Netflix Watch Instantly Service - Page 2

Pretty sure its a contractual/legal thing. I really doubt Netflix is the one limiting the quality of the titles unless they are concerned about their server load. I would imagine if I were Netflix I wouldn't waste my time encoding independent and B-list crap no one watches to instant download unless I needed to fill out my library because the major studios are hesitant to allow rights.

As far as Netflix is concerned an oscar winner takes as much space on a hard drive and takes as much encoding time as Bob and Doug's backyard horror flick. I would imagine all things being equal they would devote their time to the one somebody is going to watch.

If the Netflix business plan works and it becomes popular I would be horribly afraid if I were the studios. I mean as much as a collector I am I know of about two dozen less DVDs I would have bought if I had them available on Netflix instant download. Even if it was slightly less than DVD quality I wouldn't mind on some titles, especially the TV series. Besides, if Netflix sees this taking off they might invest more into improving the quality and infrastructure.

Its a win win for the consumers and Netflix if they can get the quality passable. A flat fee instant rental service combined with huge saving in postal costs for Netflix and less worry about inventory management

I bought the device and am excited to get it, I know the titles aren't great but they have a lot of the history channel shows I like to watch, I don't mind Modern Marvels being less than perfect quality because well... it looks horrible on cable anyway... I've watched a bunch of the old black and white shows on my pc and they seem to be pretty decent. Besides like i said, I'm willing to trade quality for convenience on some titles, You still have the option to wait for the DVD or Blu-Ray on the titles you really care about the presentation. But for Crappy B-List films, films you want to watch on a whim, Stand up Comedy, Some TV Shows, stuff you just want on while you do something else, this is a great tool.

the watch it now selection is definitely improving. we just restarted netflix the other day and it's certainly better than it was 5-6 months ago. A ways to go, yes, but it is improving.

I received my netflix player today,and I have to say: I'm impressed!

Video quality: better than analog SD cable (for most content) but not quite DVD quality. Sound is stereo, video is 480p (I'm using component). The setup was fast and easy, the UI is very intuitive and easy to use, and I've had pretty much ZERO problems with pausing or stuttering during playback. I've had it on for several hours now, and I've had 2 minor audio blips.

Sure, the selection is slim for new releases, but there's some real gems that I've been wanting to see, but didnt' want to release a slot in my dvd queue for. I've been watching the BBC "The Office" as well as Tripping the Rift and a bunch of other things.

I would much rather watch this, than to watch SD cable movies on my 92" screen / AE900u 720p projector.

I am glad for you. I hear a lot of people knocking watch now but I think its cool. Like I said before Netflix has the ball in their court if they can improve the video quality of watch now and it doesnt have to be true hd but clean up the images of the movie to atleast an good upconvert look then this little piece of equipment is going to catch fire.

Videos look great streaming through my XBox 360. I have a fast internet connection so I'm getting the best quality stream. And my 360 is hooked up via HDMI so the videos are upscaled. Looks DVD quailty to me so I have no complaints.

I'll be really interested to see how this box fares when they do offer HD content. I have an AppleTV and have viewed their "HD" trailers and it's pretty decent. Its certainly not BluRay quality, but for a streaming solution, its pretty impressive. I just dont like Apple's fee structure / policy.

For $99 the netflix box is a really good deal. If it was $200, not so much.

teach me your ways master so I too can avoid the "honeeeeey come fix the TV"

are you able to post any screenshots of the interface?

I can certainly go take a few pics and post them here.

Ok, mind the flash and reflections, these are quick shots from my 42" panasonic plasma. Don't consider this a good gauge of video quality either, I didn't pause, control lighting etc, but I did do an A/B comparison of Ghostbusters to my DVD of it, and the PQ on the Netflix player is a bit softer than the DVD - noticable, but for non-critical viewing, its just fine.

1. This is the built in rotating logo screensaver
2. Instant View Queue
3. Movie Details
4. The loading screen once you play a title - note the quality reading and the progress bar.
5. Movie playing

6. View when you press "Select" - pauses the movie and shows keyframes forward and backward. This is also the view you see if you press "left" or "right" while watching the movie (not ffw or rew) - video then jumps to the next/prev keyframe.

7. Pause view. Play/Pause button toggles pause and playback. One feature missing is the ability to pop that timeline bar while the movie is still playing, but I already submitted that as a feature request and hopefully they'll implement it.

8. FFW/REW view. This is the preview you get while quickly moving through a film. A thumbnail keyframe preview is constantly updated (still pic though) so you can keep reference where you are in the movie. Its small, but still usable and better than ffw/rew blind.

9. This is another view of the queue, but this time of a tv series. Notice that it lists how many episodes are in the set

10. TV Series detail view - pretty much the same as the movie view, with the exception of the menu to choose a different episode.

11. This is the page to choose the episode. You get a synopsis of the episode. There is no unique image per episode, but there does seem to be a placeholder up above for it possibly in the future. Who knows.

Hey guys,

I am patiently awaiting my Roku box which should arrive in the next few days. In the mean time I have done a little research and set up my XBOX 360 to run Netflix via Windows Media Center on my living room TV (Samsung 40" 1080p). The XBox is connected via HDMI.
My question is if anyone has had experience with both. If instant viewing via the XBOX 360 is of better quality or the same as the Roku then I am considering just using the Xbox in the living room and putting the Roku in the bedroom.
So far my experience with the XBOX 360 has its pros and cons. I have trouble getting the plug-in for Media Center to work smoothly with the XBOX 360 and it is requiring re-initializations and extender resets each time to work. However, the XBOX 360 is already integrated in my Home Theater setup and isn't limited by having to set up a queue online via PC. You can pick any available movie directly and watch instantly. And I can place movies in my "mail" queue from my TV.
Has anyone compared the two technically? Am I losing anything (PQ, AQ, ect.) by using the XBOX 360? Does the Roku box have any advantages? Any experience on the subject would be great.

Thanks

thanks for the pics, I like the interface. Pretty simple but not as bare bones as one might think for a 99 device. I plan on waiting a bit to see if netflix gets linked with ps3 or 360, but if not this box seems like a great deal.

If you already have a XBox 360 there is really no need for this device.

For me it was as much about ease of integration as feature set. I jumped on it because it's a standalone, low power draw box, that could integrate seamlessly into my distributed video system. I already had 7 zones of video that I distribute to 7 rooms:

1. HD DVR
2. SD cablebox (scaled to 480p component output)
3. AppleTV
4. HTPC1 (DVDLobby / Zoomplayer usage only)
5. HTPC2 (DVDLobby / Zoomplayer usage only)
6. DVD player
7. Xbox360

All routed to remote displays using component video / stereo audio (except theater which gets digital audio to the AVR), switched by an Extron 12x8 matrix switch, and controlled by a central IR system that handles routing and control for the remote viewing zones. I could have expanded the HTPC role to play the netflix content, but that would have required a large paradigm shift in how these PC's are used, an interface change, etc, and as I've previously stated, I've got these to the point of being as stable and easy to use as an STB, so I didn't want to mess with that.

I could have gone the xbox360 route as well, but that has a more complicated interface, is multi usage so not as easy for someone to just "pick up" (ie parents), and is much higher power draw than this little netflix box.

I wasn't looking for another video source, but this guy was too hard to pass up. I agree, if you have an HTPC using that MCE plugin, or have your Xbox360 setup for it, you don't need this device. But it's inexpensive, works exactly as advertised, and was a good fit for me.

not everyone has windows media center on their pc.

True. I hadn't thought about that. My bad.

In that case, for $99 for the device and $9 a month for netflix service this really is a great deal.

I received my Roku player yesterday and my experience pretty much mirrors yours. Setup is a breeze. PQ is better then most SD content I get through DirecTV (although this may very depending on content, I only played around with it for about an hour last night). So far I would have to say this is money very well spent. I have certainly paid more and gotten less (the xbox 360 wireless adapter comes to mind). This with the combo of getting new release s on Blu is great IMO as most of the stuff I am watching on this thing is older movies and TV shows and who know if or when this content will ever come to Blu. Anyone who is interested in this product I would recommend going over to netflix and view their watch now movies and TV shows. If there are enough there then I would jump in. I did and I'm certainly not looking back as I am very pleased with this little box so far.

Thank you for this. I've been waiting for MCE integration.

A question for anyone familiar with this service already and/or has one of these Roku boxes -- the specs for Internet connection speed say you really need a minimum of 1.5 Mbps. I believe we only really get about 1.0 Mbps at the moment. Will this new service work for us, then? Or will we need to upgrade the connection speed? (Not something I'm sure we want to do right now as it's going to cost even more than we're already paying the cable co., and that's a LOT.)

Thanks in advance.

DGK

You can still use it I believe. You will experience much degraded quality however. There are 4 levels of video "quality" and the box will adjust to your connection speed. I forget how 1.0 Mbps compares but I think the best quality feed requires 2.2 Mbps or something to that effect. So figure about half quality. Check out the first post in this topic to see the bitrate breakdowns. With 1.0 Mbps you will get 1 "dot" of quality.... if you have 1.5 Mbps maybe 2.

Does this device have BUILT-IN wireless or do you need to add an adapter?

It is built-in. I'm using wired, but several other users on the Roku board have been using wireless with good success as well. There have been a few users with crowded wireless environments causing some signal problems, but Roku tech support has been very responsive with troubleshooting and helping resolve those issues.

How? I've been trying, and failing, to get FFDShow to activate when I play NetFlix On Demand. I desperately need FFDShow in order to fix the black level issues. When I watch Heroes, for example, the black crush is so insane it's unbearable.

My setup:
Windows XP
Card: ATI 9700 Pro with up-to-date drivers
Connection: DVI-HDMI
TV: Panasonic 800u, Black Level = "Light" (Dark just clips the blacks further)
(EDIT) Output mode: 1080p/60

While I'm at it, what are the correct FFDShow settings to fix this issue? I assume the problem is that 16-235 is being expanded to 0-255, and my TV thinks that black is still 16. I see numerous options that might or might not fix that: (RGB conversion, 12 different output colorspace options, etc.)

What's the right way?

Thanks for any help!

PS I've verified that it's not an issue with my TV's settings. I can max/min picture and brightness and it won't reveal the calibration bars on Avia DVD using WMP. The bars are immediately visible if I run the DVD using PowerDVD.

Is 480i available as an output option? Hopefully they're sending 480i as it will conserve bandwidth. I don't like the idea of having this little box deinterlacing for me compared to my scaler. Although for $99 it may do in a pinch for TV shows or something not requiring top notch video.

larry

The output is 480p, and 480p only until HD is available, and then 720p and 1080i will be available via the HDMI connector (don't know about 1080p).

I was checking out the list here: http://weathernuts.com/netflix_instant_watch.htm

I already ordered this from Roku (two weeks backordered) but the list seems pretty weak on offerings. Are you guys happy with the selections?

IMO it's not that bad a list to start off with, but I'm more of a fan of TV shows (old and new) than movies anyway. I'm sure there will be more added to the list later on...

DGK

Yep, the selection is a bit weak at the moment, but like DeeKaye07 said, if you're a fan of old tv shows, or oddball BBC stuff, etc there's plenty to keep you busy now, and more being added regularly.

Its certainly NOT a replacement for getting new titles - I will continue to buy/netflix mail new BluRay and DVD titles.