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Netflix's first streaming box


iwillwalk

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That's interesting.

I watch some netflix movies streaming on my laptop and have wondered how it would do on the TV.

On the laptop, picture quality is ok. Sometimes it will stop with a message that the internet connection has slowed and needs to change the picture quality due to that. Don't know how much difference that might make on the tube.

Internet connection is DSL about 2.7mb.

I'd love to check this out.

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  • 1 month later...

Do you think the days of hard copy DVD and Blue Ray rentals are numbered. Maybe 5-10 years? Its going to be interesting to see were this will take us entertainment wise.

Very numbered. My guess would be closer to 5 years. What is the point of all the waste associated with hard copies. Freight. Burning the disc. Packaging. Postage to the consumer. Return postage. Store fronts. All that stuff is pure waste. Netfix is very good. Set up a queue. Prioritze it the way you want. They send you stuff according to your priorities. Watch when you want. Drag your feet returning it. It's really a good deal. The download feature is even better. I haven't used it. But at some point not to far ahead, we all will be using it or something much like it.

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I've had one of these for about a month now. They are very cool. I run mine wirelessly to my home theater downstairs, wireless router is one floor up. You can also run them wired. I always get the highest quality (which is based on your net connection), and I can't tell the difference between it and DVD on my standard def TV. Supposedly surround sound and hi-def video are coming later this year, but Netflix will have to start ripping movies that way first.

A couple caveats:

  • Make sure you're cool with the available movies before you purchase. The available movies tend towards classics, foreign, documentaries, and crap. There's some really decent titles available though.
  • Movies have to be put into your queue via computer. You can then choose movies from your queue on the Roku box.
  • Some technical issues are still being ironed out. For example, I'll get crackly static in the audio every once in a while. Sounds almost exactly like vinyl! They think it may be related to the wireless antenna.
But by and large, it may be the best $99 I've spent for my home theater!
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Jeff, I agree this will take off but there will always be a market for hard copy. Portability, use in places out of range of a connection, and especially the children market will make sure of this. I have never spoken with any parent who doesn't say how when their kids like a particular movie that they don't watch it multiple times a day for long periods of time. I remember listening to records as a small child over and over on a portable record player. It seems obvious, yet I was looked at as almost a heretic in business school close to twenty years ago when stating that no matter how prevalent the information economy became, there would still be an important and greater percentage of the economy than people think for actually producing something tangible, i.e. physical products.

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I read that the TimeWarner is trying a pay for what you use program. If you download a lot of movies, music, etc then you pay more for your internet. If you use it for some emails, and checking some websites then you will pay less.

If this is the future pricing for internet providers then it seems people who use this box or the HD version coming out will have very big high speed internet bills.

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I've been watching Netflix streaming movies on my laptop for a few weeks.

One thing I have to say, the selection of movies available for streaming is quite poor. I mean, it is really a disappointment.

It appears that maybe a third or more of the movies available are direct to DVD releases that never even made it to the theatres. I'm surprised Netflix keeps their streaming servers loaded up with two star crap.

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Mark.

Yes, I've been surprised at the DirecTV PPV offerings too. It's genuinely bewildering.

I've just dialed my DirecTV subscription back to the most basic. I'd been contemplating changing to Dish in an ATT wirless bundle but decided not to go that way. I'd been paying about $65 a month for second tier programming and local channels. No premium channels such as HBO. I changed it to the most basic service which is $30 per month for the family channels and local channels. It's 45 channels or so. No CNN, No FoxNews. It does have Headline News, in case something big happens, and HG and National Geographic, which my wife likes to watch. I might have gone with the Dishnetwork, for a similarly priced basic package, but that didn't include local channels and the HG and NGC weren't included in the family package.

Anyway, I'm glad to be saving a few bucks. If it were just for my watching, I would drop it all together. For the fam, though. What I'm doing is OK.

On the Netflix watch instantly service, that's as much a head scratcher as DTV PPV offerings.

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