Netflix for the HD TV box

Hello @Bascolo

If the 119 is too much for you, there are other options.
You can get a Chromecast 2 or Chromecast Ultra…
This means you can also use Netflix on your TV.

Or you can also ask your TV manufacturer if they have an update for your TV so that the Netflix app runs better there 😉

Greetings

Hello @UrsSch,

The point is that existing customers who have already paid the 99Fr activation fee for TV 2.0, helped with troubleshooting, improved the product, are now looking into the tube again and are supposed to pay 120Fr per UHD box, while new customers get the UHD box for free get thrown behind. It’s the same song as the routers a few years ago. Sometimes it is a rental device, sometimes it is a purchased device.

This is not a question of money, but a question of principle.

This dilemma only exists because Swisscom has decided that the UHD Box is a purchase item, while the HD Box is a rental item. Notably, even though you pay 120 Fr for the box, you have no option to customize it to your liking, e.g. with your own apps, a different theme or anything like that. You’re not even allowed to install the Google Play Store on it, no, please use the, sorry, stupid Opera App Store.

Therefore, I can very well understand the frustration of existing customers like @Bascolo.

Greek

ei8ht

P.S: Interesting that I didn’t see this post when I posted mine on the same topic today.

Hello @ei8ht

Regardless of whether it is a purchase or a rental model, it always costs something 😉

Even with the Mediaroom STB’s there was also a fee of 150.- for the rental model if you wanted to switch from the 1st Gen. to the 2nd Gen. STB.
And in the old days, today’s 119 is even a little less.
Whether this is a purchase or a fee is not that big of a difference.
But you can now sell your UHD STB.
Ev. There is now a used one at Ricardo for less than 119.- 😉

And today it’s just the case that new functions always require new hardware.
And this hardware including all licenses must be paid for.
The Chromecast already has the 3rd generation of devices and the price from the HD version to the UHD version is also increasing at Google.

Greetings
And a Chromecast HD or 2015 for 38.- isn’t exactly a lot if you want Netflix and you only pay between 14.90 and 17.90 for this service (I left out SD).

Or you can simply cancel everything with Swisscom and then order everything again and you’re a new customer again.
Would Swisscom notice this???

But if everything doesn’t suit you at Swisscom, you can also change provider.

But I also understand the HD-STB customers.
But Swisscom certainly has its reasons why they don’t bring Netflix on the HD STB.
It could also be that Netflix doesn’t run at all on the Android version of the HD STB. Because Netflix certainly has a say in this too.
It’s not like Anroid = Android and every app just works.
If this were the case, the Netflix app would have been available for both STBs for a long time.

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@UrsSch wrote:

But I also understand the HD-STB customers.
But Swisscom certainly has its reasons why they don’t bring Netflix on the HD STB.
It could also be that Netflix doesn’t run at all on the Android version of the HD STB. Because Netflix certainly has a say in this too.
It’s not like Anroid = Android and every app just works.
If this were the case, then the Netflix app would have been available for both STBs for a long time.

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And that’s exactly what surprises me. What technically “prevents” Netflix on the HD Box? IMHO, exactly nothing. An official statement would be appropriate here (no typical marketing phrases please). @Anonymous only knows something here.

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@UrsSch wrote:

Regardless of whether it is a purchase or a rental model, it always costs something 😉

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I even agree with you on that. But why are existing customers being plagued again? Why isn’t the subscription cheaper by the rental amount that is now eliminated when you buy the box?

I wouldn’t have a problem if everyone was treated equally. In other words, new customers would also have to buy the box. But, oh wait, then no one would come anymore…

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@UrsSch wrote:

But if everything doesn’t suit you at Swisscom, you can also change provider.

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I can choose between Swisscom, UPC and other stream via DSL TV providers. UPC’s Horizon Box is a mess. It won’t come into my house. The other stream over DSL providers are all based on the Swisscom infrastructure and often don’t even have their own headend for reception and conversion. As far as I know, Netstream still has a headend and Sunrise is buying into it. Green uses afair the Swisscom headend. Swisscom is also way ahead when it comes to recording capacity, which makes the offer very interesting for many (series junkies).

So, where is the easiest way to get everything from a single source (headend, network, TV box etc): exactly, Swisscom. Therefore, changing providers is not an issue at the moment.

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@UrsSch wrote:

Or you can simply cancel everything with Swisscom and then order everything again and you’re a new customer again.
Would Swisscom notice this???

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Don’t think so. But those who change like that notice it. All recordings, settings, KDCenter access and even the telephone number would be gone.

So, as you can see, for me it’s not primarily about finances, but about principles.

Greek

ei8ht

To put it bluntly.
I don’t use any applications on the TV2.0 box.
How come?
Because I simply clicked around too much before I got there.
Netflix, Dropbox,… I can do everything on my laptop, I may have it in the favorites bar at the top. With the Chrome browser I can send it directly to the TV via Chromecast, and my Samsung TV then even switches the HDMI input appropriately on its own.

Doing anything with the applications on the TV2.0 is too complicated for me, no matter what they are.

That’s why you should assign a key that takes you directly to the app overview. I would suggest you could assign it to the option key. Stay on the option key for a long time and you’ll be there.

Even though I can’t believe the zero earnings on the TV boxes - if you would publish the SC donation account here, I could imagine transferring a small Christmas chunk 😉

Seriously: why don’t you bring SC-TV to other platforms such as Apple TV? Then there would be Netflix and everything else on it. Your competitors like teleboy and zatttoo can easily do that too.

I could imagine that the HD TV-Box has too little computing power and/or memory to run demanding/power-hungry apps stably.

And in 2-3 years the UHD box will probably reach its limits again. The first 8k material and sample devices are already available and the labs are already working on 16k TVs…

I can completely understand Bascolo’s frustration! I am also a loyal Swisscom customer myself (for decades) and find it really sad that such offers almost always involve additional financial outlay. My suggestion to SWC: 10% discount per year as a customer, that would be a deal.

P.S. Otherwise, I am really very satisfied with what SWC has to offer.

Greeting

Daniel

10% per year customer, then everything would be free for me…

Have you ever done the math?

I can still manage that much computing power ;-).

I also thought it was worth considering. Of course only with such actions

e.g. the TV box. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to reward existing customers like this.

That would certainly bring more than perhaps temporarily faster data connections.

It’s just supposed to be a suggestion for dear SWC.

Greeting

@Anonymous:

So let’s do the math again. A box costs 120Fr. I assume this is/wasn’t much different with the HD Box.

The HD Box is a rental model. This means that the rental costs are included in the subscription price. The MVD is 12 months. So you can assume that the box costs 10 Fr/month.

Why isn’t the subscription about 10 Fr cheaper when switching to the UHD box? By selling (giving away to new customers) the UHD boxes, you probably make a profit, namely exactly 10 Fr. If Swisscom’s calculation is based on 24 months, it is still 5 Fr/month.

Therefore I cannot believe your statement. If this were the case, the subscription fee for existing customers who switch to the UHD box would have to be cheaper by Betrag. Alternatively, the rental of the HD box can be shown separately so that it is no longer charged when changing, similar to how the PTT alloy wires were previously charged.

Greek

ei8ht

@ei8ht the old HD box is not listed anywhere as rental material (unlike the telephones in the past). In any case, I don’t see any “HD box rental” item on my invoice. What is known is that a fee of 5.00 per month is charged per TV-Box. But that’s not the box, but the fee for the stream that you need. The old HD box is on loan from Swisscom, because without it you can’t use the TV offer. You also have to return this if you no longer use the offer. You buy the new UHD box now, it will then be yours. But you still need the stream and therefore pay 5 per month per stream.

In the end, the whole thing doesn’t matter. Swisscom is not a charity company, and every company has to make a profit in order to survive. As banal and stupid as it sounds, it always comes down to this: you want to make money with your company. You can believe it or not as long as you want. Nobody will reveal the bill to you.

Thomas

A: The boxes are usually with the customers for a much longer time. This results in a much lower price. But nobody expects that. This is pure mathematics. Which company does this?

You could also say that every customer always gets the first box for free. Then the rent would be zero.

@kaetho: I wrote that, alternatively, the rent can… As it is now, the box rental is included in the basic subscription. The 5Fr for another box is debatable. Is it just for the stream, which also causes traffic costs, or also for the box rental? Unfortunately, it is not defined and we as customers do not know Swisscom’s calculation. It will probably be a mixed bill from the items mentioned.

@Anonymous: How long is a box with a customer? TV 2.0 was launched in April 2014. The UHD box was launched in April 2016. This sounds exactly like 24 months to me. Now comes the gentle pressure to please buy a UHD box for 120Fr, precisely so that 100% of the rent continues to go into Swisscom’s pockets.

It may be possible that the loan was a loss-making deal. But your argument that Swisscom is not making a profit from the box sales is simply not true, no matter how you spin it. Since the box is now a zero on Swisscom’s balance sheet, more of the monthly subscription fee remains. So it’s a win for Swisscom, as well as a hidden price increase for your (existing) customers.

It would be very nice and, above all, exemplary if Swisscom would disclose the calculation here, even indirectly with the discount on the included box rental for customers with UHD boxes who have purchased them. For new customers, similar to the new Natelabox, the box can be removed after 1 or 2 years.

Greek

ei8ht

@hed: If an app needs so much power, it is simply programmed catastrophically or there is a problem with the app. It can’t be the stream itself. Netflix itself states that an HD stream requires 5Mbit/s bandwidth.

For comparison: The Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD had an 8Mbit/s stream (the maximum that was possible with DVD) and an old DVD player from 2006 could play this.

Swisscom afair also sends an 8Mbit/s stream for HD. That’s why I can only understand the performance argument to a limited extent (exactly, the app itself requires too much performance, for whatever reason)

It is impossible to judge from the outside why Swisscom considers the HD box not suitable for Netflix.

The Apple TV3 Box has been streaming Netflix HD streams without any problems for several years, so it probably cannot be due to the basic processor performance or the size of the RAM of the Swisscom HD Box (which is certainly not technically weaker than the ATV3 Box).

Nevertheless, Swisscom will probably have a technical reason, because it actually has nothing to gain commercially by limiting it to the UHD box, as any additional sales of UHD boxes will not make up for the lost share of Netflix billing.

It is precisely because of technical junk like the TV box that I am no longer a Swisscom customer