Last June, fans of Comedy Central – the long-running channel behind beloved programmes such as The Daily Show and South Park – received an unwelcome surprise. Paramount Global, Comedy Central’s parent company, unceremoniously purged the vast repository of video content on the channel’s website, which dated back to the late 1990s.

  • sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net
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    6 days ago

    Absolutely, if you care about historical works you should make sure that you have a copy that you control.

    A large portion of the things on my jellyfin are like that, because once they take away media ownership, and they can change or take away your stories at any time.

  • beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    7 days ago

    Someone bought ALL the thrift store DVDs in all my small city’s thrift stores, like four of them. People are starting to know that self-ownership is where everyone is going

  • paysrenttobirds@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    Used to be considered simply prudent to back up the vhs tapes you bought and people were encouraged to tape their favorite shows off the tv. Now some random CEO of the month has the right to bury decades worth of creative works?

    • jaybone@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Backup vhs tapes? They put copy protections on those too, which made that difficult. In the 90s I had two VCRs, I ran the output of one to the input of the other to record duplicates. Some of the copy protection schemes would fuck with the signal or the tracking.

      • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        I had a friend with a huge copied VHS library. He ordered his equipment from Germany. No macrovision on equipment there so his copies were very good.

        • jaybone@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Was this in the US? Because then you had PAL vs NTSC, which is think would be an even bigger problem.

          • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            All US made VCR’s had a circuit in them called macrovision. Its what caused the distortion in the copies when the tape was recorded with it. The German units did not have this. He purchased them through friends who were in the military. They bought them from the base exchange or px I don’t remember which. As far as PAL and NTSC I’m pretty sure he had something to deal what that as well. The guy bought the second VCR in the state right behind some super rich guy. He still had it in the 90’s and it took up most of a fairly large table.

            Up until he died he made copies of everything he could get his hands on. He lived right on a county line and arranged it with his neighbor across the road in the other county to drop his netflix DVD’s in his mail box for pickup. He would get his DVD’s in the morning rip them and then put them in the neighbors mailbox before noon. It would be picked up that day and he would repeat the process. When he died I ended up with a huge amount of ripped DVD’s that I eventually gave to someone just to get them out of my way. I kinda regret that sometimes.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_Protection_System

            • Hugin@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              For ntsc vhs players it wasnt a component in the vcr that was made for copy protection. They would add garbled color burst signals. This would desync the automatic color burst sync system on the vcr.

              CRT TVs didn’t need this component but some fancy tvs would also have the same problem with macrovission.

              The color burst system was actually a pretty cool invention from the time broadcast started to add color. They needed to be able stay compatible with existing black and white tv.

              The solution was to not change the black and white image being sent but add the color offset information on a higher frequency and color TVs would combine the signals.

              This was easy for CRT as the electron beam would sweep across the screen changing intensity as it hit each black and white pixel.

              To display color each black and white pixel was a RGB triangle of pixels. So you would add small offset to the beam up or down to make it more or less green and left or right to adjust the red and blue.

              Those adjustment knobs on old tvs were in part you manually targeting the beam adjustment to hit the pixels just right.

              VCRs didn’t usually have these adjustments so they needed a auto system to keep the color synced in the recording.

              • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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                8 days ago

                You should probably read that wikipedia link. I built some of the blockers or stabilizers as Wikipedia article describes them. You could see the pulses described in the output of a scope that messed up the AGC in the VCR. All the blocker did was blank out the pulses and that was enough to prevent macrovision from working on the VCR when making a copy.

  • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 days ago

    Recent events with streaming services has really been the best argument for self hosting your own content

    • MisterScruffy@lemmy.ml
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      8 days ago

      Every day I inch closer and closer to setting up my own plex server (or something else if there’s a better alternative idk)

      but the term “raspberry pi” makes me scared and confused

      • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 days ago

        Personally I just setup a PC as a NAS‡ and installed VLC on my TV so that I can just browse the NAS and play the files directly

        Is it efficient? No.

        Is it the best way? Also no.

        Does it work? Yes, surprisingly well in fact.

        ‡ The first time was simply a network shared folder, the second time was using TrueNAS.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        You don’t need to run it on a pi. In fact, I’d actually argue against it; A pi will be underpowered if you’re ever needing to transcode anything. Transcoding is what Plex/Jellyfin does if your watching device can’t natively play the video. Maybe you have a 4k video, but you’re playing it on a 1080p screen. That video will need to be transcoded from 4k into 1080p for the screen to be able to display it. Or maybe the file is encoded using ACC (a fairly recent encoding method) which isn’t widely supported by older devices. This often happens with things like smart TVs (which often don’t support modern encoding and need to be transcoded even if the resolution is correct.)

        Basically, if you’re 100% positive that every device you’re watching it on will never need transcoding, then a pi is acceptable. But for anything else, I’d recommend a small PC instead. You can even use an old PC if you have one laying around.

        Or if you want to use a new machine, maybe something like an HP Elitedesk. They’re basically what you see in every single cubicle in every single office building. They’re extremely popular in corporate settings, which means there are a ton of used/refurbished systems available for cheap, because IT destroys the drives and sends the rest to refurb when they upgrade their fleet of PCs. So for the refurb you’re basically just paying the cost of an SSD they added in (to replace the one IT pulled out), plus whatever labor is associated with dusting it out and checking the connections to make sure they all work. You can pick up a modern one for like $250 on Amazon (or your preferred electronics store).

        Worth noting that the elitedesk generations are marked by a G-number, so google the model (like an EliteDesk G9, G7, etc) to see what kind of processor it has; Avoid anything with an intel 13th or 14th generation CPU, (they have major reliability issues) and check with Plex/Jellyfin’s CPU requirements list to see if it supports hardware accelerated transcoding. For Intel chips, look for QuickSync support.

        For storage, I’d recommend running a NAS with however many hard drives you can afford, and one that has extra ports for future expandability. Some NAS systems support Plex and/or Jellyfin directly, but the requirements for full support are tricky and you’ll almost always have better luck just running a dedicated PC for Plex. Then for playing, one of two things will happen. Either the device is capable of directly playing the file, or it will need to be transcoded. If it’s directly playing, the plex server basically just points the player to the NAS, and the player handles the rest. If it’s transcoding, the PC will access the NAS, then stream it to the player.

        As for deciding on Plex vs Jellyfin, that’s really a matter of personal preference. If you’re using Plex, I’d highly suggest a PlexPass sub/lifetime purchase; Wait until Black Friday, because they historically do a (~25% off) discount on their lifetime pass. Plex is definitely easier to set up, especially if you plan on streaming outside of your LAN.

        Jellyfin currently struggles from a lack of native app support; Lots of smart TVs don’t have a native Jellyfin app, for instance. But some people have issues and complaints (many of them justified!) with Plex, so if the FOSS sounds appealing, then consider Jellyfin instead. Jellyfin is also rapidly being developed, and many people expect it to have feature parity with Plex within a few years.

        And if you’re having trouble deciding, you can actually set up both (they can run in tandem on the same machine) and then see which one you prefer.

        And the nice part about using a mini PC is that you can also use it for more than just Plex/Jellyfin. I have the *arr suite running on mine, alongside a Factorio server, a Palworld server, and a few other things.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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        8 days ago

        my own plex server (or something else if there’s a better alternative idk)

        – complexity level 1:

        First off a heads up, Jellyfin will serve you much better. Plex is commercial software, and they’ve treated their users quite poorly numerous times to appease copyright pressures. Commercial software always has an incentive to screw you.

        Lots and lots of well-made guides and stuff on YouTube and such for getting Jellyfin setup, but if you want a little more in depth, I’ve detailed a bit below 👇

        — complexity level 2:

        Even better than a Pi for media hosting, if you can swing it is those “1 liter PCs” that IT departments throw out en masse anymore. (At least I hope they still do? They might just burn them now since reusing them has caught on /s)

        Basically, something you can stuff a bunch of hard drives in. You can turn any old PC and hard drives into a decent little server. The only other important thing is offsite backups for what REALLY matters to you. I use a cloud service called “iDrive” that’s decent enough. That way my family pictures and artwork aren’t obliterated if my office burns or floods or something.

        Self-hosting IS a project, but you learn a lot and it can be really fun! I want to preface that I’m not an IT professional by any stretch.

        –complexity level 3:

        I currently use an OS called “Proxmox” to host virtual machines. It’s really powerful and gets easier as you get the hang of it.

        It hosts a little virtual server that only runs PiHole, which blocks ads and tracking across my entire WiFi network. It’s amazing. (Not YouTube ads tho. Long story. Other tools for that.)

        But it mainly hosts OpenMediaVault, which is great for just hosting a file server, and it’s well integrated with Docker for setting up “containers.” Lighter than virtual machines, consistent, and easily managed. (Imagine getting to wipe Windows but leave your D:\ drive untouched every time, and everything comes back configured like you want it.)

        Right now, I’d say experiment with stuff within virtual machines, try it out. Figure out how you want to set yourself up. The best part is, you don’t need to open up anything on your home network.

        – Complexity level 4:

        There’s a neat service called Tailscale for accessing your network securely from out of the house, but don’t worry about that yet.

        There’s a service for everything. I’ve replaced all of Gsuite with a self hostable called NextCloud, for instance!

        Facebook clone for just your family? Minecraft / Terraria / whatever server? (Private MMO server?), the sky’s the limit really!

        TL;DR: Just take it one step at a time. Take notes. Learn to take good backups. Ask questions. Lots of questions. We’re all in this together. :)

  • x0x7@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    This is why pirating is justified. If you want your shows to last forever, torrent them, and keep them seeded.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      I’ve looked around quite a bit for The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. No one seems to have the complete series. The show ran nightly for 30 years and amassed 6714 episodes so it would be quite a large torrent.

      • celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        It’s likely that most episodes aired before the dawn of home video recording (early 80s) are completely lost media. NBC and other networks weren’t in the habit of archiving tape-to-air media.

        • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Ahhhh this is an absolute tragedy. The same thing goes with many movies from the golden age of Hollywood. I love to watch these old films. It breaks my heart that so many are lost forever.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Most of the episodes aired before at-home VHS was common, and TV stations weren’t in the habit of archiving their old footage for nightly broadcasts; The show was viewed as transient since it dealt with current events, and nobody expected people to want to re-watch old episodes. It’s likely that a lot of them aren’t available simply because nobody (including the tv station) has recordings.

    • el_abuelo@programming.dev
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      8 days ago

      I wish this worked, but it only does for things that are popular.

      As it stands I think I’m just going to have to back up my entire media collection for fear of not being able to get a copy during retirement - when I plan to watch a shit tonne of TV.

  • 4am@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    Can’t keep archives of Saturday morning cartoons we all grew up with and loved; will sue you for keeping copies of them.

    Definitely ok to being three mile island back online for AI though, that’s the ticket to a better humanity!

    For real why has everyone with any kind of money gone psycho? Have the bad guys started winning even harder?

  • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    This is why I still download movies and try to keep them. They make up the bulk of the crap I keep on my hard drives.

    And there was a time when the computer science world wanted to avoid this… and it was 1990 (yes, almost 35 years ago) when the term digital dark age was coined. It was in response to several things. Firstly: the first voyager probe was sent and the code used to store the information could not be disciphered by (then) the latest computers, which resulted in a problem. The second thing is that governments all around the world were starting to be heavily computerized and the older computers used in the 1960s were 100% incompatible with newer systems.

    In the US and UK in 1960 the first census were done by computers, and by just 1976 there were only two computers in the world that could read that data, and one of them was a museum piece.

    The FOSS community has done far more to combat this with emulation over the past 30 years than any corporation has ever done. Whether it is for video games like MAME, MESS, or whatever console emulator you want to mention, or by OSes like MS-DOS and Amiga Lemon and countless others that emulate almost every system ever created.

    Now these fucks are just shitting all streaming media and forcing normal people to have to break the law by pirating the stuff just to keep the stuff from vanishing into oblivion.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    8 days ago

    The only way to watch the original Star Wars movies before George completely fucked with them is piracy.

    The 4K77, 80 and 83 editions are what you’re after. Enjoy. There are apparently reduced noise versions as well, but I thought it was perfect as is. It’s old. It’s supposed to have noise and grain. The desert scenes in the first one are really noisy and I’m not 100% sure why. Maybe he filmed those on cheaper film stock in smaller cameras, but that’s just a guess.

    • janNatan@lemmy.ml
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      8 days ago

      The director was an amateur, and he didn’t align the grains of sand with the grain of the film.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        8 days ago

        I do have a double set with original (or as much as you could get) along with the post-prequels completely broken one. I think there was a pre-prequels version as well. But then that is DVD quality, which is getting on a bit.

        The likes of Disney+ doesn’t even acknowledge the originals even exist.

        Same with their Alien and Aliens versions as well. No director’s cuts at all, which is a shame as I far prefer them. They should have both.

    • superkret@feddit.org
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      8 days ago

      There was a storm in the desert where they were filming which destroyed a lot of the equipment and almost doomed the film.
      I think I remember reading that they had to use cheaper film stock in those scenes for that reason.

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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    8 days ago

    It’s going to be a fun historical period to look back on when there are just huge gaps where IP/product control became so powerful that no record of certain things were allowed to exist.

    • mPony@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Orwell didn’t know he was also writing about the Entertainment-Industrial Complex.

  • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    The simple answer to this is to change the tax code to not allow for write offs for completed projects. And to shorten how long copyright lasts (fuck Disney so much for that one)

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Also set up a standardized licensing process that breaks the mini-monopolies of exclusive content.

      Personally, I’d also limit copyright to specific works and not the characters, setting, etc. Then protect trademarks and use those to establish canon. Like in the MCU and DC universes, Spiderman and Batman don’t exist together, but in the Superhero Fan Universe, they are roommates and play genius billionaire vs superhuman with a sixth sense prank wars on each other.

    • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      What does this have to do with write-offs? I don’t think they can write off episodes of South Park and the daily show that have already aired.

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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        7 days ago

        It’s more for things like the batgirl movie that is finshed but will make more money in tax write offs to never release it. But if they lose ad revenue from removing a back catalogue, that may also let them post a loss and claim tax breaks.

        • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
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          6 days ago

          I’m not a CPA, but I don’t think you can write off something that already made a profit. How would that even work, if companies were able to write off predicted ad revenue? They could make up any value and never have to pay any taxes at all.

          I don’t think write-offs have anything to do with them removing these episodes.

        • Ajen@sh.itjust.works
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          7 days ago

          I don’t think they can write it off either way, though. It only makes sense to write off shows that haven’t made money. It’s just “retiring” when you’re taking about something that’s already been released. There’s no ulterior profit motive, unlike when they write off unreleased movies and shows.

    • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      Yep, my shelf of DVDs of movies I loved growing up became 4TB of media on a Jellyfin server, cloned to a cold drive I leave in my closet.