Netflix streaming quality - Page 6

They will co-exist for some time.

Streaming is likely to be crucial to the success of Blu-ray. Sony is already calling streaming the "killer app" for getting Blu-ray players into homes.... http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1193657

It is that last piece of the value offering that convinces people to get new hardware for movie playback.

Streaming will have advanced to the stage of providing greater quality than Blu-ray by the time it hits the big time.

I may be in the minority but, until streaming matches BluRay quality I will not be doing any streaming because I am unwilling to give up quality for convenience.

Not all of the HD Netflix streaming catalog is available on Blu-Ray.

Just ignore the Blu-Boys who come here because they've decided this is the next format war and can't just stick to their section.

Most of us here use and enjoy both, and it's not a "one-or-the-other" thing.

Good point. Thank you. So, let me rephrase, for titles available in BluRay, I'd not choose streaming because I am unwilling to give up any quality for convenience.

"Blu-Boys"? Ignore them? Really? Wow! I think my now corrected statement (thanks to Shape) is my opinion and accurate. Geeze.

true dat... i could never understand this emotional attachment some seem to have to a piece of hardware...

Yes it is, but as you'll notice, my reply is from your fanboish statement about "I will not do any streaming" and before your corrected statement which is much less fanboish.

But yes, your corrected statement is exactly how I feel. In my Netflix queue, I get anything on Blu-Ray shipped to me (and don't watch the streaming version).

I still watch tons of streaming material though.

Let me explain myself as fully as I can to avoid the 'fanboy' discussion.

It's actually (in my case) an interest in getting the best quality I can afford. I feel the same way about MP3's versus CD's. Given any opportunity, I listen to CD's. MP3's are great and I listen to them a lot -- with the acknowledgment of the quality loss -- because at that time, I'm interested in the convenience, etc that MP3's afford. My overall fear is that the lesser quality alternatives (MP3's and vid streaming) will push aside and possibly eliminate (or at least make more expensive) the better quality options. I think the general population gravitates toward convenience and price at the expense of quality. So, my emotions lie with preserving quality not with any particular hardware. If the lesser quality options fill a need without impacting the availability or cost for the better quality options, then I'm good.

Hope that explains it better.

Yes, you are correct. My original statement has been corrected because it did not accurately reflect my opinion. In the message before this one [159], I have further explained my opinion and my reasoning.

Personally, it's not a matter of whether or not it's available on Blu-ray; it's whether I care about PQ for a given film. Films that aren't very visual and highly dialog driven I could almost watch with my eyes closed. Then again, there have been a few action oriented films that I've watched the streams of, though I original saw them in a theater or on Blu-ray. (There are a handful of movies which I can strangely watch over and over again--most films I see once and maybe I'll want to see them again in a few years, which is why I've more or less stopped buying video discs. Serenity is one of those films and I've watched the Netflix stream of it two or three times. Then again, the PQ of its Blu-ray disc isn't very good . I do wish the stream had surround sound, though).

Thanks for your input. The SQ you bring up is also a big reason for wanting the BluRay version if available. For me the SQ and PQ are equally important. To give up either is something I'd rather not do.

I apologize for my "blu-boy" comments above as lflorack has since clarified his remarks.

It is the "I love Blu-Ray and will never use streaming" people that I wonder why they are here, as they have no interest in it.

Anyways, apologies. Michaelscott has pretty much summed up my feelings on it. There are movies I just don't care about PQ/AQ on (documentaries and comedies, for instance). For anything special effects/action/surround-sound heavy, I will always get the Blu-Ray if available.

I love blu-ray, i'm a videophile and I do ratings in the blu-ray PQ thread. I have Pioneer everything.

However, in a pinch, streaming is nice.

SQ is important to me to, but like PQ, it depends on the film. AFAICT, most streams at Netflix have at least the PL II matrix encoding, so you do get surround sound, just not as good as DD5.1.

First I've heard of PLII being on Netflix streams, as my receiver only ever kicks out Stereo from the Netflix streams. If true, then I will check my settings and see if I don't have my receiver set up correctly. I can't say as I've ever looked to see what my receiver says it's receiving.

also, stuff like comedians don't need BD quality and 5.1 sound. those are no-brainers for streaming. They're already lower quality anyway.

As has been stated repeatedly, streaming (Digital Distribution) and Blu-ray will co-exist for quite a while. In fact, the studios need both as neither alone will be able to grow the market from DVDs highs. At least in the near term.

If you take a look at studio executive comments, they do not expect the home video market to grow again until 2013... and even then they mention that both Blu-ray and Digital Distribution will be required to drive that growth.

Just got an email that my netflex disk will ship Friday

Thank you sir. Not necessary but greatly appreciated. Also, let me apologize for not fully explaning my comments at first, thereby leading to the confusion.

that's fair enough...

although if we use the example of mp3's vs. cd's... cd's haven't gone anywhere... at least not yet... actually, as storage gets cheaper, the "advantage" of a mp3 file is beginning to lessen... that, imo, will reach an equilibrium point (and probably soon), and the only people who will bother with lossy mp3's (or any other perceptual codec) will be those who steal music...

trust me... i like quality...

edit: and i'll toss in my apology as well... don't want to tick anyone off... it was the phrasing of the original comment that got me, especially since someone in another thread is bloviating most mightily about "never..." and i was already irritated..

I really like the idea of streaming although movies are just part of the argument to have the capability for streaming.

Receintly, I tried to buy some football tickets but the stadium was sold out. I called all of the sports bars but even though the game was nationally broadcast, My whole area was blacked out . I finally was able to get the game from a pirate feed that streamed to my computer. But, since my computer was not hooked to my 60" 1080 P TV I went just about blind looking at the small stuff on the screen.
Since my Laptop was on it's last legs, I decided to buy a fast 2.53 duo and 6 GB of ram and a HDMI port to stream tof Denon AVR.

Now I need to learn about all the stuff that I don't know squat about like DVX, NetFLIX , Cinema Now from BB, etc. I noticed that LG had a blu ray player that streamed to the net but since I have the computer, I wonducer why do I need such a device (my Tosh HD DVD player plays regular DVD's just fine).

I may be on the wrong thread, but would like to know what direction to go?

my take...

for netflix, it's hard to beat the roku box... i know many of the new blu-ray spinners (and other devices) are including the ability to stream netflix, but i don't necessarily trust the ce's to keep updating the firmware to add new features... whereas on the roku box, we've gotten a couple of big things (amazon on demand and mlb) in the last year...

ymmv, and that's just one man's opinion...

can't help with divx... i don't use it...

Surprised none of the bars in your area have the NFL Sunday Ticket. Nearly everybody in my area has it, and promote it as such ("Come drink beer and wings and watch every game").

In my area, they insist we should be Ravens fans (even though I live in PA) so Baltimore takes precedence over Pittsburgh. Bars are packed with people watching the Pittsburgh games when they aren't on broadcast TV.

I had NFL sunday ticket but missed the Wings so now I do go to the bar's.
What gets me P.O. though is when my Alma Mater is Blacked out. Even ESPN game day plan was blacked out and the bars for 150 miles away were blacked out also. I used a feed on my computer from Justin TV and watched the game in miniture.

I thought I could also use the PC to stream stuff like netflex or some of the other stuff over the net. My laptop has a 500gb hard drive and I was wondering if I could just download to the HD (sort of like I do with my D* DVR) then watch a movie at my leasure. Since D* charges $$ for a movie and Netflex only a monthly subscription that is a better value and has a larger library, I was wondering if I could not just use the PC as a DVR. D* Showtime and HBO plays the same movies forever

Again I reiterate, I know nothing about codec's etc and what I need so am looking for direction

Hi..
Cool information... Thanks for sharing the information..

Replacement for emotional attachment to poontang.

I can answer some of this:

Netflix: You can stream this through your PC, but not the HD material. In order to stream HD material, you have to have an HD capable device (XBOX, PS3, Tivo, Roku box, some Blu-Ray Players). At this time, the PC is NOT an HD capable device. You can not download the material to your hard drive. You just select it on the website and it starts streaming in a few seconds. There's no need to download it really, but there are cases where licenses expire and titles are removed (occassionally....I don't see much of it, but it does happen).

Other than Netflix, there is tons of streaming material available, so I won't go into it all, other than just to mention Hulu.com. I am assuming you are not familiar with it based on your post above, but I use it like a DVR. You open an account (free for now, but there's talk they may start to charge in 2010), and then you can subscribe to shows, and new episodes show up in your queue, just like a DVR. When they show up depends on the show, but for the most part, it's within a day after they air. Last night's Fringe is already in my queue). However I subscribe to a couple that show up much later (for example, It's Always In Philadelphia shows up 8 days later, which is annoying). Quality of Hulu (for anything new) is 480p and generally looks like a DVD, or perhaps just slightly worse. I mostly use it as a compliment to my DVR for conflicts or just shows I miss.

Thanks for your reply. I don't understand though my computer ASUS G 72 has a HDMI port and although it does not have a blu ray player has something about blu Ray software included. The screen resolutions have theater mode as on of it's options.
Bundled with the computer was BB Cinema Now which I guess I can download movies.

From what I was told at BB, the technology is changing so fast that "players" if not already dead, were soon to be burried.
I am technology challanged so excuse me if I sound stupid. I don't want to stand in line at the cassock machine for the one night rentals and mailing does not appeal to me.

It would be great if there was a source for good information as I really enjoy HD. I don't want to buy the movies from D* that I can download to my DVR and find out I had bought a "stinker"

If you like HD, wait until the movies come in the mail. You only have to wait a few days for the movie to get to your home. If you have a DVD/Blue-ray player and a HDTV at home, you will get much better picture quality going that rout. What is the point of buying a 65inch HDTV and a Blue-ray player and only use it for streaming poor quality movies over the net?