Netflix to cut streaming quality in Europe for 30 days • Hacker News Board

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

#681

Post by fredzel » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 1:47 PM UTC

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #583

callalex wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Requiring draconian DRM that doesn’t work everywhere with confusing and arbitrary restrictions for paying customers IS Netflix being difficult.

If they removed the DRM, they'd get a lot of resistance licensing shows. As long as content-producers insist on DRM, Netflix has to use DRM. I believe their licence terms are also the reason you can download some Netflix videos to your phone/Windows 10 machine, but not others.

There are also some that can only be downloaded limited number of times (a year). Example - Gotham, at least in my country.

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

#682

Post by 8fingerlouie » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

hollander wrote: post #598

csunbird wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, people are PAYING for that upgrade.

Two or four euros per month. Call the army! I would start a class action suite. /s This stupid selfish attitude is not helping. Netflix will probably issue a statement that they will refund all those affected. And if you don't like it, downgrade! You probably have plenty of time if this is an issue for you.

> Two or four euros per month.

Times a million or 10 or 50. Add to that the 25% savings on internet egress, which last I checked was still how commercial internet is financed.

The cost of actually providing the content to the consumers is on the ISP which hosts an Open Connect box.

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

#683

Post by cthalupa » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 1:52 PM UTC

lxgr wrote: post #327

op00to wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mtr isn’t a reliable measure of packet loss. Routers drop “extra” packets like ping before they drop “paying” packets.

mtr uses UDP data packets, as far as I am aware. Yes, the ICMP response packets could still be skewed, and the effect you mention is definitely real, but on a good connection, usually there should not be much to drop at all, neither TCP/UDP traffic nor ICMP packets.

>mtr uses UDP data packets, as far as I am aware.

Doesn't matter what it uses (though by default MTR does use regular old ICMP Echo - you have to specify -u or -t to get it in UDP or TCP mode). When TTL expires it still requires an ICMP TTL Exceeded be sent, regardless of whether or not you were sending ICMP through it.

Traceroute implementations in general are probably telling most everyone in this thread a lot less than they think, even without icmp deprioritization being taken into account.

https://archive.nanog.org/meetings/nanog47/presentations/Sun... is worth a read for most anyone that's ever attempted to use traceroute to troubleshoot networking, because they're almost certainly doing it wrong.

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

#684

Post by tatami » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 1:52 PM UTC

martin_a wrote: post #608

lentil_soup wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is that? I think internet quality varies quite a lot within the EU, urban vs rural, etc so we can'treally generalise. I pay less than 40eur for a 600mbit connection.

In Germany, 40 €/month can get you anything between While the infrastructure is quite stable where it has been extended, those rural areas ("not prioritized for broadband builds") are also affected by the lockdown, people have to work from home, use the internet all day etc. pp. In those places, the infrastructure reaches its limits pretty quickly all the time. This will cause _serious_ damage to local businesses for…

My parents pay a similar amount for 70% of a 16/1 MBit connection. But that is not quite rural, it's one of the richest towns in the country and part of a big agglomeration.

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

#685

Post by Medicalidiot » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 2:00 PM UTC

kristiandupont wrote: post #662

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 guess I am in a third group that feels that the mob-mentality has taken over. If Netflix indeed decides to just go with this, I too will think they should be called out. But unless I've missed something, they haven't communicated anything about that yet, positive or negative. The outrage right now to me looks like people shouting at firefighters "who's going to pay for that waterdamage?!" while the fire is still ac…

I agree with you that maybe we should wait to see how this plays out before we judge their actions. I've never had a situation yet where waiting for a more lucid picture was a bad move.

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

#686

Post by NKCSS » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

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.

This was requested by the EU, not their own decision. NetFlix has historically always had more than enough capacity, it has always been ISP's that are lacking with bandwidth.

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

#687

Post by sunflowerfly » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 2:13 PM UTC

The real news is that Europe's internet backbone cannot handle this stress test. Once this blows over that needs addressed.

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

#688

Post by teekert » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

emerongi wrote: post #655

teekert wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That also means reducing the wages of employees, people not whinig is the only shimmer of hope we have at keeping the economy the same when we emerge from this. Sure, I can't go to my gym, but if we all cancel now, there won't be a gym when I am allowed to go again. At the same time my income might, at some point, also be affect. But, as it is now it is not (yet), so I'll keep it going. I have to admit I did cancel m…

If your gym won't be able to re-open after this thing is over, it only shows the quality of management of the gym as well as of the government. It should not be your burden to bear and build a buffer for them for their mistakes. Someone higher up pocketed all the profits while things were good and is now not ready to invest that money back into it to keep it afloat and that's THEIR problem. They have the money, let t…

The owner is just some dude, granted he has a nicer car than me :)

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

#689

Post by pergadad » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

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…

It's $€2 per month difference. You still get part of the benefits, such as access for more devices. While I'd appreciate getting those €2 honestly I find it pretty small minded if that's your first concern. They were asked to reduce load to avoid issues for vital instructure and all the people working from home. I appreciate and am grateful that they followed this request. It's for the benefit of all and if they save a few € in the process there really is no reason to be upset about it.

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

#690

Post by josefresco » Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 2:30 PM UTC

mulmen wrote: post #394

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see what motivation a tech would have for lying about this.

I asked a Comcast tech when IPv6 would be available and he said “IP v what?”. Don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

To contrast this, every Comcast tech (3) that's been in my home has been very knowledgeable. Once they see I'm a "geek" they unload with technical knowledge and generally talk my ear off. That's how I learned my town has less nodes/per subscriber than any of the surrounding towns which is why my Internet speed is frequently ass.