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There are several reasons but one of the biggest is that Microsoft's DRM solution is/was the most acceptable to the studios.


Some quotes from disguntled Netflix customers:

"You can bet I won't be renewing if they don't fix this garbage"

"lower connection speed and lower quality than before Silverlight"

"uggh, Individualization failed. Unable to playback protected (DRM) content. Error 8152. Still does not work on the Mac."

"horribly pixelated, sporadic and painful to watch at times"

"Never really had a problem with the WMP player. Now, I was forced to "opt" in to the new player. Video is jerky/choppy on all Starz titles and many others. And by jerky, I mean unwatchable. Thanks Netflix!!!!!!!!!!!!! What worked fine yesterday is now worthless. Amazing that they can actually make Blockbuster an option again."

If the studios want to push people into downloading over BitTorrent, they're going the right way about it.

Having said all that, kudos to Netflix for not pulling all the adverse comments from their website.


If the studios want to push people into downloading over BitTorrent, they're going the right way about it.

Yeah, I only use Netflix out of utter desperation. If I really want to watch something, and just can't find it on Usenet or TPB, then I grudgingly accept the fact that I will have to use Netflix. The UI and video quality are both terrible. Why is it that I can stream full-HD video for free, but I am only able to pay for low-quality DRM'd crap?


My understanding is that is was the only viable DRM solution that was cross-platform.

Apple won't license FairPlay and Flash-based DRM ain't quite there yet.


Widevine (http://www.widevine.com/cypher.html) offers a flash based DRM that many of the studios like, but it's shockingly expensive.




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