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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

#381

Post by Yeul »

bsimpson wrote: post #278
chamomeal wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently found a lil dvd rental place in my city. It’s a non-profit, they also do archivals and stuff. It’s pretty much a two-story townhouse packed head to toe with DVDs (lots of blu rays!) You don’t realize how limited the streaming collection is until you’re back in a movie store, looking through thousands and thousands of movies you would never find otherwise. Since I found it, I’ve started doing movie night ev…

I was in high school in the early 00s, and going to the movies was such a big part of my life. Now, I never even know what's out. I suspect life stage is a factor, but it does feel like there are many classes of entertainment (cinema and standup come to mind) that don't resonate like they used to.

Back in the day everyone was watching the same thing. The choices for entertainment were limited to whatever was showing in movie theatres, whatever was on TV and whatever record stores were selling.

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

#382

Post by crote »

everly wrote: post #222

Cable TV (or even OTA antenna in the right service area) is simply a superior live product compared to anything streaming. The Masters app is the only thing that comes close imo. Cable TV + DVR + high speed internet for torrenting is still an unmatched entertainment setup. Streaming landscape is a mess. It's too bad the cable companies abused their position and lost any market goodwill. Copper connection direct to ev…

The interesting thing is that a lot of TV infrastructure is now running over IP networks. If I were to order a TV connection for my home I'd get an IPTV box to connect to my broadband router via Ethernet, and it'd simply tell the upstream router to send a copy of a multicast stream my way.

Reliable and redundant multicast streaming is pretty much a solved problem, but it does require everyone along the way to participate. Not a problem if you're an ISP offering TV, definitely a problem if you're Netflix trying to convince every single provider to set it up for some one-off boxing match.

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

#383

Post by markus92 »

margaretdouglas wrote: post #302
Dem_Boys wrote: post #246

What do you think were the dynamics of the engineering team working on this? I'd think this isn't too crazy to stress test. If you have 300 million users signed up then you're stress test should be 300 million simultaneous streams in HD for 4 hours. I just don't see how Netflix screws this up. Maybe it was a management incompetence thing? Manager says something like "We only need to support 20 million simultaneous st…

Has there ever been a 300m concurrent live stream? I thought Disney+ had the record at something like 60m.

World Cup final, if you add up all streams worldwide?

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

#384

Post by MyFedora »

freditup wrote: 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…

Netflix won't take a hit here.

Most people pay Netflix to watch movies and tv shows, not sports. If I hadn't checked Hacker News today, I wouldn't even know they streamed sports, let alone that they had issues with it. Even now that I do, it doesn't affect how I see their core offering, which is their library of on-demand content.

Netflix's infrastructure is clearly built for static content, not live events, so it's no shock they aren't as polished in this area. Streaming anything live over the internet is a tough technical challenge compared to traditional cable.

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

#385

Post by glimshe »

barkingcat wrote: post #67
jeromegv wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the same demographic but their last large attempt at live was through a Love is blind reunion. It was the same thing, millions of people logging in, epic failure, nothing worked. They never tried to do a live reunion again. I suppose they should have to get the experience. Because they are hitting the same problems with a much bigger stake event.

yup wanted to say that live stream stuttering has happened before on Netflix - I don't think the reputation is deserved. From a livestreaming standpoint, netflix is 0/x - for many large events such as love is blind, etc. From a livestreaming standpoint, look to broadcast news, sports / Olympics broadcasters, etc and you'll see technology, equipment, bandwidth, planning, and professionalism at 1000x of netflix. Heck,…

Even some of the old guard can do this. The Olympics worked pretty well (despite the awkward UI), and that was Peacock/NBC.

Perhaps Netflix still needs a dozen more microservices to get this right...

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

#386

Post by 2-3-7-43-1807 »

I thought it's only the best of the best of the best working at Netflix ... or maybe we can just put this myth to sleep that Netflix even knows what it's doing. The suggestions are shit, the UX is shit, apparently even the back end sucks.

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

#387

Post by nonameiguess »

margaretdouglas wrote: post #302
Dem_Boys wrote: post #246

What do you think were the dynamics of the engineering team working on this? I'd think this isn't too crazy to stress test. If you have 300 million users signed up then you're stress test should be 300 million simultaneous streams in HD for 4 hours. I just don't see how Netflix screws this up. Maybe it was a management incompetence thing? Manager says something like "We only need to support 20 million simultaneous st…

Has there ever been a 300m concurrent live stream? I thought Disney+ had the record at something like 60m.

There's no way 300 million people watched this, especially if that number is representing every Netflix subscriber. The largest claimed live broadcast across all platforms is last year's Super Bowl with 202 million unique viewers for at least part of it, but that includes CBS, Nickelodeon, and Univision, not just streaming audiences. Its average viewers for the whole game was 123 million, which is second all-time to the Apollo 11 moon landing.

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

#388

Post by oplav »

MyFedora wrote: post #384
freditup wrote: 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…

Netflix won't take a hit here. Most people pay Netflix to watch movies and tv shows, not sports. If I hadn't checked Hacker News today, I wouldn't even know they streamed sports, let alone that they had issues with it. Even now that I do, it doesn't affect how I see their core offering, which is their library of on-demand content. Netflix's infrastructure is clearly built for static content, not live events, so it's…

Netflix is trying to expand into live sports. This event wasn’t a one off thing. There is an NFL game they are streaming at the end of the year.

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

#389

Post by specialist »

scott_w wrote: post #328
TylerE wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least half of that is on you. NEVER work unpaid/unlogged OT.

Can’t speak for every place but that’s not always an option. As a teenager, I worked at Sports Direct where the management would regularly work us after our allotted hours and bar us putting the extra time onto our timesheet. If I recall correctly, the company eventually got pulled for it but the money they’d have saved over years would have outweighed the fine. The timesheets were on paper so good luck putting your…

Yes and: IIRC, the USA has at least $8b of wage theft per year.

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

#390

Post by mathgeek »

krysp wrote: post #371
spike021 wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that a problem with your code review process? Why is that person's code making it to production? So again, maybe they're a bad employee but it seems like nothing's done to even try and minimize the risks they present.

There's a disincentive to actively block PRs if you don't want your coworkers to think you are a bad colleague / not on their side. So you often see suboptimal code making its way to production. This has a worse effect the more terrible engineers there are.

Turning this into an incentive that everyone values is a signal that a team has a great culture.
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