What happened to Netflix ? --- (it turned super lousy)

[Hedji]

Still can't beat a blu ray for picture and sound quality, especially if you are watching on a large screen or projector. I do like owning what I want to watch also.

I live in an area with pretty fast internet, and we still have buffering and signal downgrade issues with Netflix.

[cjefferys]

It drives me crazy that we can't get Amazon Prime, HBO Go, Hulu in Canada yet. A lot of that has to do with Canadian regulations that require the broadcasters to dedicate a percentage of their time Canadian content. It's all very well meaning, but extremely archaic. For example, Netflix complies with the regulations by dedicating a percentage of their content to Canadian shows and movies, but nobody knows what percentage of those shows people in Canada are actually watching. The Canadian government tried to force Netflix to give up their ratings (a notoriously guarded secret) and Netflix was like, 'nope - never going to happen'. Netflix was ready to battle it in the courts, but I think the government relented a bit, for now. It's all just a matter of time...I hope.

Yeah, I hear you. Luckily the VPN I use still works for Amazon Prime and HBO Now, it's just Netflix that really cracked down on people that use VPNs, so far. But it's a PITA because I need to turn it off when I use Netflix because they detect it, even if I'm just watching the Canadian version.

Still can't beat a blu ray for picture and sound quality, especially if you are watching on a large screen or projector. I do like owning what I want to watch also.

I live in an area with pretty fast internet, and we still have buffering and signal downgrade issues with Netflix.

Oh yeah, nothing beats a Blu-ray disc, but our HD streaming quality of Netflix and Amazon is surprisingly good on a large screen, with no buffering, and I'm picky about stuff like that. I guess that's not surprising considering the mad amount of servers that Amazon uses (and now that Netflix is using Amazon's servers). HBO on the other hand has some ways to go for streaming quality in comparison to Netflix and Amazon.

[hedrap]

Still can't beat a blu ray for picture and sound quality, especially if you are watching on a large screen or projector. I do like owning what I want to watch also.

I live in an area with pretty fast internet, and we still have buffering and signal downgrade issues with Netflix.

The reason you have downgrade/buffering is because you live in a strong bandwidth area. That's the core problem with streaming and makes it inversive for delivery. The more usage, the more diluted the quality. Saturday nights are a Netflix disaster in some markets.

[Brazoo]

Yeah, I hear you. Luckily the VPN I use still works for Amazon Prime and HBO Now, it's just Netflix that really cracked down on people that use VPNs, so far. But it's a PITA because I need to turn it off when I use Netflix because they detect it, even if I'm just watching the Canadian version.

Yeah, I dropped my VPN service when Netflix started blocking it. For the other streaming services I'll have to figure out something. Without an American address or credit card I don't think I can purchase them.

[Mikey]

I don't know much tech stuff so this question/comment could be dumb.

Canadians can't get US internet services because of their ISP number ?

If so, theoretically, could a pirate ISP be based on a ship sitting in International waters ?

Just wondering, if they could do like they used to do with pirate radio

[cjefferys]

Yeah, I dropped my VPN service when Netflix started blocking it. For the other streaming services I'll have to figure out something. Without an American address or credit card I don't think I can purchase them.

There are workarounds with the US address/credit card thing. I was able to open a US bank account (so I could get a VISA debit card) but I have a social security number and used my US work address, so it was no problem, and I use that for Amazon Prime and HBO Now. I'll see what I can find out for Canadian folks who want to open a US account with no US address or SS#, I'm sure there's a way.