Netflix is a movie rental service that has been around for a few years now, offering the unconventional means of shipping movies directly to your doorstep, in addition to their large streaming catalog of movies that are available to be watched instantly. This additional service is provided completely free in addition to the shipping service, which makes Netflix a great service for catching up on the latest movies.
Choosing the 2 DVD plan that includes unlimited rentals and streaming and with Blu-Ray rentals added, the total plan only costs around $15 a month, but there are cheaper plans for those who only want a few rentals a month, or one DVD out at a time.
The added benefit of the Netflix service is once you sign up, you have instant access to their full catalog of instantly streaming movies. The movies are organized by genre, or if you know the specific movie you want to see, you can search for it easily. They have over 13,000 movie titles with both new and old releases. In fact, their catalog also includes TV shows, so if you have a particular show you’ve been meaning to catch up on but can’t seem to find the time, then Netflix is perfect.
The streaming service truly shines, as it has one of the best picture qualities I have ever seen from streaming services. After around 60 seconds of calibration, you will be presented with a great picture and absolutely wonderful sound, so long as you are streaming on a decent broadband connection. With so many people taking advantage of their streaming service, you might wonder if it is at all slow during peak times such as when families are home together. However, testing the service at all times of the day, I have not found any problems and I think it is safe to say that the Netflix Streaming architecture is some of the best available for supporting so many concurrent connections at once.
There is no pausing during the movie to buffer and you don’t have to worry about slow downs or lag issues that make the movie experience less than sub par. I was extremely pleased with this, especially since the streaming movie deals are offered for free. Best of all, if you have a gaming console in your home and you have a Netflix subscription, you can use Netflix on these consoles to have parties and watch movies with friends across the country, which is a pretty interesting feature. The 360 was the first device to support this party feature and the streaming quality it produces is just as good as that of using Netflix on your computer.
If you want to bring the streaming experience straight to your living room and you do not have a computer to hook up to your TV, Netflix offers a streaming box that will allow you to access your full library of streamed movies so that you can watch them from the comfort of your living room.
If you are interested in trying Netflix, you can get a free trial by following this link. I would definitely recommend the service to anyone who rents movies frequently, as the added convenience of not having to drive to return movies and being able to watch thousands of movies streamed online makes the service worth the price, no matter what plan you sign up for. However, I would definitely recommend making sure you get a plan that offers you access to the streaming feature, as it is great for watching movies while you wait for those on DVD to be shipped or returned.
I have had a netflix account for a couple years now. Ever since the streaming was launched, I noticed I was taking less and less trips to the mail box to return my dvd’s and blu rays. I can watch tv shows and movies on my PS3, computer, tv, or laptop depending where I am at the time.
The quality is amazing, these other sites like hulu and youtube video quality don’t even compare. Well, maybe they do for reallly old movies.
After my trial ran out, I obviously decided to keep the service because its awesome. I picked the 2 blu rays at a time and unlimited streaming (I think all plans are unlimited streaming, it has been a while since I signed up.) and I pay ~$16/mo, though I think I might downgrade to just 1 movie out at a time or just streaming if they will let me since that’s all I use lately.
Really, if you don’t have a netflix account you are missing out.
Posted by Mark | 23. Aug, 2010, 3:07 am