Netflix to Offer Mac Video Streaming By End of Year

[SpinThis!]

This is my wish as well. Hopefully won't take someone too long to pull off.

We'll see, but it seems promising.

The specs for Silverlight—if that's what Netflix is using—require a 800mhz G4 or a 1.83 Ghz Core duo processor. The Apple TV has a 1Ghz Pentium M processor—which is based on the Core Duo. Whether that's enough for Silverlight remains to be seen but I think they only mention 1.83 since that's the specs of the first available Intel Mac Mini. The 1Ghz Pentium M is on par with—if it doesn't surpass in the first place—the G4's minimum spec. (A potential issue might be SSE3 though...)

NetFlix video tops off at 480p so there should be no problem there either. If it was (near) HD, we might have to worry a bit since Apple uses the video card to support HD.

 

[starcrossed]

Music subscription plans, no. But I can definitly get on board for a movie and tv show subscription plan. If Apple could come up with a similar plan I would gladly pay $10-20 bucks a month to stream them to watch.

 

[yrsonicdeath]

would be nice if netflix offered movies worth streaming . . .

I agree. Although I just logged into my netflix account and was informed that two movies from my queue are now available for instant viewing. That is two out of about 200.

 

[/dev/toaster]

Netflix online is a serious joke. I would have guessed they had a massive catalog of newer content.

However, I watched a PC user co-worker load it up and show me the selections. Not only was there less then 5% of newer movies, the ones that were there are terrible jokes. The box office losers.

Cool that you are bringing it to the Mac, but you need some content for me to care.

 

[yrsonicdeath]

I actually just logged in again and there are tons more movies that are actually good. I don't know what happened but I just added like a hundred movies to my instant queue. New movies that weren't "Box Office Losers." Spider Man 3, The new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Ratatouille, just to name a few.

 

[SpinThis!]

Music subscription plans, no. But I can definitly get on board for a movie and tv show subscription plan. If Apple could come up with a similar plan I would gladly pay $10-20 bucks a month to stream them to watch.

Yeh, especially since Apple also provides HD movies vs Netflix SD...

 

[carlitofox]

is netflix USA only or can you get it in the uk ??

 

[notjustjay]

...or Canada...

 

[gmcalpin]

They can only offer the movies their distributors let them, so complaining about that is a waste of letters.

Anyway, there are a lot of good movies offered through their streaming. This Is England, Central Station, Gone Baby Gone, Spider-Man 3...

Okay, just kidding about that last one being good.

 

[goodhood]

Hopes for AppleTV Support

The day that it is possible to stream Netflix directly to an AppleTV is the day that I go out and buy one. The best way to fight piracy is to make the legal ways easier to use than the illegal ones.

 

[rvk27]

wow! cant wait

 

[BryanLyle]

Well, if the video quality isn't any better than the PC side, I don't have any interest in this.

I was surprised at how bad the quality was.

 

[kainjow]

I'm 99% sure they will use Silverlight because they just recently switched their previews over to it from Flash.

 

[Roessnakhan]

I thought the quality was fine. Didn't seem any less than DVD quality when watching it on my computer.

 

[emt1]

I will restart my subscription the DAY this comes out.

 

[Peel]

I actually just logged in again and there are tons more movies that are actually good. I don't know what happened but I just added like a hundred movies to my instant queue. New movies that weren't "Box Office Losers." Spider Man 3, The new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Ratatouille, just to name a few.

Netflix just forged a deal with Starz to add 2500 more movies to their streaming lineup.

 

[yrsonicdeath]

Netflix just forged a deal with Starz to add 2500 more movies to their streaming lineup.

I just read this because I was curious why so many movies popped up all of a sudden. I think this is a good sign.

 

[bobr1952]

I have used Netflix for almost two years and love it--for me it is a perfect way to catch up on movies. True, their selection of on-demand movies is not great but still--it would be nice to be able to check out a few of them if the urge hits--so this will be a nice addition to what for me is a great service.

 

[rosalindavenue]

this is exciting news.


i actually just ordered a Roku this morning. Anyone have any reviews for it?

Got mine last Friday. It is really great. I like old movies, so the selection does not bother me. (The Starz announcement impoved the selection quite a bit). The quality depends on the scan but is pretty good, better than SDTV on my 40" LCD, not as good as upscaled DVD but good. There are a few titles (Superman, for example) that ought to be widescreen that are pan 'n scan for some reason. Newer stuff really looks great-- e.g 30 Rock Season 1 is in widescreen and very good quality.

I had watched a few streaming netflix on my imac (with boot camp and vista) but watching a whole movie on a desktop is not fun. If I were a mac user with interest in the catalog (and I am) I'd order a roku and not wait for the mac streaming.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

This is great but I have heard that the selection movies available for streaming isn't that great.

 

[Sh0nuff77]

iphone and touch too?

does mean that the mobile version of safari will stream movies from netflix as well?

 

[Roessnakhan]

does mean that the mobile version of safari will stream movies from netflix as well?

Unlikely. It consumes too much data and would zap your battery in a heartbeat.

 

[kainjow]

Unlikely. It consumes too much data and would zap your battery in a heartbeat.

The real reason would probably be because they're going to use Silverlight, which isn't available on the iPhone.

 

[happydude]

I agree. Although I just logged into my netflix account and was informed that two movies from my queue are now available for instant viewing. That is two out of about 200.

well, 1% is a start . . .

 

[riversky]

I think this will be Intel only since they use Microsoft's Silverlight tech I believe.