Netflix explains its new playback speed tests after Hollywood directors rage online

If you were the director of a war drama film that’s streamed on Netflix by hundreds of millions of viewers, would you give your audience the option to speed up that lengthy but poignant scene that tears the protagonist away from their only newborn? That’s exactly why Hollywood directors were tweeting in rage and disappointment a couple of days ago, after reports of Netflix testing a new playback speed feature on mobile devices surfaced online. Netflix has since responded to the uproar in a blog post, explaining why it’s testing such a feature.

The new playback speed feature on Netflix, which was spotted on some mobile devices a few days ago as part of a public feature test, allows the viewer to either speed up or slow down video playback by up to 1.5x/0.5x. YouTube and other online video players have had this feature for as long as we can remember. Netflix appears to be testing it on certain mobile devices along with the option to change the screen brightness and lock the screen without leaving the playback window. Netflix also wants to find an easier way to access language and audio settings during playback.

When initial reports of Netflix testing this playback speed feature popped up on the internet a couple of days ago, Hollywood directors pushed back heavily against Netflix’s decision to implement it, worried that their artistic efforts would be brought to nothing in the process. In the words of Judd Apatow (Bridesmaids, Liar Liar), the directors wanted the films and shows to be seen “as they were intended to be seen”. Actor Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, Need for Speed) tweeted, “That would mean they are completely taking control of everyone else’s art and destroying it.”

Netflix has since responded to the backlash in a blog post, clarifying that it will not implement all these features under test (including playback speed) until it sees a positive feedback from its users. “We have no plans to roll any of these tests out in the short term. And whether we introduce these features for everyone at some point will depend on the feedback we receive,” writes Keela Robison, Vice President at Netflix in the blog post. What do you think, reader? Would you be opposed to the idea of Netflix getting a feature that even DVD players have had for decades now?

 

Whelp— another spectacularly bad idea, and another cut to the already bleeding-out cinema experience. Why support & finance filmmakers visions on one hand and then work to destroy the presentation of those films on the other??? https://t.co/T7QdYAQGHU

— Brad Bird (@BradBirdA113) October 28, 2019

 

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League of Legends Is Now 10 Years Old - This Is the Story of Its Birth

Before the millions of players, before the billions in revenue, before the esports tournaments that topped 100 million spectators, League of Legends was more of an idea than a game.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Crashes Affecting Some Xbox One X Players, Team Working on a Fix

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is frequently crashing for some Xbox One X owners. Developer Infinity Ward has addressed the matter, assuring that a fix is being worked upon.

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Call of Duty: Activision Set for Another Billion-Dollar Hit With 'Modern Warfare' Launch

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the reboot of the widely popular first-person shooter game, will launch on Friday and is set to become another billion-dollar hit for publisher Activision.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super and GTX 1650 officially announced

The GPU space has definitely become more interesting in the last few months. While Nvidia has had its Ray Tracing capable GPUs, AMD has competing GPUs available for cheaper price, offering the same or better raw performance. It is always a cat and mouse game, with many factors such as game optimisations and drivers coming into play. Not wanting to be left behind, Nvidia has now announced two new GPUs in based on its Turing architecture, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 (Review) Super takes over from the GTX 1060, arguably the most popular 10-series GPU. The 1660 Super offers more of, well, everything in comparison to the GTX 1060. For starters, the 1660 Super comes with 1408 CUDA cores as against 1280 CUDA cores on the GTX 1060. The card also sports a higher base and a boost clock of 1530 MHz and 1785MHz respectively. While both the GTX 1060 and the GTX 1660 Super sport 6GB of VRAM, the latter now comes with GDDR6 memory instead of GDDR5. There is no Founder’s Edition of the card, but the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super is available from various OEMs from today starting price of Rs 20,500.

Alongside the GTX 1660 Super, Nvidia has also unveiled the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super. This card comes with 1280 CUDA cores and can go from 1530MHz base clock all the way to 1725MHz boost. The GPU sports 4GB of GDDR6 memory as well. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super will be available starting November 22, but the pricing has not yet been revealed.

In addition to the new GPUs, Nvidia has also released new Game Ready drivers which bring four new features to gamers; ReShade, NVIDIA Ultra Low Latency, Enhanced Customizable Image Sharpening, and Turing Encoder. While ReShade allows you to apply custom visual filters to compatible games, Turing Encoder brings NVENC support to the GTX 1660 Super and the GTX 1650 Super, so that everyone can stream their games.

The new GTX 1660 Super will sit just below the existing GTX 1660 Ti, as is the case with the RTX 2080 Super and the RTX 2080 Ti. With the introduction of these new cards, Nvidia’s lineup has grown immensely and seems to cover a rather broad budget segment, something that had not been the case with the 10-series cards.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Launched in India Starting at Rs. 20,500; GeForce GTX 1650 Super Coming November 22

Gamers with tight budgets will be happy that they can get better performance at low prices with Nvidia's Super series refreshes

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Red Hydrogen Project officially dead, founder announces retirement

What was supposed to be a smartphone unlike any other will now rest in peace. The Red Hydrogen One, the world’s first phone with a holographic display, was meant to disrupt the smartphone space but it was never really able to deliver on what it promised. Now, with Red Founder Jim Jannard retiring, the Red Hydrogen project is declared dead.

Jannard wrote a post in the Red Hydrogen forums explaining that after turning 70 and tackling a ‘few health issues’, he thought it was now time to retire. This comes after Red teased a second Hydrogen phone in the same forum earlier this year. With Jannard retiring, the project now stands cancelled, for certain.

Jannard said that the Red Hydrogen One will continue receiving support. Now, it’s unclear whether he meant just basic security updates or the latest Android version and new features.

As for the second Hydrogen phone, it was teased by Jannard himself in the forums. He teased the phone while blaming the Chinese ODM who manufactured the Hydrogen One for not delivering on their commitments. In the post, he claimed that the modular camera accessory that was originally supposed to be a part of the Hydrogen One has finally been accomplished. Red had created a new image sensor and a camera module called the Red Komodo that would have been compatible with the Hydrogen One and its now-cancelled successor.

The Red Komodo would have been a complementary addition that, according to Jannard, would have captured ‘cinema grade images at the highest level at lower pricing.’ But then, neither is the Hydrogen Two coming out ever nor is the hallowed Red camera module for a smartphone. Both of these projects have now been shelved with Jannar retiring from the business.

 

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