Netflix Netflix, Netflix, Netlix... still a lot of waiting ?

[Chany]

Hello,

I read that you have problems with Google's new DRM (or something like that), but I would like to know if Netflix will be fixed soon or not.
Since I did the new update, I can't download anything anymore and I'm losing a lot of series which are no longer available on Netflix now

I know you are trying your best to resolve this issue, but I am sad that at every update I have issues using StreamFab.
The price is high, I know you are trying your best to resolve this issue, but I am sad that at every update I have issues using StreamFab.
The price is high, it shouldn't happen with every update.

best regards from France.

[Germania]

I would like to know if Netflix will be fixed soon or not.

Nobody here can give an end date and no one will consciously delay it.

Since I did the new update, I can't download anything anymore

I've no problem with old content from Netflix with current SF version
only content from the last 3 weeks failed for me.

But I assume you mean the Mac version - unfortunately I can't say anything about that
If you are using macOS Mojave 10.14.3 – it is five years old, could that be the problem?

I'm losing a lot of series which are no longer available on Netflix now

I don't know of any series that was published that year and then removed again.

I am sad that at every update I have issues using StreamFab.

Your last problem in this forum (6play.fr) was 9 months ago.
Shouldn't there be more error reports to be found if it affects every update?
Of course, I can't see any errors reported via the ticket system.

[Cats4U]

Chany,
I've gone through 3 DRM changes in the almost 2-^1/2 years I've run StreamFab. It's just a circumstance that you learn to live with. If you didn't want DRM changes, you shouldn't have started downloading streaming videos. The video producers and their licensees don't want you downloading their stuff. That's why they change their DRMs once or twice a year. They want you to buy their DVDs, Blu-rays, and UHDs. If you are going to keep their show in your possession, possibly for a lifetime, they want money for it. Definitely more money than you are paying to a streamer such as Netflix. The fact is, if you take potential money away from them (meaning the video producer) they are going to come down hard on their licensees (Netflix or any other streamer) to hassle you every so often. That's what is happening now. Get used to it.

On another topic, I don't buy the sad story of

I'm losing a lot of series which are no longer available on Netflix now

With streaming, nothing is gone permanently (unless it is extremely obscure). More often than not, it will reappear on Netflix in a month or two, or it will be able to be found on another streamer the very next day after it is taken off Netflix.

[phelings]

I'm not sure they want you to buy discs. For most series they're not available on disc anyway. And with Paramount, they have a vast library of movies and many are available in HD but they're not on discs. In the last year or so Paramount have returned to the disc market but many of their key titles are only getting 4k releases by being licenced to independents, certainly in the US.

As for nothing goes permanently with streaming , I think Disney and Paramount and even Netflix have shown thats not the case by removing lots of content and its pot luck if someone else picks it up. The streaming business model is doomed to failure. You may have room for a couple of services but as Paramount and Disney have discovered spending billions per year on new content isn't the answer and neither is it sustainable. Both companies have huge back catalogues that remain largely untapped so unless they get some of the old content on there , much of which will be new to many subscribers they won;t be able to stay as they are. I doubt Paramount + will be in existence in 18 months unless they change their way of thinking and Disneys financiial black hole gets larger as the months go by. Toy Story 5 and Frozen 3 sound very much like expensive shouts of desperation and they need to do far more business than Disneys 4 money pit movies of last year that made a fortune but not enough.

[MrGrackle]

They want you to buy their DVDs, Blu-rays, and UHDs. If you are going to keep their show in your possession

And even those guys change their DRM constantly too!!

[Chameleon]

And even those guys change their DRM constantly too!!

What constitutes "Constantly?

[phelings]

What constitutes "Constantly?

I think he means regularly. Each time there is a Bluray Copy update it usually includes new info to enable copying of the most recent titles.

[Chameleon]

I think he means regularly. Each time there is a Bluray Copy update it usually includes new info to enable copying of the most recent titles.

I haven't bought a disc in 15 years, there are not many movies I need to watch twice. There are some but not enough to drop 20 bucks on a disk.

[phelings]

I haven't bought a disc in 15 years, there are not many movies I need to watch twice. There are some but not enough to drop 20 bucks on a disk.

Fortunately the tide is turning and the streaming services themselves have given the disc market a much needed shot in the arm by needlessly removing titles from their services. Without Streamfab and the like I wouldn't give streaming services a second glance but the ability to watch when and where I want without an internet signal or being able to create a disc if I want one has given me an interest in some of them.
Most modern material I wouldn't ever watch twice either but classic movies from the golden age will always have a place in my collection and nothing beats the quality of discs

[Cats4U]

Fortunately the tide is turning and the streaming services themselves have given the disc market a much needed shot in the arm

You simply don't know what you are talking about. Optical disk manufacturing sites are being shut down on a weekly basis. Read Variety and other trade papers and you'll see. Right now, in the US, there are only two major retail disk distributors, Walmart and Amazon. I believe, Walmart is set to end disk sales in April. Amazon will hold out a little while longer, but not much. When the disks go, so goes the DVDFab side of Fengtao's business. StreamFab will be the only profit making side of the business, if they can ever fix the DRM, which I'm starting to doubt. Nobody wants the other crap programs that they make, and so there is no money to be made there.

[phelings]

You simply don't know what you are talking about. Optical disk manufacturing sites are being shut down on a weekly basis. Read Variety and other trade papers and you'll see. Right now, in the US, there are only two major retail disk distributors, Walmart and Amazon. I believe, Walmart is set to end disk sales in April. Amazon will hold out a little while longer, but not much. When the disks go, so goes the DVDFab side of Fengtao's business. StreamFab will be the only profit making side of the business, if they can ever fix the DRM, which I'm starting to doubt. Nobody wants the other crap programs that they make, and so there is no money to be made there.

The market is on the decline but it takes time for things to catch up. In the last 6 months we've seen Disney, Netflix and Prime add adverts with no Dolby Vision or Atmos on the Prime ad supported package. Add to that the removal of key series from all the streamers and increases in sub prices. Buyers are not stupid. The only thing that remains to be seen is how long before the streaming market goes back to just 2 or 3 services. Most subscribers wanting to see a show will wait until its all available , pay for one month then switch off again. Streamers cannot survive on that nor can they afford to keep their services packed with new content they pay to produce. Netflix had the right idea by just paying to licence short term then switch back to something else but the studios got greedy and wanted part of the streaming pie for themselves but are now realising that rocking the boat was a mistake.

Twilight Time named their company after their expectation that streaming was going to take over from discs - and they started in 2010. While it was a possibility its obvious now that streaming is a business model that is doomed to failure even if you're not bright enough yet to see it.
Paramount ignored discs for a few years in an attempt to sell everything as downloads but in the last couple of years many of their titles have come out on disc even if some countries only have them licenced to independents. And only a blind man cannot see that Paramount + will fail and the only question is when.
Netflix and Disney+ are learning that their current business model will not work long term. Disney + made losses in the billions despite having millions of subscribers. So desperate not to fail they hired back someone from retirement who's quickly discovered that spending billions making new programming all the time is not sustainable. Toy Story 5 and Frozen 3 are desperation that will be short term fixes at best.
While the current signs of disc sales is on the decline with Best Buy stopping sales and the idiotic move by Disney to stop discs sales completely in Australia (even the Disney Movie Club was a Disney expectation that discs were dying) I don't think streaming will take over. The streamers have realised they cannot afford it and the buyers will soon wake up to the fact they're being ripped off with adverts, higher subs etc.
There's only room for one or two streamers long term and while we see regular announcements about Paramount, Disney and Netflix scrapping successful shows to avoid repeat fees the market will not grow.
Here in the UK we've only really had 2 or 3 major disc distributors for about a decade yet the release schedule is healthy. Its taking the studios time to work out that if they want to make money from their vast catalogues it won't be via streaming.

Regarding Fengtao - why would they not crack the DRM when the competition sorted it weeks ago?

[Sebastian001]

Streaming will not die out. The market will only fragment. The studios will license their titles again. Everything will be everywhere again. Smaller players will merge or give up. But not the big ones. Disney is running a loss-making business, but they already knew that from the start. They took out a lot of titles to save taxes.

With physical media it is no longer worth publishing every title. They require a minimum number of units to be sold otherwise production is a loss. There was discussion in another forum. Warner has “Dallas” remastered in 4k. The result is great. The plan was to release it worldwide on Blu-ray in addition to streaming. That doesn't seem to be happening anymore. There is an example invoice for this. If Warner sold the entire 14-season series without making a loss, they would have to sell it for $700. No one would buy it at that price.

Source: https://www.tellytalk.net:

"A bluray glasmaster, which is needed for pressing/mass production of each bluray costs around 1000$ per unit. If you want to put the whole show on blurays, you need about 85 of those glasmasters (if you want to have decent compression and go with 4 episodes per disc).
That comes to $85,000 already. Then you need to pay the AACS copy protection fee per disc, which is another high factor and adds a huge amount to that price.
Then someone has to do the mastering, none works for free. Package design and materials. Then shipping costs.
You will have to sell hundreds of thousands of complete box sets to make a profit out of such a massive episode count show."

[JeffDavis]

With streaming, nothing is gone permanently (unless it is extremely obscure). More often than not, it will reappear on Netflix in a month or two, or it will be able to be found on another streamer the very next day after it is taken off Netflix.

If only that were true. When Warner acquired HBO, half of the Looney Tunes and Flintstones cartoons that were available in HD on HBO Max disappeared to save licensing costs. Except it wasn't really to save licensing costs, since Warner was effectively licensing them from itself, but merger and tax rules made it more profitable to write them off as a loss. They won't be back on another streaming service, because Warner would lose its tax writeoff. I was able to grab the Flintstones with StreamFab, but missed out on 250 HD Looney Tunes cartoons that disappeared. A good rule to follow is, if you see something streaming that you may want to watch or re-watch someday, grab it while you can.

[phelings]

Who said it will die out? The market is already fragmented. It will only work long term once consolidation means only a handful of streamers are around.

And a series with at least 14 seasons and hundreds of episodes is hardly a credible example of disc sales potential.
The studios penny pinching stupidity of the 80s and 90s which resulted in lovely 35mm filmed content being completed on SD tape means most tv of that era will rarely make it to HD. Dallas and the like is easy but anything sci fi like Trek will cost them a fortune.

[JeffDavis]

I've used DVDFab for years and expect to continue doing so. I occasionally buy discs to rip, and convert them to MP4/MKV files using Handbrake. I donate the discs to Goodwill after I have copies on hard drive. I also rent blu rays, including 4K UHD discs, from 3D-BlurayRental.com. I get about 4 discs per week at ~$4 per disc.