Netflix Streaming Only Plans?!

[Mike Garcen]

[url=http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5244&Itemid=229]Original Article Link[/url]

This fresh on the heels of Reed Hastings (CEO) saying basically that he considers Netflix a streaming service primarily, DVD rental secondary, so it makes perfect sense. I think kudos to Netflix. I’m sure plenty of people were paying the $10.99 (or whatever lowest was) for mainly the benefit of streaming

[DavidStein]

judging from these two articles/posts the cost of streaming is continuing to fall while costs to ship a disc are at least staying more or less constant:

[url=http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2009/03/what-it-costs-for-netflix-to-deliver-streaming-titles.html]in early 2009 it was estimated that it cost 9 cents to stream an HD movie and 78 cents to ship a disc.[/url]

[url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_34/b4192038586570.htm]by 2010 the streaming price had been pushed down to 5 cents per HD movie[/url]. they may have been able to wring some extra efficiency out of their sorting and stuffing facilities but its unlikely that they have gotten a better deal from the usps in the last year.

It clearly makes financial sense for them to push streaming as much as they can. the price difference is so drastic that even if people were streaming many more movies than they ever got on disc they still would be making money.

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

Tim, you aren’t quite the last holdout… my family is.  ;D  Until this is streaming in HD, I don’t see Netflix as even being an option for us.  I do applaud the option, though.  I wonder how many households will wind up being throttled or shut down because of overage limits on their internet connection?  Maybe we’ll see the ISPs start saying, “See?!?!  We told you there has to be a premium cost for priority traffic by these “abusive” freeloaders!  Now… about that net neutrality thing…”

[DavidStein]

lots of the streaming is in HD (for pretty much every device except the wii, which cant handle HD), unless you are talking 20+Mbps HD feeds which im sure is going to be a while.

but at 6Mbps you can stream a heck of a lot of stuff before you hit comcast’s 250GB barrier.

[Ugadata]

I just heard this morning that Apple may be looking to purchase Netflix,  has anyone else ran across this news?

[mikinho]

[quote=”Skirge01″]
Until this is streaming in HD, I don’t see Netflix as even being an option for us.
[/quote]

A good amount is in HD, aside from content for my kids I can’t remember the last non-HD content I have viewed from Netflix.  It is great for TV content.  For the PS3 they are also streaming DD5.1 so only a matter of time until it is available on other platforms.

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

[quote=”DavidStein”]
lots of the streaming is in HD (for pretty much every device except the wii, which cant handle HD), unless you are talking 20+Mbps HD feeds which im sure is going to be a while.

but at 6Mbps you can stream a heck of a lot of stuff before you hit comcast’s 250GB barrier.
[/quote]

Having never seen it, does anyone know how the quality compares to DirecTV’s HD signal?

At least with Comcast, you know what the barrier is.  Most carriers (like my Cablevision) don’t tell you.  Then, if you happen to work from home on any frequency and you suddenly get throttled, it makes for a very unproductive day.

The other issue (which I had forgotten about) is related to what Mikinho just said.  We don’t have a PS3 or a Tivo, so our only option would be using a browser or also paying for Playon so that it could integrate with SageTV (preferred) via a plugin.  Given that, I don’t see Netflix becoming a part of our monthly bills anytime soon.

[Meester.Rip]

I’ve hooked a few people up with Netflix over the last couple months and they were really surprised at how much content there is. Especially when I showed them that what is popping up on the XBOX is a very small portion of what you can put in your que from a PC. I heard the fall update is supposed to fix the XBOX and enable searching for titles.

If there is a cheaper streaming only plan I’ll be all over it. I usually use the DVD deliviery option for TV series and I go to RedBox for new releases. BD releases are only 1.50 here in Indy.

And my guess is that the HD shows are 720P but they look good to me. But even SD is fine with me if the show is a good one I don’t get any less entertainment by not seeing small wrinkles or individual blades of grass. Fire up some Miami Vice, a bikini is still a bikini whether it is 480i or 1080p.

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

[quote=”Meester.Rip”]
Fire up some Miami Vice, a bikini is still a bikini whether it is 480i or 1080p.
[/quote]

LOL!  Well, if we’re going there, then it’s the sun glistening on every drop of water, gently rolling over each subtle curve that makes it hot, though.  It just doesn’t work at 480i.  😉  BTW…  that stands the test for both male and female, so nobody should be insulted.  ;D

[DavidStein]

[url=http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/encoding-for-streaming.html]here is there tech specs, at least as current as late 2008[/url].

i’m not sure if they have changed anything, it seems possible since they are claiming 1080p enabled streaming for the PS3 plus 5.1 audio is coming but who knows.

i guess i was off, its not 6Mbps, its 3.8Mbps. and its definitely 720p

my experience is that its not quite as good as a (compressed) cable HD feed but still very watchable. it works best for video without quick actions (duh, i suppose). i remember watching Big Fan and thinking it looked real good, but i imagine you can retain a lot of quality while still hitting bitrates with that movie.

[Naylia]

[quote=”Ugadata”]
I just heard this morning that Apple may be looking to purchase Netflix,  has anyone else ran across this news?[/quote]

While certainly possible it would be a large investment for Apple. Netflix market cap – $9.5 billion. Apple cash = $50 billion.

[Lothar]

As far as bandwidth/quality goes I have my laptop connected to a 1080p LCD with a ~1.5Mbps internet connection on a good day and for the first 30 seconds or so the feed is rather blocky but after that everything is very clear as long as there isn’t a lot of motion, such as a screen pan.  I can’t say that it wouldn’t be better if I had a faster connection, but since I’ve never seen what it could be I’m quite happy with what it is.  When we signed up for the trial I mentioned to my wife that we should consider increasing our bandwidth for the trial period but she wanted to see what it would look like using what we’ve got.  Now I’m glad we did.  I am very satisfied with it.

One other thing to note, when we were signing up for the trial my wife entered in some coupon code or something and she said there was also an option for a $4.99 plan that included 1 DVD and 2 hours of streaming (per month I think).  Maybe useful for those that just want to have the one DVD and view the streaming time as a bonus that they may or may not use…  I didn’t see it when I went back for a screen cap though so consider it unverified and I don’t know if it is a plan that might be generally available at some point either.

[Lothar]

[quote=”Ugadata”]
I just heard this morning that Apple may be looking to purchase Netflix,  has anyone else ran across this news?
[/quote]

I’d heard this rumor a couple of times also recently.  I don’t know how legitimate it might be though.  I’m not holding my breath.

[Lothar]

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for titles to watch please let me know.  Especially if they’re available via streaming.  I’ll take suggestions for both myself and my wife if there are any that she may want to see.  I want to take advantage of my trial as much as I can!

[mikinho]

– The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
– The Girl Who Played with Fire

Both high quality streaming and also shows off subtitle support.

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