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…

  • WolfLink@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    16 hours ago

    AIUI Netflix will limit stuff if it sees anything at all creative going on because they are afraid of you screen recording.

  • themakara@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    Part of the resolution issue is probably caused by Netflix silly requirements. You can use hardware that is perfectly capable of handling 4k@60 or even higher, in whatever codec they deliver. But if your hardware is not considered as supported, good bad. An argument can be made for ease of use and general consumer base, but these things shouldn’t punish everyone else for that.

      • themakara@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        I honestly don’t know. Could be they rated it that way.

        Just wanted to point out that Netflix in general is pretty iffy about fulfilling their promises when it comes to 4k.

  • irotsoma@lemmy.worldEnglish
    91·
    1 day ago

    4k thing may not be Netflix itself. There’s a ton of DRM that has to be working just right built into a lot of hardware and software. Many things can cause it to have issues and it’s designed to break if there is anything it considers abnormal. Problem is that it’s kinda, sorta new and hardware can’t be updated. Same issues happened with 1080p at the time. My PS3 HDMI port broke multiple times during warranty and then I gave up after it expired. Just the slight distortion caused by the defect made the TV and all the other devices decide it was being used to pirate content and so they refused to work. These days the devices are more stable and the media industry has stopped aggressively enforcing the DRM to be so aggressive. But they still are doing it with 4K. Any little bug in a driver, software, or hardware firmware and it falls back to 720p or 1080p if you’re lucky.

  • MrVilliam@lemm.eeEnglish
    88·
    2 days ago

    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.

  • Mr_Blott@feddit.ukEnglish
    312·
    2 days ago

    Does anyone else read comments that self-censor swearwords in a squeaky voice? Like the commenter is 12 or so?

    Heckin heck!

  • corroded@lemmy.worldEnglish
    371·
    2 days ago

    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.

    • Omega@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      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.

      • corroded@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        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.

  • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    2 days ago

    Yesterday I was watching Netflix on my phone and tried to switch to my iPad. Because my wife was also watching downstairs, I got the “you are already streaming on two devices” block screen. It even told me that one of them was my phone. So I went to my phone and quit the app. But nothing would convince Netflix that I was no longer streaming on my phone. It took about half an hour for this to naturally clear on its own. Being unable to switch devices is a major technical failing, and should be totally avoidable.

  • irish_link@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    2 days ago

    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.

    • Presi300@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      117·
      2 days ago

      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.

  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    294·
    2 days ago

    Wrong community. You should join [email protected] ;)

    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.

  • Celestus@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Sort of a tangent, but I’m curious what advantage Uxplay has over the built in macOS AirPlay server. I’m unfamiliar with it

    • Presi300@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      UxPlay is a airplay server that allows you to remotely stream from your Mac to a Linux PC… You don’t run uxplay on the Mac itself, you run it on the machine you want to stream the display to

  • JadenSmith@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    I’m not sure if this will fulfill your needs entirely, or how you feel regarding piracy to obtain source material, however I’ve been running Jellyfin for a while with an overall good experience. Subtitles are found and automatically applied, and it’s rather snappy.
    I use it to watch an episode or two when I’m at the gym.

  • Glasgow@lemmy.mlEnglish
    51·
    2 days ago

    Stremio with the torrent plugin. Entire web at your fingertips.