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| Porn Users Forum » Streaming Only Sites |
| 1-19 of 19 Posts | Page 1 |
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| 02-06-17 06:52am - 2783 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended  Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
Streaming Only Sites I have avoided sites that don't offer downloads and feel that is a major con. As a result I am not familiar with their quality. Are there any sites worth recommending that are streaming only? | |
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| 02-06-17 10:05am - 2783 days | #2 | |
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jook (0)
Active User  Posts: 325 Registered: Dec 22, '13 Location: jersey city |
Pat362 recently did an excellent review on Hot Movies and gave it a good rating. I've been a member off and on for centuries, or so it seems. There's an incredible number of videos, good quality except for the old ones, diversity and good customer service. Not cheap as is the nature of streaming sites, but worth checking out. | |
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| 02-06-17 05:50pm - 2782 days | #3 | |
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pat362 (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,575 Registered: Jan 23, '07 Location: canada |
^Thanks for the mention. Now there are two kinds of streaming only sites. There are those like Hot Movies and AEBN who sell their customers streaming time. These guys are expensive but they will often have content that is not available anywhere else on the net so buying some streaming time is well worth it for those gems. Another advantage to these streaming only sites is that they now offer content only available on clips4sale stores so it's nice to be able to see whether it's really worth it to buy the video for clips4sale. The other kind streaming sites are the ones like Digital Playground. I tend to consider these guys to be sort of dicks because they could easily make all their content downloadable but instead screw around with the membership options. Long live the Brown Coats. | |
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| 02-09-17 06:34am - 2780 days | #4 | |
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MikeC
PornUsers Staff  Posts: 102 Registered: Jul 03, '15 |
The streaming-only model (with downloads an extra expense) is getting more popular, as some of the bigger sites out there, like Twistys, Babes, Mofos and the aforementioned Digital Playground, have moved into this sphere. The main reason for this shift may not be why you expect. The percentage of people who access adult content on smartphones and tablets have skyrocketed this decade and as as consequence of that, less and less people are watching porn on desktops and, by extension, downloading scenes. With that, downloads move from being essential to simply being a feature that an increasingly smaller number of people are using. From that perspective, it's easy to see how a site then moves to a model that offers downloads as merely extra instead of something essential. It wasn't long ago that sites would be eviscerated for not having downloads or, worse, use DRM on their content. But, as MindGeek goes, so does the rest of the industry. It was about two years that they moved Mofos to streaming only and though there was some definite blowback, their takeaway was that it was ultimately minimal and they proceeded to expand it to the other sites listed above. I speak with many webmasters about the topic and the good news is many of them have no plans to drop downloads from their sites. | |
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| 02-09-17 07:41am - 2780 days | #5 | |
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bibo (0)
Suspended Posts: 179 Registered: Sep 16, '10 Location: GER |
Maybe I missed something, but this doesn't really make sense to me. A stream essentially is a download in terms of bandwidth. And every site that allows downloads also offers the option to stream in your prefered resolution. So in the end, it doesn't really matter if you are on a tablet or smartphone, you can still stream everything if you chose to do so. | |
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| 02-09-17 07:42am - 2780 days | #6 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
MikeC, thanks for the input. It helps us customers to understand what is happening in the Porn world a lot better. And I'm glad that downloads are still being valued. As a collector, I got into the habit of building a porn collection, even if I don't bother viewing most of what I've collected. | |
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| 02-09-17 09:04am - 2780 days | #7 | |
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megalon (0)
Active User Posts: 1 Registered: Jun 13, '16 Location: Baltimore |
Good to hear. My fear was that sites would remove the download option completely (I understand for Netflix but not for adult sites) so this is nice. I don't mind paying a bit extra. | |
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| 02-09-17 04:18pm - 2779 days | #8 | |
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merc77 (0)
Disabled User Posts: 291 Registered: Apr 17, '16 |
Many sites I use offer downloads as an added expense. As long as it isn't too much, I don't complain. When they only offer downloads as an annual option, then I pass. "Dogs think people are Gods. Cats don't as they know better." - Kedi (2016) Dogs have masters; Cats have staff. | |
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| 02-09-17 07:35pm - 2779 days | #9 | |
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LPee23 (0)
Active User  Posts: 399 Registered: Jul 14, '13 Location: USA |
Maybe Mofos is doing fine with the streaming only model. However, there is another site that I once tried to get listed here, AmericanKittens.com. I talked with their webmaster after they made the switch to the "Netflix style" business model of streaming only, and he said it was more difficult than anticipated. Now the site is gone. I think streaming only has maybe worked well for Mofos and some other sites, but it can also go badly. It may be especially challenging for smaller sites. Better to be pissed on, than to be pissed off. | |
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| 02-11-17 09:31pm - 2777 days | #10 | |
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skippy (0)
Active User  Posts: 78 Registered: May 19, '07 Location: out there |
Hi Mike C, Thanks for the great answer, but as an ex-IT guy, that sounds more like a marketing answer than a technology one. I can tell you that the requirements for streaming are far more demanding than the requirements for downloads. QOS and bandwidth requirements for streaming servers are much higher because of the real-time nature of the service. I also notice that all of the sites you mention are from ONE provider. MB Premium. Outside of that company, I've only seen a few sites with tiered prices for downloads. Thanks, Skippy Skippy | |
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| 02-15-17 01:49pm - 2774 days | #11 | ||
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MikeC
PornUsers Staff Posts: 102 Registered: Jul 03, '15 |
Well, the move from desktop to mobile plays a critical part, but the other area to look at has to do with total bandwidth used. Think of it as the regular habits of a streamer vs. a downloader Streamer: Only watches the content he is watching at that very moment. He joins a site, maybe watches 2-3 scenes in a session, but only watches (because you only have one set of eyes) 35 total minutes of content and consumes the equivalent bandwidth related to that. Downloader: He joins a site and lets assume instead of streaming he downloads the same 2-3 scenes and watches only 35 minutes total, as well. However, because he downloaded all three scenes (each an hour long), he has consumed considerably more bandwidth. Also, the best streaming option can be lower in resolution, and therefore smaller in size, than the best available download options on some sites. But even assuming they were working off of the same resolution, the downloader consumes more. This isn't even mentioning the collectors who will download everything they can in their 30-day membership. Which, of course, is their privilege (within reason) as a member of a site without a fixed download limit.
Now, look at a Mofos or a Brazzers, massive networks with potentially 10s of thousands of members, and you can see how going streaming-only or introducing a tiered-system can reduce costs. It's not exclusively MindGeek moving in this direction. The PornDoe network also comes to mind as having a multi-tiered system in place I am not a tech guy, but these are the general points discussed to me when I have inquired myself. I hope this helps. Edited on Feb 15, 2017, 02:09pm | ||
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| 02-15-17 02:06pm - 2773 days | #12 | |
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MikeC
PornUsers Staff Posts: 102 Registered: Jul 03, '15 |
Perhaps I didn't explain it properly. If a site allows streaming (most do now, but I'm sure many here can remember a time when THAT was considered a bonus feature  ), then yes, you can still choose to stream from your desktop or your mobile device. Not every site that has downloading also has streaming. | |
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| 02-15-17 02:46pm - 2773 days | #13 | |
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LPee23 (0)
Active User Posts: 399 Registered: Jul 14, '13 Location: USA |
Streaming is a nice feature when you also have downloads. Even though I am definitely a collector, I'm not an indiscriminate downloader, so I will often use the streaming function to choose which videos to save. It saves me time and the sites bandwidth. Better to be pissed on, than to be pissed off. | |
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| 02-15-17 07:20pm - 2773 days | #14 | |
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skippy (0)
Active User Posts: 78 Registered: May 19, '07 Location: out there |
Mike C, That is very good logic and totally true...I think... But help me understand this a little more. I'm sort of seeing apples and oranges. I get that with downloads, many people are downloading multiple files at a time but once downloaded, each file is not downloaded again. so an all-download site potentially has files downloaded in a burst, requiring more bandwidth for the burst, but once downloaded the files are not queued again, never requiring server bandwidth. For a streaming site, all users are streaming files all the time and many, at least some, are streaming the same file multiple times. So if all subscribers are streaming all the time, it seems like the overall bandwidth requirements should be very similar...especially when you consider that downloads can be throttled but streaming cannot. Of course, I'm not considering that users might not try to watch all the stream-able videos, but might try to download all downloadable videos and I'm not sure what that would do to the equation. I'm looking at my download bar right now and have 4 downloads running from WankzVR. These files are HUGE. 9-15 GB each. Total time remaining for the largest one, a little over 4 HOURS. If I look at the running time for all 4 of the files and add them up, I get....4 hours! So in this case, the download time for multiple files is just a little more than what the streaming time would be if I streamed each file sequentially. (If I could, but this is VR stuff that can't easily be streamed.) So, techically, it appears that the 4 downloads are conforming to the same bandwidth that I would be using if I were streaming. Thinking about this a little more, it only makes sense that each account type (user group) have set bandwidth limits are a parameter of group policy. That is easily done on most server set-ups. So that leaves the video resolution as the tie breaker. I noticed most sites that stream files offer a selection of resolutions to support your bandwidth from SD up to full HD. So theoretically, these sites ARE saving bandwidth by reducing the resolution of their streaming files to accommodate downstream bandwidth limits. That seems logical. There is probably some actuarial science associated with how many users are wired, wireless, and on cellular mobile that provides an optimal reduced upstream server-side bandwidth requirement. So in this case, it seems streaming would probably use less bandwidth because of potential downstream bandwidth issues. But then there's this little wildcard. Unless a site is streaming in Flash, browser plug-ins can find and save the files that are being streamed by mimicking streaming. Twisty's, for example, is not using flash so all of their "streaming only" videos can be downloaded in the highest stream-able resolution using a plug-in. This is especially ironic since tech support at Twisty's claims the two-tier pricing structure came about because of piracy. In reality, the two tier structure is CREATING piracy because they have not done anything technology-wise to prevent it. Although I won't go into the ethics of downloading plug-ins, it seems very likely that sites like Twisty's aren't seeing much of a bandwidth decrease and may actually be losing revenue by marketing a streaming-only tier without actually eliminating the potential to download in that tier. Which brings us back to my original argument. That this streaming-only tier pricing might be more of a marketing thing than a technology/bandwidth one. Now, I admit I'm an old-school download-and-save guy that has about 20 computers and 160 TB of hard drives in my house (plus a half-dozen apple iPhones/iPads). I understand how the infrastructure in many countries has skipped over wired homes and gone straight to cellular and community wireless networking but I have never had to experience it. Is the technology culture so different outside of North America that people just accept streaming over downloading? Is THAT where this strategy succeeds? What am I missing?  In an effort to get a little clarity, I did submit a couple of surveys regarding streaming and downloading that I'm sure Amanda will post soon. (Awesome that we have a user base to ask!) I'm betting those responses will be interesting. Holy crap. Sorry for the Novella. As always, I appreciate your time and thoughts. Skippy Skippy Edited on Feb 15, 2017, 07:39pm | |
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| 02-15-17 07:33pm - 2773 days | #15 | |
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skippy (0)
Active User Posts: 78 Registered: May 19, '07 Location: out there |
I also use the video streaming to sort of preview a video before deciding to download it, fast forwarding through it to get an overview. Of course, a lot of sites just stream the teasers. If streaming isn't available, then I'll use the screen caps or accompanying photos if they are present. I'm guessing most of the better non-tiered sites sort of expect the streaming options to be used to preview, so that is built into the pricing model. Skippy | |
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| 02-16-17 01:57pm - 2773 days | #16 | |
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blueron (0)
Active User Posts: 3 Registered: Aug 23, '15 Location: UK |
Hi folks, I don't post very often, if ever, but download vs streaming is an issue for me, so can't help myself. In short if a company only provides streaming only then I may as well go to a free thumb site... there is a site I'd love to join at the moment but it's only streaming so I won't touch it, shame really. I'd no doubt keep going back every few months if it had download option... | |
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| 02-17-17 02:39am - 2772 days | #17 | |
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elephant (0)
Active User  Posts: 583 Registered: Jan 11, '07 |
Yeah streaming only sites ain't going to get me joining ever, neither is charging more for downloads sites I doubt which some seem to be bringing in. "Women are like tricks by sleight of hand, Which, to admire, we should not understand." WILLIAM CONGREVE | |
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| 02-18-17 10:58am - 2771 days | #18 | |
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thirstyfish (0)
Active User  Posts: 30 Registered: May 20, '13 |
I would not join a streaming-only porn site. I did once by accident. I'm more careful now. I would not join a porn site that used tiered pricing. Streaming-only and tier pricing are nothing more than attempts to offer less service for more money. It would be nice if someone gently but firmly herded the marketing guys and the MBAs back into their little cages. P.S. I have a hard time believing that bazillions of porn users are seated at their desks, in meetings, driving cars, riding busses, walking down the street, eating dinner, having a drink with friends, sitting around the camp fire, etc., while streaming porn scenes to some itty-itty "mobile device" screen. Porn happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong. | |
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| 02-18-17 12:54pm - 2771 days | #19 | |
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merc77 (0)
Disabled User Posts: 291 Registered: Apr 17, '16 |
It does cost money to run these sites considering they use a lot of bandwidth as well as producing new content all the time. I don't mind tiered memberships as long as they are upfront about it. I don't want to pay $15 for streaming only so I pay the usual $25 to $30 for downloading. We just have to remember these sites are put up to make money. Nothing in life is free. "Dogs think people are Gods. Cats don't as they know better." - Kedi (2016) Dogs have masters; Cats have staff. | |
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