Netflix is a pretty cool service. I can watch all these TV shows and movies that I missed the first time around. When they added the ability of unlimited video streaming my first thought was “Hot Dog!” However, once I did some research I found out the streaming video is not the bees knees after all. First of all there is no Mac support, which they blame Apple for, pure laziness. Second, you can only watch movies through Internet Explorer. Yuck! That’s like saying “here is a free Porsche but you can only drive it with your elbows and keep it under 25 mph.” Also, their “watch instantly” section is not very big. Out of the hundred movies and TV shows in my queue a dozen are available for streaming. Lastly, the video quality itself it pretty poor. It’s like better than YouTube and worse than every other video format that exists.
Despite all these reasons I would still like to watch some videos online rather than waiting for a disc to come in the mail. But how do I get these videos magically to my TV? There have been rumors of Netflix adding XBOX 360 support which would be the greatest thing ever. Until then I have to find some way to hook a PC (not a Mac remember) to my TV. There are only two working PCs in my house. One is in my arcade cabinet and is so old it was invented by Eli Whitney, also it is the more important role of powering Donkey Kong. The other is my Dell laptop that is a few years old. It doesn’t have DVI out, only S-Video (the S stands for “sucky” apparently). I plugged it in and even though the cords introduce a tripping hazard, it is a capable solution. By capable I mean if a apocalypse struck and the only form of entertainment left on earth was video through laptop and S-Video, I wouldn’t complain. So what are my options? I could buy a PC with DVI out just to be used as a media center or I can wait and hope Netflix does a 360 hookup.
The Hardest Thing In My Life is streaming Netflix videos.
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3 users responded in this post
look into http://www.roku.com/
Did you do no investigation before bitching about this? This has been all over the web for the past couple weeks.
“First of all there is no Mac support, which they blame Apple for, pure laziness.”
Uh, no. Content owners (studios) insist on strong DRM or they will not make their content available. Windows Media DRM is the only game out there because Apple does not allow their DRM to be used by anything not made by Apple. Unfortunately Microsoft also locks down WMDRM to work only on Windows and IE but at least a non-Apple company can used it. The only other solution was for Netflix to build their own DRM solution, which is really hard to get right and not part of their core expertise.
“the video quality itself it pretty poor. It’s like better than YouTube and worse than every other video format that exists”
Again, no. The quality depends on your bandwidth. Netflix streams one of 4 quality levels depending on your internet connection quality. You should look to your ISP rather than complain about Netflix. They are using state of the art video compression (VC1) and you cannot get much better for streamed video. If you want better quality get higher bandwidth. Or wait a long time for a download before you watch: counter to Netflix’s WatchNow goal.
Finally, I have to agree with Dave. The Roku Netflix box is all over the news. Kind of nullifies your whole post.
This is awesome, I’ve never had 2 people from Netflix’s PR department post on my website before.
So to respond:
Roku = I shouldn’t have to buy a device that does something a PC I already own can do.
DRM = “The only other solution was for Netflix to build their own DRM solution, which is really hard to get right and not part of their core expertise.” so…. pure laziness?
Video Quality = Hulu looks great on my computer and Netflix looks like it was filmed with a teenager’s cameraphone, so it’s obviously not my network connection.
I’m not saying Netflix will never get there, I’m just saying at the moment their video streaming is quite half assed and not worth the trouble.
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