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Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

bbc.com

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Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#91

Post by ssully »

ThePadawan wrote: post #83
testplzignore wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disney+ is arguably the largest software release of all time in terms of scale. My estimate is that they will be handling 1-2% of all internet traffic by the end of the week. I can't think of a launch of this scale that has gone smoothly. Modern console releases, AAA games with online multiplayer, Pokemon Go, healthcare.gov... all cases where organizations literally have billions in cash. It does not matter how much…

OK - so if it is so obvious that you can't scale from 0 to 100 on launch day, why not anticipate that? Ticket sales platforms for major sports events and concerts don't try to do it - they plan for it by having customers queue. Did Disney not attempt this?

I've never handled a project like this, but I feel like the goal should be to meet what average demand will be once the high demand of the first few days goes down. No one is going to remember that they couldn't login to Disney+ on the first day as long as the experience on the second and going forward is strong.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#92

Post by jonplackett »

MentallyRetired wrote: post #3

I don't think anyone on hackernews would be surprised by this. The scale they have to operate at is absolutely insane. To scale flawlessly on day 1 is a big ask of any development team.

This would seem a fair assessment if it were not for my experience using Disney Life, their old streaming service. It has been out for years and is generally terrible.

- App is incredibly slow and takes ages to load. Worst on Kindle Fire and older devices (Netflix/Prime video work fine)

- sometimes a download film will just stop working and crash the device when you try to open it. Only way to fix is to delete the whole app and reinstall. Deleting only the download does not work.

- downloads are huge regardless of device/connection, appears to be no intelligent bandwidth usage.

- logs you out on every single update of the app or operating system (pain on Apple TV where it auto updates every minor version)

- logging back in requires you to go to their website rather than be able to do it on the device.

- never remembers where you are in a film properly

- interface on Apple TV is impossible to use (partly Apple TV controllers fault though)

Yet I still subscribe, because the content itself is great.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#93

Post by dangerboysteve »

tootie wrote: post #88
MentallyRetired wrote: post #3

I don't think anyone on hackernews would be surprised by this. The scale they have to operate at is absolutely insane. To scale flawlessly on day 1 is a big ask of any development team.

I logged in early this morning and nothing was working but it was up an running within maybe an hour. It's almost more impressive that they had an unintended service interruption so quickly and recovered right away.

I signed up an hour ago for the trial. There were some minor hiccups but I was able to download some stuff.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#94

Post by jumbopapa »

fluidcruft wrote: post #41
crooked-v wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A key thing drawing me from Netflix to Disney+ is that the latter is willing to actually just give me lists A-Z of all available shows and movies. I'm sure there have to be others who feel the same way.

Yeah, what is it with Netflix and making it impossible to find something to watch anymore? It's like you open it up and not only do all the lists change and it's not easy to find things, but they also run around changing the cover images of the series you've been watching so you don't even recognize it at first and you're hunting around to find it again.

Check out Reelgood [1]. It aggregates all of the streaming services and allows you to filter on genre, IMDB, and Rotten Tomatoes. I don't have to waste time looking through a bunch of junk to find something worth watching anymore.

[1] - https://reelgood.com/

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#95

Post by lotsofpulp »

cookiecaper wrote: post #68
berdon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how that plays with their canabilizing of Hulu subscribers. Does it count those subscribers in the 60 million?

Hulu is primarily owned by Comcast (afaik Disney only has a minority stake). After Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox last year, Comcast and Disney own the vast majority of what people consider AAA entertainment content. Assuming Disney+ finds its footing, the stage is set for a Hulu/Disney+ duopoly. Comcast and Disney will starve Netflix, Amazon, et al for popular content, while simultaneously bleeding them on…

The old school cable setup didn't let you watch on demand from anywhere at anytime.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#97

Post by crooked-v »

milesokeefe wrote: post #89
dwoozle wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hulu is dogshit technically, I would hope that Disney+ doesn’t hit a line of Hulu code.

What technical issues/deficiencies have you seen with Hulu?

On Apple TV I run into constant "cannot be played" errors that go away after hitting the menu button and reslecting the same item.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#98

Post by selebrazin »

sassifrass wrote: post #55
cookiecaper wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. Last night I was telling my wife that it'll be real interesting to see how well the launch goes and that I'd expect them to have continuous issues for the first 3-6 months (which may be Netflix's only prayer). Video is hard to get right, with quirks across many combinations of platform/device/OS/browser version/video card/playback resolution/format features, and it consumes around 90% of total internet traffi…

It’s true that getting video “right” can be extremely challenging, but it’s worth noting that Disney has quite significant previous experience here, including at massive scale. Disney+ operates on top of an expanded MLBAM (BAMTech Media [1]) platform, which has been powering all of ESPNs OTT, Playstatiom Vue, and ran HBO’s OTT offering for a while [2] (Game of Thrones). Disney also opted only to launch in the US, Can…

A small correction: Disney+ launched in the Netherlands in September 2019 [1] which was treated as a public test.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/12/20862167/free-disney-plus...

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#99

Post by crooked-v »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #65

Why would they want to be fully working on day 1. At day 5, yes. But before that, it's great marketing: Our platform is too popular to handle demand currently, is the message

Also, launching on a Tuesday is a great way to get people to hammer on the service for a few days before 'seriously' using it for 'movie night' on a Friday or Saturday.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#100

Post by basch »

ssully wrote: post #91
ThePadawan wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK - so if it is so obvious that you can't scale from 0 to 100 on launch day, why not anticipate that? Ticket sales platforms for major sports events and concerts don't try to do it - they plan for it by having customers queue. Did Disney not attempt this?

I've never handled a project like this, but I feel like the goal should be to meet what average demand will be once the high demand of the first few days goes down. No one is going to remember that they couldn't login to Disney+ on the first day as long as the experience on the second and going forward is strong.

Plus, its free press. "Disney+ so popular at launch it was hard to get into for a couple hours." Meanwhile, as people are getting home from work and reading that headline, and Disney+ now works.
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