Instant Watching

Posted by droidmaker on February 2, 2008 at 7:46pm in Instant Watching

Here's a place to voice feedback about this feature. I trust this will include gripes about Mac or Linux availability, or the problems with the new player, and so on.

Tags: browse instant, instant watching

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rayny on April 2, 2008 at 9:12am: Just a heads up for anyone who is interested. I had Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and Phantasm in my queue and they are now available for instant view.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mlynn on April 2, 2008 at 10:37am: Thanks so much for the heads up! I've been wanting to see that Behind the Mask movie!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Firewater on April 2, 2008 at 2:59pm: Phantasm. Beware the Tall Man.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by The Sleeper on April 2, 2008 at 11:14am: I am a Linux user, and I have vowed to keep Micro$oft out of my home forever. However, when I signed up for Netflix, I quickly learned this plan wouldn't work. I had to make room on my drive just for an XP partition, which is only used for Netflix. It is annoying having to install a new OS just to use Netflix (though I admit it is worth it for me).

I understand you guys don't care about *nix users, as we only comprise around 1-5% of the market -- not much loss in your pocket book. However, I am surprised Netflix hasn't created a solution for OS X yet, as it comprises about 7-8% of the market and appears to be gaining in popularity all the time. Similarly, *nix is also gaining in popularity as many people are seeing that *nix is more powerful than Windows and, best of all, is free. You are going to have to do something eventually to appease us OS X and *nix users.

I ask: why does Netflix allow Micro$oft control over their instant watch feature? DRM itself is not OS dependent, only the plugin Netflix choses to use (Silverlight). I think it is a load of crap forcing subscribers to use Windows (not not even just Windows, we are forced to use that piece of crap browser known as IE as well). There needs to be an OSX/*nix/Firefox/Safari solution soon. But I am not holding my breath, as Micro$oft controls the world.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by subboy on April 2, 2008 at 12:44pm: the part too many people forget about market share is to separate home & business users. i don't know the exact numbers, but i know home usership of Mac is more than 8%. and it's growing. plus Mac users would like to spend their money to watch movies just as much as Windows folks. but with this lack of equal service, i doubt very much i'd spring for NF. just wouldn't feel right.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Spindaddydad on April 2, 2008 at 12:56pm: Pulled from the Community FAQs here:

When can we expect Instant Watch on Mac/Linux/PS3/X360?
Intel Mac: probably around Sept 2008 (Or: the long answer)
PowerPC Mac: unknown (probably never)
Linux: probably mid-2009
PS3/Xbox360: unknown (maybe never) but they are working on it
Stand alone set-top box players: expected in Fall 2008; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ColdOne on April 2, 2008 at 1:36pm: You're right, dude. Screw those Micro$oft bastards.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by pics72 on April 13, 2008 at 6:28pm: Why does Netflix allow Microsoft control over their instant watch feature? Maybe b/c Netflix CEO Reed Hastings joined Microsoft’s board of directors in March ‘07. So now, as netflix members, in order to watch movies online we have to give Microsoft permission to get into our computers to check for illegal software. We certainly did not sign up with Microsoft and this is an invasion to our privacy. As soon as another company similar to netflix shows up in the market, I will switch. Netflix should make their members aware of its connection with Microsoft so they know what they are agreeing to.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Max Hops on April 7, 2008 at 11:44am: I have a 30" monitor but could never sit at my computer and watch a movie. If I want to watch something "almost instantly", I'll download it and stream it to my xbox with Tversity so I can watch it on my plazma TV.

If Netflix had an easy way to watch streamed movies on my TV, I would pay for the option if the quality was good.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris on April 9, 2008 at 5:25am: Anyone having any problems with aspect ratio when instant viewing?

I never noticed it before, but I went to finish watching Babylon 5 : The Lost Tales, today and the aspect ratio looks like a widescreen movie being displayed on a 4:3 screen. Ya know, evrything looks streched.

I swear last time I watched this (about a month ago?) the aspect ratio was correct.

Is there some setting I can change at netflix to correct this?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jaz on April 11, 2008 at 3:21pm: Instant Watching is burning up my machine...Vista-32bit, Core Duo, sata drive and 4gig of ram and the view instant runs at 50% cpu usage. This couldn't be right! Other streaming doesn't get past 10-15%. Is this a configuration issue? Anyone got any ideas?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kez on April 12, 2008 at 7:03pm: At some point in the last few months (I took a break from streaming), Netflix changed their speed levels for Basic, Good and whatever the highest tier is (my 1.5Mb DSL never got that high so I don't know.) When I first got access to the Instant Viewing last year my speed (same DSL) was always "Good" and the picture quality was pretty decent.

Fast forward to last week when I started watching Instant Viewing again--now my SAME 1.5Mb connection is rated "Basic" and the video quality is much worse.

That's not satisfying at all. I can go to any other streaming site (hulu.com for example) and get much, much higher quality streams. For free. *Without* a proprietary installation to view it. *AND* it works just fine in Firefox.

Meh. It's almost reached the point where I'm just going to give up Instant Viewing again, this time permanently.; ▶ Reply to This