Netflix adds 3D and Super HD - Page 18

I would think so, or they would be talking out of both sides of their mouths. Pressing for ISPs to sign up with Open Connect while saying its "free" to do so yet denying access to non-ISPs such as VPN/DNS providers wouldnt make much sense and only further open up their strategy to even more scrutiny. Its Netflix themselves who are offering Open Connect under the guise of a "free lunch".

I have two issues with unblock-us

1. My local network was unreliable after setting the unblock-us DNS servers in my router. I have two Tomato Routers connected by WDS which gives me great coverage throughout our home. With the unblock-us DNS I had to reset many of the the connected devices and the two Tomato routers over the three day period I was using unblock-us. It sounds like most of you are not seeing these issues.

2. Totally hit or miss connection to the Super HD Servers from my Roku 2 XS. I have many other Netflix Devices but this is the only one where Super HD would really help. It sounds like you are all seeing these issues.

I set the unblock-us DNS in my router.

I wonder if the issues are caused by local DNS caching issues - unfortunately unblock-us support forums seem particularly useless.....

It's amazing how many popular theatrical releases are available in Canada but not here (of course, the same might be said vice-versa ). Sadly it can't be watched on embedded devices and, just as with the US catalog, lots of it can't be watched in HD on PC. There's still quite a few juicy titles that are available to watch in HD on PC (The Hunger Games for instance).

Some of the good stuff available in Canada but not here is old; things like 12 Monkeys and the first couple of Terminator films. Strange that they can't license those here.

It depends on has the rights to the title. It can be different in every country. And agreements need to be made in each country with the entity that owns the distribution rights to the title.

I know, funny how it works. I have been able to find some titles in other countries that have NEVER been on US NF! Like I said before....having access to 9 other countries content is more than worth the 5 bucks alone....I consider the SuperHD and 3D as a bonus.

I did watch an SHD title last night on PS3 and finally it showed 1080P. Also in regards to the 3D, its frame packing, because the titles I had watched were SBS. I didnt think about it too much until you said that then I remember that was in a PS3 firmware update a couple years back were it said that and also said the max res was 720P.

Edit: also, FWIW, I have been able to find a lot of titles that are PPV on VuDu and Amazon, plus I dont like the way some titles look on Amazon. The NF version of Transformers DSOTM is much better looking than the Amazon Prime version IMO.
Edited by synistr - 2/14/13 at 6:47am

I dont think there is a definite answer to that right now. I havent had time to play around as much as I'd like. I just wanted to get to watching so when I had my routers configured, it was unreliable. So I just decided to only configure my PS3. At first it seemed more reliable but then I realized it wasnt. Took me about 7 tries last night to connect to the SHD servers.

Good catch Mike T. I should know better than to post after midnight

Side-by-Side 3D reduces the horizontal resolution by ½.

IIRC, the PlayStation 3 is a reduced 3D resolution device since it is implemented in firmware. I could be wrong, PS3 gurus should chime in and explain. Dedicated 3D Blu-ray players (your DMP-BDT220) should be FHD3D (full H & V resolution).

Okay--I was wrong about that. I had some trouble watching some things on my Roku 2 (which seems to work fine with them now). I can watch all of the Canada-only stuff on all of my embedded players: PS3, BD players, TiVo and Roku (didn't try the Xbox, but it being 720p-only I don't care).

Weird thing is that I read somewhere that you could do 1080i with SBS. Makes more sense that 1080i would be possible with T&B. What I read must have been wrong.

I have watched content from each of the other countries at some point on my PS3 just fine. SHD at that....just have to get connected to their servers and from there PQ is great.

The DMP-BDT220 doesn't have access to the Netflix 3D streams. I did notice last night that the Vudu 3D streams on the PS3 was also showing in 720P. I need to try out the VuDu 3D streams on my BDT220 to see what it shows. Since I won't be using the PS3 for anything other than Netflix since the audio from the PS3 is still borked for Vudu, Amazon, and Hulu+(but is perfectly fine from Netflix). 2.0 and 5.1 audio is still sent out in a 7.1 wrapper which makes it worthless using those apps on the PS3 since receivers can't do the proper post processing when the audio is sent the way.

In both case, SbS T&B, they are resampled back to the input format, i.e. the signal to the display may be 1080i. But the fact remains it will have ½ the V or H resolution. The up side to these methods is they can use existing channels (ATSC, DVB-S, DVB-T, etc.) to provide 3D. Thankfully the BDA sucked it up decided to start at ground zero and introduce a new format with full resolution. The down side was it was not backwards compatible with older players and required new hardware (except the PS3).

I dont think there is a difference...its just an update in code. My NF on my Viera still displays Medium/High/X-High. PS3 only says either 720p or 1080p from what I have seen. I played the Life series in SuperHD last night on PS3 and got 1080p indicator and played some episodes through Viera on regular HD and got the High/HD indicator. I honestly cannot tell the difference. If you dont care about 3D, I really have yet to see what you would be missing in PQ by not having the SuperHD streams.

I begin to agree with you about this. There's some special stuff on Netflix in other countries--in Mexico and Brazil you can get Monsters, Inc, which isn't currently available to stream for love or money from any service in the United States (probably will be soon with the publication of the BD).

It's interesting that Super HD does not seem to be available in Mexico when you can get it in the US, Canada and Brazil.

BTW, do check out moreflicks.com (advertised on Unblock-US). You can search it and it'll tell what Netflix regions a matched title is available in.

There's a difference. You just need to have a good enough/big enough TV that's properly calibrated. Now whether or not the difference is worth the extra money is entirely up to you. As many of us are stating, for the other advantages, like multi-region Netflix support, and BBC-iPlayer support in the PS3 I think it's worth it.

When you are talking animated...you are talking smorgasbord! Titles like Despicable Me, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, How To Train Your Dragon, Toy Story series, etc....
Then when you are talking other movies and shows....for instance...Fringe, the whole series is on Canada. Movies like 300, the Spartacus series, The Tudors, the list goes on and on. As if I didnt have enough to watch as it is on NF. There have been very few movies I have been looking for that I havent found. Some of these titles have never been on US obviously due to licensing. Well, I have them now.

http://cdn.istreamguide.com/ is a Canadian Netflix Indexing site. I'd normally stick with Instantwatcher but it's not accurate for Canadian titles.

The ironic thing is I've bought many of the series on Netflix (Justified, Fringe, etc) on Blu, and haven't even gotten around to watching them yet. I guess it's time to start selling off some Blus on eBay.

There's a definite bump in clarity, when I stop and scrutinize things. Most of my family watch the movie though, not the pixels and they've all failed to see any difference.


It's like Christmas all over again innit! Worth my 5 bucks just to watch Dexter. Amazon VOD wants $35 a season for HD access!

^^Holy cow, thank you! That's a fantastic site! I've been using unblock since December and it was fun at first...then you realize you can't bookmark anything you may want to come back to, or find stuff that may interest.

I wind up using my Android tablet to scan thru the genres, and when I see anything that interest me, I'll play a minute or two and stop. When you return to that region, it displays in Recently Watched.

Yes, thank you very much for the link!!!

Hey! I mentioned moreflix.com first, back in my last post . Appropriately, it's advertised at the top of the page on Unblock-US.com.

It's interesting to note that most of the big theatrical release animated titles are available in Brazil and Mexico only, in Super HD in Brazil. The Brazilians and Mexicans must be greater lovers of animation .

A bit sad that some of the stuff in the Mexican and Brazil regions has non-turn-off-able Spanish or Portuguese subs, or you're given a choice of either Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese subs, but not "None" . Also often the only DD+ 5.1 soundtrack is Spanish or Portuguese (or there's both in 5.1) while the English soundtrack is stereo. Nothing's perfect.

the thing was that before it went from names like Medium, High, and X-High to 720 and 1080, it no longer went to X-High and instead maxed out at just High... this happened months ago

so is 1080 HD the same as the old X-High/HD? or is it the same as the old High/HD?

When "X-High/HD" disappeared it was because they replaced the 4800 Kbps 1080p encode with a 3850 Kbps 1080p encode and the 3600 Kbps 720p encode with a 3000 Kbps 720p encode. Both are encoded with technology obtained from a company called eyeIO which supposedly provides equal picture quality at lower bit rates (a claim for which they offer no proof whatsoever). Since the PS3's quality indicator seems to be based on the bit rate number, the high 720p encode, now less than 3600 Kbps, no longer shows up as "High/HD" and the 1080p encode, now less than 4800 Kbps, no longer shows up as "X-High/HD".

The resolution based indicator is better: the 2350- and 3000 Kbps encodes are shown as 720p HD, the 3850 Kbps encode is shown as "1080p HD" and the 4300- and 5800 Kbps encodes are "1080p Super HD".
Edited by michaeltscott - 2/15/13 at 12:09am

Thanks to this thread I've been using UNBlock US, and will be for at least the next month. I'm getting the Super HD logo on my WD SMP unit, but not on my Roku2 Xs units. I was frustrated and kept rebooting in hopes if wold show up, but then saw the asterisk on the Netflix site that indicates the Rokus are GETTING the SuperHD feed, they are just not showing the logo. The Short has been spotty for me, sometime it runs often it does not.

Also thanks to this thread I have been using DNSBench and found several DNS servers that work much better that the Google servers and much much better that the Open DNS servers I left months ago do to some issues. When i ran the DNSBench test today using the UNblock Us servers set up in my router They BLEW away any other server in speed and reliability. Also they handily beat Google when running the Spoof Test at https://www.grc.com/dns/dns.htm.

I'm not thrilled at paying the $4.95/m and may not after a while but if I can access some new Netflix Content from Canada it may be worth the cost.

Moreflix is pretty good but you can't sort by HD (not as far as I've found).

Currently, whether "Example Short 23.976" runs or not is indicative of whether your player has been connected to servers in the Open Connect CDN (nflxvideo.net domain). If it doesn't run then you're not going to get Super HD. Back out and restart the player repeatedly until it does play; usually this will happen in 6 attempts or less. A PITA, but do-able by the hardcore and determined .

With region set to the US, only the player on TiVo Premiere and the Win8 Netflix app seem guaranteed to get connected for Super HD; all the others have to be checked and restarted until you get it and sometimes you'll get dropped from the servers immediately after what you're watching finishes or if you stop in the middle of something and come back. With region set to Canada or any of the others (except Mexico, which doesn't seem to get Super HD) I seem to always get Super HD on all platforms. If your region is set to something other than the US, however, you can't access your IQ or put anything on it.

As has been recently discussed, moreflix.com is a useful search engine inasmuch as it will tell you what regions a match in Netflix's global catalog is available in.

Sheesh! Ungrateful much??? It miraculously tells you what Netflix regions you can get a title from, a much more unique capability than some paltry HD filter. All the Netflix search engines with HD filters are only going to match titles in the US catalog.

An HD filter wouldn't hurt, mind you. I wouldn't mind a filter for source, so I could say, "don't match unless its available on Netflix". EDIT: The source filter is there; you just click the sources to eliminate the check marks on the ones you don't want to search.