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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

#81

Post by troupo »

mingus88 wrote: post #25
troupo wrote: post #10

I've worked in streaming. If you see a feature pulled, or announced and delayed, or announced and never shipped, 99.99999% of the time it's due to licensing. Every single permutation of any action that a user may find beneficial is covered by a different license with a different cost. Oh. And ads. There's another can of worms if you need to serve ads. In this case it could be that Netflix is an asshole. Or could be t…

I’m really leaning towards them being an asshole in this specific case. Chromecast works in my EV for every other streaming app, so the licensing seems to be a solved problem for them. Netflix, however, never worked and my EV manufacturer had to release a support page specifically for Netflix not working. I suspect this is just more account security. I remember paying $20/mo for a premium plan with a set number of sc…

> 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.

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

#82

Post by internetter »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #64
paxys wrote: post #53

I remember the time when smart homes used to feature in sci-fi literature and concept videos. Being able to walk around your house while having everything seamlessly synced and tailored to your preferences was clearly the future. TV, movies and music automatically playing in whatever room your enter. Files and all other data seamlessly synced between all your devices. Not having to think about how to make the tech wo…

Any vision of the future that doesn’t include realistic incentives of human beings won’t happen. Offering such a flexible smart home requires a huge amount of coordination work, customer support, and just taking the blame sometimes for the inevitable bugs. Yeah competent companies are willing to take on all that, if you pay them a lot, which is why high end smart homes are flourishing.

> competent companies are willing to take on all that, if you pay them a lot, which is why high end smart homes are flourishing.

Citations needed, I can provide a lot of examples of high end equipment providing a worse experience.

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

#83

Post by paxys »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #64
paxys wrote: post #53

I remember the time when smart homes used to feature in sci-fi literature and concept videos. Being able to walk around your house while having everything seamlessly synced and tailored to your preferences was clearly the future. TV, movies and music automatically playing in whatever room your enter. Files and all other data seamlessly synced between all your devices. Not having to think about how to make the tech wo…

Any vision of the future that doesn’t include realistic incentives of human beings won’t happen. Offering such a flexible smart home requires a huge amount of coordination work, customer support, and just taking the blame sometimes for the inevitable bugs. Yeah competent companies are willing to take on all that, if you pay them a lot, which is why high end smart homes are flourishing.

Imagine you go to get your car's tires replaced but can only buy BMW brand (because that's what your car will support) and they cost 3x the price of the generic ones.

Imagine you want to do some home renovations but the builder of your house has installed a kill switch that will detonate the entire thing to the ground should you try to move even one brick without using their preferred contractor.

Imagine the manufacturer of your couch shows up to your doorstep 2 years after you bought it and says they need it back. But you paid full price for it? Nope, you actually bought a license, and the license has now expired. So will you get a refund? Lol, nope.

All of this would be laughable in the real world, yet when it comes to tech we look at the same practices and go "of course, all this makes sense".

So no, this isn't really about the "huge amount of work" it would entail. Companies are perfectly capable of doing this work, and happily do so as long as it benefits them. The problem is that there is no regulation in the space and customers have been trained to accept these practices as a way of life.

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

#84

Post by triceratops »

nerdjon wrote: post #77

Netflix seems to basically do everything in their power to own the experience of using Netflix as much as possible, short of making a device and OS themselves. This and refusing to work with the Apple TV app are the 2 big examples that come to mind but there are likely others. I am not really sure what this solves though since you would still be using their app. Them refusing to work with the Apple TV app was one of…

> Them refusing to work with the Apple TV app

Not that I think Netflix is being anything other than shitty here. But Apple TV is equally egregious in not supporting Chromecast.

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

#85

Post by troupo »

LogicFailsMe wrote: post #15
troupo wrote: post #10

I've worked in streaming. If you see a feature pulled, or announced and delayed, or announced and never shipped, 99.99999% of the time it's due to licensing. Every single permutation of any action that a user may find beneficial is covered by a different license with a different cost. Oh. And ads. There's another can of worms if you need to serve ads. In this case it could be that Netflix is an asshole. Or could be t…

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 you're talking about? They literally come from licensing terms that rights owners impose.

(Most) streaming platforms would gladly not spend a lot of time figuring the devices, what they are playing etc.

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

#86

Post by anonymars »

nine_k wrote: post #46
ryandrake wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody on HN wants to hear this, but REG-U-LA-TION. The glorious free market is consistently failing to solve the growing problem of cloud-tethered and app-tethered products being nerfed by their manufacturers after the point of sale.

Sorry, but it's CUS-TO-MERS. They buy stuff that can only be controlled via an app talking to the cloud. They buy stuff that cannot be repaired. They buy stuff that openly lies about its specs, for an "unbelievably good price". The customers go for the cheapest, all else be damned. Education in general, and about critical thinking in particular, could help.

Sorry, it's not. Latest example, Canon's phone app for its cameras, for GPS tagging, remote shutter, transfer to phone, didn't require any Internet access, but now they changed it to require an online login for no reason. Oh and that login only works with chrome installed.

So miss me with this caveat emptor libertarian fantasy land ("openly lies about its specs" is the buyer's fault?!)

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

#87

Post by internetter »

nzach wrote: post #69
lunias wrote: post #22

I don't understand Netflix's decision, but I'm long past caring about things like this. I've had PCs hooked up to all of my televisions for the past 15+ years because of how limiting and frustrating using any other device to play media from can be.

> The change was first spotted by users on Reddit and confirmed in an updated Netflix support page (via Android Authority), which now states that the streaming service no longer supports casting from mobile devices to most TVs and TV-streaming devices. Users are instead directed to use the remote that came with their TV hardware and use its native Netflix app. My guess is that adblock became too easy on smartphones,…

> My guess is that adblock became too easy on smartphones

Not within native apps. Your only option is essentially dns/hosts based on both platforms however this can also be done on the router. On Android there is ReVanced I guess. But these are almost as technical as a pihole. What is the percent of people who know of DNS based adblock but not pihole?

Edit: And DNS adblocking can be done on android tv.

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

#88

Post by throw7 »

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.

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

#89

Post by schnable »

jerlam wrote: post #40

Kind of wild that Netflix is (or believes) it is so far ahead of all the other streaming services that they're nickel-and-diming their customers for every little feature. Other services were aggressively throwing Black Friday sales in order to boost their subscriber counts. I picked up HBO for 70% off, and there were also Hulu and Apple TV discounts. And I didn't need any of them because there's plenty of ad-supporte…

If you think they nickel and dime customers, you should see what they do to TV and streaming device makers. They can make basically any demand they want because you can't ship with Netflix.

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

#90

Post by dpark »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #64
paxys wrote: post #53

I remember the time when smart homes used to feature in sci-fi literature and concept videos. Being able to walk around your house while having everything seamlessly synced and tailored to your preferences was clearly the future. TV, movies and music automatically playing in whatever room your enter. Files and all other data seamlessly synced between all your devices. Not having to think about how to make the tech wo…

Any vision of the future that doesn’t include realistic incentives of human beings won’t happen. Offering such a flexible smart home requires a huge amount of coordination work, customer support, and just taking the blame sometimes for the inevitable bugs. Yeah competent companies are willing to take on all that, if you pay them a lot, which is why high end smart homes are flourishing.

What high end smart homes are actually smart in the way paxys described? I would say this market more than just not flourishing, actually doesn’t exist. There’s no company that sells this because it would require a whole bunch of other companies get on board to make it real.
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