Netflix has managed to annoy a good number of its users with an announcement about an upcoming update to its Windows 11 (and Windows 10) app: support for adverts and live events will be added, but the ability to download content is being taken away.
Netflix must realize that it’s a huge frustration for people who relied on offline downloads to watch content without internet access: on planes, trains, and campsites, and anywhere else where Wi-Fi is unavailable or unreliable.
There’s a small chance that Netflix will change its mind if it gets enough complaints, but the streaming service seems determined to add as many money-making features as possible, while taking away genuinely useful ones.
I could imagine a technical limitation if they use some proprietary audio codec to send compressed surround sound that the browser somehow doesn’t support, but on the other hand why the fuck am I giving a big tech corporation any benefit of the doubt?
In my limited understanding, they almost certainly do not because if they did client devices would struggle to decode some non-standard format.
It’s probably a DRM limitation.