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

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#361

Post by peferron » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 3:31 PM UTC

decafninja wrote: post #140

gamblor956 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Importantly, they also worked a lot fewer hours than the Netflix engineers did and probably got to go home every night and weekend. Netflix pays very well but also works its tech workers hard.

I'm sure this depends on the team, but I've actually heard from someone who works there that Netflix views working overtime consistently as a red flag? As in, everyone is supposed to be a superstar engineer, and not being able to finish your work in 9-5 makes you look bad?

I can't speak for everyone at Netflix, and as you mention it may depend on the team, but in my team I don't think anyone cares. Why should it matter how many hours someone works a week, as long as they do a good job overall?

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

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Post by greedo » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC

stoic wrote: post #203

Softcadbury wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Bluray and 4K discs have dropped dramatically over the last five years.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#363

Post by blaser-waffle » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 4:53 PM UTC

neuronic wrote: post #338

MentallyRetired wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP on the thread and actually I'm a former disney dev for disneyworld.com. It's a sweat shop. They had me working 100 hours a week the first 4 months I was there. They would order me food so I wouldnt have to leave my desk. Many times I slept under it. Then I had 6 months of pretty normal hours working on maintenance, then I went back on another project and they had me working 60 - 80 hours (with some 40 and some 100…

> They would order me food so I wouldnt have to leave my desk. Many times I slept under it. Is this work culture the norm in the US? I audibly said "wtf" just now, sitting at my work desk.

The US has workers who, on average, work longer hours than anywhere else in the world. Salaries, esp. in STEM, and esp. on the mid-to-high-end, are also wayyy higher than anywhere else.

If you want to make that fat US developer salary be ready to put in the work. Presumably Disney has the money to throw at you via salary... but they're going to get their money's worth.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

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Post by nsporillo » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 6:28 PM UTC

briffle wrote: post #36

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the traditional media companies will be happy enough if all of the streaming companies fail due to fragmentation and they can ramrod cable back down everyone's throats. Even a streaming failure might be a win for traditional media companies. It might even be the biggest win, honestly. I don't know, but it seems like there was more money in traditional media than in streaming. The brief point in time where eve…

Honestly, I want it to be more like Music. I can choose whichever streaming music company I want and get 99.9% of the same music, because they have standard fees they pay each other, etc. Streaming Video is incredibly fragmented. It's honestly frustrating. I don't want to subscribe to 5 services. I currently have Hulu+Live, and it has ESPN, and lots of other channels I like, but doesn't have the local Fox station, or…

I bought an HD antenna that gave me roughly 20 local channels with crystal clear picture and no buffering for $28 - no subscription. I'd highly recommend it for cord cutters to augment their streaming with local news and sports on national tv (world series, super bowl, sunday night football, etc).

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

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Post by null_vector » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 7:06 PM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #170

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?

I interviewed with them and no, they do not pay all that well, and their recruiter was pretty upfront about disclosing that early in the process. Additionally, I've hired a candidate that had an offer in hand from Disney+ and we were easily able to outbid them, (I was at a non-FAANG company at the time)

What were the offer amounts?

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#366

Post by cookiecaper » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

basch wrote: post #152

cookiecaper wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Disney owns the controlling share in Hulu. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/business/media/disney-hul...

Thanks for the correction. It seems this became the case with the acquisition of Fox, since Hulu was apparently 1/3 owned by Disney, 1/3 Fox, 1/3 Comcast. With Disney outbidding Comcast for Fox, they became 2/3 owners and Comcast decided that it made sense to exit.

I think the ultimate reality still stands, just s/Hulu/TBD Streaming/g. Comcast will roll their own competitor at some point. Rent-by-mail is one thing, but when it's just moving bits around, it doesn't make sense to outsource to a licensee like Netflix anymore.

Unless Netflix can figure out how to lobby and legislate with the same supreme competence they apply to systems engineering, their long-term prospects as an independent entity are bleak. The copyright regime will be their downfall.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

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Post by kedean » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 8:43 PM UTC

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…

When's the last time you used Spotify? Honest question, because that's the exact opposite of how Spotify works. You can be logged into as many devices as you want with the same profile, you just can't play simultaneously on each device without setting up profiles. I love that implementation, because it means I can seamlessly transition a song i'm playing on my phone over to another device with the app controls.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#368

Post by basch » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 9:06 PM UTC

cookiecaper wrote: post #366

basch wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disney owns the controlling share in Hulu. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/business/media/disney-hul...

Thanks for the correction. It seems this became the case with the acquisition of Fox, since Hulu was apparently 1/3 owned by Disney, 1/3 Fox, 1/3 Comcast. With Disney outbidding Comcast for Fox, they became 2/3 owners and Comcast decided that it made sense to exit. I think the ultimate reality still stands, just s/Hulu/TBD Streaming/g. Comcast will roll their own competitor at some point. Rent-by-mail is one thing, b…

Comcast has multiple competitors already out in the wild.

First they have XFinity Flex. Their competitor to Roku.

Then they have Peacock, which at the moment looks like a competitor to CBS All Access. Coming soon.

Somewhere in between a channel and a platform you have Live TV broadcast. Who knows how they will brand it in the long run (they will want you to pay for their variant of "cable service / satellite".) ATM they have the Xfinity Stream Beta App on Roku.

They also have the NBC Family of streaming apps: bravo, e!, nbc, oxygen, syfy, telemundo, universo, usa. They would absolutely benefit from a single "guide" interface like ATT TV Now/ / PlutoTV.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

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Post by odysseus » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 9:53 PM UTC

tedsanders wrote: post #46

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.

Netflix has had A-Z sort for years. On web, click on TV Shows / Movies, then click on the four box icon, and then change it from 'suggestions for you' to 'A-Z' or 'Z-A'.

When I scroll, it won’t show me anything past the letter K. It’s also displays a grid of boxes with artwork instead of a simple easy-to-scan text list.

From third party sites that index Netflix content, looks like they have a little under 3000 movies, most of which I’ve never heard of.

Versus Disney+, which seems to have over 600 movies with quite a few big titles.

Re: Disney+ hit by technical glitches on launch day

#370

Post by odysseus » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 9:59 PM UTC

nsporillo wrote: post #364

briffle wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I want it to be more like Music. I can choose whichever streaming music company I want and get 99.9% of the same music, because they have standard fees they pay each other, etc. Streaming Video is incredibly fragmented. It's honestly frustrating. I don't want to subscribe to 5 services. I currently have Hulu+Live, and it has ESPN, and lots of other channels I like, but doesn't have the local Fox station, or…

I bought an HD antenna that gave me roughly 20 local channels with crystal clear picture and no buffering for $28 - no subscription. I'd highly recommend it for cord cutters to augment their streaming with local news and sports on national tv (world series, super bowl, sunday night football, etc).

If you live in a metro area with good signal, you can actually use a metal paperclip as a functional antenna. I picked up over 20 channels this way, no extra antenna needed.