Multimedia-PCs » Netflix

61% of Netflix Subscribers are Streaming

Jeremy Jones — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:51:34 +0000

During the Netflix earning call they said that 61% of their subscribers are streaming at least 15 minutes of content. That’s up from 51% the last quarter and 37% a year ago. It’s no surprise that people are taking advantage of streaming with so many devices that have the service built-in. I would say 95% of my Netflix watching is streaming content. It was higher not so long ago but I switched to blu-ray and love watching those in the theater. Having access to movies is alright but my main streaming is TV shows. I watched Lost one after another to catch up to this past final season.

Their stocks dropped though because revenue was down. But what people should be excited about is that Netflix is paving the way to the future of subscription based online content. I’m sure that price for streaming will go up but after you get everyone hooked I’m sure they will pay a dollar or so more a month.

(via Gizmodo)

Netflix Streaming Coming to Canada

Jeremy Jones — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:24:13 +0000

Netflix will be streaming to Canada later this year. They will be the first country other than the US to enjoy the service. I’m sure Canadians will enjoy the service as much as I do. You can check it out at Netflix.ca.

Netflix To Launch Canadian Service for Streaming Movies and TV Episodes Later This Year
Expansion Beyond U.S. Marks First International Venture for Internet’s Leading Movie Subscription Service
LOS GATOS, Calif., July 19 /PRNewswire/ — Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the leading Internet movie subscription service, today announced it will expand into Canada this fall offering unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed instantly to TVs and computers for one low monthly fee. The Canadian launch will mark the first availability of Netflix outside the United States.

Canadian Netflix members will be able to instantly watch a broad array of movies and TV episodes right on their TVs via a range of consumer electronics devices capable of streaming from Netflix, as well as watching on PCs and Macs.

In addition to representing its inaugural international market, Canada will also mark the first streaming-only service promoted by Netflix.

At the time of launch, the Netflix Canadian service will be available in English only, but the company said it expects to add French language capability over time.

Canadians interested in Netflix can go to www.netflix.ca and sign up to receive an email from the company when the service launches in Canada this fall.

WD Live TV Plus Hands-On

Jeremy Jones — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:12:05 +0000

A hands-on of the new WD Live TV Plus was posted on ZatzNotFunny. The new thing about the WD Live TV Plus is that it has Netflix streaming built-in along with all of it’s other streaming from the network capabilities. The price is good at $120 from Amazon. It’s a good update to the WD Live TV lineup.

WD Announces the WD TV Live Plus HD with Netflix Streaming

Jeremy Jones — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:09:05 +0000

Western Digital announced the WD TV Live Plus HD. I’m thinking they need to start changing the names of all these devices to make it easier for consumers. The new Plus version offers Netflix streaming along with all the current live features. That includes the play to feature in Windows 7. The new version is $150 but you can pre-order on Amazon for $125 right now. These media players will play almost anything you can throw at them and they offer many other streaming features other than the newly announced Netflix streaming.

Press Release Below:

New WD TV(R) Live Plus HD Media Player Delivers Thousands of TV Episodes and Movies for Netflix(R) Members to Watch Instantly

WD TV(R) Live Plus HD Media Player Enables Consumers to Stream Their Favorite Shows and Personal Content Directly To Their Big Screen TV

LAKE FOREST, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced the WD TV® Live Plus HD media player, which makes it easy for Netflix® members to instantly watch thousands of TV episodes and movies on the biggest screen in their home — their HD television set. The new Netflix interface enables members to browse and add movies to their instant Queue on the Netflix Website right from their TV.

In addition to Netflix, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also enables users to stream personalized Internet content from YouTube™, Flickr®, Pandora®, Live365™, as well as the MediaFly network which includes daily podcasts from CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN® and other online content providers(1). Unlike most other Netflix-capable devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player also lets consumers enjoy a broad variety of the digital media they already own, creating a unified entertainment experience.

The onscreen menu brings together all of the users’ available media in an elegant and simple-to-navigate interface, while the network capability enables users to stream movies from PC or Mac® computers, USB storage devices such as My Passport® portable hard drives, My Book® desktop drives, or network-attached storage such as WD’s My Book® World Edition™ and WD ShareSpace™ to their HDTVs. Compatible with Windows® 7, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player enables the Windows 7 Play To feature so users can initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the media player and home entertainment systems from any Windows 7-based PC on their network.

The WD TV Live Plus HD media player fulfills consumers’ growing demand for large libraries of digital videos, photos and music. According to research firm Parks Associates, the average broadband household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900 GB by year-end 2014. And users are increasingly looking for easy ways to enjoy the content on the big screen. Parks’ findings reveal that the sales of connected consumer electronics devices, such as connected TVs and digital media adapters, is expected to more than double from 57 million units in 2009 to 115 million units in 2013 (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009).

Similar to the popular generations of WD TV HD media players that preceded it, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player connects directly to a users’ HDTV and plays almost any file stored on a connected USB drive such as My Passport portable hard drives. The WD TV Live Plus HD media player features powerful media processing, which enables playback in Full-HD 1080p resolution. WD TV Live Plus HD media player also plays movies, music and photos stored on other popular USB devices such as digital camcorders and digital cameras.

“Netflix has become a ‘must have’ for consumer electronics devices,” said Netflix vice president of business development Bill Holmes. “We’re proud to align with WD to include Netflix on WD’s groundbreaking WD TV Live Plus HD media player.”

“While Netflix can be found on an increasing number of products such as Internet TVs, Blu-ray Players, video game consoles, and other stand-alone devices, the WD TV Live Plus HD media player is unique as it allows digital media buffs to access and play all of their own personal HD media stored anywhere on their network or USB drives. At the same time they can easily stream Netflix, Pandora, YouTube and other Internet favorites to their HDTV,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group.

WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player

Features of the WD TV Live Plus HD media player include:

* Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus;
* Access to thousands of TV episodes and movies to watch instantly for any Netflix member with an unlimited subscription;
* Wireless ready to support wireless network connection to your home network with an optional USB wireless adapter, which is sold separately;
* Supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding;
* Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio, daily podcasts from the MediaFly network including CNN, NBC, MTV, ESPN and other online content providers;
* Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection(2) to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network;
* Turns a USB drive(3) into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices;
* Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space;
* Two USB ports that allow seamless media playback from multiple USB drives displayed in a single list and sorted by media type;
* Windows 7-compatible Play To feature enables users to stream Windows 7 computer files to the TV through WD TV Plus HD media player;
* Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus;
* Works with digital cameras, digital video cameras and any other digital imaging device that supports Picture Transfer Protocol;
* Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search;
* Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search;
* Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search;
* Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search;
* HDMI® 1.3 port, composite video and component video output(4) for the highest quality HDTV or home theater;
* SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience; and,
* Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center.

Pricing and Availability

The WD TV Live Plus HD media player is available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. Covered by a 1-year limited warranty, the MSRP for WD TV Live Plus HD media player is $149.99 USD.

Make the New Roku Netflix Channel Better with DVPRemote

Jeremy Jones — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:05:15 +0000

DVPRemote made a video showing how much better using their app for the iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad is at controlling the Roku Netflix channel is. The biggest reason why is the keyboard for search vs. using the arrow keys to type everything in with the standard Roku remote. DVPRemote works with multiple Roku boxes and only costs 99 cents. I have embedded the video below for you to check out. Also visit DVPRemote site for more info or check out my previews posts on DVPRemote.

Roku Rolling Out Netflix Update

Jeremy Jones — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 02:05:56 +0000

Roku has started rolling out the Netflix UI update. You can manually do the update by going to setting, player info and check for update. The new interface was much needed as blu-ray players, xbox 360 and even the Wii had a better looking UI. The new interface allows you to browse by category, search by title and add the movies or TV shows to your queue.

While the interface is a lot more visually appealing it still needs some changes to navigation. I would rather see Instant queue, search, recently watched and category browsing as tabs along the top. As it is right now you have to keep scrolling down. It seems like the list keeps going and going. Then when you find a section you want, like comedy, you start side scrolling through a long list. It seems awkward and I always click too many times going back to the top that it takes me out of the app. Overall it’s a good update and it’s free.

Video below showing the new UI.

Netflix Now Streaming HD to PCs and Macs

Jeremy Jones — Sun, 16 May 2010 16:48:31 +0000

Looks like Netflix has started streaming content in HD to PCs and Macs. Not really sure why it would take so long to enable this. All the connected devices have had this for awhile. Now you can enjoy that HD on your computer screen.

(via HackingNetflix)

Roku Updating Netflix Interface Soon

Jeremy Jones — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:56:17 +0000

Roku posted a video of a updated Netflix interface that all users will get for free soon. I have embedded it below. The new interface will allow you to search all instant streaming titles and have the ability to add them to your queue. Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Blu-ray players have had those features for awhile now. It’s about time Roku updated the look. It can’t come soon enough. I’m also hoping they did some improvements on buffering the stream. My Wii and Blu-ray player get better quality over the Roku box.

Netflix Streams on iPad

Jeremy Jones — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:36:09 +0000

Netflix has a new iPad app that will allow you to “Watch Instantly” on the device. This is a feature that many have wanted on the iPhone for awhile. Lots of people said it wouldn’t happen because the iPad doesn’t have flash or silverlight. Netflix is a company that understands and innovates and it’s not surprising that they see the iPad as a device. Available in the iTunes Store now. Press Release.

Review: Netflix Streaming on Wii

Jeremy Jones — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:07:38 +0000

I ordered the Netflix streaming disc for Wii as soon as I could. I got it in the mail this weekend but just now had time to pop it in and play around with it. The Wii is only SD so that’s what you are going to get with Netflix streaming. Most of the content for Netflix streaming is SD so it’s not really a big deal.

The interface has a Wii feel which I personally like. Bigger buttons make it easy to navigate around with the Wiimote. At first launch it brings up your queue but you have the ability to browse other streaming content by category. A nice feature that the Roku box doesn’t have. Playing a title loaded quick and quality was good. The only draw back is that you have to use the CD every time you want to watch. I wish you had the ability add it to the Wii menu. With the Wii being a family device using Netflix is simple. If you can operate the Wii you can load up Netflix.

The video below is a quick walk-thru. The image quality looked better than it appears in the video.

Pros:
- Fast load times
- Nice interface
- Ability to browse other streaming titles

Cons:
- Must use disc every time

Since I have Netflix streaming through two Roku boxes and a Blu-ray player I thought I should compare the services.

Roku vs. Wii
- The Wii outperformed the Roku box in load times. From a few quick tests the Wii loaded twice as fast.
- Wii gives the option to browse content not in your instant queue.
- No HD on Wii but I rarely get HD on Roku.
- Have to have a disc for Wii.
- Wii has nicer interface

Insignia Blu-ray vs. Wii
- Blu-ray has HD
- Blu-ray loads HD just as fast as Wii loads SD content.
- SD content looked better on blu-ray player.
- Both have ability to browse other content.
- No disc for blu-ray

If I had to rate them it would be Roku, Wii, Blu-ray with Roku being the worse. That’s based on performance at my house.

If you have questions let me know in the comments.

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