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[umiman]

Before we begin, we all know how arguments about piracy develop so if you feel the need to say something in ridiculous hyperbole (e.g: "PIRACY IS LIKE SATAN'S VERY SATAN SPAWN!), please leave.

Anyway, I came across this article on Ars Technica and thought it was pretty cool: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/competing-with-free-anime-site-treats-piracy-as-a-market-failure.ars

But making money in anime isn't hopeless; it turns out that anime lovers will pay for content even in an age of widely available free versions. "In almost all cases, piracy is not an issue of legality," says Kun Gao, CEO of the anime streaming site Crunchyroll. It's often a market issue—and Crunchyroll turns a profit by offering anime lovers what they want: legal access to anime shows right after new episodes have aired in Japan.

I don't watch much anime any more but damn... I wish this service was available when I did. Many of the comments are true. It just takes so much time for anime to get translated that $7 a month for instant access seems like a pretty damn good deal. I pay more for Usenet access and that's still technically legally challenging.

Any Crunchyroll users here? Is what the article talks about true?

[Jack A T]

Crunchyroll free user here.  It's a nice site, I've found.  Not likely to pay the $7 a month for instant access, as I don't really need the instant access and really high video quality, but it's fine free.

[ToonyMan]

I don't use Crunchyroll usually although I have an account just because.  I download all my anime from Nyaa, Tokyo Toshokan, and BakaBT so I have no right to say anything moral.

[tehc]

I download my shit through XDCC, I don't stream or download from Crunchyroll because the quality is a load of arse. Their h264 720p encodes are shit, their quality doesn't compare to transport streams encoded by fansubbers. And in some cases Crunchyroll cocks up colossally, such as terrible audio quality with a constant static buzz in Steins;Gate. In some of HorribleSubs' rips of a few recently aired shows (Nichijou and Deadman Wonderland specifically), Crunchyroll missed out a few lines, the translations were noticeably wrong in a few sections, and cultural differences in subs that would be difficult to localize were often attempted and failed at, instead of just putting a translation note for example.

I'm never going to use sites like these because of the quality, especially Funimation and Sentai Filmworks' 360p Xvid encodes with hardsubbed yellow subtitles.

And to the OP, when were you watching anime when it took forever to get subbed? Nowadays, sub groups tend to do 1-6 shows a season and have subs for each episode out within 24 hours. Subs for some shows are actually released before Crunchyroll finishes their release, which are terrible encodes with lackluster subs and editing.

Its only recently that Crunchyroll have started licensing fucking everything in the season. The last few seasons, they only done a few shows. At least they don't get pissy when fansubbers also do their shows, unlike Funimation. Also, in my experience, the best shows every season are the ones that Crunchyroll doesn't license.

[IronyOwl]

The studios wanted the site to be "black or white," all pro or all user-generated, and they would only license their content to a pro site.

Interestingly, it seems the site itself (or at least the source of its stuff) don't actually agree with their own premise internally.

[GlyphGryph]

tehc, the funny thing is - people are so desperate to actually buy the stuff, they are making money on it DESPITE it being such low quality

[tehc]

The aforementioned cockup in Steins;Gate.

I forgot what that website is that lets you compare two images by switching to another when you hover over, so you'll need to open these in two tabs and switch between them to see probably.

Crunchyroll
UTW-Mazui (fansubs)

Another scene showing they can't do typesetting compared to fansubbers.

Crunchyroll
UTW-Mazui

The differences are pretty clear. There was also some random Ás and spelling errors throughout. The audio quality was horrendous, and they still haven't fixed that 3 episodes into the show.

In terms of shit subs, you have to bow down in awe to the emperor of insulting quality, Funimation.

Funimation
Derp (fansubs)

Crunchyroll simply giving up in Nichijou:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They admittedly done a better job with the encode than they usually do, but just leaving a '?' is fairly weak for a professional translation company. The context was about Tsukkomi-boke comedy, and they didn't mention it at all, instead translating stuff like (excuse my translations) 'Mai-chan was trying to do a boke performance again' to 'Mai-chan made a confusing joke again'. A few lines later, Mai in the pic is still talking about it and Crunchyroll just gave up on making up bullshit lines. Thus the whole scene made no sense whatsoever, which could of been easily avoided with a simple note at the top explaining what it was quickly.

[Supercharazad]

And that's why I use AFTV

[Neonivek]

In Canada YTV used to show a lot of anime... now they don't show any.

Instead now they have a new channel "Anime on Demand" (or something like that). Though accessing that channel costs money too.

[Reelyanoob]

Ironically, fansubbers release it when it's ready, work for free out of love, obsession and wanting to share. They survive as a group by becoming known for the quality of the work.

Commerical subbing, you have deadlines and paychecks to worry about. Hence, rushing it out the door, so you can get on to the next one. No fansubber would do that. This is the real failure of the marketing.