Packaging a movie is something that only needs to be done once right? Like filming the shots, hiring the actors, and writing the script?
So why does a few hours matter in a total process which is many months or even years?
So why does a few hours matter in a total process which is many months or even years?
You invest some in engineering and you will save constant percentage $$ in the Netflix scale.
Many smaller distributors don't invest internally in this kind of things (and don't have the internal engineering to achieve this). They will buy of-the-shelves solutions though.
Is the increased speed worth `x * $y + maintenance costs`?
Could it pay off? Potentially yes. Will it actually pay off? I don't know since there's far too many variables to wildly speculate on. But I hope Netflix did the accounting at some point along the way to find out.
Not every improvement is worth building since the initial investment might grossly overshadow any potential gains (as a purely hypothetical situation, that's why you shouldn't spend $1 million up front to save $1/day for the next 30 years).
Hell, compared to the cost to license the movie storage is pennies.
> Hell, compared to the cost to license the movie storage is pennies.
Yup. I’d be very curious to see the breakdown in how much Netflix spends on compute versus content production/licensing. I’d be willing to bet compute is an order or two of magnitude cheaper than content. I guess all these little optimizations add up? Or maybe their engineering management can’t see the forest from the trees.