Cindy Claveau

This week my husband and I are taking the giant leap into the 21st century. We changed our Netflix account from the 1-at-a-time DVD mailer to streaming. We also ordered a wifi media player from Amazon that will allegedly let us stream Hulu, Youtube, Netflix or whatever else.

When we have time to watch TV in the evenings, we usually have a full DVR of stuff to watch and rarely pull out the DVD, so this made sense for us rather than having an envelope sitting there on the TV stand for a week or two. I like the idea of just streaming a movie at will whenever the mood (and time) dictate.

We're immensely excited but I'm fretting a bit. Anyone else stream Netflix? Does it buffer and interrupt the show? Is the stream quality good? Will our selection of movies be limited (we go for a combination of older movies and recent releases)?

Did we make a big boo-boo or is this going to be the greatest thing since toast?

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Ayumi

What ISP are you on btw?

Netflix service is pretty good, and as long as you have about 300meg down you should be just fine. Their streaming movie selection is large if you're just getting into it.

Currently they're fighting a losing war vs other providers when it comes to content rights on streaming movies that are newly released though.

And is the WiFi player you purchased the Roku?

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Hana

i don't have a "wifi media player" and am not sure what that is..

but.. i stream netflix and hulu to my XBOX 360 and have never noticed a buffer or delay in watching stuff.. or anything. Obviously if my internet is down, no netflix or hulu...

and you can watch things HD just fine streaming ...well you can with Comcast as an ISP, and i'm assuming you can with anything that's broadband without any noticeable 'stuttering' or 'lag' in the stream... if you have DSL, or slower, i have no idea what your experience will be.

the only time i've ever noticed any 'lag'/buffering issue is with Hulu when i'm on my phone. and i'm pretty sure that's more 3Gs fault.. or the fact that i'm in some sort of 'dead' zone and not reaching the cellphone system itself right. When i'm on wifi, on my phone, in my own house.. i don't have that issue.

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Ann Launay

I use Netflix through my Tivo and it's generally great. I occasionally have connection problems, but nothing severe.

I will say, Netflix's TV show selection for streaming is probably better than their movies at this point.

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Cindy Claveau

I have Cox cable, so I'm assuming the bandwidth won't be a problem (as Cox offers their own streaming service).

My biggest worry was buffering delays, as I have that issue sometimes on YouTube depending on the video I'm watching. But it's not common.

My #2 worry was the content. Am I to assume that some or most of the movies I can get through DVD mailers may not be available through stream?

Edav Nomad

I have DSL and almost all of the time it works great. I can also play it fine on my ASUS Transformer, WP7 as well as through the PS3 and Xbox 360. It's worth the $7.99 a month price.

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Edav Nomad

That is correct since most of the movies on Netflix are several years old and even some of those are disk only. Every once in awhile a movie is available for streaming pretty quickly but even then only after it is out on disk.

Cindy Claveau

No, it's not the Roku. I'll have to look (husband ordered it) but I think it's a Sony.

Cristiano

Did you get rid of your XBOX 360? It does Netflix and Hulu Plus streaming, though not Amazon (yet). They did just add an Amazon app to the PS3, so I imagine one is forthcoming to that as well.

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Edav Nomad

Actually you can already watch Amazon Instant Videos on the Xbox 360 it's just not an app on the console.

Amazon Instant Video on Your Xbox 360

Cristiano

That is not the streaming, though. It won't work with that. Also, that is a convoluted way of doing it

Sea Warcliffe

I adore Netflix for the simple reason that I can watch whole seasons of shows as I like. We use the Apple TV thing, and have done away with our satellite TV. Don't even miss it.

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Sunshine Carami

I stream netflix via roku2 (wireless cable); I mostly watch tv shows and I've not had any issues with buffering.

I like watching entire series but find it annoying when netflix wants to charge you extra to watch a series finale. It could just be the type of shows I like to watch but I've not found current tv season shows on netflix. I go to hulu on my pc to watch them.

Cristiano

If you like current tv shows, Hulu Plus is a better option than Netflix streaming. It has a huge number of current series, with the entire season on most of them, from most networks except CBS.

Edav Nomad

TV.com has some of the CBS TV shows and they usually are on the website a day or two after it airs. However the only way to watch it is either on the computer or through iOS and Android devices. Don't know why they haven't gotten into devices like Roku and the consoles.

bladyblue

If you already order HBO through your current cable provider you get everything free for streaming on your tablet, PC and smartphone that HBO has to offer. Just go to HBOGO.com to get the free app. You get all of their new and old series and all if the feature movies they show. Showtime is following HBO's lead on this also.

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Maggiedoll Alter

I had Netflix back before they split off the DVD service from the streaming. I don't know if it's changed, but back then the stuff that was available streaming was very limited, which is exactly why I canceled it when they went to the either-one-or-the-other-or-pay-a-lot-more thing. There was so much that wasn't available streaming, and everything took much longer to come out on the streaming service vs. the DVD release, so the streaming Netflix just couldn't replace the DVD service, and I didn't want to pay through the nose to have both.
But maybe they're making more available on streaming now that they're using it as a whole separate subscription? I just wasn't willing to pay the ever-climbing subscription prices.

Madison Talon

I have Netflix streaming. I watch either on my computer or through my husband's PS3.
I have never had any issues with it.
The choices in movies is definitely much more limited.
But as someone else said, if you wanna catch up on older TV series' it's wonderful

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Edav Nomad

Yeah they currently have all of the Star Trek TV series but only Enterprise was shot in HD and The Original Series was redone with more modern special effects and the overall picture was cleaned up a bit. I just noticed that it has Quincy, M.E., Airwolf, Lexx and all of the Stargates. They are also trying thier hand at original series like Lilyhammer starring Steven Van Zandt and the fourth season of Arrested Development will start on NetFlix in 2013. There are at least two more series created by NetFlix coming at some point.

IMDb: Netflix TV shows - a list by LavaGirl29

New 'Arrested Development' episodes to debut all at once on Netflix - latimes.com

Edav Nomad

Looks like Terra Nova could be coming to Netflix with new episodes.

Netflix Eyes 'Terra Nova' -- Cancelled Fox Drama Could Find New Home

It's looking like they are trying to get more into TV shows than movies.

Mocksoup Graves

We stream Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon prime. Netflix is my favorite to stream through the TV. I don't have any trouble or have to do a workaround. We only have a Wii, granted I haven't checked if Huluplus and Amazon Prime have put something on the wii lately, though.

Jeni Roussel

I stream Netflix through my plain old vanilla DSL to my TV with no problems. However I also get the DVD because, with the exception of TV shows, there are very few movies available for streaming that I wish to see. But Netflix's DVD selection is quite good.

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Shiva Draconia

I have Netflix here in Ireland. It's really new, only here since January...so nowhere near as large a library as the US. However, it's constantly expanding. You do need a good connection, though. BUT, what I've noticed is that you can't stream the whole movie/program in one go. It streams a little bit ahead of where you are.. if you pause what you're watching, it pauses the streaming too. Kinda good, I think. And thankfully, my ISP is a decent one. It's definitely worth the money. There are a lot of things in the library I either haven't seen yet, or want to watch again, but the DVD is elsewhere (like my parent's house), so not having the most up to date films/programs really doesn't bother me.

Shiva Draconia

Edav, just say your post about Terra Nova! It got cancelled? T_T I loved it. And they finished it up in such a way that has had me itching for the next season. Just hope that if Netflix do end up making it, that they'll show it this side of the water as well!

Pol

I'm on Comcast, and I stream Netflix to my iPad, Apple TV, and PS3. I've had very few problems with stream quality; the service is pretty reliable, even over wifi.

As others have said, Netflix right now is a little better for watching past TV seasons than movies, as they get only a paltry few of the latest films. I've been catching up with The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural (Hulu+ only has the 5 most recent episodes of most CW shows). Maybe I should not be admitting that here...

I was recently disappointed by Netflix because I wanted to watch a French film called The Crimson Rivers, but they only offered the dubbed version for streaming although they do have the technical capability to stream subtitles. I personally don't like dubbed films.

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