Two months in Disney+ still has major problems in South Africa

[TheRoDent]

I remember how netflix innovated a whole bunch of things to keep their system in good running state.
Now all these companies all over the world think they can start their own streaming service xD

I have several red Netflix boxes in the Cool Ideas network, they give em to us for free, because it helps the performance of their service. We've had them for around 3-4 years.




I also have several boxen from Akamai, but they're shared between whomever uses the Akamai network such as Steam, AppleTV, Disney+, etc.

The fact that Netflix has put effort into their own CDN makes a huge difference. It was definately easier to deal with them than other CDNs.

 

[Sasha_za]

Mostly watched Disney plus on my Samsung tablet, worked great, but today decided to watch it on the Samsung tv, what an awful experience, constant buffering. Will not be renewing next year if they don't fix this.

 

[e4et]

Jumped trough a few movies and series over the last couple of days.
No issues experienced.

Not sure when they added it but I'm also getting hdr now on a lot of movies and shows.

Only thing missing now is atmos.

 

[wingnut771]

Jumped trough a few movies and series over the last couple of days.
No issues experienced.

Not sure when they added it but I'm also getting hdr now on a lot of movies and shows.

Only thing missing now is atmos.

What does atmos do?

 

[BoxFish]

Usually it has been Ok except for the last few days. Constant buffering. Quality drops to lowest level often. The playback for a few shows also kept resetting back to the beginning. Other services seem ok so I don't believe my Internet is to blame.

 

[marco79]

Anyone using a Mibox 3 to successfully run Disney +?
My BIL is using a Mibox 4 without any issues.

 

[e4et]

What does atmos do?

Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects.

 

[wingnut771]

Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects.

What home entertainment does this? How many speakers does that have?

 

[OhYeah84]

I have several red Netflix boxes in the Cool Ideas network, they give em to us for free, because it helps the performance of their service. We've had them for around 3-4 years.

View attachment 1361673


I also have several boxen from Akamai, but they're shared between whomever uses the Akamai network such as Steam, AppleTV, Disney+, etc.

The fact that Netflix has put effort into their own CDN makes a huge difference. It was definately easier to deal with them than other CDNs.

...are you even allowed to show this?

 

[Big Rat]

Running my Apps through a MI something box.
Showmax, Amazon and Netflix.
Got Disney plus as well.
If i try to watch Obiwan Kenobi, i freeze and buffer the whole time. I tried watching Mandalorian, no problem Watched Star Wars Rebels, no problem, Back to Obiwan and buffering immediately.
Maybe program specific or that drive whatever it is stored upon is bad?

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

What home entertainment does this? How many speakers does that have?

It's common now, most modern receivers support it. Basically surround sound, but vertically in addition to horizontally. How many speakers depends on how fancy you want to get, and how much money you want to throw at it...

 

[OhYeah84]

Got no issues running Disney+ from a browser on my mini PC!

 

[Lupus]

What home entertainment does this? How many speakers does that have?

Since about 2017 or so most AVRs, sound bars and such support it, you get Atmos speakers with 2 sets of drivers in the for vertical and normal to bounce the sounds off walls, or you could get the corresponding speakers and place them in the necessary areas, but that would make your house have 9.1 speakers, 4 normal surrounds, center and the four verticals, could make it 6 verticals with the sides.

 

[noxibox]

Would be good if the article also covered PC users experience. I run a media pc on my tv. So all streaming services are loaded through an Edge browser. (chrome/firefox only go upto 720p)

1. only 720p streaming available (using Edge browser - which has DRM rights for HD content - Netflix/Prime etc all stream 1080p+)
2. tv shows/ movies go out of full screen view when the show ends/ goes to next episode.
3. pathetic UI/UX. Cannot find all movies/ tv shows. Forced to basically watch/choose the 10 options for a genre that they decide you want to watch. Cant even select genre as a search method. You have to type it out in the search box in full - so you cannot search for SciFi you have to type Science Fiction instead. And search is on its own page???? why not just have a search bar for each page view?
4. constantly having to select my profile again to log in. Why can it not remember me?

It is definitely necessary to cover all the possible ways of viewing a streaming service. The Netflix applications are very inconsistent too though. The browser version has search at the top, but the others I've used don't, and they all, including the browser version, ask more often than not which profile to use. They're also totally different when it comes to search results, filtering by genre and so on.

Disney has their share of stupid nonsense like not offering surround sound on some apps, forced portrait mode on mobile, etc. But whether their user interface and experience problems are unique in the streaming market is debatable.

Quick q from someone who has never bothered with multi channel audio over stereo - is it still a thing? Genuinely curious. Maybe I should try it one day.

Maybe this is why Disney thinks it is perfectly fine to only offer stereo sound in some of their applications. Sound is an absolutely critical part of a film and surround sound is a key element of creating a sense of immersion.

 

[wingnut771]

Since about 2017 or so most AVRs, sound bars and such support it, you get Atmos speakers with 2 sets of drivers in the for vertical and normal to bounce the sounds off walls, or you could get the corresponding speakers and place them in the necessary areas, but that would make your house have 9.1 speakers, 4 normal surrounds, center and the four verticals, could make it 6 verticals with the sides.

Do those sound bars really work?

 

[semaphore]

I've had minimal issues with Disney+, but their UI design and entire profile switching thing is an utter ballache.

 

[OhYeah84]

I've had minimal issues with Disney+, but their UI design and entire profile switching thing is an utter ballache.

...the pin to logon is a killer though. Why they can't just have a username/password like Netflix is anyone's guess.

 

[Lupus]

Do those sound bars really work?

Sort of, for my lounge it's not great as I've got vaulted ceiling, but in a perfectly setup lounge you do get the depth, it won't be 100% like an actual speaker in the right spot.
I know for things like No mans skies when I've got my rear speakers in the back and calibrated being in a freighter is amazing it really does feel like I'm in the ship, even Mass effect.
But for some movies it's hit or miss. The biggest let down was the Sony HTX8500 I mean it does have a much wider soundstage but it's verticality is really limited in a largish room.

 

[wingnut771]

Sort of, for my lounge it's not great as I've got vaulted ceiling, but in a perfectly setup lounge you do get the depth, it won't be 100% like an actual speaker in the right spot.
I know for things like No mans skies when I've got my rear speakers in the back and calibrated being in a freighter is amazing it really does feel like I'm in the ship, even Mass effect.
But for some movies it's hit or miss. The biggest let down was the Sony HTX8500 I mean it does have a much wider soundstage but it's verticality is really limited in a largish room.

Kinda like 3D at the cinema, hit and miss. For me nothing beats a good set of headphones.

 

[elf_lord_ZC5]

Do those sound bars really work?

JBL 9.1 soundbar is very good.