Crunchyroll begins legit anime streaming.

[Gerry]

Until they Stream in HD its worthless. I don't know how anyone could watch shows on youtube or any other streaming site for that matter. All that other shit goin on around the stream and having to watch it in a browser suck, especially when you're running in a high resolution. I run at 1920x1200 so most streams dont even take up half my browser, and if you go full screen it looks like complete shit. So I'll pass on this.

I've seen links for 720p streaming on some anime, it just depends on if they were made with HD in mind.

 

[Lenneth]

Man reading all of this makes me think how glad I am that I gave up on all the DB subbed anime years ago. I truly hope all anime in NA doesn't become like this or else i'll be forced to learn another language for there subs, or even the RAWs.... but I know I'll never bother with that. and Streaming? Really? cant they just release it for download? sooner or later someone will get those "Streams" on a torrenting site I'm sure so they might as well just release them as MP4 or AVI or whatever, just my two cents

 

[Eilistrae]

I tried Crunchyroll streaming, I thought I'd give it a shot and the benefit of the doubt. It really is as annoying as I thought it'd be after all. There's nothing worse than the anime pausing to buffer right at a good part -_-

Also, how the hell are these anime going to make it to DVD if Crunchyroll supposedly owns the rights to the anime they stream on their website? I still don't really see how its legitimate.

 

[Gerry]

I tried Crunchyroll streaming, I thought I'd give it a shot and the benefit of the doubt. It really is as annoying as I thought it'd be after all. There's nothing worse than the anime pausing to buffer right at a good part -_-

Also, how the hell are these anime going to make it to DVD if Crunchyroll supposedly owns the rights to the anime they stream on their website? I still don't really see how its legitimate.

It's legit because they actually asked for permission. In my case though the connection to the anime has been really good, I guess it just depends on the internet connection I suppose. Plus if the anime gets enough interest from viewers, who knows, maybe they might release the DVDs? Who Knows.

 

[Eilistrae]

but crunchyroll doesn't own the rights to what they are streaming right? They only have permission to stream it?

 

[Gerry]

but crunchyroll doesn't own the rights to what they are streaming right? They only have permission to stream it?

They only have permission I believe as they can only air certain anime in certain regions. The only one's who would actually own the rights would be the companies themselves in Japan and any companies who obtain the license in the US who plan to distribute the anime I believe.

 

[Eilistrae]

They only have permission I believe as they can only air certain anime in certain regions. The only one's who would actually own the rights would be the companies themselves in Japan and any companies who obtain the license in the US who plan to distribute the anime I believe.

sounds like they found an interesting loophole. So whenever a company licenses the anime they stream, they have to pull it off their website just like the fansub groups do.

 

[Ryou]

They do streaming not downloading because 1) costs less for the servers to stream LQ anime than to host HQ downloads, 2) its easier for someone to go on to distribute a DL copy of an episode, and 3) even if you download a flash copy of the streamed video it's still going to be LQ even if you convert the format, this provides incentive for you to go out and buy the DVDs for a HQ copy later.

If you ever go to convention panels where the fansubing is discussed, there are many reasons the fans give for DLing fansubs over buying DVDs. But the most prominent reasons given are the speed and cost. People just don't want to pay 30$ for four episodes when they already wait months after the Japanese get to see the same thing for free on TV.

With the ever expanding digital age and the increased availability of high speed internet, the companies are finally responding (i.e. their profit margins are finally beginning to slip enough to worry them). However now there's the further issue that even if the companies provide legitimate avenues for anime which are fast and free, fansubbers do the same thing better (better quality downloads vs. stream).

So we finally reach the impasse where the companies can't do anything more while protecting business interests but the industry has changed significantly now just by the companies' move towards streaming. Beforehand fansub groups were usually able to complete a series before it got licensed and ready for distribution, so in essence as long as you were on top of the game you could get your copy of the fansubs before the groups had to back off. But if companies keep their legitimate streams up to date, there is very little room for fansub groups to operate. Dattebayo bowed down from Naruto to prevent this sort of situation, but there finally might be some legal pushing and shoving with fansub groups who continue to sub in competition with the companies' own legitimate streams.

 

[Eilistrae]

I don't understand why these major companies can't do it as well as fansubbers. Whats so hard? If they really wanted to improve and increase their revenue then I'd think they'd recruit from the fansubbers.

 

[Malagra]

Fansubbing is illegal. Period. Distributing it is copyright infringement. The only reason anime corporations let them do this, is because it drums up interest for their shows, and usually about the only way to do it overseas, since their advertising campaigns are non-existent. This is why no fansub group that gets a C&D will ever fight it in court, because they know it's completely and entirely illegal.
The anime companies are giving Crunchyroll permission to distribute because the DVD market is on a steady decline, and there's no online distribution system in place. They didn't really tap into Steam or XBL. Even if they did, people could just get the same thing for free. Crunchyroll doesn't do downloads because they need people to watch the ads. If they let people just download the episode, there's room to remove the ads, and distribute again. Anime companies are making the money off the advertising. Because if they don't, they won't be making money at all.
They need to force everyone who watches the ep to watch the ads. People are probably only going to buy the show on DVD if they've seen it. Anime companies aren't big, you'd almost say adversive to 2 things: advertising in North America, and taking risks. So they're not going to advertise a show unless it's big, but if it can't get big without advertising....

To answer Eilistrae's question, there's a lot of reasons. First of all, I don't know how a company would feel about recruiting from people who steal from them. Another is location, fansubs you can do at home anywhere, but they just don't live near a company that works on it, and can't move to said location. Another is money. Fansubs completely demolished the DVD market for anime, so they can't hire the same number/quality of people. Which pushes more people to fansubs, because even if the quality isn't there, it's free.
Maybe 5-10 years ago, when people actually cared about quality in their fansubs, it might have been a good idea if circumstances allowed, but now, when people only care about speed, it'd be a disaster. And they probably wouldn't last long if they had to do it as a job, rather as a hobby or something. Crunchyroll-type sites are pretty much the last thing left for anime companies to do, and mostly because of fansubs. I'd like to see all the fansub groups get sued for damages, and have the companies build up some decent advertising, or something like that.
If you're downloading fansubs that are being streamed legitimately on websites, you want anime to die.

 

[Ryou]

The biggest quality factor is the format. In terms of quality of the actual subbing, I don't think that the sub tracks on DVDs or the dub tracks are any worse than fansubs. Streaming is low bandwidth though, so naturally the picture isn't very good. ButsStreaming is chosen because it's cheaper and harder to pirate. And even if it's pirated, it's low quality, so you will go out and buy a DVD later.

There's a certain point at which companies are willing to go with less quality: as long as the loss in customers is made up by the savings in production.