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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Anyone else disappointed with netflix streaming?

kn on 22 December 2008
twesterm said:
kn said:

I finally signed up for a free trial this evening an tried a few films. I tried ones that are available on blu-ray so I know the source is available in HD. What I got was clean in terms of framerate, but it is "foggy" as it is enlarged quite a bit. The "source" is a small screen and when letterbox is chosen, it gets pretty blurry. I've got a 6Mbit connection and get 4 bars and no stuttering.

I found a blog that described the delivery process and it isn't exactly impressive. Hopefully they'll improve on it with time. Granted, it seems better than SD television, but still not what I had hoped.

 

  1. You're basing what the quality should be based on if the film is actually on BluRay or not, what they actually offer?
I'm assuming that a blu-ray film has an HD source somewhere and they would stream that rather than streaming SD.  I assumed that because I can't find anything that indicates whether a downloadable movie is HD or SD.  Am I missing that somewhere?
  1. Enlarging to your screen doesn't matter
Viewing the *same* source on larger screens does, in fact, matter.  If you view a 720 line image on a 24" screen it will most certainly be sharper than if you watch a 720 line image on a 60" screen.  Each pixel is larger on a 60" screen and the exact same amount of information is spread over a MUCH larger area.  Image degredation can't be helped.  When broadcasting those same 720 lines up to an 84" diagonal screen, compression artifacts become quite noticeable.
  1. I watch mine in 720p on 40" TV and they look absolutely fine and not foggy (except for the older movies that are foggy)

On my 42" screen they are "OK" but not DVD quality IMO. I have a Sharp Aquos 42" 1080P LCD and a Sharp 1080P DLP projector.  When I feed blu-ray to the either from my PS3, they both look magnificent.  The netflix, however, is mildly foggy on the LCD and quite foggy on the DLP.  If I choose to view the content in it's source broadcast format, it is a postage stamp in the middle of the screen.  It is HD, then, lol, but isn't very big.  Once "full frame", that's when it is less than ideal.

Again, I can't tell what is HD and what is SD since I can't find any kind of labeling.  Perhaps I have only watched SD content and that would make a difference.

 

 



I hate trolls.

Systems I currently own:  360, PS3, Wii, DS Lite (2)
Systems I've owned: PS2, PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn, 3DO, Genesis, Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES, GBA, GB, C64, Amiga, Atari 2600 and 5200, Sega Game Gear, Vectrex, Intellivision, Pong.  Yes, Pong.

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twesterm on 22 December 2008
kn said:
twesterm said:
kn said:

I finally signed up for a free trial this evening an tried a few films. I tried ones that are available on blu-ray so I know the source is available in HD. What I got was clean in terms of framerate, but it is "foggy" as it is enlarged quite a bit. The "source" is a small screen and when letterbox is chosen, it gets pretty blurry. I've got a 6Mbit connection and get 4 bars and no stuttering.

I found a blog that described the delivery process and it isn't exactly impressive. Hopefully they'll improve on it with time. Granted, it seems better than SD television, but still not what I had hoped.

 

  1. You're basing what the quality should be based on if the film is actually on BluRay or not, what they actually offer?
I'm assuming that a blu-ray film has an HD source somewhere and they would stream that rather than streaming SD.  I assumed that because I can't find anything that indicates whether a downloadable movie is HD or SD.  Am I missing that somewhere?
  1. Enlarging to your screen doesn't matter
Viewing the *same* source on larger screens does, in fact, matter.  If you view a 720 line image on a 24" screen it will most certainly be sharper than if you watch a 720 line image on a 60" screen.  Each pixel is larger on a 60" screen and the exact same amount of information is spread over a MUCH larger area.  Image degredation can't be helped.  When broadcasting those same 720 lines up to an 84" diagonal screen, compression artifacts become quite noticeable.
  1. I watch mine in 720p on 40" TV and they look absolutely fine and not foggy (except for the older movies that are foggy)

On my 42" screen they are "OK" but not DVD quality IMO. I have a Sharp Aquos 42" 1080P LCD and a Sharp 1080P DLP projector.  When I feed blu-ray to the either from my PS3, they both look magnificent.  The netflix, however, is mildly foggy on the LCD and quite foggy on the DLP.  If I choose to view the content in it's source broadcast format, it is a postage stamp in the middle of the screen.  It is HD, then, lol, but isn't very big.  Once "full frame", that's when it is less than ideal.

Again, I can't tell what is HD and what is SD since I can't find any kind of labeling.  Perhaps I have only watched SD content and that would make a difference.

 

 

 

Just because they have the HD source doesn't mean they want to host it.  That's all there really is to that.

As for the other points, it may be the TV or it may be the person.  I don't have a 1080p TV so I can't say much about that but on my TV to me they look DVD quality.



 

JaggedSac on 22 December 2008

Dude, it says whether the stream is in HD when it gives you the quality bars in the Netflix application on the Roku or 360. If you are not watching it from hardware such as the 360 or Roku, then you are not watching it in HD because they do not offer anything in HD from pc streaming. If you haven't noticed the Available in HD when you get the quality bars, then you are not seeing anything in HD.



wakawakawa on 22 December 2008

I've been watching Munsters episodes and some movies. I think it looks great. The movie selection isn't that great (but there's definately some good ones there), it's seems best for TV shows that are available for streaming.

I put Pan's Labyrinth in my que to test HD. I get an HD picture, but I stopped watching after about 1 minute.

My girlfriend really likes it and she is anti-video game.

 

I really wish they would add Green Acres and Married with Children.  On demand services seem to work better for TV shows, since most people don't want to sit down and watch five episodes in one sitting. Oh yea... MST3K would be sweet as well



im_sneaky on 22 December 2008

I just stick to plain and simple internet websites.. you know..free...and in any case the quality of those has gone up in the past year. now i can stand to watch them fullscreen without it looking like rubbish.
OT: its all about the size of your display.



 

 

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kn on 22 December 2008
JaggedSac said:
Dude, it says whether the stream is in HD when it gives you the quality bars in the Netflix application on the Roku or 360. If you are not watching it from hardware such as the 360 or Roku, then you are not watching it in HD because they do not offer anything in HD from pc streaming. If you haven't noticed the Available in HD when you get the quality bars, then you are not seeing anything in HD.

Well, then that tells me I haven't watched any HD content.  I always have 4 bars (I have a 6Mbit DSL) and I have never seen any "HD" indicator when using the Netflix app on my 360.  If what you say is true then I would have to say that the SD streams I have downloaded have been fairly decent, lol.  It's all a frame of reference then....  I'll keep trying until I come up with someting HD.

Any suggestions for an HD title that you know is HD and is a modern flick like cars, pirates of the caribbean, shrek, etc.?

 

 



I hate trolls.

Systems I currently own:  360, PS3, Wii, DS Lite (2)
Systems I've owned: PS2, PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn, 3DO, Genesis, Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES, GBA, GB, C64, Amiga, Atari 2600 and 5200, Sega Game Gear, Vectrex, Intellivision, Pong.  Yes, Pong.

Alasted on 22 December 2008
wakawakawa said:

I've been watching Munsters episodes and some movies. I think it looks great. The movie selection isn't that great (but there's definately some good ones there), it's seems best for TV shows that are available for streaming.

I put Pan's Labyrinth in my que to test HD. I get an HD picture, but I stopped watching after about 1 minute.

My girlfriend really likes it and she is anti-video game.

 

I really wish they would add Green Acres and Married with Children.  On demand services seem to work better for TV shows, since most people don't want to sit down and watch five episodes in one sitting. Oh yea... MST3K would be sweet as well

You've got good taste in television programs, partner.



Comrade Tovya on 22 December 2008
twesterm said:
kn said:
twesterm said:
kn said:

I finally signed up for a free trial this evening an tried a few films. I tried ones that are available on blu-ray so I know the source is available in HD. What I got was clean in terms of framerate, but it is "foggy" as it is enlarged quite a bit. The "source" is a small screen and when letterbox is chosen, it gets pretty blurry. I've got a 6Mbit connection and get 4 bars and no stuttering.

I found a blog that described the delivery process and it isn't exactly impressive. Hopefully they'll improve on it with time. Granted, it seems better than SD television, but still not what I had hoped.

 

  1. You're basing what the quality should be based on if the film is actually on BluRay or not, what they actually offer?
I'm assuming that a blu-ray film has an HD source somewhere and they would stream that rather than streaming SD.  I assumed that because I can't find anything that indicates whether a downloadable movie is HD or SD.  Am I missing that somewhere?
  1. Enlarging to your screen doesn't matter
Viewing the *same* source on larger screens does, in fact, matter.  If you view a 720 line image on a 24" screen it will most certainly be sharper than if you watch a 720 line image on a 60" screen.  Each pixel is larger on a 60" screen and the exact same amount of information is spread over a MUCH larger area.  Image degredation can't be helped.  When broadcasting those same 720 lines up to an 84" diagonal screen, compression artifacts become quite noticeable.
  1. I watch mine in 720p on 40" TV and they look absolutely fine and not foggy (except for the older movies that are foggy)

On my 42" screen they are "OK" but not DVD quality IMO. I have a Sharp Aquos 42" 1080P LCD and a Sharp 1080P DLP projector.  When I feed blu-ray to the either from my PS3, they both look magnificent.  The netflix, however, is mildly foggy on the LCD and quite foggy on the DLP.  If I choose to view the content in it's source broadcast format, it is a postage stamp in the middle of the screen.  It is HD, then, lol, but isn't very big.  Once "full frame", that's when it is less than ideal.

Again, I can't tell what is HD and what is SD since I can't find any kind of labeling.  Perhaps I have only watched SD content and that would make a difference.

 

 

 

Just because they have the HD source doesn't mean they want to host it.  That's all there really is to that.

As for the other points, it may be the TV or it may be the person.  I don't have a 1080p TV so I can't say much about that but on my TV to me they look DVD quality.

 

You were right on the money from the start...

720p or 1080p on a smaller screen ALWAYS looks better when viewed at the same distance for exactly the reasons you stated... same amount of pixels on a smaller viewing space.  The pixels are smaller and not "spread" as much over a larger space.

 

 



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candy2500 on 22 December 2008

i cant say I'm having any problem with the quality but i don't use a lot of the new stuff i mainly use my 360 for gaming. but i can see why a lot of people like the new NXE...



Yep, i'm a girl

JaggedSac on 23 December 2008
kn said:
JaggedSac said:
Dude, it says whether the stream is in HD when it gives you the quality bars in the Netflix application on the Roku or 360. If you are not watching it from hardware such as the 360 or Roku, then you are not watching it in HD because they do not offer anything in HD from pc streaming. If you haven't noticed the Available in HD when you get the quality bars, then you are not seeing anything in HD.

Well, then that tells me I haven't watched any HD content.  I always have 4 bars (I have a 6Mbit DSL) and I have never seen any "HD" indicator when using the Netflix app on my 360.  If what you say is true then I would have to say that the SD streams I have downloaded have been fairly decent, lol.  It's all a frame of reference then....  I'll keep trying until I come up with someting HD.

Any suggestions for an HD title that you know is HD and is a modern flick like cars, pirates of the caribbean, shrek, etc.?

 

 

The HD selection is very limited.  King of Kong is on there and it is pretty good.  30 Rock.  The Office.