Netflix Struggling with Android Fragmentation

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John_Keck

Limp Gawd
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Netflix is struggling with bringing their streaming service to the Android platform. The main obstacle is the lack of a common DRM system Netflix requires in order to obtain content from the major studios.

“The hurdle has been the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android. The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices. Setting aside the debate around the value of content protection and DRM, they are requirements we must fulfill in order to obtain content from major studios for our subscribers to enjoy.
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Good riddance, I've never been impressed with Netflix's streaming service. A streaming movie was playing at a party on Friday night and it was absolutely painful to watch. Choppy, blocked, and the color gradients made the TV look like it only supported 16 colors. I'm not a TV snob by any stretch of the imagination but I can't believe people actually watch those streaming content from Netflix.
 
Sounds like your friend has a slow internet connection as it looks fine for me...or you might actually be a TV snob ;)
 
Blown 89 said:
A streaming movie was playing at a party on Friday night and it was absolutely painful to watch. Choppy, blocked, and the color gradients made the TV look like it only supported 16 colors.
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Never had a problem with Netflix streaming quality on my PC or iPad. Even the "HD" content streamed quite well on my fairly anemic 5 Mbps downstream connection without any blocking or color issues.

So long as you have a modestly-capable internet connection, you'll be just fine. If you try to stream content over a shitty connection, then yeah, the quality is going to be very poor.
 
I've watched a couple of movies on my PSP when I had nothing else to do, and honestly it's just not nearly as enjoyable as watching them on a TV. Can't imagine a phone would be any better.
 
Hey, if you're sitting and waiting and have nothing to do (like waiting in a doctor's office, waiting for your car to get fixed, etc.) watching streaming video on your phone starts to look like damn good idea.
 
Blown 89 said:
Good riddance, I've never been impressed with Netflix's streaming service. A streaming movie was playing at a party on Friday night and it was absolutely painful to watch. Choppy, blocked, and the color gradients made the TV look like it only supported 16 colors. I'm not a TV snob by any stretch of the imagination but I can't believe people actually watch those streaming content from Netflix.
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Give Netflix some credit! Maybe the issue was due to your friend's bandwidth more than Netflix being a poor service. If it was Netflix's fault, those sort of disturbances are very uncommon in my experience.

I've watched several complete TV series in HD on Netflix Instant with my wife and there's only been a handful of times when we weren't satisfied. Of course, I love it when Netflix sends emails saying, "Our bad, here's a 2% discount on your next bill." I call that fantastic service, at least they're trying.

Having said that, I haven't been impressed with the mobile use-case. The iPad I have for work only does a mediocre job streaming Netflix.
 
phide said:
Never had a problem with Netflix streaming quality on my PC or iPad. Even the "HD" content streamed quite well on my fairly anemic 5 Mbps downstream connection without any blocking or color issues.

So long as you have a modestly-capable internet connection, you'll be just fine. If you try to stream content over a shitty connection, then yeah, the quality is going to be very poor.
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Sometimes it's Netflix's connection or source material too. I've seen absolutely horrible quality before that was the source video (watch something else and it was fine, go back to original video and it was back to being terrible quality), and I've seen it only giving me 1 or 2 bars of quality when my internet connection was still showing 12Mbps on speedtests.
 
The real problem again is with the studios.

They are so concerned that someone might save a copy of the video they are streaming (should that really a concern with the low res video on a phone?), that they will squash legitimate markets that could be turning them a profit.
If somone wants a copy, they can simply rip it from a disk or download it from one of the many sources on the internet.

When are the studios going to realize that the solution to piracy is to make it so easy and so cheap to legitimatly watch videos, that piracy isn't worth the effort.
Netflix's unlimited streaming is about as close to this solution as is currently on the market. They just need to increase thier library, and improve thebandwidth so I don' have problemson Friday/Saturday nights.
 
nutzo said:
The real problem again is with the studios.

They are so concerned that someone might save a copy of the video they are streaming (should that really a concern with the low res video on a phone?), that they will squash legitimate markets that could be turning them a profit.
If somone wants a copy, they can simply rip it from a disk or download it from one of the many sources on the internet.

When are the studios going to realize that the solution to piracy is to make it so easy and so cheap to legitimatly watch videos, that piracy isn't worth the effort.
Netflix's unlimited streaming is about as close to this solution as is currently on the market. They just need to increase thier library, and improve thebandwidth so I don' have problemson Friday/Saturday nights.
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No kidding. Like someone needs to copy the streaming Netflix signal when they can rip the DVD or even the BD like 500% easier.
 
wtiger said:
Here's an idea. Ditch the DRM. It's a joke anyway
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The studios wouldn't go for it. The idea of their content flying through the air without any kind of so-called "protection" is insanity to them, nevermind the fact that it's always going to be available anywhere 100% DRM-free (and with much higher quality) from other sources.

A part of it is naivety, but a bigger part of it is just outright stupidity.
 
Blown 89 said:
Good riddance, I've never been impressed with Netflix's streaming service. A streaming movie was playing at a party on Friday night and it was absolutely painful to watch. Choppy, blocked, and the color gradients made the TV look like it only supported 16 colors. I'm not a TV snob by any stretch of the imagination but I can't believe people actually watch those streaming content from Netflix.
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Since the dedicated app for the PS3 came out, non-HD content upscales amazingly well. I get fooled sometimes! Never had an issue with any streaming, I'd lean towards individual experience on this one being the problem-- could be a network issue (just not capable enough on your end).
 
inotocracy said:
Since the dedicated app for the PS3 came out, non-HD content upscales amazingly well. I get fooled sometimes! Never had an issue with any streaming, I'd lean towards individual experience on this one being the problem-- could be a network issue (just not capable enough on your end).
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I'll chime in here too.

The quality has been surprisingly good for me in Netflix. Granted I complaints I have 35Mbit down, but in many cases I can not tell the difference between streaming Netflix and a bluray on our 40" 1080p TV.

The only real complaints I hear are that not all titles are available streaming, and in many cases the available copy of the film you want to see is not "HD". Also, streaming content only has standard stereo audio. Some people get their knickers in a twist over this. Personally I don't really care.
 
nutzo said:
...and improve the bandwidth so I don' have problems on Friday/Saturday nights.
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Netflix is already using 20% of peak residential bandwidth with relatively few users. I'd imagine if bandwidth is an issue, its the bandwidth of the backboanes of the Internet itself at this point, not just Netflix itself...


I wonder what their bandwidth bill is like :p
 
Derangel said:
Why not? Not all phones have tiny low-res screens these days.
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I was sitting in the dealership service lobby watching their ~42" lcd tv yesterday and thought of this.

Held up my iPhone in front of my face for a size comparison.

From a normal TV watching distance the phone filled the same amount of my field of view when held at approximately 1.5 feet from my head...
 
Blown 89 said:
Good riddance, I've never been impressed with Netflix's streaming service. A streaming movie was playing at a party on Friday night and it was absolutely painful to watch. Choppy, blocked, and the color gradients made the TV look like it only supported 16 colors. I'm not a TV snob by any stretch of the imagination but I can't believe people actually watch those streaming content from Netflix.
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anthrex said:
Sounds like your friend has a slow internet connection as it looks fine for me...or you might actually be a TV snob ;)
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its a bandwidth issue for sure...I have zero issues with Netflix...but I dont have a shitty connection either....:p
 
Blown 89 said:
Good riddance, I've never been impressed with Netflix's streaming service. A streaming movie was playing at a party on Friday night and it was absolutely painful to watch. Choppy, blocked, and the color gradients made the TV look like it only supported 16 colors. I'm not a TV snob by any stretch of the imagination but I can't believe people actually watch those streaming content from Netflix.
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Gonna chime in as well. The bandwidth was terrible. Either that or they were downloading a shitload of porn thus killing the available bandwidth. Netflix streaming is very good if you have at least a 5mb or so connection.
 
Parmenides said:
People watch movies on their phone?
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can and have. at 800 by 480 its a hell of a lot better then a lot of things and when your stuck somewhere and have nothing to do sure. I really don't do it often maybe a couple of times a month at most (and then its usually shows of one kind or another.)
 
Derangel said:
Why not? Not all phones have tiny low-res screens these days.
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Whatever floats your boat I guess. :D Do people watch the whole thing through? Does the sound come in good?

Valset said:
can and have. at 800 by 480 its a hell of a lot better then a lot of things and when your stuck somewhere and have nothing to do sure. I really don't do it often maybe a couple of times a month at most (and then its usually shows of one kind or another.)
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Yeah, I'd have to be stuck at an airport or something.
 
Good. I'd rather have a free and open system that incidentally allows piracy (I don't pirate apps personally) than one locked down to fuck so big studios and phone companies can feel safe about their profits at night :rolleyes: Though, with the eFuse and such it seems they're going that direction anyways. :mad:
 
Incidentally, the first thing I did when I bought my HTC Desire is wipe the crappy HTC ROM off it and put DeFroST 6 on it (I ran CM6.1 on my HTC Magic). I treat Android like "Linux for your phone": it's there to do what I want with it, which means running any app I want (Tethering, etc.) on MY phone. That's the beauty of Android, and it's sad that phone makers and companies like Netflix want that gone so they can peddle their crap.
 
Inferno32 said:
I like the idea of watching Netflix on my phone, more than I'd actually like it.
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It's actually pretty cool. You can already watch Netflix shows on iPhones and it works very well. I'm surprised Android's lacking Netflix. Makes me glad I didn't get a Galaxy-S phone after all.

Parmenides, commuters love anything portable. The more portable, the better. My iPhone makes a great phone for watching shows and movies while riding the train 1.5 hours each way daily.
 
I have had no issues streaming Netflix movies on my 1000HE netbook via Wireless Tether over my HTC Hero's 3G connection, I have done this quite a few times when I am on the road for work.
 
inotocracy said:
Since the dedicated app for the PS3 came out, non-HD content upscales amazingly well. I get fooled sometimes! Never had an issue with any streaming, I'd lean towards individual experience on this one being the problem-- could be a network issue (just not capable enough on your end).
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I agree. Saturday night I watched Caddyshack via Netflix on my PS3 while my son was playing some Xbox games over Xbox Live. The quality of the stream was at the very least DVD quality and we only have a 3 MB DSL connection.

I cannot wait until Netflix and Android get their issues resolved just so I at least have the option to watch something on my phone if the situation ever arises.
 
Grahamkracka said:
Gonna chime in as well. The bandwidth was terrible. Either that or they were downloading a shitload of porn thus killing the available bandwidth. Netflix streaming is very good if you have at least a 5mb or so connection.
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I've seen Netflix streaming numerous times and every time it was utter garbage. The last time was on a Cox's fastest broadband connection. Apparently the things it's poor at doing stand out to me and not you guys.
 
Blown 89 said:
I've seen Netflix streaming numerous times and every time it was utter garbage. The last time was on a Cox's fastest broadband connection. Apparently the things it's poor at doing stand out to me and not you guys.
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Then how do you explain how a 30 year old movie on a 3 MB DSL connection, on a PS3 while someone else, on the same connection, is playing online shooters on a 360 (and not complaining of lag for once lol), looks like I am running it straight from a DVD?
 
Netflix HD streaming is very good and their non-HD streaming is decent. Certainly not utter garbage unless your connection is choking.

Blown 89: did you run a test watching a HD stream with the "HD" indicator on?
 
Parmenides said:
Whatever floats your boat I guess. :D Do people watch the whole thing through? Does the sound come in good?



Yeah, I'd have to be stuck at an airport or something.
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to be honest though I find myself using this more then I would have thought, (mostly news but movies on evasion). and anywhere I am bored at. I have a CT scan (last fing one) today and I will probably make use of it.
 
Azhar said:
I don't think anyone's debating on how well Android is, but rather how badly it's been implemented among different phones.
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That's the point of Android. Android is to phones what Linux is to a PC... it's what you (you meaning either the user, or the phone company making the modifications) want it to be.
 
djBon2112 said:
That's the point of Android. Android is to phones what Linux is to a PC... it's what you (you meaning either the user, or the phone company making the modifications) want it to be.
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That may well be, but it should never be at the expense of being unable to upgrade it at a timely manner.
 
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