I had no idea having a netflix acct means tons of great streaming movies, no extra charge...

[zonkers]

I am using my friend's acct # and PW. I am amazed at how many awesome films there are.

[JonLP24]

1. I don't have the system requirements for that

:cry:

My computer


It's only good for internet and saving files. The only videos I can watch are on Youtube and I can't watch clips on The Daily Show's website. :evilfrown: If I could watch those movies I would have watched thousands by now but happy with netflix overall. Beats Blockbuster hands down.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. I love Netflix, especially for their catalogue

of old TV series, British TV series, and foreign films.

Here's a fun exercise: Pick a country you're interested in and do a search on movies from that country. You'll be amazed at how many their are. Read the plot summaries and put a few of them in your queue. If you're studying a foreign language, comparing what you hear with the subtitles is great practice.

[zonkers]

3. I was in your boat, having had hand-me-down pcs forever. Just gotta say, it's a treat and

it did not set me back thousands. All I really paid for new was the macmini and an external hd. I was able to acquire a hand me down monitor and keyboard. Used gear is where its at.

[Lethe]

4. you can watch Netflix streaming movies on your TV with a Roku box

it's $99.

you hook it up to your TV and it will steam your Netflix movies from a wireless router. (or wired) Basically you just add movies to your Netflix Instant queue and they will show up on your TV. You select them with a Roku remote.

it works great i've had one for almost a year now.

[Xithras]

7. You can do the same thing with an HTPC, but the quality is pretty awful

It's kind of ironic that I have it, because I really don't watch that much TV, but I got a great deal on a plasma a couple of years ago and have a nice HTPC running in my entertainment center. The system is fully capable of playing streaming Netflix or Hulu movies, but I just can't watch them. The video may look nice on a smaller computer monitor, but the compression artifacts make those services unwatchably blurry on a full sized television.

My DVR missed the first episode of SG:U several weeks ago, so I tried to watch it off Hulu. I got about 5 minutes into it, stopped the stream, and just downloaded an HD torrent rip of the show. It turned out that it wasn't really HD either, but it was a heck of a lot better quality than the Hulu stream.

Hype aside, online streaming video still doesn't match the raw quality of traditionally delivered HD video.

[MajorChode]

12. I do the same thing and the video quality is fine

However occassionally the quality will step down because of bandwidth issues and it may become unwatchable at some point. At max quality it's still not really up to even DVD standards, but it's not bad really. Yes, it's not anywhere close to HD, but it beats trying to watch movies on a PC.

[Xithras]

13. It's about VHS quality.

Worse than standard def TV. It can do the job when nothing else will, but I certainly wouldn't recommend that people spend actual MONEY to buy the hardware to do it. Financially and quality-wise, it makes more sense to feed a dollar to the nearest RedBox.

[MajorChode]

16. I bought the Roku box and don't regret it

I don't use it anymore since it's built into my Blu-ray player. Tech wise, I don't know how it compares to standard def, but yes it's probably either on par or a notch below. So if you have a great movie that you want to get the full experience, no it's not such a great idea. But for catching up on a series, or watching quite a few movies that you'd like to watch, but don't want to spend the money or the time renting them, it's awesome. I just don't like watching stuff on my computer, so for my purposes it's very useful. If you don't mind watching stuff on your computer, it's probably of limited value.

[elocs]

20. That depends upon your bandwidth. Mine is certainly dvd quality.

Not HD, but that is why I get BluRay dvds in the mail. For me it is most certainly regular dvd quality and I haven't been to a Redbox since I got Netflix.

Also using the Roku box I can rent or buy new movies or tv series on Amazon and again, for me they are dvd quality.

[Xithras]

25. Not really

"DVD Quality" is lossless 480P, or 720x482 resolution, and the progressive scan format means that every frame is presented in uncompressed, lossless quality. Netflix does stream at 720x482, but they do not offer a lossless option and even their highest quality setting uses VBR compression. Silverlight WMV actually doesn't support lossless compression.

So no, it's not DVD quality.

In addition, pretty much every DVD player sold today upscales standard quality DVD's for HD viewing, and some (like Faroudja) do an excellent job at it. There is no equivalent for Netflix video. Not only is the quality lower than standard DVD's, but you also can't take advantage of upscaling features to further improve quality. This means that the final viewing quality of a streamed Netflix video is substantially poorer than you would get watching that same video on a traditional DVD, using modern playback equipment.

And that's Netfix. Hulu is even worse.

[elocs]

27. To me the Netflix streaming video looks exactly the same as a regular dvd

and that is on a 50" plasma. I know what crap look likes and it is not crap and it is certainly in no way vhs quality. To me it is as watchable as any non-hd tv channel may be and it is far better than I have ever seen Hulu look on my pc. I have no complaints whatsoever about Netflix steaming video and the wide selection I have to view.

[blogslut]

30. Sure you do

Your machine has sufficient hardware to stream flicks from Netflix. The problem is that Netflix only streams via Internet Expolorer - same pretty much goes for the Daily Show site. If you want to watch Daily Show replays, go to HULU. Just make sure you've got all the non-free Flash packages installed as well as all the other video codecs.

[NV Whino]

5. Yeah!

Is that cool, or what.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Even better for me..watching the movies on a 17 in. computer flatscreen.

can't stand to watch the old tv tube anymore, the picture on the flatscreen is so much better, and with headphones there is no outside noise interference.
So all movies, disc and download, go on puter.
I have noticed occasional buffering issues using Netflix streaming, not sure if it is them or my ISP.

[elocs]

8. Netflix plus my Roku box give me an outstanding variety of movies, documentaries, and old tv shows.

It looks outstanding, dvd quality, even on my 50" plasma tv. Also, for my $10.95 a month I get 3 Bluray dvds each week. I don't have cable or satellite, so Netflix fits the bill quite nicely for me.

[yawnmaster]

9. You can also use your Xbox. eom

[LeftyMom]

14. PS3 now too.

They just started that, I haven't even tried it but I got the setup disk in the mail friday.

[NickB79]

28. And the PS3 doesn't require a $50/yr membership like Xbox Live does. NT

[deucemagnet]

10. I just subscribed last month and I love it.

The TV remote that came with my TV tuner PCI card can be used to access Netflix via Windows Media Center and the picture quality is great on a 19" HD monitor. It would be worth the $9.55 a month even if I didn't get about 2 DVDs a week.

[elocs]

22. For the one movie at a time I can get 3 BluRay dvds a week.

I can get new movies on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. They have an outlet in my city and I drop the dvd off at the post office and they get it the next morning from their PO box there and send my next one the same day and I get it the next day.

So getting 3 BluRay dvds a week plus unlimited streaming videos is worth it for me.

[TommyO]

11. They can also be played on a TiVo Series 3 or HD

I do it regularly.

[Sabriel]

15. Not just movies, either

We're working our way through Leverage right now.

[elocs]

23. I've watched Dead Like Me and Dexter as well as a bunch of other tv series. n/t

[Starbucks Anarchist]

17. I have odd combinations on my Netflix queue.

The top ten or so spots in my queue alternate between seasons of The Office (American version) and various films by Yasujiro Ozu, a Japanese director whose movies I enjoy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasujir%C5%8D_Ozu

[smoochpooch]

18. You've got to hand it to them, they've changed how people watch movies in only 6 or 7 years.

They used to have a very limited selection of streamed movies but it's gotten way better the last couple years. I haven't gone to a video store since probably 2005.

[dugaresa]

19. and if you have a laptop or desktop close to a larger TV that supports S-video

you can stream them to your TV for more comfy viewing.

[elocs]

24. I have a 28" monitor, but I use my Roku box to stream it to my 50" plasma

as well as my 32" in the bedroom.

[valerief]

21. Ain't Netflix grand? nt

[petronius]

26. It took me a while to realize how cool that is, but now I think more of my Netflix use

is streaming rather than DVD. Which I'm sure is what they want...

[blogslut]

29. sigh

Yeah.

Had to give up my Netflix account. I miss it but it is what it is.