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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

#201

Post by lotsofpulp »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #149
lotsofpulp wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix’s multiple screens implementation makes it everyone has access to everyone else’s profile. They should’ve let people link individual Netflix accounts together, but I can see how that can cause fewer possible subscribers if people start sharing.

>. They should’ve let people link individual Netflix accounts together Spotify does that and it's a complete deal breaker. I want to log in to all my home devices _once_, with a single account. Not continuously log out and log in and try to type complex passwords with a remote control. I mean, I can't even play different songs on different Google Homes or different TVs with Spotify, unless I sign in with different ac…

I find that we rarely share devices, even TVs. I AirPlay things if I’m in a common room and it’s too much work to search it.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#202

Post by scrumbledober »

dhagz wrote: post #129
mizzao wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main cost for Netflix is content, not engineering. They spend billions developing new shows. Disney has tons of existing material they can just monetize, so huge advantage there.

And from the look of it, EVERYTHING is there. So far only a couple of things I haven't been able to find, which were either super-niche (an old Christmas sing-along video I watched as a kid), or Song of the South.

There are some things that should remain in the Disney vault...

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#203

Post by stoic »

Softcadbury wrote: post #154
baddox wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have much of a problem with Netflix content, but it's the price that just doesn't make sense. They charge extra for UHD, and that premium plan costs more than HBO (which is probably still the king of content quality, though with a crappy 1080p stream) and over twice as much as Disney+ and Apple TV+ (which don't charge extra for UHD).

I don't understand how people can criticize the price of Netflix. Remember, just 10 years ago, the price of a single DVD ?

Physical copies of movies still cost about the same, though.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#204

Post by adrr »

echelon wrote: post #179
rosege wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix is renown for paying their engineers very well. I would be interested to know if Disney+ also pay such high salaries to attract the best?

You don't need to pay a Netflix salary to build streaming video. I predict Netflix salaries will begin to erode over time.

DirectvNow and MGo would beg to differ. Hulu should be much bigger considering their catalog but their app is terrible to point of being almost unusable.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#205

Post by 8ytecoder »

bduerst wrote: post #76
fluidcruft wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Netflix UX is a balancing act between finding things that you know you want to watch and "discovering" new content to watch. Netflix faces the same challenge that Facebook does with the news feed in that they're trying to combine two functions into the one interface that the users are familiar with.

I don't know when product managers are going to realize that one size doesn't fit all. Different people use Netflix differently and usually even the same people use it differently at different times. There should be an option to switch between these modes.

Netflix, for example, could easily have multiple modes. A discover based on my past preferences/popularity mode and a categorical listing mode. The problem is them blending these two together and then prioritizing their content arbitrarily over other better recommendations.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#206

Post by shiftoutbox »

newfangle wrote: post #155
jonwachob91 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> The logical conclusion, of course, is that Disney should've just bought Netflix Why buy Netflix when you could get a similarly qualified team and infrastructure by buying Hulu? Oh wait... Disney already owns Hulu... Whoops. What about ESPN. ESPN has a really good streaming product. Oh wait... Disney already owns that one too... Disney didn't need to buy Netflix, they just needed to use the resources they already…

I believe disney has every advantage in the streaming wars so i decided to see if they have any open dev positions and i also decided to check what reviews of working there were like. Seems like Disney does not have an engineering culture and software engineers are at the bottom of the totem pole.

I would hope that Disney would recognize you can’t easily just snap your fingers and get a Netflix like setup. It’s not a matter of using aws or google. It’s just a raw man hours issue . I hope you fail.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#207

Post by scarface74 »

cookiecaper wrote: post #29
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.

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…

The logical conclusion, of course, is that Disney should've just bought Netflix

They bought BAMTech years ago. The company that built MLB@Bat and saved HBO Go/Now when their in house tech couldn’t cut it.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#208

Post by disneysockputty »

madrox wrote: post #182
CountSessine wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever considered writing a blog about your experiences there? What little you did write here in the response about DisneyLife is actually how I think Disney+ is going to turn out (small team, underfunded, demoralized, forced to license 3rd rate tech based on external mandates, etc).

Maybe one day when I can feel more analytical about it. This is a weird day for me, as you can imagine. Also, lots of people I know and like have put a lot of time into Disney+. I don't want to take away from what they're trying to accomplish right now.

What exactly are these folks trying to accomplish beyond promotion? Is there anything beyond selfish interests behind the Disney efforts of late further fragmenting the video streaming ecosphere?

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#210

Post by OnlineGladiator »

jamroom wrote: post #190
OnlineGladiator wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hulu is so buggy on my TV I regularly think of cancelling it. I'm not sure how valuable their technical infrastructure is.

Hulu on my Apple TV is excellent - I find the interface to be much less "noisy" than Netflix and I like the large back catalog on a lot shows. Honestly I subscribed for one show (forget what it was now) but found I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

I'm not talking about the interface. I mean it literally won't load or crashes regularly. I have fiber internet and no issues with Netflix or any other streaming service.

I'm glad it works for you, but it's pretty awful for me.

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