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Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

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Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#251

Post by inerte »

markdown wrote: post #232
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…

> I can't think of a launch of this scale Well that's the problem isn't it. They chose a scale they couldn't handle ergo, they fucked up. A more sane approach would be to start by launching in smaller countries and then slowly scale up.

Agreed. One of the reasons why maybe they didn’t that is because someone thought “we gotta get out those big series everything is expecting like Mandalorian out, and we can’t release it first on Denmark and not the US”, which someone probably replied “why don’t we launch in Denmark without any big names” which got laughed at because then none would want to sign up for it.

The tension between Marketing and Engineering makes another victim.

I believe Google specifically fight against this by mandating every project to have an insane scalable architecture from the get go. You can’t be Google and fail at that when you sell your infra to corporations promising that won’t be a problem. Someone at Disney+ probably made a calculated bet that if they can solve the problem soon, none will care about this in a few weeks.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#252

Post by darkerside »

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 is probably one of the big reasons for rolling out with a beta or invite only soft open. The ability to control growth while also building hype.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#253

Post by mike_d »

jonwachob91 wrote: post #147
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…

>>> 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…

Disney Streaming Services is the same team that is already running ESPN, NHL, and via their BAMTECH brand FoxSportsGo, HBO Now, and Playstation Vue.

It is possible they just had a massive surge of traffic.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#254

Post by patrickthebold »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #169
newfangle wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This kind of makes sense. It isn't their competency. I think it's general advice to never work in a role at a company where that's not their core competency. E.g., engineers are praised at places like Google, etc. Engineers working in entertainment (e.g, Disney) or health care (e.g, Epic Systems) are not as well treated.

I agree with Disney, but what does Epic do other than build software?

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#255

Post by noelsusman »

jonwachob91 wrote: post #147
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…

>>> 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…

ESPN and to a lesser extent Hulu have both been riddled with problems for years. ESPN's streaming service is legendary among sports fans for how terrible it is, though it has finally become usable in the last year or two.

YouTube is the only platform that can compare to Netflix on reliability. I'd throw Twitch up there too but their scale is much smaller.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#256

Post by samplatt »

cwkoss wrote: post #238
mike_hock wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Make the moral choice and pirate their content instead of giving them your money to fund further overreach. ... if you absolutely must have their crap in the first place.

Tangential, but does anyone know of good hardware to function as a standalone HDMI output video server? I've been wanting to play with making a 'plug and play' box that I could give to kids/grandparents in my life who don't have the technical skills to pirate for themselves, preloaded with content I think is good and they'd enjoy. What is the cheapest hardware that can output arbitrary 1080p video over HDMI at a good…

Google ChromeCast is the usual solution for this. ~$50, the size of a hockey puck, needs a phone-charger for a power plug, and does HDMI-out.

Turns your TV into a YouTube/Netflix/Spotify/Hulu, and the remote-control is your phone.

If by "arbitrary 1080p content", you mean a collection of media files of your own, I'd get a Raspberry Pi 3B+ kit for $50, plug in a large external HDD or two, and setup a Plex server.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#257

Post by cwkoss »

planetzero wrote: post #249
cwkoss wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy isn't stealing, that's intellectual property lobbyist propaganda. I would happily download a car: zero cost reproduction of useful things makes society as a whole richer. The content industry needs to figure out a new business model to adapt to the information age, and the longer people pay for digital content the more funds these outdated relics will have for legislating a moat around their "property". I'd mu…

"Piracy isn't stealing, that's intellectual property lobbyist propaganda." You're correct, but it's worse than theft. When you steal a car, just that car is stolen. Piracy devalues the original product...something theft can't really ever do. "I would happily download a car: zero cost reproduction of useful things makes society as a whole richer." But how much did it cost to produce the first car? and do you actually…

Culture is public. By arguing that it should be privately owned, you are effectively saying that poor people shouldn't be allowed to participate.

Disney's business model has been destroying the potential of thousands of great artists who failed to reach cultural relevancy because their parents were barely making ends meet and couldn't afford to buy in, and the cultural language is now locked behind a gate with a toll (if it can be licensed at all).

Why are the greedy profit motivations of a giant multinational corporation more important to you than poor children's cultural participation? You aren't being a rational realist, you are just being selfish and classist.

Disney built their business on the back of the public domain. Every single great movie they made builds off the work of others. Now they are trying to silo these once-free properties behind IP laws to shut the door behind themselves.

Can you name single great work of art created by Disney that isn't mostly derivative? Reflect on why you can't: they are monetizers of existing culture, not creators of originality.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#258

Post by wolco »

dewey wrote: post #141
zzzcpan wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which may be Netflix's only prayer Isn't Disney projecting to get like 10-20% of subscribers compared to that of Netflix in five years? Why are people talking like Disney streaming is such a big thing?

Because Disney has a huge back catalog that they can use in the coming years ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Vault ) would be one reason for that (and a lot of nostalgia).

With 10% of netflix customers volume but how many will drop netflix of that number for disney? Disney will do fine so will netflix. Plenty of room for both.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#259

Post by Retric »

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.

They do however treat their creative department very well. Disney is just as IP focused as any tech company. Software has simply never been as important as the story, characters, etc. And honestly they’re doing really well so it’s hard to argue their priorities are wrong.

PS: I have always disliked how they operate, but my sister’s working there making movies. So, I try to keep an open mind.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#260

Post by a-wu »

casefields wrote: post #218
jonwachob91 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. That is interesting. I haven't used ESPN's streaming platform in about a year (since they did that switch and stopped including streaming in cable packages). But I used to stream European Soccer games on my second monitor at work virtually every day. My work internet was maybe 75 mbps and it worked fine.

It’s gotta be location dependent. I’m in Los Angeles and have never had a single issue with ESPN, even going back to the ESPN3/WatchESPN days.

I actually used to have better service when WatchESPN was standalone. When they started integrating into the main ESPN site (and new player) it started declining for me.
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