Movie recommendations have most often been through word of mouth, but Netflix wants you to work harder to talk about the movies you watched over the weekend. The Netflix Updates application for Facebook users allows you to share your movie ratings with friends and view friend’s ratings through your news feed.
I am expecting the common reactions: “But I don’t want everyone to see my ratings!”, “I hate Facebook!”, “I hate change!” As with any Facebook application, you can control what your friends see. You can have Facebook prompt you before publishing any stories from Netflix Updates, or you can have Facebook update automatically without prompting. There is also an option to have your stories posted in one-line, short, or full. I put mine to one-line because I don’t want to contribute to the clutter already on my friend’s news feeds.
Neil Hunt of Netflix notes that the company is not throttling service and instead chalks up previous claims of throttling to ISP failures rather than anything in the Netflix servers. Whew. Read More
This is a little geeky but BreakItDownBlog did some analysis on a strange problem he was having. When he viewed Netflix video on the 360 it was coming through without jitters or problems but once he tried viewing it on his PC it was failing catastrophically. Read More
Blockbusters Video’s mail rental program is about to get a shred of awesomeness in the form of game rentals. The program will slowly be rolled out starting with a pilot program with select subscribers. You know what this could mean though right? There will finally be a reason to subscribe to Blockbuster instead of Netflix. That is, of course, if the price is right and the game selection sufficient.
Netflix streaming launched just a few months ago and already the sevice has streamed 1.5 billion minutes of TV shows and movies. The company stated that over 1 million Xbox’s have connected up with the service to stream content so far. There isn’t an official number of how many Xbox owners subscribed to the service exclusively for the streaming service, but I know of at least one: me. Only time will tell if the service already peaked or if there is still more growing room.
Blockbuster made good on it’s word to launch a streaming media platform before the end of 2008 and now BB is launching a computer-based movie streaming service just like Netflix. Actually, I’m sure a PR tool will be quick to point out via a nasty email that this service isn’t ‘just like Neflix’, but come on, it is.
The Xbox1 came out in November of 2001. Four years later, November of 2005, Microsoft released the Xbox 360. So, should we expect a new Xbox eight months hence? In a word, no
Not much else to add but the Roku Netflix box will soon be able to stream 40,000 Amazon titles on demand, “enabling Roku customers for the first time to watch new release movies titles instantly.” The movies cost as much as the do on Amazon and the box will simply connect to your online account and have no movie adding/browsing functionality. The system should be similar to the current Netflix system.
Watch new release movies the same day that they are released on DVD. Hit titles such as “The Dark Knight,” “Hancock,” “Pineapple Express”, “Tropic Thunder” and hundreds more that are not currently available on the Roku Player.
Oh, Blu-ray. Is this your year—wasn’t last year supposed to be your year?—or will you wallow in relative obscurity while the world falls apart all around you?
Just a few weeks ago we were all excited to see Netflix streaming makes its way to the Xbox 360 and Series 3 TiVos. Ha, that’s already obsolete, as LG plans to release a TV with the service built-in. And yes, this is the first deal of its kind.
Since the Roku Netflix player was the first streaming Netflix device, it’s only fitting that it gains the latest goodie of HD streaming. The little box definitely has the horsepower to push the HD content, so all that was missing was the software to enable it. That, my friends, should automatically hit the devices over the next few weeks.
So now Netflix has 9 million subscribers. A million here, a million there, sooner or later we’re talking about real people.
If there’s a silver lining to the company’s success, it’s that the new streaming service, which works quite well on the Xbox 360, costs the company money, with CFO Barry McCarthy calling it a “tax on the P&L [Profit and Loss Statement].” Basically, it’s a down payment on future success. That’s what Netflix hopes, at least.
As for adding new videos to the 12,000 title library, Netflix says it could easily do so, at the flip of a switch. Unfortunately, that switch costs a lot of money to flip, and Netflix still isn’t sure if it can turn a profit with the service yet. So let’s give Netflix a little bit of breathing room before freaking out.
I always wondered how Netflix got so good at spoonfeeding me movies I might like. Back in 2006, Netflix announced a $1 million prize for the team that comes the closest to improve the Netflix recommendation system by 10 percent. No one has claimed the grand prize yet, but one team, “BellKor in Big Chaos,” came close with a 9.44% improvement.
The TiVo Fall update that dropped yesterday had a little somethin-somthin hidden under the hood. Netflix is now up and ready; HD content included. So far I’m impressed. The interface is TiVo-familiar. High-def content queues up almost instantly verses the Xbox’s near-almost present lag. Picture quality is good- not great, but good.
Firmware now available for the Samsung BD-P2550 / BD-P2550 Blu-ray players enables HD Netflix streaming. The players had previously been able to access standard definition Netflix content but who wants to watch SD on their HDTV? No one, so firmware 2.1 is well appreciated. Any owners care to give us a first report.
Conspiracy or not, Sony-owned Columbia Pictures movies are mostly good to go from Netflix to the Xbox 360. Initially the studio claimed that licensing was to blame for the restricted access but apparently the proper papers have been pushed ’cause most Columbia flicks can now be played with the notable exceptions of Walk Hard and Bad Boys. Chances are those will be available soon.
The New Xbox Experience is currently being pushed to all Xbox 360s. To celebrate (?) its launch, Major Nelson, the Xbox division’s chief of propaganda, has put together a snappy list of 10 things you need to “check out.” You know, create an Avatar (I shan’t be doing that), start a party (I shan’t be doing that), install some games to the hard drive (not worth my time) and just plain ol’ look around (nope).
Fun for all.
The most significant addition, obviously, is Netflix support. The rest is largely “oh, neat,” then you go about your business.
A quick rant. I’m in Geneva, the city where boredom goes to be bored, and wanted to watch a movie on Netflix Instant Play. I headed over and discovered, much to my chagrin, that the system was keyed to my current location and, as a result, I’m locked out. While I’m aware of IP masks and other tricks I could use to get to the content, I’m essentially browsing Usenet now simply because I don’t want to go through the trouble.
Movie recommendations have most often been through word of mouth, but Netflix wants you to work harder to talk about the movies you watched over the weekend. The Netflix Updates application for Facebook users allows you to share your movie ratings with friends and view friend’s ratings through your news feed.
I always wondered how Netflix got so good at spoonfeeding me movies I might like. Back in 2006, 
