In the ongoing tussle between paid streaming movie services and free torrent streaming services, we identified 20 notable differences for fans of Chinese TV dramas and films. As a rule, viewers are strongly encouraged to subscribe to licensed movie streaming services for legal reasons. Piracy remains a significant problem in the industry, with billions of dollars in annual revenues being siphoned away from legitimate TV and movie studios. Piracy is a criminal offense that faces punitive measures from governments worldwide.
Our case study considered the pros and cons of different types of movie streaming services from
a multi-angle perspective. Despite the legal ramifications, many viewers choose to use unofficial streaming services (to their detriment). It is always best to download your favorite Chinese dramas app from a reputable provider such as Rakuten Viki. Known brands are credible, with no risk of loss due to adware, malware, viruses, and hackers. Safety comes at a premium in today’s world, where cybercrime is rampant.
20 Differences Between Different Types of Movie Streaming Services
- Free vs. paid: Black-market movie streaming services are generally free, while premium subscriptions for legal streaming sites can be expensive.
- Quality: Black-market movie streaming services often offer lower quality than legitimate sites, which may have HD options.
- Accessibility: Black-market movie streaming services can be accessed from anywhere worldwide, while some legal streaming sites may be geo-blocked in certain countries.
- Quantity: Black marketers typically offer a more extensive selection of movies and TV shows than legal streaming sites. This is because they openly flout licensing agreements that would otherwise restrict content to specific geographical areas.
- Speed: Black-market movie streams tend to have more buffering and slower speeds than legitimate streams on premium websites.
- Reliability: Since black marketeers are operating illegally, they could be shut down at any time, meaning you might not be able to access your favorite films and TV shows when you want to watch them. On the other hand, licensed and reputable streaming sites are more reliable and stable.
- Downloading option: With black marketeers, you usually can download films and TV shows onto your computer or device so that you can watch them offline later; this is not an option with most legitimate streaming sites (although there are notable exceptions).
- New Releases: You’re more likely to find new releases on black market websites since they don’t necessarily follow the rules about only being able to stream older titles that have already been released on DVD/Blu-Ray or shown in theaters.
9.Ads: Most black market websites will show ads before, during, or after the film or show that you’re trying to watch; this is how they make their money since they’re not charging subscription fees as legitimate streaming sites do.
10) Legal issues: Because they’re operating illegally, black marketeers could face charges if they’re caught; this isn’t an issue for legitimate businesses, of course.
11) Pirated content: All of the content on black market websites is pirated, which means it’s been illegally obtained; some people believe this is morally wrong, while others don’t mind watching pirated content as long as it’s freely available.
12) Poor video quality: Since black marketeers aren’t paying for the rights to stream certain content, they often resort to lower-quality videos that are grainy or blurry; legitimate streaming sites usually offer better video quality since they’ve paid for the rights to air certain titles.
13) Inexperienced staff: Many illegal operations are run by amateurs who may not know what they’re doing; as a result, customer service tends to be nonexistent or very poor.
14) Unsafe websites: Not all black market websites are created equal; some may be safe to use, while others could infect your computer with malware or viruses.
15) Substandard customer support: If something goes wrong with your account or you have trouble accessing certain features, good luck getting any help from a black marker; again, customer service is usually nonexistent or very poor.
16) Scams: There have been cases of people setting up fake black markets solely to steal people’s credit card information; always be sure to research any site before inputting any sensitive data.
17) Limited payment options: Most black marketers only accept PayPal or cryptocurrency like Bitcoin; if you don’t have either one of those things, then you probably won’t be able to transact with them.
18) Slow loading times: This one ties into # 5 (speed); because illegitimate operators don’t necessarily have great servers set up, loading times could be slower than average and cause more frustration than necessary.
19) Missing episodes/movies: One common complaint about illegal streaming services is that sometimes key episodes or even entire seasons will go missing without warning or explanation (this happens less frequently with legal streaming sites).
20) Takes time/effort to find working links: Finally, the last con of using black markets for film / TV show streaming is that it often takes more time to find working links since many of them become broken over time, whereas all you need to do on most legitimate streaming sites is type in what you want to watch and hit ‘play.’
And there you have it! These 20 critical differences push the needle away from the free aspects of movie streaming services. Viewers tend to gravitate towards legal streaming sites because ‘free’ isn’t the only consideration. Other issues can be more hazardous to the integrity of your Mac, computer, or mobile device. Quantity, quality, reliability, credibility, support, and completeness are some of the core differences between free and premium movie streaming services.
