Streaming video: major re-think required

[imilne]

It's been here for a few weeks now
It's not the best selection in the world, and the quality - even at 'HD' - isn't wonderful, but it's pretty good for a streaming service. I think there's £15 cash back too if you sign up via quidco (even just for the trial) but I never noticed that at the time I started it.

Iain

[McBainUK]

It's not the best selection in the world, and the quality - even at 'HD' - isn't wonderful, but it's pretty good for a streaming service.

Maybe I'm getting old too quick but in this age of HD, bluray and widescreen TVs several feet in size, why would anyone want to pay to watch a film at "isn't wonderful" quality. :confused:

[steeb]

Only just picked up on the UK aspect of this thread!

I know that Netflix has been here a few weeks here now and was toying with the idea of it. Then found out that the Netflix plugin for NextPVR did not support UK. So didn't go any further.

I think the concept is fantatic, and love the idea of not having to go up to Blockbusters to rent a DVD etc and be able to get on demand, at a very reasonable price as opposed to Sky Box Office, which as usual with anything from Sky is a total rip off.

BUT I have to agree with McBainUK (and thanks Iain for pointing out the quality aspect) until my broadband service can deliver HIGH quality movies etc to my house why?

The only room in the house we are ever likely to decide to 'on the cuff' select to watch something is the main living room. Which has the biggest TV, the best Sound system in the house etc. I would spend the whole time pointing out to my wife how degraded the quality was, which would spoil the film any way :eek:

Having said that I have no doubt in the future that this will really be the way to go, but not until we are all hooked up on to faster broadband?

BTW anyone got the BT Vision thing? How does that work, what is the quality like. And sorry for drifting off thread again there, you know me......

cheers all

steeb

[whurlston]

I did actually decide a couple days ago that I will revisit the Netflix plugin at some point in the not too distant future, I just don't know when.

Now that Martin and I have figured out how to get our plugins to talk to each other, we'll be able to enable it on the NMT via PlayOn as well.

[NumberFive]

Xbox 360 > Zune > 720p Movies.

Problem solved!

(Well, at the very least it demonstrates it is possible.)

[liteswap]

Maybe I'm getting old too quick but in this age of HD, bluray and widescreen TVs several feet in size, why would anyone want to pay to watch a film at "isn't wonderful" quality. :confused:

+1

[mvallevand]

Now that Martin and I have figured out how to get our plugins to talk to each other, we'll be able to enable it on the NMT via PlayOn as well.

I hope you mean you will be able to provide a Netflix stream without PlayOn to the NMT. Regardless if you can get Netflix working as well as YouTube it will be very useful even it if doesn't meet the OP's thesis that it must be sub doing all this.

Martin

[mvallevand]

BUT I have to agree with McBainUK (and thanks Iain for pointing out the quality aspect) until my broadband service can deliver HIGH quality movies etc to my house why?

I don't understand delivering SD to a phone or tablet, but then I never understood delivering transcoded HD content to an MVP. Many people still use their old PVR150's etc to capture analog SD from their HD STB's, and remain satisfied with letterboxed SD, which I really dislike. Sometimes you use what you have.

As for Netflix to me it is more about choice when something else isn't on. I don't know about other countries but here in Canada many of the old shows are still SD quality and even shown 4:3 via an HD broadcast. At least most of the Netflix stuff is widescreen. The don't deliver much new content here the selection is much more limited then in the US, but in the last week or so the started with original content "Lilyhammer". If they can deliver content to the cloud like HBO did to cable, it will be awesome. I haven't seen it yet but it is 8.6 on IMDB.

Martin

[imilne]

Don't get me wrong on the quality - my "isn't wonderful" comment is probably fair if you're comparing it against blu-ray, but it holds up reasonably well against normal SD (and even HD to some extent) broadcast television. I think its main problem is in motion resolution. It just has that 'something not quite right' look to it. The detail is kinda there (in HD), but something looks or feels wrong. Most of my watching has been via the xbox, and I have no idea if it's matching its output refresh rate to the content, nor even any idea what their content is encoded at. It might be all 25p for the UK, or they could just be reusing stuff that was suitable for NTSC TVs. I've also mainly watched films (which *should* be ok at 25p) rather than video, so the latter might be even worse if it was designed for 50i originally.

At the end of the day, they have a free trial. Give it a go and decide yourself. Personally, there's not enough films (neither new or decent) to hold my attention, but their selection of children's content is pretty good. If 12 seasons' worth of Thomas the Tank Engine keeps imilne junior quiet from time to time, then that's worth £6 a month to me

Iain

[whurlston]

I hope you mean you will be able to provide a Netflix stream without PlayOn to the NMT.

Unfortunately not. PlayOn will be required. I can't even play the Netflix streams within NextPVR natively due to the DRM.