The ever so growing Crunchyroll and Video Streaming in general (+ Netflix & Amazon)

[GreyZone]

I don't like it:




1. 90% of these are "U.S.A.-exclusive" or at least "blocked by the GEMA, or other institutions in Germany". (as sometimes videos get blocked just by certain keywords/tags)

2. In Germany everything is censored as hell

3. I cannot stand English or German dubs of animes

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by GreyZone

3. I cannot stand English or German dubs of animes

All of Crunchyroll's shows are subtitled. As for your other points, maybe there will be a large enough audience someday for a German-subbed channel. CR is already starting to release some shows in Spanish that they distribute in Latin America.

Ultimately I expect to see subtitled anime streams become a fairly global phenomenon, though I'm not sure I'll still be alive to see it happen.

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

[...]As for your other points, maybe there will be a large enough audience someday for a German-subbed channel.[...]

No. In Germany the main anime distributor, "Pokito", is like 4Kids, if not even worse.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by GreyZone

No. In Germany the main anime distributor, "Pokito", is like 4Kids, if not even worse.

In my vision of global streaming, it's all managed from Tokyo without local partners. Sony already has its Crackle service, and TV Tokyo is a major investor in Crunchyroll. If optical media become obsolete over time, as I suspect will eventually happen, the need for companies like Funimation declines as well. They might still operate as dubbing shops and online distributors, but they could just become contractors to global streaming companies headquarted in Japan.

[Urzu 7]

With Crunchyroll's HD streaming, is it really HD? I read once or twice it is not. If not, the 1080p streaming looks really good, anyway.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

With Crunchyroll's HD streaming, is it really HD? I read once or twice it is not. If not, the 1080p streaming looks really good, anyway.

Usually, it is. The anime content itself is not usually drawn in 1080p detail, so there may not be a huge benefit in that case over 720p, except perhaps that the higher stream will have a higher bitrate to match. But if your computer and internet connection can handle it, you might as well try to go for the highest resolution you can get on a stream.

There have been cases where the source material provided to Crunchyroll is not of very good quality, often because it was deliberately downgraded by someone in the chain of command for various reasons. In those cases, you may not see a benefit in the higher resolution streams. Generally speaking, though, that seems to be happening less often these days as the companies involved get more used to this.

[GreyZone]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

In my vision of global streaming, it's all managed from Tokyo without local partners. Sony already has its Crackle service, and TV Tokyo is a major investor in Crunchyroll. If optical media become obsolete over time, as I suspect will eventually happen, the need for companies like Funimation declines as well. They might still operate as dubbing shops and online distributors, but they could just become contractors to global streaming companies headquarted in Japan.

Well THAT would be good, however there are "legal issues" for sure, that may prevent this from happening.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Urzu 7

With Crunchyroll's HD streaming, is it really HD? I read once or twice it is not. If not, the 1080p streaming looks really good, anyway.

I typically watch the 720p streams for reasons similar to those relentlessflame mentioned. The original content is usually created in that format, so upscaling to 1080p cannot really add any additional information to the frames. I watch CR on a 40" HDTV in my living room. I routinely run that screen at 720p so I can read text from across the room. So to watch in native 1080p I have to kick up the monitor resolution. I can't say I've seen enough improvement to justify bothering to do that for CR streams.

If you want a good comparison, the initial episodes of Moyashimon Returns are only 480p, though the originals were created in HD resolution. Starting with episode 6, CR started getting HD versions. I suspect you'll see the difference pretty clearly.

Animated movies are a different story. Those are captured from film stock so they have higher native resolution to begin with. So for something like Summer Wars or The Lion King, I buy Blu-rays and watch in full 1080p goodness. (When the hell are going to get a BD release of Mononoke Hime?)

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by GreyZone

Well THAT would be good, however there are "legal issues" for sure, that may prevent this from happening.

For "legacy" shows that already have international partners with licenses yes but for newer shows I doubt it. Actually anime is in a unique position to make it happen paradoxically: since shows are made by committees setup for that exact purpose that hold the copyright themselves and with hardly any royalties going to actors and alike complicating the licenses required to broadcast worlwide I can see them getting worlwide distribution going fairly quickly.

The problem is one of inertia really: right now even Crunchyroll has plenty of shows limited to a few given markets for what seems to me like arcane reasons. I mean I could understand not licensing for the US because Funimation has picked up the DVD rights but why can't I get virtually any shows here in my neck of the woods if the last locally licensed show I saw for sale was... Naruto I think (not shippuuden).

Contracts need to shift from providing licences to countries X, Y and Z to providing licenses to the world except to countries A, B and C (and Japan obviously).

PS: Of course this is just my opinion and I'm probably being naive.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Dextro

For "legacy" shows that already have international partners with licenses yes but for newer shows I doubt it.

PS: Of course this is just my opinion and I'm probably being naive.

Well, maybe I'm being naive, too, but I have essentially the same viewpoint as you. It seems to me that Sony could start distributing shows worldwide from its A-1 Pictures subsidiary on its Crackle streaming service pretty much any time it chooses. It would require building up a staff of translators like Crunchyroll has done. Someone like Sam "Quarkboy" Pinansky contracts with a variety of distributors including both CR and Siren Visual in Australia. But other than logistics, and the need to protect the more lucrative domestic market, I don't see many other impediments to direct streaming by the Japanese rights holders. Like you I think it's mostly inertia and the very conservative nature of Japanese corporations.

[Vexx]

At the end of the day, I like building a library. Crunchyroll streaming a series (never mind I have to restream it every time I watch it unless I'm capturing it under the table)? I still have complaints about their streaming not being ready for prime time (stutters, buffer burps, etc -- infrastructure issues) but the biggest deal to me is - CR doesn't sell DVD sets so frankly I'm still better off either capturing or obtaining fansubs while I hope for a DVD release later.

At least Funimation has that combo going to some extent (physical sales + streaming).

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Vexx

At the end of the day, I like building a library.

I realize that is true for many people, Vexx, but I also think you're a dying breed. Legal downloads provide a solution for that, too, but then I'll bet you would object to the downloads having DRM. I just don't see unencumbered downloads making much sense from the perspective of the rights holders. True, there are ways to capture streams, but it's possible to make that sufficiently difficult for most people to accomplish that they don't bother.

Most evidence that I've seen suggests that people rarely re-watch shows, even ones they've purchased on disc. Most video entertainment programming is largely a throw-away item. People watch something once and then move on. (Music is a different matter entirely.) That tendency will only be exacerbated by the arrival of tablets, cloud storage, and like. I really see little future for physical media, especially among the young. Maybe this would make a good poll question. I'll give it some thought.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by Vexx

At the end of the day, I like building a library.

I do too (sigh). Although I still don't have a BR player. Partially it's because I don't even have the right TV for it but it's also because I hate how fast technology changes and your library becomes worthless.

But I do love the look of my favorite series on my shelf so very much.

Heck forget home video, it seems buying books is becoming a thing of the past with E-readers. I finally caved in and got one of those and it's convenient but again it's not the same as having that book shelf fill of books/manga.

So really my practical mind understands why physical media is going away but my heart still prefers it I guess.

As for streaming, I think it's great that in most cases I don't have to rely on fansubs anymore and I can watch anime legally as it airs in Japan...but that's not a replacement for owning something for me. Obviously I don't want to own everything I watch streaming but for my favorite series....

[Vexx]

I think we're not dying so much as there's just a smaller niche of *collectors* that still need serving that any form of disposable delivery won't support.

I use Steam so I'm not totally against DRM management that isn't intrusive. But there's that nagging "what if the company folds" issue. I'm not against streaming but capturing has been my hedge against "DVD never licensed in R1".

[Lost Cause]

I too have enjoyed building my current library of anime, and look forward to getting more! Plus I do rewatch most of my collection since new releases are few and far between these days.
As for Cruncyroll, I tried it out and it just doesn't work for me. I prefer the physical aspect of actually owning a copy and viewing as many times as I like.
Hopefully things will get better, and anime will still continue to come in via BR and DVD. As for streaming I'll still use that to "test drive" a series or show before I buy it.

[Urzu 7]

I can understand wanting to own series. For me, these days, there aren't many series I want to own. I'm fine with watching streams of a series for many series because I built up a collection of anime DVDs and then at some point realized that for almost every series I owned, I only watched once and never bothered to watch again.

What legal streaming is there on youtube? Is that from Funimation?

[Densetsuhakai]

Hey guys,

I don't know if this is the right thread to post this but I kinda need help with something.I want to get a Premium Membership on Crunchyroll but somehow Crunchyroll doesn't accept paypal as a payment method.Everytime I'm trying to subscribe to the 14 days free trial and choose paypal as a payment method paypal is just saying to me that they can't proceed with the request right now.BTW I'm from Germany and it sounds like it's a very common thing to germans who wants to pay with paypal on crunchyroll (the 14 days trial is blocking the paypal paying method or something;at least google is saying that).May be someone can tell me a method to get around with that problem.Anyone can help me with this?

PS: A credit card isn't a option for me.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Densetsuhakai

I don't know if this is the right thread to post this but I kinda need help with something.I want to get a Premium Membership on Crunchyroll but somehow Crunchyroll doesn't accept paypal as a payment method.

Probably the best thing is to try to contact their support team and ask them for help. I'm sure that, in general terms, they would like to get your money, so they'll probably help you. They may have a way of having you send the money from PayPal directly and them manually crediting it to your account.

[Densetsuhakai]

Thanks for the response but I already solved the problem.With a second email address I just send to my other email address a gift Membership.Funny though that with this method paypal was easily accepted.

[GDiddy]

I have to say....probably about 90 percent of what I watch anymore is thru digital means like CR/Funi/Daisuki or I buy it digitally from Itunes..

But I still buy some dvds though. I don't mind dubs for the most part, if they're done right...but I'll splurge if its a series that I absolutely MUST have the Japanese.