You can request a disc now so you can play your netflix "instant play" movies on it. Works great.

http://www.netflix.com/InstantStreamingDisc

11/16/2009 8:22:30 AM

[old]

11/16/2009 8:26:36 AM

^Yep... but...

^^It does it quite well. I like how it doesn't cost me a subscription to XBox Live too

11/16/2009 8:50:06 AM

uh, I don't know about you, but I actually play games on XBL as well as watching netflix. That doesn't mean I'm "paying extra"


I've got the PS3 disc and XBL, and from my standpoint the XBL experience is way better.

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 8:52 AM. Reason : .]

11/16/2009 8:52:19 AM

Unlike you, I don't play games on XBL. While I do enjoy playing, I don't have enough free time these days to get very involved with gaming.

Therefore, I like saving the money.

Also, I'm sure they'll improve the experience on the PS3, but I honestly don't need anything more than the existing interface to watch stuff on Netflix. I am, however, looking forward to not needing the disk in the drive.




[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 8:58 AM. Reason : .]

11/16/2009 8:58:17 AM

just got my disc.

looking forward to ditching Playon and it's constant stream of "data corrupted" messages

11/16/2009 9:22:40 AM

so, how does this look on the tv?

Is the movie/show boxed in inside the ps3 "browser" window, like youtube is via the playstation console, or does it show up as full screen?

11/16/2009 10:03:44 AM

the quality is surprisingly good, and I have not yet had a movie hang, lag, or anything.

the format is just like watching a regular 16:9 movie off of a DVD.

11/16/2009 10:07:34 AM

Quote :

"Unlike you, I don't play games on XBL. While I do enjoy playing, I don't have enough free time these days to get very involved with gaming. Therefore, I like saving the money. Also, I'm sure they'll improve the experience on the PS3, but I honestly don't need anything more than the existing interface to watch stuff on Netflix. I am, however, looking forward to not needing the disk in the drive."

ah yes, truer words were never spoken by a PS3 owner content with a mediocre experience. If you don't know any better whats the big deal, right?

11/16/2009 10:20:52 AM

i can also watch blu-rays on my PS3

11/16/2009 10:23:57 AM

I can also play uncharted 2 on my ps3

honestly though...since apple tv started selling HD movies, and netflix, xbox live video marketplace, apple tv started having all the new releases for rent...I've completely forgotten about physical media. I haven't bought or rented a blu ray disc in forever. I know the HD quality and audio isn't the same but with the instant on 1080p that comes out tomorrow...whats the point? I'm all for digital downloads over physical media...but this isn't the thread for that.

+1 netflix on consoles.

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 10:26 AM. Reason : .]

11/16/2009 10:24:25 AM

i just wish the online selection on Netflix was worth a damn. it has gotten better, but they really need to put more online.

11/16/2009 11:15:40 AM

I do agree...Ive been waiting a long time for that and thinking to myself...'its only shitty because its still new'...how long has it been now? sigh.

I doubt it will get that much better and if it did I'm sure they'd charge a lot more for it because the powers that be are greedy as fuck in the entertainment industry.

Also why hasn't Microsoft jumped on this with the Zune pass enabling it for movies/tv? (I'm guessing the same reason netflix's selection is crap)

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 11:32 AM. Reason : .]

11/16/2009 11:32:00 AM

Here's a pretty good explanation of the challenges involved with expanding the online streaming.

Quote :

"Netflix simply bought DVDs like any other customer (albeit one with a major movie jones), occasionally striking special revenue-sharing deals for certain titles. The studios couldn't do much: A section of the US copyright law known as the First Sale Doctrine states that, as long as you own it, you can basically do whatever you want with a physical disc. As one studio exec says, "We don't have a choice. We were backed into the business model." But with online streaming, Netflix has no such advantage. The First Sale Doctrine gives Netflix the right to do what it wants with the disc, not the movie. Netflix suddenly needed to craft more-complicated licensing deals. Push too hard or offer the wrong incentives and the studios could block Netflix from getting good content; acquiesce too easily and Hollywood would happily impose intolerable rules regulating when a movie could be shown, on what platform, and for what price. Part of Netflix's promise is that it offers, like cable and broadcast TV, all-you-can-eat content. If the company bargained away that feature, its service would become just another pay-per-view platform. Netflix's service will never take off until it can offer up its share of blockbusters. To get those titles, the company needed some way to hack the so-called windowing system, the complicated schedule that governs which distributors can show what films and in what format. First, national and international theatrical distributors pay to show a film in their theaters. Next, there's the DVD and pay-per-view windows. Then there's the combined $1.7 billion a year that channels like HBO, Starz, and Showtime spend to secure the exclusive rights to show movies to subscribers. (Each studio usually signs with just one pay channel; all Warner Bros. movies appear only on HBO, while Sony's go to Starz.) After a few months, the pay-TV networks hand off their rights to broadcasters and ad-supported cable stations. A few years later, the premium channels get the films back, giving them exclusive rights to air them. The windowing system can keep films locked up for years; Disney's National Treasure: Book of Secrets came out in 2007 and is spoken for until 2016. Unless Hastings and Sarandos could find a way around the windowing system, it would be a challenge to show any major movies that had been released in the recent past. Then they discovered a loophole: Why couldn't Starz sell Netflix the right to air its movies, just as it did with Comcast? Starz had the pay-TV rights to newer titles, exactly what Netflix lacked. Netflix had nearly 9 million (now almost 11 million) subscribers; if it were a cable company, it would be number three, bigger than Cablevision and Charter combined. "We looked at our contract rights and saw that they were an aggregator of content just like the other distributors," says Starz CEO Robert Clasen. In October 2008, the two companies announced a deal that would add 2,500 fresh titles to Netflix's service. The studios were stunned. "This is the last thing you want," moaned one studio executive. "More eyeballs with no incremental revenue." Hastings' window probably won't stay open forever. Unhappy studios or cable companies could easily renegotiate their contract with Starz to discourage it from working with Netflix. Still, the deal kicked off what Hastings hopes will be an unstoppable virtuous cycle. If Netflix can use the Starz offerings to sign up more subscribers, those subscription fees will generate more revenue. And with more revenue, Netflix can afford to pay more studios for rights to more films—which will draw in still more subscribers. And so on. Ultimately, if Netflix can grow and maintain a big enough library by working directly with the studios, it won't need the likes of Starz. Sure, it could potentially overturn the way Hollywood has done business, but as long as the studios are getting paid, why should they mind? "Think of all things in Hollywood as 'money talks,'" Hastings says. "If we can generate enough money for studios, we can get any content we want.""

from: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-10/ff_netflix (interesting article, btw)

11/16/2009 12:18:11 PM

hah. What a clusterfuck.

11/16/2009 12:21:48 PM

thanks for the link! interesting read indeed...that is exactly what i expected the problem to be...greedy studio execs.

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 12:25 PM. Reason : .]

11/16/2009 12:24:42 PM

the number of folks with a substantial enough internet connection to get streaming 1080p content is significantly smaller than the total number of consumers for that content. that and people still like having physical media (myself included)

i can understand the exec's position though, there will be some sort of money funneled their way at some point just b/c they can foul the process just by griping enough and long enough in the right ears, and in the end it's easier to give them a slice.

it's like music companies and P2P networks but less bitchyness overall as the music folks were making money hand over fist before p2p took off by gouging customers. the movies aren't doing that... yet...

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 1:02 PM. Reason : s]

11/16/2009 12:59:32 PM

hell, is there *any* home broadband that can stream 1080p? I'll admit, I have no idea what's available in terms of compression in a streaming friendly format.

I stream 1080p from my NAS to my popcorn hour on my internal network, but, that's over a 100mb link. I haven't really spent the time to see what the actual data rate is, but I imagine it would far exceed what home broadband would offer. Granted, my rips are all in various codecs in an MKV container, so it's probably not that efficient for anything besides a local network.

11/16/2009 1:24:11 PM

in wmv(vc-1) its like 20mbps iirc

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 1:27 PM. Reason : a]

11/16/2009 1:26:55 PM

also i think thats video only, so add on whatever else for audio.

11/16/2009 1:30:47 PM

I don't know what kind of compression it uses but Microsoft's demo they have online with silverlight + IIS was very impressive for the instant on 1080p streaming.

Quote :

"the number of folks with a substantial enough internet connection to get streaming 1080p content is significantly smaller than the total number of consumers for that content. that and people still like having physical media (myself included)"

blu-ray is about the same as digital distribution in terms of market share right now...that isn't expected to remain the same though because blu-ray is taking away from the DVD market share but it isn't actually increasing the market share of physical media. So while bluray will surpass digital distribution significantly in the coming few years...it won't be on top forever. Digital media has no where to go but up.

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 1:51 PM. Reason : .]

11/16/2009 1:48:36 PM

IIS streaming services works by negotiating the best bit rate for the connection with the client. It does totally own, but i dont think the demo gets up to 1080p. IIRC the max birate in the demo was like 2.5mbps or something near there.

11/16/2009 1:54:03 PM

I wasn't sure if it did or not...but the picture quality is stunning...no denying that.

11/16/2009 1:55:25 PM

Can you browse titles using this disc? Or can you only access titles you've already added to your instaque from you PC?

11/16/2009 1:57:44 PM

^I thought someone mentioned in the PS3 thread that you can browse titles not in your cue. Although honestly thats not very helpful at least not the way its implemented on xbox. I can only browse through categories, i can't actually search for anything specific from the UI...you have to scroll through individual movie titles. (Unless i'm missing it some where)

11/16/2009 2:03:14 PM

you add movies to your online queue and then access that via the PS3

11/16/2009 2:17:15 PM

you can also browse titles that are not in your queue with the disc (you can even add them to your queue or rate them from the disc). it appears though that the browsing is limited to 100 titles per category.

11/16/2009 3:17:58 PM

^Yep, and it supports episodic content for TV shows, and even allows you to resume from where you left off. Much awesomeness.

^^^Same for the PS3, you have to find them on the computer first to add to the queue. Thinking about it, there's a built-in web browser on the PS3 which I should check for compatibility with the Netflix website, that would be nice if it worked.

As for all my other content and shows (Hulu included), there's still PlayOn for when I have time to sit down for a show.


Oh, and Golovko, I'm not getting into a pissing match with you about a "console experience" ... I'm not a PS3 fanboy, I own one because it does more than just play games. Even though I got it for free and could've sold it for cash, I do prefer it over the heat-failure-prone 360 for many reasons other than simple quality control. I understand you love your 360 experience, and that's great, you don't have to prove it to me by being an ass. (regarding approx 20 posts ago)

11/16/2009 4:37:38 PM

Quote :

"^^^Same for the PS3, you have to find them on the computer first to add to the queue."

So you can't browse titles not in your queue on the PS3? I Was saying that you can like on the xbox.

Quote :

"I'm not a PS3 fanboy, I own one because it does more than just play games."

I'm not here for a pissing contest either...just informing you that other consoles do the same thing as the PS3 and do more than just play games incase you were misinformed.

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 4:42 PM. Reason : .]

11/16/2009 4:40:53 PM

Why do you need a disc to play netflix instant play movies? Can't Sony just release an update for the PS3 that contains whatever the disc contains?

11/16/2009 4:42:46 PM

^Exclusivity with Microsoft ... apparently it can't show up on a dashboard until that agreement runs out, so they are limited to sticking it on a disk for now.

http://nintendo-okie.com/2009/10/26/netflix-no-longer-360-exclusive/

^^I mis-worded that, you CAN browse sections, just can't do searches. And also thanks, I'm for keeping it civil too

[Edited on November 16, 2009 at 4:47 PM. Reason : .]

11/16/2009 4:45:23 PM

Ok, thats what I thought you meant...I haven't seen the PS3 interface yet but I'm guessing its more or less the exact functionality as xbox just on a disc...wouldn't really make any sense to make it less functional. Although from talking to some co-workers the stand alone netflix devices don't have this functionality.

11/16/2009 4:53:55 PM

Quote :

"So you can't browse titles not in your queue on the PS3? I Was saying that you can like on the xbox. "

you can browse titles not in your queue on the ps3, the interface is very similar

11/16/2009 4:59:38 PM

My aunt & uncle bought the Roku a year ago (its simplicity is perfect for them) and I found out that is true ... it just views/plays what's in the instant queue.

11/16/2009 5:00:28 PM

Yeah, Roku, thats it...couldn't remember what it was called.

11/16/2009 5:27:24 PM

I havent played too much with it, but from the few things I just let run for a bit the quality isnt all that impressive, I was hoping it was gonna look better than just streaming it on the PC to my TV but it appears to look about the same. Maybe its because I have a 52" 120 Hz LCD so Im used to watching blurays and such. I guess from that standpoint I dont mind if they dont add all the blockbuster titles because I couldnt watch those movies in that quality anyways. Its nice for lower budget films and tv shows and such though thats mostly what Ill use it for.

11/17/2009 9:27:02 AM

Netflix scales with your bandwidth. I've been using it for a while and the HD is excellent. It's no blu Ray but you can't expect 720p to compete with 1080p.

11/17/2009 11:24:29 AM

Quote :

"*HD videos are provided in 1080p. Instant on HD in full 1080p streaming available with select movies, and requires HDMI cable, HDCP-compliant 1080p display, and 3 mbps broadband speed. "

for the instant on 1080p streaming on xbox

11/17/2009 11:28:01 AM

Even with my crappy 768K roadrunner lite lite, I can stream Netflix movies with only ~4-5 pauses for buffering on my PS3. The quality is a bit blocky, but definitly watchable. In the past when I tried it on my laptop with the same connection it was nearly unwatchable in terms of buffering.

11/17/2009 7:23:22 PM

meh, there is and will always be a market for physical media...

the 360's big problems will start to show up near the end of it's development life as developers run out of room on the discs. they can always go multiple disc in some instances though i suppose.

[Edited on November 18, 2009 at 11:55 AM. Reason : s]

11/18/2009 11:54:11 AM

Quote :

"the 360's big problems will start to show up near the end of it's development life as developers run out of room on the discs. they can always go multiple disc in some instances though i suppose."

huh?

11/18/2009 2:50:57 PM

lovin me some netflix on the ps3...

Bye Bye basic cable

11/20/2009 8:45:54 AM