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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Worst streaming system ever

The fact this subject is nothing new, is just emphasising how terrible this is.

 

Get some damned html5 or web based services already, browsing via an explorer like chrome/firefox/edge and then launching to a separate app? why...

 

This is not 1990, seriously sue whatever idiot you payed millions to for making this idiotic system.

 

The ONLY reason to have a desktop application alongside having to browse via en explorer is for spyware/data collection - which you can't really do anymore anyway... so fudge off and stop annoying your entire customers base.

 

Ok,

Thanks.

 

-edit;

 

Before someone chimes in with 'just use the store app'.

 

Do you realise the insane customer base of people using netflix/video services at work? When on night shifts etc... None of those can use Windows Store app which is why they ALL (but u) have an explorer based streaming system.

10 REPLIES 10
Anonymous User
Not applicable

 
 

And the subtitles keep freezing, I've been looking at the words 'Traffic stop' for 3-4 minutes now, refreshed, skipped back/forth etc they work for a few minutes then mess up again.

 

I have to pirate your content as your delivery method is SO bad, why should I pay and not just pirate anyway?

 

Seriously, I've been paying for 2-3 years and just end up pirating stuff I watch on here anyway as it's easier than your crappy platform.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Even more of a rant;

 

I can't do work and watch because you disable the player due to Microsofts built in screen snipping tools... which people use for work daily...

But the Windows PRNT SCREEN keyboard button still works? Why block Snip at all?

 

And if I was gonna record something it would NOT be at your amazing quality levels, look at this - it's a joke.

I have an average of 360Mbps internet speed btw, never drops below 250 and 7ms latency to 8.8.8.8 ... So don't try to blame my internet.

 

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RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

I use Print Screen, any NowTV video playing just shows up black - not even a still.

 

I guess NowTV think that is secure enough.

 

Just as the heuristic checking in AVs relies on spotting virus-like behaviour, and so can throw a few false positives, so does the anti-capture logic in the ride-along Cisco code detect the screen-scraping that the Snipping Tool can do, and decline to play ball with it.

 

Dont forget that when NowTV is entrusted by the originators with the right to show their commercial content, they are also bound to, demonstrably, protect that content from unauthorised acquisition.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Yes - awful viewing quality - but sport is flawless compared to this - and now TV don't give a toss about quality

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

Why can’t they use the Store App? Centrally enforced Group Policy? Or what?

 

I was in our local hospital OutPatients last week, waiting for my wife, and they had NowTV all sewn up - couldn’t even use the Community, let alone the player on the free WiFi there, on my own device.

 

Any company that blocks the Store App on its work PCs (presumably by asking for an Admin password for the install) and yet doesn’t block the browser Player the same way needs its admins to take an urgent refresher course.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I might not have been clear, regular users cannot authorise the standalone app.

 

  • I assume you're not a SysAdmin in an enterprise environment. 

We can the instal the app and then let users use it without admin power/uac etc. But I refuse to do this.... Just because sky are being childish.

We cannot allow the store app as it can push updated code without approval.

(Do a survey and see how many Enterprise users allow Windows Store... Let me know if you find even 1!!)

Even windows updates are blocked on the vast majority of enterprise systems... Why so you think SCCM exists?

 

(Fyi secure gov environment)

So Sky/Now TV is literally the ONLY web based streamer I'm aware of that requires some level of admin/uac to view.

 

My point is EVERY other major streaming service has a method of viewing that doesn't require software installations.

 

And while you might think 'who watches TV at work?'

We have an account for sporting things, but also we have 24/7 staff on watch... But also  for everysjor platform we have a viewer allowance/a count. From TFL/Highways transport monitors to Early Warning Missile Defence watchkeeprs (560 accounts btw)

We like to keep them awake and TV is a good tool for it...

 

 

So Sky, you want to stop being the worst streaming provider or fall into oblivion like so many before you...

 

Your call.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

That answer doesn't even comment on the 250k employees globally who stream during lunch btw.

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User  said:-


I assume you're not a SysAdmin in an enterprise environment. 

You assume wrongly, but then I’m not managing anything running Windows/Unix/Linux, I’m running OSs that have enterprise security baked in, not bolted on.

 

But the irony of my having the equivalent of root on systems that handle millions of pounds worth of sensitive transactions every day, managed from a laptop running Windows 7 that is so locked down I can’t even run cmd on it, let alone install the tools I think are needed for my job, nor have portable versions on a USB stick, the very insertion of which will ring alarm bells, is not lost on me. Of course, there are ways round these restrictions.....  😛

But you obviously aren’t in the private sector, where my employers have zero interest in providing the bandwidth for us to stream entertainment video, even in our lunch hours or overnight, and even on the Guest wifi that is maintained entirely separately from the company stuff.

 

We can the instal the app and then let users use it without admin power/uac etc. But I refuse to do this.... Just because sky are being childish.

 

You can indeed, and that is how I get a selection of sanctioned apps that fall outside the standard distribution. But you aren’t any kin to the BOFH, or Mordac the Preventer of Information Systems, are you? Because, as you say, you could take the Store app (not the Store), sanitise it, package it and make it available, if you are happy to have people running NowTV on your network. And I am surprised both that you have the discretion not to do so, and that you choose to exercise it; are you sure it is Sky being childish here?

 

We cannot allow the store app as it can push updated code without approval.

(Do a survey and see how many Enterprise users allow Windows Store... Let me know if you find even 1!!)

 

I’m not quite sure how I’d go about that, but I take your point here. You should in fairness though, perhaps own that for the vast majority of people asking for support here, vanishingly few of them are supporting an enterprise environment, and vanishingly few of those that are would even allow video streaming for entertainment purposes on their enterprise networks anyway. I think you must be the exception that proves (tests) the rule.

 

Even windows updates are blocked on the vast majority of enterprise systems... Why do you think SCCM exists?

 

Because Bill Gates, in his infinite wisdom, instead of running with Windows NT as a separate thing from consumer Windows, tried to merge the two back together in Windows XP. And enterprise admins have been dealing with the fallout ever since.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I make giant posts when drinking and argue to much 🙂

 

Sorry for being a tool. 

 

I also amanage networks similar to what you describe, the secured networks don't have access to the www so obviously not bothered about those 😅

 

The secondary workstations that people use for this kinda of thing,  we could separate the app but going through afpl approval is tedious and for updates yikes.

 

But it's all moot, my case/usage is a niche yes.

None of it changes the fact Now TV is the most unfriendly and confusing streaming platform out today.

The only one requiring an external player or a store app.

 

There is no need for it and no benefit to Sky I can see.