The world of Netflix streaming

[mego73]

I'm not giving up physical DVD's anytime soon but I am starting to love netflix steaming more and more. I am using one of those Roku boxes to stream to the TV. Some of the stuff I put on the list I actually have on DVD but it saves the trouble of breaking it out:

Right now, in the queue I have (note that even complete shows might have a missing episodes (listed "DVD only") in their sets)

Several Dark Shadows episodes
Several MST 3K's
Galactica original and Galactica 1980 complete
Incredible Hulk complete
The Night Stalker complete
Leave It To Beaver complete
Flipper complete
Isis complete
Saturday Night Live seasons 1-5 complete and lots of season 31-36
Addams Family complete (I think)
Sarah Conner Chronicles complete
The Rockford Files compete
South Park season 1-12
Emergency! complete
Adam 12 complete
Dragnet (1960's) complete
Kojak complete
Dick Van Dyke Show complete
Rocky and Bullwinkle seasons 1 and 2
24 season 1-7
The Munsters complete
1970's Godzilla cartoon


and lots of movies. I don't have time to watch all of this to be sure but it's fun to flip through lots of options without picking up DVD's

[sauce]

oh my, Netflix Streaming is the best deal in town!

I am totally addicted to it.

In the last two weeks, I watched the new Star Trek movie four times!
Tons of viewing for the kiddo, and lots of great documentaries and samurai movies and cult classics and yeah!!!

[garagesale]

Love the streaming!

Hooked it up to my TV using an old computer with a VGA-NTSC monitor adaptor and wi-fi within a month of its introduction. Now I use an ethernet cabled TIVO to watch.

Discovered The Office, Buffy, Angel, and Firefly through this. Re-watching Lost on it right now. So much cool stuff on there. Lotta dogs too, tho.

JamesD

[megoapesnut]

I just got my wife and daughter the new Apple TV device, which has a Netflix section where you can put in your account info and watch all of the instant play movies, as well as control your Queue. They LOVE it, they have darn near worn it out watching movies and TV shows. My son uses it all the time in his dorm also.

[SeattleEd]

Best part is when you travel and great net connectivity. Even on some airplanes you can stream.
VOD is the way to go!

[megoapesnut]

Best part is when you travel and great net connectivity.

I have watched a few on my iPad as well. VOD can't compete with Blu-Ray as I am and avid audio and videophile. So, new movies I usually rent the blu-ray and watch on the plasma. But older movies and TV shows are great to watch via Netflix streaming.

[jds1911a1]

and there are somethings that you can't get as a dvd, you can stream from them (I did that with Buck Rogers in the 25th century)

[Adam West]

My brother just bought a blue ray player with wireless internet access. He said he streams movies in HD through NetFlix and loves it. He said the one and only downside is that the new releases still have to be ordered but he said he no longer buys dvds and has eliminated all premiums like HBO, Starz, and Showtime.

[kennermike]

I did the netflix streaming its okay but the quality is not that great.Blu Ray is still the way to go watched Escape from New York in 1080p beyond Hi Definition

[Nostalgiabuff]

I do not find the quality to be bad. I just signed up on Friday and have watched like 10 movies already. I am cancelling HBO and sticking with this.

[SeattleEd]

I have watched a few on my iPad as well. VOD can't compete with Blu-Ray as I am and avid audio and videophile. So, new movies I usually rent the blu-ray and watch on the plasma. But older movies and TV shows are great to watch via Netflix streaming.

I concur with the sentiment of being a videophile and audiophile.

HD streaming is quite comparable to BR to a degree. It's all depended on how the source is encoded and how much bandwidth you have piped in your direction.
It's only a matter of time before we can actually stream larger files or have a better codec that is bandwidth friendly and maintain source quality.
As much as I like having discs, I hate clutter and the less the better and digitized content is much better for convenience. The technology is improving and getting better.
We work with HD content all the time and sometimes we rip from BR discs since this is what we receive from some studios and clients.
Disney is the only one that sends us umcompressed 10-bit digital source material.

If anyone is getting crappy quality stream, check your pipeline.
I've seen amazing quality streams from true FiOS from FTTN and FTTH setup.

[SeattleEd]

I did the netflix streaming its okay but the quality is not that great.Blu Ray is still the way to go watched Escape from New York in 1080p beyond Hi Definition

What flavor pipe you running into your place, Mike?

[megoapesnut]

In my case, it isn't the stream, but what Netflix has available. As of right now, they are streaming SD stuff only, unless I am missing something. Some stuff just is better on Blu-ray then on digital. An example was the TV show The Dollhouse. I was watching a few eps on HiDef DirectTV and it looked awesome. I missed a few first season eps so I got the Blu-ray discs and was BLOWN AWAY with how much better it looked. I had a few eps on my DVR at the time so I could compare the same eps and it was astounding how much better the BR was. I am sure that was the exception and many are not that much better on BR, but that show was.

[SeattleEd]

Yup, there is not enough bandwidth to support true 1080p 60fps encoded stream with true surround....yet. BR is still tops right now but in a few years that is suppose to change.

Right now Netflix encode to 720p(HD) VC1AP(MS) 2600kbps to 3800kbps in stereo.

I hear that they plan on rolling out the 1080p stream with DD+ audio encoding very soon or if not, now. But this was as of last week.

Looking forward to when we can stream clean HD A/V from anywhere in globe.

[sauce]

netflix stream even remembers where you left off last viewing. . . very helpful feature!

I also ditched the premium cable channels. $10/month is insanely low