Wow, Netflix is definitely not what I expected when I signed up - Page 2

As a long-time Netflix subscriber (Nov '99), I still believe the streaming and disc features are complementary. I still get discs for the latest movies, but use streaming for older stuff and TV, and the occasional newer or independent feature that comes out.

I remembered the other reason I prefer VUDU over Netflix. I don't have a PS3, Roku 2, Panasonic BD player, or an Apple TV, so I'm limited to stereo streams on Netflix. VUDU gives me DD+.

I have Netflix 1-disc-out+streaming, even though I wasn't happy last year when they raised the price to $15.99 it's still better than HBO, Starz, etc. I like foreign movies and documentaries which Netflix IW has a lot of. Wait til the end of 2012 when the studio deals kick-in(Dreamworks, Weinstein, etc), they will be getting a lot of blockbuster movies.

This is just some of the movies that will be on Netflix streaming this year-

Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Thor
Captain America
Rango
Paranormal Activity 3
Hugo
Adventures of Tintin
Super 8
Immortals
Act of Valor
The Artist


And the second biggest movie of 2011
Transformers:
Dark of the Moon

Also, Universal and Fox's contracts for new movies on HBO is up this year and Starz's contracts with Disney and Sony is also up this year, Netflix just grab up Dreamworks Animation and they could be looking at other studios.

If they don't come out in time, you can watch both of those on VUDU. For just signing up, you can watch one of them for free.

I don't think Netflix is getting enough credit for it streaming titles (or for the dvds it has available). I've been a movie fanatic for well over 45 years and have seen an outrageous amount of movies of all types and genres. I wasn't sure if it would be worth it to join for just that reason but after joining I have been amazed at just how many really good, new (for me) films I've seen and the fact that so many good ones ARE available to stream and on dvd (ones that I have already seen). Maybe people just don't take enough chances when picking a movie or don't know enough about them to take that chance. There are all kinds of film anthologies like Video Hound's Independent Film Guide or The Phantom's Ultimate Video Guide or Guide for the Film Fanatic to name a few that offer short, concise synopsis' of thousands of films that could help with making choices. There are many good websites to check like Rotten tomatoes which ranks the best (and worst) films of every year and lists the top 100 per genere. Metacritic.com is a great place to find great films. They list the top 100 best rated films of all time, the top 100 worst rated films plus they list all the award winning films from just about any critic's organization or societies from the year 2000 up till now. Now of course my recommendations are based on my opinion but Netflix streams alone has films like A Town Called Panic, Paper Heart, Savage Grace, Bright Star, Intermission, Battleground, Waco:The Rule of Engagement, The Maid, The Last September, The Most Dangerous Game, 3:10 to Yuma (original), The Devil Came on Horseback, Surveillance, The Most Dangerous Man in America, The Plague Dogs, Mary and Max, Hunger, The Greatest, Kicking It, The Damned United, 35 Shots of Rum, Goodbye, Solo, Silent Light, Under the Sand, The 4D Man, Sound and Fury, Man Push Cart, Hell House, Chop Shop, The Stoning of Soraya M., Helvetica, Werwolf of London, Art and Copy, The Girl on the Train, The Velveteen Rabbit, How About You, Every Little Step, The Rape of Europa, Mine, Then She Found Me, Hearts and Minds, Thirst, Right At Your Door, Ratcatcher, A Boy and His Dog, The September Issue, Sunshine Cleaning, Them (not the sci-fi flick, though that's a great one, too) are just a few that run the gamut of every type of film you can think of that you might enjoy. And that's not even mentioning the wide variety of dvds they have available (I have had a list of nearly 100 films that I have been trying to see for nearly 20 years that just haven't been available at Blockbuster etc and that list has been reduced to about 10 or so since joining Netflix. I actually found all the Knights Templer zombie films at Netflix by stream or dvd and those films have been nowhere to rent ever). I was seeing so many good flicks available (ones that I already have seen) it made me want to go through the categories and make a list to post on this thread so other film geeks would get a chance to discover some of these gems I've already seen. And to think it can only get better. To me, at this price, nothing anywhere compares. It helps if you try and push out of the blockbuster mentality and branch out. And Netflix is still adding new, recent films AND some films that are 20-30 years old.

The focus by the fringe 'ranters' over the bad movies that are carried on the service bothers me as well. Doesn't that really apply to all programming services? Not every movie on Showtime, Starz or HBO is gold, and no one watches everything that is shown by them. If Netflix were a linear channel, like other pay tv, then their quality films and imported tv shows would be scheduled in and around primetime, solid, entertaining material during daytime and the not so wonderful fare consigned to late nigh and weekends. Nobody would notice or care about movies that they wouldn't like. But because with streaming you have to make decisions yourself, some fixate far too much on the crappier stuff than they should.

agree fully with you and subavision212 ..

The haters just can't be satisfied .. just like when NF changed streaming to pay from free and boosted the disc cost as well ..

Has anyone looked at the cost of a gallon of gas .. ??

NF is the best entertainment value out there .. (I'm quoting myself) ..

Do you ever feel when watching commercial TV that you are always being told to buy something? Netflix for $8 mo. can't be beat for one reason nobody has mentioned: No Commercials EVER! I can watch a one-hour TV show in 43 minutes. Do the math over a year's time. No interruptions, no insulting your intelligence.

And I love the foreign, quirky, old movies, all the TV series, and the documentaries and non-fiction content. I feel my life is much richer now than it ever was with cable TV.

I'm a cord cutter and proud of it.

They didn't actually increase the disc rental cost, did they? It's $8/month for one-out-at-a-time. I don't think that plan was any cheaper before streaming was added.

What happened was streaming was included in the $10 1-disc plan, IIRC. Then they added a streaming only for $8, and a disc only for $8. They just did away with the $10 disc+stream plan.

Which was the best deal going, IMO, but the current structure really isn't outrageous. I don't think it's the end all, be all of streaming,which is why I still advocate VUDU and others in addition to Netflix if you want to watch anything and everything. There really isn't a magic streaming bullet from one company yet.

They increased the price for something no one else offered (streaming plus disc rental, the so called 60% increase), but the price went down for those who didn't want or use streaming. I don't think that the one disc out plan, prior to the introduction of free streaming in 2007 (when it was only on PC) was any cheaper than $8/month.

These are part of the Epix deal.

Thor starts on Epix this month and Captain America in April. When that means they show up on Netflix I don't know.

^^90 days after debuting on Epix.

Just started getting into Netflix streaming through my Oppo. Having heard so many great things about Breaking Bad I've started watching from season one. The picture was good, but audio only 2.0. Do any of the streaming titles have surround sound?

There are only a few 1080p/5.1 devices. Worth investing in one of them, IMO. And yes, Breaking Bad is one of the 5.1 titles.

I know the PS3 and Roku 2 do, and I know there's others, but I suck at remembering them Someone else will pipe in.

I think those are the only devices that do both 1080p and 5.1. The Panasonic 3D players also do 5.1, but only 720p right now. Same with Apple TV, IIRC.

I thought the WD TV Live thing did? Maybe not.

I wish they'd roll out devices faster that support both. I really want to offload my PS3 and buy a quieter BD player, but am waiting for a BD player that does 1080p/5.1 from Netflix.

Ok, I just got an Oppo 93, I'll deal with it.
I may get an Apple TV, but I'm going to wait for the next release.

The 2012 Panasonic BD players do. For a full list of 1080p capable devices (and I think that all of them probably also do 5.1 sound and subtitles/CC), see "When is 1080P Netflix coming to my device?" at techofthehub.com. The blogger, AVS Forum member "RangerOne", keeps that up to date.

You can see a list of titles with 5.1 sound here, at Gabe's (RangerOne's) TVandMoviesNow.com, where you can also filter for HD, genre and a bunch of other things, and sort by date added, expiration date, popularity, etc. (All but 2 or 3 of the DD+ 5.1 sound titles are also in HD).

Thanks. Maybe time to get that BD player, since the BDT-220 is only $140: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMP-...4PK/ref=sr_1_1

Hmm...that page says Viera Connect now has all the majors (Netflix, Amazon VOD, Hulu+ and Vudu)? Am I missing something?

Any reason not to get that? Guess I need to hop on over to that other thread.

There have been reported frustrations with the Viera Connect Hulu Plus player. VUDU on the 2012 models can play the very limited selection of available 3D titles; last year's models cannot. The 2012 models can play the VOD channels with 24p output, though you apparently have to turn it on after you start a title playing every time .

I own the 220 and owned a 110; the 220 is the least expensive of the 2012 3D players and basically a replacement for the 210. They've added a few new features (FLAC, AVCHD 3D and MP4 playback from some sources, the ability to play files from NTFS formatted USB devices (last year's models could only handle FAT32). Nothing too horribly earth-shaking. Sadly, they switched from the Netflix GUI that was originally on the PS3 to the less powerful one that's currently on the PS3. I was hoping for more powerful processors and faster VOD menus, but if anything the new Netflix UI is even less responsive. Still, it plays 1080p video, 5.1 sound and closed caption without the annoying bugs and limitations of the Roku 2.

Netflix is awesome and I find the quality of its streaming to be top notch, looks almost as good as blu ray for me on anything in HD.
I do hate their personalised ratings though, I wish they'd just give me the average rating of a title rather than what they think I'm going to think of it, its invariable incorrect and I hate being pigeonholed.
Still it can't be beat for documentaries, Tv shows, foreign movies and best of all British TV that it's hard to find even in England.

And if you haven't watched it yet go and watch "Peep Show"
Immediately. (Gets better each series)

I think you sold me. Does it have any kindof quality indicator or have they done away with that on pretty much anything that's not a PS3? Oh, and does it automatically play the 5.1 stream, or do you have to manually choose it each time (I believe you mentioned before that on the Roku, it defaults to stereo so you have to manually choose it).

I did look at the 320. I'm not a huge fan of slots though (would rather have a tray since once I got a disc stuck in my PS3 and you can't manually eject the thing), and was trying to figure out if that blue glowy light thing they show in the picture could be turned off. Regardless, for what I want, I don't think it's necessary I bump up to that. As long as I can play Netflix and Vudu (not subscribed to Hulu+ yet), and connect to my PlayOn media server, I think I'll be happy.


They do have average ratings on the website, and I use the Chrome plugin that gives you IMDB ratings as well when using the website. No big deal to me since I find the personalized ratings usually spot on (of course, I have rated several thousand movies and gone through that huge survey thing, but it was well worth it since the personalized ratings now work for me, for the majority of titles).

Wow, I thought I was the only one on this side of the pond that watched Peep Show (I watched on Hulu, though.)

I have a love/hate relationship with that series. I think it's hysterical, but there are times that I think it gets a little too dark. As in, "I'm going to hell for laughing at this, I know it." The part where Mark thinks he may be gay and starts watching gay porn is wonderfully f'ed up.

I think Netflix is an excellent replacement for cable (premium channels included). In fact, in many ways it is so much better. I mean, when I think of how I use cable, I basically do a lot of flipping around looking for something -- anything -- worth watching and I rarely, if ever, find it. When I do find something interesting, it's halfway over. And let's be real here: most of the stuff on basic cable is low quality BS.

With Netflix, everything starts when I am READY for it to start and not a moment sooner. And you may think a lot of the titles are crap, but I can always find SOMETHING worth watching. I've watched a lot of interesting documentaries and some decent horror flicks and I've even started watching old TV shows that never interested me during their first runs (Breaking Bad and Mad Men, for starters).

And although this may surprise many of you, the PQ on netflix is actually vastly superior to the crappy picture I get from Dishnet (I am running a 20 mbps broadband connection from Charter and get Netflix's highest quality feed.)

So I think the issue here is one of expectation. It's not a replacement for top-tier On Demand services like Vudu, but for the amount I am paying, I am very pleased. If I'd had Netflix back when I was catching up on ABC's Lost, I never would have spent all that money on the Blu-Ray discs. The amount of money I am saving on Mad Men and Breaking Bad would pay for Netflix for more than 2 years...

Why the 320? Why not the 220 for $40 less and no slot or blue glowy light thing?

You can connect to playon, but it will transcode everything but mkv and mpeg, so I wouldn't count on a lot of high quality file streaming.

There is no quality indicator like on the PS3.