Just Passing Through
The Wildcard
So what's the state of play for people here?
Do you use online streaming services? With two new sites to date for us to play with, has anyone taken the plunge, and how does it feel in comparison to Crunchyroll or Daisuki?
Do you have a Crunchyroll sub?
Do you have an Animax sub?
Have you purchased a download from Wakanim?
What do you think of Daisuki?
A chance for comparative reviews...
As for me. I'm old fashioned, and I never got into the subscription model, even for TV. For me, streaming is try before you buy time.
So I watch some ad supported streams on Crunchyroll, partake of the free streams on Wakanim and Animax. Wakanim is straightforward enough, probably through lack of content, although the site feels clunky. While navigating through Animax is a chore, although less so since the first batch of free streams recently expired.
Since Crunchyroll started putting episode 1s in HD, and since Wakanim and Animax both purportedly stream free titles in 720 HD, I tried a little compare and contrast. Crunchroll's HD is the sharpest, and the most pleasant to watch. I don't know what Wakanim and Animax call HD, but it doesn't look 720, it barely looks 480, and sometimes it suffers from serious compression. Still, you get what you paid for.
As for Daisuki, it's been a while since I used it (for Nekomonogatari), and its adaptive player was the worst of the lot, although unlike other reports, I didn't suffer from too many pauses and buffering. There's not a lot there that I want to watch that isn't on Crunchyroll, and quite frankly CR's 320 streams are good enough for a try before you buy user. Again, their HD doesn't look all that HD to me, but speeds at my end are fine. Something's clogging up the works elsewhere in the pipe. I have no problem streaming 720 HD content from Youtube for instance.
The irony is that I found Anime on Delay's HD streams the best of the lot, when they were streaming for free the last couple of seasons.
Do you use online streaming services? With two new sites to date for us to play with, has anyone taken the plunge, and how does it feel in comparison to Crunchyroll or Daisuki?
Do you have a Crunchyroll sub?
Do you have an Animax sub?
Have you purchased a download from Wakanim?
What do you think of Daisuki?
A chance for comparative reviews...
As for me. I'm old fashioned, and I never got into the subscription model, even for TV. For me, streaming is try before you buy time.
So I watch some ad supported streams on Crunchyroll, partake of the free streams on Wakanim and Animax. Wakanim is straightforward enough, probably through lack of content, although the site feels clunky. While navigating through Animax is a chore, although less so since the first batch of free streams recently expired.
Since Crunchyroll started putting episode 1s in HD, and since Wakanim and Animax both purportedly stream free titles in 720 HD, I tried a little compare and contrast. Crunchroll's HD is the sharpest, and the most pleasant to watch. I don't know what Wakanim and Animax call HD, but it doesn't look 720, it barely looks 480, and sometimes it suffers from serious compression. Still, you get what you paid for.
As for Daisuki, it's been a while since I used it (for Nekomonogatari), and its adaptive player was the worst of the lot, although unlike other reports, I didn't suffer from too many pauses and buffering. There's not a lot there that I want to watch that isn't on Crunchyroll, and quite frankly CR's 320 streams are good enough for a try before you buy user. Again, their HD doesn't look all that HD to me, but speeds at my end are fine. Something's clogging up the works elsewhere in the pipe. I have no problem streaming 720 HD content from Youtube for instance.
The irony is that I found Anime on Delay's HD streams the best of the lot, when they were streaming for free the last couple of seasons.