Netflix, how have I lived without you for so long

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Sat May 01, 2010 12:17 pm

Why I avoided Netflix for so long: I loathe subscriptions.

What changed my mind:

Obscure movies are difficult to rent locally, impossible to rent locally on Blu-ray, and are expensive to purchase ($30+ USD).
1 year of Netflix costs the same as purchasing four obscure blu-rays.
TV shows are streamable, including cable series. We don't have cable, so this is pretty sweet.
I gave the 31 day free trial a shot, and it's amazing.
1. Simple, no-hassle integration with 7MC.
2. "Watch instantly" streaming works very well, even over my 1.5Mb down DSL connection. Quality suffers a bit, but I can live with that for some titles.
3. "Watch instantly" streaming remembers the position in the movie if I stop before it's finished.
4. They've had all the obscure stuff I've searched for so far, even some of it is streamable.

Anyway. So far I'm liking it a lot.

psyopper · Post by **psyopper** » Sat May 01, 2010 1:25 pm

7MC = Window 7 Media Center?

Forgive me, I'm relatively recently returning to the Windows world after a 5 year hiatus with Ubuntu...

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Sat May 01, 2010 1:59 pm

psyopper wrote:7MC = Window 7 Media Center?

Yes.

OS support is limited to Windows XP SP2, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS 10.4.8 or later (intel CPU's only).

And streaming requires Silverlight. The internet says Moonlight won't work because Netflix uses some specific DRM feature of Silverlight. So linux might be a no-go.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Sat May 01, 2010 5:23 pm

Right now the best service seems to be private torrent sites with a ratio system or Usenet. It happens to be illegal, but it works no matter what OS you're running.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Sat May 01, 2010 6:16 pm

I love the netflix streaming on the wii! (just wish all titles were available streaming)

Post by **CA_Steve** » Sun May 02, 2010 7:38 am

Too bad you can only stream Netflix HD via an appliance and not a PC....but, yeah, it's nice.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Sun May 02, 2010 11:34 am

I can barely stream Netflix in SD!

Honestly, The few "HD" streams I've seen at friends / businesses haven't impressed me. I figure, the 720p h264 enscodes I've done start to look bad at anything under about 6Mb/s. Netflix says you need 5Mb/s or more for HD, so maybe at 5-6 Mb/s their HD stuff would look OK.

Instead I added the blu-ray service. This worked even though I'm still within the free trial period - all the DVD's in my rental queue became blu-rays (ones that are available on blu-ray, at least). The additional $2 blu-ray service fee is much cheaper than a 6MB/s connection ($40/month in my area).

I can wait a day or two for a physical disk. This is why I signed up in the 1st place. Streaming is a nice additional perk, for sure. But it's the selection and availability of titles that hooked me.

Post by **CA_Steve** » Sun May 02, 2010 4:45 pm

I've been a subscriber for a number of years...and at first, I was a voracious user...over time I find I'm spending less time in front of my TV and more in front of a PC. So, I dropped my subscription down to 1 disc at a time and stream other times.

Funny thing is my TV is still a CRT, while my monitors are 1920x1080. So while I certainly don't need 1080p content on a 24" monitor, 720p sure would be nice instead of SD.

Might as well get some use out of this 12Msps Docsis 3 cable connection.
I sure don't need it for surfing this site or gaming.