13 ms·
Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs
- john-carter 1y ago[dead]
- koinedad 1y agoNot sure the full motivation behind this but this is very annoying for a parent with kids. Especially if you've lost your remote, or want to quickly find something and cast it to your Chromecast/Apple TV. I'd prefer video streaming apps be required to support Casting/AirPlay.
- jaffa2 1y agoAll this app stuff is so annoying. I reverted back a while ago. Now when i want the radio on i just switch it on. With an actual switch. Same with my lights— an actual real switch! Theres no benefit to chaining all your behind someapp the needs updated installed, logged in passwords, managed, ooo you haven’t logged in for 90 days lets send you an email to update your password- bro i just want to increase my heating. Its all nonsense. Sooner people realise the better.
- inanutshellus 1y agoTODAY I got an email saying my $600 robot vacuum cleaner -- which only works via an app -- would no longer work with said app. It has no physical buttons to manage schedules, just a "spot clean now" button. I hand-wrung when I bought it -- knowing it was a risk requiring I trust them -- aand I was bitten. Awesome. Welcome to the future.
- looperhacks 1y agoYou may want to check if your robot is supported by Valetudo: https://valetudo.cloud/ https://valetudo.cloud/
- jansper39 1y agoReading through that site, it seems like instead of locking yourself into a corporations app, you're locking it into his instead. He doesn't seem to want to run an open source community, he's building an app for himself and publishing it for people who have exactly the same use case as him.
- fwip 1y agoTrue, but you don't need to install updates once you have the software installed, and it's probably better not to. The software on the robot doesn't need the app to control, either - it exposes an API that either the app or custom software can talk to, sans cloud servers.
- inanutshellus 1y agoooo thanks for the link, buuut it appears NEATO Robotics vacuums aren't supported ... yet. I had hoped Home Assistant might be able to handle it but it appears their integration just sends the data to NEATO, which no no longer works. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/neato/ https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/neato/ Blarg.
- ryandrake 1y agoNobody on HN wants to hear this, but REG-U-LA-TION. The glorious free market is consistently failing to solve the growing problem of cloud-tethered and app-tethered products being nerfed by their manufacturers after the point of sale.
- tsunamifury 1y agoI think those who believe regulation is universally the devil forget the era where products were received DOA and customers had no recourse while companies simply called it profit.
- alyandon 1y agoI can't take anyone that views regulation as universally evil seriously when history is full of stuff like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor
- tsunamifury 1y agoEvidently HN doesn't like this particular history...
- dredmorbius 1y ago<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176267 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176267> <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44508062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44508062> The Radithor reference is of course quite apropos, and I'm a fan of effective and principled regulation to avoid that and numerous other market failures.
- nine_k 1y agoSorry, but it's CUS-TO-MERS. They buy stuff that can only be controlled via an app talking to the cloud. They buy stuff that cannot be repaired. They buy stuff that openly lies about its specs, for an "unbelievably good price". The customers go for the cheapest, all else be damned. Education in general, and about critical thinking in particular, could help.
- onetokeoverthe 1y ago[dead]
- mikeyouse 1y agoI’ve helped several elderly neighbors get setup with casting to their TVs as well. Just a debacle that’s going to frustrate a bunch of people for no good reason. Really wish the teams that implement ‘features’ like this were forced to deal with the consequences. At least in the olden days, they’d get feedback in the form of calls and complaints to their help line but now it’s just “Too bad, app changed, deal with it.”
- littlecranky67 1y agoWell, the consequence would be to cancel the subscription now?
- mock-possum 1y agoProbably to drive people to piracy
- ZeroConcerns 1y ago> this is very annoying for a parent with kids But the parents without kids, will they at least continue to be leafs? (Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry...)
- whatsupdog 1y ago[flagged]
- hollerith 1y ago>I'd prefer video streaming apps be required to support Casting/AirPlay. Do you mean required by law?
- happymellon 1y agoRequired by store?
- qwertox 1y agoThis is such a good answer, it puts the entire situation into perspective. About who wants to (and theoretically should) act in favor of consumers.
- happymellon 1y agoIts a selling point for Apple and Google devices. Buy into their ecosystem and things "just work". Except when they don't. Its a cross cutting requirement that adds value for the platform.
- koinedad 1y agoNo, I’d say the App Store, I consider it a device perk. I bought the iPhone and Apple TV largely because of airplay so if they remove that functionality it will move me to use other streaming services that support it or I’ll just buy movies again and stop paying streaming altogether.
- clueless 1y ago> Not sure the full motivation behind this This feature was one of the main reasons how Netflix movies/shows could be captured/uploaded to piracy sites in full quality as soon as they were released. People recorded the video output and uploaded them. This is to remove that path. Kinda obvious if you ask.
- progbits 1y agoThis is untrue. This method wouldn't get you the highres content, that's limited to higher widevine tiers. Pirates use other bypass methods and this will zero impact.
- mvdtnz 1y agoHow is this different from recording video output from a not-casted stream?
- progbits 1y agoIt isn't, some people just like to post completely made up nonsense on topics they don't understand. Edit: GP's username should have been a hint...
- Dayshine 1y agoThat's not how casting works. It's actually super locked down: the TV loads a netflix website and you can't create your own Chromecast receivers.
- fragmede 1y agoHow does VLC do it then?
- otterley 1y agoApple TV has a Netflix app already. Plus you can use your iPhone as a remote.
- darrylb42 1y agoI guessed this was coming after you couldn't cast to a device that was logged into a different account. Would be a nice experience to be able to cast Paw patrol from one of the kids accounts instead of cluttering the in-laws view history with kids shows.
- happymellon 1y agoBut then how would they charge you extra for being at a second location?
- calgoo 1y agoJust setup different profiles on the in-laws tv? A kids profile and problem solved!
- wincy 1y agoBy “directs to remote” does it mean the TV remote? I feel like I’m missing something here, it’s just saying “use the smart tv’s built in app”? Directing someone to the remote seems like an overcomplicated way of indicating this? I’m so glad we use plex, have thought of making the jump to jellyfin though. I tried to use my MacBook Air to watch their excellent Michelin Stars show, but couldn’t watch it on 2/3 of my monitors because they don’t have HDCP built in. Modern disk drives are so cheap you can just download everything in 4K HDR, paired with an OLED display it’s absolutely breathtaking how good modern media can look. So anyway, with the Michelin show I just downloaded it off a torrent site instead, which is a hilariously easier user experience and it’s caused by the very HDCP that is supposed to prevent piracy.
- daveoc64 1y ago>By “directs to remote” does it mean the TV remote? I feel like I’m missing something here, it’s just saying “use the smart tv’s built in app”? Directing someone to the remote seems like an overcomplicated way of indicating this? Yes, that's what it means. Some other streaming apps encourage using their mobile app as a remote, so I would imagine they are making it clear that the app should not be used at all here.
- baggachipz 1y agomore rent-seeking from a pantheon member of rent-seekers.
- troupo 1y agoI've worked in streaming. If you see a feature pulled, or announced and delayed, or announced and never shipped, 99.99999% of the time it's due to licensing. Every single permutation of any action that a user may find beneficial is covered by a different license with a different cost. Oh. And ads. There's another can of worms if you need to serve ads. In this case it could be that Netflix is an asshole. Or could be that they really could not figure out proper device attribution and ad reporting to the leeches that are the content owners and ad networks.
- LogicFailsMe 1y agoDon't build the Torment Netflix? These fundamentally anti-consumer moves are why it's called the Internet of sh**y things. I have no concern whatsoever whether this is about licensing or just money grubbing. You're making things suck for the paying customer. But to be fair, all the streaming services are chasing the last few drops of blood from the stone trying to stop people from actually watching from two screens they paid for in two different locations and other idiocy. I canceled Netflix a while back. And I only watch prime video through an ad blocker on my PC now. Clearly I must hate freedom.
- troupo 1y ago> I have no concern whatsoever whether this is about licensing or just money grubbing. You're making things suck for the paying customer. That's the thing though. Streaming services have very little say in how the content is licensed. > the last few drops of blood from the stone trying to stop people from actually watching from two screens they paid for in two different locations and other idiocy. Those restrictions you're talking about? They literally come from licensing terms that rights owners impose. (Most) streaming platforms would gladly not spend a lot of time figuring the devices, what they are playing etc.
- LogicFailsMe 1y agoMy post obviously struck a nerve, but I would rather pay a higher subscription fee than experience a crappy customer experience. Ads are an exception here, if I'm paying, no ads, and also why I cancelled my NYT subscription long ago. However, that is not the storyline services like Disney and Netflix have been telling. They have gassed on and on about stopping piracy. 2 screens isn't piracy, it's any family with someone who travels or is away at college. The solution would appear to be an official android API for streaming content from mobile devices that has resolved these issues or locked out the rights holders. That would require spine so not expecting it, sigh. But they're sure happy to pick on sideloaders.
- bryanlarsen 1y agoAs of Nov 10, Netflix removed the ability to cast at all for anybody on the ad-supported tier. A hostile move, but understandable money grubbing. This is less understandable.
- NickC25 1y agoIt's very understandable. they want to upsell their existing customer base. like you said, money grubbing. they need to grow this quarter, remember?
- bryanlarsen 1y agoThe original post is talking about a feature removal that's happening to everybody, even the premium peers. That's what's I'm referring to as not understandable.
- Reddit_MLP2 1y ago[dead]
- gnarlouse 1y agoNetflix is fucking its business up by trying to be a studio IMO. The service was perfect when they were a streaming platform. The studio arm's script selection and production quality makes me want to gauge my eyes out. When you pay an arm and a leg every month for Netflix, you're funding a studio that pumps out the equivalent of screeching goblin sounds. Makes no sense.
- bryanlarsen 1y agoDid they have a choice? In the beginning the studios gave them access to their catalog for cheap. The studios understandably stopped doing that.
- gnarlouse 1y agoThis is a good point, I hadn't considered that.
- zdragnar 1y agoI don't know that Netflix had much of an option. Once the studios and networks realized how much money they were leaving on the table by not running their own exclusive streaming services, the licensing costs to Netflix blew up or simply became entirely unavailable. Netflix running their own studio was a reasonable attempt at regaining some exclusivity, even if it's been executed poorly in many cases. I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep my subscription as we've hardly used it in months at this point, but I also don't have any other subscriptions any more either, so I'm not exactly a great bellwether.
- lunias 1y agoI don't understand Netflix's decision, but I'm long past caring about things like this. I've had PCs hooked up to all of my televisions for the past 15+ years because of how limiting and frustrating using any other device to play media from can be.
- Razengan 1y agoBitTorrent → Local Media Player App Still the best way to watch movies and shows. Even if we pay $100 dollars every month to streaming services they will never not be too dumb to know how to make a convenient player that isn't hostile to its users.
- NickC25 1y agoIt's not about paying them $100. They aren't dumb. They've realized that a large section of people will not bother, and aren't capable of sailing the high seas. Hostile behaviors won't change until it hits their bottom line, and because they are an extremely profitable company, it won't happen for a very long time.
- Razengan 1y agoMaybe the buccaneers need to up their marketing. Whatever happened to the media players that had built-in torrent searching and streaming?
- sphars 1y agoYou mean like PopcornTime? I think it's still around in various capacities and different forks
- throwawaygmbno 1y agoThere is nothing at all to be gained by advertising piracy, especially to the streaming companies. Let them enshittify their apps and just tell your friends and family offline how to have a sane video viewing experience.
- thot_experiment 1y agoshit like this is why I've recently totally given up on everything except Bandcamp and torrents, I really wish I could just pay for the 50gb mkvs with the 10bit color, atmos and film grain like I can for flacs but good damn is life nice when you just have files, a network and zero drm and limitations
- saint_yossarian 1y agoSame, now and then some indie films release on sites like Vimeo where you can buy a DRM-free download, but it's very rare unfortunately.
- turnsout 1y agoThis only strengthens my decision to invest in 4K Blu-ray. We're fully in the enshittification stage of streaming TV.
- MaxBarraclough 1y agoSome Blu-Rays have major spoilers in their menu animations, and some have unskippable ads, some of which may contain major spoilers. [0] It's also a criminal offence to create a backup, thanks to the DMCA. On the plus side, all UHD Blu-Rays are free of region-locking. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26211740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26211740
- turnsout 1y agoNothing is perfect—it's all about what's workable for you. I'm still doing both, but I'm convinced that streaming is deteriorating.
- tsunamifury 1y agoNetflix’s seemingly baffling decisions all make sense when you realize one thing: Netflix sees no more technological future or market opportunity for themselves that will increase profits, so reduction of features and up charging are the only strategies. It’s a testiment to the blindness and stupidity of their workers and leadership that in the era of the most cutting edge breakthroughs in video, Netflix believes the future is in removing functionality.
- kennethrc 1y ago> in the era of the most cutting edge breakthroughs in video ... and what are those?
- tsunamifury 1y agoAre you living under a rock? You can do multi scene coherent video generation with off the shelf mobile apps right now. We are living in an era where extending nostalgic IP is just a few steps away. It may take time but it will start with cartoons and go from there.
- jjbinx007 1y ago"One Reddit user said customer service explained that devices with remotes can no longer cast, claiming the decision was made to improve the customer experience." How can this improve the customer experience?
- exe34 1y agoThe reason isn't meant to be true/correct/verifiable. It's meant to be a positive sounding soundbite.
- hooverd 1y agoIt doesn't. They're just lying.
- sockaddr 1y agoStatements like those are meant for you to just bounce off of them and fuck off. They don't care about the truth and they know you don't care enough to do anything about their lying. It's an entire business model.
- barbazoo 1y agoCorporate garbagespeak, has no relation to reality whatsoever.
- xnx 1y agoIs this, in part, an anti-copying measure?
- baggachipz 1y agoGiven that they block login sharing, I think it's most likely the following scenario: Friend with a Netflix account comes to your house, casts Netflix to your TV. No need for you to have a Netflix account in that case. Whereas, they want to force you to also have a Netflix account to watch on your TV.
- estebarb 1y agoCurrently it is impossible to use Netflix on screens connected via DisplayLink. Which is the only way to connect 2 monitors in older M processor MacBooks.
- jerlam 1y agoKind of wild that Netflix is (or believes) it is so far ahead of all the other streaming services that they're nickel-and-diming their customers for every little feature. Other services were aggressively throwing Black Friday sales in order to boost their subscriber counts. I picked up HBO for 70% off, and there were also Hulu and Apple TV discounts. And I didn't need any of them because there's plenty of ad-supported content on YouTube, Tubi, and other services.
- tortilla 1y agoI never watch Netflix but I kept their highest tier account to share with my family (not in same household). They really started nickle-and-diming this quarter and I cancelled. I know I could add another user for additional charge but it motivated me to cancel.
- schnable 1y agoIf you think they nickel and dime customers, you should see what they do to TV and streaming device makers. They can make basically any demand they want because you can't ship with Netflix.
- paxys 1y agoI remember the time when smart homes used to feature in sci-fi literature and concept videos. Being able to walk around your house while having everything seamlessly synced and tailored to your preferences was clearly the future. TV, movies and music automatically playing in whatever room your enter. Files and all other data seamlessly synced between all your devices. Not having to think about how to make the tech work, because it all just works. The frustrating thing is that we've had all the tech to make this possible for at least 10-20 years now. Yet "smart" homes are getting worse with every passing year. Why? Because consumer technology is monopolized by a handful of large corporations whose goal isn't to make people's lives easier but build walled gardens and restrictions to best extract every last cent.
- MichaelZuo 1y agoAny vision of the future that doesn’t include realistic incentives of human beings won’t happen. Offering such a flexible smart home requires a huge amount of coordination work, customer support, and just taking the blame sometimes for the inevitable bugs. Yeah competent companies are willing to take on all that, if you pay them a lot, which is why high end smart homes are flourishing.
- internetter 1y ago> competent companies are willing to take on all that, if you pay them a lot, which is why high end smart homes are flourishing. Citations needed, I can provide a lot of examples of high end equipment providing a worse experience.
- MichaelZuo 1y agoFamously Bill Gates had a practically fully envisioned smart home by the early 2000s. With pretty much every wizmo and integration. Even superyachts nowadays are starting to see that from what I’ve heard.
- Larrikin 1y ago
- ryanmcbride 1y agojust one more cycle of bottom line chasing at the expense of user satisfaction, I promise you guys just one more price rise, just one fewer device allowed it's okay though we have stranger things! You guys love that right?
- nmcfarl 1y agoThis is going to be painful for people in a way which I haven’t seen discussed here yet. A year ago I went on vacation with my family, and the kids wanted to watch Netflix on VRBO‘s TV and so I logged in to my account on the tv. And of course I forgot to log it out when I left - so, predictably, the next people decided they hated my taste and went through and deleted all my likes and dislikes, and rated I swear 100 teen romances. I somehow got my account logged out of that TV, but the account was trashed and unrepairable so I lost about a decades worth of history and started a new one. Afterwards, I thought I should’ve just cast from the kids iPad. And now that won’t be possible.
- internetter 1y agoSometimes when I cast from apps to a TV it logs me into the TV. incredibly annoying.
- intrinseca 1y agoThis is why I take a Chromecast with me on vacation. Put in the WiFi password and job done. Works better and faster than most smart TVs.
- brnt 1y agoI always bring a USB drive. All TVs play from USB.
- nerdjon 1y agoNetflix seems to basically do everything in their power to own the experience of using Netflix as much as possible, short of making a device and OS themselves. This and refusing to work with the Apple TV app are the 2 big examples that come to mind but there are likely others. I am not really sure what this solves though since you would still be using their app. Them refusing to work with the Apple TV app was one of my biggest reasons for canceling. They really need to get knocked down a few pegs.
- triceratops 1y ago> Them refusing to work with the Apple TV app Not that I think Netflix is being anything other than shitty here. But Apple TV is equally egregious in not supporting Chromecast.
- nerdjon 1y ago(Admittedly this is where Apple's naming on the Apple TV has been really bad). In this particular situation I am referring to the Apple TV App not the OS or Hardware. The ability to find shows and movies to watch across all (except netflix) of your streaming services. According to the article they dropped support for Airplay a while ago.
- cortesoft 1y agoWhy would the Apple TV app play other streaming services? I know the Amazon Prime app supports some partner streaming services, but I don’t know of any other streamer that plays its competitors videos in their app? Every service requires using their app and only plays its own videos in that app.
- mercutio2 1y agoThe Apple TV (the device) has a “stuff this user watches” app (called Apple TV) which has a tiny subset of its features dedicated to AppleTV+ (the service). Netflix refuses to participate in “stuff this user watches”, it would be trivial to do, but Neflix jealously guards its viewership numbers and I expect this is the main reason they don’t do it. That and… they’d rather you just browse Netflix and not watch other services. The “stuff this user watches” app is very useful! I like it a lot, when I’m not watching Netflix stuff! It works with every service except Netflix! But the moment the family shifts over to watching some Netflix show, it forces us out of the habit of using the TV app, and then we go back to the annoying “spend 90 seconds trying to find what we were watching on Hulu” experience, which is worse in every way.
- cultofmetatron 1y agoI signed up again for netflix while I was back in the states. when I arived in colombia, netflix gave me an error so I contact customer support. Apparently accounts are now region locked. I would have to cancel my account and then sign up again here (which I can't because they require a new number) I loved the service but now its literaly unusable for me. whoever came up with these new policies should be "voluntarily" relocated to gaza. I've resorted to piracy now. Its hard to imagine a company going through so much effort to not take my money.
- throw7 1y agoChromecast is a dead product. Google killed it, but I think in this case it was when they lost a patent case in good ole Texas. I have several chromecast devices and have no interest in the replacement, google tv streamer. "... the decision was made to improve the customer experience." Of course that's a lie, but it is ironic, as the reason why chromecast was initially conceived was that TV UX is horrible.
- jspann 1y agoWhat was the Texas patent case?
- throw7 1y agoHad to look it up (the texas comment is just a jab at texas being an amenable place to file IP infringement cases which is something i remember back then reading): https://www.reuters.com/legal/google-owes-3387-mln-chromecast-patent-case-us-jury-says-2023-07-24/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/google-owes-3387-mln-chromecas...
- iguessthislldo 1y agoOut of all the dead Google products so far, I'm probably going to mourn for it the most once the existing ones are basically unusable, which I know is coming someday. I've always loathed the idea of giving TVs themselves internet for various reasons. The various boxes are marginally better, but the Chromecast felt revolutionary to me when it launched, because the TV didn't need to be complicated by UI or a remote with a million buttons, it was all in the phone. Also to me personally this user hostile act feels like a betrayal because in the early days of Chromecast Netflix's app seems to have the least number of issues with Chromecast. Even if that was just my subjective experience, it was still the app I used most with Chromecast when I got my first one because Netflix was a different beast then. I still have my dead 1st gen and I look at it with fondness. I'm not surprised the mega corporations don't have the same feeling, but it still feels bad when they want to take away something they made that I actually liked.
- quxbar 1y agoAfter the better part of a decade spent with chromecast and legal streaming, I have been forced back to the high seas as of late. I can't reliably get programs without onerous subscriptions, each for one or two shows I actually care about.
- finnjohnsen2 1y agoaye matey
- storus 1y agoI suspect they killed it a bit earlier but in different regions and only now it arrived to the US; I went to Croatia in September and couldn't get Netflix to stream from any of my devices onto the hotel room's TV and had to instead link my account to the TV's Netflix app.
- Rebelgecko 1y agoA big part of why marketplaces like Netflix and Steam got so popular is because they provided a low-friction way to consume that was even easier than piracy. It seems like the pendulum is starting to swing in the other direction now- it's often easier to copyright infringe than to watch something the legit way, even if you pay for a subscription that grants you access. Great example of something that's illegal but not morally wrong :)
- jlengrand 1y agoBetween this, the ads on paid plans, and the fragmentation of catalogues, we've come full circle.
- WorldPeas 1y agothe difference of course being that valve /has/ to keep their customers happy because their average user is savvy at least with browsing the internet, the same can't be said of streaming consumers, many whom I know are emigres from the now-decaying cable infrastructure. Netflix knows this and squeezes their customer base, and while I would like to assume the altruism of Steam, whether by their own design or the will of the public, a solution with friction that low is all that works with that target market.
- ffsm8 1y agoI wish there was a service like steam for videos: not subscription but high confidence purchase of video content available "forever" (even if they remove it from the purchasing options, license would remain). Personally I watch so little tv/movies that any subscription was always overpaying. I still did it for a while, because the price wasn't high enough to push me to seek out other options. I'm no longer subbing and moved on, but the right holders are seriously detached from reality if they think this is a sane business strategy
- Terretta 1y ago> I wish there was a service like steam for videos: not subscription but high confidence purchase of video content available "forever" (even if they remove it from the purchasing options, license would remain). In general, iTunes content purchase licenses are owned in perpetuity. You do need to download the bits and have the files on hand, as (a) Apple may lose the right to re-deliver the bits to you, or (b) you may change regions (e.g., move from Australia to Canada) and find the re-download isn't available in the new region. A good deal of stories were published in 2018 about Apple revoking or removing content, but when threads are pulled, the examples generally fell into these two camps. If you had kept the content yourself, you got to keep enjoying it. > Personally I watch so little tv/movies that any subscription was always overpaying Agree there's a good chance many households could purchase their preferred shows for less than the "watch throwaway stuff" subscriptions -- and then own them. This suggests a more ideal pairing is purchasing, plus something like Pluto.
- jlengrand 1y agoexcerpt 33 of why those platforms will end up dying, and everyone will go back to the old ways. Greed is such a powerful enshittification factor
- mrguyorama 1y agoSo Cable TV died decades ago when they first put ads onto the service that was sold on not having any ads, right? Enshittification is done because it is so reliable. Customers just keep buying, doesn't really seem to matter how poorly you treat them. Shrinkflation has gone on for decades and there's nothing stopping it from continuing because what are you going to do, not buy 90% of products in the grocery store? Good luck. The problem is that businesses reach a sort of escape velocity where you can abuse your customer and they either do not react to it or have no other choice. The entire economy has worked to ensure that every consumer experiences trained helplessness when it comes to consuming, because that's more profitable.
- jlengrand 1y agoJust give it time
- everdrive 1y agoWe hook a laptop to our TV. This approach has never once disappointed us. No one has (or really can) come and sweep the rug out from under our feet.
- wrxd 1y ago> However, even on these legacy devices, casting only remains for those on costlier ad-free plans, but it is unavailable for subscribers on Netflix's ad-supported plan. If I were a subscriber this move wouldn't make me switch to a costlier plan, I'd rather unsubscribe entirely
- emsign 1y agoSo this mens Netflix have finally become better at collecting personal data with the help of TVs than with smart phones. I see.
- stuaxo 1y agoThis makes it less convenient to use in hotels where you will now need to login - IF their TV has netflix, it's a bit of a gamble what TV you'll get.
- jauntywundrkind 1y agoThe extra irony here is that Netflix kind of lead the charge in this domain, worked with YouTube to build the DIAL protocol (Discovery and Launch, 2010). Which strongly resembles what emerged latter, Chromecast. From the DIAL protocol: > For consumers, DIAL removes the pain of having to launch the required app on the first-screen [eg: tv] before interacting with it from their second-screen [eg: phone]. https://www.dial-multiscreen.org/ https://www.dial-multiscreen.org/ Growing up in the 90's, I was obsessed with ubiquitous computing, with an idea that there would be computers everywhere & we were going to need "the network is the computer" type thinking to let us make use of ambient screens, speakers, cameras, lights, etc. with Casting being ascendant and ragingly excellent, and Matter finally bringing some reason to IoT (but computer to computer notably weak) it's amazing to see some of that world. I cannot for the life of me imagine why Netflix would be trying to stuff the genie back in the bottle now. We're ina user I would be pissed. I almost never touch my TV remote, and turning back the I also want to mention that there is an open standard at the w3c, Open Screen Protocol, that's built by the Second Screen Working Group, to handle these flows in an open specified way. Matter has a Cast spec as well, but seems to only work with native apps that are already installed on devices, where-as DIAL (in many cases), Chromecast, and Open Screen Protocol all have modes where the target TV or speaker or whatnot open a given URL, so they can work with any* app without the 1st screen/tv needing explicit support. https://github.com/w3c/openscreenprotocol https://github.com/w3c/openscreenprotocol
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- mpalmer 1y agoWe never, ever, ever connect our TVs to the Internet. So uh...bye Netflix.
- MathMonkeyMan 1y ago1. Download file of content you wish to consume (this usually, but not always, involves piracy). 2. Put file onto computer. Maybe the computer you already downloaded it onto. 3. Plug computer into TV or monitor. 4. Open file to consume content. One of these days I'll get around to setting up something like this for my dad: - laptop sits under the TV (maybe asleep), occasionally checking for commands - dad sends command from his computer "I want to torrent" - laptop sitting under the TV hosts remote web interface for qbittorrent or similar - dad sends command from his phone "I want to watch movie now" - movie starts playing on TV from laptop, and dad can control it with his phone
- perryizgr8 1y agoJellyfin is great for this if you don't want to put the computer right next to the TV. Set up your torrent program to download to a particular directory and set up Jellyfin to watch it. The most seamless experience to watch anything. The only downside compared to Netflix is you need to wait 10-15 minutes to let the torrent finish. Also sometimes you have to hunt for the subtitles if you want them.
- sharts 1y agoPiracy is the only most seamless and non-proprietary solution
- peterlada 1y agoThis sucks for hotel dwellers.