Netflix and Watch Instantly

hehe, we did that over New Years. I still use my PS3 & 47" TV for the internet, love it!

 

Done the same myself over the xmas hols, same as you Laura, rush :hyper:dancer:tas wasn't the word seeing my screen in 42 inch, my wife pulled the plug on it though as soon as we where finished the hols ! :cry:cry
Still ! got the bug now though, and i'm working round my wife, just keep whispering sweet nothing into her ear !

 

been doing that for a while now. even over just a vga cable the video is real crisp on a 37" lcd. Now i just need to get a wireless keyboard with a track ball or touchpad so i don't need to get off the couch.

 

Re: Netflix and Watch In stantly

I bought a 40inch 1080p Samsung LCD TV last Sunday, it was poo, :cry The ghosting and stuttering were terrible in movies and TV like watching a game with low fps,it was only a 50hz panel I was gutted, I tried to convince myself the picture was fine but by Wednesday I'd made the decision to return it, get this they made me take the TV out of the box in the middle of the store we set it up and I had to show him what was wrong with the picture, they said there's nothing wrong with the TV and all TV's in this price range looked like that, I thought spending £500 on a TV would get you a decent picture, well guess not.

Anyway's they took it back as a 'gesture of goodwill'uke and I got a 40inch SONY Bravia LCD 100hz 1080pHD with motion flow technology,the picture is amazing the extra hz makes all the difference in the world and the motionflow is the best add on I've seen, the TV actually has the same processing power as a PS3 it adds extra frames to increase the frames per second and the effect is amazing,the SONY cost £200 more but its the best money I've ever spent.

I also got a laptop with a HDMI output Laura last weekend and have been watching 1080pHD movies on the TV Batman Dark Knight in 1080p 100hz with motion flow enabled is something to behold.

 

One more thing Laura is if your streaming movies to the LCD from your laptop;

I'm assuming you've got win media player 12 with your new laptop well use that for the movies its amazingly efficient compared to VLC it barely goes past 30% CPU usage compared to 80% for VLC,I think it makes use of multiple cores to decode movies but I can't confirm.

Its also the only vid player I've found to have built in motion smoothing which makes movies look great on LCD's,to check its enabled in WMP12=tools,options,performance and check the motion smoothing box.

 

Oh I see your running your DVD's through your DVD player,well if you do run any video through your LCD in the future WMP12 is the way to go if your ask me,I've downloaded some cooking shows for my dad from youtube using download helper/firefox then ran them on the flat screen using win media player and he loved them,the motion is much smoother than just streaming straight from youtube.

 

Would be interesting to know if you can download the streams from netflix using download helper.

 

i've found vlc's own codecs arent that great with H.264 and mkv's, so I use media center classic homecinema, with the CCCP codec pack. it has a much better picture.

been keepin my eye on these wireless keyboards
with a touchpad: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...m_re=keyboard_touchpad-_-23-166-098-_-Product
with a trackball: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823176018

 

Depends what programs open the netflix videos in your browser,you can set it to open video files of different types in the programs menu in firefox,your browser my already open the files with WMP,usually webpage videos are flash,I wouldn't fancy watching a full movie on a bigscreen in flash,the quicktime video and sound options are dire and the quality is poor.

Download helper is a plug in for Firefox,it gives you the option to download any video files on a web page next to the address bar in firefox,its the coolest plug in I've ever used and its free.

http://www.downloadhelper.net/

I would imagine netflix are pretty clued up though and have a deep ingrained media player on their site which doesn't allow downloads.

 

If you want to download the streams to watch any time at netflix you have to do this;

I'm posting this for people interested in the security of netflix not so you can work around the netflix video player it really is a pointless exercise,link may need deleting.

http://forum.rorta.net/showthread.php?t=11

It means working around the DRM which is a grey area of legality so you may aswell just download all the latest movies with a torrent if you have to risk being in trouble.

 

Posting the right link fried my tiny brain...

http://forum.rorta.net/showthread.php?t=1134

 

I have to agree . . . love the watch instantly offered by NetFlix . . . my wife never ceases to remind me how I mocked her to scorn when she signed up with them. But I stand (well, sit right now) corrected - NetFlix is a pretty good service, and the watch instantly is a major plus!

Also true they have movies you can't find elsewhere - Sci-fi oldies like Soylent Green, and Logan's run; all kinds of movies. Love it!

 

Umm I'm not certain but I believe that ripping the stream from NetFlix would be a violation of the TOS and grounds for having your account removed. I don't think that I would want to risk that merely to be able to watch a movie in WMV verses Netflix's proprietary viewer. Netflix's viewer is actually quite good with low CPU overhead and self-adjusting to your current internet speed. I happen to love watching the streaming video and find the ability to attach my laptop to my Sony Bravio 40" set over purchasing the $100+ watch instantly box the cats meow! Granted I have only been able to use the S-video hookup which is limiting me to 640 X 480 as far as my desktop resolution is concerned but my videos that I watch through Netflix are pretty much flawless. The only problem I've noticed is a bit of slowdown on occasion (usually when I forget to shut down Outlook and it is dling mail or an attachment).

Now, about the programming. Got to say I love it. I would like to see more offered for instant viewing but am impressed with the variety that ranges from first run movies to tv-series. Just got through watching BBC's mini-series Jekyll and loved it. Been catching up on old Doctor Who and Red Dwarf episodes as well. In my opinion I think it is well worth the $$.

The downside is the wait I have when receiving DVD's through the mail. This can be anywhere from 2 days to up to 4 in the case of weekend transfers.

Jack