Spark customers get Lightbox free for 12 months

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#1218743 21-Jan-2015 00:40

kawaii:
I grabbed the code and found that it requires a credit card straight up - I have a credit card but on principle I don't want to hand it over then fight to try and get it back off them after 12 months.

Ah well, your loss then.

Its to stop people from just making massive numbers of accounts for trials to do things like get around the insane device number limits etc.

Set a reminder in your calendar to cancel it in 11 months if you don't want the service.

Richard rich.ms

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#1218751 21-Jan-2015 05:36

Lightbox:

It's a sinister plot to let more Kiwis enjoy Lightbox and their Spark Broadband.

We've been in the market for almost five months, we've worked out most of the kinks, we're now on a good range of devices (still more to come) and we've got a great show coming up (Better Call Saul) exclusively from February 9th. It's the best timing we could come up with.

You call you current selection of viewing options a good range!

No further questions. I rest my case.

dickytim

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#1218754 21-Jan-2015 06:20

I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!

I have been erring about getting light-box for a few months as we already have sky and there are plenty of streaming sites out there.

Thanks for the heads-up.

SaltyNZ

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#1218798 21-Jan-2015 08:39

Lightbox:

It's a sinister plot to let more Kiwis enjoy Lightbox and their Spark Broadband.

DAMN YOU LIGHTBOX!

We've been in the market for almost five months, we've worked out most of the kinks, we're now on a good range of devices (still more to come)

Your password subsystem has a slight kink. When setting the password (at least at sign-up) it will accept a password with "*" and/or "^" in it (which it will tell you is weak despite being 12 characters long with letters, numbers, and those characters!) but it will not allow you to authenticate with that password.

I suspect that either the initial password set or the subsequent validation is filtering out the "*" (protecting from SQL injection or other bad string attacks?).

Basically: it should refuse the password in the first place, if it's not going to accept it later. :-)

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

Lightbox

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#1218800 21-Jan-2015 08:40

SaltyNZ:

Your password subsystem has a slight kink. When setting the password (at least at sign-up) it will accept a password with "*" and/or "^" in it (which it will tell you is weak despite being 12 characters long with letters, numbers, and those characters!) but it will not allow you to authenticate with that password.

I suspect that either the initial password set or the subsequent validation is filtering out the "*" (protecting from SQL injection or other bad string attacks?).

Basically: it should refuse the password in the first place, if it's not going to accept it later. :-)

Cheers. We'll get that sorted ASAP.

Lightbox - we are online TV.

SaltyNZ

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#1218801 21-Jan-2015 08:41

PoHq:

You call you current selection of viewing options a good range!

No further questions. I rest my case.

No need to be rude about it. Of course the selection is smaller than US Netflix. If you want to blame someone, blame Sky for locking up everything and kitchen sink with exclusivity, or blame the government for declining to regulate so that Sky wasn't allowed to do so. I for one am happy to see the market expanding; it will (eventually) loosen Sky's death grip and make things better and cheaper for everyone in the long run.

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

toyonut

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#1218804 21-Jan-2015 08:50

Got Lightbox and love it, even signed up to Spark unlimited ADSL to enjoy it more. Works great and no messing around. Now they give 12 months free, whats not to love.

To the guys not cool with handing over CC details, it is super easy to stop your sub. Unlike Quickflix who you have to ring to cancel, lightbox is a button in the subscription settings. Great service so far.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

Quic Broadband

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tdgeek

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#1218805 21-Jan-2015 08:50

PoHq:
DaveB:
PoHq: My 2 cents. It's a panic move due to low subscribers. Will it work? Probably not.

Gosh ..... do you have a marketing degree or something?

I do and I think it is a very clever move on Spark's part. I very much doubt it is a panic move (knee jerk reaction to other market forces) and, to insinuate so, shows a rather immature attitude to the overall subject.

So purely a coincidence they are doing this 2 months before the largest global TV streaming service officially comes to NZ?

Riiiiiiigt.

Marketing move ahead of other new entrants isn't a panic move

dclegg

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#1218811 21-Jan-2015 08:56

SaltyNZ:
PoHq:

You call you current selection of viewing options a good range!

No further questions. I rest my case.

No need to be rude about it. Of course the selection is smaller than US Netflix. If you want to blame someone, blame Sky for locking up everything and kitchen sink with exclusivity, or blame the government for declining to regulate so that Sky wasn't allowed to do so. I for one am happy to see the market expanding; it will (eventually) loosen Sky's death grip and make things better and cheaper for everyone in the long run.

Hear hear!

I'd also question whether those who are decrying the poor content have actually had a decent look (or perhaps are just real fussy buggers). As I've stated previously, we have Netflix, Hulu & Lightbox in our household. Over the last few weeks, the majority of our viewing has been via Lightbox. Here's a sample of what we've been watching on it:-

Boston Legal
Homeland
Rescue Me
Outlander
Mozart in the Jungle
Modern Family
Orphan Black
Green Wing
Vikings
Black Sails
Teachers

Slightly related: We're having issues with our DNS based solution at present (although its not their fault). For some reason, we're getting a metric crap tonne of IP address changes from Spark (multiple times a day). I ended up having to set up a chron job to automatically register our new IP address with UnoTelly. But this isn't foolproof (as evidenced by my wife just yelling up to me "We were just watching Hulu, but it's now telling me it's not available here!"

So if we take out all the parallel imported SVOD services, I'd wager that Lightbox is by far the best SVOD offering available to Kiwi TV watchers today.

PoHq

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#1218812 21-Jan-2015 08:56

SaltyNZ:
PoHq:

You call you current selection of viewing options a good range!

No further questions. I rest my case.

No need to be rude about it. Of course the selection is smaller than US Netflix. If you want to blame someone, blame Sky for locking up everything and kitchen sink with exclusivity, or blame the government for declining to regulate so that Sky wasn't allowed to do so. I for one am happy to see the market expanding; it will (eventually) loosen Sky's death grip and make things better and cheaper for everyone in the long run.

I'm talking about lightbox's poor device playback option ( which they feel is a good range ) not their content.

Sky are to blame for a lot of things but I highly doubt they have the monopoly on devices lightbox can be viewed on.

dclegg

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#1218814 21-Jan-2015 08:57

paulmilbank:
To the guys not cool with handing over CC details, it is super easy to stop your sub. Unlike Quickflix who you have to ring to cancel, lightbox is a button in the subscription settings. Great service so far.

And if the trial is any indication, I'd wager they'll email you before they start charging the credit card anyway.

dclegg

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#1218816 21-Jan-2015 08:58

PoHq:

I'm talking about lightbox's poor device playback option ( which they feel is a good range ) not their content.

Sky are to blame for a lot of things but I highly doubt they have the monopoly on devices lightbox can be viewed on.

Oh right. Yeah, there is definitely room for improvement there. But to their credit, Lightbox are doing that gradually. Its no co-incidence that Lightbox's viewing prominence in our household increased with the launch of their PS3/PS4 apps. :-)

freitasm

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#1218818 21-Jan-2015 09:03

You assume you won't be subscribing then, or assume it will forget and be charged.

I have news for you: you might like content streaming and decide to stay. Also there is this thing called Reminder you can set up on your calendar.

SaltyNZ

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#1218824 21-Jan-2015 09:10

PoHq:
I'm talking about lightbox's poor device playback option ( which they feel is a good range ) not their content.

Sky are to blame for a lot of things but I highly doubt they have the monopoly on devices lightbox can be viewed on.

Fair enough then, though I'm sure that will improve rapidly too.

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

tdgeek

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#1218826 21-Jan-2015 09:15

dclegg:
PoHq:

I'm talking about lightbox's poor device playback option ( which they feel is a good range ) not their content.

Sky are to blame for a lot of things but I highly doubt they have the monopoly on devices lightbox can be viewed on.

Oh right. Yeah, there is definitely room for improvement there. But to their credit, Lightbox are doing that gradually. Its no co-incidence that Lightbox's viewing prominence in our household increased with the launch of their PS3/PS4 apps. :-)

Throughout the pre release and release they have said they are increasing devices. The PS apps mean that maybe one half any household that does gaming is now supported. Maybe 2/10 of households have iPads or a Tab, maybe 1/10 have Sammy TV or a $100 Sammy DVD/BR player as that has smart apps. Maybe 95% have a laptop.

Its a start and while it wont always be ideal, its a start.

I think of it this way. It requires a set top box. There are a few solid choices, but a $100 Samsung DVD/BR player is there for a cheap purchase where you can merely use it as an STB, which is the easiest and nice way to use Lightbox,vis a TV or "permanently plugged into the TV" smart app device.

Again, not pushing Lightbox as I work at Spark, but the negativeness over devices that some here have as they don't have any supported devices is easily and cheaply overcome.

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