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Netflix Downloads
- danso 10y agoFantastic, this has been a welcome feature on Amazon Prime and even moreso on Netflix where the selection is currently more to my liking.
- Desustorm 10y agoThis has been the differentiator between Netflix and Amazon Prime - very welcome news indeed. I do wonder how limited the number of allowed downloads will be, though...
- erelde 10y agoWhat kind of DRM would they use to store local copies? EDIT: On Android 7.1 VLC for Android, was able to "open" (duration etc) a large file I found in Netflix directory (.hidden), though not decode sound or video. There were two smaller files besides I suspect are audio tracks. And several other very small files, subtitles maybe.
- jbob2000 10y agoThey probably aren't storing the videos as you are traditionally thinking about them - you don't get to download a video file which you can play anywhere. Most likely what they've done is stored the video chunks locally and then the Netflix app is "streaming" these chunks from the local storage rather than the netflix servers. If you looked through the folder that holds these chunks, you'd probably just see a bunch of randomly named 100mb files. That's all the DRM they need, you have no ability to consume these files without the Netflix app.
- arm 10y agoFor anyone who missed it, it seems like you can only download and view offline copies of videos in the Netflix app for Android and iOS¹. (Whatever the form of the DRM is that they’re using, it’s a definite that the Netflix app decodes it when you do playback). ―――――― ¹ — https://help.netflix.com/en/node/54816 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/54816
- logicallee 10y ago>That's all the DRM they need, you have no ability to consume these files without the Netflix app. This is like saying that .doc files are as good as DRM'd, since who's going to open one in anything but Word? I get what you're saying but it's a security through obscurity argument - if this takes off, of course someone can figure out the encoding and transcode straight from those files.
- morsch 10y agoIt's just the same security they use for streaming. If you can decode the chunks, you can also capture the streamed data and decode it.
- logicallee 10y agoI would imagine downloads can be faster than 1x realtime, no? Having to stream things is a serious limit on ripping (transcoding) speed.
- brianwawok 10y agoWhut? You can write a stream to file with maybe 2 commands, and try to decode it later. If the DRM on the stream is broken, you can save the stream to file and decode it later. If the DRM on the stream is safe, then it should be equally safe between the stream and saving the file to disk. I fail to see how letting you save encrypted stuff to local disc has anything to do with breaking the DRM. Also, the first thought people have when given a new service for free is "how can I use this to pirate movies". This is why we can't have nice stuff.....
- logicallee 10y agoMy comment has nothing to do with DRM. I'm saying, "if there is no DRM" (or it is broken or can be broken), then the difference between downloading and streaming might be the difference between taking 2.2 days to "stream to disk" Game of Thrones (60 episodes @ 55 minutes) -- or, say, downloading it in 4 hours. (If downloads are allowed to be faster than realtime, which would only make sense.) GoT is obviously a hypothetical example. If you don't think that makes quite a real difference in enabling or incentivizing actual piracy then I think I'll just disagree - that rate limit is a huge difference in my book and makes it far more likely for someone to take the trouble to rip and transcode.
- m3ta 10y agoThat is not "all the DRM they need". Files split up into "randomly named 100mb chunks" does not make them safe from would-be pirates with a penchant for reverse engineering.
- jbob2000 10y agoI mean, there's probably more to it than "randomly named 100mb chunks", but for the sake of brevity, that's how I described it.
- royjacobs 10y agoThe chunks themselves would have the same DRM applied as when you'd stream from their servers. In the latter case you can also just sniff the traffic, but that's not enough to be able to decrypt the video.
- izacus 10y agoDRM never did stop "would-be pirates with penchant for reverse engineering". Ever. Plus, the owner of the Android/iOS device is paying for that content anyway, why would it be in any way a problem if he can open that downloaded file in another software?!?!
- 9point6 10y agoTechnically paying for a license to play said content in the Netflix app. I agree that DRM is a waste of time and the pirates are going to get the content whatever happens, but a $10/m streaming service is only licensing you to watch video in a few specific scenarios. If you had spent $3 an episode (or whatever it is on iTunes/Google Play these days) to own it, then I'd expect a DRM free file to be available (Though I doubt you actually get one in reality).
- treve 10y agoA file on a disk is still just a stream of video. Even if they use a proprietary container format, without DRM it's still very possible to reassemble the file into a more common container.
- erelde 10y agoI know that's what some music streaming services used to do. But I still see some risk for Netflix there... Split files are made to be whole again. If you had only one movie stored locally, you would very quickly be able to solve the puzzle.
- tblair 10y agoOn the Kindle Fire we had a "secure enclave" bit of hardware so the files were encrypted with a key that was hard/impossible for users to get. I don't think regular android has anything like that, but they might use Widevine or something similar
- rkangel 10y agoMost Android implementations these days use something based on the ARM SecureCore to manage keys for things like device encryption.
- JadeNB 10y agoHow much are Android apps able to hide things in the filesystem? It drives me crazy sometimes not being able to figure out where Amazon Music puts my downloaded music files; there's an `amazonmp3` folder, but all it has in it is `.prefs.bak`.
- kevinbluer 10y agoOddly not everything is downloadable though. No Luke Cage here on Netflix Hong Kong (which is odd given it's Netflix made).
- CmdrSprinkles 10y agoI would imagine agreements regarding distribution rights. Netflix (distributor) can only offline stuff they have the rights to. HK in particular I would assume Netflix (content producer) are interested in partnering with a Chinese company as that region tends to favour those quite heavily.
- ianai 10y agoThey said it wasn't going to be available for every title yet.
- fastball 10y agoNot every Netflix Original is available in every region. This can be either because Netflix was producing the show before they were in that region, and so signed over the rights to the show in that region to a different provider, or because they have agreements with other producers that need to be on board as well. The same idiosyncrasies will probably apply to downloads. For instance, in the case of Luke Cage, maybe Marvel needs to sign off on delivery changes like this? Hard to determine without looking at Netflix's actual contracts.
- schnable 10y agoA lot of the Netflix "Orginals" are really just Netflix being the exclusive distributor in a particular region of a show produced by someone else.
- AlexRobNewton 10y agoLooks like it's only going to be on Netflix originals at the moment. But at least it's a step in the right direction! Wonder how long you can keep the content for after download?
- BillinghamJ 10y agoYour account seems to be marked as [dead] btw. I have vouched for you, as I can't see any real reason for this.
- MBCook 10y agoCongratulations on being alive again? Polygon said there are some non-Netflix movies that are available for download. I too am very curious what the download policy is. I think you only get a few days on Amazon or stuff you copy off your TiVo so I wonder how much time Netflix gives you.
- taleoftwohumans 10y agoHuh? Just updated the app, doesnt work - no downloads ready. Not even the Netflix shows they promote in the blogpost. Im on android 5.1.1. Hopefully theyll get it together, nice feature.
- givinguflac 10y agoI wouldn't be at all surprised if it's a limitation of your "old" Android version. Not saying that's definitely the case, but wouldn't be surprised.
- bsharitt 10y agoLooks like they support 4.4.2 and higher https://help.netflix.com/en/node/54816 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/54816
- erelde 10y agoDelayed rollout probably.
- pilsetnieks 10y agoIt's probably not a coincidence that this is coming out at the same time as AT&T is zero-rating their own streaming service.
- JamesBaxter 10y agoApple will be happy more people will pay for the extortionate large iPhones.
- fastball 10y agoHow could you possibly be correlating Netflix supporting downloads and phone screen size preferences?
- collias 10y agoI think he means large storage space, not physically large devices.
- JamesBaxter 10y agoYeah I was meaning storage, but larger screen size phones might see a boost in sales too.
- paglia_s 10y agoLooks like it's only available for smartphones and tablets, not for computers. Probably because on smartphones and tables they have their own app and don't have to rely on a browser.
- tdb7893 10y agoToo bad they couldn't make it a chrome extension or something at least
- mulletbum 10y agoCan someone please explain why this comment is being downvoted? Is it not feasible or is that stupid in some way? I'd just like to know if the downvotes are from a technical perspective.
- dsr_ 10y agoDRM relies on handing the ciphertext, a decryption program, and the key to the opponent, and then telling them not to use it except when they are allowed to use it. If your browser is in charge of running the storage of the ciphertext and the decryption, it is much easier to debug it and apply a patch that will store the plaintext than if you have to do this all in an Android emulator as well. But either way: DRM doesn't work for long. In the meantime, Netflix is providing enough value for me that I happily pay their monthly fee and don't bother looking for ways to break their DRM.
- betandr 10y agoAs they say 'convenient is better than better' and I've long looked for a company like Netflix who will allow me to give them money and they will let me watch what I want.
- libraryatnight 10y agoI think that's what Netflix wants to be, getting the content creators to agree is the tough part, I imagine. Another benefit to their producing their own material.
- ozgurozkan 10y agoI have a new theory about user requirements. Spotify and Netflix has same feature now. Only one difference exists music vs. video. What will be the spotify and netflix of VR content? It will be downloadable to our mobile phones. to be continued...
- naspinski 10y agoPlayOn is on sale for $50 right now: https://www.playon.tv/playlater https://www.playon.tv/playlater Browse/download any streaming service (that you have access to) easily - I love it.
- gok 10y agoIsn't BitTorrent still free?
- jansenv 10y agoTrackers aren't doing so hot right now :(
- jklinger410 10y agoMy ISP wants to charge me for it now. $5,000 they said.
- fastball 10y agoIsn't piracy still illegal?
- Someone1234 10y agoThe concern I have with giving them money is: They're going to get shut down, sooner if not later. Big media have had people raided for less than what they're doing, and laws are written (again, by big media) to put them into a legally gray area. Morally I don't think what they're doing is wrong. But the US government is in bed with media goliaths, and the two work together to shut down re-hosted content (even in areas where re-hosting MIGHT be fair usage).
- JamesSwift 10y agoPlayon doesn't rehost the content. It runs on your computer and automates the process of capturing the video stream from a website. So, you have to _actually wait for the entire video to play_ to have it fully downloaded because its nothing more than a screencapture in essence. The whole thing is a little flaky, but I'm really pleased with what it cost me ($60 if I remember).
- omouse 10y agoFuck DRM. Seriously.
- ulrikrasmussen 10y agoWhile this is great and very usable, especially for people with limited data plans, I can't help but feel disappointed that simple offline caching of content is still considered a major feature in 2016. Without DRM, this would be a no-brainer.
- maxerickson 10y agoA no-brainer except for the $10/month streaming part.
- Dylan16807 10y agoA streaming service is perfectly viable without DRM, especially if downloading is speed limited after a while. If you want to make copies at playback speed, well, you could do that with DRM too and it hasn't made the system collapse.
- andrewstuart2 10y agoWithout DRM, it's super viable because P2P is a piece of cake, and Netflix would only have to seed and host less-frequently-used content.
- Dylan16807 10y agoI don't think DRM stops them from doing P2P. Limited upload speeds are a much bigger issue. Plus people finding it icky to be an uploader on something they already paid for.
- zrm 10y agoBitTorrent solved the limited upload speed problem. Split the data into chunks and download from multiple users at once. Even that is only necessary if a user doesn't have enough upload bandwidth for a stream, which for 1080p is ~5Mbps. And the second problem has a simple solution. Give the customer a tiny discount for uploading. Anyone with an unmetered connection sees it as free money even if it's only pennies/month, and it works fine even if some customers turn it off because the discount-accepting customers can upload more than they download.
- tiger3 10y agoSeems like only a limited selection is available offline. From the article: "For example, Orange is The New Black, Narcos and The Crown are available for download today."
- rickyc091 10y agoIt's probably due to licensing. These are all Netflix originals where as movies or partnerships would probably charge a fee for offline content. I'd imagine offline would be considered "rentals" so it would be treated similarly to Amazon Video or iTunes.
- MBCook 10y agoThere are some non-original content movies and such too.
- betandr 10y agoI saw Netflix's chief product officer Neil Hunt say a while ago Netflix would "never" offer downloads, but I have to say I'm really pleased with this. Getting the train through spotty service areas effectively rendered Netflix unusable, but now! :)
- talmand 10y agoAnybody in such a position that says "never" to anything is either naive or they're protecting their current short-term interests. I'm willing to bet most of them say that for short-term reasons while internally they'll still consider it in the future; there was once a time that HBO would "never" offer a monthly streaming service and here we are today.
- ziszis 10y agoNeil Hunt a year ago [http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2015/09/the-real-reason-netflix-wont-offer-offline-downloads/ http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2015/09/the-real-reason-netflix-won...] “I think it's something that lots of people ask for. We'll see if it's something lots of people will use. Undoubtedly it adds considerable complexity to your life with Amazon Prime – you have to remember that you want to download this thing. It's not going to be instant, you have to have the right storage on your device, you have to manage it, and I'm just not sure people are actually that compelled to do that, and that it's worth providing that level of complexity.” Part of me wonders how much this was marketing spin to cover a gap they had relative to Amazon Prime and they were in actuality evaluating how to catch up. This happens far to often. Notorious example is Ballmer saying iPhone will be a flop when teams internally know that Windows Mobile just blew up.
- MBCook 10y agoHe wasn't wrong, it does add serious interface complexity. But we all know that it's a very desirable feature and most people are willing to pay for that complexity to be able to watch offline. So it was mostly spin, like Steve Jobs saying they'd never make a tablet at a point where it had to be in final development internally.
- overcast 10y agoI literally just typed "netflix offline mode" in Google, because of an upcoming long flight next week. This couldn't have come at a better time. Even if this is just limited to Netflix originals, I'm fine with that. Their original content is better than their studio catalog at this point.
- Tehnix 10y agoI reeeeeeally wish I could watch my shows in a more legitimate way than currently. I recently went through everything that I'm watching and tried to find out what I could actually watch on streaming services. .....which was unfortunately only a limited subset, especially since I'm not US based (Scandinavia here). Besides the problem of everything being spread out over Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime and what have you not, some content is just not available, such as Supernatural outside of US/UK/Germany. I almost feel like the TV networks wants people to pirate things...
- fooey 10y agoI think the TV networks were very short sighted and ended up with shitty contracts that never accounted for distributing or streaming their content internationally. They would if they could, but they'd have to go back and renegotiate all those old settled contracts.
- dawnerd 10y agoStill happens today. Example being Amazons Grand Tour not being available in Canada from launch. Of all companies they should have had that figured out.
- sharkweek 10y agoNetflix is well aware of their massive quantity differences country-to-country, hence the push to focus almost entirely on building their own originals to create a unified library w/o having to negotiate for streaming rights in each country. The differences are pretty nuts: http://exstreamist.com/is-your-countrys-netflix-library-growing-or-shrinking-we-dive-into-the-data/ http://exstreamist.com/is-your-countrys-netflix-library-grow...
- mtgx 10y agoIs this the precursor to making Netflix a hybrid/P2P service, too?
- jokoon 10y agoGood! Now fix subtitles and expand the catalog...
- fastball 10y agoI've never had an issue with Netflix subtitles, what exactly is your problem with them? And yeah, it would be swell if Netflix could snap their fingers and expand their catalog, but they can't.
- jokoon 10y agoSome subtitles just fail to load or appear on an android device. Also sometimes the last character is trimmed.
- neves 10y agoNice! I'll travel with a bunch of kids to a place without internet. We would like to watch a movie at night in a projector connected to a laptop. It looks like it won't be possible to stream the contents of the netflix app in my phone to the projector.
- ninju 10y agodepending on which kinda of phone you have you can have your smartphone screen shared via HDMI to your projector: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MHL-HDMI-Adapter-Packaging/dp/B005LGUDKK https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-MHL-HDMI-Adapter-Packaging/dp...
- niij 10y agoI am on a tablet on Android 4.4.4, with the latest Netflix version downloaded 4.12.0 (code 13287), trying to download Narcos, and don't see the download icon as shown on Netflix's instructions[0]. Anyone else not seeing it? [0]: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/54816 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/54816
- WheelsAtLarge 10y agoIt's a nice Nexflix addition. When's Pandora/Spotify is going to do this? It only makes sense. The real fix is to have reasonably priced unlimited 4G/5G data. But it doesn't seem to be coming.
- forbidden404 10y agoYou can do that with Spotify if you are a Premium user.
- brownbat 10y agoAny confirmation of what resolution? Preloading 4k HDR might make a more consistent experience than random downsampling mid-scene.