Best possible Netflix streaming device - Page 24

Called Netflix. They had me adjust my user control panel online to support the highest quality bitstream. Now I just need a 1080p movie to test with it. Will try to report back. Thanks.

Just give me a honeycomb update and the google browser still makes it worthwhile for the price.

Anyway, this is always developing area so we're bound to go through a few products.

Thanks for the correction. Might've been updated since I read it. Before posting I only re-checked the summary line at the bottom that doesn't mention Hub: "The existing universe of 1080P Netflix devices includes the Sony Playstation3, Roku 2 XS and XD, WD TV Live and now LG 2011 Smart TVs and Samsung Smart Hub enabled devices."


It has the debug options but they don't do anything for Netflix (still do for other channels).

As I said before, you can pretty much pick an HD title at random--I've only encountered a handful which don't have a 1080p encoding. I use Ong Bak II for my testing--I choose it because I could get it on every platform and every service of the six that I have to test (Netflix on PS3, Xbox, BDT110, Roku 2, PC and TiVo S3, VUDU on PS3 and BDT110, Zune on Xbox) and because it has a long high-action, encoder challenging martial-arts-combat-in-the-rain sequence near the very beginning (minutes 4 through 13), pretty much guaranteed to cause encoders to use all the bandwidth they're allowed.

How do you intend to determine that you're getting 1080p?

Personally, I strongly doubt that the first line phone customer service reps of either Panasonic or Netflix would actually know if the BDTx10s can access the 1080p encodings.

Msgohan,

I am continually updating the post as I learn about new devices. The WD Live Hub has been confirmed by Western Digital as being 1080P.

Someone on the forum had suggested watching "Let the Right One In" as a test. The 1080P encode cuts off the subtitles (which are on the film itself). So, if the subtitles are not cut off, you are watching a 720P encode. So, far it's been an accurate indicator.

By the way, on the subject of the Panasonic DMP-BDT 110,210,310 Panasonic will not comment if they plan to bring 1080P Netflix to the device. The hardware should be capable of doing it, it's just a question if they want to devote the resources to updating the software. I'm bummed because I really like the Panasonic player for lots of reasons. There were some good Black Friday/Cyber Monday specials but I don't want to pick one up until I know about the 1080P Netflix support.

You're right! In the 1080p encode, any subtitles that fall outside of the picture in the black bar above are not show. They bounce back and forth between placing the subs at the top and bottom, and any one line subtitle at the top is invisible, except for a tiny bit of the descenders. Of course you can't read the first line of two line subs at the top. It makes the movie difficult to watch, unless you speak Swedish .

I'd heard that before but had forgotten it. Thanks for the reminder--it's a much quicker test than my bandwidth consumption graphs . I'm sure some people with PS3s, Roku 2s or other 1080p players who've watched the film must have complained, so they might get around to fixing it at some point, but I kind of doubt it. Also, the title might expire and disappear.

Anyone tried my "trick" on the PS3?


Can't decide if it sounds any better, and not sure what happens if you also have 7.1 output checked.

I tried it and I don't think that it's any better and it certainly doesn't havee the punch of the bitstreamed DD+. I don't think that it's actually decoding the DD+ directly, but extracting a AC3 core from it and decoding that.

It's interesting that when I simply disabled DD5.1 it chose to convert to DTS instead which also didn't sound any better. I had to disable both to get multi-channel LPCM.

Thanks again for this. As I said, got my parents the 210 due to built in wifi and got it all hooked up for them last night. Works like a charm and noticeably better than the wii at streaming Netflix, even with their slow 3Mbps connection. Also watched the Cars 2 BD and they were impressed. Oddly my 65 year old parents were more impressed with BD after 2 minutes than my wife has ever been


I'm going to get them a Harmony for Christmas and they'll be all set. Anyways, just wanted to follow up and thank you for the advice.

Well, that's sad. The hardware should definitely be capable of handling 5.1 Mbps Netflix 1080p/5.1 DD+ inasmuch as it handles VUDU 3-bar HDX, a 9 Mbps 1080p/5.1 DD+ encoding. If my BDT110 had 1080p Netflix I'd probably switch to using it for Netflix since I prefer its Netflix GUI to Roku's (the Webkit/HTML5 which Netflix codenamed "Special" which use to be on the PS3, replaced by one that nobody much likes). With 1080p Netflix, the BDT110's only weakness for my purposes would be the lack of 5.1 support in its Amazon player.

You're welcome. I'm glad that it worked out and I'm sure that they'll love the Harmony once you get it set up for their gear.

Got my mom a Panasonic BDT 210 over the weekend, and it seems to play Amazon videos much more reliably than her old Roku - which was constantly re-buffering. I suspect it's because it can take advantage of the 5g 802.11n wireless connection, whereas the Roku was limited to a slower speed. As far as Netflix, so far I haven't seen any of the black flashing interludes on Netflix that some consumers had warned against. She only has a 720 panny Viera tv, but the picture looked quite nice and this adds some functionality that she didn't have previously (Vudu, for example). She thinks the audio output for Netflix seems crisper (not sure that's not just subjective speculation), and she seemed happy to discover an option for subtitles (her older Roku did not support that feature) on some Netflix movies. Plus she preferred the interface for selecting alternate episodes (a vertical menu) vs the older Roku horizontal click click click ad nauseum. ) Most of all, she was very impressed by the wave your hand over the top of the box and the DVD door opens by magic -- she had trouble seeing the buttons on prior DVD black boxes, so this seems do-able. All in all, it was a worthwhile purchase, even tho' she wont be viewing the content at the highest res and may not upgrade to Blu-Ray mailed discs on Netflix. (The standard dvds are playing nicely). Oh, one more plus -- the dedicated NETFLIX button in red on the remote, so you can bypass the menus. Now, if only I could figure out how to disable the beep each time you select something from the menu. I may have to look at the manual!

5Ghz N or 2.4Ghz N should not matter unless their 2.4Ghz N is over saturated. Netflix bitrates are very slow. Even wireless G has no problem with playing Netflix max bitrates.

FYI, Google TV now supports 1080P in Netflix with the Honeycomb update. The Revue also outputs surround in 5.1 PCM. I'm not sure about the Sony Google TVs and surround sound. Can anyone verify? The 1080P Netflix article has been update to reflect this.

Nice

I know it is 5.1 but are you sure it is 1080P now? Can you give a link to this "1080P Netflix article" that has been updated?

He refers to the "When is 1080P Netflix coming to my device?" article on his blog.

The Revue does seem to be doing 1080P in Netflix after the update according to the "Let The Right One In" quick test http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post21097278

Anyone have a list or some examples of 1080P movies on Netflix?

Nearly all titles which have any HD encoding have a 1080p one; I've only run across a few that didn't and those were pointed out to me by others. They don't mark the descriptions in any way to indicate the availability of a 1080p encoding, probably because they intend for all titles to have them. (I just posted that paragraph in response to the same question in another thread ).

Today B&N issue a firmware update for Nook Color, from 2.2 to 4.1, I think. It added the Android Netflix player. I thought I'd mention it, though it's clearly not one of the "best possible Netflix streaming devices" . It streams the video pretty well, but navigating the menus is a bit slow and jerky. I've been considering selling my Nook Color and buying a 7" Android tab running Honeycomb, though most are at least $75 more expensive than the Nook Tablet, with many costing more than twice as much (Galaxy Tab 7.7 is going for $700, WiFi-only --of course it has a whiz-bang AMOLED display).

Looking for advice - I currently have a Toshiba DVD recorder to play movies, and wii for Netflix. I'd like to improve my netflix resolution, but thinking blue ray would be nice too, especially for kids / animated movies. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a blu-ray / 1080p netflix device (other than PS3, which I don't want).

Let's say the budget is $100, would you get a Roku box and have best possible netflix, or get a cheap blu-ray player w/netflix (which would be better netflix than wii + add blu ray capability). I have network wire on site, so wireless is not a concern.

New WD TV Live has as of today added Vudu (no DD+??? but DD+ w/Netflix) so all that's needed now is Amazon...

I would go for blu ray. I have a 720p Netflix panny 110 and a 1080p Netflix PS3, and it's really hard to see any difference. But both are vastly better than my Wii.

Oddly enough upconverted DVD looks almost as good as bluray on animated stuff. It's on live action that bluray really shines.

Yeah, I love my Roku, but also have Blu-ray players with Netflix, and if you don't have a Blu-ray player already I would go that direction. The "1080p" you would be getting over Netflix is as far as I can tell universally agreed to be less than Blu-ray quality, and as mdavej said you probably won't notice any difference between the 720p and the 1080p streams. Also keep in mind there aren't a huge number of HD titles available anyway relative to all the SD content on Netflix.

Good luck with your shopping!

I recently posted some links to still frames of 720p Netflix and 1080p Netflix in another thread here and here and some comparisons that you can make of 1080p Netflix to BD here. I stated in the first post that I thought that the difference wasn't something that'd matter to Joe Average but some people responded who thought that the difference was significant to them (probably to assert that they weren't Joe Average ).

Thanks guys (and gals?) I went with a cheap sony blu ray (have sony tv) from Costco.

Although, after my 1st experience writing files from camcorder to DVD last night (1 DVD per ~30min of recording time), I may need to look into the PS3, Xbox, or some alternative way to watch digital media on the TV w/o having to burn a zillion DVD's. Is there a thread on this subject? I just got a Denon 2112, so that connects to the network, but I don't think it will help with the video stuff - need to read more...

Why would you need a PS3 for that? What exactly is the problem streaming to your current player via DLNA and something like Serviio? Works fine for me.

That's my problem, I don't know. I had to google DLNA... Someone mentioned an xbox can do this. I'm looking for options to watch video clips from out camcorder (that are on a external drive - or could put kept on a laptop) on my tv, without having to drag crap all over the place. Laptop is always on the network in a different room.

What are options, or where is a good spot to look w/o threadjacking this thread?

Thanks.