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Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#641

Post by merb »

VadimPR wrote: post #619
csunbird wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I am telling here is, if you are unable to meet the criteria that you are getting paid for, then you need to refund the difference. They are not doing that. It is not about being selfish here, think more about it.

It's quite sad to see such an attitude in these difficult times.

well it's sad for people to be in favor of netflix. as others pointed out, netflix will probably make a huge amount of money within the timeframe of the virus.

thus reducing the quality for people that PAY for that quality without reducing their invoice is basically a scam. especially because of the pandemic people are short on money. of course people could just downgrade their subscription, unfortunatly some people are not that tech savy as others, so they do not even know what the news is about.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#642

Post by throwawaylolx »

VadimPR wrote: post #619
csunbird wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I am telling here is, if you are unable to meet the criteria that you are getting paid for, then you need to refund the difference. They are not doing that. It is not about being selfish here, think more about it.

It's quite sad to see such an attitude in these difficult times.

The attitude of excusing any behavior in a mass panic while shaming those who call out dodgy behavior is only making this entire thing much worse.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#643

Post by kilroy123 »

rjyoungling wrote: post #620

There seems to be a big divide between two groups: One is of the mind that we should be empathetic and since it's not a lot of money, people shouldn't complain. The other is of the mind that, Netflix can certainly take those actions but shouldn't pass those costs on to the consumer. I'm in the second camp. In Holland, all the big gym companies still charge their memberships even though the gyms are closed. Since they…

I'm with you. The average everyday person is going to bleed because of all of this.

Forget letting some massive billion-dollar company get a break. If they can't deliver what you are paying for, you should get a discount on your next bill or some kind of compensation.

I realize Netflix might not have control over the situation, but in the end, they'll be ok. While the average person will not.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#644

Post by jimmydorry »

acd10j wrote: post #545
newbie578 wrote: post #524

This is pure bullshit. If Netflix won't commit to it's part of the deal (FULL HD and 4K) then why should I commit to my part (13.99 monthly)? You cannot decide by yourself to lower the quality of your services and keep the price same. Sometimes I wish I had enough money and time to seek "legal retribution" from these type of situations. I would love for this case to make it to the European Court in Strasbourg. "The v…

This will free up critical bandwidth that will enable more work from home and remote teleconferencing. We can’t increase available bandwidth overnight. It is better to suffer slightly decreased internet speed compared to lots of dropped packets if Internet pipes are clogged.

Are people deliberately missing the point? Netflix kicked everyone down a plan tier, but continues to charge at the original plan tier.

If you get kicked down, the invoicing should match that.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#645

Post by rjyoungling »

kilroy123 wrote: post #643
rjyoungling wrote: post #620

There seems to be a big divide between two groups: One is of the mind that we should be empathetic and since it's not a lot of money, people shouldn't complain. The other is of the mind that, Netflix can certainly take those actions but shouldn't pass those costs on to the consumer. I'm in the second camp. In Holland, all the big gym companies still charge their memberships even though the gyms are closed. Since they…

I'm with you. The average everyday person is going to bleed because of all of this. Forget letting some massive billion-dollar company get a break. If they can't deliver what you are paying for, you should get a discount on your next bill or some kind of compensation. I realize Netflix might not have control over the situation, but in the end, they'll be ok. While the average person will not.

Yes, I feel the exact same way. I think it's unethical to pass those costs on to the user. At a very minimum, they should at least be given the option to decide.

E.g. 'We can give you a refund OR you can choose to support us right now. If you do we'll give you a free upgrade to XYZ some later time this year.'

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#646

Post by rjyoungling »

sebdd wrote: post #630
rjyoungling wrote: post #620

There seems to be a big divide between two groups: One is of the mind that we should be empathetic and since it's not a lot of money, people shouldn't complain. The other is of the mind that, Netflix can certainly take those actions but shouldn't pass those costs on to the consumer. I'm in the second camp. In Holland, all the big gym companies still charge their memberships even though the gyms are closed. Since they…

Hard to draw a line, but there's a key difference between Netflix & gym memberships/restaurants/… for me: Gyms are forced to close, and are losing money in the process. As a consumer, I can sympathize with the situation. Netflix is having issues because they are thriving , not because they're having a hard time.

Yes, that's a fair distinction I had considered. But personally, I'm not objecting to the measures being taken but specifically to how they're handled.

I think people should be given the option to make an informed decision. This feels like purposefully designing a choice architecture such that there's an assymetric information flow that can be taken advantage of to serve one's own need as a company. That's unethical IMO; not unlike a shady 20th century used car dealer.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#647

Post by Cthulhu_ »

abjKT26nO8 wrote: post #606
rococode wrote: post #246

I've been having major internet issues lately (Seattle area), have had 4 techs come try to figure it out. Yesterday's tech finally correctly diagnosed the problem as happening before the connection reaches our home but was unsure of the cause. He called his supervisor to investigate, and they found that the capacity for our neighborhood's node was nearly at 100%, while ideally it should always be under 80%. Fortunate…

You're describing an issue specific to US ISPs. It doesn't apply to Europe. From what I read even before the pandemic the US ISPs offered rather crappy services. In Europe, particularly in Poland, I don't have and haven't heard about anyone having any issues with connectivity right now, even though the country is in lockdown, schools and universities are closed, restaurants work only in delivery/take-out mode, compan…

In my country (NL), a lot of the backbone of both cable TV and internet on a street level has been replaced with fiber already; I can imagine that in the US, due to the scale, this process is lower. Doesn't have to be fiber-to-the-home, 20mbit should be enough for everyone for example.

I haven't had any problems with my internet (I do have fiber straight into my house, wired network on my laptop, fast.com reports 600 Mb/s), but Skype, which we use for meetings, has been pretty shit in terms of sound quality.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#648

Post by acd10j »

rjyoungling wrote: post #620

There seems to be a big divide between two groups: One is of the mind that we should be empathetic and since it's not a lot of money, people shouldn't complain. The other is of the mind that, Netflix can certainly take those actions but shouldn't pass those costs on to the consumer. I'm in the second camp. In Holland, all the big gym companies still charge their memberships even though the gyms are closed. Since they…

But Netflix systems are totally capable of handling this surge, It is ISP who are getting their Internet Pipes getting overfilled, They have requested Netflix to reduce there bandwidth for temporary respite. If anything you should be taking that refund or discount from your ISP.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#649

Post by rjyoungling »

lkramer wrote: post #624
rjyoungling wrote: post #620

There seems to be a big divide between two groups: One is of the mind that we should be empathetic and since it's not a lot of money, people shouldn't complain. The other is of the mind that, Netflix can certainly take those actions but shouldn't pass those costs on to the consumer. I'm in the second camp. In Holland, all the big gym companies still charge their memberships even though the gyms are closed. Since they…

The divide I have seen was between people who didn't mind as long as they got a reduced rate and people who, at least on the surface, seems to complain that they get lower quality than they are used to and this could easily be solved by ISPs just giving everyone more bandwidth. Your post makes me think that maybe 99% are actually in the Just Lower The Charge And It's Fine camp, and everything else is either a vocal m…

Could be. My perception wasn't so much, people being irritated due to lower quality but rather being annoyed that they still needed to pay $X while not getting what they're paying for.

I personally think most people are in the If Lower Charge Then Okay camp. From what I can tell it's specifically the feeling of injustice that rubs people the wrong way.

Re: Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days

#650

Post by capableweb »

orcasauce wrote: post #400
capableweb wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix might have data centers that gets closer, but nothing will ever get as far reaching and close as P2P would. A residential building who are all watching the same movie would only have to download the movie from building internet once. Replicate this system on every level (local network building city country) and you get so much more bandwidth available. Of course there are other considerations and we (humans)…

I think you are overestimating the capabilities, and potential "savings", of P2P here. For one, OpenConnect already does what you're suggesting at the "city" level since it's sitting in ISP DCs. Second, there are minimal gains in the last mile via P2P, if at all, considering the numerous types of devices streaming. How do you handle TVs that are already memory constrained by the streaming app? Do mobile devices const…

As mentioned in my previous comment, there are a lot of things that would have to solved and deployed in order for P2P to be 100% feasible. I didn't expect to receive a list of things to be solved right now!

But you do bring up good points, as the current infrastructure (everywhere) is not setup for P2P. In most modern countries (sans US), ISP networks are actually pretty good and cheap, and works fine P2P. Otherwise there are other ways of distributing as well, mesh networks is one way.

All these questions you are outlining are definitely solvable though, just like when these questions arised when we built our current centralized infrastructure. Problem is that P2P networks are not nearly as funded as centralized infrastructure, leading to less people working on actually solving these problems.

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