HDTV Almanac - Netflix Limits Access to DVD Queue

[alfredpoor]

Bottom line: Netflix really wants out of the physical DVD business. And the company is doing its best to hasten its exit.
It has been widely reported that the company’s director of product management, Jamie Odell, announced that subscribers will no longer be able to add DVD titles to their queue using network media players, [...]

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/columns/2011/01/hdtv-almanac-netflix-limits-access-to-dvd-queue.php]Read Column[/url]

[ccclvib]

So, here I am in the minority again. I agree: Netflix neither has the content or the quality of playback to tempt me to streaming-only service. As far as how I access my DVD queue, it's still OK to me that I have to use my computer. I have enough time for that, and it allows me to more thoroughly check new additions through sources only available on the computer.

I'm not sure they're really ready to cut off the physical DVD service, but they may decide the majority of their subscribers (and the reason I consider myself a minority) will accept streaming of whatever quality can be managed. The more I talk to my friends and relatives, the more I'm sure they are why Netflix can generate that opinion. Most everyone I talk to finds whatever streaming they receive from Netflix (of those who even know the service exists(!)) perfectly acceptable. We wouldn't be reading a publication called 'HDTV Magazine' if we didn't care. But the two together mean we're the minority.

[tbngbrandt]

Streaming from Netflix is, at best, an "OK" experience because you must sacrifice quality and operational convenience for quick downloads. There are five major issues:

1. Picture quality is acceptable but not equal to blu-ray
2. Closed captioning is not available
3. Dolby 5.1 audio is not available
4. Fast forward/fast reverse is problematical as you must move by time only and cannot see the picture during fast scan.
5. Special features such as "making of" and deleted scenes are not available.

I will not remain with a service that does not offer a streaming service that is equal in quality in every way to the vaunted blu-ray disc.

[Roger Halstead]

Streaming from Netflix is, at best, an "OK" experience because you must sacrifice quality and operational convenience for quick downloads. There are five major issues:

1. Picture quality is acceptable but not equal to blu-ray
2. Closed captioning is not available
3. Dolby 5.1 audio is not available
4. Fast forward/fast reverse is problematical as you must move by time only and cannot see the picture during fast scan.
5. Special features such as "making of" and deleted scenes are not available.

I will not remain with a service that does not offer a streaming service that is equal in quality in every way to the vaunted blu-ray disc.

I have to agree with tbngbrandt about the service and quality, but I can certainly see NetFlix's desire and possibly need from a business model. The amount of overhead of DVDs/Blu-Ray must be an order of magnitude more than streaming. They not only have the physical medium but the handling and mailing costs which can deeply cut into the profit margin. That coupled with the entertainment industry's desire, or rather goal to get rid of the advantage Netflix has with the current low prices they pay is going to raise the costs to NetFlix substantially. Based on that they need to raise the profit margin as soon as possible to give them a bit of maneuvering room at the next contract negotiations.

Also there has to be a percentage of their customers, who like me, either have poor luck with streaming or don't have high speed connections. So they will lose some customers by going to the streaming only model.

For me the image quality is good enough for a 24-27" computer screen, but I rarely watch movies on the small screen. I still have terrible luck with streaming video even with a high speed connection., so I don't see Netflix in the near future for me. There are days where it works great, but they are unfortunately in the minority.

[tbngbrandt]

The one problem I have not experienced with Netflix is streaming interruptions, and I mean not once - knock on wood. I use a Sony blu-ray player for the job and will likely purchase an OPPO BDP-93SE in the future. Nonetheless, the blu-ray disc remains superior in every way except immediate availability, and only about 20% of Netflix's catalog can be downloaded at this point. It has become clear that Netflix is reducing their inventory because in recent months I have had great difficulty in obtaining certain discs, and not all of them are available in blu-ray even though they do exist in that format. The dreaded words "very long wait" have become all too commonplace.

[Rodolfo]

Tbngbrandt,

Regarding your interest of buying the OPPO 93SE, I must tell you that I have been testing the OPPO93 for a couple of months since it was pre-released (it is now available for the public since late December, which is good for the analog sunset ruling) and I am very disappointed at the way Netflix shows in the OPPO.

Reportedly, OPPO claims that Netflix is sending a different stream to the OPPO player. To give you an idea, most scenes are displayed with overlapped images that seem to rub on top of each other, especially noticeable in low light scenes.

I was also testing Roku and it does not do that, although streaming is a lower quality image in most cases (I am drafting an article about this).

It seems OPPO is working with the issue (and many other issues), but for $500 I cannot recommend the unit for people interested primarily in streaming until OPPO shows that a firmware upgrade resolves the problem.

The AVSforum has over 170 pages of thousands of posts about the nuances found on this testing, half of those posts on the pre-release phase of which I participated on.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1291855

OPPO has a high reputation for quality but I believe they have degraded their image with this player as released.

Best Regards,

Rodolfo La Maestra

[tbngbrandt]

I have owned a BDP-83 for a couple of years and know that the quality is good albeit with a few niggling control issues. (Problem numero uno is the inability to start a CD at any track except 1. My Sony can but with a pain-in-the-butt foray deep into its menus, which means I have to turn on my TV to play a CD.) Typically, the BDP-83 went through growing pains and a number of firmware downloads with a new release still in beta. I have never been able to play the film Public Enemies on it, which they blame on the type of disc Netflix buys. There were other films as well that would not play, but firmware upgrades resolved those issues, but Public Enemies remains . . . well, a public enemy as far as the OPPO is concerned. I suspect that OPPO will correct the Netflix streaming problem with a firmware update, but I will broach the subject with them before purchasing. Thanks for the tip.

[Rodolfo]

tbngbrandt,

You are welcome. I must expand that I spoke with OPPO and the Netflix problem of ghosts on the image is temporarily resolved by using the 2nd HDMI connection of the player, the one not using the new Marvel chip, which they are working to fix with a firmware upgrade.

The Netflix problem of interlacing streaming (that other streaming devices receive differently from Netflix) is something that they are working with Netflix but they have no control of it, hopefully Netflix resolves it soon.

Today is the last day OPPO accepts returns of the player but customer service confirmed that if OPPO cannot resolve the issues with firmware upgrades as they expect the customer still has the recourse of claiming restoration, which I frankly think will not be necessary, but is good to know if you want to buy the unit anyway.

If you are not in a hurry I recommend for you to wait and see how the firmware updates fix the Netflix issues, but these issues do not affect the DVD and Blu-ray when using the same chips, according to OPPO.

Best Regards,

Rodolfo La Maestra