Netflix

[Thompy]

I signed up for the free trial month yesterday and offer you my impressions so far, and would be interested in others take on it.

Films

With the rider that the catalogue will surely grow over time, as it stands at the moment there isn't a great deal of choice. I randomly searched for movies that I have in my DVD collection, which are mostly classics, and very few came up. You can search or use categories but an alphabetical listing would be nice. It also relies heavily on a recommendation system based on some simple questions, which makes the basis for what shows up on the main page and sub categories. I don't really appreciate being told that Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo is available. It's certainly not anywhere near as up to date as box office or DVD rental either.

I feel my way of deciding on a film to watch may be at odds with the system though. I generally get an urge to watch a specific film, either just a classic or one I've heard a lot about, then set out to find it. Whereas I feel Netflix is more about browsing and then thinking "oh yeah, let's give that a go".

TV

This is what I really wanted to check out, as it's what I sweep the most of. Unfortunately it's the same situation of not a big enough catalogue, but given the number of hours in a TV show there's a huge amount of actual hours. I'm probably going to get stuck into days worth of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia for instance. Most of them are several seasons behind though, which means still resorting to sweeping for the latest episodes (which I might add has suddenly got much more difficult with the closure of Megawotsit, similar sites and aggregators).

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Quality wise it uses a dynamic bit rate system. It determines your download speed then offers you the appropriate quality, which means you can't pre-buffer at a higher quality if you wanted to. I have an issue with there compression tech too, as it's the kind that makes some parts of the picture good quality (eg bits with fine detail and movement) and other areas quite blocky and full of artifacts. I'd rather have a consistent average image. Note however that I have a 2Mbit line at best, so even 3-4Mbit would probably yield more than acceptable results.

I'd be happy to pay £6/m as the unlimited nature and easy of use is great, but I don't feel the UK catalogue is substantial enough for my current wants.

[Dog Pants]

Interesting. I've heard people raving about this as the best answer to piracy, but from what you've said it's far from it. I wonder if the trial offers limited content. Interesting too about the sweepage availability. In theory if distributors released content simultaneously in all countries, and didn't delay films until long after cinema release I could see it really hammering piracy as a cheap (not cheaper, obviously) and more convenient option. Needs the content though. What really made me raise an eyebrow, though, was the price. £6 a month is nearly half the price of Spotify, and arguably would be worth a lot more. It's also a lot cheaper than Sky or Virgin. Sounds like there's a lot of potential there, and the catalogue size will no doubt increase. Unfortunately the UK's broadband infrastructure is unlikely to improve substantially any time soon.

[HereComesPete]

It could, if delivered properly, be a major horse in reducing the pirating of films. But once again it delivers a product that can't match up. If it moves fast and gets serious support from the major producers then I can see it doing well, convenience for the casual watcher and the occasional pirate would see good profitability if it's not sucked dry by those supplying content. Fingers crossed it can deliver a competitive product quickly.

[deject]

I've been a subscriber to Netflix over here for a while now and for the price it's been totally worth it. I am betting that there are licensing issues bringing the service to the UK, so I don't think you guys get the full catalog we have access to here in the US. For me, comparing the subscription price to the cost of buying the content I watch in any given month is a great value. There are a lot of TV shows that I like on Netflix that cost like $17-25 per season. Compare that to $8 a month and just one show pays for at least a couple months of service. I also have a Roku box hooked up to our home theater setup in the house so we can watch HD movies instantly.

The value of Netflix to you is 100% dependent on how much of their catalog you want to watch and how much you do watch, but for me it's easily worth the price.

[Thompy]

I've heard people raving about this as the best answer to piracy, but from what you've said it's far from it.

Yes. On paper it does: a "huge" catalogue for £5.99, hassle free and easy to use, but it's not big enough yet. For me the kicker is that what TV shows it does have are not up to date with the current season(s). That a major point isn't it? Piracy is most prevalent on the latest and greatest titles and publishers probably don't care that much about ancient ones. So even if the catalogue expands massively, if the service can't provide episodes shortly after original airing then that's a huge block of piracy it's not helping to solve at all.

The value of Netflix to you is 100% dependent on how much of their catalog you want to watch and how much you do watch

Reminds me, you can't view the catalogue unless you sign up, which makes making that decision more lengthy then it could be. I guess they want to horse you to sign up for the trial and forget about cancelling it as these types of things often do.

[buzzmong]

Reminds me, you can't view the catalogue unless you sign up, which makes making that decision more lengthy then it could be. I guess they want to horse you to sign up for the trial and forget about cancelling it as these types of things often do.

Oh. That's rather silly.

[deject]

There is a ton of shit on Netflix. I'd put the ratio of worth watching to dogshit at probably 1:9-10.

At the same time though, they do have Eureka, Psych, How I Met Your Mother, Blackadder, Futurama, The League, new BSG, Burn Notice, new Doctor Who, and on and on and on. I mean with just those alone I have months worth of potential watching.

[Thompy]

they do have Eureka, Psych, How I Met Your Mother, Blackadder, Futurama, The League, new BSG, Burn Notice, new Doctor Who

Just doing this to illustrate the differences between US and UK. Out of those we have Doctor Who, seasons 1-4 of the reboot. I guess your ratio might still apply but that's it, and I doubt we have anything you don't (or minimal). Yes, catalogue will expand etc, but it's still really not a stellar launch, and might turn many people off who will never check back again.

I don't want to get too negative, it's a really nice looking service with easy of use like I've mentioned, and I'll subscribe the moment it improves enough, but obviously I'm just trying to let us Brits know the facts as is.

[deject]

they do have Eureka, Psych, How I Met Your Mother, Blackadder, Futurama, The League, new BSG, Burn Notice, new Doctor Who

Just doing this to illustrate the differences between US and UK. Out of those we have Doctor Who, seasons 1-4 of the reboot. I guess your ratio might still apply but that's it, and I doubt we have anything you don't (or minimal). Yes, catalogue will expand etc, but it's still really not a stellar launch, and might turn many people off who will never check back again.

I don't want to get too negative, it's a really nice looking service with easy of use like I've mentioned, and I'll subscribe the moment it improves enough, but obviously I'm just trying to let us Brits know the facts as is.

Yeah it sounds like they need some work before the UK version is as compelling.

[Joose]

Whilst I cant really argue with anything you have said there, I would add one note: it's a shitload better with decent internets. I can totally understand all your gripes against things like the quality and the lack of being able to precache stuff, I don't have any of those issues. The quality for me is excellent. Maybe not full HD, but it looks better than DVD on our telly, and it starts up near enough instantly. Course, I am lucky enough to have bloody fast internets.

As for the "it's the answer to piracy" thing, for me it is only the content that's stopping me from using it to entirely fulfill me entertainment needs. It's a step further in the right direction, and it gives me hope that we will get there one day, but yeah, it's not there yet. Having said that, I've found easily enough stuff on there to warrant £6 a month, even with our cut down UK selection, so I am using it alongside my existing setup.

As an aside: the iPad app is fucking ace. All other developers of streaming apps, like the iPlayer and 4oD people should take notes: this is how they should all work.

[FatherJack]

I like the idea, but it doesn't really compete for me with what I have.

With British series, I either record them live, or use the Virgin box's iPlayer/onDemand features, which taken directly off the cable feed don't rely on my internet speeds - the (HD) quality is as good as recorded HD, maybe not quite up there with live HD, but it always plays in real-time.

With films, Blockbuster always had the best selection by miles, particularly with the Japanese and animated stuff I always filled up my list with. It ended up too expensive though for what I was consuming.

With US series, it's usually only the big HBO ones I'm interested in, like Game of Thrones or The Wire, which often end up as a Sky-only deal, either not available to me, or very costly. While I don't ordinarily mind waiting if something is good, it is frustrating to have to wait a full year before one is even allowed to buy the DVD, since chopping and changing my TV provider just to watch one programme isn't really a viable option.

The other thing, not mentioned, is games. I understand Lovefilm offer console game rental packages, as well as some nice console integration on the film side, but their library of films was never as big as Blockbuster's for me. I see Blockbuster UK have now finally caught up and started offering game rentals, but I haven't examined the packages to see if it's worthwhile.
Netflix had an aborted attempt at game rental, in a US market which I understand GameFly have cornered, but I rather think NF missed the point, as they attempted to split their download (films, TV) division from their games rentals, which would be physical copies.

I think it was Sega, years ago - in the days of modems, even - who had the idea of downloadable, rentable games - now that would be something if done right would really be a great idea, expanded to PC games and coupled with something like Blockbuster's range of movie titles, plus postive backing from TV studios selling actual, new stuff - all delivered by the internets - could mean the end of subscription to blanket "TV providers", with people only buying what they want, when they want it.

I wouldn't mind (for example) renting something like Skyrim for six months at a total cost perhaps higher than buying it outright, if I meant I could try things like Modern Warfare or Dead Space that I only played for about 30 seconds. And I'd certainly pay a reasonable sum for delivery of new US series X that I was interested in - if only I was actually able to. Please, take my money and give me the stuff I want - I would much rather obtain it legally if I only always had that option.

[Joose]

And I'd certainly pay a reasonable sum for delivery of new US series X that I was interested in - if only I was actually able to. Please, take my money and give me the stuff I want - I would much rather obtain it legally if I only always had that option.

Very much this. For me, Netflix is the closest anyone has got, but its still not there yet. If someone could just work out a way of legitimising the way I normally do it (Couchpotato+ Sickbeard+ SabNZBD. Its the Cadillac of TV and movie floor sweeping set-ups.) I would happily pay a subscription fee for it. Hell, if they managed that, I would happily pay double what I am for Netflix.

[mrbobbins]

I'm currently signed up for the Lovefilm and Netflix free trials.

I find the picture quality and interface much better on Netflix but Lovefilm has the slightly better choice, neither have a great selection though.

I think I out of the 2 I'd probably keep Netflix, the Lovefilm interface on the PS3 has been very slow a few times and I find it rather frustrating. I slightly nudged the PS3 controller with my foot and it went into 8x Fast forward, trying to correct this led to quitting back to menu, upon restarting 'Do you want to resume' YES, it then started from the beginning.

I probably won't continue to pay for it but would do Netflix again later on if they improve the catalogue