Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day • Hacker News Board

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#261

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:46 AM UTC

cookiecaper wrote: post #82

bluedevil2k wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying Netflix? I think Netflix is going to start a steady decline as the content owners continually pull their stuff from Netflix for their own streaming services. The Netflix original stuff, let's be honest, is hit or miss, with most of the movies being a hard miss.

Right, we'll have to see how it goes. The point of buying Netflix would be acquiring its content delivery apparatus and other technical assets, not its subscriber base. It's possible Disney will get the kinks sorted out and start rolling a good-enough CDN on their own, making the benefit in acquiring Netflix minimal. It'd also make it much cheaper to acquire if they could wait a few quarters for the damage to start s…

[deleted]

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#262

Post by cwkoss » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:49 AM UTC

julienb_sea wrote: post #250

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new business model to adapt to the information age, and the longer people pay for digital content the more funds these outdated relics will have for legislating a moat around their "property".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…

Patreon and kickstarter models function based on closed-off perks for the supporters, not just superfans ready to give money for no reason. This is reliant on some protection for those perks, otherwise there is no reason for that model. The idea that piracy isn't stealing is nonsense. Why don't you try creating something, then having someone rip it off against your will, plaster it all over their ad-supported platfor…

Early access seems to be a pretty common model, which I think is pretty effective.

I like that as a minimally-coercive incentive: everyone gets access, but you can pay to access it a week sooner. This is the most common model used by Youtubers AFAICT.

I have had my content "stolen". Someone in China likely made more off the game I wrote than I did: good for them, I would have never been able to reach that market. I was focused on making a quality web-game and they iframed it with ads. Didn't hurt me a bit - even helped a bit because I continued getting analytics from these new users. My inability to create a self-perpetuating monetization strategy for my game does not mean that I'm owed anything: if people donated more I would have worked on it longer, but they didn't so I didn't. Fond memories for everyone involved.

I view the idea that "nobody should be able to make money from the fruits of my labor" rooted in pettiness and insecurity. If you can consistently create good things at a good pace, people will support you. I didn't meet that bar, got a 'real' job, and that's fine.

The idea that a single work of creation should be able to support someone for years (or even the rest of their lives) is a fantasy that only entered the public zeitgeist in the past few decades: I suspect largely as the result of IP trolls like Disney, MPAA and RIAA.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#263

Post by jeromegv » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:54 AM UTC

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 ?

Agree. I think price are just artificially low because of competition. Of course they are cheaper than Netflix, they are trying to steal market share. We shall see in a few years.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#264

Post by cwkoss » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:56 AM UTC

samplatt wrote: post #256

cwkoss wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks, I'll try a Pi 3B+, have only played with the 1 and 2.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#265

Post by thruhiker » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:56 AM UTC

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #156

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…

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 4K works great for me. I've been very impressed although I also have a good experience with Netflix and Amazon Prime and I do have a fiber internet connection.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#266

Post by ryanburk » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:03 AM UTC

patrickthebold wrote: post #254

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

presales, consulting, and support.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#267

Post by wolco » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:03 AM UTC

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…

Piracy doesn't devalue it increases the value. It creates growth and spreads word of mouth. The correct ratio of piracy to purchased copies will make a worthless product into a successful one.

Independent music was more popular in the early 2000s when piracy was high. You share music for it to be successful. With streaming independent music gets lost and crowded out if it exists on the platform.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#268

Post by vonmoltke » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:04 AM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #167

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> willing to work for less because you were working on something related to MLB This part I don't get. The intersection of people who love MLB but are the best talent you're looking for, may not be aligned. If you want great engineers, you shouldn't care whether or not they particularly like MLB. It's a weird hiring funnel. Not all projects demand the best talent, but if Disney Plus wants 60 million subscribers, they…

There's plenty of engineers available, especially outside of the valley where there aren't a thousand companies competing for the same pool of people.

Yeah, BAMTech is in NYC, where there are only 500 or so.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#269

Post by tedsanders » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:06 AM UTC

8ytecoder wrote: post #205

bduerst wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

They do have these modes, though, right?

The home page is for discovery based on your past preferences/popularity. And there are TV and movie pages in which you can display shows by genre or even A-Z.

Disclosure: I work at Netflix and would like to make it better for everyone who uses it.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#270

Post by JPKab » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 2:10 AM UTC

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…

Came home today, and my wife had Disney + set up and running. Son was watching the awful Phantom Menace movie, and unfortunately it was working like a charm.

Anecdotal, but let's be honest:no matter the problems, Disney can hire talent it needs. Question is whether the corporate culture there can not end up being shitty environment for engineers.