Slashdot Mirror

found the Netflix website link (that is missing on the article): https://www.netflix.com/title/... ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8... )

If we are going to talk about Netflix, they already offer (or used to offer) your proposed solution. Many ISPs generally refused to accept these boxes because it undercut their arguments about getting Netflix to pay them.

https://openconnect.netflix.co...

Mr. Read should definitely watch One Strange Rock on Netflix, just to see how incredibly the connected the world really is. Ergo, what happens in and outside of Montana are connected.

Looking at the article (and others), did Netflix actually call it that? From their official site https://www.netflix.com/title/80988062 they refer to it as "A mind-bending tale with multiple endings". Sounds like the old movie Clue, or Army of Darkness (if you had the two ending version).

Also, wouldn't almost any modern day video game fall under this? Why aren't they suing the entire game industry?

On another note there already is a movie that promotes itself as a Choose Your Own Adventure movie "The Abominable Snowman", but I suspect the film did horrible so the they didn't want any part of that. When I say part, I mean part of the profit that is.

How do you have two Synamedia accounts? I can't believe everyone in your family wants software to search webserver logs :P
You don't even need an account, you simply buy their software and install it in your video streaming service that you sell.

Unless you are referring to Netflix, in which case never fear that was just a flat out blatant slashdot editor lie.

netflix allows 5 people in the same household to share one account, and each gets their own profile to keep watch-later lists and viewing history separate.
See https://help.netflix.com/en/node/10421?ui_action=kb-article-popular-categories

In other words netflix allows specifically the very thing BeauHD claims netflix doesn't want happening.

Netflix, Google, Amazon, etc, get a large chunk of their connectivity through peering which is the same way that internet providers exchange traffic. This means that they will either collocate servers at an Internet Exchange Point or will build a datacenter close enough to one to be able to purchase/build dark fiber to it. At the exchange point, often the only fee is a one-time port cost or a miniscule (in the grand scheme of things) ongoing fee.

Netflix in particular has a really good racket going.... They offer appliances which ISP's host *for free* effectively in exchange for the benefit of moving the significant Netflix traffic off of the ISP's upstream and peering connections. See https://openconnect.netflix.co... . Note that the only cost to netflix is providing the server.. All of the bandwidth and power to run the server (including filling it from the internet and the feed to the customer) is born by the ISP. From an ISP standpoint it makes financial sense to do so since the incremental cost of hosting the server is most likely less than the cost of upstream circuits consumed by netflix. But, it also puts netflix at a advantage that other smaller companies may not have.

That isn't to say that these providers don't have any connectivity costs, they just are significantly lower than one would assume based on the amount of traffic that they are moving.

...FreeBSD is focused on being a traditional Unix system....

FreeBSD is responsible for a lot of traffic on the 'Net. https://openconnect.netflix.co...

...FreeBSD was selected for its balance of stability and features, a strong development community and staff expertise. All code improvements, feature additions, and bug fixes are contributed directly back to the open source community via the FreeBSD committers on our team. We also strive to stay at the front of the FreeBSD development process, allowing us to have a tight feedback loop with other community and partner developers. The result has been a positive open source ecosystem that lowers our development costs and multiplies the effectiveness of our efforts....

I'm sure there are others I've missed but these two stood out:

* Netflix has a great documentary called Mission Blue

* National Geographic's Australia's Great Barrier Reef is also good.

Netflix has made sure that that claim is bullshit. The only reason Netflix is a burden on an ISP's backbone is an ISP going out of it's way to make sure they aren't playing nice with Netflix.

Compared to HBO the interface is actually quite workable. One would think it would be possible for a big business to make a decent interface, but apparently not.

Regarding new stuff, I ended up bookmarking Recently Added (which, sadly, is not where the link on the front page points) ... which is now mostly out of date compared to the Just Added ... sigh ...

Adding to your list, it would also be really neat if each TV show would include a synopsis of each season, so that when the next season comes along, you can get a refresh. You know, just in case you don't want to rewatch the whole thing.

Compared to HBO the interface is actually quite workable. One would think it would be possible for a big business to make a decent interface, but apparently not.

Regarding new stuff, I ended up bookmarking Recently Added (which, sadly, is not where the link on the front page points) ... which is now mostly out of date compared to the Just Added ... sigh ...

Adding to your list, it would also be really neat if each TV show would include a synopsis of each season, so that when the next season comes along, you can get a refresh. You know, just in case you don't want to rewatch the whole thing.

* Google make the OS Android, which includes a list of root certs they trust. (They also make Chrome, but that doesn't include any root certs, it uses the OS-provided ones).

I'm not sure if that's always true. Pull up https://secure.netflix.com/ in Chrome (untrusted) and then pull it up in IE or Edge. I have no idea why, but Chrome flags that certificate as invalid. I display some inline Netflix cover art on a personal web app and the pictures won't load in Chrome. Everything about the cert appears to be valid.

Forgot the link: https://www.netflix.com/au/tit...

Comcast commercial just two days ago that was claiming how great their new, faster service was going to be and it "included Netflix".

That probably just means Comcast agreed to host one of Netflix's Open Connect Appliance CDN servers.

An OCA server host the entire Netflix library so Netflix bandwidth no longer has to go through the ISP's upstream provider. Netflix gives them away for free, which would make it sound like an easy win-win for any ISP wishing to reduce its upstream bandwidth bill. But the larger ISPs have been obstinate and insisting that Netflix pay them for maintenance and electricity to run these servers, even though they're the ones benefiting from them. This is a lack of competition issue, not a net neutrality issue (since once an OCA CDN is in place, the content is technically no longer going over the Internet). If these ISPs had competition, then their most primal goal would be to reduce costs in order to compete better, which is exactly what the OCA servers do. So they'd accept the free OCA servers with a big Thank You to Netflix. But because there's no competition, they're able to refuse the OCA servers and intentionally degrade Netflix performance - because they know upset customers cannot switch to a different ISP.

Yes, it is called Netflix Open Connect, where ISP's with a substantial amount of Netflix traffic can host Netflix Open Connect caches.

Chasing Coral is a 2017 documentary on Netflix specifically about the coral bleaching occurring at the Barrier Reef, and around the world. The aim of the researchers is to capture on time lapse camera a bleaching event.

Seeing the destruction of these ecosystems was difficult to watch.

This news isn't exactly new.

There is a fantastic documentary Mission Blue about the ocean that discusses the coral dying back in 2014.

Other great documentaries include:

2. End of the Line
3. The Blue Planet: A Natural History of the Oceans
4. Sushi: the Global Catch
5. Turtle: The Incredible Journey

--
Main St. built America
Wall St. destroyed it.

You beat me but bouched the link description -- eating plastics, exactly right. But if you click on a random link without examining it you might go to Goatse or someplace... unlike this: The Andromeda Strain (1971)

NOTE: That first link doesn't actually go to Goatse, but it begins down that path with suitable warnings. "Shock sites are what make the internet fun." I suggest that you NOT go there but watch The Andromeda Strain. Really. It's probably on YT -- isn't everything? If not, I'm sure it'll be on NetFlix.

There is quite bit of difference between making content and paying a production house to make content for you. Still quite an impressive list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and it goes on https://media.netflix.com/en/o.... Of course http://www.news.com.au/technol..., NewsCorpse who own Fox, think it is a really bad idea, competing against their content is an extremely bad idea.

Now that explains why Netflix went from friend to last millenniums content dinosaurs to being the enemy to be cut off from content (I dare say, the more popular Netflix become the more they wanted to charge Netflix, Netflix's response fine, we will make our own, see you at the bargaining table).

>It had tried back in the days when it was still mailing out DVDs

Um, newsflash. The DVD/Bluray service has never ended. It is still quite popular, and the ONLY way to go if you want any choice in movies from Netflix (or if you have little or metered Internet).

"Iconic since 1998. Celebrate 20 years of movies in your mailbox with behind-the-scenes videos, great movie recommendations, fun trivia, and the chance to win." http://dvd.netflix.com/

getting really tired of hearing pundits say "We're making advances in ageing studies which means we could be immortal soon." What you mean "we", white man?

No need to get racist about it, although I do realise that the use of "white man" as a pejorative is perfectly acceptable in this day and age.

OMG -- Do you all really not get this? I guess maybe I am old. Or, "younger people" don't have the same frame of reference that I do. Generalizing way too much here -- we used to stare at books and TVs "all" of the time with information coming from a "few" sources. Now we stare at our phones with ideas and incomplete thoughts coming in from everywhere, brilliant and inane.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto get surrounded by hundreds of armed Indians.

The Lone Ranger says, "It looks like we've had it this time, Tonto."

Tonto replies, "What do you mean 'we', white man?"

Do I really have to explain his very apt point about all of the talking heads? Smart people used to seriously argue about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, but that doesn't make any of them right. Immortality might happen -- but not for you.

You thought Bezos was bad now -- wait until he literally *IS* Amazon. It might also give Windows' "Blue Screen of Death" a whole new meaning. NetFlix's Chaos Monkey might actually become a serial killer! Cloning yourself becomes a whole lot easier once you're a Docker image.

OTOH, for a helpful perspective, go watch Colossus: The Forbin Project. It's not all Skynet -- some AIs just want to help. OMG, TFP's also out on Blu-Ray! And NetFlix DVDs are still a thing!

the basic throughput is what it's supposed to be for my DSL service. That is, about 3Mbps due to my distance from the nearest CO.

From Netflix: https://help.netflix.com/en/no...

Below are the internet download speed recommendations per stream for playing TV shows and movies through Netflix.

0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed

1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed

3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality

5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality

25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality

If you are trying to watch HD on your connection you are screwed

You can also try a speed test specific to the service you want to use.
Netflix has one:
https://ispspeedindex.netflix....

Many devices allow you to check your connection speed within the Netflix app. (I would presume HBONow offers a similar utility.) The Netflix Page explaining how to do this is here: https://help.netflix.com/en/no.... On the same Netflix page are their internet download speed recommendations for playing TV shows and movies: 0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed 1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed 3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality 5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality 25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality Remember that these figures are per stream, so concurrent streaming to multiple devices is bandwidth additive.

Netflix has servers in strategic positions within most ISPs, or in some cases just outside. Please see:

https://media.netflix.com/en/c...

In addition, Netflix automatically adjusts the video resolution depending upon the bandwidth of the connection.

Netflix could start streaming in AV1 before the end of this year, with Chrome browsers likely being first in line to receive AV1 streams.

But Chrome is a famously poor choice for Netflix - it only supports 720P, despite that it's apparently possible to force 1080P playback with tweaks.

(To be clear, the 720P limitation appears to be Netflix's doing, not Chrome's.)

I don't have the "approved by Netflix" devices

Here are the resolutions Netflix delivers various viewer software (seems to vary depending on the DRM schemes available in different browsers and platforms) .

And here's a Firefox add-on to get 1080p Netflix video in Firefox.

Looks like they don't: "We generally license content for a fixed fee and a defined time period with payment terms varying by agreement. "

https://ir.netflix.com/top-inv...

Netflix is more about original content at this point.

https://www.netflix.com/origin...

What do I watch?

Movies: I like horror.
* The Babysitter was the most fun movie I've seen since Evil Dead 2 (Satanism!!!).
* Death Note should have been rated R as it was too creepy.
* 1922 was messed up (a son helps his father murder the mother).

TV shows: Ozark, Stranger Things, Narcos, those are the ones I've liked the best.

And offline download which I use a lot, all of their original stuff is portable.

What reality? That you are illegally sharing accounts?

No, that is not illegal on Netflix. So cut out the conceding act. There's no requirement that the devices or device users be collocated. Now, you aren't allowed to share the password, so ideally you need to set up the device yourself, but that's it. Nothing illegal. Nothing immoral. No prices will go up. You pay for the number of simultaneous streaming devices 1, 2 or 4. What do you think that's for? So drop the insulting shit.

10 Mbps is a complete joke, you'd be lucky to get two Netflix streams on that without stuttering.

They're passing a law for legal rights to the modern internet here, not rights to pure luxury to allow you to torrent files 24/7 like a small independent nation.

Besides... https://help.netflix.com/en/no...

Internet Connection Speed Recommendations

Below are the internet download speed recommendations per stream for playing TV shows and movies through Netflix.

0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed
1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed
3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality
5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality
25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality

So according to Netflix themselves, a 10Mbps connection should be enough for two HD streams or three SD streams.

I agree there's a problem here; just how do you speediest? Speedtest.com only measures to a local site and as you say can be gamed pretty easily.

So how about this - measure your speed to Netflix instead via the Fast.com tool they launched some time ago.

Fox example, on Speedtest right now I'm getting 270Mbps (which is actually throttled by wifi hardware, real speed is faster from router).

On Fast.com however, I am getting a nice round 100Mbps average right now. So I'll come back in a year, and see how that fares.

Pure BS.

First, it's actually YOUR DUTY as an ISP to make sure that your clients are getting good service. Typically it involves paying the network that produces the content for peering.
Second, Netflix will gladly install caching edge servers in your datacenter and manage them for you: https://openconnect.netflix.co... - all free of charge. This saves something like 95% of the total backbone traffic. Yet Comcast was refusing it.

Sideloading may still be an option, but I'm not sure.

It is. Netflix provides a working APK of an older version of its app on Netflix says 'This App is not compatible with your device.' I'm using it without problems on a custom build of CyanogenMod.

> They fix the slowness and now everyone bitches about broken extensions.

Oh look, someone who is whining about their special case of Speed is more important then Functionality .

Guess what, your use case is NOT my use case.

Ignoring other people's reasons doesn't make yours magically "right" -- only "right for you."

> It's clearly a violation of whatever made up principals our Luddite collective deemed to be the gospel so many years ago.

Ad Hominem and Straw Man fallacies much?

If you actually watched documentaries, such as the The True Cost, you would quickly see that modernization exploits MORE people.

/sarcasm Because anyone who is against "Change for the sake of Change" is "clearly" a Luddite.

Get off your fucking high horse already.

There is an excellent documentary on Netflix called Mission Blue

The problem is that we've let greed over-rule sustainability. All the environmental disasters we are seeing are just the natural consequences of choosing false profits over scientific prophets.

This begs the question though -- What can the average citizen do to make an impact? The article mentions stabilize the population as one possible solution. What are others?

If you want some truly timeless classics, you have to delve into the vault of physical DVDs.

Sneakers: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...
THX 1138: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...

On the flip side, there are other movies which have come out on DVD which Netflix refuses to release to their loyal customers:
Ghost In The Shell : https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...

Intrigued to hear what others have to say.

If you want some truly timeless classics, you have to delve into the vault of physical DVDs.

Sneakers: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...
THX 1138: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...

On the flip side, there are other movies which have come out on DVD which Netflix refuses to release to their loyal customers:
Ghost In The Shell : https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...

Intrigued to hear what others have to say.

If you want some truly timeless classics, you have to delve into the vault of physical DVDs.

Sneakers: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...
THX 1138: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...

On the flip side, there are other movies which have come out on DVD which Netflix refuses to release to their loyal customers:
Ghost In The Shell : https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...

Intrigued to hear what others have to say.

I will watch them someday when/if the series is licensed to Netflix.

Well, you can start today. Star Trek Discovery already is on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/pl-en/...

Perhaps doing that will be harder once every browser adopts EME.

Every major browser adopted EME and DRM quite some time ago. See for example Netflix's HTML5 requirements. YouTube uses DRM for its "premium content", it's why they bought WideVine.

At download speeds of 3 megabits per second (Mbps), which is the Federal Communications Commission’s current approximate standard for basic broadband service, 98 percent of the population had a choice of at least two mobile ISPs and 88 percent had two or more fixed ISPs available to them. . . At somewhat higher speeds, such as 10 Mbps, the typical person still is able to choose among two fixed ISPs . . .For example, only 37 percent of the population had a choice of two or more providers at speeds of 25 Mbps or greater; only 9 percent had three or more choices . . . Moreover, four out of ten Americans did not live where very-high-speed broadband service – 100 Mbps or greater – is available. Of those with access to broadband at this speed level, only 8 percent had access to two or more providers; 1 percent had access to three or more. Only 3 percent of the population had 1 Gbps or greater available; none had two or more ISPs at that speed.

The reports says there are multiple ISPs available for 3MB/s which the government considers broadband. If you are streaming Netflix, they recommend the minimum is 3MB/s for SD, 5MB/s for HD, and 25 MB/s for 4K. These are the minimums. If you live in a household with multiple users, good luck on streaming and using the internet at the same time. It also does not separate out between different types of ISPs like cable, DSL, satellite, or fiber. I considers them all as equal options even though they are not the same.

I am not sure why people all think they have one option in their areas and most people only have one option.

Because I've done the research in my area. I only have 1 cable ISP. I only have 1 DSL. I only have 2 satellite providers. I have 0 fiber. Satellite is out of the question based on speed. DSL provider has data caps and costs more money. So then there's cable. It's the only viable choice. Other than moving.

True in the late 90's and early 2000's but ISP's do this crazy thing called expanding their markets to make more money and increase share prices.

By expanding their markets you mean merging with or buying out rivals to form larger corporations and market share, right? That reduces competition not the other way around.

Without Network Neutrality there is nothing to prevent Verizon from either snarling Amazon's traffic (making their service lower quality), and/or charging Amazon more for the speed/bandwidth everyone else is getting by default (making them less competitive on price).

Yet, THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN.

ISPs know they are in the business of providing Internet service. They know they can't really take hobble Internet streaming competitors without pissing off their customers.

The Netflix speed index for the US continues to increase, now above 3 Mbps for all major ISPs in the country which gives you a fine H.264 HD signal for on-demand content. No one can see 4K resolution without a 100" display, so no real need for that yet.

And many ISPs are incorporating Netflix Open Connect caches to improve Netflix service - is this going to be an "illegal prioritization" of Netflix traffic over those who don't have in-ISP caches?

My suggestion - no regulations for now. If a problem comes along, and it is a REAL problem, THEN regulate.

Without Network Neutrality there is nothing to prevent Verizon from either snarling Amazon's traffic (making their service lower quality), and/or charging Amazon more for the speed/bandwidth everyone else is getting by default (making them less competitive on price).

Yet, THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN.

ISPs know they are in the business of providing Internet service. They know they can't really take hobble Internet streaming competitors without pissing off their customers.

The Netflix speed index for the US continues to increase, now above 3 Mbps for all major ISPs in the country which gives you a fine H.264 HD signal for on-demand content. No one can see 4K resolution without a 100" display, so no real need for that yet.

And many ISPs are incorporating Netflix Open Connect caches to improve Netflix service - is this going to be an "illegal prioritization" of Netflix traffic over those who don't have in-ISP caches?

My suggestion - no regulations for now. If a problem comes along, and it is a REAL problem, THEN regulate.

1) The Civil War by Ken Burns. The closest thing to a perfect documentary I've seen. Shelby Foote's storytelling is still fascinating every time I listen to his comments.

2) Patterns of Evidence: Exodus - On Netflix streaming, it covers a man seeking for archaeological evidence that the Exodus ever happened. Unlike most "documentaries" that try to tackle the Bible and only preach to the choir, this doc doesn't pretend to have all the answers. It's very balanced and objective, and surprisingly informative about various locations in the vicinity of Egypt and Palestine and what's been found there. It also offers educational insights into the academic research (past and present) on ancient Egypt, how our world's history has been mapped out, etc. (Don't mix this one up with, "Is Genesis History?", which is mostly a joke and an embarrassment, intellectually speaking.) If you've ever wondered if there's any reasonably hard evidence tied to supporting the story of the Exodus, this is as good as it gets from both sides.

3) Jazz, by Ken Burns. While not quite as strong as The Civil War, it is very insightful on the historical and human side of the topic. It talks about everyday life around the beginnings of jazz down south and touches on everyday life as much as about jazz itself - making it a great time capsule.

4) The Cosmos mini-series on FOX a couple of years ago, hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson. It doesn't just talk about hard sciences like math/physics/chemistry. It also touches on great examples of human nature getting in the way of truth and knowledge (corporations hiding dangers for profit - lead in gasoline, religions killing innocents who see things differently, etc.) Some evangelicals got all worked up about it, but even the most ardent believers will get a lot out of it if they give it a chance.

Google does it, Netflix does it, and any ISP that isn't trying to push their own video offering embraces these caches because it reduces the load on their network without them having to invest in more transport.

And this is where the problem lies. Netflix offered to host their "cache" called a Content Delivery Network (CDN) on Comcast's network which would benefit both companies as far as bandwidth was concerned. Comcast refused to let them unless they paid Comcast to put their equipment on Comcast's network. Comcast was also throttling Netflix traffic on their network. Why? Comcast On Demand. Once Netflix paid the ransom traffic suddenly normalized. An ISP should not be allowed to also offer content or internet service should be regulated. This doesn't fall under free market because Comcast is using government granted right of ways for its cabling that smaller ISPs do not have.

I don't even see p2p as an advantage over Netflix. Netflix has it's own CDN (Content Delivery Network) on just about every ISP's last mile so there isn't a bottleneck coming from Netflix. With p2p you could be pulling data from anywhere on earth depending on how many sources are available.

PLEASE Netflix, don't go down the route of fscking "reality tv"....please....

They already did, but it seems you didn't even notice.

My wife and I watched through their original series Ultimate Beastmaster a few weeks back, which is a reality TV show that knocks off American Ninja Warrior (and the shows it knocked off before it). The fact that you seem to have not been aware of its addition just goes to show why it's not a concern if they get into reality TV. Netflix can add content intended for me without displacing content intended for you. It's not a zero-sum game. My gain is not your loss, unlike with network TV, where my gain naturally comes at the loss of whatever show used to occupy that time slot.

All of which is to say, I'm fine with Netflix adding more content of more varieties for more people. That I don't enjoy all of it is fine, so long as they keep adding the stuff I enjoy too.

| PLEASE Netflix, don't go down the route of fscking "reality tv"....please....

too late. https://www.netflix.com/title/... Ultimate Beastmaster, an obstacle course reality show.

This links are also relevant:
http://techblog.netflix.com/20...
http://techblog.netflix.com/20...