I have succumbed to the pressure and gotten Netflix. Honestly, I like the idea of having a library of titles available to me at any time. However, in just messing around with it briefly, I was not impressed with the picture quality. On my computer and iPhone, the quality is fine. However, on my HDTV, it was like watching YouTube videos. It was even worse than standard def channels.
I am streaming Netflix via our Xbox 360. The TV is a beautiful 50" 1080p plasma. Games on the Xbox are spectacular in every way. Now, all I was doing was just sampling a bit. I didn’t watch any program all the way through. Does the picture quality improve as the buffer fills up? Is there any way to stream high definition programming from Netflix?
Everything I’ve streamed looks great. How’s your connection speed (you can test it at speedtest.net)? When you first start streaming a movie Netflix will determine your bandwidth and decide what quality to send your based on that. If you’re running slow for some reason, you’ll get a lower quality video.
Also, are you testing it out with something recent (as opposed to, say, a TV show from 1960 or a black and white movie)?
Netflix was once touted as “DVD quality,” which is far from BluRay or hi-def anything. Also, they use some additional compression that degrades motion too much for my taste. So it’s a little behind other technlogies, IMHO.
And Netflix tailors their compression and data speed depending on what they think your bandwidth is. I had a problem some years ago when they mistakenly detected my speed as lower than it really was.
I imagine it will improve as bandwidth gets greater. It’s still pretty amazing what you can get without having to go out to a theater or rent a movie.
As it loads, it should tell you your connection and quality. Are you getting four bars and HD?
It may be you’re not letting it play long enough. I have notice that sometimes when I’m checking out something new, it starts out pretty badly but clears up pretty quickly.
Somedays Netflix streamed via my (wired) XBox upshifts and downshifts in quality several times during the same program. Netflix via my (wireless) AppleTV is more stable. Go figure.
Well, maybe it’s my connection speed. Speedtest says 2.65Mbps download speed. This is using Verizon DSL to my house and 802.11g to my laptop. My Xbox is connected to the router via wireline adapters that I got from DirecTV.
Sooooooo, I wandered over to Verizon to see what my options were for increasing my speed. I now have ordered their high speed enhanced service which is supposed to be 3.1 to 7Mbps. In so doing, I have also lowered my total phone/DSL bill from $60/mo to $45/mo. Winning!!
Faster DSL is supposed to be activated on 6/15. We’ll see if we’re blazing along faster on Wednesday!
Not all Netflix shows are available in HD. If I stream Blackadder, the picture quality is kind of crummy. If I stream The Tudors, the picture quality is pretty good, but it takes a few moments to ramp up to HD. The show description will tell you beforehand if it’s available in HD.
Disclaimer: I’m on netflix.ca, but I think that just affects what titles I have access to (copyright shenanigans), not picture quality.
I have RCN cable internet that tests around 9-10Mbps, (YouTube also has me clocked at that range over each 30-day period that I’ve checked) but I also have a full desktop computer hooked up to my 1080p tv. The HD stuff from Netflix looks great, the regular def stuff also looks fine, not as good as the HD (which is 720p), but my TV does a good job upscaling. What I have found to be regularly disappointing it the Starz Play stuff. I find all the Starz movies to be sub-par in streaming quality. I have no idea why they would be such low quality compared to all the other Netflix stuff.
I watch Netflix on my PS3 and had the same problem at first. You need to access your Netflix account on your computer and go to the “manage video quality” page and do the obvious thing there.
I know Starz play movies are often cropped down from whatever their Theater format was to 16:9 so there are no black bars on the top/bottom on an HDTV. Perhaps when they do that they also screw up the quality.
Well, I upped the connection speed to around 5Mbps and now the HD comes through beautifully on the Xbox. It’s not as great as watching a BluRay, but it’s pretty good. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.