[cm2187]

Don't know if the catalogue is the same here in the UK than in the US, but in the UK Netflix is only good for TV shows. The movie offering is very light. The other thing is the lack of offline viewing, which is useful when travelling.

The media industry is so backward. I can't believe most of them still live in the 90s and these problems haven't been solved yet.

[RottenHuman]

>The media industry is so backward. I can't believe most of them still live in the 90s and these problems haven't been solved yet.

Part of the problem is the broken status of international copyright law and the many incompatible local laws and regulations. If the international community could at least settle for an standard approach to digital distribution over the internet, the world would be a happier place for consumers.

[sbarre]

Is it really copyright law, or is it business-driven content deals?

Content publishers make separate deals with distributors (cable & satellite) along their service-area borders, and can therefore sell the same content multiple times over to different regions, most likely charging pricing based on income levels and audience size, etc.. And no doubt a lot of these deals are exclusive, or at the very least timed exclusives..

I know this isn't news to anyone, but I feel like this whole "sell the same thing over and over" must have a much bigger impact on the very slow internationalization of media, rather than any kind of legal hurdles.

[toyg]

Ostensibly, this market fragmentation was forced by legislative fragmentation. However, excuses are wearing thin: the EU market, for example, is now unique, if distributors actually wanted it to be. But they don't. Because distributors are the fat middlemen without a real future in the digital economy, so they'll try to squeeze every last drop of cash before they're forced out, exploiting every monopoly and every loophole they can. It's up to productions and audiences to bypass them as much as they can.

[sbarre]

That's my point..

Publishers want the status quo because they make multiples of licensing income on the same content, and established distributors want the status quo because they fend off competition (and lock in their customers) from new global competitors who have better business models.

I can see why content producers may want these new deals, to get better control, but don't count on anyone else in the gravy train media chain to do anything other than fight new models tooth and nail until the bitter end.

[thirdsun]

I'm not sure that that's really the issue. The music industry has solved all those problems long ago - I can buy a lossless version of practically any album, free of DRM and knowing that those files will be mine and forever playable.

Here in europe, and I'm assuming the US as well, there's no way to buy and own a movie or TV show in a similar way. It's either DRM or physical media, usually accompanied by long delays before the release reaches europe. Or if available on Amazon Video the film often won't be available in its original language and instead only offer german (for me). Not sure how iTunes or Google handle that but in a nutshell: It's a mess and it has led me to lose interest in film and movies in recent years since a lot of the releases I've been interested in either weren't available or put up barriers left and right.

[asb]

I haven't found lossless music to be easy to come by legally, am I missing some large site? Amazon for instance only sells MP3s.

[thirdsun]

Amazon and iTunes are after the big crowd and cater to a an audience where lossless audio probably isn't the key feature.

I buy everything in lossless format and rarely have to look very hard - the few times I had to it turned out to be a vinyl or CD-only release, which wasn't available lossy either. I'm into rather obscure stuff, which may actually help here - I'm not sure but could imagine that it's harder to get lossless audio for the top 40.

Well, here are the stores I use: - Bleep - Boomkat - Qobuz (most iTunes-like with a big selection across all genres, including classic and jazz) - Bandcamp - HDTracks (beware, snake oil! There's no need to go above CD quality in my opinion) - Label / artists stores (yes, many labels or artists sell their music directly without middlemen and in a wider range of formats) - last resort: what.cd or buy the CD and rip it yourself

[Avshalom]

Tidal sells FLAC, they charge you for it but it's there. I think they're around 30m tracks now.

[jameshart]

"If the international community could at least settle for an standard approach to digital distribution over the internet, the world would be a happier place for consumers"

"The international community" does get together and try to hammer out frameworks of copyright and tariffs which harmonize regulation globally. That's where large chunks of things like the TPP and the TTIP come from, and all the internet-melting complaints about the harmonization of copyright laws and the ability of american corporations to enforce copyright laws on australians and the like. But that's what you're asking for - 'why can't everyone just get together and sort out international copyright law so the media industry can come out of the 90s.' They're trying, but you won't like it when they do.

[simonebrunozzi]

That's actually, in my opinion, pretty much the only reason why Netflix doesn't offer offline viewing, and other stuff. Copyright laws, and media companies, are dinosaurs.

[golergka]

Isn't that one of the points of TPP, so hated by HN?

[alykhalid]

Netflix has a different catalogue for each country they serve.

[ctz]

I recently learned this first hand. Even more confusingly, your account is not attached to your country of payment but instead done by geoip, so travelling will mean you likely can't continue to watch the same series. This is a major ballache.

Even netflix support don't realise this.

[sbarre]

I'm sure they totally realize it, but it's not something a front-line support agent can really do anything about, so why get into that conversation with a customer who won't care about the why and will just see it as a crappy experience (which it totally is)!

[scriptdevil]

If this was possible, I would get a friend of mine in USA to pay for my account. People complain about piracy in India and do not understand that torrents and streaming sites are currently my only source for good TV series. I am readily willing to pay even $40 a month for such a service.

[ownagefool]

You simply need to sign up and consume netflix using a VPN which terminates in the US and thus they'll see you as a native US user.

[casperc]

Or even better, sign up using a Canadian IP. The their dollar is lower than the American, so it is cheaper (might be cheaper elsewhere). It doesn't limit you in any way to sign up and use in another country as far as I can tell.

[nickff]

They are not able to do anything about it though; they do not have global licenses for their content.

[davnicwil]

Another somewhat infuriating problem related to this is with subtitles, for certain shows. I believe this is due to licensing, and if it is, it's a really prime example of licensing rules having absurd consequences.

In another region, the shows in the language of the region where you pay come with subtitles in the region's native language(s) that can't be turned off in a pleasant way through the UI. It can be done via a hack where you can provide the player with your own custom, empty, subtitles file, but this has to be reloaded for each new episode / movie that you play. It took me a good while to figure out how to do this via forums, it's certainly not something Netflix suggest or encourage, or even seemingly acknowledge, in their help sections.

A related problem is that for shows not in the language of the region where you pay, there aren't any subtitles in your language, even though back in the region where you pay, that same show is available, of course with subtitles in your language.

I don't know if it's Netflix themselves, or draconian licensing conditions that lead to this absurdity, but I suspect the latter as with Netflix's own shows, the problem doesn't exist. It basically boils down to this: because I'm in a non-English region, I can watch a show in English but I'm not allowed to just understand it - I must watch it with subtitles! If it's a non-English show, I can watch it but I am not allowed to have help understanding it with English subtitles, even though they're obviously and trivially available. What is the point of these rules?

[tomjen3]

Netflix allows you to turn of the subtitles in the UI. I have highlighted the relevant button in this screen shot (http://i.imgur.com/2jnxTJJ.png). This is from the Danish netflix.

Unfortunately they do not allow you to turn on English subtitles, and their translation is incredibly poor.

[davnicwil]

No, you can't. For certain english-language shows, the walking dead is an example, you can only choose between native regional language subtitles with that menu - there is no off option!

[Slippery_John]

Yeah, but you can VPN to wherever you want and access that country's catalog.

[e40]

Don't know if the catalogue is the same here in the UK than in the US

I know of one difference. Jimmy Carr advertised on twitter his new special more than a month ago. Still not available in the US. That just makes no sense to me, and not that I'm reminded of this I think I'll torrent it.

EDIT: hmm, googling doesn't show there is a Jimmy Carr netflix special. The tweet in question:

https://twitter.com/jimmycarr/status/663762543157096448

[jbssm]

Same in Portugal. The movie catalogue is severely lacking, most people just used the free month Netflix gave and then they canceled the subscription since there was not much point.

[chris_wot]

Yeah, you can bypass geoblocking.