
Netflix ditches Webkit to roll out new UI for smart TVs, Roku boxes, consoles - dkasper
http://gigaom.com/2013/11/12/netflix-ditches-webkit-to-roll-out-slick-new-ui-for-smart-tvs-roku-boxes-and-game-consoles/
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programminggeek
I think the same pattern is repeating over and over again, a company uses
something like HTML 5 to get traction cheaply on multiple platforms, then when
they want to provide a better user experience, they go some kind of native to
provide more/better features on specific platforms.

It seems like an entirely pragmatic approach.

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cupofjoakim
I'm still amazed how much effort is laid on the UX for consoles, while the
browser version needs some urgent attention.

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onion2k
Why? Most people watch Netflix content on a television through a console or a
set-top box. It makes complete sense to concentrate resources developing the
experience for those markets rather than the browser. On tablets and phones
people will use the app. I'd guess that the number of people looking at
Netflix content in a browser is probably in the low single digit percentile
range.

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alex_doom
You'd be forgetting about the college kid with a laptop segment.

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onion2k
No I'm not. Netflix has about 40 million subscribers. 5% of them ('low single
digit percentile') would still be 2 million - easily enough to account for
college students, people who travel a lot, children, etc once you discount
those who have tablets.

There are 21 million college students in the US. 10% having Netflix accounts
isn't completely out of the question, but it'd be a _very_ impressive level of
market penetration.

~~~
saryant
Anecdotally, when I was in college, no one paid for their own account, they
just used their parent's.

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eliot_sykes
Ok, so web browsers that use Webkit will still be supported. "Ditches Webkit"
means Netflix no longer bundles Webkit in their non-browser clients.

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talmand
Isn't that what the title says? Or did it change?

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eliot_sykes
I don't believe the title has changed, its just the way I interpreted it upon
first reading lead me to make that (hopefully) clarifying comment.

It read to me that Netflix is stopping Webkit support entirely, which I
realise is nonsense.

~~~
recycledair
The title has changed, it used to read: "Netflix ditches Webkit and HTML5 to
roll out new UI"

Which seems to imply they ditched it entirely.

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thatthatis
I initially took this as a condemnation of HTML5 as a common runtime, but it
looks to be more a condemnation of "shipping webkit yourself to get an HTML5
common runtime"

I'd love to know more about what they're doing on platforms that have
webviews.

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codenapper
Will the Apple TV App be updated, too, or is it completely separate from the
other implementations?

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rsynnott
The AppleTV app doesn't use webkit; it's the standard, very limited AppleTV UI
kit. This is why it's less terrible than most Netflix clients; less rope to
hang themselves.

They did manage to make it slightly awful within the constraints of the model,
though; see the mechanism used for moving between seasons of a TV show.

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MaxGabriel
Here's am article on the Apple TV UI framework. It's called Back Row

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MaxGabriel
Whoops! Forgot the actual link. Shouldn't be commenting when I'm half asleep I
guess

[http://nshipster.com/backrow/](http://nshipster.com/backrow/)

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yskchu
That article doesn't have much details on what the new UI is based on... does
anyone know?

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wambotron
This is interesting to me personally as Netflix had contacted me to
potentially work there specifically on the WebKit engine and apps roughly 18
months ago. That is, at the same time they were already making it obsolete. I
wonder if it was secret even within the organization.

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pasbesoin
Although the older Roku's are not initial targets for deployment, the timing
nonetheless seems to roughly correspond with when my Roku XD started rebooting
every hour or two while playing Netflix.

If there's some correspondence on the back end, I hope Netflix will sort it
out, as the reboot takes a good couple of minutes; additionally, the glitch
strikes suddenly and hard enough that the current location in the playing
stream is not saved.

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JoeAltmaier
There was something minimalist and efficient about the old design - lots of
information in front of the viewer, easy to pan across 100 movies quickly.

Now, two rows, lots of bandwidth used to update the ad frame dominating half
the screen. Its slick and showy and ... less useful for browsing movie titles?

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chestnut-tree
On a related note, the BBC has an open source library for building HTML apps
on TV called the TV Application Layer (TAL) which looks very promising:

[http://fmtvp.github.io/tal/](http://fmtvp.github.io/tal/)

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ams6110
They should forget about all that and spend the money on MORE CONTENT. I don't
give a shit about the UI, I want something worth watching. I don't go to
Netflix to ooh and ahh over the pretty UI.

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therobot24
spending money making current customers happy with a better experience is
never wasted

if their current UI sucked you'd be complaining about having trouble finding a
movie -- which you kind of are doing already. IMO one of Netflix's major
problems is the UI, when i'm on my PS3 and looking for something to watch,
there are 75 movies from different subsets (most of which are unrated by me -
promoting me to watch something i haven't seen) - the problem with this is i
often like to watch things i have already seen (hence the reason i buy a dvd).
That content isn't readily available or easy to search unless i remember or
already know what i want.

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wnevets
I doubt my two year plasma will get the update

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swernoxidation
I thought that Netflix required Microsoft Silverlight to play?

