Re: NetFlix streaming in TV over IP http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20188257 en Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:39:08 EDT Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:39:08 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20977842 brian188 : Looks like Netflix will be available on XBOX and a LG Blu-Ray player soon.

I use a PC with HDMI connection to my HDTV, picture quality is great (usually). Really depends on the movie. I wonder if the Blu-ray or Xbox will do any upscaling. There is scant info other than coming in the fall and late fall respectively available, yet. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20977842 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:29:36 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20953940 ophelus : That's what the usenet's for.. AstroBoy]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20953940 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:33:46 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20920948 AstroBoy : Netflix does not have most movies available to watch on-line. In the past year I have watched 1 movie. Seems almost useless to me.

I want to watch the new Stargate movie! But no.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20920948 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:50:32 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20796080 DracoFelis :
said by hulber See Profile :

said by DracoFelis See Profile :

My player is now "locked" on 3 dot (1.6meg) quality, for example.
I always get 4 "bars" so any setting there for me would be a downgrade.
It's often a "downgrade" for me as well, as my internet can often handle 4 dots (max quality).

However, I've also discovered that (at least on my standard-def TVs) the difference in visual quality is very minimal (almost unnoticeable) between 3 and 4 dots (and both 3 and 4 are higher quality than my cable TV gives me), but the difference in buffering time (between 3 and 4) is quite noticeable. So while my bandwidth can (at least usually) handle 4 dots, I currently see little benefit to going with the max quality/bandwidth setting (although likely I would feel differently if I had a 40" HDTV, vs my 20" standard def TV). Of course, nothing would stop me from going to a higher quality setting in the future, should my situation change (since I now know where that setup menu is), it's just that for the present "3 dots" looks very decent on my existing TVs.

OTOH the more interesting developments are the rumors (including some in the ROKU forums themselves) of the firmware being upgraded (in the near future) to do more than just NetFlix. And even if that doesn't happen, clearly ROKU has the technology to make general purpose media players. So a "watch anything" media player may very well be in the works, even if the current NetFlix Player doesn't get the newer options via a firmware upgrade.

As mentioned before, I am interested in a decent (reasonably inexpensive, and reasonably low power) "media player" that I can just plunk down by a TV and be good to go. The current NetFlix Player has almost enough hardware to do this (but would need upgraded firmware, to handle more than just NetFlix). Or, if ROKU later comes out with a (slightly more expensive) media player (that handles NetFlix + other media), I'll likely buy the new (combined) player, and just delegate the existing NetFlix Player to a secondary TV in the house.

NOTE: I have thought about using a PC (or laptop) as a general purpose media player. However, I don't like the power or noise hit that a general computer has. And a general purpose computer usually doesn't have a friendly "remote" for TV viewing control either. That's why I would really like to buy a (quiet, low power) stand-alone media player (or possibly more than one) that is easy to just plunk down by TV set (and leave the general purpose computers for other things, such as these forums).]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20796080 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:57:02 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20793338 hulber :
said by DracoFelis See Profile :

My player is now "locked" on 3 dot (1.6meg) quality, for example. In fact, I personally think that quality setting menu should just be visible on the config screens in the first place (vs only available via a funky "cheat code"). And I would personally love to have a static IP/DNS setup menu, so I could take the player off of DHCP.
I always get 4 "bars" so any setting there for me would be a downgrade.

You can set up your router to reserve a DHCP address for the Roku device so it will always get the same IP. I don't know of any ability to connect to it so I'm not sure the benefit of having a static IP except to know where it is.

Of course, the bigger question is will ROKU at some point have a player that does NetFlix + general web video/audio (including, but not limited to HULU)? Clearly they have the technology to do so, but will they come out with such a product (or even an upgrade to the existing player's firmware to allow this) at some point in the future (and if so, at what cost)?

I know I would be willing to spend a little bit of money (maybe somewhere in the $150-$300 per each range?) for a true (low power) internet multi-media device (and the current NetFlix device is very low power, using only about 5 watts when running)! Right now you can get media players for your own media in that price range, or you can get players that work with DRM services (such as NetFlix) in that price range, but what I would really like is a single player that does both. With such a player (if/when such is made), you would just cable it up to your TV (and also your internet) and be good to go for "online" media!
I like the ability to download content to my TV as it gives a lot more options for the types of things I'm able to watch. I find now that I'm starting to collect devices that have this ability and there's beginning to be sprawl. I have the Roku, Tivo, PS3 which all have some amount of ability to download content.

There needs to be some strong standards so that any device can get a hold of just about any content to which the consumer is subscribed without me having to buy one for this and another for that.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20793338 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:58:23 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20784319 DracoFelis :
said by hulber See Profile :

I found another cheat if you want to venture into bold territory. If you hit 5 homes, 3 fastforwards and 2 rewinds you can choose to update software to (unsafe), (hourly), (beta) and (test) levels.
No thanks. Since learning about it, I have found the "cheat" to be able to set the bandwidth useful. My player is now "locked" on 3 dot (1.6meg) quality, for example. In fact, I personally think that quality setting menu should just be visible on the config screens in the first place (vs only available via a funky "cheat code"). And I would personally love to have a static IP/DNS setup menu, so I could take the player off of DHCP.

However, IMHO there is a good reason they don't make every firmware available for download. Specifically, if you download a firmware with a real problem, you risk "bricking" your device (i.e. making it unusable). So I personally would much rather wait until the firmwares have been "approved" (i.e. have been properly tested for problems), instead of just downloading/using every new test firmware that comes out...

Of course, the bigger question is will ROKU at some point have a player that does NetFlix + general web video/audio (including, but not limited to HULU)? Clearly they have the technology to do so, but will they come out with such a product (or even an upgrade to the existing player's firmware to allow this) at some point in the future (and if so, at what cost)?

I know I would be willing to spend a little bit of money (maybe somewhere in the $150-$300 per each range?) for a true (low power) internet multi-media device (and the current NetFlix device is very low power, using only about 5 watts when running)! Right now you can get media players for your own media in that price range, or you can get players that work with DRM services (such as NetFlix) in that price range, but what I would really like is a single player that does both. With such a player (if/when such is made), you would just cable it up to your TV (and also your internet) and be good to go for "online" media!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20784319 Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:27:59 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20783846 hulber :
said by Cliffton :

There is a "cheat code" to select the quality of the video stream manually.

It still saturates bandwidth until some buffer is full, but it doesn't need to saturate it as long at a lower quality setting.

I found another cheat if you want to venture into bold territory. If you hit 5 homes, 3 fastforwards and 2 rewinds you can choose to update software to (unsafe), (hourly), (beta) and (test) levels.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20783846 Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:02:42 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20763773 DracoFelis :
said by Cliffton :

There is a "cheat code" to select the quality of the video stream manually.
Using the remote, hit Home Home Home Home Home Rewind Rewind Rewind FastForward FastForward (that's 5 Homes, 3 Rewinds, 2 FastForwards), keypresses about 1/2 second apart.
Thanks for this info, I may end up using it. However, I still hope that they add a non-hidden way to control bandwidth (to their setup menu) at some point in the future. And I've even suggested that to their tech (so at least the idea is hopefully being passed along).

In fact, I was very impressed with the tech support NetFlix (or was is ROKU?) had for the box. I called NetFlix in the evening, and as soon as the lady confirmed that it was a problem with the ROKU box, she transferred me to a special tech support line just for that unit. And the guy I worked with (for well over 1/2 an hour) was nice, knowledgeable, and didn't treat me like an newbe (which I'm clearly not, as I work in the computer industry).

FWIW: The symptoms I was having, was that my entire "Instant Queue" was downloading to the box, I did in fact have internet (confirmed at my router), BUT it would just hang and not buffer (until it "timed out" and went back to the previous display where you see the movie/TV description) when I tried to play a movie. At first the tech thought this was a bug caused by a recent firmware update (others were having similar issues after the firmware update), but totally resetting the device to defaults (and reinitializing it at NetFlix) didn't fix the problem. So further investigation on his end (he confirmed from his server logs that I was getting to my instant queue, and also getting past their license server, but for some reason was not hitting the server with the content) eventually tracked the problem down to a DNS/DHCP issue. i.e. the actual problem (which was masked by the symptoms we were seeing) turned out to be a "rogue" DHCP server that had somehow turned itself on, on my LAN. As a result, I had two DHCP servers, the one on my router (which I wanted), and the one on my NAS (which was supposed to be off) fighting for who gave DHCP to devices that aren't staticly configured (and the ROKU device is currently DHCP only) on my LAN. As a result, the ROKU device occasionally got DHCP from my NAS, and therefore was apparently pointed to the wrong DNS, and this was just enough to make the IP address of the content server invisible to the ROKU device, but still allow the other servers to be found by the device (ack!). So the problem was actually caused by a DHCP conflict on my LAN, but the symptoms of the problem were showing up at the ROKU device (and the NetFlix Player wasn't giving any helpful LAN connect info that would have easily told us this). And yes, when it finally hit me that my NAS had been known to sometimes turn its DHCP server on (I think there is a bug in my NAS firmware, that sometimes turns the DHCP server on by itself, even when its configured to have the DHCP OFF), and I manually turned that rogue DHCP server off (and rebooted the NetFlix Player) the problem did in fact go away (so it really was a DHCP problem in my LAN)...

Still, I was very pleased that the tech was nice and professional through all these diagnostics, until we eventually found the problem. And that says something about the quality of tech support that exists!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20763773 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:30:09 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20762260 anon : There is a "cheat code" to select the quality of the video stream manually.

It still saturates bandwidth until some buffer is full, but it doesn't need to saturate it as long at a lower quality setting.

Here's the Roku forum post.
»forums.rokulabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=17040]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20762260 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:14:18 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20699557 hulber : Ah yes, rebooting the thing takes time and it has to download the whole instant queue again. Since mine has about 250 entries it's in my interest to keep the unit turned on.

I did also notice the bursty download behavior when looking at my QoS appliance (Kentrox Q1300). I recently set the QoS policy for these connections a bit higher so that I can be sure to get good download rates. Of course, it's set lower than VoIP traffic. On this note, I set the IP range to be 69.53.225.20-69.53.225.36 but I don't know if that's all the addresses it will use. I meant to call Netflix to see if they could give me the set of IPs since I don't see them on the Netflix or Roku sites.

Because I have high bandwidth I don't think I've ever been dropped down to lower quality so I can't comment on how it looks to me when it's limited. With an understanding of the general lower quality of the streamed video I've been quite happy with what I see. I would describe it as more fuzzy (like watching some SD channels on an HDTV) but with no artifacts or noise in the signal. Since a lot of what I have been watching is old TV shows I expect those to be bad no matter what. I've watched several episodes of 30 Rock which is filmed in HD and they have been quite good with just lower definition.

It also took me a little bit to figure out how to get into the settings menu.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20699557 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:43:23 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20696676 DracoFelis :
said by hulber See Profile :

I was happy to find out that pausing a program does not subject me to delay once I hit play again. This seems to indicate that the player is holding xx seconds of content in its buffer.
Yes, I also noticed with my unit, that the player does contain a real (if not exactly large/huge) video/audio buffer. By watching the unit and the internet bandwidth used, I think the buffer is a few seconds to a few minutes long (depending upon the bandwidth/quality of the video that is currently being streamed).

In fact, the latest version of the router firmware I use (I use the open source »www.dd-wrt.com firmware in my router) now has a real time bandwidth graphing tool. So I was able to compare that bandwidth graphing tool (of my router firmware) to what was happening with the NetFlix Player.

Here are some more observations I've made since my last post:

1) By watching my router bandwidth graph, I found that The NetFlix Player (or possibly the internet link between it and NetFlix?) seems to use bandwidth in bursts. i.e. it's NOT a steady use of bandwidth, but rather alternates between trying to saturate my internet link (which is held in check by my router's QoS, if something else needs bandwidth), and periods of lessor (and in some cases zero) bandwidth usage.

1a) I expect that this is also why the player often picks a slightly lower video setting than the software only NetFlix client. After all, if the player is buffering in "bursts" (vs using bandwidth in a more steady fashion), it would (due to the times it is not using bandwidth at all) have a harder time maintaining the video quality setting when you just barely have enough bandwidth for a given video quality.

2) The player will still buffer for a time (presumably until its buffer gets filled?) when you pause. I know this, because my router bandwidth monitoring shows that the bandwidth continues to be consumed for a while and then stops completely. And when you again hit play, it takes a few seconds after the video starts before the bandwidth starts being used again.

3) By examining my router logs (and other status info), I've discovered that on at least one occasion my ISP dropped the connection and then the router reconnected shortly after (but with a different external/internet IP address), while I was watching a program. And apparently the buffer was "big enough" that the NetFlix Player didn't miss a beat (i.e. the video/audio continued straight through without interruption). I'm guessing this is because the player had enough video/audio buffered to cover the short time the internet was down, and by the time it was back up (albeit on a different external IP), it could again (automatically) buffer more of the movie.

4) And on another occasion, my internet went out and stayed out for an hour or two. And I discovered that I was still able to watch a short amount of the program (after the internet went down) before the buffering ran out (and the program abruptly stopped). So there is clearly a small buffer in the NetFlix Player, and it might be as big as a few minutes long.

5) The current firmware in the unit usually works OK, but is not totally bug free. I discovered that occasionally the unit would get into some weird state where things didn't work right (or in some cases, not work at all). Usually this was triggered by me rapidly switching between options (such as many fast forward, view a section, fast forward, type browsing). In such cases, simply unplugging the power, and then plugging it back in (i.e. resetting the unit) fixed the problem (at the time cost of waiting for the unit to reboot). I suspect this will be improved (made more reliable) with later firmware releases. After all, early versions of firmware often have a few bugs/glitches in them.

6) There is no power off switch on the unit. The unit is designed to be up/running all the time.

7) And even if you put the unit on a power strip, the "reboot time" (from power off) is a few minutes (i.e. a minor PITA to power up the unit from being off).

8) Thankfully, the unit doesn't use much power, so it's not a total waste of energy to leave the unit on (and available) all the time. I tested it with my Kill-A-Watt meter, and I discovered that the thing was usually only using about 5 watts of power, even when I was viewing streaming content. This is a small fraction as much power as most computers use these days. So they clearly used low power components in this player!

9) The documentation doesn't tell you how to change your settings, download new firmware, etc., which IMHO is a limitation of the documentation. Yes, you are prompted to do some of these things automatically if/when the player detects that it is necessary, but otherwise I couldn't figure out how to change things. But I did happen to stumble upon (by accident, when playing with the remote) the "trick" to get to the settings menu whenever you want. From the main choose a video display, simply press the following on the remote: Up arrow -> Right arrow -> Down arrow. At this point you are in the config menu and have a number of options, such as telling the player the resolution of your TV, ask to look for and download new firmware, change what internet setup you are using, etc. And to get back to the main screen setting, just reverse the process. i.e.: Up arrow -> Left arrow -> Down arrow.

10) I have noticed that I fairly consistently show signs of less bandwidth (slower buffering and/or lower quality video) in the evenings, even though I'm on DSL (and therefore have no contention for the first link of my ISP connection). Still somewhere there seems to be bandwidth limitations that affect my quality in the evening (when presumably a lot of people are home from work, and therefore using their home internet). I just don't know if the speed slowdown is at (the head end of) my ISP, on the internet link to NetFlix, on NetFlix's end, or some combination of the three. Of course, even though buffering/quality often goes down in the evening, it's still is usually "good enough" to continue watching even then.

said by hulber See Profile :

I am using the HDMI output of the player. It is not showing HD content at this time but it does show what would be HD content in 16:9 so at least it takes advantage of the capabilities of the TV. I would like to see them add digital audio first and then work on getting the video content higher.
Personally I'm just using the composite video/audio hookups (directly into my standard def TV), and the picture generally looks pretty good. It's even acceptably viewable when I get the lowest video setting, but that does show some usable video limitations. However, as long as I get at least 2 dots of quality (when it auto-chooses quality during the buffering), the picture is usually quite OK (at least on my older TV). And even one dot of quality (the lowest setting) is still viewable, if not exactly "good" video in that case.

One simple thing I would like them to add (to the config menu of the player), is a quality/bandwidth limiter option. At the present time the unit will just try using any bandwidth it can get, to get as much video quality as possible. And there are times when I would prefer to trade off a little "quality" to save some bandwidth (which also would result in faster buffering). And right now that isn't an option.

NOTE: As far as I know my bandwidth isn't "capped" by my ISP. But if I was on a "capped" internet plan (and I'm sure some users of this player will be), the ability to limit bandwidth (by setting a maximum quality setting option) would be very important to me. And I can't exactly see the down-side to NetFlix either, as they would also save on bandwidth if/when a user chose to force a lower video quality/bandwidth setting! ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20696676 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:34:53 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20695857 hulber : I have the Roku player and it has been working quite well. The wait time to cache content is fairly short and certainly not longer than VoD from TWC. I was happy to find out that pausing a program does not subject me to delay once I hit play again. This seems to indicate that the player is holding xx seconds of content in its buffer. The forward and rewind is quirky but it works. Overall, I have been quite happy with it. As someone mentioned, we have been using it to watch TV content that we would never order by DVD but is fun to watch on demand.

I am using the HDMI output of the player. It is not showing HD content at this time but it does show what would be HD content in 16:9 so at least it takes advantage of the capabilities of the TV. I would like to see them add digital audio first and then work on getting the video content higher.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20695857 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:50:50 EDT Re: NetFlix Player arrived yesterday http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20551295 lilhurricane : Thanks for the updates & follow-up :)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20551295 Wed, 28 May 2008 11:18:51 EDT NetFlix Player arrived yesterday http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20551256 DracoFelis : Well, the NetFlix player arrived yesterday. So here is my initial review. ;)

My initial opinion is mixed. Overall, I think it was a decent investment in the family's entertainment, and it does seem to work as advertised. However, there are also some things I wish they had done better (although since the unit can apparently auto-update its software from NetFlix, some of those limitations might be fixed at a later time).

The Good:

The thing is reasonably easy to setup (although I did have to wait a couple of minutes for the unit to download a firmware update before I could do the normal setup). And I also had to go to a special NetFlix web page (with my computer) and enter the setup code the unit gave me (to link the unit to my NetFlix account).

Once you get used to the interface, it is fairly easy to use, as well as being fairly powerful. The interface lets you choose which entry from your NetFlix "Instant Queue" you want to watch and where in the program you want to start (at the beginning, where you last left off, or some arbitrary amount into the program). And for TV shows (anything with multiple episodes), it even lets you pick which episode you want to start with.

The interface also has photos (they look like pictures of DVD cases), and short descriptions of each entry. So you can fairly easy tell what you are picking to watch. Also, you can reorder your "Instant Queue" entries (from your computer, but not from the interface itself) by visiting your normal NetFlix account.

Anyone on a NetFlix "unlimited" account, also gets all movies via the player for no extra cost (beyond the initial cost of the player itself). So if you already have an unlimited NetFlix account, and "unlimited" broadband internet, this player is "free to use" (beyond the initial purchase cost) as much as you like.

The thing is small and quiet to leave by a TV.

The not so good:

The initial buffering (which can take a minute or more) is a minor PITA. And you have to go through that buffering every time you pick a new entry from the remote.

Even with a normal TV (I don't have an HD set yet) video quality can suffer a little bit (i.e. a little bit of a "pixelated picture") if/when the unit thinks you don't have enough bandwidth, and therefore puts you on the lowest bandwidth setting. And for some unknown reason, the unit often seems to pick a quality setting one lower than my PC software NetFlix client does. OTOH even at the "lowest quality" setting of the unit (and the unit would often do better quality than that), I found the picture to be viewable (the lowest quality of the unit, reminded me a little of the picture quality of an older VHS video tape).

There is no way to set the quality/bandwidth used by the unit. It will auto-pick it (just like the PC based NetFlix client), based upon how much internet it sees. And if/when the unit decides in the middle of a program that the bandwidth has changed (either down OR up/better) it will stop and do its initial (~ minute long) buffering thing again, before resuming the program!

As expected, the unit only does the same list of movies/TV you can already stream via your PC. This is only a fraction of NetFlix's total library, and mostly older stuff. OTOH you still get the NetFlix DVDs in the mail, so this TVoIP offering is a bit of a "bonus" to a normal NetFlix subscription. Just don't expect to find new blockbusters on this service.

You probably want a lot of entries in your "Instant" NetFlix queue, as only things you have in that queue can be viewed on the NetFlix player (there is no way to add entries from the player itself). OTOH when you have a lot of entries (I've currently got over 200 in my queue), it can be a minor PITA to scroll through the queue list to find the program you want to watch. So it probably helps to organize your queue to find things easier. Still, even with an organized queue, you might have a long scroll, to find the movie/TV you want to watch.

And finally, the unit seems "locked" to NetFlix. Which means that if/when you decide to cancel NetFlix, the unit becomes an expensive door stop. Also you can't use the unit to watch other streaming (HULU.COM won't work, for example). So this is just a NetFlix toy (although it does seem to do a decent job of interfacing to my existing NetFlix account).]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20551256 Wed, 28 May 2008 11:10:41 EDT NetFlix Player http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20535377 DracoFelis : OK, it was too tempting. Rather than work on hooking up my laptop to stream to TVs in the house, I went and ordered the new (just announced/released a few days ago) stand alone "Netflix Player" ( »www.roku.com/netflixplayer/ ).

After shipping charges, it came to just around $120 (one time charge, with no extra monthly NetFlix charges beyond what I'm already paying). I haven't got the thing yet, but tracking info suggests it should arrive next Tuesday. Granted the player is NetFlix only (I still have to use a PC to watch HULU, for example), but that NetFlix player looks really easy to setup by a TV (much easier than a computer, and I don't have to tie up my laptop with this option).

Initially, I'll probably have the thing hooked up to the TV in the living room. However, I'm planning to order a RF low pass filter (to isolate my own generated "channels" from the cable system outside the house), and a stereo modulator that can be set to use the high/unused cable channels (so I can put the output of the NetFlix player onto my own custom "cable channel" in the house). If all works as planned, I'll then be able to feed the NetFlix player output into the modulator, instead of the TV directly. In theory, this should mean that the output of the NetFlix Player should be viewable on ALL the TVs in the house (due to the modulator adding a custom "channel" to the cable TV already wired in my home). We'll still have to go to the living room (where the NetFlix Player box will physically reside) to choose what we want watch (via the remote control for the NetFlix Player), but once that is done we should (in theory, after getting everything setup) be able to view that NetFlix streaming from all TVs in the house.

I'll keep people informed about how it all works out...]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20535377 Sat, 24 May 2008 21:40:47 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20356965 ophelus : I've been using it for some exclusive (better quality) content it has that I can't aquire normally.. (wouldn't use it for hdtv stuff)

It has various issues including that I think the quality should be better that the streaming stops and that you should be able to que up the movie for full download just to stop any jerks and or select your quality level (as I'd always choose highest)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20356965 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:16:29 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20275110 John SChisum : We have been using it for about two months, my wife and I are watching all the old tv shows from the 80's. We even went and bought a media center PC and hooked it up to the plasma TV and surround sound, it is well worth it. We were with Blockbuster but the benefits did not compare to what Netflix provides especially with gas prices continuing to rise.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20275110 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:00:21 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20256161 crackerdan : In May it will be a year that I have used Watch Instantly and I think it is awesome. You used to only get an hour for every dollar you spent for a monthly membership. $18 = 18 hours, but recently they changed it to unlimited hours for people who subscribe to the unlimited DVD rental. I just moved to Denver this weekend and won't have Direct TV until next Saturday so I have my PC hooked up to my 42" plasma and will be using the service all week.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20256161 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 05:36:17 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20188257 tcas2 : Been Using NetFlix streaming for a couple of weeks now...works well.

Using Toshiba Laptop M-55 with S-Video out to TV which has S-Video in. Audio thru laptop headphone jack to audio in on TV. Laptop running XP pro...had to get an updated Intel graphics driver for laptop which installed with no probs. Also an Intel graphics manager was installed with update.

Have to run laptop at 1024 x 768 for TV to work(probably has to do with graphics card in computer)

Found it easier to use Function/F5 to cycle between computer and TV output.

Audio is weak(again probably laptop)...just have to crank up TV audio.

All in all, pretty painless and picture quality is good.

Michael]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20188257 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:05:33 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20015330 XPAMD : I'm doing this to....to answer your question pintnight, My wifes laptop has a VGA port to connect an external monitor, and an S-Video port to connect to a TV.

Most LCD/Plasma will accept either a VGA (D-SUB), or DVI input to allow a computer use it as a 2nd monitor. THere are adapters out there that wil allow VGADVI Conversion if your connection type doesn't match.

As long as you have a decent Internet connection the picture will be DVD quality.

Netflix has no issues with my wife's laptop either, and it's always wireless (802.11G).

It's been reported that there will be a Media Center which will support Netflix without a PC/]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20015330 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:18:11 EDT Re: NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20012845 pintnight : Are you streaming the data to your TV? Is so, how did you that?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20012845 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:53:15 EDT NetFlix streaming http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19926883 DracoFelis : Any other NetFlix customers using the streaming "Play now" (TVoIP) service? If not, you might want to give it a try, as it seems to work reasonably well, is totally licensed/legal, and comes as a "free bonus" with your NetFlix subscription. i.e. At the present time, using the NetFlix streaming service does NOT lower the amount of DVDs you get from them, nor does it raise your subscription price, so it really is a bonus you get "for free" if/when you are already an "unlimited" NetFlix customer (as our family is, since we like getting those DVDs in the mail). And even though only a fraction of the NetFlix DVD library is available from this streaming service, they still have enough on the streaming service to keep things interesting.

FWIW I recently setup my laptop with the NetFlix streaming movie client (the laptop was used partly because it is the most recent computer in the house, and therefore has enough CPU to handle the video rendering in real time), and so-far I am pleased with the results. Since the NetFlix service is DRM locked down, I was expecting the client install to be a PITA. And while the install did require me to jump through a couple of hoops (for example, "upgrading" to Windows Media Player 11, to gain the needed Windows DRM support), overall NetFlix made the install much less painful than I was expecting (although I do have to use IE, instead of FireFox, when I want to stream movies from NetFlix). Even better, the video quality was much higher than I was expecting as well (although video quality will vary with download bandwidth)! So overall, I find the service a nice addition to the TVoIP links I had already gathered.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,19926883 Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:06:54 EDT