaulity. Never had sync problems and the resulting quality I cannot complain about - it is not upscaled or whatever you read in the forum. Framerate and resolution of the outcome is the same as the source. Recoded video size in general is 20% larger indicating a minimum loss of quality. Just one thing to consider! don't change your windows session nor lock your screen - this seems to result in a not rendered video. So I check the recoded video whether the ending is playing and also if audio tracks are still in sync towards the end.
Anyways, maybe this is of help for you till SF is back, or a change to some other service has to be considered.

[Zammo]

Agreed, lack of updates is a bummer, as the last message from them is 24th February, they haven't even bothered to update that with a newer date 2 months later.

[JeffDavis]

I grew up with copying VHS tapes (even accepting, that not only the recordings were of pathetic quality, but even the copy protection would result in a video going bright and dark).

I guess it's OBE (by about 30 years), but they made Macrovision filters to deal with that problem.

[Cats4U]

Agreed, lack of updates is a bummer, as the last message from them is 24th February, they haven't even bothered to update that with a newer date 2 months later.

Let me just explain that as the system was set up, all updates in the form of the banner or notices on the forum were the responsibility of the Moderator. Since I resigned from that capacity, Jack is the only one handling that. Basically, there is nothing to update. What shows in the banner is what the conditions of StreamFab are right now. The last semi-breaking news story that we got from Management was on March 29th. It was another false alarm, "We've almost got this licked" (my paraphrasing) message. We got about a half dozen of those since the DRM problem started, and learned to just ignore them. On April 12th, Jack asked Wilson a bunch of specific questions about the current status and about future possibilities. He has yet to receive a reply. If there is any true news or changes, I am sure that Jack will post it.

[Chameleon]

If you all expect this program to be as it once was, you are fooling yourselves.

[NewMelle]

Cats4U, I and others have said before, it is infuriating the way corporate kept you and Jack in the dark leaving you two to take the brunt of everyone's frustration with zero backing. ZERO. AFIAC they owe you both bigtime. All you two have done for us and on our behalf has NOT gone unnoticed.

Chameleon , I agree. Even if all the issues are one day resolved the bitter taste of indifference on corporate's part will likely never go away. I know I won't forget. Piss me off and I might calm down over time. Piss me off royal and you're f****d in my eyes for good. Sooner or later they are going to realize they aren't the only bar on the block and if their "whiskey is watered down" too long they'll find their patrons drinkin' at another bar and it's doubtful they will be back.

Guitar Center is a perfect example. They may have a guitar listed I've been desperately wanting for a very long time but I can guarantee I will pass it by regardless of the price. Where they were once a guitar player's heaven they are now nothing more than moronic idiotic guitar flippers and have no clue what they are doing in music any more. F****d in my eyes for good.

If you're knowingly selling buckets with holes in them as if they will hold water don't expect accolades and praise but just the opposite.

[jpp72]

Someone here calls it "radio silence"

Radio silence indeed... I am about to go join Cats4U ...

[NewMelle]

The issue here is money has become far more important than where it came from. The corporate end of things is comprised of seemingly inept developers and aggressive, manipulative and worse deceitful marketers. I can't count how many times I've closed a popup in SF wanting me to buy even more useless and likely broken shit. Sorry to be so blunt but as Dalton says in the original Road House, "Be nice until it is time to not be nice." We passed the exit to "Nice" some miles back and have entered BS county. Going on three months and not a single SitRep.

jpp72 I fully understand. I hate to see you step down but I'd be a little more than just disenchanted myself if I were thrown under the bus as you and Cats4U have been.

[Chameleon]

jpp72 You have done an amazing job under the toughest of circumstances. No one would blame you. Once they see their staff leaving, then they will see their customers leaving, and maybe they will make a better effort than they have done here. I think they bit off more than they could chew, they did alright with other people's work for a few years now they have to step up and do it themselves, and they can't. I do not feel sorry for them at all.

[Stan001]

Sadly, it's almost like they gave up.
No response for support tickets either.
Netflix done, and now if you want episodes of a show from Amazon that also now don't work as stated by another user in a separate topic.

[phelings]

DVDalibaba, NewMelle
very glad both of you responded :-)


I grew up with copying VHS tapes (even accepting, that not only the recordings were of pathetic quality, but even the copy protection would result in a video going bright and dark).

Macrovision was introduced to VHS here in the UK in 1986. With little in the way of retail videos at the time collectors had to copy tapes to build collections (or buy ex rentals) but I had a VCR that ignored Macrovision within weeks of it's first appearance and companies were selling devices that could defeat it within months. Those devices were still useful in the early days of pay per view movies as they were still using Macrovision to do the same to PPV broadcasts even though collectors knew the inventors had hoodwinked broadcasters into thinking it did more than just stop casual copying.
Copy protection was never really an issue , the real problem with VHS (and Beta) were they were rubbish quality and everyone knew it but there was no alternative so we stuck with it

[pabpetina108e]

I'm not usually one to jump on the bandwagon when it comes to complaining, but this has gone on way too long. I'm on a tight monthly income and had to save money for several months in order to buy this program highly recommended to me by a friend and now I'm sorry I did. I feel like I've been robbed sadly, and I too can only hope the developers figure out the issues and get them straightened out ASAP. It's almost as if the streaming companies are mocking StreamFab as every time you come out with a fix, it's broken within a week again and it's such a shame because it's a great product when it works. If you want people to continue recommending your product to others, I'd recommend that you focus on getting the main issues fixed ASAP or I think you'll find others including myself leaving this platforms program for one that actually works. I might have to save up for a month or two in order to afford it, but in the long run it will be worth it not to constantly have to come to the forums to find out what the latest excuse is for why something isn't working. Please developers, we are begging you to fix the program not only for our sake, but for your sake as well. I'm having the same issues with Amazon with TV shows being treated like movies and MAX seems to be doing likewise as of tonight when trying to get Gold Rush White Water. I can only grab one episode at a time. I get an error code 702 if that helps.

[whitesnake]

I'd like channel 4 UK and channel 5 UK to work , but i just get DRM errors :-(

[Pillow]

The latest version doesnt work at all. After it DL's anything the program crashes and removes subfolders. Mainly the output folder. I have to uninstall and re-install and still keep getting the same thing happen. Can DL some old stuff from amazon. but anything from new or other services just result in a application crash and errors when opening up.