Anyone else disappointed with netflix streaming?

[kn]

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.