Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
 ·North State Commun..
| reply to Eat Me
Re: Here's why they can get away with it
said by Eat Me  :SD has a wider selection, but I've watched a few movies in SD and they border on unwatchable. I would rather just wait for the Blu-Ray in the mail. Your experience with SD is not the norm. SD quality is very good, DVD like for me and most reviewers. The quality will auto-adjust itself down to horrible based on your connection however ...
Regardless, what the article illustrates is that as bandwidth consumption goes up, the cost per bit goes down. Not the other way around as most people would have you believe. |
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Neyland
join:2003-02-04
USA
| I agree all the non HD content we've watched has been DVD quality. We've actually been very pleased with the service, if only the selection were a bit better.
But, considering it's free on my TIVO and the Netflix service costs about the same as a premium channel like HBO, I call it a win. |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| said by Neyland :I agree all the non HD content we've watched has been DVD quality. We've actually been very pleased with the service, if only the selection were a bit better. But, considering it's free on my TIVO and the Netflix service costs about the same as a premium channel like HBO, I call it a win. You sound like me. I still have all the newest stuff come in on DVD/Blu-Ray, but love firing it up to watch older content. I read a review one time that said something along the lines of it being perfect for "Curling up on the couch for a rainy weekend of movie watching." I'd agree that is a great use for it. Especially since it's free! |
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Eat Me
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ
·PenTeleData
 ·Future Nine Corpor..
·VOIPo
·Vonage
| reply to Matt
said by Matt :said by Eat Me :SD has a wider selection, but I've watched a few movies in SD and they border on unwatchable. I would rather just wait for the Blu-Ray in the mail. Your experience with SD is not the norm. SD quality is very good, DVD like for me and most reviewers. The quality will auto-adjust itself down to horrible based on your connection however ... Regardless, what the article illustrates is that as bandwidth consumption goes up, the cost per bit goes down. Not the other way around as most people would have you believe. Just out of curiousity, what kind of TV are you viewing it on? I'm using a 56" DLP. DVDs are noticeably better. It's not bandwidth related because I get all of the SD quality bars and I have a 30 meg connection.
It could be that:
I'm using a 56" HDTV
I'm using an upconverting DVD player for DVDs (Sony)
Or it could be that I haven't watched a SD movie in a while. I know they've had some really bad encodes in the past. |
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Ytsejamer1
join:2008-01-18
Somersworth, NH
| reply to Matt
Agreed...the value to me as a Netflix customer is great. I love watching movies from their streaming site. Works fine for me and looks decent enough. The added value it offers me for the Netflix monthly charge is so very well worth the $16 or whatever it is. |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to Eat Me
said by Eat Me :said by Matt :said by Eat Me :SD has a wider selection, but I've watched a few movies in SD and they border on unwatchable. I would rather just wait for the Blu-Ray in the mail. Your experience with SD is not the norm. SD quality is very good, DVD like for me and most reviewers. The quality will auto-adjust itself down to horrible based on your connection however ... Regardless, what the article illustrates is that as bandwidth consumption goes up, the cost per bit goes down. Not the other way around as most people would have you believe. Just out of curiousity, what kind of TV are you viewing it on? I'm using a 56" DLP. DVDs are noticeably better. It's not bandwidth related because I get all of the SD quality bars and I have a 30 meg connection. It could be that: I'm using a 56" HDTV I'm using an upconverting DVD player for DVDs (Sony) Or it could be that I haven't watched a SD movie in a while. I know they've had some really bad encodes in the past. I watch on a 42" plasma mainly. I also have an upconvert DVD player as well as a Blu-Ray player. The quality really is very good, but I have noticed that some movies just suck. Deep Blue Sea is a great example ... but I think it's because the source material is crap. I even had them send me the DVD because the stream quality was pretty bad, but the DVD was actually WORSE.
It seems the newer stuff that is added is great quality, but once you start getting into some of the first online offerings the quality goes downhill. I wonder if at some point they started encoding with higher quality or a better codec? |
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Eat Me
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ | Could be just the older encodes then. I remember Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's chest was simply unwatchable. Realplayer back in 1999 would have been better. |
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funchords
Hello
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| said by Eat Me :Could be just the older encodes then. I remember Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's chest was simply unwatchable. Realplayer back in 1999 would have been better. I wish these streaming video outfits would actually try their products on different connections. They might work in the lab, but on a very latent 3G or satellite connection, they often suck rocks.
--
Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- World Traveller -- KJ7RL
... Do something! ... |
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Eat Me
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ | It's not my connection:
 |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| said by Eat Me :It's not my connection: Speed doesn't mean jack. You could have horrible routing to Netflix but not that speedtest server. Run TCPView while streaming a Netflix movie, figure out if you are being routed across the country or not. They have servers in CA and WDC I believe and a LOT of people are routed to the CA servers rather than the WDC servers.
I've watched Dead Man's Chest btw and it's one of the best quality SD movies they have. I bet you are being sent across the country. |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to funchords
said by funchords :said by Eat Me :Could be just the older encodes then. I remember Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's chest was simply unwatchable. Realplayer back in 1999 would have been better. I wish these streaming video outfits would actually try their products on different connections. They might work in the lab, but on a very latent 3G or satellite connection, they often suck rocks. It should work fine on a satellite connection once the stream starts. 3G is a different story though, although I have a friend who can watch SD content on his 768Kbps RR connections ... although it is borderline.
I really don't think this service is aimed at the small percentage of 3G home users or satellite users. |
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Eat Me
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ
·PenTeleData
·Future Nine Corpor..
·VOIPo
·Vonage
| reply to Matt
said by Matt :said by Eat Me :It's not my connection: Speed doesn't mean jack. You could have horrible routing to Netflix but not that speedtest server. Run TCPView while streaming a Netflix movie, figure out if you are being routed across the country or not. They have servers in CA and WDC I believe and a LOT of people are routed to the CA servers rather than the WDC servers. I've watched Dead Man's Chest btw and it's one of the best quality SD movies they have. I bet you are being sent across the country. Not really. I have no problem with viewing any of the HD content. My connection is fine. PenTeleData has a pretty good network and they are peered in several places. Furthermore, since it's LLNW you are not far from a peering point. (We also use LLNW for our content).
It was definitely due to the quality of the encode.
Come to think of it, I've just figured out why I got the low quality encodes. There were encodes that were problematic with TiVo (it would cause the TiVo to crash and reboot) so they pulled them for TiVo users and gave us the lower quality ones for a lot of movies. Dead man's chest was one of those that they pulled so we got a lower quality one.
The last SD movie I watched was Frequency which was pretty good quality. I don't have the DVD so I can't compare though. |
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shutrbug
join:2000-10-18
San Jose, CA
| reply to Matt
said by Matt :Your experience with SD is not the norm. SD quality is very good, DVD like for me and most reviewers. The quality will auto-adjust itself down to horrible based on your connection however ... If you've got a Roku Netflix box, you can lock the quality at whatever level you want as described here: »community.netflix.com/forum/topi···3A186121 |
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Neyland
join:2003-02-04
USA | reply to Eat Me
I have a Tivo HD unit with a HD Mitsubishi 52" rear projection. It will only do 1080i, but we keep it tuned and it delivers a really beautiful crisp picture in HD.
The streaming shows look DVD quality over an ATT 3mb DSL connection. |
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Eat Me
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ | It will "only" do 1080i?  |
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Neyland
join:2003-02-04
USA | LOL no, only HD res it does is 1080i. |
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AstroBoy
join:2008-08-08
Parkville, MD
| reply to shutrbug
said by shutrbug :said by Matt :Your experience with SD is not the norm. SD quality is very good, DVD like for me and most reviewers. The quality will auto-adjust itself down to horrible based on your connection however ... If you've got a Roku Netflix box, you can lock the quality at whatever level you want as described here: » community.netflix.com/forum/topi···3A186121 Yes! I do this. Locked it at the max and it is noticeably better. No idea why. I have 6.5mb cable. |
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Natoma
join:1999-08-30
Brooklyn, NY
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Neyland
Has no one considered AppleTV?
My husband and I rent HD movies all the time to our AppleTV for $3.99-$4.99 a pop. We each have the 160GB version and notice that HD movies from Apple typically reduce our available disk space by about 5-7GB.
So it appears that Apple is encoding their flicks at a higher bitrate than NetFlix.
That said, we have 50/20 FIOS, so we'd definitely love it if someone started streaming movies with bitrates similar to Blu-ray. Talk about a killer app for next generation broadband. |
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speedy99
join:2002-09-25
Saratoga, CA
·DSL EXTREME
 ·Comcast
| said by Natoma :My husband and I rent HD movies all the time to our AppleTV for $3.99-$4.99 a pop. I get Netflix streaming for free. (Well, technically for a monthly fee.) I hate the PPV model Apple uses, and their walled garden approach, so I don't use them.
As an aside, I've watched Netflix on my Tivo and my Roku box. The Roku looks better. Make sure your TiVO is using HDMI or composite video out if you want best quality. I have a (rock solid) 5MB DSL line, and always get the max quality stream. When I had Comcast, it wasn't nearly as solid. Netflix streaming looks as good as a (standard) DVD to me! |
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uid1307457
Premium
join:2005-12-30
Tempe, AZ
·Qwest.net
·Convergent Interne..
 ·DIRECTV
| reply to Natoma
said by Natoma :My husband and I rent HD movies all the time to our AppleTV for $3.99-$4.99 a pop. We each have the 160GB version and notice that HD movies from Apple typically reduce our available disk space by about 5-7GB. So it appears that Apple is encoding their flicks at a higher bitrate than NetFlix. That said, we have 50/20 FIOS, so we'd definitely love it if someone started streaming movies with bitrates similar to Blu-ray. Talk about a killer app for next generation broadband. your also paying 50-100 dollars for the same amount of movies I pay 16 for... |
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