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Internet Netflix Launches Preemptive Strike on iTunes Rentals
Brandon Hill (Blog) - January 15, 2008 12:14 PM

26 comment(s) - last by bond007taz.. on Jan 16 at 2:21 PM

Netflix goes after Apple's "rumored" iTunes movie rentals

Netflix is once again shaking up things in the online movie rental business with a preemptive strike against Apple. The company yesterday announced a new feature for current and future users of Netflix's unlimited rental plans.

Users can now stream an unlimited number of movies and TV shows to their PCs at no additional charge. With subscription services starting as low as $8.99, this is quite the boon for Netflix users.

"Unlimited has always been a very powerful selling point with our subscribers and a large part of what set us apart in the marketplace," said Netflix CEO Leslie Kilgore. "In talking with members about our streaming feature during the past year, it became clear that, as with DVDs, the idea of streaming unlimited movies and TV episodes on a PC resonated quite strongly. And we're now in a good position to offer that."

According to Netflix, unlimited rental plan subscribers will now have over 6,000 movies and TV shows to choose from to stream to their PCs and over 90,000 DVDs to choose from using the traditional mailing process.

Netflix announced earlier this year that it teamed up with LG Electronics to develop a set-top box which allows subscribers to stream online content directly to a TV instead of a PC. When coupled with Netflix's latest announcement of unlimited streaming movies, this could make for an interesting twist on movie rentals -- that is if Netflix can boost their relatively paltry number of streamed content.

Apple has a lot to live up to given this announcement from Netflix. Steve Jobs is in the process of taking the stage at Macworld 2008, so hopefully Apple's iTunes movie rental model will take a similar, if not better approach.

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Video Quality?

By daftrok on 1/15/2008 12:56:01 PM , Rating: 3

Now are they for the time being offering 480p resolution with stereo sound (or even surround sound for movies) or will it be a sad 320x240 resolution? If it is the latter I'm sticking with DVD rentals.

RE: Video Quality?

By ioKain on 1/15/2008 1:20:28 PM , Rating: 2

I have my 37" lcd hooked to my computer and videos look awesome. Not sure what res. it is though.

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RE: Video Quality?

By nafhan on 1/15/2008 1:24:31 PM , Rating: 2

On my 22" monitor (1680x1050) it looks like it's close to, but not quite, DVD quality. However, video quality is dependent on connection speed. My 5mbit FiOS connection allows max quality. When I had 768kbit DSL, it looked slightly better than youtube.

There's some good TV shows available (Heroes, The Office), but the movie selection sucks. If they really want to challenge Apple they need to get TV shows soon after they air on TV. Right now, TV shows are not available until they come out on DVD (from what I've seen).

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RE: Video Quality?

By Oregonian2 on 1/15/2008 3:53:35 PM , Rating: 2

So if one person is watching a video and others want to be using the internet connection (and currently for me it's 768K DSL).....

sigh...

(We've had netflix for a long time, and even with the upcoming FiOS upgrade, i still doubt I'd use the free streaming, don't want to watch it on my computer screen (which isn't near the main TV) which is only 24" (and only LCD).

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RE: Video Quality?

By rtrski on 1/15/2008 4:15:09 PM , Rating: 2

Well, this is in addition to whatever your rental plan is. Personally I might not bother 'renting' shows like the Office, etc. (actually get the DVDs in the mail) even though I enjoy them. I might however stream them every now and then when I'm just putzing around in front of the keyboard.

I don't really see this as much of a pre-empt against Apple et al, however, because in my usage model I've never have BOUGHT the episodes via something like iTunes anyway. The availability does however please me as a Netflix user, and is another arrow in their quiver to keep me with them....

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RE: Video Quality?

By RamarC on 1/15/2008 1:30:56 PM , Rating: 2

netfix has dvd (480p) quality on all content. they will downsample if your internet connection can't handle the full res stream.

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I don't view DVDs anymore

By RMSistight on 1/15/08, Rating: 0

RE: I don't view DVDs anymore

By somedude1234 on 1/15/2008 1:29:41 PM , Rating: 2

You won't be "streaming" HD movies to your PC any time soon, unless you have an internet connection that is insanely faster than what is generally available.

The (majority of) HD-DVD or Blu-Ray titles are ALREADY encoded using the same codec that is implemented by x264. They take up the majority of the space on a HD-DVD or BD disk AFTER they are compressed by the best codec we have (h.264/AVC).

Anything you could possibly do to reduce the size to make it feasible to stream would knock the quality down to DVD or likely below DVD quality.

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RE: I don't view DVDs anymore

By kextyn on 1/15/2008 3:04:31 PM , Rating: 2

I stream HD movies to my set top box. Video On Demand from Verizon uses the internet connection to stream everything. The HD videos require 15Mbps (I'm on a 30Mbps connection.) So if that's any indication then you'd need at least a 20Mbps connection.

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RE: I don't view DVDs anymore

By Oregonian2 on 1/15/2008 4:00:53 PM , Rating: 2

The set top box might not be using your internet bandwidth (at least not exclusively). Verizon FiOS uses either B-PON or the newer G-PON. Downlink for B-PON is 622 Mbps and is split at most 32-ways, and yes that's about 30/each but not every user is likely signed up for 30MBps service. The newer G-PON has a downlink of 2.4Gbps and is still passively split so it can't split much (the PON part) either.

Bandwidth "splitting" is dynamic in the sense that every user gets the entire 622M or 2.4G stream and only their addressed packets get forwarded into the house's system. The upstream is TDM'ish but with dynamic allocation of timeslots (and the pipe is 1.2Gbps upstream in G-PON).

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RE: I don't view DVDs anymore

By Oregonian2 on 1/16/2008 1:59:41 PM , Rating: 2

My math is a bit off above on B-PON, but doesn't affect my general points, esp. for the new Lucent/Alcatel supplied G-PON. Sorry about that. :-)

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RE: I don't view DVDs anymore

By anotherdude on 1/15/2008 3:21:58 PM , Rating: 2

The x264 rips of HD-DVD and BD you might see on Usenet, if you were looking, fit DVD 5 (4.5 gig) by and large with some others running to about 9 gig. I have heard they look spectacular.

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RE: I don't view DVDs anymore

By gramboh on 1/15/2008 5:36:20 PM , Rating: 2

There are 'scene' released x264 encodes of Blu-ray and HD-DVDs which are typically 4-6gb for 720p and 6-12gb for 1080p depending on the length of the film. These releases usually include a DTS audio track. The bitrate varies, it is obviously lower than the source material (you can see macroblocking in dark scenes sometimes) but the quality is pretty amazing for the filesize. It's a lot less of a gap than a 650mb XVid versus a 4.5GB DVD image.

Figure 4.5b for a 120min movie (720p x264), that is about 625kbyte/s bandwidth required, or for a 10GB (1080p x264), or 1.38mbyte/s.

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Not enough TV inputs

By pomaikai on 1/15/2008 12:51:26 PM , Rating: 2

So will every company create a seperate set-top box to stream there content? Apple TV, Tivo for Amazon unbox, Netflix box for netflix.

RE: Not enough TV inputs

By RMSistight on 1/15/2008 1:06:36 PM , Rating: 2

This is why you create your own HTPC with an HDTV, PC monitor hookups (DVI or newer mobos/video cards with HDMI) and you don't have to worry about set-top boxes. Just play directly on your PC.

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RE: Not enough TV inputs

By bhieb on 1/15/2008 1:21:01 PM , Rating: 2

Correct. Now if the Vendors would realize this and create a custom Media Center program so it flows nicely with the 10 foot UI and remote control. Problem is most 3rd party media center programs don't look quite right, or they have horrible performance.

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RE: Not enough TV inputs

By pomaikai on 1/15/2008 3:19:54 PM , Rating: 2

Except for the fact that there are instances where DRM from different companies dont play nice together. One example is netflix and amazon unbox.

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RE: Not enough TV inputs

By BPB on 1/15/2008 1:09:10 PM , Rating: 2

I'm pretty sure I've downloaded Unbox stuff to my Vista Ultimate PC and then watched it on my TV via my Xbox 360 and Windows Media Extender. In fact I'm almost positive. If memory recalls (and the reason I don't remember for sure is I have TiVo now so I don't need to download to my PC) the Unbox stuff is not encrypted. Although, now that I think about it, it may have been stuff I purchased via unbox, not rented. Remember, Amazon is pretty cool about DRM stuff, or maybe I should say stuff not having DRM.

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Selection is garbage

By augiem on 1/15/2008 1:01:47 PM , Rating: 2

I don't know why nobody mentions this, but Netflix's selection of streaming movies is really pathetic. I signed up for a free trial almost 2 weeks ago and, between me and one other person sharing the account, have barely found 3 movies to watch. If you're into old B movies, Bollywood, or exercise videos, this plan's for you!!

Seriously, most of the movies seem to be 1990 and earlier. Sure there are tons of great old movies, but even those seem to be few and far between on Netflix streaming.

I'll stick with DVD mail for now.

RE: Selection is garbage

By Melric on 1/15/2008 1:28:40 PM , Rating: 2

The same can be said regarding Unboxed. My understanding is that most of the mainstream movies have the rights tied up and cannot be offered by download until several years have passed.

If Unboxed had a better selection, I'd drop my Netflix subscription.

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RE: Selection is garbage

By RamarC on 1/15/2008 1:50:51 PM , Rating: 2

but the streaming is a free perk. while there are only a few good movies, the selection of tv shows is much broader.

so long as it's free, i won't complain.

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Not so sure...

By bighairycamel on 1/15/2008 12:32:22 PM , Rating: 2

I'm not sure what was said during the announcement, but my wife told me about a month ago that we could now stream movies with no cap. Maybe they told customers ahead of the media, but I've know about this for awhile.

Not too bad

By vijay333 on 1/15/2008 12:54:59 PM , Rating: 2

Saw this news yesterday and finally joined the service at the base level for unlimited online viewing (8.99). Quality is pretty decent and if they keep adding to the titles available for streaming, it can only get better. Don't have any ipod devices, so no real incentive to join itunes.

BAH.. OLD news

By kattanna on 1/15/2008 3:06:27 PM , Rating: 2

What i am really wanting to hear more about is the set top box.

but this feels like a prelude to more info on that

some of us have been able to stream content from them for almost a year now, but like has been mentioned, man, they really need to build that library up. Hopefully with the new set top box, it will grow.

Might actually consider the set top box...

By Wolfpup on 1/16/2008 11:42:17 AM , Rating: 2

I have to admit I might actually consider that Netflix set top box if it's not too expensive. I've got Cable internet and the video quality and performance really is surprisingly great-I never though we'd really see usable streaming video, but this is.

The selection isn't great, and I don't know if the STB will actually work as well as a PC (hopefully better...) but I could see spending $50-100 on one, since my computer isn't in the room I usually watch shows in.

Not sure what the one poster meant by his monitor being "only LCD". As opposed to...what exactly? :D It's the best all around display technology out there right now, and might be for decades.

Netflix plugin with Mediaportal is now complete

By bond007taz on 1/16/2008 2:21:43 PM , Rating: 2

Sweet! I am a blockbuster online customer but this is perfect. MediaPortal has a Netflix plugin that allows you to watch the online movies so now it is complete. I can use MediaPortal to watch TV, my movies on my SAN, listen to my music, view my photos and connect to Netflix and pick a movie from their database - AWESOME!