It’s happened before, and it’s happening again: more emails from Netflix, warning subscribers that it’s dropping support for their aging streaming hardware.
The Netflix subreddit has been buzzing with word of Netflix yanking support for older streaming players and TVs, and the story was eventually picked up by What’s on Netflix.
It’s not clear precisely which streaming devices just lost Netflix support (the deadline was today), but What’s on Netflix notes that most of the hardware that’s being nixed is at least 10 years old.
One specific device that lost Netflix support today is the portable PlayStation Vita, as well as the Vita-compatible TV add-on that lets you play Vita titles on a bigger screen.
The Reddit thread about the Netflix end-of-service emails includes mentions of older Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi TVs, as well as at least one Samsung Blu-ray player.
This isn’t the first time that Netflix has notified members that their older streaming devices will lose Netflix support, and it won’t be the last. Indeed, all the big streamers eventually cut support for older hardware, such as when Roku, Disney+, and other services ended support for the Roku 4 streaming player earlier this year.
The easiest solution for dealing with a streaming player or streaming device that’s losing Netflix support is to snap up a newer streaming device—and luckily, you can do so for cheap.
Our favorite budget-priced 4K streaming box, for examples, costs just shy of $20 (that would be the Walmart Onn 4K Google TV Streaming Box), while even the more full-featured Roku Streaming Stick 4K (which offers Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support) will only set you back $40.
You can also stream Netflix on a variety of game consoles (even the older PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), as well as on a web browser, or even (most likely) your Android or iPhone.
Here’s a link to a Netflix help page that details all the current streaming devices that the service currently supports.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers smart speakers, soundbars, and other smart and home-theater devices. You can follow Ben on Twitter.