The Format War is done; it has been for a while. Netflix officially stopped buying new HD DVDs back in February ‘08 and starting on December 15th, the company will no longer be shipping ‘em out either marking Blu-ray’s exclusive reign. Any HD DVDs remaining in subscriber’s queues will simply be replaced with standard DVDs. No word on what Netflix is doing with the soon to be defunct high-def discs, but hopefully they will be up for sale sometime down the road. I’m sure a bunch of early adopters would appreciate the gesture and discount on the discs.
This is the perfect time for Blockbuster to jump into the niche market of video streaming devices – seriously. We already have TiVo, Vudu, Roku, LG Blu-ray player, Samsung Blu-ray player, Xbox 360, Apple TV, Dish Network and cable’s On-Demand service (miss any?) so why not add another option for consumers. Blockbuster is looking to pop-out a similar streaming set-top box as soon as this holiday season and with all kidding aside, this streamer might have chance.
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Netflix is giving out 48 hours of streaming video on XBox Live in selected 360 games including the new Quantum of Solace. This comes hot on the heels of the new dashboard which includes the Netflix app.
This is actually an excellent move. The streaming on the 360 is a dream, it’s in everyone’s home, and it’s easy. Sadly, I think the limited selection will turn off younger gamers but this is definitely a great way to get older gamers in on the streaming action.
Looks like AT&T is on its way to implementing Time Warner-style bandwidth caps. Residents of Reno, Nev. will be the guinea pigs this time around, with AT&T looking to impose a 20GB per month bandwidth limit for its lowest tier of broadband service; bandwidth limits increase as you move up AT&T’s service pyramid. The limit tops out at 150GB per month when using the company’s 10 mbps broadband service.
We all know why AT&T is moving in this direction: in order to better serve its customers as a whole, AT&T needs to keep its eye on so-called bandwidth hogs.
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Know that little button that pops up that lets you buy DVDs on Netflix. It’s going away. They’ll probably sell all their old DVDs to wholesalers and save on the cost of shipping unwanted DVDs at a significant discount.
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Now that a Samsung Blu-ray player, Xbox 360, and TiVo can stream Netflix, the original device by Roku is trying to make people remember that it’s still around by stating that it will be able to stream HD content by this year’s end. Some have questioned the $99 hardware’s ability to stream Netflix content but according to the companies VP of Consumer Products, it will be “delivering Netlfix in HD by the end of the year.” Plus, the UI will be upgraded as well to better work with the extra resolution. If Roku can indeed stream quality HD content and developers pick-up on the now-open system, Roku might gain some household penetration.
[Rokulabs via Hacking Netflix]
The Xbox 360 just gained Netflix high-def streaming capability but a small issue has arisen concerning HDCP and compatible displays. It seems that these high-def files are protected by the copy protection, but no fear, it has nothing to do with component video – and never did. You see, HDCP was devised to protect digital audio and video content that travels over digital mediums such as DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, GVIF, and UDI. Since component video is an analog signal, the movies, will of course stream just fine.
However, if you have a LCD monitor or older HDTV – say, pre-2005 – your display has a DVI port that might not be HDCP compatible; some were and some were not back then. So users can either revert back to component video or utilize a VGA adapter. True, you will be losing your 100% digital signal and the switch might mess up your whole wiring scheme if the gaming system is within a home theater setup, but at least you will be able to stream HD Netflix movies.
HD Netflix streaming just dropped on the Xbox 360 and while the reviews have so far been stellar, a little issue just appeared in the form of copy protection. It seems in order to stream the HD videos, the Xbox 360 must be connected to a HDCP-compatible display, therefore alienating most owners using DVI-equipped screens. The situation doesn’t come as much as a surprise though now that consumers have instant access to high-quality videos via a very hackable device like the Xbox 360. It just would have been nice of Netflix to give a little heads up.
[Thanks for the tip, Tyler!]
Where isn’t Netflix anymore? It looks great on the 360, it’s ending up in set-top boxes and media players from multiple makers. Now, if you had the foresight to buy a Series 3, HD, or HD XL you can now stream all of Netflix’s 12,000 streaming titles.
The service will use the same interface used by the 360 and the Roku box. You select films on Netflix.com and then add them to your instant queue. The films stream immediately upon selection. You can enable your TiVo for Netflix downloads by visiting www.tivo.com/netflix.
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A lot of things are riding on this UI redesign for Microsoft and the Xbox team, but more importantly it’s quelling the frustrations that many of us have had to deal with since the beginning of time. The blade interface was a good start, but it was frustrating at times and it certainly deterred me from perusing the Marketplace. Streaming via Netflix has been rumored for almost a year and that feature will finally be unlocked come November 19th. I still think the whole avatar feature is childish, but I was once asked whether or not I made characters in my own image (like in Madden or whatever), which promptly made me shut my mouth.
The Xbox and Microsoft teams began working on NXE this past spring and seeing what they’ve accomplished in such a short time is pretty amazing. Most will be content with the addition of Netflix, virtual parties and creating their own avatars, but I’m most excited by the fact that we no longer have to wait for the spring or fall updates to unlock new features.
Video after the jump. I’m no Doug Aamoth and I apologize in advance. Read More
Remember Silverlight? Well, Netflix is putting Microsoft’s video playback system to good use by offering “Watch Instantly” functionality under OS X “by the end of the year.”
Since “Watch Instantly” was introduced about two years ago Macintosh and Linux users have been complaining bitterly about Netflix’s failure to offer the service on their browsers of choice. The company has already offered streaming via dedicated hardware and specially programmed home theater and gaming devices.
The release, below, tells us to expect the Silverlight-powered service to go live by the end of the year.
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You’ll soon be able to stream Netflix movies on certain Samsung Blu-ray players. The official announcement is expected later today, but we already have a couple of details.
From the current player lineup, only the Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 will be compatible; more players are expected to be compatible as we move forward. You can find those players for around $400 and $300 online, respectively. (Though it looks like Amazon is having a sale on the P2550 right now—only $215. WRONG! See, the BD-2550 is actually$489 on Amazon. Double checking helps sometimes.)
You’ll still need the $8.95 per month Netflix subscription to use the service. Since you’re streaming movies on a Blu-ray player, you might as well pony up the $1 for the Blu-ray rental service, too.
Don’t forget that your Xbox 360 will soon be able to stream movies.
And that’s all we know so far. The official announcement can’t be too far off.
Netflix has convinced some 500,000 people to subscribe to its Blu-ray rental service. Netflix is all “Look how well we did!” because it charges a $1 premium to be able to rent Blu-ray discs. The question was, would it be able to convince people to pay a premium (even though $1 is hardly a premium, I think) in order to rent the high-def discs? Well…
Keep in mind that Netflix has some 8.7 million subscribers, meaning that a whopping 5.7 percent of its subscribers made the Blu-ray jump.
Netflix added that it expects the number of Blu-ray subscribers to increase as the price of players drop in price. Imagine that.
Netflix is going to start charging an extra buck for unlimited Blu-ray rentals. A big deal? Not really, but starting on November 1st, subscribers will notice the extra fee on their statement if they have Blu-ray access turned on under their account settings.
Netflix’s official email statement after the break.
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Wahoo! Lost amongst the shuffle yesterday with the Starz announcement was this tidbit of news from the Netflix Blog. Netflix will finally support streaming on Macs by year’s end.
And, for all of you Mac users (of which I am one) we’ve been busy working getting a solution that will allow you to watch instantly on your Mac. So hang in there – we’ll have something for you by the end of the year.
via Gearfuse
In an interesting move by Netflix and Starz, about 2,500 featured movies and concerts are now available for instant streaming over the Internet and using the Roku Netflix box. Because Starz offers first run “premium” content, this move expands the overall streaming offerings from Netflix considerably.
My only complaint about Netflix streaming has thus far been movie selection – man cannot live on National Lampoon’s European Vacation alone, no matter how many times Rusty gets some – and this assuages that grief by adding first-run movies to the mix. The unlimited subscription with access to streaming content is $8.99 a month and the on-line library is up to 15,000 titles now, considerably more than when we tested the service a few months ago.
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The Roku Netflix Player is an amazing little set-top box that streams Netflix movies, but Roku is hoping for so much more. The company has gone on record, stating that its going to open the platform for other content providers within the coming months. Does this mean we will finally see a quality Hulu or YouTube living room solution? I sure hope so, because with the Roku Netflix box $99 MSRP and if developers get behind it, we might see some killer applications with a low admission cost.
Rained in this weekend ’cause of Ike? How ’bout grabbing one of those Netflix envelopes laying around and fold yourself some paper. Nothing says love like a handmade heart made out of recycled paper.
I can’t wait to create my own avatar. Joy. At least I can share Netflix movies with my party people. The other features seem dandy, too.
Here’s a video demo of the Netflix service on the Xbox in case you missed it. And another video from the Microsoft press conference at E3.
via Kotaku
