All this app stuff is so annoying. I reverted back a while ago. Now when i want the radio on i just switch it on. With an actual switch. Same with my lights— an actual real switch! Theres no benefit to chaining all your behind someapp the needs updated installed, logged in passwords, managed, ooo you haven’t logged in for 90 days lets send you an email to update your password- bro i just want to increase my heating. Its all nonsense. Sooner people realise the better.

I’ve helped several elderly neighbors get setup with casting to their TVs as well. Just a debacle that’s going to frustrate a bunch of people for no good reason. Really wish the teams that implement ‘features’ like this were forced to deal with the consequences. At least in the olden days, they’d get feedback in the form of calls and complaints to their help line but now it’s just “Too bad, app changed, deal with it.”

Probably to drive people to piracy

> this is very annoying for a parent with kids

But the parents without kids, will they at least continue to be leafs? (Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry...)

>I'd prefer video streaming apps be required to support Casting/AirPlay.

Do you mean required by law?

But then how would they charge you extra for being at a second location?

>By “directs to remote” does it mean the TV remote? I feel like I’m missing something here, it’s just saying “use the smart tv’s built in app”? Directing someone to the remote seems like an overcomplicated way of indicating this?

Yes, that's what it means.

Some other streaming apps encourage using their mobile app as a remote, so I would imagine they are making it clear that the app should not be used at all here.

Don't build the Torment Netflix? These fundamentally anti-consumer moves are why it's called the Internet of sh**y things.

I have no concern whatsoever whether this is about licensing or just money grubbing. You're making things suck for the paying customer. But to be fair, all the streaming services are chasing the last few drops of blood from the stone trying to stop people from actually watching from two screens they paid for in two different locations and other idiocy. I canceled Netflix a while back. And I only watch prime video through an ad blocker on my PC now. Clearly I must hate freedom.

Advertising is a virus that invades and destroys every ecosystem it can.

I’m really leaning towards them being an asshole in this specific case.

Chromecast works in my EV for every other streaming app, so the licensing seems to be a solved problem for them. Netflix, however, never worked and my EV manufacturer had to release a support page specifically for Netflix not working.

I suspect this is just more account security. I remember paying $20/mo for a premium plan with a set number of screens on the contract…but one day their side changed and those screens had to be on my WiFi. I was no longer paying per screen. I was now paying per-household, but I never agreed to that change.

I cancelled Netflix after 15 years (DVD era) and have never looked back. Just hostile decision after hostile decision.

Did they have a choice? In the beginning the studios gave them access to their catalog for cheap. The studios understandably stopped doing that.

I don't know that Netflix had much of an option. Once the studios and networks realized how much money they were leaving on the table by not running their own exclusive streaming services, the licensing costs to Netflix blew up or simply became entirely unavailable.

Netflix running their own studio was a reasonable attempt at regaining some exclusivity, even if it's been executed poorly in many cases.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep my subscription as we've hardly used it in months at this point, but I also don't have any other subscriptions any more either, so I'm not exactly a great bellwether.

BitTorrent → Local Media Player App

Still the best way to watch movies and shows.

Even if we pay $100 dollars to streaming services they will never not be too dumb to know how to make a convenient player that isn't hostile to its users.

That's also rather shit, unless you're using a prescribed browser and operating system.

We've rebuilt cable boxes, but somehow they're even shittier than before.

What OS do you run? I was thinking of doing this with SteamOS.

The reason isn't meant to be true/correct/verifiable. It's meant to be a positive sounding soundbite.

It doesn't. They're just lying.

Given that they block login sharing, I think it's most likely the following scenario:

Friend with a Netflix account comes to your house, casts Netflix to your TV. No need for you to have a Netflix account in that case. Whereas, they want to force you to also have a Netflix account to watch on your TV.