Report: Netflix streaming video headed to iPhone, Wii

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Comments

  • Reply 61 of 89
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    Encryption can be built into the http stream. Netflix can easily enough block PC's from seeing the HTML stream. These aren't real problems.



    AT&T's 3G reliability differs on where you are. NYC likely has the highest concentration of iPhone's in the world. AT&T 3G has been found to be very fast in areas where it is not overly saturated.



    As far as data rate. One of the advantages of HTML streaming as that its bit rate can be throttled in real time to adjust for connection speed.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zoolook View Post


    I wasn't talking only about power requirements, it's the whole package. You need power as well as a constant steady connection. Even if Netflix used HTLM streaming (doubtful, as it could be easily cracked on a PC pointing at the same stream), AT&Ts dodgy 3G would have to keep up with the data requirement. Not likely - I barely get 100kbps on 3G in NYC (I just did a test now on 3G and got 0.08 Mbps on 3G download.



    It'd be interesting to get it, but you have to wonder how practical it this would be on a mobile device. City-wide roaming broadband wireless is a long way from being a reality, so we're either stuck with this at home, or netflix will have to stream video over 80kbps.



  • Reply 62 of 89
    dluxdlux Posts: 666member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NasserAE View Post


    Another person who don't know what is the difference between web apps and native apps. Web apps are basically webpages optimized for the iPhone. Apple has no control over what you can visit on the internet.



    They can't control where you visit, but they can control what you see. The lack of Flash on the iPhone is one instance of that.



    Not that I think it's a bad thing (I wish Flash would go away), but access to various technologies - good or bad - is not guaranteed on the iPhone via Safari.
  • Reply 63 of 89
    zoolookzoolook Posts: 657member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TenoBell View Post


    AT&T's 3G reliability differs on where you are. NYC likely has the highest concentration of iPhone's in the world. AT&T 3G has been found to be very fast in areas where it is not overly saturated.



    As far as data rate. One of the advantages of HTML streaming as that its bit rate can be throttled in real time to adjust for connection speed.



    At the end of the day, the codec behind the scenes is going to be h.264. Digital video is something I take a keen interest in professionally and personally, and 100kbps is not good enough for anything remotely viewable, at least in terms of watching movies or TV shows.



    I know it's very easy and tempting to counter my points one by one, but no one seems to want to answer the question; why? Why is this a good fit for the iPhone, as opposed to a laptop?



    In a car, train or bus? - unreliable signal, drop outs

    On an aircraft? Possibly when WiFi is made available, but it's likely to cost money, you might was well rent an iTunes movie

    On the subway in major cities? No signal



    At home? Most people will use their TV or computer (and Netflix prevent simultaneous streams on one account, so you can't even watch something different to other members of the household).



    \
  • Reply 64 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dlux View Post


    They can't control where you visit, but they can control what you see. The lack of Flash on the iPhone is one instance of that.



    No, Apple can?t control what you see. Flash for streaming video is just a medium for receiving it. If you read the thread you?ll see that there are plenty of ways to get the stream to your iPhone and that Flash doesn?t work very well for streaming video on such a slow device. Apple and other cellphone vendor?s decision not to include Flash was a wise move. It?s Adobe fault for not having a decent version of flash for streaming video on mobiles, but without even having a decent version for Linux of Mac OS X, what should we expect from them.
  • Reply 65 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zoolook View Post


    At the end of the day, the codec behind the scenes is going to be h.264. Digital video is something I take a keen interest in professionally and personally, and 100kbps is not good enough for anything remotely viewable, at least in terms of watching movies or TV shows.



    I know it's very easy and tempting to counter my points one by one, but no one seems to want to answer the question; why? Why is this a good fit for the iPhone, as opposed to a laptop?



    Would you rather someone not counter your points individually in intelligent discourse, but rather just make a blanket statement that addresses none of them?



    What is a good fit for the iPhone but not a laptop? HTTP Streaming? That is available across the board if websites choose to utilize it. What isn?t available is a decent Flash viewer for mobile devices which means that the iPhone and other phones cannot use Flash for streaming video. Now Adobe is struggling, but it looks a little too late, they are now going to lose out to more open standards and more efficient streaming options.
  • Reply 66 of 89
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dlux View Post


    They can't control where you visit, but they can control what you see. The lack of Flash on the iPhone is one instance of that.



    Not that I think it's a bad thing (I wish Flash would go away), but access to various technologies - good or bad - is not guaranteed on the iPhone via Safari.



    Flash is not the one and only way to stream video. On the iPhone you can stream and watch movies without flash and Apple can't stop you unless thy decide to completely block videos from Safari, which will hurt Apple the most. As far as I know, if you want to develop a native iPhone app or a web app to stream video you will have to use one of the iPhone supported video format.
  • Reply 67 of 89
    dluxdlux Posts: 666member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Logisticaldron View Post


    If you read the thread you’ll see that there are plenty of ways to get the stream to your iPhone and that Flash doesn’t work very well for streaming video on such a slow device.



    Flash doesn't work at all for streaming video on such a device. Apple simply doesn't allow it!





    Quote:

    Apple and other cellphone vendor’s decision not to include Flash was a wise move.



    I was never disputing that. Read my full post again.



    Edit: I hope people aren't interpreting my post to read that I am supporting Flash in any way. I'm simply pointing out that there are limits to what people can expect to use on their iPhones, and as such, certain streaming technologies are non-starters, whether as a native app or within Safari. That can change, of course, but for now Flash is off limits (and rightfully so, imo.) I don't know if there are negotiations underway to support Silverlight, but if so, that would seem to be one way to facilitate Netflix streaming. I hope not, though.
  • Reply 68 of 89
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Muncie View Post


    Anyone else been irritated by ubiquitous Netflix pop-ups? Irritated enough to boycott the service even if available on iPhone?



    That's your choice. It's not totally unreasonable because those things are irritating. That said, I usually don't get them, the ones I get, I don't see.
  • Reply 69 of 89
    zagmaczagmac Posts: 72member
    As a Touch user, the wifi-only limitation doesn't bother me one bit. And as existing Netflix subscriber, this is great.
  • Reply 70 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TenoBell View Post


    Netflix doesn't need DRM to stream to the iPhone. There is no way to record or divert the stream





    haven't you ever heard of SNAPz PRO X



    record ANYTHING on your screen



    http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
  • Reply 71 of 89
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mac Voyer View Post


    I am firmly in the camp of "It's never going to happen!"



    Also, I never want to see Flash on the iPhone. I want Flash dead! It is bad, even on the computer. I want to see it replaced with something much more optimized for the hardware that people actually have as opposed to octal-core monsters. We all need to break our dependency on Flash. The world would be a better place.



    I'm all for not watching Flash 'trash' especially not on my iPhone, but just as an example, visit Google Finance and click on a stock index detail, play around with the charting tool and tell me exactly why this is bad and how you would propose to offer that kind of functionality without using Flash (or Java, also not on iPhone).



    I'm in the camp of 'No bad Flash, just bad people.' I run ClickToFlash on my Macs and would do the same on my iPhone if it had Flash.
  • Reply 72 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    I'm all for not watching Flash 'trash' especially not on my iPhone, but just as an example, visit Google Finance and click on a stock index detail, play around with the charting tool and tell me exactly why this is bad and how you would propose to offer that kind of functionality without using Flash (or Java, also not on iPhone).



    I'm in the camp of 'No bad Flash, just bad people.' I run ClickToFlash on my Macs and would do the same on my iPhone if it had Flash.



    Google will remove Flash at some point from Google Finance. They have cut out Flash in a good deal of their other sites already. HTML5, CSS3 and AJAX offer a lot of potential for powerful open standards.



    PS: You already don?t need Flash to view YouTube videos and I don?t think Google will want any of their web services requiring Flash when they finally release ChromeOS, so I?d wager that even Google Finance will have an option for no Flash for the interactive menu within a year.
  • Reply 73 of 89
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    Are asking what is the point of watching video on your phone. In a word, convenience. The phone is taking the place of laptops, the laptop is taking the place of desktops.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zoolook View Post


    At the end of the day, the codec behind the scenes is going to be h.264. Digital video is something I take a keen interest in professionally and personally, and 100kbps is not good enough for anything remotely viewable, at least in terms of watching movies or TV shows.



    I know it's very easy and tempting to counter my points one by one, but no one seems to want to answer the question; why? Why is this a good fit for the iPhone, as opposed to a laptop?



    In a car, train or bus? - unreliable signal, drop outs

    On an aircraft? Possibly when WiFi is made available, but it's likely to cost money, you might was well rent an iTunes movie

    On the subway in major cities? No signal



    At home? Most people will use their TV or computer (and Netflix prevent simultaneous streams on one account, so you can't even watch something different to other members of the household).



    \



  • Reply 74 of 89
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Logisticaldron View Post


    Google will remove Flash at some point from Google Finance. They have cut out Flash in a good deal of their other sites already. HTML5, CSS3 and AJAX offer a lot of potential for powerful open standards.



    I wasn't aware they had flash for anything except YouTube, Google Video and the finance applet. Can HTML 5 & AJAX really replace Flash for that applet? Seems like it would be a masochistic programming effort.
  • Reply 75 of 89
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Logisticaldron View Post


    Google will remove Flash at some point from Google Finance. They have cut out Flash in a good deal of their other sites already. HTML5, CSS3 and AJAX offer a lot of potential for powerful open standards.



    PS: You already don?t need Flash to view YouTube videos and I don?t think Google will want any of their web services requiring Flash when they finally release ChromeOS, so I?d wager that even Google Finance will have an option for no Flash for the interactive menu within a year.



    About removing Flash within a year - you know this how? Just asking...



    I'm quite familiar with the technologies you mentioned, as well as Flash, Air, Actionscript and other Shockwave programming but I still fail to see how CSS3, HTML5 will do what Flash does. Ajax can only do what Javascript does. For example the whole rift between the various browser publishers about the <video> tag will not likely be resolved within a year.
  • Reply 76 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    I wasn't aware they had flash for anything except YouTube, Google Video and the finance applet. Can HTML 5 & AJAX really replace Flash for that applet? Seems like it would be a masochistic programming effort.



    They don?t seem to use Flash on Google Maps, which has a lot more interactive options than Google Finance for manipulating interactive image details.
  • Reply 77 of 89
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    Can you point link to Snaps Pro X for the iPhone. Then how do you run both Netflix and Snapz with no multi-tasking?



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bitzandbitez View Post


    haven't you ever heard of SNAPz PRO X



    record ANYTHING on your screen



    http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/



  • Reply 78 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    About removing Flash within a year - you know this how? Just asking...



    You assume I know this, how? I said " I don?t think Google will want any of their web services requiring Flash when they finally release ChromeOS? and that ?I wager?? This is just a guess. I don?t think Google will exclude Flash, but I do think they will want to make Flash less required for their products and services if they can. Netbooks already have a hard time with Flash video, especially with the higher quality stuff, and ChromeOS looks more geared for developing nations using even slower devices. If this is the case, then including Flash just to have stuttering video streaming would be pointless.



    As for the video tag, the issue won?t be resovled but that doesn?t mean it has to affect the end user. Sites can have OGG and H.264 of the same video and call the correct file based on your User Agent. It?s not ideal, but it is easily doable.
  • Reply 79 of 89
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Logisticaldron View Post


    They don?t seem to use Flash on Google Maps, which has a lot more interactive options than Google Finance for manipulating interactive image details.



    I suppose you have a point, I don't see any flash there.
  • Reply 80 of 89
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    I wasn't aware they had flash for anything except YouTube, Google Video and the finance applet. Can HTML 5 & AJAX really replace Flash for that applet? Seems like it would be a masochistic programming effort.



    You got that right!. I'm doing a lot more Ajax lately and honestly it takes a long time to debug because when it is broken it just doesn't work. No error message. The Javascript debug console is a bit of a help but still painstakingly tedious. In Flash I can create the same functionality in minutes instead of hours. The debug console is very helpful.



    As much as I like Flash for really custom applications (not banner ads), I see the advantage of using open technologies especially in the case of mobile apps, but I always try to choose the best tool for any given situation and sometimes it is Flash.
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