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Netflix Downloads

media.netflix.com

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Re: Netflix Downloads

#61

Post by Dylan16807 »

maxerickson wrote: post #57
ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #35

While this is great and very usable, especially for people with limited data plans, I can't help but feel disappointed that simple offline caching of content is still considered a major feature in 2016. Without DRM, this would be a no-brainer.

A no-brainer except for the $10/month streaming part.

A streaming service is perfectly viable without DRM, especially if downloading is speed limited after a while. If you want to make copies at playback speed, well, you could do that with DRM too and it hasn't made the system collapse.

Re: Netflix Downloads

#62

Post by izacus »

greg7gkb wrote: post #59
ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #35

While this is great and very usable, especially for people with limited data plans, I can't help but feel disappointed that simple offline caching of content is still considered a major feature in 2016. Without DRM, this would be a no-brainer.

Who would license content to a company without any DRM protection?

Your question implies that there's any practical use for that DRM in streaming services. There's not and it does nothing useful but annoy users.

Anyone with ounce of motivation can easily bypass and extract the media content, so the only thing DRM does is piss of paying users which can't watch content on flaky connections, flights, travel and alternative operating systems.

Meanwhile on torrent sites you find Netflix digital dumps in matter of minutes after release.

Re: Netflix Downloads

#64

Post by libraryatnight »

betandr wrote: post #44
dsr_ wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DRM relies on handing the ciphertext, a decryption program, and the key to the opponent, and then telling them not to use it except when they are allowed to use it. If your browser is in charge of running the storage of the ciphertext and the decryption, it is much easier to debug it and apply a patch that will store the plaintext than if you have to do this all in an Android emulator as well. But either way: DRM doe…

As they say 'convenient is better than better' and I've long looked for a company like Netflix who will allow me to give them money and they will let me watch what I want.

I think that's what Netflix wants to be, getting the content creators to agree is the tough part, I imagine. Another benefit to their producing their own material.

Re: Netflix Downloads

#65

Post by izacus »

m3ta wrote: post #11
jbob2000 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably aren't storing the videos as you are traditionally thinking about them - you don't get to download a video file which you can play anywhere. Most likely what they've done is stored the video chunks locally and then the Netflix app is "streaming" these chunks from the local storage rather than the netflix servers. If you looked through the folder that holds these chunks, you'd probably just see a bunch o…

That is not "all the DRM they need". Files split up into "randomly named 100mb chunks" does not make them safe from would-be pirates with a penchant for reverse engineering.

DRM never did stop "would-be pirates with penchant for reverse engineering". Ever.

Plus, the owner of the Android/iOS device is paying for that content anyway, why would it be in any way a problem if he can open that downloaded file in another software?!?!

Re: Netflix Downloads

#66

Post by fastball »

kevinbluer wrote: post #5

Oddly not everything is downloadable though. No Luke Cage here on Netflix Hong Kong (which is odd given it's Netflix made).

Not every Netflix Original is available in every region. This can be either because Netflix was producing the show before they were in that region, and so signed over the rights to the show in that region to a different provider, or because they have agreements with other producers that need to be on board as well. The same idiosyncrasies will probably apply to downloads.

For instance, in the case of Luke Cage, maybe Marvel needs to sign off on delivery changes like this? Hard to determine without looking at Netflix's actual contracts.

Re: Netflix Downloads

#68

Post by fastball »

jokoon wrote: post #53

Good! Now fix subtitles and expand the catalog...

I've never had an issue with Netflix subtitles, what exactly is your problem with them?

And yeah, it would be swell if Netflix could snap their fingers and expand their catalog, but they can't.

Re: Netflix Downloads

#69

Post by andrewstuart2 »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #61
maxerickson wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A no-brainer except for the $10/month streaming part.

A streaming service is perfectly viable without DRM, especially if downloading is speed limited after a while. If you want to make copies at playback speed, well, you could do that with DRM too and it hasn't made the system collapse.

Without DRM, it's super viable because P2P is a piece of cake, and Netflix would only have to seed and host less-frequently-used content.

Re: Netflix Downloads

#70

Post by izacus »

logicallee wrote: post #54
brianwawok wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whut? You can write a stream to file with maybe 2 commands, and try to decode it later. If the DRM on the stream is broken, you can save the stream to file and decode it later. If the DRM on the stream is safe, then it should be equally safe between the stream and saving the file to disk. I fail to see how letting you save encrypted stuff to local disc has anything to do with breaking the DRM. Also, the first thought…

My comment has nothing to do with DRM. I'm saying, "if there is no DRM" (or it is broken or can be broken), then the difference between downloading and streaming might be the difference between taking 2.2 days to "stream to disk" Game of Thrones (60 episodes @ 55 minutes) -- or, say, downloading it in 4 hours. (If downloads are allowed to be faster than realtime, which would only make sense.) GoT is obviously a hypot…

You imply that there's speed throttling when streaming. There's not and it makes no difference if you're connecting to a streaming endpoint or just getting a downloaded file.

(Which you can confirm by fast availability of streamed content on torrent sites or if you actually test the streams.)

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