Netflix streaming quality - Page 5

BTW, I just read in another thread of this forum (here) that Netflix streaming for the PS3 has been confirmed.

I was basing my comment on your post from yesterday. I guess you were talking about something else. Since this topic is Netflix based I assumed it all fit together.

Jack

yeah. I read something about needing a special Blu-ray disc in order to use it.

You can read about it at Netflix's site here and Sony's announcement in the Playstation Blog here. I went to Netflix and reserved a copy of the disc.

It does involve a disc, which hasn't been explained fully. It sounds as though you might have to insert the disc every time you stream Netflix, which seems lame, inasmuch as it's a built-in feature of every other Netflix streaming platform.

As of the last dashboard update, the Xbox's Netflix player is my favorite. I watch DVDs, Blu-rays and downloaded video over my LAN with the PS3 and it's a lot quieter than my Xbox, so I'll probably use this if it works well. (I'm not sure why, but I rarely choose to use my TiVo for non-DVR'd video).

It was a little sidecar about another kind of streaming, 1080p24 streaming using the new Smooth Streaming Silverlight tech on the Xbox 360, which is coming next month.

As I mentioned above, use of the Smooth Streaming tech requires re-encoding of their entire library, a tremendous computing effort and probably quite expensive, which is why I imagine Netflix isn't jumping on board immediately.

I reserved a disc as well, but my 360 is whisper silent, so I'm not sure I'll use it. I do want to compare though (will FF and Rewind work the same, for example).

Regardless, I have no complaints about it on the 360, plus I can turn that on with my remote and not have to put in a disc (wtf is up with the NF disc on PS3 anyways?).

Still will try it out and pick the better experience.

Anyone switched over to Fios from Comcast? How do you rate Fios overall ?

I'm not sure how this all works but I think the disk is for verification on who's using the account meaning your not letting someone else some where else use the account meaning a code must be in the disk for that account

I'm sure it's something along those lines, but the 360 has the same thing (when you activate it on the 360, it gives you a code you have to put in at NF's site).

However, since you can have 6 devices registered on your account, I'm sure "account sharing" happens. With the disc, you might need to order 6 discs to share accounts. I am not sure how many discs you can get per account...I was only able to order 1 (at least I can't figure out how to order a second one), so if I had 2 or 3 PS3s in my house, it would be annoying. However, if I have three 360's, I can use all 3 at the same time.

I believe they said the PS3 wouldn't need the disc in "late 2010" so we only have to deal with it for a year....hopefully.

Account sharing can happen, but you can only have as many streams going as you have discs out on your plan.

For example, if you have a 2-disc at a time subscription you can have up to two streams going at once (on different devices).

which really is fine, since your connection probably can't handle more than 2-3 SD or one HD at a time.

Actually my connection tests VERY well (I think it was > 20Mbps last I tested).

:-)


Plus, all the devices do not need to be in the same household.

yeah but you're bottlenecked by the Netflix server. at least the ones in the same household.

??

Why would two different streams to one household be an issue for a CDN solution, as oppose to two different streams to two households?

Not in my experience. But I have only tried streaming to my XBOX, laptop, and desktop at once (all got the highest quality, with the XBOX streaming HD). And I only have a 8-10Mbps connection.

When I get my PS3 discs I'd like to try to 4 things at once (just for kicks), but I only have the 3-at-a-time plan. I guess I can try 2 HD streams (on the 360 and PS3) and then a normal stream on my PC.

EDIT: I should mention that I _believe_ the PC's were getting the highest quality stream, since there is no meter/bars/balls for the PC. It looked like they were.

hmm.... I was probably downloading a large file to my macbook or something while I was trying it. I guess I'll try that out.

IDK I tried netflix on their website and in w7mc and the quality looks like poo. Worse than DVD. A 1hr OTA Divx video I have thats 350MB looks much better. My internet connection is usually over 8-10Mbit (bursts as high as 30Mbit at times).

yeah don't stream on your computer. Get a device that does it. There are like 10.

They don't stream HD to computers. They only stream HD to standalone devices.

That TV is going to be only connected to a computer. Mounted to the wall with power and 3 ethernet jacks right behind it. Two cat6 for HDMI and 1 cat5e for USB IR/RF recievers. Plenty of HD media available if its not coming from Netflix. Blueray and OTA look awesome. Most network providers even allow you to watch online after airing. I cancelled Netflix when they stopped offering HD-DVD only back on as trial to see what the quality is for streaming.

Why stream movies when you can get movies in the mail and play it on your player at home? You will get better picture quality and sound playing the disks from a DVD or Blue-ray player.

True the Bluray quality so far blows everything out of the water at 1080p. Trying to find the old PowerDVD that works with HD-DVD. Its laying around the house somewhere. I have a good amount of HD-DVD material that was onsale when it was getting overtaken.

if you're only streaming through a PC you're going to be disappointed.

Mostly OTA HD, BluRay and "other" HD files. I wanted as many choices as possible. Even gaming as I have a KB/mouse hooked up to use as well. This is a bedroom TV. Didn't want to pay $25/mo for the second HD-DVR.

I have a good antenna on the roof so OTA is 100% on nearly every channel.

EDIT: Streaming IMO in the next 5 years is going to be a big one. Most likely something will be available at 1080p and possibly can get 50Mbit internet.

a) instant gratification...
b) large selection of other choices if the one you choose sucks...
c) sometimes you just wanna watch a movie... doesn't matter how great the picture and sound is for a dvd/bluray if it's 11pm at night and i want to watch something...
d) and so on...

people really have forgotten over the last couple years that the most important part of a movie isn't pq/sq...

To a certain extent. If its bad enough to be distracting I'd rather wait. HDTV can actually make things look worse if the source is bad.

yes, true...

but that's not the point... the point is, it doesn't HAVE to be dvd quality in order to be enjoyable... if the movie is good, it's good, even if it's reminiscent of vhs picture quality... if the movie sucks, it can be of the highest possible pq/aq, and it still sucks...

again, sometimes, all i (and i don't think i'm alone) want to do is watch a movie... and watching something "less than dvd quality" isn't the worst thing in the world...

I hope the movie industry and corporate America do not get rid of the physical disk media. I really hope they keep the option of renting a disk-based movie and watching it at home. I hope in the future, I can buy a movie that is disk based. This whole streaming from the net thing has given the movie studios and corporate American the false perception that all movie watchers want to stream movies from the internet. It appears that modern day movie distribution is swinging in this direction. I love getting a movie in the mail from Netflix. I love buying a movie from the local electronics store. Let us all pray that we, as a society can, buy and rent movies that actually come on a disk in the future. Give me an amen?

you only "love" that because the disc still has an advantage over streaming. Once 1080p, DTS-MA 7.1 streaming is the norm, including all bonus features, there will be no reason whatsoever to own media. Why wait for something when you can have the same exact thing instantly. You'll come around. Or you're like someone still holding onto 8-track tapes.

and praying has nothing to do with anything.

Don't worry--even today, you can still buy some new audio releases on vinyl .

The studios don't care whether "all movie watcher" want to stream movies from the net, they only care whether there's a big enough market for it to turn a profit from. Interest in Blu-ray has been mounting kind of slowly; it's advantages over DVD aren't quite as apparent to Joe Average as DVD's advantages over VHS tape were. The motion picture industry is completely open to any other way that they can peddle their wares.

Downloading and streaming aren't nearly ready to take over yet, but they probably will dominate eventually. While I think that surround sound is essential, I doubt that they'll need DTS MA 7.1 to compete. (How many people will ever be set up for that? A/V-ophiles are a neglible market segment--streaming needs high mainstream penetration).