Netflix Axes Apple AirPlay Support (cnet.com)

If you stream Netflix on your iPhone or iPad, the app will no longer support Apple AirPlay. A report adds: This means that you won't be able to cast shows on Netflix from your iOS device to your Apple TV. Netflix's note says AirPlay is "no longer supported" due to "technical limitations." "With AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isn't a way for us to distinguish between devices (what is an Apple TV vs. what isn't) or certify these experiences. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue Netflix AirPlay support to ensure our standard of quality for viewing is being met," a Netflix spokesperson said in an email.

Comments

The big boys battle

[XXongo]

So, the big boys battle for who gets paid for what you watch, and how they get the money.

Nothing to do with us.

Re:The big boys battle

[jellomizer]

I am not sure why AirPlay is part of this fight. Apple Historically had the ability to a Companies biggest competitor and strongest strategic business partner at the same time. Yes Apple iTune services is in direct competition with Netflix, but using Apple Products (for those who like them) with Netflix, is a popular viewing method. Making Netflix harder to use on Apple Products, will make the product owners have to choose between getting new hardware, or switching services. Being that Netflix isn't in the business of selling Netflix boxes, that will mean a drop in customers for Netflix, as a good number (I expect 20%) would stick with Apple and Drop Netflix. Where if Netflix continued to play well with Apple Products, then there will be a smaller number of switchers where many would just buy into both services, and less would do a full switch.
The trick to Apples model is you have a physical device where there is an emotional attachment to, vs a service which you can drop without feeling bad about it.
 

Standard of Ripping

[devslash0]

In my opinion they're simply saying that users would use 3rd party devices to rip their content and they have no other way of stopping it. They're not wrong.

Fake Excuse, DRM

[omnichad]

The "technical limitation" is that they don't want to send video to a device that can decrypt and archive it.

Re:Fake Excuse, DRM

[JaredOfEuropa]

Their words: “user experience” is almost always a euphemism for tightening down DRM.

Hey Netflix, I’ll tell you what a piss-poor user experience really is: having a setup that used to work flawlessly but suddenly shows a big unfriendly HDCP error when trying to play Netflix content, leaving me to randomly unplug, power cycle, and reconnect all devices in the chain for 15 minutes until the message disappears. I’ll tell you one thing: I don’t get any of that crap when dealing with the Pirate Bay.

Not Netflix's fault

[Solandri]

This is a Hollywood requirement, not a Netflix requirement. Netflix (and Hulu, and Amazon Video, etc) would love nothing more than to let you stream anything to anywhere. It would be a lot simpler for them.

The Hollywood movie studios are the ones requiring the streamed movie be locked down . Hollywood's fear is that if an unencrypted video stream is ever exposed, that you'll just capture the stream to make a copy of the movie. So they require the stream to remain encrypted all the way from Netflix's servers to the final display device.

If it's a dedicated video playback device, then the device (and playback software like the Netflix app) has to be submitted to Hollywood for approval. That's why the Netflix app showed up on iPhones first, then on the different Android handsets one at a time. Netflix had to submit their app on every single hardware device to Hollywood for their approval. The iPhones were first because approving them meant the most people could get Netflix for the fewest models needing approval. Then the more popular Android handsets, followed by the lesser-known Android handsets. Every streaming device has to go through the same approval process - smart TVs, Blu-ray players with streaming capability, PS4, Xbox, etc.

For general purpose computing devices (i.e. PCs), Hollywood requires the video stream be decoded inside an encrypted virtual machine, which then sends the decoded video directly to the GPU for display. This is why you needed Flash or Silverlight installed on your browser in the pre-HTML 5 days. Those were the only technologies allowing the construction of a virtual machine. And decoding the video in a virtual machine precludes using the hardware decoder in the GPU, which is why you used to need at least an i3 to decode streamed 1080p video, while the puny little SoC on your phone could also stream it (the phone wasn't considered a general purpose computing device, so it could get Hollywood's approval for the entirety of the phone hardware, allowing it to use the GPU to decode the stream).

This is why the Netflix app won't run if your phone is rooted. Hollywood considers that to be converting your phone from a dedicated hardware device to a general purpose computing device. So if the Netflix app detects your phone is rooted, it invalidates itself and won't play. (You can get around it by hiding root from the Netflix app.)

Since Hollywood's approval was only for Airplay to certain Apple devices, opening up AirPlay violates Hollywood's terms of approval. So Netflix is forced to discontinue support for AirPlay, unless they want to go through the trouble of submitting every possible display device you can connect to using AirPlay.