A few days ago I was really bored and thoughtā¦ Fck it, it canāt really be that bad and paid for a month, wouldnāt hurt to tryā¦
Well that was a waste of moneyā¦
1st issue: Canāt stream over airplay.
A common thing i do because Iām a lazy piece of sh!t is I have a piece of software called āuxplayā which is a software airplay server that works way better than it has any right to. So what I do when Iām too lazy to get up from my couch is I connect my Mac with the uxplay server and just watch things that way. Itās a bog standard M3 MacBook air, nothing done to it, nothingā¦
So imagine my surprise when I tried to play Netflix while streaming over airplay and just saw a black screenā¦ Yep, it just did not workā¦ I couldnāt believe it at 1st but yep, apparently itās a part of their DRMā¦
Issue 2: 4k is a lieā¦
Ok, I thought to myself, fine, Iāll watch it on my Mac directlyā¦ But the quality lookedā¦ Off. Sure enough, it was streaming at 1080p with a bit rate so low I could practically count the pixelsā¦ Ok, I thought to myself, Iāve heard of Netflix having issues on Linux (why I didnāt even try it on my PC) maybe I have something setup wrongā¦ So I look at their docs and they state that safari should be able to play 4k full quality (yk, the thing Iām fucking paying for), I was trying to watch it on Arc (chromium based browser) so I thought, fair enough, Iām just gonna use safariā¦ I log in do everything.
Still 1080p with an ass bit rate
Wtf
At this point Iām proper pissed off, I would have had less issues had I pirated the fcking show I wanted to watch at this pointā¦ But I gave it one last attempt, windows.
3rd issue: Windowsā¦ Itās by itself an issue
So, I have a stealth windows GPU passthrough virtual machineā¦ The kind that most kernel level AC canāt detect. So I went āeh, if kernel level AC canāt detect it, surely Netflix wonāt be able toā. And to itās (the virtual machineās credit) it was not detectedā¦ Problem is, 4k still didnāt fucking work. On Netflixās own fcking website it states that edge should be able to play 4k no issue, so I relented and reinstalled edge to my debloated VMā¦ Well that was a waste of time, the bit rate was a bit better but it was still 1080pā¦ I tried extensions, changing flags, nope, Netflix just did not wanna stream at 4kā¦ DESPITE ME FUCKING PAYING FOR ITā¦ Ok, I thought, I have one last option, Netflix has an official windows app, except itās only on the Microsoft store which just sat there for 5 minutes and then threw an error āunable to apply updateā when trying to install the appā¦
Idk why people would ever pay for this shit, honestly. I didnāt expect anything and I was still disappointed. I didnāt 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 triedā¦
And I know itās not my internet or my setup, I have gigabit internet ffsā¦
Sorry for the rant, Iām just really butthurt about having spent money on a service that doesnāt fcking workā¦
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 theyāre 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.
Iāve had it canceled until the next season of Sandman or the last season of Stranger Things. I donāt need to subscribe while I wait. I didnāt 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 donāt mind sending some money to help my favorite artists keep producing content that I enjoy. With video, though, itās just so much harder. Iād 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. Thatās just not possible these days. Iād be subscribing to Netflix, Discovery, Paramount, Apple TV, probably a few more. Itās ridiculous. Forget buying and downloading TV shows; thereās no option for that at all. Iād rather just not watch TV or find an āalternateā means of getting the media I want.