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> The only service with DRM I'm aware of is Netflix and it's terrible anyway. Ha! Tell that to their 150 million subscribers. :) More seriously, using a brows

> The only service with DRM I'm aware of is Netflix and it's terrible anyway. Ha! Tell that to their 150 million subscribers. :) More seriously, using a browser without DRM would be a deal-breaker to many users like myself solely because of Netflix, unfortunately. That said, if you're serious about using a DRM-free browser, there are other ways to watch Netflix (iOS/Android, smart TVs, etc).

JadeNB 7y ago
> > The only service with DRM I'm aware of is Netflix and it's terrible anyway. > Ha! Tell that to their 150 million subscribers. :) I'm not sure that a large number of subscribers is a convincing argument of the non-terribleness of a service. A quick Google search suggests that Comcast, excuse me, Xfinity, has somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30 million subscribers. I don't think that you will find any argument telling them how terrible Xfinity is.
- mwfunk 7y ago
  Sure but those 150 million people choose to subscribe to Netflix. Presumably they like it, otherwise why would they spend money on it every month? The people who use Comcast have no choice, because for nearly all of them, the alternative is no Internet access at home other than via cellular. The original statement was like saying, "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
- RussianCow 7y ago
  Sure, but many of those Xfinity customers don't have any reasonable alternatives, whereas there are now a handful of players in the video streaming space. If someone doesn't like Netflix, they can easily cancel their subscription and switch to another service. So even though you're partially right, the subscriber count in this case is a pretty good proxy of how good the service is.
  - Aeolun 7y ago
    I don’t think it works like that any more. The services used to have more or less the same catalog, but it’s become more and more broken up. To get everything you need to subscribe to 4+ services, and if you drop Netflix, you lose a hefty part of their catalog because it’s on none of the others.
    - RussianCow 7y ago
      I guess when someone says "it's terrible", I assume that includes the catalog and we're not just talking about the UI or something like that. You can't say Netflix is terrible, and then in the same breath praise their selection. The catalog is part of the product, especially with each service making originals now.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Netflix is good for our household, better than Sky or BBC's offerings (for us).
- freedomben 7y ago
  While Comcast the company is evil, I loved their internet service. It was blazing fast and to this day was the most rock-solid ISP I've had for uptime. YMMV of course but for people in my area Comcast was the best (tho sometimes only) choice. (I did get really tired of playing the stupid intro/promo rate game with them tho). Once they turned on their 250GB data cap tho it became far less useful since my wife/kids would stream several gigs a day or more of TV.
pinche2 7y ago
> Ha! Tell that to their 150 million subscribers. :) I'm watching 2 million flies enjoying a dog turd right now. I'm still not convinced...
bscphil 7y ago
Don't they have a desktop client that works just fine? Also, Chrome's "advantage" may be having built-in DRM, but it's not much of one: Netflix limits Chrome users to 720p video. So for all practical purposes you need a different browser or client for Netflix anyway if your main browser is Chromium based.
- iruoy 7y ago
  Netflix limits all non OS bundled browsers to 720p. Safari, Internet Explorer and Chrome OS go to 1080p and Edge to 4K.

JadeNB 7y ago

> > The only service with DRM I'm aware of is Netflix and it's terrible anyway. > Ha! Tell that to their 150 million subscribers. :) I'm not sure that a large number of subscribers is a convincing argument of the non-terribleness of a service. A quick Google search suggests that Comcast, excuse me, Xfinity, has somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30 million subscribers. I don't think that you will find any argument telling them how terrible Xfinity is.

mwfunk 7y ago
Sure but those 150 million people choose to subscribe to Netflix. Presumably they like it, otherwise why would they spend money on it every month? The people who use Comcast have no choice, because for nearly all of them, the alternative is no Internet access at home other than via cellular. The original statement was like saying, "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
RussianCow 7y ago
Sure, but many of those Xfinity customers don't have any reasonable alternatives, whereas there are now a handful of players in the video streaming space. If someone doesn't like Netflix, they can easily cancel their subscription and switch to another service. So even though you're partially right, the subscriber count in this case is a pretty good proxy of how good the service is.
- Aeolun 7y ago
  I don’t think it works like that any more. The services used to have more or less the same catalog, but it’s become more and more broken up. To get everything you need to subscribe to 4+ services, and if you drop Netflix, you lose a hefty part of their catalog because it’s on none of the others.
  - RussianCow 7y ago
    I guess when someone says "it's terrible", I assume that includes the catalog and we're not just talking about the UI or something like that. You can't say Netflix is terrible, and then in the same breath praise their selection. The catalog is part of the product, especially with each service making originals now.
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Netflix is good for our household, better than Sky or BBC's offerings (for us).
freedomben 7y ago
While Comcast the company is evil, I loved their internet service. It was blazing fast and to this day was the most rock-solid ISP I've had for uptime. YMMV of course but for people in my area Comcast was the best (tho sometimes only) choice. (I did get really tired of playing the stupid intro/promo rate game with them tho). Once they turned on their 250GB data cap tho it became far less useful since my wife/kids would stream several gigs a day or more of TV.

pinche2 7y ago

> Ha! Tell that to their 150 million subscribers. :) I'm watching 2 million flies enjoying a dog turd right now. I'm still not convinced...

bscphil 7y ago

Don't they have a desktop client that works just fine? Also, Chrome's "advantage" may be having built-in DRM, but it's not much of one: Netflix limits Chrome users to 720p video. So for all practical purposes you need a different browser or client for Netflix anyway if your main browser is Chromium based.

iruoy 7y ago
Netflix limits all non OS bundled browsers to 720p. Safari, Internet Explorer and Chrome OS go to 1080p and Edge to 4K.