This is the most ridiculous thing about Netflix. So many great brains there yet none of them can perceive a world where not everyone has a high end home cinema.
I mean, this isn't for movies that are bought by Netflix from an existing rights holder, it's movies and series that are commissioned by Netflix. It seems reasonable that they'd want to capture as high quality as possible for as much content as possible, as you can always lose quality in post (or distribution). I don't suppose this would preclude directors using cameras that wouldn't work otherwise when needed (like clip from a cell phone camera).
I also have a hard time believing Netflix would be ok putting up money to capture a picture/series all in 16mm film (or that anyone would suggest the commercial success or artistic vision demanded it).
So it doesn't stifle creativity, it future proofs Netfix for the lucrative high end market, AND Netflix is paying (at least indirectly) for that level of quality. I don't see the problem here.
You may have mixed up where you're responding to: This particular comment thread is not really about the cameras that are in use, but instead about the sound. (Sound recorded by the camera itself -- if it can even record sound -- is essentially never used.)
The problem is that the camera requirements are defined, presumably to try to have some lower bound on the quality of the visuals, there is no requirement for audio such that it sounds good on stereo speakers, which is probably what the majority of consumers are using.
The idea that Netflix have such a strict definition on camera quality is also a bit of a farce, given how woeful the image looks after it goes through their incredibly overenthusiastic level of compression, but that's neither here nor there.
I think the compression complaint is very fair. It totally negates the excellent camera quality! It doesn’t matter if your camera has excellent dynamic range if dark scenes in Netflix are compressed to shit and look terrible.
Compare to Disney+. As much as I dislike Disney, they have 4K Dolby vision for no extra cost, and quality is excellent. Prime and Netflix could both take examples out of their book. (Some of the compression in recent Amazon shows has also been very bad. For example, the trees in the background of the wheel of time were often a mess of compression artifacts even at 4K.)
I think you're right, I mistook OPs comment about the video, not the sound. Does seem weird they wouldn't have minimum sound quality, but it is a tricky thing moving 5.1 to stereo, so that's more about the mixing.
I also have a hard time believing Netflix would be ok putting up money to capture a picture/series all in 16mm film (or that anyone would suggest the commercial success or artistic vision demanded it).
So it doesn't stifle creativity, it future proofs Netfix for the lucrative high end market, AND Netflix is paying (at least indirectly) for that level of quality. I don't see the problem here.