Netflix Kills Casting From Phones (theverge.com) 95
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix has removed the ability to cast shows and movies from phones to TVs, unless subscribers are using older casting devices. An updated help page on Netflix's website, first reported by Android Authority, says that the streaming service "no longer supports casting shows from a mobile device to most TVs and TV-streaming devices," and instead directs users to navigate Netflix using the remote that came with their TV hardware.
Not In My House You Don't! (Score:2, Offtopic)
My tv has never been connected to teh internets and never will be.
There's only power and hdmi to screen.
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+1, same at my house. Any of those apps only live on other devices that are replaceable as needed (e.g. Roku, Tivo, etc) and talk to the TV via an HDMI cable. The TV itself is only a big monitor.
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Congratulations?
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You're just pathetic. I do not own _two_ TVs. PLUS the one I don't have. That's -3 TV owned, FYI.
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You have a TV? Poseur! Turn in your fedora!
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But how else does your TV get firmware updates that change things in subtle ways to the annoyance of its users?
Re: Not In My House You Don't! (Score:1)
AND do the 10 minute forced update when I first turn the TV on, with no opportunity to defer. Not exactly consumer friendly (or life friendly) because I only turned on the TV because there was a tornado-on-the-ground warning in my vicinity and I needed to know where it was.
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Oh you you you. Wah there is a tornado on the ground, wah it might hit my house, wah it might carry my annoying little dog off, wah me me me me me!
Everything is about you, is it not?
Did you think about the wants of the corporation? No you did not, you selfish rat bastard! Retaining control of your property is more convenient for them, and it allows them to use said property for their own interests. You want they should give that up so that you can avoid getting killed by a 200 mph wall of wind? What, ex
Re: Not In My House You Don't! (Score:2)
I never realized my TV could even receive firmware updates until a couple weeks ago. I've had it since about 2008. Works fine.
Useless technology anyway (Score:2)
Casting always was a technology that was never needed. Streaming from device to device is simpler in every way, but does not allow big media the control they insist on. Casting and the entire mechanism of having the device being casted to have to have direct access to the media source is idiotic and only exists because they insist on a extra level of weaponizing devices against the owners and policing what you can do with your own devices.
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Re:Useless technology anyway (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, that would be nice.
But that doesn't offer the same DRM control. And that's what they are concerned with.
If they could have the encryption present on the screen and the information only gets decrypted in your eyeballs with a valid subscription, they would.
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If they could have the encryption present on the screen and the information only gets decrypted in your eyeballs with a valid subscription, they would.
That explains the banner I see in my field of vision: "libavcodec may be vulnerable..."
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Maybe they can start broadcasting their content with a red tint and make you use those special decoder glasses to watch it.
Re: Useless technology anyway (Score:1)
Re:Useless technology anyway (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Useless technology anyway (Score:4, Insightful)
Especially since commercial redistribution and public display without license is actually a violation of the broadcast license. Watch any NFL or NBA game and they'll remind you of it at one point coming back from a commercial break.
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Re:Useless technology anyway (Score:4, Informative)
That's not where the money is.
They would crack down on the restaurant / bar for violating their commercial license.
Whomever is running that place has exposed themselves to legal liability if the lawyers come knocking.
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That's not where the money is.
They would crack down on the restaurant / bar for violating their commercial license.
Whomever is running that place has exposed themselves to legal liability if the lawyers come knocking.
ASCAP and BMI do exactly this as well. Ever notice that there are restaurants where the kitchen has music playing but not the restaurant itself? Different licenses. Music you hear from the kitchen is just music for the employees.
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In the UK at least, if there's a sports broadcast playing in a bar or restaurant there will be a watermark on the screen to show that it's licensed - the form of the watermark depends on which broadcaster it is and which licence type they're using, but usually for Sky Sports it's a pint glass watermark on the bottom left of the screen. Inspectors can easily see at a glance if a pub is showing a valid commercial stream or not.
In the example above I would say that both entities may be liable; the streamer for
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A bar I frequent has their TVs open to casting
And here come the studio's black helicopters and SWAT teams. Your bar has just violated one of the most precious market segmentation tools that content owners cherish: The ability to squeeze businesses for playing their stuff for exorbitant fees compared to home customers.
Re: Useless technology anyway (Score:4, Interesting)
This.
Whoever came up with this strategy has not traveled since the pandemic or is rooting for appletv. If I have to setup a netflix profile on my hotel room / airbnb before I can relax after several hours stuck in a plane watching netflix - suddenly finding *anything else to do* has less friction. Even trying any other streaming app seems less cumbersome.
Re: Useless technology anyway (Score:2)
Amusingly I stayed in a hotel a couple years ago that offered no in room entertainment system for streaming. You scanned a QR code on screen to link your mobile phone to the Google Chrome-eaque device on the back of the TV in your room, so you could cast any apps you wanted to use.
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It absolutely is useless technology. There is simpler and faster technology that cannot be weaponized against the owner of the device. That technology is direct streaming from a source. The complex handoff that takes place in casting is idiotic and unnecessary and again only exists because it is weaponized against the owner of the devices.
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Well it was super useful if you wanted to say put on some cartoon the kids like while you are over at your friends place. Being able to just 'air play' or cast means you did not have login to any accounts, or search for something in a different profile etc.
It maybe did not look as good, but little tommy does not care as long as his aquanaughts are singing and dancing.
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> Casting and the entire mechanism of having the device being casted to have to have direct access to the media source is idiotic and only exists because they insist on a extra level of weaponizing devices against the owners and policing what you can do with your own devices
You could have just said "I don't understand why that is needed" and saved yourself the effort.
The use case is extremely powerful. You want to direct a device to do something, rather than try to stream a 2160p video out of your phone
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> Casting and the entire mechanism of having the device being casted to have to have direct access to the media source is idiotic and only exists because they insist on a extra level of weaponizing devices against the owners and policing what you can do with your own devices
You could have just said "I don't understand why that is needed" and saved yourself the effort.
The use case is extremely powerful. You want to direct a device to do something, rather than try to stream a 2160p video out of your phone over wifi. That's really not so hard to understand, surely?
Not really, no. If I wanted to use the TV to do all of the networking and playback, I would have just used the TV's app to do it. The number of hotels I've seen where the TV supported Chromecast or AirPlay streaming but did not have a built-in Netflix app are literally zero.
From my perspective, casting is a complete disaster by its very nature. It relies on the display device having full Internet access, which isn't a given. Literally every time I've wanted to do casting, it has been because the TV set'
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> If I wanted to
> From my perspective
So it's not for you. You don't understand or need the use case.
Do you get mad about everything you don't use?
I use casting all the time. Some of has have more complex use cases than just watching Netflix on a TV. You're coming across as "old man yells at cloud", and about something you don't even use!
I won't read or engage further as I for one only spend my time on worthwhile things and you seem stuck in the mud.
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So it's not for you. You don't understand or need the use case.
And you've done nothing to explain what the use case is. As far as I can tell, the use case is "Someone who wants to use their phone to control the TV instead of the TV remote," which is a tremendous amount of technological overhead for such a negligible benefit.
It's way easier to point your camera at the screen and do an instant sign-in on the TV than it is to get your phone connected to the right Wi-Fi network and cast to the right TV, so the use case would have to be pretty compelling to make up for wha
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> And you've done nothing to explain what the use case is.
Sorry, did I miss when I agreed to educate you? Since when is it important to ME that YOU agree with me? I don't care what you think. I'm telling you to get your head out of your ventilation shaft and consider that _other people have other needs_.
Your other comments show you don't understand the limitations of the things that work for you, in other use cases. Why on earth would I want the effort of dealing with a slow and petulant mind?
Not going t
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> And you've done nothing to explain what the use case is.
Sorry, did I miss when I agreed to educate you? Since when is it important to ME that YOU agree with me? I don't care what you think. I'm telling you to get your head out of your ventilation shaft and consider that _other people have other needs_.
Okay. Thanks for all but admitting that exactly none of those needs are actually solved by the feature we're talking about.
You don't have a need. You just don't want your routine to be disrupted by a company taking away a feature that works for you. And it's entirely okay to feel that way. But it's not really a good reason to have designed such an overly complex and, at least in the real world, frequently under-performing protocol in the first place.
Your other comments show you don't understand the limitations of the things that work for you, in other use cases.
Keep telling yourself that I'm the one who doesn't und
Re: Useless technology anyway (Score:2)
My TV doesn't have Internet. The remote is not going to let me watch Netflix. I need a device to do that.
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My TV doesn't have Internet. The remote is not going to let me watch Netflix.
Then neither will casting, because casting by definition requires the TV to have Internet. It's a handoff process whereby the TV itself retrieves the content from the Netflix servers, and all your phone does is handle the authentication and key delivery plus playback controls.
You can do screen mirroring with a non-Internet-capable or disconnected TV, but not you can't use the ridiculously designed feature that I'm talking about.
So everything I'm saying is useless is useless for you, too.
Re: Useless technology anyway (Score:2)
No it doesn't. I have a Chromecast.
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I understand why they want it to be needed but it absolutely is not. Casting exists because the complex handoff scheme enables them to weaponize the system against the owner of the devices. Plain streaming with a source and playback destination is massively simpler and no handoff needed and most of all no DRM to weaponize against the owners.
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Casting always was a technology that was never needed..
Not really. A year or two back, my tv, that was newer than my phone, wouldn't play Hulu's 4k offerings in that resolution, but if I casted from the phone, it would. Now, I watch through the TV's Disney+ app, that allows 4k.
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That I regularly use this feature would suggest that you're wrong.
Sample size of one does not translate to everyone else's user-experience.
Open Source just can't keep up (Score:5, Insightful)
Once again, Open Source is embarrassed and left behind.
mplayer and mpv still, after all these years, don't have a way to prevent things from working if the content origin happens to be Netflix. It just plays on, stupidly Just Working, instead of breaking the way that Netflix realized their users want it to break.
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I guess it depends on what you want; your 2nd paragraphs isn't very understandable to me. I have a Jellyfin server running on my Linux computer that is used by a Jellyfin client app on my Roku, so I basically have my own Netflix. Jellyfin is open source.
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I think it was intended to be drippingly sarcastic. Sloppy is pretending that the failure to screen cast is a feature that customers wanted, then constructing a sentence like "Oh no, open source doesn't support like customers want!"
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Dangit, stupid HTML filter! The was supposed to be "Oh no, open source doesn't support [INSERT ENSHITTIFICATION HERE] like customers want!"
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Ah, thanks! I obviously didn't read it that way.
Unintended consequences. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Unintended consequences. (Score:4, Informative)
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Yeah or using a cheapo/old smart phone to let other use your account.
But as for visitations - just bring Goggle TV dongle with you and sign it on to guest WiFi...
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The more that netflix squeezes, the less useful it is to the people paying. Eventually their rent profits will drop off, because people will find more convenient alternatives.
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Or just head over to The Pirate Bay and grab everything in a DRM-free format to enjoy.
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Good luck with that. Either them or you will start getting spammed every time the app is opened, demanding email or SMS based 2FA and asking whether you want to "update your household."
Before I dumped Netflix entirely in favor of Jellyfin and the high seas, I had to do all sorts of VPN chicanery between two locations where I divide my time to get it to work without constantly pestering me.
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And likely leave it that way when I return home.
That's fine, they'll be blocked after a week for not being the primary owner's address... assuming you successfully sign in on a device not on your network in the first place.
Re: Unintended consequences. (Score:2)
My mom's Netflix account got blocked this morning. She has been here visiting for one week, from another country. She won't be back home for many more. I guess I now know why she was blocked. I wonder how this is going to play out. She is not going to be happy without her Netflix fix.
Same old (Score:3)
Yes, the enshittification continues as they remove more features from lower tier plans.
If they're talking about the Google Cast protocol, it's just a remote control for your TV, not even screen mirroring... so the only reason to remove such a trivial feature is to force you to pay for it at a higher tier plan.
What else is new.
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Yes, the enshittification continues as they remove more features from lower tier plans.
This isn't from their lower tier plans. This is from all their plans. Just like the inability to download content using the Windows app. It's a steaming turd regardless of how much you want to pay.
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Yes, but I have a feeling it comes down to licensing, and until they work out the terms with rights holders they will disable it for everyone. Then, once they work something out, they will graciously enable it for higher-tier subscribers with additional licensing fees. Then everybody wins.
Re: Same old (Score:2)
Have you ever tried to cast DRM content ? It is automatically blocked by the OS/DRM driver stack. Even using accessibility apps like a magnifier on your phone, without casting, is blocked by the same mechanism.
Same if you try to display your Android screen on your PC with Link to Windows, because the phone screen is too small. Many apps will just show a black screen, and silence.
And HDCP madness (Score:3)
They're also cracking down on HDCP compatibility. My video glasses now also don't work with downloaded Netflix shows which is obnoxious. So of course I'm just going to go find an ISO and the more ISOs I download the less incentive I have to actually pay Netflix for something that doesn't work.
It's not like these anti-piracy efforts are doing anything to stop a perfect stream from being available 1 hour after airing.
Re:And HDCP madness (Score:4, Insightful)
I propose a law requiring companies to continue to provide old versions of software. They can remove a feature from the new version, but I can still get the old one. In the past, if Microsoft removed a feature from Word 2005 for example, then one could refuse to upgrade. I could save the installer. Yes, eventually it won't work any longer, and I am not saying they must support every version into perpetuity. But if Netflix removes a feature, I can't download the old version. So they should be barred from putting a barrier in place preventing access or use of it.
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You are mixing delivery paradigms.
You don't own Netflix software. You rent it.
You owned Office 2005, so you have perpetual license to use that version of the software.
Why do you think Microsoft stopped shipping discrete versions of Office to the retail channel? They can make much more money perpetually renting it to you, while denying the ability to continue using old versions as they age out of compatibility with modern platforms.
Re: And HDCP madness (Score:2)
But boxed software works on its own as long as it's run on a compatible hardware and software (OS) platform. Netflix is an app and a service for the app.
You can pass a law they have to keep making the old app available, but that doesn't mean they have to keep delivering content to the old app
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It's a trap.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy... [gnu.org]
This is Horrible (Score:3)
I hate using the TV or Chromecast remotes to control playback. Pausing, scrubbing, and selecting content are all way better to control on my iPad.
If they donâ(TM)t restore it, bye bye Netflix.
Why is casting a feature of the app not the OS? (Score:2)
Shouldn't the OS be able to cast the screen, rather than this being a function of the application?
Re: Why is casting a feature of the app not the OS (Score:2)
Netflix casting doesnâ(TM)t actually do what many people here seem to think it does (forward the video stream to the target device).
What pressing the cast button does do is initiate streaming directly from the provider to the casted-to device (presumably using the credentials of the initiating device). The initiating device then becomes a kind of super-remote that has fancies like visual scrubbing and such. And the device is freed up for e.g. searching for something better to watch. Way better than a s
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I don't always want to cast my whole screen. Chromecast was perfect for this. Don't want my email notifications showing up on the big screen while I'm watching a movie. I can start the cast of the video and then my phone isn't needed anymore. I could turn it completely off if I wanted to and it would keep playing.
As one of the other commenters said, the Cast protocol just kind of gets things started- all the video playback at that point happens on the receiving device.
Drop Netflix (Score:2)
You don't need it. I don't have it and don't need it, you can too. You will save money and sleep, and hit Netflix in the pocket book.
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I get not needing it or wanting it. But why is hitting Netflix in the pocket book on your list of benefits?
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Because I hate commercial companies and the way they behave, if people would actually respond by dropping the service in high enough numbers, they would not do things like this.
News at 11. (Score:2)
Proprietary service drops support for proprietary protocol..
Streaming is no longer convenient (Score:1)
Yarr! Time to sail the seas again!
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Oh no! (Score:2)
How am I going to connect to a VPN before launching Netflix content from another country to watch on my big screen?
Oh well, guess I need a whole home VPN on my router then.
If there is a will, there is a way.
How many TVs will this impact? (Score:2)
"Casting support is still available on ... TVs that support Google Cast natively, according to Netflix’s support page"
How many TVs do support Google Cast natively? I feel like all of ours do, but that's not a great sample size.
No streaming in hotels? (Score:2)
So we won't be able to stream Netflix in a hotel without inputting credentials into the hotel tv? That seems like a big step backwards.
Re: Nice (Score:2)
This is what I do. But my mom is not technically capable to use torrents or VPN on her set top box. She did not use casting either.
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Another day, another reason to not use netflix (Score:2)
At some point all of these streaming services will realize they're behaving like the music industry of the early 2000s, with much the same consequences.
Not any time soon, mind you. They aren't that intelligent.
There is always pirate bay... (Score:2)
Once the old device dies (Score:2)
If my old Chromecast ever dies, I guess I'll be cancelling Netflix.
Netflix; trying to emulate Blockbuster (Score:1)
I was just about to upgrade (Score:2)
I can still stream to this older TV.
For the less lucky people this is what you get for being a paid customer. Some twat decided it's better this way and took one further step towards enshitification.
If you had pirated the contents you could still stream it via your favourite app like VLC.
Netflix are basically telling you that you ca
Feature drain (Score:2)
It could almost make you believe that all the AI coding tools are bullshit and nobody is actually becoming more efficient, instead los