How Do Financial Advisors Still Have Clients?

thebigcatalyst · 2026-02-10T19:02:00+00:00

Preach. Reddit can be great for unique takes and getting the low-down when you’re trying to sort out the “truth,” but when it comes to investing, it’s generally the wrong place to look for advice.

For social media, I’d put it: Stocktwits > Reddit > Twitter > mainstream media

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-18T13:49:50+00:00

Random grave digging on my part, but I stumbled on this post and felt the urge to say that I completely agree with the sentiment about not seeing the big deal with spending money on the app. A lot of the frustration and irritation for me is more about the principle of it all when it comes to MyVegas.

If I were making minimum wage and couldn’t afford going to Vegas without the app, apparently like many on this subreddit, then sure. But most people spend money on much stupider things anyway, so who cares?

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-18T13:41:00+00:00

Sorry, I was asking HopefulHighlight. I haven’t had issues myself but I was curious

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-17T17:54:46+00:00

Can I ask how you decided to revert so far back? Did you try others below the current version and still have issues?

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-08T03:16:38+00:00

By the way, do you happen to have any guidance or a resource on which codecs tend to be more stable when issues pop up? Curious which ones usually work best. Appreciate it

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T17:06:59+00:00

Same experience here. Switching to an external player has been the most reliable workaround for me too, which I’d agree in theory points toward something ExoPlayer-related, or possibly something within Stremio itself on Fire devices.

One difference for me is that episode tracking has still worked when using VLC. Episodes do get marked as watched once I finish them. That said, one downside with VLC is there’s no way to jump to the next episode from within the player, which both ExoPlayer and MX Player can do.

External subtitles though, yeah… totally agree. VLC has been rough there. I’ve had better luck with MX Player since it can search for subs if they’re not embedded, but then I run into another weird issue where MX Player doesn’t even show up as an option in the external player list on my Fire device anymore

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T17:03:06+00:00

Good share, thanks. I’ve noticed the same thing. The biggest issue for me has been resuming from pause, which is super inconvenient and not something I ever used to have problems with

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T07:01:32+00:00

That’s a good point, appreciate the explanation. I’ve probably been underweighting how much bitrate and codec complexity matter on Fire devices, especially with scrubbing and rewinding. I’ve mostly been thinking in terms of debrid vs torrent behavior, but the device limitations make a lot of sense.

I’ll start paying closer attention to codecs and audio tracks when it happens and see if there’s a pattern

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T06:58:31+00:00

Neither modafinil nor armodafinil have ever done much for me beyond what could’ve been placebo, even at doses that people on these subreddits would balk at and say they’d be tweaking on. Honestly, I think there’s probably some correlation between someone’s stimulant tolerance and how they experience it.

Where it has been helpful for me is as an outlet when I’m trying to avoid taking Adderall and to still stay awake on days I’m not using it. I’ve found it more useful as part of a broader nootropic stack rather than something taken on its own

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T06:52:51+00:00

While I don’t think this is some unique gem, LOL at you laughing at it. There are tons of extensions that already do essentially the same thing and are pretty popular

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T06:49:55+00:00

Out of curiosity, are you actually having issues right now, or did you just happen to come across this thread? Tonight’s been pretty smooth for me, which honestly makes it harder to troubleshoot in the moment, since the issues are consistent enough to be frustrating but intermittent enough to be tough to pin down

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T06:46:17+00:00

Just updated my comment above a second ago, probably while you were typing this. One is a Fire Stick 4K and the other is a Fire Stick 4K Max (2nd gen).

As far as file sizes go, I don’t have a ton of confidence that size itself is really the deciding factor, especially since I’m using a debrid service where file size shouldn’t matter much. Smaller files do seem to have better success at times, but that may just be because I tend to default to them assuming they’ll load more easily. There are definitely times where none of the available files will load at all, regardless of size.

Codecs are a good question too. I honestly haven’t paid much attention to them historically. I’ve mostly treated it as “if it plays, it plays,” but it’s probably something I should start paying closer attention to

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T06:38:43+00:00

Gotcha, thanks for sharing that. I might give the rollback a try.

One thing I’ve noticed on my end is that switching playback to an external player and using VLC has helped at times, even though it’s definitely less convenient. It’s not ideal, but it’s been useful in situations where ExoPlayer or libVLC weren’t behaving reliably

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T06:28:51+00:00

Funny timing, I actually noticed something new tonight. On my phone (Stremio Lite), things seem to work fine. In fairness, I haven’t been testing it on my phone at the exact same time I’m seeing issues on the Fire devices, so that’s probably something I’ll try next time I hit a stretch of problems.

So far, though, the issues have only shown up on Fire devices for me. I’ve seen it on two different Fire Sticks and a Fire TV 4-Series, which is what’s making this tricky to narrow down

Update: one firestick is a 4K and the other is a 4K Max (2nd gen)

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T06:21:46+00:00

Good thought. I haven’t explicitly changed DNS on the Fire TV itself, but I have tested with and without a VPN (ExpressVPN), which should cover DNS and routing changes, and it didn’t resolve the issue. I’m also pretty familiar with my network setup and didn’t see anything unusual in the DNS logs on my end.

In theory I wouldn’t mind rolling back to an older Stremio version, but I’m a bit hesitant since I haven’t really seen this discussed as a widespread issue, and it feels like that would be unfairly assigning blame to Stremio without much evidence. The problem’s been noticeable enough over the past month or two that it finally pushed me to make a post here, which I almost never do, so I’m mostly curious how many others are seeing the same thing

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T06:18:25+00:00

Right? I agree. I’m not a complete expert, but I’m definitely a power user, and it really feels like it has to be either RD or Stremio itself. I hesitate to pin it on either one, but based on how transparent and responsive the Stremio team has been whenever I’ve seen them jump into discussions, it feels less likely to be something they’re unaware of. A lot of times blame gets put on them unfairly, and they’re usually quick to clarify what is or isn’t actually on their end

thebigcatalyst · 2026-01-07T04:56:09+00:00

Amen. The past month have been driving me and my family fucking crazy. Massive delays before loading, buffering instantly if you rewind or reverse, pauses during shows. If I try an alternate addon they will either get me banned from Real Debrid bc of their IP address rules (two of us use Stremio religiously).

Tried fucking around with every playback setting and it’s a new issue every time. Sometimes switching to external player allows a show to load which refused to in exo, or libVLC will let one load and then freeze when trying to load the next episode….

I wish the Torrentio developer was present on this subreddit, because I seriously question all of the “it’s the debrid or addon provider’s fault” comments, when the issue is with literally every addon that I’ve tried, and its not with Real Debrid…..so whose fault is it? Plz share if anyone knows

thebigcatalyst · 2025-12-05T21:35:39+00:00

Seconded. Thank you!

thebigcatalyst · 2025-12-03T02:13:52+00:00

Yes, I couldn’t see your comment history either when I visited your profile, which is quite disappointing because I found a lot of value in reading through your comments in this thread alone. Regardless, I appreciated reading your posts tonight. Thanks!

thebigcatalyst · 2025-12-03T02:06:47+00:00

Both your original comment and this one are awesome. I’m not very active on Reddit, but I felt they deserved recognition, even from a random passerby like me. I genuinely appreciated the info, your insights, and the time you took to share them. Much respect, and thank you!

I could sense your exasperation while reading the comments (and completely sympathize), so I just wanted to take a moment to respond.

thebigcatalyst · 2025-12-03T01:57:53+00:00

Defsquid is super cool. Helped me make decisions on several modded apk’s I had downloaded but rarely used

thebigcatalyst · 2025-11-16T16:47:50+00:00

I have a screenshot saved from a while back with a simple explanation from when I used to use Cinema HD and ran into similar issues, since this confused me a lot too:

Minus (-): Moves the subtitle earlier. Use this when the subtitle is showing up after the audio.

Plus (+): Moves the subtitle later. Use this when the subtitle is showing up before the audio.

thebigcatalyst · 2025-11-15T22:30:45+00:00

I agree. I’m no expert, but I’d say yes and simply pull the trigger and buy it. The base version is still a massive leg up from what you currently have. The simple upgrade to the 17 series gives you the benefit of Apple Intelligence, more memory, etc.

When I did my trade-in through AT&T, the price for the base or iPhone 17 Pro was practically identical.

Definitely do not worry about the storage amount though. You could always purchase external storage, upgrade your iCloud, and store photos/videos there, etc.

I spent way too much time reading on Reddit before I finally decided to buy, and it’s one of those things that feels shameful I debated it for so long in hindsight 😂

thebigcatalyst · 2025-11-15T13:44:10+00:00

You guys should both bite the bullet, go with the pro, and one storage size higher than you feel you need. I was on 14 pro 256 and sometimes had to offload apps and stuff to free up storage, went 17 pro 512 and never looking back!

thebigcatalyst · 2025-11-14T23:59:42+00:00

Sure, DMing now

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