Streaming Movies With Netflix on Windows PCs
I joined Netflix (a movie rental services that sends DVDs in the mail) recently, after not being a member for a couple of years, mainly because of their announcement offering subscribers the option of instantly watching movies on their PCs (here is their press release). I was curious as to the selection of movies and television series as well as the quality of the video. New technology always makes me curious…
Well, at some point I thought I would see something on my Netflix page that would tell me I could instantly watch movies though I only knew that they were rolling the program out over a 6 month period with no clue as to when my account would have the feature. Well, thanks to the folks over at PVRblog and their post Netflix streaming now available, I now can stream movies over my Internet connection from Netflix.
For whatever reason, Netflix is not just adding the option to subscribers’ accounts, you have to go and search for it. I followed the steps that the people at PVRblog wrote out and I now have the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice playing on my second monitor while I write this post (I multi-task a lot).
I don’t know if everyone has the option but if you are a Netflix subscriber click on your account link and under the box Membership at a glance you should see a question, how can I watch movies instantly on my PC? Click on that and you will be walked through a process of downloading a Netflix application and possibly updating your Windows Media DRM. Then, the Watch Now tab will appear with movies that are available instantly to watch.
I have a DSL connection and the quality of the video is so-so. I also am beta testing a streaming video application called Joost and I think the video quality with Joost is much better. The quality of the Netflix streaming video is like watching an analog television station rather than a digital station. There is no pixelation though, just a bit fuzzy. According to Netflix the faster your connection the better the video quality. That may mean someone with a broadband cable will have a better picture than me with my DSL connection.
There are suppose to be about 1,000 titles to choose from including movies and some television series. These are not box office top movies but there is a wide selection. BBC series interest me like Pride and Prejudice and older Doctor Who.
Will I watch films this way? Maybe on my laptop while lying in bed or if I am traveling with my computer and have access to a broadband connection. It’s nice having the instant access but if I want quality viewing of a movie I think I will opt to have the DVD delivered to my door and watch it on my DVD player, not my computer.
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