Netflix "Presented in HD" on NXE Thread

[Chris Rein]

Hey,

Thought we could keep track of all the watch instantly shows that are "Presented in HD" from Netflix on the NXE since there is no way to find out what is in HD until you add and hit play.

What You Need...

HD on your Netflix Ready Device









Certain titles are available to watch in HD on your Xbox 360. In order to watch in HD you need:

• An HDTV and component or HDMI connection from your Netflix ready device to your TV
• A high-speed internet connection at time of playback (typically 5 Mbps or higher)

So far, here's what I have found out. These titles are available to watch on HD on your TV. "HD playback will only occur if you have sufficient bandwidth at the time of playback."*

CONFIRMED

The Office - Season 1 (Steve Carrell)
The Office - Season 2 (Steve Carrell)
The Office - Season 3 (Steve Carrell)
The Office - Season 4 (Steve Carrell) - Now in HD!!!
Heroes - Season 1
Heroes - Season 2
Heroes - Season 3
30 Rock - Season 1 (FYI, Season 2 IS NOT in HD) ***Note - Going to check this one again tonight to see if they added HD now
The Thing - 2 Channel only
The Orphanage - 2 Channel only
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
King of Kong
Confessions of a Super Hero
The Air I Breathe
Quid Pro Quo

UNCONFIRMED, but listed as HD per list (Thanks Hodedofome!)

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...TJL2YoM5l98nSQ


Feel free to add. Most of the movies I've tried are all the Starz Play variety and are not HD. They are VERY soft. Seems like TV is getting all the love!

UPDATE - I've tried about 10 Starz Play ones, including items that are already in HD on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD and none of them have been in HD.


*Comment by Netflix on HD Viewing.

[jagouar]

this is a good idea.... engadget has said the orphanage (or something like that was hd) and gizmodo says the thing is in hd.

just to give you a few movies to try.

i would love to see a list going.... since it seems netflix doesnt want to let us know whats hd.

[Chris Rein]

Originally Posted by jagouar

this is a good idea.... engadget has said the orphanage (or something like that was hd) and gizmodo says the thing is in hd.

just to give you a few movies to try.

i would love to see a list going.... since it seems netflix doesnt want to let us know whats hd.

Thanks for the heads up! I just added both of them to my Queue and will check here shortly. One thing I did notice was that there wasn't a "Starz Play" info tag on those two, which sounds like a good sign!

[joerod]

Saw that to.

[Chris Rein]

Just updated with The Orphanage and The Thing (both HD) and noted that they are in 2-Channel only.

[HorrorScope]

Where are you guys seeing this? Beta?

[jagouar]

thats a bit disappointing about the 2.0 audio still.... maybe the initial stuff wasnt ready for 5.1 audio (or maybe those movies dont have a 5.1 mix).

what is the hd quality like? (and compared to other stuff how does it compare)? id be interested to find out since i have to wait a few weeks still.

[Chris Rein]

Originally Posted by HorrorScope

Where are you guys seeing this? Beta?

I'm not in a beta program. Didn't get it from Major Nelson's deal either. A friend of mine at MS hooked me up.

[Chris Rein]

Originally Posted by jagouar

thats a bit disappointing about the 2.0 audio still.... maybe the initial stuff wasnt ready for 5.1 audio (or maybe those movies dont have a 5.1 mix).

what is the hd quality like? (and compared to other stuff how does it compare)? id be interested to find out since i have to wait a few weeks still.

Those movies do have a 5.1 mix, The Orphanage even has a 7.1 DTS MA track too on Blu-ray.

So far, what I have seen, the image is good, but soft. Not nearly as soft as the SD material, but not razor sharp as HD-DVD or Blu-ray. I'm going to watch a full one later tonight to see if it stutters or pixelates at all.

[Chris Rein]

Bumping this up thanks to a suggestion on how to find HD on Netflix (thanks l3ftonm3!!)

Basically, you just go into the "Watch Instantly" tab and then select "Genres". Choose HD.

I've noticed that all the titles are not listed. For example, Office Season 1 is in HD, but not on that list. Same goes for The Thing.

The selection is pretty crappy now, but I wonder how many things are missing from that list?

[jagouar]

any chance you could posts the list? because right now those of us sans update cant see the page (ive tried getting the link manually). im guessing since we havent registered our consoles that section is not available to us.

[Chris Rein]

Originally Posted by jagouar

any chance you could posts the list? because right now those of us sans update cant see the page (ive tried getting the link manually). im guessing since we havent registered our consoles that section is not available to us.

Sorry, let me be more clear. The step I just mentioned is on your Netflix.com account page. It's NOT in the dash. You still can't tell what's in HD or not on the NXE dash.

[ogbuehi]

I hope all the movies are offered in HD. Otherwise I have no reason to stop using the Microsoft downloads.

[jagouar]

Originally Posted by Chris Rein

Sorry, let me be more clear. The step I just mentioned is on your Netflix.com account page. It's NOT in the dash. You still can't tell what's in HD or not on the NXE dash.

i know.... i had a friend tell me the same thing that there is a hd section in the genre dropdown but i dont see that section at all. im guessing because i dont have my 360 or any other device registered. i even had my friend give me the direct link to the hd section and it said page not found for me.

thats why i was asking if you could post whats in there so i dont have to wait till wed to know whats going to be available in hd.

[RunningRiot]

Originally Posted by ogbuehi

I hope all the movies are offered in HD. Otherwise I have no reason to stop using the Microsoft downloads.

All the movies aren't available in HD. So if I'm hearing you right you have no reason to pay a flat fee every month to stream and watch as many movies as you want instead of paying $3 or $4 per movie download through Live's movie selection?

[ogbuehi]

That's right. I'm only interested in watching HD movies. That way I don't have to pay for a month and there's no new HD movies I want to watch.

[Degenerazn]

My friend tells me the online movie selection is subpar. You don't get any new movies, mainly just a bunch of older ones.

On a side note, does anybody know how to unlink your xbox to a netflix account? I'm still linked on to my friends and would like to create my own netflix account.

[Chris Rein]

Originally Posted by Degenerazn

My friend tells me the online movie selection is subpar. You don't get any new movies, mainly just a bunch of older ones.

On a side note, does anybody know how to unlink your xbox to a netflix account? I'm still linked on to my friends and would like to create my own netflix account.

Yup. Most are old movies. There are a few "newer" ones like Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (in HD....Marisa Tomei....intro....) and No Country for Old Men, but most are old and obscure. I bet that changes now that this has launched.

You need to go into your buddies Netflix account and hit "deactivate" from his account.

[Chris Rein]

And the plot thickens.

What's showing up for me in "Genre" "HD" under Watch Instantly is showing different from other users here. Some things that are showing HD in that list are not HD too. It's all over the place!

Leave some feedback here on what you've watched in HD and I'll update it to the list.

[steven975]

question, the stuff that is not in HD, is it at least 16:9 where appropriate?

The thought of a letterbox 640*480 frame with <300 lines of actual resolution does not appeal to me at all.

[jagouar]

yeah they have widescreen for most things...

[Chris Rein]

They seem to keep OAR on most of the SD stuff it appears.

I just pulled down Season 3 of The Office again and all but episode one is in HD. Weird. Season 4 still doesn't show a "Presented in HD" logo.

[bfdtv]

Has anyone heard anything more on what bit rate Netflix is using? The press was reporting that it would be around 8Mbps or 8-10Mbps. My router reports over 8Mbps, but then it also reports 8Mbps (initially) when I look at the 1.5Mbps SD streams online.

I've heard of at least one individual who was able to stream HD on a 6Mbps connection, which leads me to wonder what the bitrate is on this content.

[jagouar]

5mbit from everything ive been told although netflix wants an 8mbit or higher connection to give them some overhead.

[bfdtv]

Originally Posted by jagouar

5mbit from everything ive been told although netflix wants an 8mbit or higher connection to give them some overhead.

That sounds like a good estimate. Where did you hear that, if I may ask?

Bandwidth usage actually appears to be less than 4Mbps. Of course, that is with stereo sound. Multichannel audio may increase bandwidth requirements slightly.

The Netflix site can sustain 8+Mbps, but it seems that extra bandwidth is only used to improve buffering.

[drhill]

So did anyone else have problems inputting the activation code on the netflix site this morning. I tried a bunch of different codes and it eventually told me to come back two hours later. :\

[chad473]

it was down for me earlier but I was able to activate about 20 minutes ago.

on topic it looks like 30 rock season 2 is in HD as well..at least the first episode was, didn't try any others.

[hodedofome]

Excellent idea for this post. Although I was hoping Netflix would just have a category for HD titles, that was a bummer. I had no problems installing the NXE update, as well as had no problems authenticating it on my Netflix.

I've been streaming Netflix titles through my 360 using a Media Center plugin for a few months now. The quality is not there for most titles, it's definitely 'soft' on my 50" 720p plasma. It's good for documentaries and tv shows, I wouldn't be able to watch a real movie on it though. My wife doesn't seem to care.

One bummer is that you have to put the movie you want to watch in your Watch Now queue (to watch on the NXE). With the Media Center plugin I can view all titles available for streaming on my tv and pick what I want, with the NXE I have to first go to the Netflix site and choose what I want in my queue, then I can choose one of those on the NXE. I'm hoping they change that.

HD streaming quality on the NXE is pretty good, although I would need to have the same titles in blu-ray to make a direct comparison. Obviously it's only 2 channel right now but it will get better. The thing to remember is that Netflix is constantly improving this, they add new titles all the time and the quality will get better.

[mproper]

I'm assuming Netflix will always have their "free" section, but eventually go to a PPV scheme like Marketplace, PSN, Vudu, AppleTv, etc. for new releases. That's my guess anyways.

[Mantis10]

Originally Posted by drhill

So did anyone else have problems inputting the activation code on the netflix site this morning. I tried a bunch of different codes and it eventually told me to come back two hours later. :\

No mine worked the first time and my movies came right up, then I was adding more movies in my Instant watch and they appeared on the Xbox 360 a few seconds later.

This is way cool, I like the new Xbox 360 dashboard, this is really the only thing I care about is the Netflix streaming movies.