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Comment by jonplackett | Hacker News Reader

This I think is a key reason Netflix is a default ‘channel’ in my mind, whereas Apple TV, amazon prime and Disney plus are all just apps.

Netflix is faster in every way. There’s a button on my TV specifically to launch it, the videos start faster, fast forwarding is faster, there’s less buffering in general. Every single touch point is fast. And it’s because they put the effort in where the others didn’t.

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Definitely. I don't know if developers for e.g. TV apps get much choice in the matter, but it's like native vs webapps. The Amazon app feels like a webapp, while Netflix like a native app (this is on LG's WebOS).

And I know Apple is a weird one there. On the Apple TV, they offer pretty much a version of iOS. There's multiple options to build your UI, but iirc you can build it native if you want to.

And this has been Apple's differentiator; they were FAST. The code for apps compiled down to native, as opposed to a lot of Java based phones at the time (and later with Android).

I've always maintained that Apple had a 5 year head start on Android when it comes to performance (as well as UX, even in their skeuomorphic designs), and after 5 years it was mainly Android smartphone companies focusing on more performance than the Android OS or apps becoming faster. It was Android phones that went for quadcore (and beyond) processors first, while Apple was just fine with a single core, and later, almost reluctantly, a dualcore. Simply because their earlier technology choices made their stuff so much faster and more efficient.

I'm so glad Apple didn't go ahead and make web technology the main development path, as they initially planned (or so I gathered).

Yeah it definitely feels that way. I reckon it has a lot to do with the servers too though. Even netflix.com is far superior to prime video / apple tv+ browser versions. In fact it feels virtually identical to the app version.

For Netflix it has a lot to do with how they integrate with the TV's. They tend to integrate directly with the chipset vendor, and then ship their own SDK that the TV vendors integrate. Everyone else is relegated to use the terrible shitty webapps like development with no debugging capability. So for Smart TV's at least, Netflix is on a whole different level than everyone else.

Netflix is so much superior to Prime. Prime has a hard time maintaining 1080p but Netflix has such varying bitrates from as low as 1mbps to as high as 20mbps while watching The crown. And the best part is how snappy the app itself is and instantly starts playing anything. Apple and Prime have a lot of work to do. Prime is possibly the worst streaming platform currently. Though their own fire stick is superior in every way compared to iOS apps or the web app.

I’m in Japan, with an English-language Amazon account, yet Prime insists on displaying Japanese subtitles on absolutely every thing I watch. Doesn’t matter what the original language of the content is, doesn’t provide an option to turn it off. Huge, bright white subtitles - much bigger than what Netflix uses. Been this way for years.

Sometimes I have fantasies about sending an email direct to Jeff Bezos just to say: dude, did you know about this?

Suffice to say, I don’t watch much Prime.

May be dumb to say, but have you checked to confirm you don't have subtitles enabled? If you bring up the player controls you notice a little "cc" in the lower right hand corner (at least in the English version as shown on my TV). If you click on the cc you can configure the closed captions, turning them off or on, changing language, or changing color.

Prime has burnt in subtitles for approximately 90 % of the content outside the US. Which actually might have something to do with their garbage-tier video quality: unnecessary recodes and burnt in subtitles = multiple copies, so more incentive to use bit rates straight from the shitter.

The terrible quality and slowness I think is a remnant from them buying LoveFilm and rebranding it as Prime video all those years back, which was based on that awful Microsoft DRM that I can't remember the name of, was it Silverlight?

It was silverlight. Might still be installed on my desktop.

They are hard coded on Japan prime video (mostly).

It's a lot of stuff like this that adds up. Prime and Disney + also seem to completely forget what I'm currently watching all the time - and even if they remember, it will restart a minute or earlier than I left off. Netflix is always bang on the second. Netflix also always has a 'skip recap' and 'skip intro' button. These things don't happen by chance. Someone worked hard for that!

They are not only displayed, they are hard coded and there is usually 2 separate videos (dubbed and subbed) for non-Japanese content. That being said, new content is starting to have multiple audio and subtitle tracks (like Netflix).

In Belgium we have a 60/40 language split between Dutch and French. Amazon Prime insists to promote to me dutch things (with a special section in the home screen), while I live in the french speaking part. No such issue with Netflix of course.

Seems like all streaming providers have issues with global licensing. Why can’t I pick from all the languages that the provider has available? Why lock it per country Netflix?

Netflix also did a bunch of deals with ISPs and essentially have mirrors of their catalogue in all the right places, and use machine learning to guess when different shows will be watched and shuffle around what they have in those caches.

Meanwhile Apple TV+ will just go ahead and try to use a super heavy 4k stream on my iPhone over 4G - won't even let me download it (at least this was the case a year ago, the last time I was out of wifi range).

There is one very niche area that Prime is quite good and it's their VR app. I have Prime on my Oculus Quest and they've really nailed the player itself, it's like being in an actual cinema. Netflix also have a very good VR app, but none of the other streaming platforms I use have put in any effort in this regard.

For me in germany prime always has instant, rock solid 4k.

Netflix also never stutters, but it starts with like 480p and gets better over time.

Nevertheless the Netflix UI is far superior.

Personally, I prefer Disney+ over Netflix/Prime as my experience is that Disney+ comes with more subtitles. Most of the time I can get Dutch subtitles while with Netflix UK that's not the case.

Prime has 4k UHD for free, while Netflix doesn't. For me, that's quite an advantage.

Also, given the choice, I'll rent a movie on Amazon because they even give refunds if they detect the quality was low.

The HBO app on my (admittedly low end and not brand new) Roku is laughable. You have to select a program to watch, put down the remote and go grab a snack or something because it takes about a full minute to load the screen with the show details. All that to load some thumbnails. And if you dare accidentally hit a button before it’s fully loaded, it will crash the app half the time, and the whole OS about 1/10 times. Instead of replacing it with something more performant I use it as motivation to not watch TV and go exercise or read a book instead.

Agree 100%, one of the main reasons I’m resubscribing to Netflix. Just wish everyone wasn’t pulling their contents to their own streaming services. Have only tried Netflix, AppleTV+ and Disney+ and have to say that Disney+ is worst of them all with sluggish UI, webpage constantly crashing the Safari tab it’s running in with the ”using too much memory” error. And to add to it that even if you pick english as your language it still serves animated with movis with the actual signs/text in them in the localized language.

You never used Disney Life, the decrepit predecessor to Disney+. Now that was a shoddy app. It used to forget your password every time it did an update (which was very often), it crashed all the time and didn't even have very much content. But I still subscribed because... kids. This is how they knew Disney+ would be a goer, they already had a lot of poor parents sending them nearly as much money for a TERRIBLE app with relatively little content.

Netflix is faster, but Netflix also "always works". If I click on a button, I never get a timeout, it never does nothing.

The amount of engineering work going into that must be amazing.

My experience with Netflix is the opposite. When you press play after pausing a show, there is an eternity during which it has a dark overlay blocking your view of what you're trying to watch.

Why do content streaming platforms assume that you want to watch everything other than the content?!

YouTube does this too on my TV, and it's infuriating. Not only does it hide half the screen for a long time after the content starts playing, it then helpfully hides most of the screen before the end of the content also!

This is the computer equivalent of someone shoving their hand in your face to block your vision.

It's rude when a human does it. It's rude when a computer does it.

This surprised me, because on my iPad it takes over 15 seconds from launching the app to choosing who's watching.

Apple TV and Apple Music is particularly bad for this, I wouldn't be surprised if the apps are just showing a web view rather than native controls.

I find this argument completely ridiculous. As if content is less important than UX. Give me a break.

Content is more important than UX, but bad UX is a deterrent from enjoying the experience of finding or discovering what you want to watch.

Don't get me wrong, I still subscribe to all these services, because of the content.

But I'll always check Netflix for something to watch first because it's faster and easier (unless there's something specific I know i want).

Being the default first choice is very valuable, and speed is the reason they're it.

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