A few days ago I was really bored and thought… Fck it, it can’t really be that bad and paid for a month, wouldn’t hurt to try…
Well that was a waste of money…
1st issue: Can’t stream over airplay.
A common thing i do because I’m a lazy piece of sh!t is I have a piece of software called “uxplay” which is a software airplay server that works way better than it has any right to. So what I do when I’m too lazy to get up from my couch is I connect my Mac with the uxplay server and just watch things that way. It’s a bog standard M3 MacBook air, nothing done to it, nothing…
So imagine my surprise when I tried to play Netflix while streaming over airplay and just saw a black screen… Yep, it just did not work… I couldn’t believe it at 1st but yep, apparently it’s a part of their DRM…
Issue 2: 4k is a lie…
Ok, I thought to myself, fine, I’ll watch it on my Mac directly… But the quality looked… Off. Sure enough, it was streaming at 1080p with a bit rate so low I could practically count the pixels… Ok, I thought to myself, I’ve heard of Netflix having issues on Linux (why I didn’t even try it on my PC) maybe I have something setup wrong… So I look at their docs and they state that safari should be able to play 4k full quality (yk, the thing I’m fucking paying for), I was trying to watch it on Arc (chromium based browser) so I thought, fair enough, I’m just gonna use safari… I log in do everything.
Still 1080p with an ass bit rate
Wtf
At this point I’m proper pissed off, I would have had less issues had I pirated the fcking show I wanted to watch at this point… But I gave it one last attempt, windows.
3rd issue: Windows… It’s by itself an issue
So, I have a stealth windows GPU passthrough virtual machine… The kind that most kernel level AC can’t detect. So I went “eh, if kernel level AC can’t detect it, surely Netflix won’t be able to”. And to it’s (the virtual machine’s credit) it was not detected… Problem is, 4k still didn’t fucking work. On Netflix’s own fcking website it states that edge should be able to play 4k no issue, so I relented and reinstalled edge to my debloated VM… Well that was a waste of time, the bit rate was a bit better but it was still 1080p… I tried extensions, changing flags, nope, Netflix just did not wanna stream at 4k… DESPITE ME FUCKING PAYING FOR IT… Ok, I thought, I have one last option, Netflix has an official windows app, except it’s only on the Microsoft store which just sat there for 5 minutes and then threw an error “unable to apply update” when trying to install the app…
Idk why people would ever pay for this shit, honestly. I didn’t expect anything and I was still disappointed. I didn’t expect it to work on Linux which is my daily driver but to be having issues on supposedly supported platforms, both Windows and Mac is completely unacceptable.
Afaik, their 4k plan is a straight up scam as I could not get it to stream at 4k, regardless of what I tried…
And I know it’s not my internet or my setup, I have gigabit internet ffs…
Sorry for the rant, I’m just really butthurt about having spent money on a service that doesn’t fcking work…
It’s ludicrous that the original pirate-killer service has become such a bad deal. 13 years ago it was such a good deal that it didn’t really make sense to pirate anymore. Now it’s triple the price, 1/3 the quality content, and a worse experience.
I would have had less issues had I pirated
This right here is the problem. Consumers are being punished for paying for their service. I would be more than happy to hand over my hard earned money for products and services that are good value. I’m not trying to get something from nothing here. It’s absurd that we could get better than they’re promising, let alone actually delivering on, and it could cost us nothing.
Yesterday, I learned that several titles on Netflix are locked out from the ad-supported tier “due to licensing restrictions”. Inexcusable. Pay, still sit through ads, get a fraction of the library. I think I’m gonna start building a NAS and home library this year. BDs and DVDs can be snatched up for cheap from pawn shops and eBay. I’ll do it legally just so I can tell any FBI pricks to go fuck themselves if they should ever decide to check on my shit.
I have no issue with paying for services and software in general. If the service provides me with what I expect from it. For eg, I can very easily pirate games but choose to buy a lot of them, especially indie games on steam because steam offers and has offered me an excellent service for years…
But when 🏴☠️ becomes more convenient, easier and can provide a better experience for less effort is the moment when I stop paying… I’m not gonna pay for the privilege of maybe, if the fcking stars align getting permission to watch 4k. I pay for 4k, you give it to me or I stop paying, simple as that.
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I get every resolution I download. Natively on my linux and mac machines. Follow the above recipe and you can too.
I’m not against piracy, but publicly posting about intending to pirate would just invite cops to come and snoop around. I’m not dumb. I should either shut the fuck up about this topic and feel free to pirate or I should not pirate so I can freely speak up about how bullshit it is to pay for these things when piracy is far and away the better experience. I chose the latter, and especially now that resources have been provided to help others to choose the former, others can do so without even asking where to start.
I can afford to buy my media, but I wasn’t always so financially stable and I refuse to forget those chapters of my life. People are really struggling right now, so I wouldn’t dare judge anybody for pirating instead of paying these absurd streaming bill amounts just to get a dogshit selection, bad UI, and pisspoor video quality. As everything in life seems to be going to subscription model, I’m becoming more interested in owning my media. It also just seems like building a NAS and ripping my discs to build a library within it could just be a fun tinkering tech project.
I canceled Netflix several years ago after having used it as my primary source of media almost since they first started their streaming service.
The problem I had is that the quality of their content decreased so dramatically that even though it worked fine from a technical perspective, there was nothing I wanted to watch. They used to have extensive back-catelogues of shows from all sorts of different national cable networks, tons of interesting foreign shows, documentaries, obscure indie films, etc.
Slowly but surely this all disappeared. Networks stopped licensing content to Netflix. As soon as they realized that streaming was the way of the future, they wanted to capitalize on it with their own streaming services. In a way, Netflix was a victim of their own success.
Now they’re essentially just a TV network of their own and not the aggregator of media that they used it me. The few decent originals that they have were just not justification enough for me to pay for a service I might use a few times a year.
I’ve had it canceled until the next season of Sandman or the last season of Stranger Things. I don’t need to subscribe while I wait. I didn’t even subscribe for the couple of Christmas movies they have we normally watch.
I definitely get that. The big thing for me is music, and I routinely buy physical and digital copies of albums to add to my collection. I don’t mind sending some money to help my favorite artists keep producing content that I enjoy. With video, though, it’s just so much harder. I’d be happy to pay $50 or more per month for what Netflix used to be, or even buy downloadable copies of a TV series that I like. That’s just not possible these days. I’d be subscribing to Netflix, Discovery, Paramount, Apple TV, probably a few more. It’s ridiculous. Forget buying and downloading TV shows; there’s no option for that at all. I’d rather just not watch TV or find an “alternate” means of getting the media I want.
Does anyone else read comments that self-censor swearwords in a squeaky voice? Like the commenter is 12 or so?
Heckin heck!
Not really. I let people use the language they’re comfortable with and I don’t pass judgement or attempt to make people be like me.
Wrong community. You should join !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com ;)
Edit:
reinstalled edge to my debloated VM… Well that was a waste of time, the bit rate was a bit better but it was still 1080p… I tried extensions, changing flags, nope, Netflix just did not wanna stream at 4k… DESPITE ME FUCKING PAYING FOR IT… Ok, I thought, I have one last option, Netflix has an official windows app, except it’s only on the Microsoft store which just sat there for 5 minutes and then threw an error “unable to apply update” when trying to install the app…
Sounds less like a Microsoft/Windows rooted issue but rather your debloating process fucked with the fragile internals of Windows.
It’s the same as fucking with the permissions on /sbin (don’t have a better example) and being surprised why you can’t access binaries in there anymore.
You should absolutely not be pirating anything. That just puts a target on your back and isn’t necessary
I know I may come off bad with this question but I ran into it a while back and felt like a fool.
What show were you trying to watch, and does that show come in UHD.
When I had it I would stream to the TV so it may be different but not all shows and movies Netflix has comes in 4K.
It may all not give you that option because the resolution of the M3 MacBook Air is 2560x1664 and not actually 4k (3840 x 2160) I understand the pixel density changes things but the native resolution is what I am referencing. Unfortunately Netflix is not going to stream a higher resolution than the display natively supports from my understanding. May not hurt to hit up support with Netflix to see they can do anything to get it to stream 4K. Maybe they’ll even refund your money.
Here’s the thing though, even if you’re right, I shouldn’t have to call support to get the resolution I’m already paying for. I pay extra for 4k, what my screen is, pixel density, etc shouldn’t matter. I am paying for 4k, I should get 4k.
Ohh I totally agree if the show or movie is 4K then you should be able to stream it that way. The main point I guess I was making is be sure that the show or movie is 4K, some are not and if that’s the case it won’t work no matter what you do.
There is a list of them that support 4K.
https://hd-report.com/list-of-4k-ultra-hd-movies-tv-shows-on-netflix/
