greeder
join:2008-04-25
Beaverton, OR
 ·Verizon FIOS
| [Need Info] Roko Netflix Player
I was looking at the NetFlix player the other day.
They say that in addition to movies, you can watch TV episodes as well. But I couldn't find a program guide (most annoying).
Any one here (Draco?) that uses the Netflix player care to comment on the availability of TV shows??
THanks |
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DracoFelis
Premium
join:2003-06-15
| said by greeder  :But I couldn't find a program guide (most annoying). The Player can watch (on your TV) the same content that you could (in theory) watch with a Windows computer directly from the NetFlix web site. So (assuming you have a Windows PC) the main thing you are getting from buying the Player, is the convenience and power savings of using this (low power) box hooked up directly to your TV.
Which also means that pretty much all the techniques that let you sort through NetFlix's "Watch Instantly" content, also seem to work for sorting through content viewable on the "NetFlix Player". For example, using the "Watch Instantly" tab on the NetFlix site gives you an OK (if not great) interface for browsing of available titles. Also, doing a NetFlix search will often turn up "Watch Instantly" movies/TV, in addition to DVD only entries. And some people over on the ROKU forums have even set up web site scripts to maintain movie/TV lists of "Watch Instantly" NetFlix content.
said by greeder :Any one here (Draco?) that uses the Netflix player care to comment on the availability of TV shows?? Quite a few older TV shows are available from NetFlix. For example, I've been catching up on a number of SCI-FI classics (including "Red Dwarf"). And when viewing TV shows (or anything with multiple "episodes" to it), the NetFlix Player interface will even let you choose the "episode" you want to watch next.
Again, the key factor is if that program is available from NetFlix as a "Watch Instantly" option. If it is, than you can view it on the Player, if not than you can't. And remember that many NetFlix programs are only available in DVD form, as only about 1/10th of the entire NetFlix content is available for "Watch Instantly" (including the NetFlix Player) viewing. So the NetFlix Player won't give you as big of a selection as the normal NetFlix DVD by mail service will. However, that said, there is still a lot of older movies/TV that can be fun to watch (especially at times when the cable TV has got "junk" on all the channels)... |
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booyah5
join:2008-08-09
La Habra, CA
 ·magicjack.com
 ·DSL EXTREME
| reply to greeder
said by greeder :Any one here (Draco?) that uses the Netflix player care to comment on the availability of TV shows?? It really doesn't have all that many TV shows. If you were to randomly search for old TV shows on Netflix, you'd probably find 1% or less were available via instant watch.
But if you have a wide range of interests, you can add enough in your queue to keep yourself entertained indefinitely.
The quality is very good for such a new product, and the price can't be beat. |
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vghlt
@rr.com | I saw the andy griffith show seasons 1 through 6 are they available on instant |
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DracoFelis
Premium
join:2003-06-15
| reply to booyah5
said by booyah5 :It really doesn't have all that many TV shows. If you were to randomly search for old TV shows on Netflix, you'd probably find 1% or less were available via instant watch. Actually, there are quite a large number of TV shows in absolute numbers.
However, I would agree with you that it's still a small fraction of the total number of old TV shows that have been produced.
said by booyah5 :But if you have a wide range of interests, you can add enough in your queue to keep yourself entertained indefinitely. Totally agree! Which is probably why my "Instant Queue" currently has over 400 entries in it (and a number of those entries are actually multi-episode TV shows).
In addition to catching up on old favorites, I've also started watching many old TV shows (and movies) that I missed the first time around. For example, I'm currently working my way through the first 2 seasons of "Dead Like Me".
said by booyah5 :The quality is very good for such a new product, and the price can't be beat. And if you use the hidden menu (home 5 times, rewind 3 times, fastforward 2 times) to lock the quality settings, the video is even more consistent IMHO.
NOTE: The quality settings lock is lost after the next reboot of the box (and the box will sometimes reboot on its own). So you will have to occasionally lock the quality again. And remember, if you have your video quality locked too high (for the current ISP conditions/bandwidth), buffering will take forever (if it works at all).
BTW: I actually lock my quality at the 3-dots setting, instead of the 4-dots setting. The reason I do this, is that I discovered that on my standard def TV, the quality difference between the top two quality/bandwidth settings is negligible. So by picking the slightly lower setting, I get faster buffering, and use a little less of my available internet bandwidth. |
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