Disney+ Disney+ Streaming Service (Official Thread) (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

The difference is that broadcast TV and cable TV are linear experiences with fixed timeslots. Streaming doesn't have those constraints.

I don't mind the autoplay feature, and I don't even mind it being the default. But there should be a toggle to turn it off in preferences.

I agree 100%. But clearly their market research is showing them that it isn’t a priority for customers, or we’d have it.

I get it from a business perspective. These companies make their money by you keeping your subscription active. In order to want to do that, you need to be engaged and feel that there’s always something worth watching or you’ll cancel. Since they can’t show commercials the way TV can or trailers the way movie theaters do, their best bit of captive advertising (even if it’s just internal promotion) is at that split second when the show ends as you’re deciding whether to turn the box off or keep going. So that’s where they’ll make the aggressive move to target you.

So yeah, I get the why, but I’m 100% in favor of an opt-out. But I’m guessing we don’t have one because there isn’t widespread demand and it’s the one place they have in the viewing experience to be heavy handed with their promotional attempts.

 

[Mark-P]

New titles for Feb

https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1119759-disney-titles-for-january-27-to-february-29-revealed

They are certainly in no hurry to delve into much more vintage programming. One classic TV episode: "I Captured the King of the Leprechauns", and the only other thing that is semi-vintage would be "Splash".

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have a feeling that if their playback numbers for that content blew away their expectations they’d make it a priority. The good and bad with streaming is they know exactly how many people are watching each thing - so you hopefully won’t get as many “we canceled this thing because we didn’t know so many people liked it” problems but you also may not see content added under the assumption that people might like it, they’ll rely more on data showing what people are going after.

 

[dpippel]

I agree 100%. But clearly their market research is showing them that it isn’t a priority for customers, or we’d have it.

BWA-HA-HA! Come on Josh, since when has "a priority for customers" been a real concern in this industry?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

BWA-HA-HA! Come on Josh, since when has "a priority for customers" been a real concern in this industry?

Fair point!

But what I was trying to say was, if this was a big enough deal for a majority or sizable minority to cancel over, they’d adjust it. It isn’t, so they won’t.

 

[dpippel]

Fair point!

But what I was trying to say was, if this was a big enough deal for a majority or sizable minority to cancel over, they’d adjust it. It isn’t, so they won’t.

I'm sure it bugs a lot of users, myself included, but not enough for them to cancel because of it. Amazon does this too, although I was pleasantly surprised last night watching the last Season 3 episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel when it did NOT happen, because there was no "next episode" to auto-start. It played the credits all the way through. Refreshing!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I cancelled both Disney Plus and Netflix because of the credit-shrinking. I gave up on cable long before that for plenty of other reasons, streaming was supposed to be an escape from all the ways cable had intruded on content but they seem well on their way to introducing new annoyances (and they WILL if enough people tolerate what they're doing now.) Why would they be happy to lose even ONE subscriber for that, especially when they could make it adjustable? It really shows a huge disrespect for their own content besides that.

In my snail mail to the Disney Plus people I said that an option to let everything play complete from start to finish was all I wanted for Christmas. They've proven that Santa Claus does not exist. I'll subscribe again if they ever do fix that, but I'm not paying people to force that on me. (It doesn't keep me "engaged", it just made me want to turn it off! When reading credits I often get ideas for what to watch next from some of the names and references that come up!)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Why was streaming supposed to be a break from how cable presented content? Who has ever promised that?

I would be very interested to know the total number of Netflix and D+ subscribers who have canceled specifically and solely because of the credit shrinking at the end of the program.

 

[TravisR]

I would be very interested to know the total number of Netflix and D+ subscribers who have canceled specifically and solely because of the credit shrinking at the end of the program.

One.

 

[Cranston37+]

Obi-Wan series being put on hold:

https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1119808-breaking-obi-wan-series-on-hold-as-series-is-retooled

 

[Cranston37+]

streaming was supposed to be an escape from all the ways cable had intruded on content

Who has ever said that?

 

[Sam Posten]

Obi-Wan series being put on hold:

https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1119808-breaking-obi-wan-series-on-hold-as-series-is-retooled

McGreggor says NBD
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/...-not-as-dramatic-as-it-might-seem-1203478140/

 

[Randy Korstick]

With all the other classic live action Disney films that currently have HD masters available its disappointing that they have not added any since launch. I was expecting them to at least add 2-3 a month. There are lots of them that are for sale on Vudu/ITunes and quite a few that have shown in HD on TCM that they could add.

 

[Edwin-S]

I find the opening credit skipping that Netflix does on older series more annoying than the credit shrinkage. At least with the shrinkage I can arrow over and hit enter.

 

[Cranston37+]

Full article:

https://www.slashfilm.com/the-mandalorian-stagecraft/

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s a brilliant idea. The screens are expensive, but it’s a one time purchase. Then you get spared the time, effort and expense of green screen compositing. Perhaps even more importantly, the cast actually gets to be in the environment they’re portraying onscreen, and the crew can light the actors and set to match the backgrounds instead of guessing and hoping for the best.

Old fashioned rear projection rarely looked real. This is effective in a way that Stanley Kubrick’s front projection effects in “2001” were.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Guys: Let's not snipe at other members who make decisions on whether or not to stream based on their individual likes/dislikes about those services.

Remember: post all your own opinions about the things you like/dislike, but don't disparage other members for their opinions. As innocent as it might be, it's not very positive.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Who has ever said that?

Nobody officially, but what would be wrong with that? There are SO many things wrong with cable now (despite being promising when it was brand-new) that there's likely no hope for it. If streaming becomes like cable, then we're just back where we started- and like cable, I simply won't support it. But cable proved that some viewers will tolerate ANYTHING regardless and they will here also.

This is a feature not a bug. Nobody wants to see credits but HTF type cranks.

Nobody cares about HDR or Atmos but HTF type cranks either, so I guess they shouldn't bother with those. In fact a lot of kids watch things on a tablet, so they should optimize the sound for tablet speakers or ear buds.

There's no part of a movie that I don't want to see, and to automatically assume that I don't and boot me out is simply insulting. If you didn't see the link in the other thread about this, this is how this "feature" works: https://medium.com/p/ee9da25b6008/responses/show

A human usually doesn't even decide when it's going to happen. The Mandalorian's end credits with the paintings would normally trigger it, but it looks like someone manually adjusted it there. (I was still very annoyed when the screen shrunk afterwards for the plain credits that followed.) Still, someone else commented it kicked in too early on "Sword in the Stone", and the last night I had it, I checked this movie and it also kicked in too early- besides that, this movie has footage and outtakes running through the very end, and why would they encourage people to skip that?
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(Just for fun and since this was the last night of my trial, I started "Never Been Kissed" and skipped to the end of that. The ending credits of that have the cast and crew's yearbook photos next to their names, and when I made up the film print at the theater I didn't cue the lights to come up during that. The screen wasn't so quick to shrink during this movie but when it did, guess what movie it suggested? "10 Things I Hate About You," which I had just "watched" before!)

I really wonder how much of the streaming backlash among physical media enthusiasts is due to a misunderstood belief that a subscription service is meant to be the exact same experience as watching a purchased disc, when that’s clearly never been the design target.

Hasn't it been said plenty of times, before Disney Plus even launched, that it was going to eliminate the need to buy their discs ever again and eventually they would stop even putting them out? If that's going to be the case, then the least I expect from a service I'm PAYING for is to watch its content complete and uninterrupted. I expected the same from cable (especially premium channels), and left when they spectacularly failed at that.

Unlike cable, streaming can be customized to suit everyone. If they wanted it to be like cable, they could just put on one feed showing whatever they wanted and everyone would have to watch that at the same time. If these "features" work for some users then let them have them, but others find them very intrusive and there should be a simple option to turn them off- otherwise someone needs to invent a pop-up-blocker-like add-on for Roku devices or a completely new streaming device that will show the content with a customizable interface.

 

[TonyD]

I don’t know that anything

Nobody officially, but what would be wrong with that? There are SO many things wrong with cable now (despite being promising when it was brand-new) that there's likely no hope for it. If streaming becomes like cable, then we're just back where we started- and like cable, I simply won't support it. But cable proved that some viewers will tolerate ANYTHING regardless and they will here also.


Nobody cares about HDR or Atmos but HTF type cranks either, so I guess they shouldn't bother with those. In fact a lot of kids watch things on a tablet, so they should optimize the sound for tablet speakers or ear buds.

There's no part of a movie that I don't want to see, and to automatically assume that I don't and boot me out is simply insulting. If you didn't see the link in the other thread about this, this is how this "feature" works: https://medium.com/p/ee9da25b6008/responses/show

A human usually doesn't even decide when it's going to happen. The Mandalorian's end credits with the paintings would normally trigger it, but it looks like someone manually adjusted it there. (I was still very annoyed when the screen shrunk afterwards for the plain credits that followed.) Still, someone else commented it kicked in too early on "Sword in the Stone", and the last night I had it, I checked this movie and it also kicked in too early- besides that, this movie has footage and outtakes running through the very end, and why would they encourage people to skip that?
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(Just for fun and since this was the last night of my trial, I started "Never Been Kissed" and skipped to the end of that. The ending credits of that have the cast and crew's yearbook photos next to their names, and when I made up the film print at the theater I didn't cue the lights to come up during that. The screen wasn't so quick to shrink during this movie but when it did, guess what movie it suggested? "10 Things I Hate About You," which I had just "watched" before!)


Hasn't it been said plenty of times, before Disney Plus even launched, that it was going to eliminate the need to buy their discs ever again and eventually they would stop even putting them out? If that's going to be the case, then the least I expect from a service I'm PAYING for is to watch its content complete and uninterrupted. I expected the same from cable (especially premium channels), and left when they spectacularly failed at that.

Unlike cable, streaming can be customized to suit everyone. If they wanted it to be like cable, they could just put on one feed showing whatever they wanted and everyone would have to watch that at the same time. If these "features" work for some users then let them have them, but others find them very intrusive and there should be a simple option to turn them off- otherwise someone needs to invent a pop-up-blocker-like add-on for Roku devices or a completely new streaming device that will show the content with a customizable interface.

I doubt that very many people expect any of that from streaming.
It will never replace cable/satellite subs because about 90% of the apps for channels require a cable/sat sub to give us access.

I think you’re expectations are wildly unrealistic.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

It's "wildly unrealistic" to not have an interface butt into content, which takes extra work for them to do in the first place? And why would you NOT want an uninterrupted experience, or at least the option for one?

When Netflix streaming started, their interface was very basic, with all videos playing from start to finish. The picture quality wasn't the greatest but that was more of a limitation of the technology than someone's deliberate decision. And you do realize they have lost a few subscriptions because of the automatic trailers that play while browsing? I don't think I'd personally have an issue with that, but I'm not going to disparage anyone complaining about that. I never get those who have to say "doesn't bother me!"