Netflix Comes To Tivo, AppleTV, Linux 190
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."
Why bother (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Linux? Really? (Score:2, Interesting)
Hurray for Boxee support... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Show Me The Titles (Score:5, Interesting)
They let you stream a lot of the Independent and Documentary stuff...
I have a feeling that this is pretty appealing to the Slashdot crowd. /got netflix this weekend.
Re:No Series 2? (Score:3, Interesting)
The hardware in the Series 2 simply can't do the work. Netflix is using a codec that isn't supported there.
Re:Why bother (Score:5, Interesting)
How about:
a. PlayOn isn't free
b. This is also a live stream that won't take up space on your PVR.
Hackish (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
can I use firefox for vewing netflix instant yet? (Score:3, Interesting)
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?
Re:Show Me The Titles (Score:5, Interesting)
The movie selection doesn't matter as much because the picture and sound quality aren't as great as they are on the physical media anyway. If I want to watch a movie I'll wait for the BluRay to come in the mail and watch the magical 1008p hotness and hear the uncompressed audio.
For most TV shows that stuff doesn't matter. Do you really need to see The Office or 30 Rock in HD? I'm perfectly happy streaming those with no commercials to my xbox. I love it.
Re:Show Me The Titles (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
That really depends on what you're looking for.
No, the recent blockbuster titles aren't generally available... But there's tons of good sci-fi and horror, and lots of independent and foreign films, and tons of documentaries, and lots of old TV... Enough stuff that my wife and I make very good use of the streaming stuff.
Re:Why bother (Score:4, Interesting)
Take the Big 3:
Nintendo - Wii (Playon is building an interface for the Wii)
Sony - PS3
Microsoft - Xbox 360
Now what we need is numbers of the people that own Tivo boxes that also own any ONE of these three (or two if you just want to go current)
Realistically Tivo is fighting a diminishing game, and this comes from the owner of a Tivo HD. How many people own one of those 3 units above vs. a TivoHD? Which is cheaper, the PlayOn (30$) or TivoHD (300+ sub)?
Re:Show Me The Titles (Score:5, Interesting)
Just go to the boxee.tv site and request an invite. You'll be put on a waitlist, but you'll get a response. It may take you a while, but I got an invite only 2 weeks after I requested one. You can also register on the boxee forums and get technical information about the project, and I note a lot of people posting there are begging for invites. Anyone already in the Alpha test can invite their friends, which is part of the charm of the platform. Social networking is what sets Boxee apart from lots of other media center packages. Once you log into Boxee, you can see what your friends have been watching, and they can see your activity, recommend movies, TV shows, music, and all you have to do is click on the selection to launch it. If you reply to me here with a valid email address, I'll be happy to send you one, since the project gets even more interesting the more friends you have in the network. You can use a free throwaway account like Hotmail or Yahoo if you like. I need more Boxee friends!
Re:Linux? Really? (Score:3, Interesting)
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 [mozdev.org]
Excerpt:
IE Tab, an extension from Taiwan, embeds Internet Explorer in a Mozilla/Firefox tab.
Emphasis mine.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Boxee with Hulu (Score:2, Interesting)
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.