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Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

torrentfreak.com

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Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#81

Post by robryan »

pyre wrote: post #37
dhughes wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I want to watch a movie, the first place I go to is Netflix Canada, half of what I want is unavailable and it doesn't update very often (at least not this month) so the second place I go to not too hard to figure out.

But you're supposed to wait patiently while the studios' marketing strategy of segmentation plays out. Just like how people in rural areas of the US aren't allowed to form municipal ISPs to get internet service that the big players won't provide to them. There are way too many people behind desks in large companies that develop marketing strategies that don't really take their customers into account, and if their cus…

This is the biggest problem in Australia, unless you allow everyone to access things on the same day the hardcore fans are of course going to be getting there hands on it any way possible. If I was running a TV show I'd release the show worldwide for download at the same time or just after the initial US(or wherever is local to the show) TV run.

Only issue being networks syndicating the content probably won't want to pay as much for the rights, really though they are getting the same thing, the people buying on ITunes same day weren't going to wait weeks for the local network to get around to playing it anyway.

Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#82

Post by robryan »

sukuriant wrote: post #53
sudonim wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HBO on a cable subscription is still 15 - 20 clams. Even if it was available streaming or unbundled, that's still a lot more than the cost of netflix.

But I'd be much faster to pay 15-20 than 65+(15 to 20)=80+ and watch 5 channels + HBO.

I think cable misses an opportunity by forcing you to have a heap of channels you don't want just to get the stuff you do. I'd pay somewhere around $20 a month to get the probably 5 or so channels of any interest.

Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#83

Post by abas »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #14

If I could rely on a streaming movie from Netflix to play uninterrupted and without flaws from beginning to end, it would be wonderful. That, and if I could find the movies I want to watch, of course. The reality for me, at least, is that I cannot watch two hours of streaming video from Netflix without the picture freezing or skipping at some point, even if it's just a little bit. I love film, and that's unacceptable…

That's funny. I haven't watched many dvds in awhile because I mostly watching streaming on Netflix. The other day I watched a brand new dvd on my roommate's dvd player. It skipped/stuttered several times during playback and I realized how nice my experience with streaming has been. My memory of watching dvds over the years is littered with such problems or worse (though there were also plenty of movies that displayed without a hitch). I have an occasional problem with Netflix, but they have been pretty far between.

Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#84

Post by gedekran »

baddox wrote: post #74
kin wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't rule out private trackers, I just failed to mention it. In any case, I personally find Usenet superior to private trackers but I can see it from the other side. They both have pros and cons. My main gripe with private trackers is that it's not as fast and I have to constantly worry about my ratio and seed. Granted, I pay for Usenet so it's a trade-off.

If you pay for a seedbox, you shouldn't have to worry about ratio. Torrent speeds from a decent tracker and seedbox will be insane (as in maxing out the seedbox's 100 or 1000 megabit pipe), and then you just FTP/SSH the files to your home. A decent seedbox costs around the same as Usenet access (cheaper if you split a dedicated seedbox with other people). Seedbox speeds will be comparable to Usenet, pre-times will al…

There were only a few things torrents were better at when I switched away from them for usenet. Where as usenet was only better for privacy reasons and speed. Now for me it is better in almost every aspect.

Really obscure things. Torrents with such things will have very few seeders/leechers and take a long time to download anyway and never max out bandwidth. With usenet older things were deleted and had to be uploaded again. (Anything older than a few weeks) These days the retention is getting close to three years.

Release times were in favor of torrents. Now the time difference is but a few minutes, some first via a torrent and other via usenet. The fastest of course would be via IRC/FTP.

I spend around $100 a year for usenet access and am unsure the costs of a seedbox. I never have to worry about upload ratio and am not sharing files with anyone else. The primary means of people getting caught for copyright infringement. I also download at the full speed of my connection at all times. Also that connection is encrypted so the ISP can't even see what I am getting. I often get about 500GB a month. I pay about a penny and a half per gigabyte.

One feature that wasn't available to me when I switched was what utorrent had which others may have had as well. RSS downloading of torrents. Was very handy with setting up tv shows and acted very much like a internet tivo. Now I use sabnzbd and sickbeard for such things.

The only thing I still like about torrents is the way it handles errors. It will check the data as it downloads and discard and redownload a section of data needed. With usenet, my client will download all of it and then verify the parts and if there are any errors, it'll auto download the needed par files to repair the damage and then extract the file. Such things aren't needed with a torrent.

One good thing about usenet is that if you have the proper client you can basically stream from it. As the .rar files are downloaded and extracted one by one in order. With torrents parts of the file are downloaded randomly and does not lead it self to be streamed.

Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#86

Post by gedekran »

dangrossman wrote: post #72
ChrisMac wrote: post #31

For me it's the comfort factor. I stream Netflix through my Wii, so when I watch movies that way I get to sit on my couch and watch my big screen TV. When I watch stuff on my computer I have to sit in my uncomfortable desk chair and view my small-ish monitor. Getting my whole computer hooked up to my TV seems like a hassle at the moment. On the other hand, Netflix is always ready to go and that usually wins.

There are many devices cheaper than a Wii that will stream video over a network, allowing you to watch your downloaded movies without connecting the computer directly to a TV.

Exactly. I have a WDTV Live Plus that allows me to stream netflix and other services. Also watch any HD movie or tv show downloaded from the internet or a local drive/NAS. There are many such affordable devices out there offering that ability.

Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#87

Post by gedekran »

rhdoenges wrote: post #73

The article isn't saying that netflix is really killing torrents but rather that it has the potential to do so.

It's impacting torrent usage. Likewise after I got netflix, I use usenet much less for movies and tv shows that they have available for instant streaming. Or want to download something much higher quality than what netflix offers currently.

Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#88

Post by gedekran »

Retric wrote: post #66
r0s wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that adequate broadband would solve this, and so many more problems. I don't think that will happen for years at best, and then only for urban areas. For the bulk of the population, downloads are the only long term solution. Let's be honest though, there's no real justification in ignoring the option to download. Again I compare to Steam and their model.

IMO, the short term solution is for Netflix to let you buffer more of the movie. There is a lot to be said for instant play, but if they reserved a reasonable slice of your bandwidth to an ever larger buffer they could all but eliminate stuttering after the first few minute of a movie. I mean they already have adaptive quality based on bandwidth, so I see no reason they can't do the same thing while trying to build u…

Right now I see at most a four minute buffer. That's one thing I would like is the ability to change. Or the ability to specify my bandwidth settings so that I could allow a HD movie or tv show to buffer at higher quality for longer if my connection wasn't good enough and then start watching when there was enough of the show buffered.

Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#89

Post by gedekran »

joejohnson wrote: post #35
veb wrote: post #3

Makes sense to me. If you torrent a movie, you have to find it from a decent place (otherwise it could be a completely different movie, shitty release etc) then you may need to find captions for it, if you need them. This kind of thing isn't actually easy for non-technical people. However I think it comes down to the fact: most people want to pay but shit is just so expensive otherwise.

I don't have a hard time with most of these obstacles anymore. It seems that good quality rips of movies are pretty easy to find. However, I think torrent clients are just slightly beyond the scope of most people's technical expertise.

Indeed. Peer review of files available will notify you of any problems. You only need one person with the technical expertise to set it up.

I used to have my mother set up with torrents. All her tv shows were downloaded automatically. Often times she would watch it live and then delete the file, but if she missed watching it live then she had that file waiting for her. Also if she wanted a movie or older tv show, then all she had to do was click on a link on her desktop and search the website for what she wanted. Click on the torrent and it would download to the proper folder.

These days it's the same except she clicks on something she wants and it is a nzb file. As well newly aired tv shows download for her automatically. I've noticed she doesn't watch as much live anymore. Though she is using Netflix more often now as well.

Re: Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

#90

Post by henriklied »

Encosia wrote: post #56
ANH wrote: post #44

To me, Netflix streaming is like some alien technology from the future. I live in a rural area with terrible broadband (miniscule monthly cap). However, I have an unlimited data plan for my phone and with a composite video cable I can plug my phone into the television and stream movies from the Netflix app. We've never had cable TV, and with Netlix and iTunes there's no point. Even over 3G, we get surprisingly good v…

If you're interested in how the sausage is made, I believe Netflix uses Microsoft's Smooth Streaming[1] to accomplish that (I know they use it for the in-browser client, but am not 100% positive about the native mobile apps). Smooth streaming is an under-appreciated tool, IMO. Given its power, you might reasonably assume it would be complex and expensive to set up, but it's a free extension to IIS if you have any rec…

Smooth Streaming is certainly a great piece of technology, and thanks to the guys at Code Shop, it now works on several devices and using nginx, Apache and lighttpd: http://smoothstreaming.code-shop.com/trac
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