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Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

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Re: Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

#21
post #12

Why do they want to get into the live business? It doesn't seem to synergize with their infrastructure. Sending the same stream in real time to numerous people just isn't the same task as letting people stream optimized artifacts that are prepositioned at the edge of the network.

They want to break into sports because it’s such a big business and if you do sports you need to be able to stream live.

Re: Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

#22
All these engineering blog posts, distributed systems and these complex micro-services clearly didn't help with this issue.

Netflix is clearly not designed nor prepared for scalable multi-region live-streaming, no matter the amount of 'senior' engineers they throw at the problem.

Re: Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

#23
post #8

I wonder if there will be any long term reputational repercussions for Netflix because of this. Amongst SWEs, Netflix is known for hiring the best people and their streaming service normally seems very solid. Other streaming services have definitely caught up a bit and are much more reliable then in the early days, but my impression still has always been that Netflix is a step above the rest technically. This sure do…

So the issue is that Netflix gets its performance from colocating caches of movies in ISP datacenters, and a live broadcast doesn't work with that. It's not just about the sheer numbers of viewers, it's that a live model totally undermines their entire infrastructure advantage. See: https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/

Damn that sucks. I wonder if they could have intentionally streamed it 5 min late? I don’t have all the context around the fight though — maybe a competing service would win if Netflix intentionally induced delay?

Re: Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

#24
post #8

I wonder if there will be any long term reputational repercussions for Netflix because of this. Amongst SWEs, Netflix is known for hiring the best people and their streaming service normally seems very solid. Other streaming services have definitely caught up a bit and are much more reliable then in the early days, but my impression still has always been that Netflix is a step above the rest technically. This sure do…

So the issue is that Netflix gets its performance from colocating caches of movies in ISP datacenters, and a live broadcast doesn't work with that. It's not just about the sheer numbers of viewers, it's that a live model totally undermines their entire infrastructure advantage. See: https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/

[deleted]

Re: Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

#25
post #8

I wonder if there will be any long term reputational repercussions for Netflix because of this. Amongst SWEs, Netflix is known for hiring the best people and their streaming service normally seems very solid. Other streaming services have definitely caught up a bit and are much more reliable then in the early days, but my impression still has always been that Netflix is a step above the rest technically. This sure do…

So the issue is that Netflix gets its performance from colocating caches of movies in ISP datacenters, and a live broadcast doesn't work with that. It's not just about the sheer numbers of viewers, it's that a live model totally undermines their entire infrastructure advantage. See: https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/

Correct, this is not Netflix’ regular cup of tea, and it’s a very different problem to solve. They can probably use their edge caches, but it’s challenging.

Re: Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

#26
post #8

I wonder if there will be any long term reputational repercussions for Netflix because of this. Amongst SWEs, Netflix is known for hiring the best people and their streaming service normally seems very solid. Other streaming services have definitely caught up a bit and are much more reliable then in the early days, but my impression still has always been that Netflix is a step above the rest technically. This sure do…

So the issue is that Netflix gets its performance from colocating caches of movies in ISP datacenters, and a live broadcast doesn't work with that. It's not just about the sheer numbers of viewers, it's that a live model totally undermines their entire infrastructure advantage. See: https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/

I wonder how effective it would be to cache live events with a delay. Write to the tail, read from the head.

Re: Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

#29
post #8

I wonder if there will be any long term reputational repercussions for Netflix because of this. Amongst SWEs, Netflix is known for hiring the best people and their streaming service normally seems very solid. Other streaming services have definitely caught up a bit and are much more reliable then in the early days, but my impression still has always been that Netflix is a step above the rest technically. This sure do…

Yeah, the funny part is that Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Peacock have all demonstrated the ability to handle an event of this caliber with no issue. Netflix now may never get another opportunity like this again.
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