Arrival Friday! =)

So are we all inundating our queues with "watch it now" movies, or am I the only one? :)

I have about 20 new Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies to add now!!!

So are we all inundating our queues with "watch it now" movies, or am I the only one? :)

I have about 20 new Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies to add now!!!
I don't like that there isn't a button on the instant stuff to "add to queue" from the image itself...you have to go into the title and see the detail to be able to do that

I did add some stuff from the Starz collection

I don't like that there isn't a button on the instant stuff to "add to queue" from the image itself...you have to go into the title and see the detail to be able to do that

I did add some stuff from the Starz collection

I have the option to add to instant queue when I hover the mouse above the "PLAY" option without clicking on the movie.

I don't like that there isn't a button on the instant stuff to "add to queue" from the image itself...you have to go into the title and see the detail to be able to do that

I did add some stuff from the Starz collection

When I hover over the watch it now button I get an additional button that says add to instant queue.

Dear Jim,

Your free instant streaming disc for PS3 should arrive by Friday, Nov 06, 2009.

Meanwhile, add TV episodes & movies to your instant Queue now so you're ready to watch instantly when your instant streaming disc arrives.

-Your friends at Netflix


Browse available choices and add TV episodes & movies to your instant Queue.
Any movie or TV show that has a 'Play' button below it can be added to your instant Queue.

Your instant Queue will show up automatically on your TV after you activate your PS3™ system to stream instantly from Netflix.



Get the games and entertainment you won't find
anywhere else – only on PlayStation Network.

PlayStation® Network is your all access pass to a world of entertainment. It's the ultimate destination where games, movies, television shows, and social interaction collide.

- Discover PS one Classics, exclusive games, free game demos
- Expand your game in PlayStation Home with game launching
and mini-games
- Engage in free online gameplay

Do it all and more with PlayStation Network.

i just got the same email! wooohoooo!!!!!!!!!

Got my notice as well. Guess they're not prioritizing those who don't already have a device registered (or they have enough discs to go around).

I'm working from home tomorrow so will be able to try it out first thing when the mail gets here (around noon EST). Will post back with my impressions and comparisons to the 360: I'm expecting it to be pretty much the same but will note any major differences beyond needing the disc for the PS3.

Got my notice as well. Guess they're not prioritizing those who don't already have a device registered (or they have enough discs to go around).

I'm working from home tomorrow so will be able to try it out first thing when the mail gets here (around noon EST). Will post back with my impressions and comparisons to the 360: I'm expecting it to be pretty much the same but will note any major differences beyond needing the disc for the PS3.Yeah I don't think they care. They seem to just be sending them out to all who requested them. I'm looking forward to seeing how this works. I've wanted to get a Roku box, but we couldn't justify the cost with the number of movies/tv shows we already watch. I'm getting the disc, but I'll be curious to see how much I actually use it.

I also work from home tomorrow, so I'll be at the mailbox as soon as this gets dropped off so I can pop it in and post a quick review.

If I get ambitious enough, I'll post a quick youtube video. We'll see about that though.

Got my notice as well. Guess they're not prioritizing those who don't already have a device registered (or they have enough discs to go around).

I'm working from home tomorrow so will be able to try it out first thing when the mail gets here (around noon EST). Will post back with my impressions and comparisons to the 360: I'm expecting it to be pretty much the same but will note any major differences beyond needing the disc for the PS3.

it seems you have to have the disc first before you can register your PS3.

Mine shipped today as well.

I'm excited!!!!!

it seems you have to have the disc first before you can register your PS3.

I posted earlier that I hadn't got my notice about my disc, and was wondering if they were prioritizing people because I already have a device (the 360) registered. So I thought if discs were limited, they might prioritize those people without devices.

I have since got my notice about my PS3 disc shipping, so they apparently aren't doing that.

I posted earlier that I hadn't got my notice about my disc, and was wondering if they were prioritizing people because I already have a device (the 360) registered. So I thought if discs were limited, they might prioritize those people without devices.

I have since got my notice about my PS3 disc shipping, so they apparently aren't doing that.

oh ok. gotcha. sorry for the confusion. :)

I have about 20 new Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies to add now!!!

What? :eek:

When I went looking to add a few MST3Ks to my watch now que a few months back they didn't have any available... Seems I'll have to head over there and remedy this. ;)

-Suntan

anyone know if you are going to have to have the disc in your ps3 everytime you want to watch a movie???????

FYI, your account info page should have a "Wathing instantly via PS3" area if you signed up to receive a disk. When you click on it, it gives shipping info for the disk and a field to enter an activation code, which will appear once you stick the disk in your PS3.

anyone know if you are going to have to have the disc in your ps3 everytime you want to watch a movie???????

yes, Netflix will be accessed via BDlive. so the disk will have to be in the PS3.

anyone know if you are going to have to have the disc in your ps3 everytime you want to watch a movie???????

Disc needs to be in the player to use the service.

Disc needs to be in the player to use the service.

Yup, disc must be used when/for streaming content...this is how Netflix is getting around the Microsoft deal.

...oh and my disc is on the way for tomorrow too!!

I read that for now the disk will need to be in as others have mentioned, but netflix is working on some plug-in so eventually the disk wont be needed anymore.

I wonder if it has to spin the whole time during streaming. This would seem noisier and much less energy efficent than other options

I don't see why it needs to spin other then initially, but I could be wrong on that.

They did say by the end of 2010 a native app will be in place.

much less energy efficent than other options

Given the amount of heat that you can feel coming out the back of the average PS3 when it is running, the disc spinning doesn’t really make a noticeable difference on energy consumption.

-Suntan

Given the amount of heat that you can feel coming out the back of the average PS3 when it is running, the disc spinning doesn’t really make a noticeable difference on energy consumption.

-Suntan

Not sure I'm following you here. While I do agree that the ps3 makes a lot of heat, are you suggesting that you believe Blu-Ray playback uses no more energy than other modes of operation such as music playback from the hard-drive? It was my understanding that blu-ray playback is the most resource-intensive thing you can ask a ps3 to do.

I’m saying that physically spinning the disc takes very little power.

Blu ray playback (and Netflix streaming) is completely unrelated.

-Suntan

Not sure I'm following you here. While I do agree that the ps3 makes a lot of heat, are you suggesting that you believe Blu-Ray playback uses no more energy than other modes of operation such as music playback from the hard-drive? It was my understanding that blu-ray playback is the most resource-intensive thing you can ask a ps3 to do.

I doubt that....speaking from my own experience Blu-Ray playback is whisper quiet but playing a game causes my fan to go into jet turbo mode, as does upscaling DVDs (I had to turn my upscaling off).

I should note that I have it in a rack, so maybe the airflow isn't quite ideal, but the fact remains Blu-Ray playback does not cause these issues...it's only games and upscaling DVDs.

ok I stand corrected, I almost never game on my PS3, but I do hear it go into jet mode during blu-ray playback, most noticable when there is a pause in dialogue. So gaming or dvd upconverting could use more power.

But I'm still wondering how blu-ray playback and ps3 netflix streaming are unrelated. Isn't the netflix disk a bluray?

ok I stand corrected, I almost never game on my PS3, but I do hear it go into jet mode during blu-ray playback, most noticable when there is a pause in dialogue. So gaming or dvd upconverting could use more power.

But I'm still wondering how blu-ray playback and ps3 netflix streaming are unrelated. Isn't the netflix disk a bluray?

i really don't see the disk constantly spinning while it's streaming. the disk is just acting like a portal to get us to the Netflix service.

But I'm still wondering how blu-ray playback and ps3 netflix streaming are unrelated. Isn't the netflix disk a bluray?

The initial post stated:


I wonder if it has to spin the whole time during streaming. This would seem noisier and much less energy efficent than other options

To which I responded that the disc spinning does not draw a lot of power.

1) Whether the disc is spinning or not, the video streaming from Netflix is going to consume the same amount of power to process and payback. Therefore, the physical act of spinning the disc is unrelated to actually processing the video.

2) Running the disc long enough to load the BD Live java console into the PS3 memory is pretty much the same as loading the menus on a Blu Ray. Takes about two or three minutes tops.

3) The physical act of spinning the disc at 1x playback speed (even for the entire duration of the movie) is trivial.

The point is that even if the netflix disc is spinning the whole time, the PS3 does not process "Blu ray" content. It loads the BD Live program and little else. Then, even if it continues to "spin the disc" the power required to do that is quite low, certainly not "much less energy efficent" than if the BD Live console was loaded from the PS3s onboard HDD.

-Suntan

Why would the disc spin all the time? All it's doing is loading a java program to access BD Live. It's not like there's going to be any content on the disc. I guess we'll all know later today anyway.

Already have your Netflix instant streaming disc?

Place your instant disc in your PS3 to get your activation code.

FYI, your account info page should have a "Wathing instantly via PS3" area if you signed up to receive a disk. When you click on it, it gives shipping info for the disk and a field to enter an activation code, which will appear once you stick the disk in your PS3.

http://www.netflix.com/InstantStreamingDisc

Why would the disc spin all the time?

I don’t know why it would (we’ll have to see when the mailman makes his rounds later today.)

I was just saying that *even if it did* it still wouldn’t be that much energy.

-Suntan

got my disc... it works!

Someone please select a movie that's available in both instantHD and via computer via silver light.

Stream the instantHD stream to the PS3 and compare it's video quality against the same video selection via HTPC silver light stream.

Any picture quality improvement?

Thanks

got my disc... it works!

Ahh lucky, stuck at work!

Does it spin constantly while streaming? How exactly does it work? Thx!

Ahh lucky, stuck at work!

Does it spin constantly while streaming? How exactly does it work? Thx!

it seems like it is spinning constantly while streaming. doesn't make sense but it sounds like it is.

you put the disk in, it gives you a code, type it in online to register, then a menu pops up and you browse through the movies or shows you want to watch.

it works well and it is super quick. i'm watching an HD movie at 720p. the audio is 2 channel, 128kbps so the audio is very low bitrate but sounds ok. the video seems to be in the 3.5-6mbps range, but looks ok.

it seems like it is spinning constantly while streaming. doesn't make sense but it sounds like it is.

you put the disk in, it gives you a code, type it in online to register, then a menu pops up and you browse through the movies or shows you want to watch.

it works well and it is super quick. i'm watching an HD movie at 720p. the audio is 2 channel, 128kbps so the audio is very low bitrate but sounds ok. the video seems to be in the 3.5-6mbps range, but looks ok.

This is ridiculously non sensical solution.

This is ridiculously non sensical solution.

huh?

it works well and it is super quick. i'm watching an HD movie at 720p. the audio is 2 channel, 128kbps so the audio is very low bitrate but sounds ok. the video seems to be in the 3.5-6mbps range, but looks ok.

Try watching Legend of the Seeker. I've been very impressed with the video quality of that show on Netflix HD streaming.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Legend_of_the_Seeker_Season_1/70116710?strackid=5f6a7b6d026c0922_0_srl&strkid=959330606_0_0&trkid=222336

This is ridiculously non sensical solution.

This is [a] ridiculously nonsensical post.

These are nonsensical posts. :D

so does netflix stream both HD and SD content?
I'm having a hard time looking thru netflix streaming section and firguring out what is HD

so does netflix stream both HD and SD content?
I'm having a hard time looking thru netflix streaming section and firguring out what is HD

some is HD. i'd say it's about half HD.

but can you tell from the site? Or do you just figure it out once the stream starts?

but can you tell from the site? Or do you just figure it out once the stream starts?

when you are browsing on the PS3 it says HD next to the title, if it's HD.

idk about on the website.

Here's a nice little demo someone posted on youtube for those like me who are stuck at work while the Netflix disc sits in their mailbox.
The interface looks really slick. I like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvawAEHxLsQ

but can you tell from the site? Or do you just figure it out once the stream starts?

once you register the ps3/device, you will be able to browse a listing of HD titles available for streaming. i'm not sure why they don't allow you to do so prior to registering though.

Go to the Watch Instantly Tab on the Netflix website. Then click on "genres" and "HD" (the HD genre will only show once you register your PS3 or other device capable of streaming HD).

There you go (note: The default view only shows you those things which you have not already rented or rated. You will need to check the "show seen/rated titles" checkbox in order to see everything)

Unfortunately other than that, there is no way of knowing what is HD and what is not, as they do not identify anywhere else (it doesn't identify it on the specific title's page, nor when you view your queue). This "HD" genre is the ONLY way to know on the website.

Here's a nice little demo someone posted on youtube for those like me who are stuck at work while the Netflix disc sits in their mailbox.
The interface looks really slick. I like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvawAEHxLsQ

It does look really nice. I cant wait to try it out. That guy loves him some ainme. It looked like he had 488 items in his instant Q!!

And thanks for the replies about the HD content.
Will have to check out when I get home.

The mail-person should be here any minute, but in looking at the video link, it didn't appear that there's any way to browse from within the PS3 Netflix viewer itself through titles not already in your queue. I was hoping that it might be a little closer to the way that the plug-in for Windows Media Center works.

Oh well, still excited.

I'm not really sure how BD-Live works overall (I mean I get the basics). But if Netflix wanted to update or bug-fix the player, will they need to send us all new discs?

Just got my disc. Very simple set up. Total time from disc entry to movie watching about 3 min. Not bad. Watching it on a 65inch 1080p and first impressions are nice quality picture and sound.

when you are browsing on the PS3 it says HD next to the title, if it's HD.




I think its only 300 HD titles atm
;)

I think its only 300 HD titles atm
;)

15 pages with 30 titles each and 8 on a 16th page.

That's 458.

15 pages with 30 titles each and 8 on a 16th page.

That's 458.

300 titles was for the xbox last year

My *

Here's a nice little demo someone posted on youtube for those like me who are stuck at work while the Netflix disc sits in their mailbox.
The interface looks really slick. I like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvawAEHxLsQ

I'm stuck at work too, so thanks. Was supposed to work from home but got called in. My initial thoughts from the video:


Seems a bit slower loading the queue and images than the 360, but not overly so. Of course he had 488 items in his queue, so that might be it (I only have 55)
Layout looks about the same, with some obvious differences (like selecting episodes and getting info about it). Nothing major though, as it's the same info displayed differently.
I did not see a "browse selections" in the video like the 360. Is that there?
I also did not see any bars (saying which quality it was getting) come up when it started playing. That is strange, but perhaps I just missed it. Also didn't notice an indicator when he brought up the "info" screen (the 360 will tell you how many bars or what quality you are getting at the moment)
While the FF/Rewind looked exactly the same as the 360, it looked like it took painfully long to resume playing, compared to the 360, which resumes within 1/2 second or so. Might've just been a quirk that happened, so not jumping to conclusions.

Looking forward to trying it out myself when I get home to see how it compares to the 360.

Just a heads up guys, I got my disk and it was not working initially. I figured out that the reason for this was because I had my date set to 2010 so that I would not receive the annoying 'scrolling ticker' under the date/time. The Netflix disk will not work unless you have the PS3 set to the correct year, 2009. So keep that in mind.

Edit: After you get your 'code' you can go ahead and set the year back to 2010 to get rid of the ticker, and Netflix will load fine.

I'm stuck at work too, so thanks. Was supposed to work from home but got called in. My initial thoughts from the video:


Seems a bit slower loading the queue and images than the 360, but not overly so. Of course he had 488 items in his queue, so that might be it (I only have 55)
Layout looks about the same, with some obvious differences (like selecting episodes and getting info about it). Nothing major though, as it's the same info displayed differently.
I did not see a "browse selections" in the video like the 360. Is that there?
I also did not see any bars (saying which quality it was getting) come up when it started playing. That is strange, but perhaps I just missed it. Also didn't notice an indicator when he brought up the "info" screen (the 360 will tell you how many bars or what quality you are getting at the moment)
While the FF/Rewind looked exactly the same as the 360, it looked like it took painfully long to resume playing, compared to the 360, which resumes within 1/2 second or so. Might've just been a quirk that happened, so not jumping to conclusions.

Looking forward to trying it out myself when I get home to see how it compares to the 360.

It could be internet connection speed.

About the quality of HD video....I would say it's very comparable to a good DVD, or OTA HD, but below that of a blu-ray disk.

Still it's much better quality then PlayOn streaming, so I think a lot of people are going to be very happy.

The mail-person should be here any minute, but in looking at the video link, it didn't appear that there's any way to browse from within the PS3 Netflix viewer itself through titles not already in your queue. I was hoping that it might be a little closer to the way that the plug-in for Windows Media Center works.

Oh well, still excited.

I'm not really sure how BD-Live works overall (I mean I get the basics). But if Netflix wanted to update or bug-fix the player, will they need to send us all new discs?

They have already stated that feature will not come until 2010. That is why they give you the disc. You won't need the disc when they intergrate it.


Just got my disc today.

Got mine in the mail today too. Kinda bummed because I just dropped $100 on a ROKU player about a month ago :(

More thoughts.....

As far as searching through your queue, PlayOn actually has the advantage because it lets you search by the letter of your movie/show, while with 'the disk' you have to scroll through all the choices. If you have a large queue it can get tedious.

However, 'the disk' lets you rate movies and remove items from your queue which was not possible via PlayOn. You can also stop watching midway and 'resume' exactly where you left off later on.........something which I find very useful.

Overall I will continue to use PlayOn for Hulu and other content, but will switch to using 'the disk' for streaming Netflix. Quality trumps all in my opinion, and the streaming quality that you get on this disk is quite a bit superior to what I was used to via PlayOn.

Edit: I only notice my disk spinning while initially loading. After that I do not hear it spin and assume the program has been loaded into the PS3's RAM.

The PS3 Netflix interface looks very Roku-like, which also doesn't let you browse/sort your queue. I can't imagine having 488 items in a queue. I try to keep mine around 50-60.

Question - does anyone know if this will support a master account with associated sub-accounts?

About the quality of HD video....I would say it's very comparable to a good DVD, or OTA HD, but below that of a blu-ray disk. Of course it's not going to be as good as a BD disc. So far I've seen SD content reach a max of 3Mbps and HD a max of 5Mbps. Both SD and HD use AVC. HD quality is comparable to HD received through a cable company that loves to compress their stuff.

Question - does anyone know if this will support a master account with associated sub-accounts?

Unfortunately Netflix doesn't allow you to have sub-Instant Watching queues for any additional profiles in your account that have their own disc queues.

Of course it's not going to be as good as a BD disc. So far I've seen SD content reach a max of 3Mbps and HD a max of 5Mbps. Both SD and HD use AVC. HD quality is comparable to HD received through a cable company that loves to compress their stuff.

i've seen HD just a touch over 6Mbps. it looks as good, maybe slightly better than HD cable. i see a lot of macro-blocking on my HD cable feed, haven't seen any from the HD Netflix yet.

Yea you're right I just saw the bitrate go up to 5.8Mbps.

And you must have a really bad cable company if it's worse than Netflix HD. The macroblocking is there in Netflix HD and the image has that smoother look from being bitstarved.

15 pages with 30 titles each and 8 on a 16th page.

That's 458.

I get 458 too but since having a Roku, I've seen movies in my Roku queue that are in HD that do not appear in this browse section (usually newer ones that may or may not eventually find their way here).

Yea you're right I just saw the bitrate go up to 5.8Mbps.

And you must have a really bad cable company if it's worse than Netflix HD. The macroblocking is there in Netflix HD and the image has that smoother look from being bitstarved.

i haven't seen any macro blocking on Netflix yet. i'll look closer next time.

i see some macro blocking on fast moving stuff on cable, it doesn't happen all the time, but more often than i'd like.

i haven't seen any macro blocking on Netflix yet. i'll look closer next time.

i see some macro blocking on fast moving stuff on cable, it doesn't happen all the time, but more often than i'd like.

MPEG2 is more prone to visible macroblocking, because it uses larger macroblocks than MPEG4.

MPEG2 is more prone to visible macroblocking, because it uses larger macroblocks than MPEG4.

and HD cable is MPEG2 i'm assuming?

That Youtube video showed the audio is 128K Dolby Digital. VCDs have better audio than that.

That Youtube video showed the audio is 128K Dolby Digital. VCDs have better audio than that.

yup, it's 128. i stated that earlier on in the thread, last page i think. thats pretty low quality.

This is probably a dumb question - I just signed up for the free trial, how do I search for HD streaming titles on netflix.com? I searched for "HD" and only 7titles showed up.. Thanks.

and HD cable is MPEG2 i'm assuming?

Correct.

Well, here's my impressions. I will try to remain objective when comparing it to 360 as to avoid "fanboy" comments.

I will also not touch upon the known differences (disc required for PS3, Gold required for XBOX, etc).

Startup to queue:

About the same for both systems


Look/Feel:

The PS3 has bigger thumbnails (which is nice). Not that the 360's was ever a problem, but they're probably about 1/2 the size of the PS3's
I do like the PS3 a little better with my remote, as after I select a movie, I can press "up" to go back to the queue, whereas on the 360 I have to press B, which is mapped to another button on my remote. I kindof like the PS3 being able to control everything with the "circle rocker" on my remote.
I also like that the "active" movie in the queue is the center one. On the 360, it's the leftmost one (making it impossible to see the previous movie in the queue)
Other than that, it's about a wash. Same info just displayed differently


Navigation of queue:

The 360 wins hands down here. I can FLY through the titles on the 360 to the end of my queue in about 3 seconds. The PS3 is just painfully slow going from one title to the next. I couldn't even imagine wanting to watch #50 in my queue on the PS3. Is there a faster way to scroll left/right that I don't know of? I can't even hold down "right" or "left" on my remote and have it scroll through them...I have to repeatedly press the button over and over. Annoying as hell :mad: EDIT: I tried the controller, and L2 and R2 appear to jump 7 titles (what a strange choice...why not 5 or 10?). It's a little better. But I'd have to map those to my remote, and it still would be more annoying than just pressing right/left and having it fly through the titles.
The PS3 does allow you to scroll "left" though to wrap to the end of your queue, which the 360 does not: You have to scroll right to the end and then left back to the beginning. However, as I said, it's very fast....just wish it wrapped like the PS3. But the 360 still wins for me due to speed....like if I had a 100 movies in my queue and want to watch #50. It would take a long time on the PS3 and a couple seconds on the 360.


Starting a movie:

Again, the 360 wins (for me). You cannot press the "play" button on your remote to play a movie on the PS3. You must first select the title, then select "Play"...I prefer just being able to press one button.


Playing a movie:

No noticeable differences in buffer-time before title starts to play, or PQ/AQ.
The 360 gives you a "quality" bar as the movie is buffering (1-4 bars or HD). It also gives you the bars when you press "info." As far as I can tell, the PS3 doesn't give you this info, which I do not like at all. However, the PS3 does give you bitrate info, but that doesn't tell you what quality the NF feed is.
The 360 is noticeably faster at rebuffering after you fast forward or rewind. It takes about 1/4-1/2 a second on the 360 (nearly instant), and roughly 5 seconds or so on the PS3.
Most annoyingly, when I stop playing a movie on the PS3, it kicks me all the way back out, just like if I was playing a Blu-Ray. On the 360, it kicks me back to that title on my queue, where I am able to rate the movie and remove it from my queue. EDIT: Ok, if I press "Menu" on the remote, it takes me back out to my queue, but not to the movie I was watching...just reloads my queue again to the first title in it. Combine that with how painful it is to scroll left and right though, and I can't picture stopping the movie, scrolling over to the movie again, and selecting it to rate and remove it. Just too slow and too many steps.


The long and short of it is, PS3 owners should be very happy with it. As far as the overall experience, it's pretty much the same.

However, personally, I will be sticking with the 360, due to no disc, and the features I mention above (faster buffering after rewind/FF, faster navigation of queue, and being able to stop the movie and have it return to the title I was watching). It's generally just a faster and more streamlined experience. I will note that I do not have noise issues with my 360 and I also already pay for Live for gaming, so the fact that it's "free" on the PS3 is not a concern to me.

Overall, I am pretty happy with it, and you should be too. I am sure they will address the issues when they roll it out as a native app next year, and I'll revisit it then. It does appear the PS3 looks more like the other devices like the Blu-Ray players and Roku...I just don't have experience with those so can't say how it compares to them.

Although I think the video circuitry in the PS3 is superior to the 360, I'm disappointed to note that the video quality of Heroes on the PS3, at least, is not quite as good as the same episode on the 360. The contrast ratio, in particular, looks a little compressed (brighter blacks) than on the 360 (or when streaming Netflix content with PlayOn). It looks like Netflix still has some tweaking to do on the PS3 program. As mentioned earlier, the interface is SIGNIFICANTLY more sluggish than in the 360 version.

Also, just for kicks, I ejected the disc during a streaming session. Sorry to say, the session stopped immediately, so it would appear that the PS3 is at least aware of the disc's presence, if not reading/spinning it constantly.

First impression is OK but not great. A nice addition for PS3-only owners (particularly since it doesn't come with the Live Gold membership "surcharge" associated with the 360). However, I'll continue to favor Netflix support on my 360 until they spiff up this PS3 version a bit (which, unfortunately, is not my preference. I'd much rather watch on my PS3). In addition to the image quality issue, I'm not particularly interested in putting unnecessary wear and tear on my Blu-ray drive if the disc is constantly spinning. I hope Sony/Netflix quickly put some energy and resources into this partnership to improve the performance and functionality.

mproper, what brand/model remote are you using?

mproper, what brand/model remote are you using?

Harmony 680 (yes, it's an older model). I have the IR dongle.

Harmony 680 (yes, it's an older model). I have the IR dongle.

How are you able to control PS3 with the H680, with the adaptor?

How are you able to control PS3 with the H680, with the adaptor?

??? I bought the $20 IR dongle that plugs into the PS3. I think it was the Nyko Blu-Wave thing: http://www.amazon.com/PS3-Blu-Wave-Remote-Playstation-3/dp/B000R5H7KE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1257555961&sr=8-1-fkmr0

I threw the remote in a box somewhere, but just used the USB dongle thing.

I just can't turn the system on with the Harmony, but once it's on I use the remote for everything related to video/music/streaming.

With the Sony BD remote, use RW/FF buttons to skip "pages" in the queue. Also, if you are at your first title in the queue, arrow left to get to the end of the queue. Works identical to Roku. In fact just about everything is similar to the Roku interface. Biggest difference is Roku bitrate for Netflix HD tops at 3.8 Mbps. Watching Legend of the Seeker just now on the PS3, I was showing 2.1-5.5 Mbps when I hit the display button. Accordingly, it takes less time to restart after a FF. I just hope I don't see some of the rebuffering issues I encounter sometimes on the Roku. Ideally this will take advantage of the PS3's hard drive to hold more in the buffer.

It's OK but I personally like the X360 setup much better. 360 is faster, shows the quality bar, FF and rewinds better and scales everything to 1080p so my TV isnt changing resolution so much. The whole menu system seems very slow and awkward compared to the 360's as well. I believe MS did the software for the X version. This seems to be just the stock "any platform" software they use in dedicated players.

The PS3 does seem to be showing more selections though. The layout is clean and all the features are there. I'm sure the dedicated app coming soon will be made more specific to the PS3 and erase all my gripes.

Next up: Wii!

With the Sony BD remote, use RW/FF buttons to skip "pages" in the queue. Also, if you are at your first title in the queue, arrow left to get to the end of the queue. Works identical to Roku. In fact just about everything is similar to the Roku interface. Biggest difference is Roku bitrate for Netflix HD tops at 3.8 Mbps. Watching Legend of the Seeker just now on the PS3, I was showing 2.1-5.5 Mbps when I hit the display button. Accordingly, it takes less time to restart after a FF. I just hope I don't see some of the rebuffering issues I encounter sometimes on the Roku. Ideally this will take advantage of the PS3's hard drive to hold more in the buffer.

I don't think that the BD-Live Java virtual machine has any idea that the hard drive exists.

I don't think that the BD-Live Java virtual machine has any idea that the hard drive exists.

It does store settings on the HD, but it might not know how much room there is.

I don't think that the BD-Live Java virtual machine has any idea that the hard drive exists.

Not sure if this is accurate because the BD-Live spec requires a minimum of 1gb storage for all BD-Live capable players.

Source:
http://www.foxbd.com/policy/faq.html


I do agree that this solution was a quick-fix coded by Netflix. Presumably the XMB version will be a more elegant solution, but for now this does nicely and it's free of course.

Yeah, but in most players it is flash, not a hard drive. And flash isn't really a good target for a streaming buffer. Plus any one application only has access to a portion of that 1GB.

Even though the interface is much slower, I prefer it over the 360 version. The one big negative is that it doesn't seem to adjust for bandwidth. Has anyone seen it adjust mid stream?

Works great. Not going to miss those Data Corrupted errors, etc. with PlayOn.

??? I bought the $20 IR dongle that plugs into the PS3. I think it was the Nyko Blu-Wave thing: http://www.amazon.com/PS3-Blu-Wave-Remote-Playstation-3/dp/B000R5H7KE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1257555961&sr=8-1-fkmr0

I threw the remote in a box somewhere, but just used the USB dongle thing.

I just can't turn the system on with the Harmony, but once it's on I use the remote for everything related to video/music/streaming.

This is good to know, thank you. So I got two option, use Nyko which can't turn on or use a Harmony PS3 Adaptor which can turn on & off.

Has anyone noticed that the PS3 does not upscale Netflix to the display resolution and will output at the native resolution sent by Netflix, either 480p for SD and 720p for HD. Am i missing a setting to have the PS3 upscale to 1080p?

When using my xbox or insignia player, Netflix is upscaled to 1080p (as detected by my display device)

The PS3 only upscales DVD video.

Does the PS3 bring surround sound to play with Netflix? The 360 only does stereo when streaming Netflix movies, was hoping the PS3 has the 5.1 sound.

Does the PS3 bring surround sound to play with Netflix? The 360 only does stereo when streaming Netflix movies, was hoping the PS3 has the 5.1 sound.

Nope.

Still waiting for a disk but from what I am readimng here the PS3 playback is similiar to my insignia BR player. That would make it a heck of a deal.

Its great Netflix is getting their system on every device under the sun (The TV I am looking at fro 2010 has Netflix) but I wish they would improve the Queue system so you can sort genres etc.

Does the PS3 bring surround sound to play with Netflix? The 360 only does stereo when streaming Netflix movies, was hoping the PS3 has the 5.1 sound.

Nope. And it's not the 360 only doing stereo...it's Netflix only sending a stereo signal. Just clarifying it's not some kindof system limitation, as any Netflix streaming device only receives a stereo signal because that's what Netflix sends. i.e. it won't do any good to have a PS3 or a 360 or a Roku or another Blu-Ray player, because they're all just going to get the same stereo signal.

Supposedly they are working on 5.1. Wish they'd hurry up.

The stereo signal is at least Dolby Prologic surround encoded, however. So your rear speakers will at least have something to do.

Nope. And it's not the 360 only doing stereo...it's Netflix only sending a stereo signal. Just clarifying it's not some kindof system limitation, as any Netflix streaming device only receives a stereo signal because that's what Netflix sends. i.e. it won't do any good to have a PS3 or a 360 or a Roku or another Blu-Ray player, because they're all just going to get the same stereo signal.

Supposedly they are working on 5.1. Wish they'd hurry up.

me too. my internet connection can handle a lot more than 128kbps.

I don't think that the audio from Netflix is really AC3. Not sure why the PS3 says that. It may be 128kbps, though.

This blog says that they deliver the audio via WMA, which is a much more efficient compression than AC3.
http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/encoding-for-streaming.html

On the XBOX 360 you could skip into the movie you were watching, so you could get to a particular scene easier, even if it was at the end of the movie. I haven't been able to find this feature for PS3 netflix, it just fast forwards, and it take FOREVER to get to the end of a movie. Am I missing something?

me too. my internet connection can handle a lot more than 128kbps.

It's not the internet connection, it's the Netflix streams. I stream stuff via the 1080p smooth streaming tech from the Zune Marketplace on 360 (my review here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1191057)), and it's in 5.1. Same with Vudu and other sources, like Amazon VOD.

It's just Netflix not supporting that kindof stuff yet. The internet connection can handle it 5.1...albeit in lossy and whatnot.

I do hope MS licenses this 1080p smooth streaming tech to Netflix, or they adopt it or whatever.

On the XBOX 360 you could skip into the movie you were watching, so you could get to a particular scene easier, even if it was at the end of the movie. I haven't been able to find this feature for PS3 netflix, it just fast forwards, and it take FOREVER to get to the end of a movie. Am I missing something?

You can use the left stick of the controller to bring up scene selection.

Even though the interface is much slower, I prefer it over the 360 version. The one big negative is that it doesn't seem to adjust for bandwidth. Has anyone seen it adjust mid stream?

Nope. And it's not the 360 only doing stereo...it's Netflix only sending a stereo signal. Just clarifying it's not some kindof system limitation, as any Netflix streaming device only receives a stereo signal because that's what Netflix sends. i.e. it won't do any good to have a PS3 or a 360 or a Roku or another Blu-Ray player, because they're all just going to get the same stereo signal.

Supposedly they are working on 5.1. Wish they'd hurry up.

Nope.

Well I guess it's better than nothing. Still it'll probably be better for the wife. She's just now learning to turn everything on and start up the ps3 and stream content from the computer so it'll be easier, I hope , for her to get to netflix without having to now learn to go through the 360 also that would free up my gamertag on the 360 if she wants to watch some netflix. I may not be the PS3's biggest gaming fan but I think as a media player it's fantastic. Too bad they couldn't continue that with netflix. I just knew they would have.

You can use the left stick of the controller to bring up scene selection

But this still only seems to jump ahead slowly, not more than a 30 secs or a 1min. I'm looking for the xbox 360 command that would take me to the end of the movie in a couple of seconds.

But this still only seems to jump ahead slowly, not more than a 30 secs or a 1min. I'm looking for the xbox 360 command that would take me to the end of the movie in a couple of seconds.
Do you only watch the credits? People will complain about anything these days :rolleyes:

It's not the internet connection, it's the Netflix streams. I stream stuff via the 1080p smooth streaming tech from the Zune Marketplace on 360 (my review here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1191057)), and it's in 5.1. Same with Vudu and other sources, like Amazon VOD.

It's just Netflix not supporting that kindof stuff yet. The internet connection can handle it 5.1...albeit in lossy and whatnot.

I do hope MS licenses this 1080p smooth streaming tech to Netflix, or they adopt it or whatever.

i understand that. what i'm saying is that there are plenty of people with the bandwidth to stream 5.1 audio. so it's time for 5.1 streaming to available.

Do you only watch the credits? People will complain about anything these days :rolleyes:

I don't know if these guys would have survived the era of VHS and cassettes.

Do you only watch the credits? People will complain about anything these days

I don't know if these guys would have survived the era of VHS and cassettes.

Thanks for the help fellows, I see why you have 3000+ posts a piece. It was not a complaint, there might be a way to do this that I'm not seeing. Why do dvd has scene/chapter selection? Why does my PS3 ff go up to 120x? Go spin your vinyl, my question was for those who have experience with digital content streamers and might have a real contribution.

I found it works pretty well. Some items are just in HD, does that mean ONLY HD. I ran them, they seemed either HIGHLY compressed, or the HD bitrate was ratcheted way down coming out of FF. does it just go back to normal after that? I was showing only streams of 1.9-2.3mbs. Network can handle twice that, if VUDU can do it, with HD streaming then netflix should be able to as well.

Network can handle twice that, if VUDU can do it, with HD streaming then netflix should be able to as well.

Well, VUDU is a completely different technology. IIRC, it downloads the first few minutes of every title onto the hard drive, to allow "instant" play. At least I think that's the case, and if you want to watch the HDX titles, you have to start downloading them a couple hours beforehand. At least that's the case if memory serves.

Netflix can't do that due to lack of hard drive in many devices. Plus, VUDU might have 1/2 million subscribers (maybe), while Netflix is probably up in the few million subscribers who are streaming now. They might just not have the capacity/means at the moment to be serving up higher quality content to that many people. Hopefully they will be (if not already) focusing on upping everything, but I'm just under the impression that right now all efforts are being focused on getting the service into every device under the sun. Of course, now that they have the 360, the PS3 and a lot of Blu-Ray players, I wonder how many devices are left...those are the big ones, but they might be looking at deals with Comcast/DirectTV DVRs as well, maybe. Beats me.

I am still hoping that 1080p smooth streaming tech that I talked about a few posts ago will come to Netflix (it is awesome). Even if MS licenses it to Netflix and forces 360 exclusivity, I'd be happy since I have the 360. I just want Netflix to use it rather than the current tech. I'd pay extra in my plan for access to it.

I've seen the 360 stream HD from Netflix at 10Mbps (determined by watching my router's real time graph). But it may have just been buffering up a bit to keep network issues from affecting video quality.

I love PlayOn but the new interface and the HD picture is great with the new Netflix streaming.

Really loving this. I was watching stuff on Netflix all night last night.

Really loving this. I was watching stuff on Netflix all night last night.

You, me and a half million other ps3 owners. It's been a long time since I watched so much crap in the middle of the night. I love the experience so far. For instant streaming it looks great! I think some people need to lower their expectations. It's never going to look like a blu-ray. I just hope the selection continues to improve.

Well I guess it's better than nothing. Still it'll probably be better for the wife. She's just now learning to turn everything on and start up the ps3 and stream content from the computer so it'll be easier, I hope , for her to get to netflix without having to now learn to go through the 360 also that would free up my gamertag on the 360 if she wants to watch some netflix. I may not be the PS3's biggest gaming fan but I think as a media player it's fantastic. Too bad they couldn't continue that with netflix. I just knew they would have.

The Netflix DVD is wife-approved in our house. We gave it a test run last night. PlayOn confused her and there were always errors that scared her away. She started and successfully navigated the Netflix DVD first try. Both movies played great and looked fine.

The Netflix DVD is wife-approved in our house. We gave it a test run last night. PlayOn confused her and there were always errors that scared her away. She started and successfully navigated the Netflix DVD first try. Both movies played great and looked fine.

Uh oh. Watch your back man. Once you set them loose on Netflix you'll start seeing really high star counts on really horrible romantic comedies!

I just gave the PS3 Netflix streaming a try last night. Videos were smooth and easy to start but there are so few HD movies to select from. I was only using the built-in menus to search and find Netflix movies on my PS3 and I did not find one non HD movie that was in wide screen [I only selected movies that were less than two years old]. The few HD movies that I started were in wide screen and looked decent but not all of the wide screen versions would fill my screen from left to right.

Is there a PS3 or Netflix setting that I missed to get wide screen or is this it for Netflix streaming? If so, I am glad that I am not paying any extra for it for who wants to watch movies in 4:3 [when you know they are in wide screen] on a HDTV?

Uh oh. Watch your back man. Once you set them loose on Netflix you'll start seeing really high star counts on really horrible romantic comedies!

That's why you set up a separate profile for your wife (and have her rate movies under that one). Otherwise I'd get crappy romantic comedies in my recommendations. Even though the sub-profiles don't get their own instant queue, at least the star ratings don't reflect into the main profile (which is mine).

I have the 3-at-a-time plan, and get 2 discs from my profile, and 1 from the wife's. Works out pretty nice.

I just gave the PS3 Netflix streaming a try last night. Videos were smooth and easy to start but there are so few HD movies to select from. I was only using the built-in menus to search and find Netflix movies on my PS3 and I did not find one non HD movie that was in wide screen [I only selected movies that were less than two years old]. The few HD movies that I started were in wide screen and looked decent but not all of the wide screen versions would fill my screen from left to right.

Is there a PS3 or Netflix setting that I missed to get wide screen or is this it for Netflix streaming? If so, I am glad that I am not paying any extra for it for who wants to watch movies in 4:3 [when you know they are in wide screen] on a HDTV?

I have a Toshiba TV and use TheaterWide 1 to stretch out 4:3 movies.

I just gave the PS3 Netflix streaming a try last night. Videos were smooth and easy to start but there are so few HD movies to select from. I was only using the built-in menus to search and find Netflix movies on my PS3 and I did not find one non HD movie that was in wide screen [I only selected movies that were less than two years old]. The few HD movies that I started were in wide screen and looked decent but not all of the wide screen versions would fill my screen from left to right.

Is there a PS3 or Netflix setting that I missed to get wide screen or is this it for Netflix streaming? If so, I am glad that I am not paying any extra for it for who wants to watch movies in 4:3 [when you know they are in wide screen] on a HDTV?

In my experience non-HD movies are widescreen more often than not. The exception being (for some odd reason) Starz Play movies. And since you were looking at more recent titles, I wonder if you were pulling up mostly Starz Play ones? Check out New Jack City, The Ramen Girl, Dangerous Beauty, and Incendiary. Those are all non-HD movies I've sampled recently that were all widescreen format. If they don't appear widescreen, then you might need to mess around with your PS3's video output settings or your TV's picture modes. You should also browse the HD genre under the Watch Instantly tab online to find all the HD titles (450+!).

Worked flawlessly. Great interface, FF\RW controls worked well. So completely happy to have this now!

Strange...I've noticed most StarzPlay movies are widescreen, but they are all 16:9. For example, Miracle at St. Anna and Pineapple Express, which are both StarzPlay and both 16:9, despite the OAR is 2.39:1

I am not happy about that but it's Starz problem. I wish Netflix would just do their own encodes, but unfortunately I guess Starz is a big provider of the encodes.

I got the disc on Friday, no complaints so far. I don't have an Xbox 360 so I can't really compare the 2. Video quality is signficantly better than streaming from my Macbook.

Just a quick question...

How long after you 'reserved' your copy of the disc did you get an email saying it was on its way? Its been a week or so for me and I haven't heard anything about getting the disc.

Thanks,

Jim

Ive watched two streaming films now on my 65" DLP. Video quality is mostly that of upconverted DVD, only problem is the sound which of course is only 2ch stereo.

Great service, easy setup and use, great functionality.. cant complain!

Just a quick question...

How long after you 'reserved' your copy of the disc did you get an email saying it was on its way? Its been a week or so for me and I haven't heard anything about getting the disc.

Thanks,

Jim

The first disc I ordered (I have 2 PS3s) came without an e-mail. The 2nd one, due to arrive today, had an e-mail confirmation. Check your status at the netflix account management page (upper right hand corner of the home page). There is a PS3 section under instant streaming. You have to activate here also, when your disc finally arrives. A week seems like an excessive wait at this point in time. You should have yours any day now

I got the disc on Friday, no complaints so far. I don't have an Xbox 360 so I can't really compare the 2. Video quality is signficantly better than streaming from my Macbook.

They use the same encodes, which from my understanding is the best ones Netflix has. I cannot tell the difference (quality wise) between the two. I don't think there's really any video conversion going on or anything (that would take advantage of any particular console's abilities or lack thereof).

I spent about 1/2 hour comparing different titles: HD, SD, and even crappy encodes that look horrible (like Toxic Avenger or Terminator) and they all look exactly the same on both systems to my eyes.

The Mac and PC would be getting the lower quality encodes, from what I understand (and of course don't have access to the HD titles)

Just a quick question...

How long after you 'reserved' your copy of the disc did you get an email saying it was on its way? Its been a week or so for me and I haven't heard anything about getting the disc.

Thanks,

Jim

I reserved mine the morining the announcement was made (10/26), so I guess I was among the first in line. An email last Thurs (11/5) told me it shipped. Got it Fri.

With the Roku I can fix the transfer speed at 1.2 Mpbs as I have a 1.5 MBps, the Roku takes a few minutes to buffer, but the picture is always ok.

With the Ps3, how do I fix the transfer rate in the same way? It is only played at 500 to 600 Kbps, making the films unwatchable.

I think Netflix tries to auto adjust its transfer rate based on your connection speed. Mine was unwatchable via wireless, but works very well via a wireless-N bridge cable connection.

With the Ps3, how do I fix the transfer rate in the same way? It is only played at 500 to 600 Kbps, making the films unwatchable.

What's the reasoning behind this? Why can't I go down to the local mega mart and pick one up for all my devices then activate online with my NF acct?

Because they have a distribution system in place, don't charge for the discs, don't have any agreements in place with the megacorps and it kinda goes against their entire reason d'etre in the first place.