Netflix has different speed for PS3 and PC

It's my understanding that NETFLIX only sends 720 max resolution to a PC & maybe only stereo.



DDK

As said, Windows 7 is limited to 720p, which is the 3000kbps stream. I believe the Netflix app on Win 8 will do 1080p and I believe, the 5800kbps Super HD version..

So the answer is to install Win 8, if you can stand it (I couldn't. I was suicidal after about 15 minutes in.). A better option is to not watch Netflix on your PC but rather on a streaming player like a bluray player or roku.

Win8 isn't so bad if you use one of the many apps (like Start8) that allow you to mod the screen to be more like Win7. I have no problems with it.

One may or may not like Win8. However, I must say that the Netflix app for Win8 is really good. I have 4 bluray players that support SuperHD and in my experience Win8 app connects to SuperHD almost always while others connect half the time. Just for that I like Win8. Having said that, if it is just for netflix, it is better to use one of the blu ray players as it is much more energy efficient(~10 watts vs ~150-250 watts)

I wonder why Netflix can't switch over to Adobe Flash for watching on there website since Microsoft discontinued Silverlight which means no more updates and have HD content in 1080 on the website.

They use Silverlight for its DRM properties. Flash isn't nearly as secure. Who says Silverlight is discontinued (link?)? Anyway Adobe has vowed to end support for Flash ( https://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=adobe+to+end+flash+support&oq=adobe+to+end+flash+support&gs_l=hp.12..0i30.2894.2894.0.5051.1.1.0.0.0.0.69.69.1.1.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.2.5.psy-ab.JM0lPnewjng&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.cGE&fp=ace9578590c73329&biw=1280&bih=678 ) so if NetFlix changes their web based player it will likely be HTML5 based.

The Win8 Netflix app does play 1080p and Super HD and when I use Unblock-US it always gets assigned Open Connect servers and therefore access to Super HD and 3D video encodes (since subscribing my ISP got set up for Open Connect access so I only use Unblock to play Netflix titles only available in other regions). It can also bit stream available DD+ 5.1 sound, if you have HDMI sound output, which the web app cannot. I am not the biggest fan of the Win8 Netflix app though. It's pretty, but there are a few weird features. For one thing, there's no "Recently Watched" genre. There are 5 "Continue Watching" titles, with little windows displaying a frame from the place you left off, but that's hardly the same. On my Roku 2, Panasonic BDT220 and TiVo, I can see 43 recently watched titles; on the PS3 I can see 69. These become very useful when you use Unblock to view titles available in other areas; you can't get to your IQ, so "Recently Watched" becomes a surrogate for it. Another thing about the Win8 app that I don't care for is that I have yet to find a way to start playing a title that I've watched some of from the beginning. You have to start where you left off and drag the pointer on the scrub bar back to the beginning. Which brings me to the final thing that I dislike about the Win8 Netflix app: it has no FF or REW. It has a scrub bar which can only be used with a pointing device, which leaves universal remotes out (it responds to PLAY, PAUSE and STOP Windows remote codes). The scrub bar is also very flaky; too much use of it can kill the player.

As for Windows 8, once I got use to the lack of the START button. I keep all of my favorite things pinned to the task bar anyway--I just added a few more that I commonly used the START button to get to. Use of the Desktop is otherwise indistinguishable to me, other than being palpably faster. I rarely use the Start Screen, only using a small handful of apps.

With Classic Shell (here for free) I have Windows 8 looking pretty much like my classic Windows XP. I did not care for the look of XP and certainly don’t care for Metro 8. I have the background set to solid XP color (R=58, G=110, B=165) so when you see 8 on my computer it looks almost like my XP computers. I use the iPad for what it is, don’t need iPad look on my productivity computers.

Windows XP has the ugliest theme ever. When I used Windows XP I ended up using the classic theme.

If you are not connected to open connect servers, that is the highest speed. If you connect to OC servers, you can see 5800KBps.

If you get Super HD on your PS3 (as confirmed by hitting SELECT on the pad or DISPLAY on a remote while playing a title and seeing "1080 Super HD" on the video line of the overlay, like this) then you should get it in the Win8 Netflix app as well. That the Stream Manager only shows up to 3850 Kbps is very strange, if your ISP is set up to access Netflix's Open Connect CDN (and thereby Super HD video encodes). There are some titles marked "Available in HD on your TV" in their pages on netflix.com (as opposed to just "Available in HD") which can't be displayed in HD in either the web player (720p only) or the Win8 Netflix app. If it's available in HD on the PC the description in the Win8 app should have the Super HD logo on it.

If you go to this page does it say "Your Internet Provider is ready for Super HD!" in big green letter beneath the picture of a TV?

Using Unblock with area set to USA it's hit-and-miss getting connected to Open Connect servers, necessary to get Super HD video encodes. I personally always got connected to such servers using my TiVo Premiere's Netflix player and the Win8 Netflix app, but it was erratic with every other device. For a while (and maybe again) you couldn't play "Example Short 23.976" if you weren't connected to OC servers, so you could test by attempting to play it; if it failed, stop and restart the player and try again. It could sometimes take up to six attempts and you weren't guaranteed to still get OC servers if you stopped playing something and started again without stopping the player.

Playing with it right now, "Example Short" seems to be an effective test again. (My ISP is set up for OC access so I only use Unblock to watch stuff only available in other regions).

BTW, someone posted, here in another thread about an alternative service which seems to more reliably get you Super HD from the US region.