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

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

#741

Post by Dahoon » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 11:54 AM UTC

neuronic wrote: post #698

sebdd wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Also, I want my gym to be open after this crisis so I am still willing to financially support them until I potentially lose my own income. Especially for local brick&mortar businesses I do not understand the, in this context, egocentrical "why should I pay you for something I cannot use" mentality. Nobody here asked for this crisis and we should all support each other as much as possible. People lives are already bei…

It sounds nice when you put it that way but do you actually do this? How about if you thought about buying a new house, a new car or maybe a new gold ring? Would you still do this after the crisis hit? I doubt goldsmiths will see people buying as much as they used to and I see no difference in that and supporting the local gym. If anything the smaller shops should be supported more than the big ones.

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

#742

Post by abjKT26nO8 » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 12:54 PM UTC

v77 wrote: post #706

abjKT26nO8 wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This article is literally about the EU asking Netflix to reduce bandwidth in Europe.

And the comment I replied to was "literally" about problems encountered in US (Seattle is in US FYI).

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

#743

Post by Faark » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 12:57 PM UTC

xenonite wrote: post #738

NKCSS wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, in this case I don't see why a customer should stick with the ISP if it doesn't deliver. In Germany, there are several examples where the termination of contract was judged as being okay if the bandwidth regularly fell below 50% of the promised capacity [1]. Therefore: Although the Netflix cut was triggered by the EU, it might actually have been a successful lobbying action by the ISPs. [1] https://praxistipps.…

But switching your ISP will take a week at best, likely multiple.

Right now politicians don't want me to enjoy the perfect weather outside but instead to stay indoor and play online games or program something. Both I'm less likely to do if my neighbors clog my internet by watching ultra hd streams, apparently.

Don't think "the market will solve it" is best approach right now.

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

#744

Post by Kaze404 » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 2:12 PM UTC

DavidVoid wrote: post #152

BenJong-Il wrote: post #87

A few months ago there was blog post posted here from a guy making movie reviews. In the blog post he described how he managed to get 4k Netflix screenshots on his Chromecast. The effort he made was enormous and involved reverse engineering the Netflix data protocol (I probably worded this wrong). When doing that he found out that Netflix streaming in 4k isn't actually 4k. Again not exactly sure how this worked but t…

On a related note, if you watch Netflix in Chrome or Firefox then you're only getting a resolution of 720p. Google Chrome Up to 720p on Windows, Mac, and Linux Up to 1080p on Chrome OS Internet Explorer up to 1080p Microsoft Edge up to 4K* Mozilla Firefox up to 720p Opera up to 720p Safari up to 1080p on Mac OS X 10.10.3 or later *Streaming in 4K requires an HDCP 2.2 compliant connection to a 4K capable display, Inte…

> The video will stutter unless I set both my monitors to the same refresh rate. As you can imagine, it's somewhat annoying to have to lower the refresh rate of my main monitor from 144Hz to 60Hz whenever I want to watch Netflix.

This is a Windows 10 bug. Even things like mouse movement in the 60Hz will make the 144Hz stutter. It's especially noticeable in games.

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

#745

Post by Kaze404 » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 2:15 PM UTC

golergka wrote: post #483

tazjin wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is generally how the media industry works. Paying for content (online at least) is almost always more complex, less flexible and lower quality. Add to that the various geographical restrictions (have the audacity to live outside of the US? No content for you!) and piracy becomes quite attractive.

Not with music though.

Unless you want to non-English artists. Korean music for example used to be a nightmare on all streaming platforms when I last tried them.

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

#746

Post by 3953584 » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 4:13 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…

I unsubscribed, when I learned they don't deliver the proclaimed resolution to Linux browsers. How about you warn me about that beforehand? They know my Browser's fingerprint. That's just a scam.

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

#747

Post by berkes » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 6:52 PM UTC

martin_a wrote: post #547

ralusek wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you think it's okay for us to be slightly understanding and forgiving that there are some individuals and companies that aren't simply capable of flawlessly and immediately adjusting to major changes in their realities at the drop of a hat? I'm sure their usage is through the roof, and they probably didn't predict a pandemic with quarantines into their infrastructure improvements modeled around predictable usag…

That is because ISPs in Europe are a piece of shit, maximizing profits of their users while minimizing investments in the infrastructure. This is not about Corona, this is not about "extraordinary situations", this is about European online infrastructure being garbage and now that it's getting really used for once, everything starts to crumble.

Europe has very different regions. Some countries have the best infrastructure, with nearly everyone on glassfiber, while others only have cripled ASDL.

You really cannot make a statement like 'Europe has a poor internet infrastructure', without (i) comparing it to somwhere else and (ii) highlighting the differences in regions.

I mean, I'm pretty confident that everyone in Europe has better internet than everyone in Cuba or Zimbabwe.

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

#748

Post by anoncake » Sun, Mar 22, 2020, 12:38 AM 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.

The content Netflix produces itself is also DRM-infested, isn't it? That excuse doesn't work anymore.

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

#749

Post by lonelappde » Sun, Mar 22, 2020, 2:37 AM UTC

jiggawatts wrote: post #489

nothrabannosir wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a joke. They charge me for "Full HD" and don't deliver it? I just downgraded to the cheaper plan with lower definition. If that's what I'm getting, anyway... I mean how is this even legal?

I'm not a lawyer, but this sounds like valid grounds for a class-action lawsuit. Their advertising touts their 4K streaming and HDR quality, but then in practice they silently downgrade most non-television devices to HD resolutions and SDR. There's a footnote in some tech support article if you know where to look, that's it. Under Australian consumer protection law, for example, this kind of deceptive or false advert…

There's a pandemic overwhelming the world right now.

You're going to sue Netflix for maybe $1 in damages per user?

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

#750

Post by tripzilch » Sun, Mar 22, 2020, 12:13 PM UTC

Let's first address the elephant in the room.

If it weren't for the ridiculous power of the copyright industry, there would be no problem.

Because non-live streaming doesn't make sense except as an artificial way to control copyright.

There literally is no other reason why you would download an entire movie and then throw it away.

Instead of this bullshit, people could easily have a small box of microSDs with their favourite films and series. You could exchange them with friends, it would be fun. Again, why did Netflix used to be mailing around DVDs instead of much more efficient read-only SDs? Oh yeah, copyright bullshit.

It's very easy to forget that everybody together made up this one completely artificial rule that, unlike normal data, this is "magical data" that we have to pretend cannot be copied or stored. What ever.