
Netflix – Chasing 60fps [video] - tilt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g01dGsKbXOk
======
BuckRogers
I hate to spoil the celebration, but I've wanted a basic text interface to
Netflix for years. Can I just get a list of movies and shows available? Click
a link, see a page with a description, use the back button and I'm back
exactly where I was?

The technical implementation really doesn't need to be this complex. Also, the
interface itself has gotten worse and worse too. As a customer, just offering
HTML links, a search box and then using HTML5 to stream the video would be
great.

~~~
Ollinson
I was honestly shocked to find out that there are almost 8000 movies available
right now on netflix streaming.

Their "custom tailored" selection screen gives the impression that they have
300 films available at most.

~~~
girvo
This is one of the reasons I'm a massive fan of JustWatch[0]. The other reason
is that it searches across everything that's available on other services in
Australia; most of these tools ignore us Down Under!

[0] [https://www.justwatch.com](https://www.justwatch.com)

~~~
IshKebab
That's really nice. It would be amazing if you could add IMDb ratings though,
and the ability to sort/filter by them (e.g. only show me films with a rating
>7).

You can download the IMDb rating database, although I think it has a very
restrictive licence. Alternatively there is this:
[http://www.omdbapi.com/](http://www.omdbapi.com/) \- but I wouldn't count on
it being around forever. It seems like they would be on shaky legal grounds
(but at least it would be them getting sued rather than you).

~~~
Ollinson
I should have included this in my original post but InstantWatcher sounds like
what you're looking for.

That website is how I discovered netflix has thousands of movies in the first
place.

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CSDude
I know Javascript/HTML/CSS makes it very easy to develop something, however it
is really sad to see people are struggling to get 60fps to show 20 boxes with
images scrolling, where games can show thousands of polygons smoothly.

~~~
jeremiep
Game engines and browsers have radically different architectures and
performance/productivity requirements. Computing polygons is basically
applying one function to an array of values and is delegated to the GPU, so
its no wonder they easily reach 60 FPS with hundred of thousands of polygons
per frame.

A better comparison would be against the performance of game logic, which in a
game engine can easily become the bottleneck from all the conditionals, random
memory accesses and sequential dependencies. And even there they don't sit on
nearly as many layers of abstractions as a web page does.

This comes at the cost of productivity; building a web site is a few orders of
magnitude more productive than using the latest game engines. Of course,
sitting on the DOM and its many quirks as well as its reflow/redraw cycles can
make it harder to reach 60FPS in the browser.

But at least you're saving yourself from a world of low-level pain.

~~~
andrepd
So essentially you are sacrificing your end result for an easier time for
yourself, the developer.

~~~
egeozcan
You are sacrificing your end result every time you don't spend a lifetime
designing a custom processor for your application with an instruction set
specific to your use case and instead have an easier time living like a normal
human being.

~~~
andrepd
You can go to extremes, as your preposterous mine-the-silicon-and-smelt-the-
chip approach, or you can go to the sort of extremes that makes opening a news
article grind my high-end phone to a halt for 20 seconds.

~~~
egeozcan
That news source is then bloated and unoptimized. There are also a lot of
bloated and slow native apps. I don't see your point.

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tracker1
Funny how much things change in a couple years.. about 4-5 years ago, I built
a gallery view, that had scrolling areas, that worked the same as the video
mentions (only loading the next block)... what's funny is the css transitions
were working poorly on some devices at that time, so it was disabled
completely. :-(

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ericfrederich
I wish they would fix Netflix on the Nexus Player and PS3. I only have 2 set
to boxes and both of them have broken Netflix on them.

The PS3 doesn't output audio properly to my receiver. I need to use stereo to
get any sound at all.

The Nexus Player logs you out if your program ends and tries to play the next
episode. This happens all the time when my 2 year old watches Curious George.

These aren't obscure platforms and it seems I'm not the only one with these
problems. No known solution either.

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edit

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I forgot... also when watching 4:3 content on my Nexus player it uses some
stupid gray background which is distracting. What is so wrong with black?

On the other hand, the Nexus player can run Kodi which you can install a
plugin called "Genesis" on and stream anything you can imagine without any of
those issues.

~~~
ac29
I wish they would fix Netflix on (desktop) Linux. Most content is limited to
~2Mbps 720x480 resolution (approx DVD quality), for no apparent technical
reason. A Roku streaming box gets the same content on the same internet
connection at ~6Mbit 1080P. This is easily verified with the Netflix secret
menus (Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S and Ctrl-Alt-Shift-D) -- quality above 1750kbps 480P
just generally isn't available to Linux web browsers, except on Netflix
originals and a small handful of other stuff.

Sadly, another area where paranoid content owners have made legally available,
paid for content inferior to illegal pirate copies.

~~~
relix42
This has more to do with licensing restrictions than with technology.

~~~
ac29
That was my point -- there is zero technical reason HD cant be delivered to
desktop linux. Netflix shows do it, and so do a small number of other TV shows
and movies. The vast majority of content, however, is limited to 480P.
Presumably for licensing reasons only.

The most irritating thing is that "HD" now costs extra, and there is zero
indication linux clients cant get the paid for HD content. I watch Netflix via
Roku maybe 5% of the time, so mostly Im getting less than I pay for.

------
tracker1
Anyone else chuckle a little about seeing a Netflix technology video on
youtube?

~~~
NeutronBoy
Right tool for the right job.

~~~
tracker1
Agreed, I just thought it was a little funny. :-) I get the same chuckle when
I see a "Mercedes SLK Black" that's painted white.

~~~
rubiquity
I don't chuckle when I see that. I just enjoy the exhaust notes.

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spearo77
Hmm, I heard him mention that SLA is "software license agreement".. is that
right?

I've always interpreted it as Service Level Agreement, which typically has a
minimum response time, etc.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-
level_agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-level_agreement)

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krizan
This made me try reactjs. Too bad i had to watch bottom right corner to see
smooth animations :(

~~~
keithy
React is insanely fun. It's so stress free to code up the frontend of your web
app with React because everything is viewed as a component. My friend and I
have adopted React and we are still glossing over how great it is.

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michaelmcmillan
It's a little ironic that all the demos are lagging like hell on a talk titled
"Chasing 60fps".

