Netflix - General discussion & technical queries

Mickeroo

my un-block us trial expired last night so I decided to pay for it. You save about ten dollars if you just pay for the year in one go. 49.99 instead of 4.99 a month, works out at only around 37 euros for the year, not bad at all.

sillo

Probably a stupid question but those of you who have made the jump to unblock us dns servers, have you noticed any slowdown or isseus with your regular web access?

huggs2

I thought there would be a loss of speed too, having an ip address in the US.
But there is no change in speed at all.Strange as according to the last time i checked i live in Kansas City Missouri.

Mickeroo

sillo wrote: »

Probably a stupid question but those of you who have made the jump to unblock us dns servers, have you noticed any slowdown or isseus with your regular web access?

Can't say I have, although I think some people said something about it earlier in the thread.

I'm pretty sure you can just revert back to your normal DNS settings when you're not using it, only takes a few seconds to change plus there's stuff in the Irish catalogue thats not in the US one. Best of both worlds.

The Sparrow

Deleted User wrote: »

Where's the flury of TV shows we should have by like this sunday that netflix promised?

Well one show is here. From Netflix UK & Ireland Facebook:

Exciting news, comedy lovers! Seasons 1-6 of the hilarious US cult favorite, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, starring Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito will be available to instantly watch on Feb. 1! Doubly exciting that Season 7 will be available on Feb.13!

Mickeroo

Been meaning to watch its always sunny.... for a while now. Its not in the US content either,seems to be a fair bit of stuff we can get here that you can't get on that.

johnny_ultimate

Mickeroo wrote: »

my un-block us trial expired last night so I decided to pay for it. You save about ten dollars if you just pay for the year in one go. 49.99 instead of 4.99 a month, works out at only around 37 euros for the year, not bad at all.

The only concern I'd have about that is that it might potentially be blocked out by Netflix, as Sparrow warned earlier on. You should be grand, but just something to bear in mind!

sillo wrote: »

Probably a stupid question but those of you who have made the jump to unblock us dns servers, have you noticed any slowdown or isseus with your regular web access?

Streaming quality seemed a bit more jittery to be honest. I wouldn't recommend changing your router settings to it to be perfectly honest. Call me paranoid, but I don't want all my traffic going through unblock-us. It should be grand (I remember looking up DNS security issues when I switched to Open DNS, and the consensus tended to be that DNS servers are safe), but I prefer erring on the side of caution.

Mickeroo

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The only concern I'd have about that is that it might potentially be blocked out by Netflix, as Sparrow warned earlier on. You should be grand, but just something to bear in mind!

Yea I can't see it lasting forever but if I get a year or at least a fair few month's service out of it I'll be happy enough. I'm sure netflix must be aware of it at this stage though.

Basq

The Sparrow wrote: »

Well one show is here. From Netflix UK & Ireland Facebook:

Awesome.... one of the best comedies on TV.

Hope it gets more exposure now!

PS - the vast selection on US Netflix is both a blessing and a curse. Spent 45 minute browsing various documentaries.. found about 12 I'd love to watch. Couldn't decide so ended up re-watching 'Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog' - stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion (Mal in Firefly / Serenity) and written / directed by Joss Whedon. Funny, well written and real catchy music. Can't recommend it enough!

adox

Basq wrote: »

Awesome.... one of the best comedies on TV.

Hope it gets more exposure now!

PS - the vast selection on US Netflix is both a blessing and a curse. Spent 45 minute browsing various documentaries.. found about 12 I'd love to watch. Couldn't decide so ended up re-watching 'Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog' - stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion (Mal in Firefly / Serenity) and written / directed by Joss Whedon. Funny, well written and real catchy music. Can't recommend it enough!

For a real off the wall documentary that's on Netflix, I'd recommend checking out Marwencol.

Basq

adox wrote: »

For a real off the wall documentary that's on Netflix, I'd recommend checking out Marwencol.

Just looked that up... sounds excellent. Definitely will give that a watch.

Spotted my favourite documentary - 'Dear Zachary' - is on the US Netflix earlier. The only movie to break me and leave me an emotional wreck. Seriously!

(don't look up anything about the doc if you plan to watch it.. trust me, you'll thank me later!)

adox

Basq wrote: »

Just looked that up... sounds excellent. Definitely will give that a watch.

Spotted my favourite documentary - 'Dear Zachary' - is on the US Netflix earlier. The only movie to break me and leave me an emotional wreck. Seriously!

(don't look up anything about the doc if you plan to watch it.. trust me, you'll thank me later!)

Know nothing about it so will happily go in blind to it tomorrow.

Skinfull

So after having Netflix for nearly a month I'm still unsure on whether to keep it or not. There are a few things that are holding me back from jumping on it...

• The Price (if it was a fiver I'd probably have no hesitation)
• The sound delay - After 2.5 weeks of no issues I started to get a .5sec sound delay, I've uninstalled the app and reinstalled and that seems to have fixed it but a bit of a pain.
• The content Layout - not logical and cannot be changed to suit your needs.
• The search function - should be able to search for genre like "sport movies" and actor names (hell even an alphabetical list of all content would be good!)

There are a few ways that is can be improved like having a snippet of a show / movie you can watch before you commit to playing, allow the user to set their own search types, and the main issue... let me queue up things I find in the catalogue to "Watch Later" , or even let me queue up a few eps of a show to play consecutivly withut my interaction needed.

Might seem a little pedantic in my complaints but *shrug* small things to improve a service. I dont mind the content being a little out of date, but I do mind the content being hard to find!

Mickeroo

I was watching the US office and it was automatically playing the next episode for me there last week but now I have to select next episode every time. No idea what I did differently.

Beagslife

I posted this earlier in HE General. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76762390

Just wondering if there has been any word on when Netflix might be available on the Irish Sony Bravia platform? I'm waiting to see Netflix on it before I sign up.

Also, has anyone been able to access Netflix US on their Sony Bravia device (using VPN)? If so, were you able to log in using your Irish Netflix account details? I know it's possible with XBOX, PSP and on a browser using a DNS service.

I use OverPlay's VPN service loaded onto a second router, to connect my tv to the US content. I can access Netflix US, Hulu Plus and Crackle. I have watched episodes of The Beast on Crackle without any problems. Because I don't have a Netflix account yet, I couldn't check if it works.

I know you can use OverPlay's SmartDNS feature (or alternatively Unblock-us) to access Netflix US (also iPlayer and Hulu etc) on a laptop, pc and xbox etc. but I'd really like to see it integrated on my tv.

As an aside, any word on when the RTE Player might surface for the Bravia platform?

_AVALANCHE_

Skinfull wrote: »

So after having Netflix for nearly a month I'm still unsure on whether to keep it or not. There are a few things that are holding me back from jumping on it...

• The Price (if it was a fiver I'd probably have no hesitation)
• The sound delay - After 2.5 weeks of no issues I started to get a .5sec sound delay, I've uninstalled the app and reinstalled and that seems to have fixed it but a bit of a pain.
• The content Layout - not logical and cannot be changed to suit your needs.
• The search function - should be able to search for genre like "sport movies" and actor names (hell even an alphabetical list of all content would be good!)

There are a few ways that is can be improved like having a snippet of a show / movie you can watch before you commit to playing, allow the user to set their own search types, and the main issue... let me queue up things I find in the catalogue to "Watch Later" , or even let me queue up a few eps of a show to play consecutivly withut my interaction needed.

Might seem a little pedantic in my complaints but *shrug* small things to improve a service. I dont mind the content being a little out of date, but I do mind the content being hard to find!

I stopped reading when I got to the bold bit.....

BengaLover

I am also unsure about keeping the sub, for several reasons: Quality not great via xbox, unsure if upping the quality via the pc setting will affect my mobile boradband bill, and parental controls arent very good.

Occono

I'm very happy with it. But then I'm a crazy person who has more DVDs sitting in my closet then I care to mention (I bought them over the last 7 or 8 years or so, but still, I regret it. Renting wasn't convenient for me so I just bought them all the time. I'm too lazy to ebay them.) so it seems like a great deal for me, there's a ton of stuff I want to watch on it, even if I own more then I'd care to say on DVD already. The films are mostly obscure, but there is lots of good stuff in there if you look them up, I can give recommendations....And TV wise it's already good, and it's getting 7 seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia next month.

Mickeroo wrote: »

Anyone know is there a way to improve picture quality without streaming in HD? Only have 1mb broadband at the parents house

You can set a cap on your bandwidth usage in the settings.

Skinfull

_AVALANCHE_ wrote: »

I stopped reading when I got to the bold bit.....

Alright moneybags! fiver sounds reasonable for outdated content, with so far choppy audio sync and lack of search control. I was just saying I could justify it, but I'm not sure if I could justify 7€ for it. Like the price of a pint, fiver is a lot and I'll pay it, but charge me seven and I'll stop buying. :rolleyes:

Technocentral

Skinfull wrote: »

Alright moneybags! fiver sounds reasonable for outdated content, with so far choppy audio sync and lack of search control. I was just saying I could justify it, but I'm not sure if I could justify 7€ for it. Like the price of a pint, fiver is a lot and I'll pay it, but charge me seven and I'll stop buying. :rolleyes:

2 rentals of even older titles on DVD would cost you 7 too, so your basically saying its not worth the cost of 2 rentals a month for hundreds of tv shows/films? As regards sync issues it just happened to me on two half hour tv shows one evening but has been ok apart from that.

Podge_irl

Sorry if this has been answered, but can you watch Netflix through anything other then a browser? I want to be able to watch movies while doing other stuff on the comp.

Mickeroo

been streaming on 1mb bb all weekend and had no sync issues, it even streamed in HD a few times.

Basq

Podge_irl wrote: »

Sorry if this has been answered, but can you watch Netflix through anything other then a browser? I want to be able to watch movies while doing other stuff on the comp.

iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii etc.

You've plenty of choice!

Podge_irl

I meant more on the computer itself (as in through WMP or something). As in have it playing in the top corner while working on something else. Thanks anyway though.

Basq

Podge_irl wrote: »

I meant more on the computer itself (as in through WMP or something). As in have it playing in the top corner while working on something else. Thanks anyway though.

Would you not just open a second browser? Or another window in the current browser?

ihsb

Seriously disappointed by the amount of English shows available!

Basq

ihsb wrote: »

Seriously disappointed by the amount of English shows available!

You mean British TV shows? The only thing I can think of there's is that a certain amount of them are probably tied to 4OD / BBC iPlayer etc.

Occono

ihsb wrote: »

Seriously disappointed by the amount of English shows available!

I'm actually surprised there's any at all. Anyway, everything's probably going to be mostly limited to the BBC Worldwide iPlayer, (Which is only for iPhones apparently?) ITV's player (No idea if this streams to here or not, never wanted to use it. Netflix tried to get content from them but iTV overvalues their stuff apparently...) and 4OD (Which has always been available to Ireland, for free with ads.) Still, I'm just happy to have an easy way to watch a couple of BBC shows it has, though having newer stuff would be nice.

It'd be nice to see some Irish shows on there, just to give them some prestige. :P

adox

Basq wrote: »

Just looked that up... sounds excellent. Definitely will give that a watch.

Spotted my favourite documentary - 'Dear Zachary' - is on the US Netflix earlier. The only movie to break me and leave me an emotional wreck. Seriously!

(don't look up anything about the doc if you plan to watch it.. trust me, you'll thank me later!)

Watched this this evening. Thanks for the recommendation. Loved it.
Very emotional. I won't say anymore as I went in totally blind and would like to leave it like that for anyone else who may want to see it.

Basq

adox wrote: »

Watched this this evening. Thanks for the recommendation. Loved it.
Very emotional. I won't say anymore as I went in totally blind and would like to leave it like that for anyone else who may want to see it.

Glad you enjoyed (*) it.. definitely best watched blind alright!

* "enjoyed" might be pushing it.. as it's a tough watch.