Best possible Netflix streaming device - Page 30

My TiVo is the original Series3 so I won't get the app. I'd upgrade except that I have lifetime service on it which isn't transferable. If they ever make a temporary PLS transfer available I'll do it.

Just sell it. Lifetime boxes have an excellent resale value. When new models come out, I sell my older lifetime TiVos to cover 80% to 100% of the cost of the new TiVos with lifetime service. I did it most recently when the Premieres were first released in March 2010 and then when the Elite was first released in October 2011. And now I will do it again with a second Elite I got last week.

Excellent point, and not mentioned enough (not Roku but wifi streaming). Where I live, Comcast allows only 1 ethernet connection per houshold and that goes to the computer room. My a/v room is on the other side of my house.

**Lilyhammer rocks! Whats not to like Stevie Van Zandt surrounded by 50 naked Norwegian high school girls jogging?

Why not run an Ethernet cable to that room? You can then use an Ethernet switch there to split it up as much as you want. Alternatively, you could possibly use a standalone receiver (I keep forgetting the name) that is placed to get a good WiFi signal and hook the switch up to that. This would give you a known good signal instead of relying on each devices individual receiver that may not be optimally oriented for a good signal.

Hello,

Has anyone got this error codes while trying to access Netflix from a PS3?
ui-200, ui-108, or
ui-502, ui-100
They are shown together in pairs, as listed in each row above.

They show everytime I cannot access Netflix from the PS3 (even if the internet connection is fine).

Any help will be appreciated.

http://www.techofthehub.com/2012/05/...on-review.html

TiVo has just released a new Netflix player as part of their 2012 spring software update. In addition to being able to browse the Netflix catalog, the new TiVo Premiere Netflix player comes with support for 1080P HD video, Dolby Digital Plus surround sound and closed captions. When you add in TiVo's comprehensive search capability and the convenience it offers (given TiVo usually lives on HDMI1), this is one of the best Netflix streaming implementations available.

Wow, it does 1080P/24 as well. This might persuade me to go back to TiVo. I am certainly annoyed at all the issues I have with WMC and the Prime and having Netflix intergrated with my Cable was nice, since those are the two things I watch the most.

In general the reviews of the new Netflix implementation on Tivo Community have been favorable. The picture quality is outstanding once the stream switches to 1080P24. As long as there is a very solid network connection and the Netflix servers aren't having problems things are good. Its a bit annoying when the service switches from 1080i to 1080p since the HDMI renegotiation takes about 3 seconds on my Kuro Plasma.

I'm hoping Netflix can figure out a way to start out at a low-quality 1080p and avoid the switchover all-together.

Are you saying that it switches output resolution in the middle of playing video? At first I thought I misunderstood because to do that is beyond idiotic. It was too ludicrous to believe. But apparently, that's what's going on?

All other devices maintain a constant video output resolution. The stream bit-rate/resolution can waver all it wants, up to but not exceeding the output resolution.

Giving it a bit more thought though, perhaps it isn't too surprising given the downward spiral of the Tivo user experience. Every hardware revision gets more and more sluggish to user button presses and UI interaction.

Other devices maintain an output resolution because they are scaling that content. The TiVO is unable to scale to 1080p. It can only passthrough 1080p24. Other devices scale to 1080p60. The TiVO can scale to 1080i and lower. So to avoid the issue you would have to set the TiVO to only output One HD resolution. Either 720p or 1080i. But not both.

But I think the TiVO is one of the few devices that can output the native 1080p24 stream which allows an external scaler to do the job which can be better than other devices like the roku2 and the ps3. Either way there is a trade off.

Ah--now I understand. This erases any consideration of my possibly upgrading my S3 because the Premiere now has that player. There's just no way around that

The TiVo's inability to upscale to 1080p is a sad design deficiency. I have two BD players, a PS3 and a Roku 2 which can do it; why not the latest and greatest TiVo products?

I believe the 2012 Panasonic bluray players also output 1080p24 (at least from Netflix). And of course 1080p60 for other content.

Michael, you had the Panny 220/320, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yep--the 2012 Panasonics can output 24p from VOD services (Netflix, VUDU, Amazon, etc). You have to turn it on every time (at least once per session with the player--I don't have a television which can accept 24p), but it can do it.

It's true that the Roku 2, Sony BD players and PS3 are going to output 1080p60, but they can convert everything to that.

Got it, thanks. Our Mits DLP does accept 24p, but it's only 60hz anyway, so it doesn't matter either way. That's about the only feature I miss in this 4 year old TV: 120 or 240 hz.

I am using a TiVo Premiere with a Samsung LN550 to watch netflix on. I have an HTPC hooked up as well as my Bluray player and secondary viewer. I have my tv set to just scan for the HTPC or else, the display is cut off for some reason.

However, my issue that I am having is as I watch netflix on my TiVto through my samsung tv it will adjust the from 1080i60hz to 1080 24hz and back again over and over again. How can I get my tv or my tivo to settle at 24hz and stay there? I have set the TiVo to just show 1080i now in its settings to make netflix watchable, but there is a noticeable difference.

Anyone have any ideas other then setting the TiVo to only display 1080i? for the TV or otherwise?

Netflix uses a technology called Adaptive Bit-rate Streaming (ABS) which chooses one of several possible encodings of the title based on whether current conditions (bandwidth available on its connection to Netflix's servers, the current responsiveness of those servers) are such that it can keep its buffer full of the selected encoding. If conditions worsen and it can't keep the buffer full, it will drop back to a lower bit rate, lower PQ encoding; when things improve it will change to a higher bit rate, higher PQ encoding. The idea is that it should never pause for buffering.

This works best if you can set output of the Netflix player to a fixed resolution. Unfortunately, TiVo cannot scale anything else to 1080p24; it can only play a 1080p24 source as 1080p24. There's really nothing that you can do other than get better network service which can always guarantee the 6 or 7 Mbps needed to keep ahead of the 5.2 Mbps average 1080p24 w/5.1 sound stream. Even that won't work if the problem is with your local Netflix servers being overloaded and unable to send the stream fast enough to keep up.

If you set your TiVo output to 1080i only, you will get the 1080p24 encodings when possible, scaled to 1080i30. Uniquely among Netflix players, if you set your TiVo's output to 720p60-only it will still ask for the 1080p24 encoding (if conditions are right) and play it, scaling it to 720p60. (All the other many Netflix playing devices that I own will never ask for encodings at higher resolution than their maximum output resolution, which is a bit of a waste of bandwidth).
Edited by michaeltscott - 7/12/12 at 7:29am

So I should enable 720p and it might settle out the issue a little? I have fios and a massive download bandwidth so that shouldn't be the issue but it might be the Netflix server.

Adding 720p will just make thing possibly worse--with 720p, 1080i and 1080p selected, it shouldn't ever choose 1080i while using Netflix. and if conditions aren't good, it will bobble back and forth between 720p60 and 1080p24, with a visual gap of 2 or 3 seconds with each switch.

Sadly, the only thing you can do which will get your 1080 resolution out of Netflix without disruptive changes into and out of 1080p24 is to set 1080i as the only output resolution while watching Netflix or any other ABS streamer. It will play the 1080p encoding for your title if there is one and conditions allow, scaled to 1080i30. People on TiVo Community Forums have suggested that they have a separate resolution setting for Netflix. (Shame that the TiVo doesn't offer a 1080p60 output choice, or some framerate evenly divisible by 24).

FYI, the Barnes and Noble Nook tablet asks for a higher quality encode than it can display. It probably has to do with the fact that it's screen is 1024x600. More info here:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/nooks-advertising-is-corrected/

These 1024x600 screens are a bit of an oddball and Android doesn't handle them very well. The KindleFire (the emulator I don't have one) shows up as an extra large screen when I think it should be a large screen which would be more compatible. Makes supporting these devices a headache.

I own a Nook Color and like the 7" form-factor but have avoided buying a new tablet until a screen with at least 1280x800 res became more affordable, as they are this summer, starting with Google's Nexus 7.

Well, here's a new one--Vizio's "Co-Star", a $100 Google TV box with a two-sided remote, a full keyboard on one side. Not much detail available at Vizio's site, but a very unique feature of it is an ability to play full-on 3D PC games streamed from OnLive. (OnLive runs the games on their servers and stream the video in 720p to your device and accepts control from it). OnLive is a service which runs console and PC games (actually, I think it's an Android app, so it probably worked on all Google TV platforms, but this is the first Google TV device to advertise it). When the service appeared a few years back I gave it a try on my PC; owning an Xbox 360 and a PS3 I didn't have much use for it but I was blown away by the sheer coolness of their UI.

I'd like to see more details of what it can do but I may have to buy one for the hell of it .

I'm in the market for a streaming device. What's the best device under $75? My wife pointed out a Sony (SMPN200) that was $49.99. That prompted me to start doing research to see what else is out there.

Any suggestions? Is the sony decent for Netflix?

Do you require any service other than Netflix (Amazon, Hulu Plus, VUDU, etc) and if so, what? Do you care about 1080p HD (as opposed to 720p, which most can provide)? Do you care about 5.1 sound for the subset of Netflix titles which have it?

If all you're looking for is Netflix, I'd recommend the Roku 2 XD, though it's slightly over your stated price cap ($79.99 at Roku w/free shipping, $78 Prime Eligible at Amazon); full-featured Netflix, Amazon and Hulu Plus players and an endless variety of other streamers which can be downloaded into it (though sadly not VUDU). If you don't care about 1080p, the Roku 2 LT is out there for $50.
Edited by michaeltscott - 7/26/12 at 11:34am

We don't have Hulu Plus, no clue what VUDU is, I think the TV we are hooking up to is 720p, don't need 5.1. It's the TV in our bedroom, so we don't need it to be a movie theater.

I guess, what's the best bang for the buck? I suppose the more services the better in case we want to sign up for any of them down the road. I don't care about streaming games, but music might be a good thing to have.

If I were you, I'd go for the Roku 2 LT for $50 (apparently a new list price that I'm only seeing at Roku's site--most others seem to want $60 for it). It has all the popular streaming services other than VUDU (a high-quality-oriented streaming rental service) and 720p output. You can see its available services here.

Just be aware that only the top-end Roku has WIRED networking. The lower two models are wireless ONLY.

It's the reason that I bought the XS--the XD has all the same capabilities w/o a wired Ethernet connection; I don't use wireless for anything other than portable devices. But I think that the great majority of people like the convenience of wireless and I'm willing to bet that he doesn't have a network cable running to his bedroom television.

Bingo