Brandon: On Netflix and Streaming
So, yeah, I decided to try a 2 week trial of Netflix so I could check out the streaming via Windows Media Center (WMC). I have my old PC set up running Windows 7 Home Premium, and it runs Windows Media Center beautifully. Granted, I don't have any tuners (yet anyway), so its really just a nice remote control based interface for watching DVDs ripped from my collection.
Anyway, recently a plugin for WMC was released so you could access the Netflix streaming library. The user interface is nice, it fits nicely with the rest of WMC. The streaming app apparently uses Silverlight, like the PC based one, so you get the same limitations, such as mediocre video quality and NO HD content. Seriously, that's lame. I mean, if a $80 Roku box can do HD, why can't my PC which is many times as powerful and has hardware based decoding as well.
Anyway, since I don't have a real HDTV anyway, that point is fairly moot. I do like the amount of stuff available for streaming, although I don't know what's good and whats not so I end up generally pick stuff at random. So far its been decent, but I don't know if it's worth the $9 a month. Especially since I don't know how often new content goes up for streaming.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has experience with Netflix streaming and could let me know if it's really worth it?
bored: and watching Food, INC right now.
Tags (beta): netflix, wmc, roku, silverlight
So, yeah, I decided to try a 2 week trial of Netflix so I could check out the streaming via Windows Media Center (WMC). I have my old PC set up running Windows 7 Home Premium, and it runs Windows Media Center beautifully. Granted, I don't have any tuners (yet anyway), so its really just a nice remote control based interface for watching DVDs ripped from my collection.
Anyway, recently a plugin for WMC was released so you could access the Netflix streaming library. The user interface is nice, it fits nicely with the rest of WMC. The streaming app apparently uses Silverlight, like the PC based one, so you get the same limitations, such as mediocre video quality and NO HD content. Seriously, that's lame. I mean, if a $80 Roku box can do HD, why can't my PC which is many times as powerful and has hardware based decoding as well.
Anyway, since I don't have a real HDTV anyway, that point is fairly moot. I do like the amount of stuff available for streaming, although I don't know what's good and whats not so I end up generally pick stuff at random. So far its been decent, but I don't know if it's worth the $9 a month. Especially since I don't know how often new content goes up for streaming.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has experience with Netflix streaming and could let me know if it's really worth it?
bored: and watching Food, INC right now.
Tags (beta): netflix, wmc, roku, silverlight
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