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LG & Netflix Team Up to Offer Downloadable Movies on TV

Posted by Zonk on from the yet-another-standalone-piece-of-tech dept.

eldavojohn writes "It might seem like they've come full circle, but the movie injection method has gone from TV to mail to online download to TV on demand. And Netflix & LG are betting it's going to be a hit. They're also betting you will want to buy yet another device for your home theater. A Wall Street Journal article notes: 'The partnership between Netflix, Los Gatos, Calif., and South Korea's LG represents another gamble by technology companies that video from the Internet, which is commonly downloaded to personal computers, will go mainstream when users can easily access it from TV sets. So far, Internet television products such as Apple Inc.'s Apple TV have largely been unsuccessful, stymied by a poor selection of videos, complexity of use and other shortcomings.'"

8 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. colossally stupid by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What's Netflix's bussiness advantage over the cable companies? Simple, it's hard to push 7.6GB of dvd info over the wire. It's faster to mail it. And bule ray/HDDVD would play to netflix advantage.

    The only way to beat this effect is to reduce the bandwidth--which the cable companies can do just fine without netflix-- and to distribute the serving (bit torrent versus central caches).

    Unless the TV set is going to also do bit torrent style distrubuted serving they won't gain anything on the cable companies.

    The real magic is going to happen when apple or microsoft or adobe flips a switch one day that lets everyone opt in as a paid bittorrent node for some movie distribution company. You would get paid in credits for movie rentals based on how much bandwidth you served. then all of a sudden you could have high quality movie distribution.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:colossally stupid by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not stupid at all.
      I'm a Netflix subscriber, and having a nice organized Que is very convenient. If they found a way to stream that to my TV, I'd have no problems renting/buying another device for my "home theatre".
      AppleTV doesn't appeal to me that much, because of it's too-tight integration to iTunes and iTMS, so a nice "open" device tied to my Netflix que would fit the bill perfectly.
      And Steve may have been too late on the ball regarding the whole rental and movies deal.
      Yes, my iPod touch displays videos beautifully, but guess how many of them I've watched? Maybe 2 hours of NBC's office (thanks trackers). Videos on the go, just aren't something that most people (other than the bus/train riders) would have enough time to do.

      It will be a battle of content, and I'd rather rent movies from Netflix than from iTunes, considering Netflix's excellent customer service and ease of use.

      --
      If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
    2. Re:colossally stupid by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Netflix advantage is that they have a larger catalog of content and they are actually willing to distribute it.

      That's always been their advantage.

      The download aspect of this might not make as much sense yet but that won't remain the case forever.

      This could also give consumers a cheaper path to HD content that would not require buying into one side of the format war.

      Local cable providers are far too drunk on the power they think they have by being a natural monopoly to really listen to the customer.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:colossally stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And cable companies have been better placed to do this for a long time. But Netflix is the one doing it and winning. The cable companies aren't. I love it when someone tries to argue that something isn't happening because they don't think it could happen. Especially when that thing is staring them in the face. Movie streaming from Netflix is here, it works and it's pretty good. A lot of content, good controls, good pricing. The cable companies are doing nothing in comparison. Netflix is on to a winner here, especially given that they have the content already, and you don't need cable internet (I have DSL) to do it.

  2. On my TiVo please by MBCook · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just please let me do this on my TiVo, my Series 3. I don't want to watch movies on my laptop (especially if you make me use Windows to do it, I'm a Mac guy). I don't want to watch them on my iPod (mine can't play movies, but if I want to watch a movie on the go I'll stick a DVD in my MacBook Pro). I don't care about DRM that only lets me have 3 DVD at a time (ala the current subscription model I use on Netflix). It's OK if I can't transfer it between TiVos, or copy it do my computer. I really don't care.

    Just let me download and watch movies and TV shows to my TiVo. Like Amazon Unbox, but tied to my Netflix queue and subscription model. Unbox looks nice enough, but I already pay Netflix, so I haven't really used it (my parents like it though).

    It doesn't have to be HD. HD would be fantastic, but as long as it's 480p I'll be happy (since that fits with the DVDs I use now). Note that this doesn't mean 480p letter boxed that my TV can zoom, so I lose 150 lines to black bars, the wide screen content should be 480p tall.

    Do that, I'll gladly sign up. I'll pay a tiny bit extra, say $1-2 per month on my Netflix account for the privilege. I would find this tremendously useful.

    Netflix says they don't want a "Netflix Box", they want 100 of them. Good! Make the TiVo Series 3 one of them. I don't want another box either. I don't want to buy a new TV to get the functionality. I love my TiVo's UI, and I love Netflix's content. Please put them together. Make me a happy consumer.

    --
    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    1. Re:On my TiVo please by gatzke · · Score: 2, Interesting


      Unbox is not bad on the Tivo. I have had troubles with some low quality encodings (Chuck and Larry) and sometimes it is confusing since their stuff has three different cost levels (rent 24, rent longer, buy). Some things are released rent only, some buy only. Also, they don't always immediately start to download, so you sometimes can't watch for a few minutes at least.

      I was hoping the same thing, get netflix involved for the Tivo. I bet Tivo and Amazon are in bed exclusively, so they probably can't bring Netflix in.

      I doubt they will ever support third party hardware due to DRM. Vista, XP media center, or Tivo type devices. They don't want to get their silly movies out in the open faster.

      I can currently stream or transfer Mpeg 2 from my HTPC to my tivo. You would think someone other than Amazon could let you download movies encrypted with your tivo media access key that get transfered onto your tivo... Two step process, but it would allow for HD movies if you are patient...

  3. I've been doing this for 7 years... by RPI+Geek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... with an s-video cable. The only difference is that now they want me to pay for it.

    --

    - "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
  4. This will result in blueray and HD DVD both dieing by Raisey-raison · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As a consequence of a loony civil way between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, Microsoft, apple and now Netflix will kill both formats.

    Microsoft has helped keep the civil war alive.
    http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20071205123352_Microsoft_Accused_of_Eventual_Blu_Ray_HD_DVD_Formats_Fiasco.html

    Without a stalemate Christmas 2007 would have seen massive buying of cheap HD players. We would all being watching HD movies and be getting used to them. We would get so spoiled by the superior picture quality that we would not succumb to inferior download quality.

    However now that there there is a stalemate going on people are nervous to buy either standard and each standard is still quite expensive. Some people including myself don't want to buy some standard that wont play all movies because some are exclusive to only one format.

    Now people will simply say since there is no reliable HD standard why not download a lesser quality version from Netflix or apple or Microsoft. They will do this for both rental purposes and to buy a permanent copy. Then they will get very habituated to it. As time goes watching movies buy obtaining a physical medium will seem less and less attractive. In 2012 there will be enough bandwidth for most high speed internet connections to download HD movies. HD-DVD and blue ray will be both be dead and buried by 2014.

    But this requires the stupidity of both Sony and Toshiba to keep their rivalry going and be unwilling to compromise even though it is both of their interests to do so. They seem though to have come through 100% on the doofus front.