Hacking NetFlix

Netflix Outage Sunday Night Was Not Caused by Hackers

Greg Sandoval at CNet confirmed that the Netflix outage Sunday night was not caused by hackers.

"Good morning," wrote Steve Swasey, Netflix's spokesman. "It was a technical issue that we fixed."

The good news is that Netflix wasn't taken out by marauding hackers. Sony, Sega, and a number of other business and government sites have been hit by hackers in a high-profile spate of cyberattacks this spring, and some in the blogosphere speculated that Netflix may have succumbed to a similar attack.

Netflix New Releases for June 21st, 2011

Click here for the detailed list of new releases this week. Since there are so few new releases this week I'm just going to list all of the new releases here.

Bending All the Rules, Ceremony, Elektra Luxx, HappyThankYouMorePlease, Harvest, You Got Served: Beat the World, Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders, Orgasm Inc., Public Speaking, and Under the Hammer.

Netfix Website Down & Streaming Not Working - Updated

2nd Update: NetflixHelps reported at 3am EST that "The website and watch instantly are online, but some are still having issues with activating devices. We'll have that fixed ASAP too."

Update: NetflixHelps on Twitter confirmed the problem: "Hi everyone, we're working hard to bring the website and watch instantly back up. We'll post again when everything is back online."

I'm getting email and Twitter reports from many customers that the Netflix website is down and customers are having trouble with streaming. There were scattered reports from readers during the day, and now I'm unable to access the website or streaming on the Roku:

Is Netflix working for you?

Thanks to Brik, John, Rob, Scott, Anthony and everyone else for sending this in.

Sony Titles Temporarily Removed From Netflix Streaming

Netflix's Pauline Fischer, vp of content acquisition, posted a notice on the Netflix blog about the removal of Sony titles like Salt, The Karate Kid, and The Social Network from Netlfix streaming.

Hi, Pauline Fischer, VP of Content Acquisition, here. You may have noticed that Sony movies through StarzPlay are not currently available to watch instantly. This is the result of a temporary contract issue between Sony and Starz and, while these two valued partners work through their differences, we hope you are enjoying the wide variety of new movies and TV shows added daily. In the next few weeks, look for great movie titles like The Fighter, Iron Man 2 as well as the first four seasons of Mad Men, all to watch instantly.

Ryan Lawler from NewTeeVee claims to have the real reason Sony pulled the titles:

A person with knowledge of the situation says that Starz had reached an IP distribution cap in its contract with Sony that resulted in Starz asking Netflix to temporarily take down the Sony content. The clause was part of the most recent deal between Starz and Sony, which likely didn’t anticipate the tremendous growth Netflix has seen for its streaming subscription service over the last few years. Netflix’s subscriber base has grown nearly 70 percent over the past year, from 14 million subscribers in the first quarter 2010 to more than 22.8 million subscribers in the U.S.

Thanks to Lois, Tony, Al & Dylan for sending this in.

 

Report: 32% of Netflix Users Thinking About Downgrading or Dropping Cable

Home Media Magazine cites a Diffusion Group survey about dropping cable TV:

The firm’s March survey asked 2,000 U.S. adult broadband users how likely they were to downgrade their pay TV service in the next six months. Thirty-two percent said they were likely to either downgrade or cancel altogether, double the 16% who said the same in 2010.

“Despite its rhetorical positioning, both Netflix and pay TV operators have long been aware that there will come a point at which its services are not only dilutive to regular TV viewing, but antithetical to pay TV subscription levels,” said Michael Greeson, TDG founding partner and director of research. “The question for realistic observers has been not if this will occur but when. According to our latest research, that time is upon us.”

I'm curious about your plans for cable TV:

Netflix Enables Video Quality Settings To Help Customers Manage Data Usage

Netflix has added the ability to control the quality (and data usage) of your Netflix streaming, helpful if you have a capped bandwidth account or are using a mobile device. Netflix added a similar setting for Canadian subscribers in February when ISP's up north started capping bandwidth.

You can access the Manage Video Quality settings under Your Account:

"We know that some of you have Internet data caps and we want to make it easier for you to manage how much data you use. We offer 3 video quality settings to help you manage your data usage. No matter what level you choose, your Netflix membership price will remain the same."

Thanks to JackH for sending this in.

Netflix Removing Avatars, Nicknames & Bios for Reviews

Netflix announced that they are removing avatars, nicknames & bios from reviews.

We’re removing avatars, nicknames and bios associated with reviews, as very few Netflix members use them. We’re constantly working to improve the Netflix experience, and by removing these little-used features we are simplifying the review process. 

Dave Chappelle's New Show Coming to Netflix or Hulu?

TheDaily reports that Dave Chappelle is considering Netflix or Hulu for a new show.

The beloved comic is planning a new TV show with a paid subscription service like Netflix, Sony’s Crackle, or Hulu, which are now competing in the original programming game, a plugged-in source told Flash.

“Dave Chappelle’s going back to TV,” tattled our insider. “It’s not for a network. It’s for Netflix or Crackle or some other subscription service.”

Chappelle had one of the biggest flameouts in show business history when he abruptly went MIA in 2005, bolting his top-rated “Chappelle’s Show” in its third season. The funnyman shocked the world when he walked away from the $50 million Comedy Central would have paid him over the next two years.

Thanks to Anthony for sending this in.

FlixFamily: Interesting Netflix Website Alternative With Kid-Friendly Browsing & Sub Accounts

FlixFamily is a new website that offers an alternative user interface to your Netflix account. While it's not as elegant as the Netflix UI, it includes features missing from the Netflix website, and the developer seems open to suggestions. Here's a shot of the movie browse page for TV shows:

Cool Lists include titles that are expiring soon, award winners, IMDB titles, and Rotten Tomatoes selections. 

One of the more interesting features of FlixFamily is sub accounts, which lets you setup different profiles for family members. You can password protect accounts, and also prevent kid's accounts from seeing "R" or "unrated" movies. I manage my kids account because even if I limit their Netflix account to PG or G movies, they can still see some pretty racy movie boxes. With FlixFamily the kid's account will only see movies in categories you select.

FlixFamily is an ambitous effort, and shows the power of the Netflix API.

A Roku app is in the works and should be available soon.

FlixFamily offers a free one-month trial, but if you want to continue to use it the cost is $4.99 per year.

The developer is looking for feedback on the site, feature suggestions, and submissions for the "Cool Lists." You you can reach Scott at hacking@FlixFamily.com.

Roku Searches Showing DVD-only Titles (Bug)

Several readers are reporting a bug in searches on the Netflix app for the Roku player that show DVD-only or unavailable titles. Reader Larry writes, "Roku search for movies has been returning selections that are not available for instant viewing.  There is no picture icon available ( just the dotted circle ) but the title is on the list and if you select on of  the doted circles, a description is there along with a PLAY button. When you select PLAY it tries to start the movie and then goes to the message that this movie is not available for instant viewing.  This just started a couple of weeks ago and makes searching for movies very frustrating. Often the search results will include more that half non-viewable movie titles."

Thanks also to Jake & Dave for reporting this.