StreamFab Wake-Up Call: Competitor Gaining Ground

[jpp72]

So i just saw the competitor has added CWTV. One of our best members here is probably done using StreamFab. The best part about them adding major new modules is that they don't charge you for it. Peacock & CWTV are 2 huge additions because of all the problems StreamFab has with them.

What companies don't understand is that minor annoyances can build up resentment from even your staunchest supporters. I like to think of myself as one of those and although i prefer StreamFab, the competitor does have what i feel is a more robust codebase where new versions don't break seemingly unrelated features.

The fact that Discovery+ subtitles have gone unfixed for over a year, the simple addition of filename customization is still unacknowledged, unwillingness to up the credits for Amazon, and countless other minor things that go ignored is making lots of us reconsider StreamFab.

Yes, you got our money but some of us with technology clout can easily recommend the other one. Happy customers are great to have but disgruntled ones can be quite a nightmare.

I feel StreamFab needs to have a serious look in the mirror and decide if they are just going to chase the next dollar or will they commit to being the best. I hope for the later and that is why i am engaged here and even building the bug tracker. Once that is live and we can see clearly what things are being ignored, some people may decide they have had enough and just defect.

Having 256 modules doesn't matter when 6 of them combine

Anyway, this is of course my 2 cents and some may disagree but i do believe if StreamFab sits on its laurels, they won't like the results.

I am still all in for now (Except for Peacock) but that may not be the case very long if even after the bug tracker things don't change.

[Cats4U]

If I were starting out today looking for a streaming downloader, knowing what I know now, I'd probably go with the competitor. They offer all the modules that I really need at a much more reasonable price. I don't need to have every streamer in the world that no one has heard of. I'm at an age where I'm not interested in porn. I don't understand the appeal of anime; I gave up watching cartoons when I turned a teenager, a long time ago. I don't know why people spend top dollar for StreamFab and then all they want to download are poor quality, out-of-sync, mis-editted 480p episodes and movies on FAST (free ad supported television) streamers. Perhaps buying StreamFab has left them so broke that they can't afford a subscription to a decent streamer. As long as I have access to the large international streamers I'll be happy. The trouble with these little piss-ass streamers is that it forces the developer to treat them with the same priority as an international giant such as Max or Netflix. That would be fine if there was a developer for every individual module but we all know that is not the case. Many weeks go by where I have no urge to do an update because none of the modules that I use had any needed work done on them. The recent two additions to the competitor's lineup does give me some concern about whether they intend to fall into the same trap that SF did with uncontrolled expansion. I hope not for their own sake. As Jack pointed out, unlike the DVDFab folks, they understand the meaning of the word "Lifetime" and "All-in-one" and any additions would be included in the price already paid. And that's another thing with the competition, when a problem/bug arises they work on it immediately and often have a solution released within hours. There is no week-long guessing game... Will a bug fix appear for my broken module this upcoming Thursday or Friday?
I could go on and on (and probably will in a later message) but the point is that DVDFab has shown repeatedly that they are only in it for the money and thoughts of customer happiness are only secondary (or tertiary). It's way too late for them to change their business module so who knows how this is going to turn out. Their disk copying business is evaporating along with the use of DVDs and BR/UHDs. Based on the forums here, few are buying their newer programs (PlayFab, UniFab, and MusicFab). All they have going for them is StreamFab and they are making a mess of that, as well, with their continuous expansion and lack of understanding on how to treat customers outside a China.

[Per K]

The CW is a bit of a has been any way. They still refuse to give people 5.1 audio on their current series, even though they can be found elsewhere with DD+ 5.1 audio.
Plus the rumour has it that all those types of series that The CW currently have also are gonna stop any way, because their new owner Nextstar is said to be taking The CW in a completely new direction with programming targeted at people close to their 60 years of age.

So i dunno if its a plus that The CW has been added to Streamfab's competitor and well, Peacock has been rather uninteresting for a rather long time any way.
Nothing mostly worth downloading and if something interesting DOES happen to show up, then the audio quality is very abysmal.

[MrGrackle]

No, I'm not a fanboy, but we could post the things *for* Streamfab, right?

•HDR10/DV on Netflix
•MKV Files (minor)
•A smart enough program that when you have h265 selected and that stream is not available, it will get you the h264 stream instead
•VP9 support on youtube (minor)
•1080p support for some stuff on Disney+, as well as h265 (I forget if the competitor has the latter)
•You don't get attacked when you post a bug in the forums

[Cats4U]

I think Jack said it well in his OP. I personally would call myself a fanboy of StreamFab. Like Jack I want the program to succeed and be the best damned streaming downloader the world will ever know. The problem is they keep shooting themself in the foot. They just don't have enough developers to cover all the expansion they have done. It's summertime, there are probably thousands of people with brand new Computer Science degrees searching all over for a job right now. They need to hire a whole lot of them. There's no need to keep it all Chinese if they don't want. They could remote in from anywhere. And for Dog's sake, listen when Jack (JPP72) tells how to fix something.
The other main issue is financial. Between the totally outrageous price for StreamFab you've got the ass-backwards policy of promising Lifetime All-In-One and it just being one big lie. If they were located anywhere but in China they would be brought up on charges by their host country for fraud. I'd be a little worried if I was one of their affiliates.
. . . More to follow. Got to go now.

[KidJoe]

No, I'm not a fanboy, but we could post the things *for* Streamfab, right?

•HDR10/DV on Netflix
•MKV Files (minor)
•A smart enough program that when you have h265 selected and that stream is not available, it will get you the h264 stream instead
•VP9 support on youtube (minor)
•1080p support for some stuff on Disney+, as well as h265 (I forget if the competitor has the latter)
•You don't get attacked when you post a bug in the forums

I'm not a fanboy for either, but I still prefer StreamFab.

We could add that SF has better audio with Peacock, and supports the "watch list" in each of the services because they take you right to the streaming site's page, none of that custom UI and indexing.

But even with the things in SF's favor, I find myself using the competition when StreamFab is broke or has bugs.

And I don't use Max in SF because it doesn't do 1080p, where as the competition does. And let's not forget, I only purchased the competition in the first place because of Fab's slowness fixing the loss of HBOMax after DRM change a while back.

The competition does download files faster. This is a positive and negative. I mean, I hope the slower SF download causes less suspicion at the streaming services, but the competition i can get in, download, finish and close it and get back to my other tasks.

There is something to be said for Stability, and fast fixes.

And yeah, their forum mod can be crude, take your head off if you don't praise them and kiss their feet, and have the attitude it's not important to them so it shouldn't be important to me... But they are always there and quick to respond, ask questions, engage.

I used to recommend StreamFab. Now I say if you have the money, buy both. If you can't afford both, use their trials and figure which works best for you.

Back when I worked for a large multinational computer company, performing on site service, we were required to read a book titled "Customer Satisfaction is worthless, Customer Loyalty Is Priceless." By Jeffrey Gitomer. A few of the main themes are: loyal customers won't stray, dissatisfied customers complain anywhere and everywhere they can which will drive others away, and customers who are satisfied will try the competition and possibly leave. The cost to get those satisfied and dissatisfied customers back is much higher.

Oh and my 2 cents on the "lifetime" or "all included" license at a reasonable price is, that it is great for consumers but bad for the business. A "lifetime for all license" means the only revenue coming in is from new customers. At some point you'll reach a saturation point and there won't be new customers. So how do they keep going? How do they pay for developers? Etc?

[KidJoe]

...The best part about them adding major new modules is that they don't charge you for it.

Just point of clarification here... that is IF you purchased their PLUS version.

BUT yes, If you purchased their PLUS version, they do not charge for new modules.

[Cats4U]

Oh and my 2 cents on the "lifetime" or "all included" license at a reasonable price is, that it is great for consumers but bad for the business. A "lifetime for all license" means the only revenue coming in is from new customers. At some point you'll reach a saturation point and there won't be new customers. So how do they keep going? How do they pay for developers? Etc?

But the thing is that they are nowhere near that saturation point today because they have priced themselves out of the market. With everyone cord cutting and going with streaming there are potentially a near endless amount of customers worldwide if they just lower their prices to a reasonable amount. Honoring a true lifetime all-in-one will also pull the customers in. Walmart became what it is today by keeping prices low and selling in volume.

[jpp72]

I too am totally a fanboy. I am not bashing StreamFab. I have stated many times why i prefer StreamFab to the competition. But, i want to keep them on their toes because some bugs have gone unaddressed for far too long. And also some very legitimate feature requests that can be implemented way faster than adding a new porn module.

Just updating the browser version took ages and completely crippled the DRM MPD module for months.

QA being non-existant is also frustrating. That is the cause of many regressions that could have been caught during the QA phase. I was away 1 week and i come back to a new version. Already stumbled upon 2 pretty big bugs in DRM MPD but since the final v6.1.3.6 will be released tomorrow, i will wait before reporting them.

Anyway, i mostly enjoy using StreamFab as it is way more sleek and does have a ton of awesome features that don't exist in the competitor but the basic lacking ones still baffles me. What program that let's you save/download doesn't let you customize the filename? I can't think of one. I may be wrong but i really can't think of a single one.

As for the lifetime all-in-one, i do understand the financials of it but why do i pay $279 for 39 modules and then some new guy comes along and pays $279 for 43 modules? I hate that most companies "reward" new customers but never reward loyal customers.

If you tell me I have lifetime 39-in-1 then fine. I can somewhat live with that. But don't call it All-in-One. Also, let me buy individual extra modules for WAY LESS than what you want now. $139 to get all missing modules is not a deal to me when i just want 1 of the modules i don't have.

I am going off track here. I just want StreamFab to know that the time to rest on their laurels is over and they need to be set priorities and communicate them with us.

The forum's topic prefixes haven't been updated since January 18th and the post describing what they are working on hasn't been updated since June 18th.

I will try my best to get the bug tracker live today and see if that helps in any way.

[weavermovies]

Indeed..... this is an interesting thread..... very much so.....
and I almost weighed in with thoughts I've had for quite some time.....
but then decided..... better to allow my second favorite quotation to dictate instead.....

"Not only to say the right thing..... at the right place.....
but far more difficult to leave unsaid.....
the wrong thing..... at the tempting moment!".....
George Sala

[KidJoe]

.....I am going off track here. I just want StreamFab to know that the time to rest on their laurels is over and they need to be set priorities and communicate them with us.

The forum's topic prefixes haven't been updated since January 18th and the post describing what they are working on hasn't been updated since June 18th.

I Agree completely.

And I would much rather that fix bugs and enhance existing downloaders than add any other downloader modules.

[Chameleon]

Posted by jpp72
I too am totally a fanboy. I am not bashing StreamFab. I have stated many times why I prefer StreamFab to the competition. But, I want to keep them on their toes because some bugs have gone unaddressed for far too long. And also some very legitimate feature requests that can be implemented way faster than adding a new porn module.

Would you call not having 1080p in a major module a bug? Please don't tell me about SF having 1080p in Disney, those are all old keys, I even saw them posted on the internet. Try and download anything 2023 in 1080 from the SF Disney module. Even when Max was HBOMax in the USA, I couldn't get 1080p on newer stuff that is now old stuff and still can't get 1080p. Ever since I found out about the so-called competition, well let's just say, I bought it.

[Mike_M]

Indeed..... this is an interesting thread..... very much so.....
and I almost weighed in with thoughts I've had for quite some time.....
but then decided..... better to allow my second favorite quotation to dictate instead.....

"Not only to say the right thing..... at the right place.....
but far more difficult to leave unsaid.....
the wrong thing..... at the tempting moment!".....
George Sala

*****

KidJoe (excerpt from post in this thread)...

And I don't use Max in SF because it doesn't do 1080p, where as the competition does. And let's not forget, I only purchased the competition in the first place because of Fab's slowness fixing the loss of HBOMax after DRM change a while back.

*****

:-)

Mike

[Cats4U]

And I would much rather that fix bugs and enhance existing downloaders than add any other downloader modules.

Looks like the competitor is not learning from StreamFab's mistakes. They just added the small German streamer, Joyn, 7 million subscribers. Joyn follows another German streamer, WOW (Sky Deutschland), at 4 million subscribers and theCW, a US streamer, at unknown subscribers.
Netflix has 238.39 million subscribers according to Wikipedia. HBO/Max is 96.1 worldwide subscribers. Other worldwide are Disney+ at 146.1, Hulu at 48.3, Amazon at 200 million, Paramount+ at 60.7, and finally Peacock at 22 million.
Peacock is interesting because the competitor's previous policy was not to add any new streamers unless they were worldwide. Peacock's addition was delayed by many months due to that policy. But to quote Angry Fox, my name for the head honcho there, "Peacock is joining a consortium of other providers, if we are going to implement it, it will be for all regions, not just one. We do things the right way not the fast easy way. When and if it comes everyone will be able to enjoy it." And so it was eventually added. Now it looks like they are doing an about-face and are adding in whoever the developers feel like adding. In my mind this is a big misstep that will require them to hire additional developers to keep pace with the new additions demands. Things are not bad now, we have luckily been in a quiet period, but when the inevitable DRM changes come (probably all at the same time) they will be scrambling and the complaints will follow. StreamFab users know this scenario very well and it will be worse still with all the new expansion they have done since the last DRM crisis.

[Chameleon]

I may be wrong but they have a very big German following, they have a German sub-forum that looks very busy. Plus the fact that Austrians and other countries over there use the German providers a lot. Of course, I do not know this for a fact, but it makes sense.