45 replies to this topic

[JamesD]

JamesD, on Sun Oct 2, 2011 4:54 AM, said:

My next Netflix billing is tomorrow and I'm going to put my account on hold until I see what happens.

And I forgot to put it on hold so I guess I'm watching for another month.

[Reaperman]

moycon, on Tue Oct 4, 2011 10:57 AM, said:

Reaperman, on Tue Oct 4, 2011 9:34 AM, said:

The console clients are pretty bad,

Easy solution is to use a web browser on your PC to do a more robust search and then add multiple movies you think you might like to your instant queue. Then use the console client to pull up the flicks in your instant queue.

Yeah, I've tried that too, but it's not as interactive with the guests as it could be since it's done prior to movie night. It's just a shame that a Netflix client that used to do what we needed it to, now has greatly reduced functionality. I suppose the best solution is to pull an old computer out of the 'old computer closet', buy it a modern video card, and hook it up to the screen. 'Best solution' is really the wrong term for it though--especially since the PC app was suffering from the same reduced functionality issues until just a month or two ago when some browse/sort controls were restored.

Oh well, at least Netflix gave us 'Trollhunter' last bad movie night.

[moycon]

Reaperman, on Wed Oct 5, 2011 12:07 PM, said:

Oh well, at least Netflix gave us 'Trollhunter' last bad movie night.

Whaaa!!!?? Oh man that flick looks GREAT! They were playing it at the Plaza theater in downtown Atlanta a couple months ago and I wanted to go so bad but couldn't. I did see the trailer, looked like a lot of fun! Adding to my Netflix queue tonight!!

[JamesD]

Trollhunter is probably the best thing they have added in months.

[Video]

I think my skull just exploded. Yeah, the 12$ fee was for the download +DVD, cause I wanted to have access to physical media still as an option (and I hear simply buying a movie from them is quiet reasonable if you should choose to buy one) I'll have to look over their different options and fees and such.

Kind of lame that you have a limited number of items you can log into the account, I would have figured they would have just gone by your name and password or something, but, then I just wanted to check that.

[edit] Yeah, I got rid of cable a couple of years ago, of course, most of my friends still havve it so I don't loose anything, but that's probably why I buy so many movies. But even still, I'm so far behind watching movies that I actually can watch a movie from a few years back and it would still be fresh to me. Most of what I wanted to see was older stuff anyways, so I figure this will be good for me. Anything I can't get through it could be gotten elsewhere probably.

Thanks for the info guys, I'm heading out to netflix to check it out now.

Edited by Video, Thu Oct 6, 2011 3:02 PM.

[cimerians]

The only reason I have cable is cause of NFL football and Nickelodean for my kid. (sometimes disney).

Anyone know how to watch this stuff without cable? I'd love to ditch cable....

[HammR25]

You can get NFL Sunday Ticket on your PS3 for a mere 4 payments of $85.

[Video]

HammR25, on Sun Oct 9, 2011 7:35 AM, said:

You can get NFL Sunday Ticket on your PS3 for a mere 4 payments of $85.

I was fixing to swear, but thought the internet didn't really need to crash on account of that

[JamesD]

FWIW, I received a note from Netflix today that the DVD service won't be split off into a separate service.

Quote

Dear James,

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We're constantly improving our streaming selection. We've recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we've added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.

Respectfully,

The Netflix Team

[Asaki]

moycon, on Tue Oct 4, 2011 10:57 AM, said:

Easy solution is to use a web browser on your PC to do a more robust search and then add multiple movies you think you might like to your instant queue.

Well I tried that, but it seems it's still a case of "What we want you to watch."

I did a search for Vincent Price, and it brought me to a "Movies starring Vincent Price" page, instead of actual search results. Just to prove my theory, I did a search for Tom Savini (we had recently watched two or three movies starring him, and one directed by him) and nothing came up.

[Metal Ghost]

I have no doubt that my path isn't the best choice for everyone. It really depends on what people value in terms of entertainment (i.e. games, movies, TV, on-demand, sports, etc). But, that having been said, for what my family goes for, I think it's the most cost effective way to go:

• Basic Time-Warner cable....$8 per month. About 12 channels, BUT....I get all the locals in HD. So that includes NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and like 4 PBS stations.
  
• Netflix - $8 per month. Had the 1 disc per month unlimited option with Blud-Ray until all the fuss they started recently, so I dropped that and went on-demand only, because I just signed up for....
  
• Blockbuster - $15 per month. 2 disc, unlimited movie and game in-mail exchanges, unlimited in-store exchanges (and there's still one just down the road).
  
• Xbox Live Gold - $60 for the family pack (on sale I think). That allows my wife to access the Netflix in our bedroom on her gamertag if I'm in the living room. We have FiOS too, which is an ESPN3 partner, so it also allows me access to all the ESPN live and recorded games, etc., so I'm not missing sports by having basic cable.

So for about $36 per month we have access to pretty much any type of entertainment we want. It's not ultra-cheap, but again, the options are almost limitless, and it's still half the price of what most of our friends are paying for a premium cable-only set-up. We also have Hulu+ right now too. I basically got that because we lost the ability to DVR stuff when our HTPC died. I'm not sure I'm going to keep it....BUT, it is nice to be able to watch Colbert and John Stewart again.

Sorry Video for going off on a complete digression there. Just that the whole 'entertainment options' thing has been fresh on my mind lately as we decide whether to try a rebuild of the HTPC thing with Media Center streaming to 360's, or utilize other options (like HULU+ and the new TV ability that's coming to 360's).

[cimerians]

Metal Ghost, on Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:08 AM, said:

I have no doubt that my path isn't the best choice for everyone. It really depends on what people value in terms of entertainment (i.e. games, movies, TV, on-demand, sports, etc). But, that having been said, for what my family goes for, I think it's the most cost effective way to go:

• Basic Time-Warner cable....$8 per month. About 12 channels, BUT....I get all the locals in HD. So that includes NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and like 4 PBS stations.
  
• Netflix - $8 per month. Had the 1 disc per month unlimited option with Blud-Ray until all the fuss they started recently, so I dropped that and went on-demand only, because I just signed up for....
  
• Blockbuster - $15 per month. 2 disc, unlimited movie and game in-mail exchanges, unlimited in-store exchanges (and there's still one just down the road).
  
• Xbox Live Gold - $60 for the family pack (on sale I think). That allows my wife to access the Netflix in our bedroom on her gamertag if I'm in the living room. We have FiOS too, which is an ESPN3 partner, so it also allows me access to all the ESPN live and recorded games, etc., so I'm not missing sports by having basic cable.

So for about $36 per month we have access to pretty much any type of entertainment we want. It's not ultra-cheap, but again, the options are almost limitless, and it's still half the price of what most of our friends are paying for a premium cable-only set-up. We also have Hulu+ right now too. I basically got that because we lost the ability to DVR stuff when our HTPC died. I'm not sure I'm going to keep it....BUT, it is nice to be able to watch Colbert and John Stewart again.


Sorry Video for going off on a complete digression there. Just that the whole 'entertainment options' thing has been fresh on my mind lately as we decide whether to try a rebuild of the HTPC thing with Media Center streaming to 360's, or utilize other options (like HULU+ and the new TV ability that's coming to 360's).

Thanks Metal Ghost.

So far I have Netflix, Amazon, Xbox 360 Gold.

I dont have FiOS where I live but I think I can figure something out. I will add Hulu plus as well.

[Metal Ghost]

@Cimerians - just keep in mind that Hulu+ is another $8 per month. That's why I'm really not sure if we're going to keep it. But like I said, there are a couple of shows on there that I really like and, unless I'm willing to shell out a buck or two per show (or get premium cable), that's where I have to get them. Plus, I'm using it more and more....maybe it just needs to grow on me. They offer a free trial though of just about every option I mentioned, so that's always a good way to try anything out.

[Video]

Wella, I got me a netflix account. I only got the one for internet videos though, cause it looks like they add another $8 to do the DVD thing, and I thought that was a bit much (they may mean $8 total, but uh, yeah, till I know for sure)

I'ts pretty simple, just sell your soul to satan, or watch spider man 3 (give then a credit card number) I gave them some guys number so... tell them how old you are and that your a dude, unless you happen to be a chick, then who cares? and then you get to click a couple dozen (ish) buttons that kind of tell net flix how you like movies., romance, comiedies, horror, that kind of thing.

Oh, then it wants to download Sliverlight, wish they would have said that before, my computer is at the base bottom for requirements to run whatever the hell that is...but that's OK, I'm planning on upgrading at the end of this year or early next year anyways.

Looks like the first movie it reccommended was Gamer, daybreaker (never heard of it) Mortal Kombat, haven't seen that for years and Deep Blue sea, which I was thinking about buying not to long ago, but didn't.

They goot some cool movies on there, but how you look for them kind of sucks, hopefully that's just cause I don't know what I'm doing yet, and it will get better (but then, form the sound of what people here said about it, probably not)

Oh yeah, first movie I watched was Toy Story 3, funny enough, I actually own this, but haven't opened it yet, and it came out what? Like a year ago?

Edited by Video, Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:34 PM.

[Vic George 2K3]

The quality of the audio for streaming Netflix on my Wii has gotten crappy lately. Anyone else notice this?

[Animan]

Vic George 2K3, on Tue Oct 11, 2011 3:25 PM, said:

The quality of the audio for streaming Netflix on my Wii has gotten crappy lately. Anyone else notice this?

No, not at all. Then again, I could have swore the video quality was just a little better in the past.

[Asaki]

Video, on Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:31 PM, said:

...how you look for them kind of sucks, hopefully that's just cause I don't know what I'm doing yet, and it will get better

Nope!


They have a couple of options you can browse through, but the best way to find movies is to know exactly what you want to watch and then search for it.

Vic George 2K3, on Tue Oct 11, 2011 3:25 PM, said:

The quality of the audio for streaming Netflix on my Wii has gotten crappy lately. Anyone else notice this?

It depends on what you're watching. I've noticed some shows/movies are in pretty good quality. audio and video-wise, while a lot of stuff is not.

I think it just depends on what's popular, though I did watch the first episode of X-Men about a month ago and it looked terrible, but then rewatched it (so the GF could see it) a few weeks later and it seemed to look much better.

Though we were watching one movie the other day (Deadtime Stories 2 I think?) and there was one section where the sound quality got really bad for about a minute, then went back to normal.

[Animan]

Asaki, on Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:19 AM, said:

Video, on Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:31 PM, said:

...how you look for them kind of sucks, hopefully that's just cause I don't know what I'm doing yet, and it will get better

Nope!


They have a couple of options you can browse through, but the best way to find movies is to know exactly what you want to watch and then search for it.

Vic George 2K3, on Tue Oct 11, 2011 3:25 PM, said:

The quality of the audio for streaming Netflix on my Wii has gotten crappy lately. Anyone else notice this?

It depends on what you're watching. I've noticed some shows/movies are in pretty good quality. audio and video-wise, while a lot of stuff is not.

I think it just depends on what's popular, though I did watch the first episode of X-Men about a month ago and it looked terrible, but then rewatched it (so the GF could see it) a few weeks later and it seemed to look much better.

Though we were watching one movie the other day (Deadtime Stories 2 I think?) and there was one section where the sound quality got really bad for about a minute, then went back to normal.

Yeah, I think that's the case. I can watch a MST3K episodes that looks great, then watch Eraserhead and get ugly compression artifacts (especially noticeable in a movie like that).

[moycon]

Asaki, on Tue Oct 11, 2011 6:26 AM, said:

I did a search for Vincent Price, and it brought me to a "Movies starring Vincent Price" page, instead of actual search results. Just to prove my theory, I did a search for Tom Savini (we had recently watched two or three movies starring him, and one directed by him) and nothing came up.

Well I thought it was an easy solution. Here is what I often do....
Direct your browser to http://www.netflix.com
Pick a movie you know an actor or actress and type the name of the movie in the search box. (Its near the top right hand corner of the page.)
We'll use Vincent Price as an example. A well know movie he was in is....The Fly ( this would be the 1958 version not the 1986 remake)
When you've found the result for that movie, click on it. You will be take to a very detailed page that list many, many people and tag words associated with the movie.
These are all clickable and will all pull of a list of other movies that share that particular association.
So click on Vincent Price. You will pull up a list of about 100 movies and TV shows that Vincent Price was in.
Keep in mind only the results in Blue that say "Play" are eligible to be added to you Instant View queue.
Add as many as you wish.
Now go to the 360 or PS3 Netflix ap and at the menu stay on "Your Instant Queue" All the movies you have added should be available at a quick press of the button.

After checking and using Vincent Price as the search word, it pulls up a similar list, as does Tom Savini. Not sure where you are searching from (A smart phone maybe?) but for me on a PC it works fine finding movies these two gentleman were associated with.

Here's a direct link to Vincent Price...

http://www.netflix.c...?personid=75060

A short ways down you will see "All Vincent Price Movies" that would be a list of all the movies available on Netflix Vincent Price was associated with.
It did the same for Tom Savini. It not only listed 4 pages of movies and TV shows he starred in, but also ones he just work on the SFX cast. (Ex : Friday 13th part 4)
Not sure it gets more straightforward than that. What exactly do you find a problem with?

[Asaki]

moycon, on Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:34 PM, said:

After checking and using Vincent Price as the search word, it pulls up a similar list, as does Tom Savini. Not sure where you are searching from (A smart phone maybe?) but for me on a PC it works fine finding movies these two gentleman were associated with.

Was searching from the PC, there was a search box in the upper-right corner of the screen. I'll have to try it again later, I'm at home and it's not my account.

[Video]

After messing with it, I"d say I'm over all happy with netflix though. I watched that movie, it was cool,. then I dug though the boxes of movies I got and pulled out the DVD and watched that, just for comparison's sake. I'd say the DVD, even on an old analog TV wins out, but just barely. The audio quality is a bit better on the DVD, and the video seems less compressed. Then again, it could be the movie. It was Toy Story 3.

I've played some other movies, and some of them seem to have worse audio, and some have worse video quality, like I watched Startrek TNG, and it was way more compressed than the DVD (and that's already more compressed than what was originally shown on TV, I swear some of my old 90's VHS recordings looked better) Still, it's not eye gougingly bad or anything LOL (well, to me they're not, to the bluray crew, yeah, just kill yourself now)

I was also surprised to find some stuff that I did find. I've never seen (for any reasonable price) ReBoot for sale anywhere, and they got the first two seasons of that show on there. Yeah, it's cheesy as hell, but I loved it when I originally saw it in the early 90's and honestly, I like it even more now.

I'm sure eventually, I'll run into something I can't play, but as long as I can remember the name, it seems to usually find what I'm looking for. Well, most of the time. I looked up Angel, it's a tv series from early 2000 area about post apocalyptic california that's now a police state with weird genetically engineered people and animals and stuff. It was cool, but short, but it found some weird cultist vampire show instead. Still looks cool, but wasn't what I was looking for...actually, it looked kind of like a spin off of Buffy or something.

Oh, and of course, the obvious bid downside to downlaodable stuff. Our internet is partially down, which means I can get online, but not do anything that requires any real speed, like netflix LOL. Oh well, we'll try later, or tomorrow or something.

Oh yeah, I did link it to my 3DS, video works great on there, the 3DS doesn't have as good of sound or video, but it's not nearly the drop from watching it on the PC as I was expecting. A lot of the videos I tried on there actually look better, despite the more obvious artifacting than they did on the computer, but that may be due to the video screen being closer to the native resolution of the videos I watched, or just small screen size, brighter, whatever. Anyhow, still cool though.