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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 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).
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.
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
It has nothing to do with the Dish lawsuit, you could never get Tivo on the Dish system.
The issue is that they lost the contract with DirecTV when Murdoch bought it and started pushing the DVR that his other company(NDS?) owned and built.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.'
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.