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Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

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Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#121

Post by clueless »

koinedad wrote: post #3

Not sure the full motivation behind this but this is very annoying for a parent with kids. Especially if you've lost your remote, or want to quickly find something and cast it to your Chromecast/Apple TV. I'd prefer video streaming apps be required to support Casting/AirPlay.

> Not sure the full motivation behind this

This feature was one of the main reasons how Netflix movies/shows could be captured/uploaded to piracy sites in full quality as soon as they were released. People recorded the video output and uploaded them. This is to remove that path. Kinda obvious if you ask.

Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#123

Post by turnsout »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #112
turnsout wrote: post #26

This only strengthens my decision to invest in 4K Blu-ray. We're fully in the enshittification stage of streaming TV.

Some Blu-Rays have major spoilers in their menu animations, and some have unskippable ads, some of which may contain major spoilers. [0] It's also a criminal offence to create a backup, thanks to the DMCA. On the plus side, all UHD Blu-Rays are free of region-locking. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26211740

Nothing is perfect—it's all about what's workable for you. I'm still doing both, but I'm convinced that streaming is deteriorating.

Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#124

Post by LogicFailsMe »

troupo wrote: post #85
LogicFailsMe wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't build the Torment Netflix? These fundamentally anti-consumer moves are why it's called the Internet of sh**y things. I have no concern whatsoever whether this is about licensing or just money grubbing. You're making things suck for the paying customer. But to be fair, all the streaming services are chasing the last few drops of blood from the stone trying to stop people from actually watching from two screens t…

> I have no concern whatsoever whether this is about licensing or just money grubbing. You're making things suck for the paying customer. That's the thing though. Streaming services have very little say in how the content is licensed. > the last few drops of blood from the stone trying to stop people from actually watching from two screens they paid for in two different locations and other idiocy. Those restrictions…

My post obviously struck a nerve, but I would rather pay a higher subscription fee than experience a crappy customer experience. Ads are an exception here, if I'm paying, no ads, and also why I cancelled my NYT subscription long ago.

However, that is not the storyline services like Disney and Netflix have been telling. They have gassed on and on about stopping piracy. 2 screens isn't piracy, it's any family with someone who travels or is away at college.

The solution would appear to be an official android API for streaming content from mobile devices that has resolved these issues or locked out the rights holders. That would require spine so not expecting it, sigh. But they're sure happy to pick on sideloaders.

Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#125

Post by troupo »

ByThyGrace wrote: post #110
troupo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was no longer paying per screen. I was now paying per-household, but I never agreed to that change. Even that often comes down to licensing. And it's as stupid as you describe it.

Does it maybe come down to changing licenses, as in a license expires and another is negotiated with different terms (to charge per household instead in the example above)?

Oh, that too :)

Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#126

Post by troupo »

LogicFailsMe wrote: post #124
troupo wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no concern whatsoever whether this is about licensing or just money grubbing. You're making things suck for the paying customer. That's the thing though. Streaming services have very little say in how the content is licensed. > the last few drops of blood from the stone trying to stop people from actually watching from two screens they paid for in two different locations and other idiocy. Those restrictions…

My post obviously struck a nerve, but I would rather pay a higher subscription fee than experience a crappy customer experience. Ads are an exception here, if I'm paying, no ads, and also why I cancelled my NYT subscription long ago. However, that is not the storyline services like Disney and Netflix have been telling. They have gassed on and on about stopping piracy. 2 screens isn't piracy, it's any family with some…

> The solution would appear to be an official android API for streaming content from mobile devices that has resolved these issues or locked out the rights holders.

How would you lock out rights holders who hold the rights to content to create such an official streaming API? Such an official API would have to abide by all the licensing rules rights holders impose.

Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#127

Post by mercutio2 »

cortesoft wrote: post #116
nerdjon wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Admittedly this is where Apple's naming on the Apple TV has been really bad). In this particular situation I am referring to the Apple TV App not the OS or Hardware. The ability to find shows and movies to watch across all (except netflix) of your streaming services. According to the article they dropped support for Airplay a while ago.

Why would the Apple TV app play other streaming services? I know the Amazon Prime app supports some partner streaming services, but I don’t know of any other streamer that plays its competitors videos in their app? Every service requires using their app and only plays its own videos in that app.

The Apple TV (the device) has a “stuff this user watches” app (called Apple TV) which has a tiny subset of its features dedicated to AppleTV+ (the service).

Netflix refuses to participate in “stuff this user watches”, it would be trivial to do, but Neflix jealously guards its viewership numbers and I expect this is the main reason they don’t do it. That and… they’d rather you just browse Netflix and not watch other services.

The “stuff this user watches” app is very useful! I like it a lot, when I’m not watching Netflix stuff! It works with every service except Netflix!

But the moment the family shifts over to watching some Netflix show, it forces us out of the habit of using the TV app, and then we go back to the annoying “spend 90 seconds trying to find what we were watching on Hulu” experience, which is worse in every way.

Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#128

Post by LogicFailsMe »

troupo wrote: post #126
LogicFailsMe wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My post obviously struck a nerve, but I would rather pay a higher subscription fee than experience a crappy customer experience. Ads are an exception here, if I'm paying, no ads, and also why I cancelled my NYT subscription long ago. However, that is not the storyline services like Disney and Netflix have been telling. They have gassed on and on about stopping piracy. 2 screens isn't piracy, it's any family with some…

> The solution would appear to be an official android API for streaming content from mobile devices that has resolved these issues or locked out the rights holders. How would you lock out rights holders who hold the rights to content to create such an official streaming API? Such an official API would have to abide by all the licensing rules rights holders impose.

That's a question for lawyers to resolve. IANAL but I have great faith in their ability to impose arbitrary roadblocks to anything as needed. And even if ultimately overturned, just making the bottom line more affordable allowing casting would seem to be the "shareholder value" friendly message. Further, there was already precedent for such behavior on Netflix with some content being downloadable for later viewing and some not.

I'm a bit surprised that you think Google and the streaming services are helpless here when pretty much every foundation model effort has stolen tremendous amounts of IP to build their AI models without consequence.

Otherwise, frog.pot.boiled, no?

Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#129

Post by iguessthislldo »

throw7 wrote: post #88

Chromecast is a dead product. Google killed it, but I think in this case it was when they lost a patent case in good ole Texas. I have several chromecast devices and have no interest in the replacement, google tv streamer. "... the decision was made to improve the customer experience." Of course that's a lie, but it is ironic, as the reason why chromecast was initially conceived was that TV UX is horrible.

Out of all the dead Google products so far, I'm probably going to mourn for it the most once the existing ones are basically unusable, which I know is coming someday. I've always loathed the idea of giving TVs themselves internet for various reasons. The various boxes are marginally better, but the Chromecast felt revolutionary to me when it launched, because the TV didn't need to be complicated by UI or a remote with a million buttons, it was all in the phone. Also to me personally this user hostile act feels like a betrayal because in the early days of Chromecast Netflix's app seems to have the least number of issues with Chromecast. Even if that was just my subjective experience, it was still the app I used most with Chromecast when I got my first one because Netflix was a different beast then.

I still have my dead 1st gen and I look at it with fondness. I'm not surprised the mega corporations don't have the same feeling, but it still feels bad when they want to take away something they made that I actually liked.

Re: Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

#130

Post by ffsm8 »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #105

A big part of why marketplaces like Netflix and Steam got so popular is because they provided a low-friction way to consume that was even easier than piracy. It seems like the pendulum is starting to swing in the other direction now- it's often easier to copyright infringe than to watch something the legit way, even if you pay for a subscription that grants you access. Great example of something that's illegal but no…

I wish there was a service like steam for videos: not subscription but high confidence purchase of video content available "forever" (even if they remove it from the purchasing options, license would remain).

Personally I watch so little tv/movies that any subscription was always overpaying. I still did it for a while, because the price wasn't high enough to push me to seek out other options.

I'm no longer subbing and moved on, but the right holders are seriously detached from reality if they think this is a sane business strategy

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