Netflix Watch Instantly Service - Page 3

I have had mine for almost a week now and am quite impressed. The inteface is quite nice, if was VERY easy to integrate into the automation in my theater and the picture quality is quite good, when the source material is good. Can't polish a turd you know.

Interestingly I have found that some content is in mutichannel sound. I was lead to believe that everything was stereo, but this seems not to be true.

Really? What title(s)?

I spent all day with head of NetFlix's compression operation, and he seemed pretty sure they were still doing stereo .

Multiple Queue's - Help

I have my Netflix account set up with 3 separate queues for myself and my two children. Will they each be able to add items to their "watch instantly" queue or will it only link to the main one?

Figured it out:

If you have multiple queues only the main queue has access to the "watch instantly" tab. I have collapsed the three queues for me an my kids into one, now we get to fight again on which movie is top of the queue.

I like this device and will keep me a netflix customer

Very fast and easy setup. Picture quality was surprisingly good on my Sony XBR 36" tube tv. My wife thought it was dvd quality. I wouldn't say that but it was very watchable. We really like the simplicity of it and the way the pause menu works.
On netflix's site they say that this is the first (and least expensive) of future devices:

"We are working to get TV manufacturers, Blu-ray player manufacturers, and game console manufacturers to make their devices ready for instant streaming from Netflix. The first of these multi-function Netflix ready devices are likely to be available in late 2008.
The $99.99 single-function Netflix ready device from Roku, which is available now, is likely to be the lowest cost Netflix ready device for the foreseeable future."

Can't wait to see what the future will bring!

^ late 2008, eh? I hope they mean the XBOX 360. Although I did just pick up a PS3, so either one works for me. I'm kindof holding off on buying one of these or an AppleTV until I see what's going on...both with these "other" devices and with all the bandwidth caps.

The survey they did with the consoles was on both. So I dont see why they would not go for both (huge market coverage) unless either company pays them for exclusivity.

Yeah, I assume it will be both. The bandwidth cap thing worries me, although my ISP (Comcast) hasn't announced any plans that I am aware of, but I am assuming/guessing it is just a matter of time until most ISPs follow suit.

just a quick word of advise to those saying something about the console's haveing something if thats what your waiteing on i would say if there's no announcement at E3 in july its probably going to be awile would be my guess

I have been using this service for months now. The main problem is lack of good content.

PQ could also be substantially improved. The image is very soft on my 106" screen.

Some movies are for some reason presented in 4:3 aspect ratio. Why do this?

I don't expect that many new releases will make it here. That is OK. I would just like a better variety of good content, even if it is older. There is too much stiff I have never heard of and that can probably be found in the 99 cent bin in the local supermarket.

I am hopeful that this service will improve in the near future because it does have a lot of promise.

I noticed that Netflix has eliminated separate movie queues. Only the main queue could access the instant content, I wonder if that played a part.

Ralph

Are their PS3 owners already streaming videos from Netflix watch now? Or is this sometime in the future as well? Software upgrade? I'm planning to get a PS3 soon and this will be a nice additional feature. I'll rent the Bluray discs from Netlix at the same time stream videos off Netlfix. I'm trying to minimize cost on my mini home theater due to budget constraints.

The movie quality is nice. not the greatest...but my downloads are slow but I thinks its because I download so much crap, my isp is probably throttling me..

I have to say I am very impressed with the Roku Player. I have had it for about a week now. It is connected via Wi-Fi, and HDMI to my Denon4308ci A/V receiver. I have a few "advantages" such as having Turbo Road Runner, [10 mbs down, and 1 mbs up]. The receiver has an I/P scaler that I have turned on, so the Samsung HL61A750 LED/DLP is receiving an upconverted signal to 1080p, and in addition, the receiver is synthesizing 7 channel stereo from the 2 channel input. While it certainly not HD-DVD quality, fellow neighbors who have NetFlix subscriptions who have come over to see the Roku, have all commented that they didn't know that the Roku was NOT putting out an HD signal. Almost anyone on this forum would not be "fooled" but I did agree with them that the display image is as good as an SD/DVD that has been upconverted to 1080i by a so-so player. Our SD/DVD player is an Oppo 983H, and I can certainly tell the display image is not 983H quality.

Even my technophobic wife thought that it was in broadcast HD quality.

I can already tell my 'Honey DO' List is going to be growing, as I am a big classic movie fan and you can't be doing both!

ps3 (and 360) applications of the watch now service have been rumored for awhile now. I've had my fingers crossed, hopefully we'll hear something soon, possibly at E3 in July.

I'm hoping that they do something with the XBox 360 soon. I've been using the plugin for Vista MCE (vmcNetFlix) to stream to my 360 and it works well when it works. Key phrase being "when it works". It's a nice effort on the authors part but is so buggy I've given up using it.

I took the bait and finally could not resist, I ordered mine this morning.

There was quite a bit of TV content avaiable that most appealed to me, and toss in a few movies to boot and the price is right, its hard to complain, but I'm sure I'll chime in with something

Looking forward to seeing this thing in motion.

I plan on maximizing this player by feeding it into a couple of other rooms via the additional ouptuts on the backplane.

I'm basically just waiting a couple of weeks until E3 to see if either PS3 or 360 support is announced (I own both).

If not, I'll order the Roku box. Although I have nothing to back this up, I am a bit afraid that they might start charging extra for this service, and maybe grandfather the early-adopters into keeping it free (similar to how Tivo used to offer lifetime subscriptions but the people who waited got burned and had to pay by the month).

That's probably just my paranoia talking though. It does that.

Exactly what I am thinking. I want to be grandfathered in on a 8.99 plan and the roku box. It seems they are stirring the waters with the account changes and something big may be coming later in the year.

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that they might start charging (especially when HD stuff comes). I probably should order the Roku now to be on the safe side....I can always unload it later if/when PS3 or 360 support comes, and it's only $99 so it's not like it's a major investment. That's only like 1.5 tanks of gas.

My $.02 is that I don't use nor asked for the Instant Watch feature, and Netflix should credit me back the extra amount that they will soon be charging me for Blu-rays.

Wow...

Complain about the blu-ray charge if you want, but seriously Netflix added instant now support free of charge, whether you use it or not is irrelevant, they gave you something for nothing, which is unique and commendable.

In addition the HD gravy train the last few years has been the same thing, for years we were enjoying HD DVD and Blu-Ray at zero additional cost despite the added cost to Netflix.

I'm not happy with he decision to charge more for blu-ray, but the truth is Netflix has been damn good to their customers over the last few years. They added and improved service significantly and I think my bill went up maybe a dollar over that time? The way I see it if they add a few bucks for Blu-Ray or whatever it would be pretty on par to a normal acceptable increase. Besides they start charging for BD it will improve service I'm sure both with their increased revenue for stock and the fact it will reduce the customers renting blu-ray so availability should be easier. On the other hand charging for instant now would be ridiculous unless it greatly improves the catalog and adds HD.

That's my $.02...

I recieved my Roku Netflix device on Thursday and had it installed in less than 10 minutes.

It works as advertised and is very is easy to operate. I found about 100 titles that I, my wife, or kids were interested in that were viewable via "Watch Now" on Netflix to add to my Watch Now queue.

Some of the titles were TV shows with multiple episodes, so in reality we probably have a couple hundred hours worth of content.

Most of the content looks as good as DVD or only marginally worse, some of it looks better than DVD (mostly animation). The video comes across as 480P and seems to be deinterlaced very well, so it probably is significantly better than playing a DVD on an average DVD player. Probably not better than an ABT or HQV based DVD player. I am scaling the content via the Faroudja chip in my Denon 3808ci reciever and it looks good.

If you are thinking about this device, I say buy it. For $100, how can you go wrong?

-Abe

^^^ Couldn't agree more. I just ordered a second Roku box for my bedroom because I was getting tired of moving it back and forth.

not trying to be a smart-a$$, but wouldn't it have just been cheaper to order a long-assed set of cables from monoprice and run the box to both rooms?

oh yeah, as i typed i remembered the whole "being able to control (ff/rew) it" thang.
nevermind.

Not only that but some folks don't want "a long-assed set of cables" all over the place.
My wife hated it when I used to run a 50ft. long ethernet cable from my old xbox to the router!

I'm getting the following error:

Video Driver Error
Your computer's video card driver may not support the Netflix Movie Viewer. Sometimes simply rebooting your computer will fix the problem. If not, please obtain the latest driver from your computer's video card manufacturer or its web site, install it, reboot your computer, and try to play a movie again.

For further information, see our Video Driver Error FAQ. If the problem persists, or you would like assistance, please contact Netflix technical support and report the following error code(s):

WMPError(C00D1197)

Windows Media Player cannot find the file. If you are trying to play, burn, or sync an item that is in your library, the item might point to a file that has been moved, renamed, or deleted.

This started yesterday, and I had no changes that I'm aware of.

I have an 8500GT via VGA running vista SP1. I also connected via HDMI for my mobo's onboard 7100 to try that, while disabling the 8500GT. Same results.

I updated and rolled back drivers, reinstalled nexflix software, restarted computer, reset modem, basically everything except reset DRM.

Any ideas why I can't access netflix watch now all of a sudden? For the majority of the time, I don't even get an error... Just a black screen as if the movie is about to load, except it never does, not does the time stamp change from all 0:00:00's

Netflix watch instantly coming to 360 soon and it doesn't sound like its coming to the PS3 by the way they worded it.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/888/888869p1.html

11:23 AM - Exclusive partnership announced with Netflix.

11:24 AM - Netflix subscribers can watch movies in their queue via Live.

11:24 AM - And people in your Party can all watch the same movie together over Live.

Yep, sounds 360 exclusive. Did they say when this stuff was coming? I'm watching the feed, but I guess I missed the timeframe.

My GUESS would be when the fall update hits later this year (since they mention people in your party being able to watch the same movie) but I could easily be wrong. Off topic but not really liking the Wii Avatar clones.