Netflix on Sage

[matrix35]

This would be really cool!
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

[Motofreak75]

can you say Sage Video on Demand.......

[lobosrul]

Yeah I read about this yesterday, its definantly interesting. And I am a Netflix subscriber. They have a very impressive catalog.

But what sort of DRM will they be using? What format will the movies be released in (~1.5mbps DIVX with 5.1 AAC sound I hope... but probably WMV) Will they be playable in Sage? (that would be awesome, but I doubt it). Their service would be REALLY compelling if they offer higher than DVD resolution movies. Even 960x540 @ 2mbps can be superior to the best anamorphic DVD.

Maybe SageTV can get with Netflix to offer an "on demand" type service. Only with movies in widescreen and a way better selection than Comcasts VOD.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, if this is really meant to be VOD and not download and watch later, the bitrate is going to be rather low. Wish the fiber optic roll-out that was promised years ago actualy happened.

[mattdcknsn]

Just tried this out yesterday on my laptop. Good video quality. I didn't try and figure out the format or anything like that. But the picture was good, tonight I am going to try it out on the TV to see what it looks like. My bandwidth shouldn't be an issue, so hopefully it will be good. I'll let you know the results.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Wish the fiber optic roll-out that was promised years ago actualy happened.

Yeah but at least you have green chile! I would trade my 30mb down and 5mb up over fiber for some stew right about now..

wait a minute - no I wouldn't

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by mattdcknsn

Just tried this out yesterday on my laptop. Good video quality. I didn't try and figure out the format or anything like that. But the picture was good, tonight I am going to try it out on the TV to see what it looks like. My bandwidth shouldn't be an issue, so hopefully it will be good. I'll let you know the results.

I guess your one of the lucky few of the first batch. I dont see anywhere on netflix.com to use this new service.

So, do you just select the video, and within a few seconds it starts to play?

[mattdcknsn]

To register for it, from the main login page. Goto help. The first question on the top right of the page registers you for the service. Took awhile to find that. Hope there are still slots open for you.

Not everything in netflix is available. Currently a pretty small amount. But for me, I clicked on the play button and it took about 3 minutes to stream enough and it started playing.

[lovingHDTV]

At the very least you could setup a menu using the dynamic menu and call the external player. Just need something like HIP to get the remote to work. I know there are several folks here that do this for DVD playback. They use the TT DVD player. Not sure why the Netflix player would not work.

Can you pause, rewind, etc?

PS. I this works, I may have to break down and buy a netflix account.

[stanger89]

This would be interesting as I've been able to stream some of the 720p trailers from thelookandsoundofperfect.com (those are 6Mbps).

Anybody know what the resolution/bitrate of these are? How do they compare to the online trailers? Are there menues or movie only?

FWIW, I've been saying VOD is going to be the next big thing, provided it were done as a service not PPV. I'd been using the "like Netflix but without discs" comparison. Well, looks like I wasn't the only one with that idea?

[mattdcknsn]

OK, just played the beginning of "12 Monkeys" on the big screen. It looks GOOD! It even passed the WAF.

I am not sure yet what it uses. It did download a "Netflix Movie Viewer" program. You browse to the movie using IE (Mozilla not supported) its just another tab on the main menu, and hit play.

The sound was in stereo, PQ was very good. I didn't notice pixelation at all. the entire playback was smooth. Does anybody have suggestions to measure quality?

[GbrNole]

i'd have to imagine it streams wmv since it's so depedent on IE?

regardless it's making me think about killng my vongo and BB accounts.

[flavius]

Here is a link http://techdigest.tv/2007/01/netflix_offers.html

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Yeah but at least you have green chile! I would trade my 30mb down and 5mb up over fiber for some stew right about now..

wait a minute - no I wouldn't

A day without chile is like a day without sunshine (we've had a LOT of those days lately). I could live w/o green chile stew, but nothing beats a good plate of chile rellenos.

Originally Posted by mattdcknsn

To register for it, from the main login page. Goto help. The first question on the top right of the page registers you for the service. Took awhile to find that. Hope there are still slots open for you.

Not everything in netflix is available. Currently a pretty small amount. But for me, I clicked on the play button and it took about 3 minutes to stream enough and it started playing.

Hmmm, I see no such link. They did say only a small percentage of users would be offered the service to start.

[mattdcknsn]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Hmmm, I see no such link. They did say only a small percentage of users would be offered the service to start.

For me after I clicked on "Help" in the upper right hand corner the first Quick Link I see is "Where do I find movies I can watch instantly on my PC?" Thats where I signed up. Hopefully you can see it.

[src666]

Most users will just see a message stating that they will be able to use the service by June. They are performing a phased rollout of the service to make sure that they don't overload their systems/infrastructure. They would rather delay the process than have it crash and burn.

[IVB]

Thanks for the how-to; no idea why I was selected, but i just signed up for it.

[mattdcknsn]

Originally Posted by IVB

Thanks for the how-to; no idea why I was selected, but i just signed up for it.

No problem, the only issue I have with it is that my remote (Streamzap) doesn't work on their interface. I'm sure thats just a config issue though. Hopefully the netflix plugin can be configured to run this. Unfortunately I know nothing of programming.

[IVB]

Originally Posted by stanger89

This would be interesting as I've been able to stream some of the 720p trailers from thelookandsoundofperfect.com (those are 6Mbps).

Anybody know what the resolution/bitrate of these are? How do they compare to the online trailers? Are there menues or movie only?

not close on mine. I get *very* choppy playback of those trailers. I've been having huge DSL issues ever since I "upgraded" to 8MBps DSL (from 2) - i've never actually gotten a faster connection than my old modem. I wonder if the trailers are higher bandwidth than what i'm seeing on my dialed-down "1 out of 3" connection strength...

The movies are movie only, no menu's thank god.

[PhillJones]

I just noticed that I've now got access to this.

It doesn't work though. I just get an error that WMP can't play the file. I think it's a DRM thing since every time I got to the DRM keystore, the upgrade button is available, so I guess the keystore isn't working to upgrade my key list or whatever it's called.

[PhillJones]

Woo-hoo

It doesn't work on my work PC but I tried it on my HTPC cause I was feeling daring and it worked. It took about 10 seconds to start playing and I watched a whole episode of Red Dwarf without any stuttering. It was perfectly watchable. A little soft and compressed but better than I expected.

It didn't work on my work PC because the DRM is messed up somehow. I should imagine integrating this into sage would be one hell of a job with the DRM requirements.