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garyfritz
Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 4:59 pm Post subject: Netflix streaming? |
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What are people's experiences with Netflix's streaming/downloaded movies?
Last night we watched "Up" (very cute movie BTW) on my brother's 55" Samsung LED TV with Netflix streaming. He says that the quality varies based on his ISP's bandwidth, and supposedly sometimes it comes across in HD, but it sure was mediocre last night. I saw many cases of "shift" as the digital image updated, and lots and lots of really severely noticeable color banding.
He's only paying $10/mo for one disk at a time, and that gets him unlimited downloads. Sounds like a much better deal than $60+/mo for Dish, but not if the quality sucks...
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drice1234
Joined: 07 Oct 2006
Posts: 1309
Location: Allen, Texas
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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I use it for the few times there is nothing on TV and I can't find a dvd that I want to watch. Almost all of the movies are SD, there are some HD. I have no problem with the download speed. I think my connection is 7 or 8 gig download.
Dan
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jkruger
Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Posts: 2435
Location: Carlsbad, CA
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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I picked up the Roku HD box at a yard sale a few weeks ago. It seems to stream fine over my Cox cable internet connection (15mb/s) but I think it is only 720p, and I have not done a complete setup for that input yet. I'm running 1080i on everything else.
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ecrabb
Forum Moderator
Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 15909
Location: Utah
TV/Projector: JVC RS40, Epson 5010
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:13 pm Post subject: Re: Netflix streaming? |
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| garyfritz wrote: | | He's only paying $10/mo for one disk at a time, and that gets him unlimited downloads. Sounds like a much better deal than $60+/mo for Dish, but not if the quality sucks... |
I know several people that have done exactly that: Dumped their cable/satellite for the 1, 2, or 3-out Netflix streaming plan. I'm sure ISP's are hating it. Let's see, not only are our customers dropping their $40-80/mo. cable service, but they're replacing it by streaming gigabytes upon gigabytes of data over our "dumb pipe".
I think it's going to take years, but I really think the days of "network programming" as we know it are over. The artificial constructs of "prime time", advertiser-paid programming model will eventually be replaced by other things we've seen and used, and things that haven't even been invented yet. It can't come soon enough, either. I shouldn't have to pay for a bunch sh*t I'm not interested in, and I shouldn't have to watch the shows I'm interested in at a particular time of day. I should be able sit down, grab a remote, and watch what I want to watch. We're starting that direction - it's just going to take awhile. The market forces will eventually steamroll all the legal BS that's holding things back right now.
SC
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garyfritz
Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:42 pm Post subject: |
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Just so all that streaming video doesn't kill the net, or (more likely) entice the backbone owners &etc to switch to a pay-by-the-byte plan...
So the quality is OK if your net connection is OK? We generally get about 6Mbps. If you got that steadily, you'd get about 0.75Mbyte/sec, or about 5.4Gbytes per 2 hour movie. I don't see how they could ever deliver HD with that bandwidth. It would take me about 8 hours to download a 20GB HD movie.
But... Dish isn't HD either. (It's $60+/mo *without* any HD fees.) So it would still be a step up from what we've got now. I'd just be more annoyed at non-HD quality if it was movies instead of my son watching NCIS...
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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| drice1234 wrote: | I have no problem with the download speed. I think my connection is 7 or 8 gig download.
Dan |
Damn...What does that cost you? 
| ecrabb wrote: | The artificial constructs of "prime time", advertiser-paid programming model will eventually be replaced by other things we've seen and used, and things that haven't even been invented yet. It can't come soon enough, either. I shouldn't have to pay for a bunch sh*t I'm not interested in, and I shouldn't have to watch the shows I'm interested in at a particular time of day.
SC |
You got that right...I watched the final episode of "Lost" live...non-DVR...what a nightmare....The show is confusing enough without the 4 minutes of commercials breaking it up. I had to watch it again just try even start to figure out what went on.
Mike
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Doing HD since the last century!
Last edited by MikeEby on Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:59 pm; edited 1 time in total
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drice1234
Joined: 07 Oct 2006
Posts: 1309
Location: Allen, Texas
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I think my connection is 7 or 8 gig download |
My bad, I meant 7 or 8 Mbps 
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akajester
Joined: 09 Jul 2008
Posts: 934
Location: Wisconsin
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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I currently have a 18Mb connection through AT&T uverse, but I'll be dropping that down soon. I'm sure it's plenty fast for netflix hd streaming, although I heard even the HD stuff they compress big time!
My kids (ages 7 and 9) have grown up with a DVR most of their childhood and the thought of watching something at a certain time is lost on them. They set it to record their shows for the week then sit down a few days later to watch everything when it's convenient. I had to laugh, the one time they started watching regular programming they were like, "Dad why can't I fast forward through the commercials?" Uhh, because it's playing right now... haha. Times are changing!
Funny, I don't even install games for them any more. They play only online flash based games now. crazy.
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ecrabb
Forum Moderator
Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 15909
Location: Utah
TV/Projector: JVC RS40, Epson 5010
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| Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| garyfritz wrote: | | Just so all that streaming video doesn't kill the net, or (more likely) entice the backbone owners &etc to switch to a pay-by-the-byte plan... |
This is tough for me... As a consumer, I like paying a flat fee regardless of how much of something I use... On the other hand, I realize bandwidth isn't unlimited, and I hate the idea of subsidizing the abusers... Because you know that's what happens. You know a small minority of users - say 20% - use as much bandwidth as the other 80%, but everybody's price is higher because of the 20%. I almost think some kind of metered usage would be fine. Just make it fair. But that way, at least it would discourage the habitual abusers. That's a separate discussion though and best left to the "net neutrality" thread.
| garyfritz wrote: | | We generally get about 6Mbps. If you got that steadily, you'd get about 0.75Mbyte/sec, or about 5.4Gbytes per 2 hour movie. I don't see how they could ever deliver HD with that bandwidth. It would take me about 8 hours to download a 20GB HD movie. |
I've read that Netflix HD takes 8-10Mbps, Gary... So, 6Mbps probably wouldn't cut it.
| garyfritz wrote: | | But... Dish isn't HD either. (It's $60+/mo *without* any HD fees.) So it would still be a step up from what we've got now. I'd just be more annoyed at non-HD quality if it was movies instead of my son watching NCIS... |
Exactly. My DirecTV picture ain't that hot, either... The value just isn't there for me anymore. If it weren't for the wife and kids being at home all day every day, I'd have dumped it. I could buy a lot of alternative entertainment for the ~$700/year! At this point, I'd be happy to go to a pay-per-download model like Apple provides (I could buy two shows per day, each and every day, all month long for the same money), or a higher-priced model that Netflix - say, something like the proposed Hulu model. Any of those would be preferable to what I'm doing DirecTV... There's lots of value there - It's just too damn much money for what I have time to consume.
SC
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 12:02 am Post subject: |
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I average anywhere from 3meg to 20 meg and usually can get HD fine.
On a 42" LCD from 15' the HD looks just as good as most HD from my cable provider.
We use the Netflix built into 7MC quite a bit for kids flicks.
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JustGreg
Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 3098
Location: Kenosha, WI
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| Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2010 12:18 am Post subject: |
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If my dad got his way with providers (cable) 15 years ago we'd all be screwed. I remember when he pitched a fit to the cable company when he got a full bill when the cable had gone out repeatedly during the month, for a total of like 20 hours.
I heard him bitching on the phone at a rep (keep in mind he's getting up there in age):
"GAHDAMMET! I shouldn't have to pay this !%^#%@! bill! As a matter of fact, I shouldn't have to pay it all anyway because nobody is watching the !%^#%@! thing all day long! We sleep you know!!! I want a !%^#%@! meter put on the !%^#%@! thing and I'll pay for what I use GAHDAMMET!!" 
 
_________________
Greg
"Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don't know and I don't care!" --Jimmy Buffett
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