Experience With Netflix

[Prototype]

Looking at getting this set up. We have a PS3, and a Samsung BluRay Player. Sounds like as long as they have an internet connection, they're good to go for Video On Demand. Something we've been missing since switching our TV service from Shaw to Bell.

Does anyone have any experience with Netflix? Good/bad? Mainly looking to use their VOD service rather than the DVD service, so might just go the 1 DVD at a time unlimited package.

Would love to hear any reviews people have of Netflix. And if anyone knows if I can set up both units (2 different TVs) on the same account for the same price.

[photon]

Netflix is US only.

[jar_e]

Zip.ca is pretty much the Canadian equivalent I believe. (minus the streaming though)

[gottabekd]

"For $9/mo, the ability to stream a bunch of great TV shows on demand, as well as some great new release movies? Sign me up!"

...is what I thought as well, when I learned Netflix had such a service. Then looking in to it further, I found that it is US only.

Don't you hate it when you WANT to give people your money, but they won't take it? Oh well, piracy it is, then.

[bubbsy]

i was soo excited to set up a netflix acct after setting up the home theater... zip.ca doesn't seem as impressive unfortunately.

[Prototype]

Other than Shaw, are there any options for VOD, on a monthly fee in the YYC area?

[krazycanuck]

I was excited about the streaming service too with Netflix until I found out about the whole US-only thing. Zip would be a fine alternative if they had the same abilities to stream their movies. I would happily sign up for a streaming only service.

[HeartsOfFire]

Originally Posted by Prototype

Other than Shaw, are there any options for VOD, on a monthly fee in the YYC area?

iTunes does VOD on a per episode/per movie basis, no monthly fee.

Combine with AppleTV and you can watch it on your living room TV.

The HD quality is lacking though, I will admit that.

[The Ditch]

Originally Posted by HeartsOfFire

iTunes does VOD on a per episode/per movie basis, no monthly fee.

Combine with AppleTV and you can watch it on your living room TV.

The HD quality is lacking though, I will admit that.

I was just going to say Apple TV, but I know there's a lot of anti Apple sentiment.

You find the HD quality bad? I was actually surprised at the quality of the HD I was bracing myself for something terrible but was pleasantly surprised.

What I dislike about Apple TV is their lack of offering HD movies. Sometimes you can only rent a movie in HD, sometimes you can only buy it in HD, a lot of times it isn't even offered in HD.

[HeartsOfFire]

Compared to streaming HD services offered by the local TV companies, yes I do find AppleTV's HD service lacking.

Sure it's 720p, but the bitsreams are quite lacking compared to most 720p sources. I'm not quite sure on the hard numbers, but for example, when I rip a 480p movie (assuming 2 hours in length on average) off a DVD, and the source file size is around 6 GB before compression, I would expect a 720p HD movie offered from iTunes to be bigger than 3 GB after compression.

[The Ditch]

Originally Posted by HeartsOfFire

Compared to streaming HD services offered by the local TV companies, yes I do find AppleTV's HD service lacking.

Sure it's 720p, but the bitsreams are quite lacking compared to most 720p sources. I'm not quite sure on the hard numbers, but for example, when I rip a 480p movie (assuming 2 hours in length on average) off a DVD, and the source file size is around 6 GB before compression, I would expect a 720p HD movie offered from iTunes to be bigger than 3 GB after compression.

I just put Iron Man onto my iPad it was 3.38 gigs(most are quite a bit less than that though). But I don't disagree with you at all, I think it goes along the lines with what I said in their lack of titles in HD even. Hopefully they can improve on it in the future.

[Russic]

Oddly I've always found the HD shows to be of higher quality off the ATV than off of Shaw HD. I purchased an episode of House once and compared it to a rerun that aired a few months later and the quality seemed noticeably stronger off the ATV.

Canadians have very little options when they want to stream legitimate, legal content. It's one of the reasons that the Apple TV is a strong product in Canada but is seen as a joke in the states. It's all we really have and I've never been able to figure out why.

[Prototype]

I did think about Apple TV, but I've been using my PS3 basically like what I would want out of ATV, outside of the ability to purchase movies and watch them right away. Between my wife and I, we already watch 4-6 movies a week, which is why the idea of Netflix made sense. ATV/Blockbuster/etc = ~$25. Trying to cut that down while still maintaining the ability to watch a movie right then and there.

[Russic]

^^ Unfortunately it sounds like piracy is the closest thing to on demand you're going to get up here in the great north.

[Azure]

Well, you can rip DVDs into 700MB files, so why should they be streamed at 3+gigs?

Even Blue-ray movies get ripped into files that are actually much lower in size than what the disc actually has.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Azure

Well, you can rip DVDs into 700MB files, so why should they be streamed at 3+gigs?

DVD quality they wouldn't, they'd be streamed at DVD quality. To stream DVD quality you need about 5Mbit/s I think.

Originally Posted by Azure

Even Blue-ray movies get ripped into files that are actually much lower in size than what the disc actually has.

They do but the quality is degraded, more the more compressed it is.

Normal Bluray is at 40Mbit and Apple TV's HD content is 5Mbit, so that's a lot of compression.

[Azure]

Well apparently Netflix is offering HD streaming in the US.

Techcrunch had a blip on it.

[photon]

Yeah, though their bitrate isn't anything special either, still under 5Mbit.

Vudu's HDX I guess is between 9 and 20Mbit!

[Azure]

I don't think a lot of ISPs would be happy with on demand video that runs at 25+Mbit.

Torrents don't even download that fast for most people.

[Pastiche]

If Skynet's fibre service catches on then that shouldn't be a problem:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/...erimental.html

1 GB per sec?