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Netflix Comes To Tivo, AppleTV, Linux
An anonymous reader writes "Netflix on Tivo is officially out and leaving satellite users out in the cold. Tivo announced today that if you are a subscriber to both services then you can start receiving many Netflix titles on your Tivo for no extra charge. This is only available to subscribers with TiVo HD, TiVo HD XL and TiVo Series3 DVRs. The majority of Tivo's subscribers are probably Series 2 owners and will be forced to 'upgrade' if they want this new service but it won't be that easy for those on satellite. Tivo's current model lineup does not really offer a solution for satellite subscribers. The HD and HD XL are cable only and there is no sign of the Series 3 on their site." Another reader also writes to tell us that "Linux PC and AppleTV users are about to gain the ability to stream Netflix's movies and TV shows directly to their systems. Although Netflix's instant watch service only officially supports Windows and Mac, Boxee expects to release Netflix streaming support to the Ubuntu version of its free A/V media center software within a couple of days, and says that adding Netflix streaming support to AppleTV asap is its top priority."
That's great in theory, but the problem with Netflix is that the selection of movies that they let you stream is, shall we say... poor.
At least the good news is that they are opening up and trying to support as many distribution channels as possible. It's a pain to connect my laptop to my TV, just because by definition, a laptop is always on the go, and a TV connection means plugging and unplugging two cables each time (one for video, one for audio). It's just too much of a hassle.
That's why I eventually got an AppleTV: it's the best way to browse music on a HiFi system which has an HD TV attached to it (that is to say, 90% of the standard geek setup) - and it may even be able to display video content too :-) I wish they had called it iTunes TV, it would not have confused people so much.
Now my AppleTV will get more content from its Internet connection. All good to me. As streaming movies becomes commonplace, maybe pirates and DRM will not be such an obsession of Hollywood...
I am still gonna get my movies via torrent and stream them to my tv with my Xbox. If it can be converted to binary, you can find a way to get it for free.
I have a PS3 for Blu-Ray and can stream Netflix, Hulu, and other items straight from my PC using PlayOn ( www.themediamall.com ).
Too little, too late. Why take up the space on my PVR when I can live stream it from my PC?
Just my two pence.
People say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Why? Is there any shortage of bad ones?
Rats. Oh well, it sounded good. But I'm not getting a whole new Tivo box, until I have a need for it (i.e. an HD TV).
And I expect there are a LOT of people like this.
It's about time. We've enjoyed Netflix for years, but those instant movies are pretty worthless when your OS isn't supported.
...but I wish it were integrated into the MythTV backend as well so I could view it through the front end of my choice.
Netflix gets it.
Every streaming media provider so far that has arrived & failed has done so because they try to mimic the rental pricing model. They charge $3 a movie for 24 hours, and then wonder why sales are low. The thing is, people won't pay $3 for access to media they don't physically control.
Netflix is following the HBO OnDemand pricing model. $20 a month for unlimited access to anything in their ondemand streaming library. This is the pricing model people want when it comes to media they don't physically control. Since I didn't pay per-item, I don't mind that there are restrictions on use.
I've been using this service on the XBox 360 for the past few weeks and it's been exceptional. My only technical gripe is that it's limited to 2-channel audio right now, but otherwise there is nothing to complain about. Widescreen movies are displayed fullscreen on an HD set, 4:3 content is pillarboxed, the video quality is approximately on-par with DVD. As soon as they work out 5.1 it'll be perfect. The addition of TV series with new episodes that have just aired but are not yet available on DVD is just another perk. Selection is growing every day.
It's really fantastic if you've got the bandwidth.
I'm seriously thinking about canceling my satellite TV service / DVR and just running with 360 & Netflix. For just under $300 a year, ($50 xblive, $20/mo to Netflix), as opposed to the almost $1000 a year that most cable/satellite companies charge for HD service, it's a great deal.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
No, not really. This story has gotten huge legs on the internet, but if people would actually read the Boxee forum, it tells you that support for Netflix won't be included in the Linux version until Netflix releases a player for Linux, which is supposed to happen some time next year. Netflix support is only in the Mac version of Boxee (they are working on Apple TV, but the 1Ghz processor is just to slow to make it work).
Tivo's current model lineup does not really offer a solution for satellite subscribers.
What a surprise, Tivo was too busy in suing Dish Network in court to actually provide a solution for those subscribers. TiVo Wins Appeal On Patents For Pause, Ffwd, Rwd
Patents, making sure you can't build it even when they won't.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
This is bullshit. I have two series 2 tivo's and have been a subscriber for years. I purchased them both with lifetime service. Now I am supposed to buy new hardware and pay monthly so I can use netflix?
Your Xbox was just doing you a favor.
When will submitters like ScuttleMonkey RTFA they are submitting?
NetFlix isn't coming to the AppleTV version of Boxee, as the AppleTV is not powerful enough, as TFA states.
IIRC, this is using Silverlight. You need to install Microsoft's latest "active content" environment on your mac (or, eventually, on Linux) to take advantage of this. After avoiding depending on "active content" even on Windows (and avoiding a number of big virus panics) for a decade, I'm not about to start trusting them now.
Any way to get Netflix on MCE 2005? I know theres a Vista Media Center plugin, but I haven't got around to reinstalling with Vista yet. That banks on my setup working in Vista in the first place!
Or, what about a MythTV plugin? Or XBMC?
I got two Xbox 360s, two AppleTVs. One set for myself and the wife, the other for my 10-yr old.
My options:
1. transcode content and watch it on the AppleTV. Takes time, and my Turbo.264 hardware encoder is a piece of crap, the new Handbrake works much better without even relying on the dongle. Parental controls are awesome, and content is organized very well.
2. stream content from the mac into the 360 with Connect360. Looks almost identical to #1, without having to transcode. Only thing that sucks is navigating through a lot of content, and there are no parental controls.
3. watch netflix on the mac. Not good enough.
4. watch netflix on the mac on the Parallels 4 side. Not good enough (almost can't tell it apart from #3).
5. watch netflix on the 360. It frickin rocks. Having to go to the website to add to the queue is a minor annoyance but not the end of the world.
6. Renting content on the 360. Works very damn nice, only a bit slow to start if it is HD content. Could use more variety.
7. Renting content on the AppleTV. Also works very nice, but sometimes it takes weeks for new content to show up. They do release at least something every week, but mostly so it looks like they are alive.
I have also used boxee on the AppleTV, and while in theory it worked, it was sloppy and it screwed up with the menu hierarchy. After an hour of playing with it I was annoyed enough to delete it.
I like how the streaming on the 360 works because it takes exactly zero tampering with the 360 to make it happen. All you need is a media pc, or a mac running software impersonating a media pc. Adding boxee to the appleTV was simply scary.
What I really want is for Apple to do exactly the same thing that was done to the 360, add a menu entry for Netflix with a SIMPLE way to authenticate the device (the way this was done in the 360 was just beautiful, just a short, easy to type code) and not a damn thing else.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
that Ubuntu is not Linux! It clearly is Vista in disguise.
... due to bandwidth issues. Satellite bandwidth is limited and WAY oversold. A bunch of customers downloading Netflix movies individually (in direct competition with the satellite companys' premium services) would saturate it - along with their individual bandwidth caps.
A multicast-anything-anybody-ordered / catch-on-the-fly / maybe-fill-in-errors-with-unicast mode would solve the bandwidth problem - and could potentially be integrated with the satellite carrier's own transmission of the same movies to shrink bandwidth almost to nill. But that would probably require a deal between Netflix and the satellite company in question (unless the company starts supporting multicast, perhaps to save itself from drowning). So it seems unlikely any time soon.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
It's great and all that they have included so many extra platforms, but can I use firefox on my windows box to view the content yet? Am I still forced to use IE?
They're using their grammar skills there.
That doesn't surprise me, they have a lot of work ahead of them. The thing won't even run on Firefox yet; it requires Windows with IE. So lame.
This is bullshit. I have two series 2 tivo's and have been a subscriber for years. I purchased them both with lifetime service. Now I am supposed to buy new hardware and pay monthly so I can use netflix?
Let's see. You paid for lifetime service, and a product you didn't pay for that runs on hardware you didn't buy is available now, and since you don't get it, you complain? Your TiVo still works and your lifetime service is still providing data. In fact, it is likely you are getting more than you originally paid for (i.e. there are new features which *have* made it to Series 2 TiVos).
For (not) the last time, people, the fact that someone else may gain an additional unexpected benefit does not mean that anyone who did not get the additional unexpected benefit is being slighted! You do not *lose* anything just because someone else has a shiny new toy.
I watched a movie from netflix's last night using Firfox on my Mac Book. After installing Silverlight.
I generally rail against companies that don't bother to make their stuff work in FireFox but I can't say that I blame Netflix here. It's not like requiring IE is actually preventing anyone from using the service. Everyone with windows has IE and the rest of the site works just fine in FireFox.
Also... awesome sig.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
When will readers complaining about Slashdot content learn the difference between a submitter and an editor? And that selective comprehension doesn't help either?
TFA (actually the link is at http://blog.boxee.tv/ ) does state the AppleTV was not powerful enough for this release, but then goes on in the very next sentence to say "we're still working on it, but don't have a solution, yet.. "
Yes the /. headline is optimistic, if not misleading. The summary is a tad better, but still has a heap o' high hopes.
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
I have been enjoying "watch now" piped from my PC into my TV for more than a year now. Its great for instantly getting a movie to entertain the kids or watching 80's tv shows. Over last few months, though, ever since they have pushing set top boxes to increase their user base, there has been big lags in the middle of the movie streaming. It always says that my bandwidth has decreased, but when I check it at speedtest.net, it's just fine. Personally, I don't think their servers can handle the increased use the service has been getting because of the set top boxes, x-boxes, apple-tvs, etc. I hope they improve their capacity soon.
Blaming Tivo for this is like blaming the farmers who grow coffee beans for the cold cup of coffee that you got from Starbucks.
Although Tivo has supplied components to DirectTV, the features capabilities and features are determined by DTV, not Tivo. If you want your DTV box (which happens to run Tivo software) to be upgraded, contact DirectTV.
Uh no, I have firefox 3 on a 2 GHz P4 running XP SP2 with the latest version of Silverlight and the Netflix streaming works fine.
From a press release several weeks/months ago:
"DIRECTV and TiVo will work together to develop a version of the TiVo® service for DIRECTV's broadband-enabled HD DVR platform. The product will support the latest TiVo and DIRECTV features and services, including TiVo's Universal Swivel Search and TiVo KidZone. TiVo will develop the new HD DVR for an expected launch in the second half of 2009."
So right now we're locked out but the landscape will improve in the future.
Do it for da shorties
TiVo and DirectTV used to be in a partner ship but like many big company deals, they had a fight over something and broke up.
Well, not to long ago, they realized how much money they were missing out on, and have re-entered into a contract. So it shouldn't be too long before TiVo releases a new DirecTV HD box.
Sorry DISH Network, no soup for you...
I tried out the Netflix player on my Tivo HD last night. The picture was very clear on my HDTV, and the sound was pretty good. People want to complain about the selection, but they do have a lot of TV series available for instant viewing. I like the Tivo interface better than the Xbox 360 application. Overall, I'm very impressed, its yet another reason why Tivo is still the best DVR option available.
AppleTV: it's the best way to browse music on a HiFi system which has an HD TV attached to it
Most geeks probably prefer listening to music instead of browsing it. In fact, most households' HDTV is probably occupied with something besides "browsing" music. Arguably, the best way to browse music is headless but with a fancy remote. Save the HDTV for doing something useful.
Not entirely true. I stream Netflix Watch Instantly selections in Firefox by using the IETab extension (it fools the server into thinking that you're using IE instead of FF). It works in Opera, too. Alas, only on Windows, though, not Linux.
Like the PS3
There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.
It runs just fine for me using Firefox on the Mac.
Sad, but true. I'm a Boxee Alpha tester and as soon as I saw the announcement on CNET, I tried to update my Boxee install to get Neflix working, but no such luck. Checking the Boxee forums, I found that they can't technically do it just yet, so you have to have Boxee running on the MacOS version to get it working. I'm also a bit disappointed that I have to boot into my Ubuntu 8.04 32-bit version to run Boxee, as there is no support yet for Ubuntu 8.10 64-bit Intrepid Ibex. There are posts on the forums from some brave souls who have been able to install the Hardy packages on 8.10, but apparently only with the 32-bit version. Since I installed the 64-bit version of 8.10 on my Athlon64 system as soon as it came out, I haven't been able to do much with it, and Boxee is one of my favorite time-wasters. Trouble is, most of my time wasted with Boxee over the past week or two was trying to get it working on 8.10. Sometimes, I wish I were a developer with the coding sk1llz to contribute to this project. As it is, I guess I'm just a bug tester/reporter. But that is at least a contribution. Boxee is an absolutely awesome Media Center.
I have been using Boxee on my Asus EeeBox running Xubuntu 8.10 for the past couple of weeks and I have to say it one awesome media center app. It's getting better and better as newer releases come out. Love that application.
I had to switch to safari for streaming from Netflix. It kept degrading the signal and stopping and reloading under firefox. Not sure if I have an extension interfering or not. Switched to safari and 0 issues besides netflix having poorly encoded items.
Not entirely true. I stream Netflix Watch Instantly selections in Firefox by using the IETab extension (it fools the server into thinking that you're using IE instead of FF). It works in Opera, too. Alas, only on Windows, though, not Linux.
You aren't using firefox to view netflix. IETAB actually runs IE in Firefox, so you're still using IE. Note the lack of Linux support on the IETAB page.
IETAB
Excerpt:
IE Tab, an extension from Taiwan, embeds Internet Explorer in a Mozilla/Firefox tab.
Emphasis mine.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those that need closure
As the other posters have explained, you can use Silverlight in FF, but if you want to have a less Microsofty experience with Netflix, you can install the IETab extension and then Netflix Watch It Now works just fine in Firefox. Of course, it's not entirey Microsoft-free since this only works on a Windows OS. I'm still waiting for Netflix to develop a player that works in Linux, but I'm not holding my breath.
I've been streaming Netflix to my Mac for weeks now (Silverlight, yadda). Am I missing something? Is it just that it's leaving beta at this point or something? Streaming to Linux is a nice addition though, if it wasn't previously available.
Latest word from a Boxee spokesperson is that 'netflix currently do[es] not support running on linux, so we can't do it right now. we've been assured they will make it compatible early next year, so rest assured we will.'
Well then, that makes Boxee a pretty bloated monster.
An AppleTV should be more than adequate at least for
any sort of SD content that Netflix might be throwing
it's way.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I recently installed Boxee specifically to use Hulu. The installation was straightforward, but streaming video from Hulu was not a pleasant experience. The resolution seemed low (I don't think Boxee streams to AppleTV at 480p) and the framerate wasn't great. The video kept freezing up at times. Especially frustrating for action sequences. I read somewhere that the AppleTV doesn't quite have enough processing power to handle Hulu, and maybe that's what's going on. But, if it's not, I hope they fix it. In any case, I'm resorting to hooking up a PC to my TV and watching that way. Works much better.
Meanwhile, Netflix on the 360 works really well. I'm really impressed by the quality and the fact that Netflix appears to dynamically scale down the video if you don't have the bandwidth to stream it without much buffering. I rarely ever see Netflix pause the video for buffering, which is great.
...if having signed up for the Silverlight Netflix streaming beta will be an issue with using boxee to stream Netflix to my Linux box (although I do have moonlight installed).
You can use Firefox on Windows. There is a new beta Silverlight-based player that I know for sure works on IE, Firefox for Windows, and Safari on a Mac. It doesn't work in Google Chrome though. Anyway, you have to opt in by going to some web site that wasn't directly mentioned on the Netflix site, but a simple web search should find it pretty quickly.
I plan on getting my parents a subscription to NetFlix for Christmas. It's like $50 for 6 months.
What's intersting is that 2-3 years ago people said, "NetFlix will die due to streaming and the web!" Well, that day has not come. NetFlix has innovated. Good for them. That's how it should work... Innovate or die!
How to Download YouTube Videos
They can kiss my A** until they make it work with Firefox instead of IE or a $100 add on box!
I always thought that DirecTv was missing a great opportunity with iptv shows becoming more popular. Think about it, they could take some bandwidth and broadcast several iptv shows, not to a channel, but to a Tivo or Tivo-like device. You could set it for the shows you wanted to see and have them recorded automatically. It would be like having Miro on your dvr.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
and-- I pulled the plug on COMCAST this week. MAN that felt good oh yeah!!!!!!
I applaud Netflix for their efforts to support more system configurations. However, it enrages me that they still do not support closed caption or subtitles on their system. The data is already collected in an easy to use format, it is literally 150 KB per movie, they merely need to support it! They are cutting off 10% of their audience, for seemingly no other reason than that they don't give a damn about the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.
--why?
When's it coming to the PS3? It can't be the only device left out in the cold...
Perhaps TVersity will come to the rescue. I can already stream many web sources to my DirecTV HR20, Netflix could be the next best thing.
Hmmm, I'm still on my launch Series 1 box - modded to be a good SDTV DVR. Since TiVO did away with the lifetime sub, I've felt less than inclined to upgrade (although a series 3 would be nice). I can understand not supporting Series 1 and 2 players for whatever reason, just not enough of a value add proposition for me to upgrade.
Plus, I can stream Netflix on the 360, and it's not as bad as the doom & gloomers like to say (but you need a 10mbps connection to stay sane).
Is boxee open source? If it isn't, then this isn't particularly helpful to Linux users. I'd much rather be able to watch this stuff direct from my myth box.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
"Although Netflix's instant watch service only officially supports Windows and Mac"
That's funny, because when I click on that link, I get a page that says
Our apologies - instant watching is currently not supported for Macintosh.
So if it is officially supported, but not currently supported, then, ... what am I missing?
Sure, you can play it in Parallels or BootCamp if you have XP or Vista installed on your Mac- doesn't count. If Netflix supports instant viewing on Mac, I shouldn't have to load Windows for it to work.
I've heard rumors of it working with Silverlight, but have yet to see it work. And why the hell didn't Netflix use a Flash player?
Support the FairTax
It's only a 1GHz Pentium M with integrated graphics. If the stream came as H.264 then the Apple TV could do it just like it can with iTunes HD movies. But, I think they are using a CPU based decoder which is too slow for that CPU.