Netflix to Bring Downloadable Movies Straight to Your TV?
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 01.11.08
Photo credit: foreverdigital
Netflix is already an example of awesome packaging and a great product service system; now, they're talking about crossing over into the digital download realm. That's right: no more waiting at the mailbox for your next disc to arrive; according to the New York Times, "the company wants to strike deals with electronics companies that will let it send movies straight to TV screens over the Internet. Its first partnership, announced Wednesday night, is with the South Korean manufacturer LG Electronics to stream movies and other programming to LG’s high-definition televisions."
Said Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings, “We want to be integrated on every Internet-connected device, game system, high-definition DVD player and dedicated Internet set-top box. Eventually, as TVs have wireless connectivity built into them, we’ll integrate right into the television.” Slick. While it's true that TiVo and other digital video recorders allow you to do this now, Netflix's proposed deal would leverage their huge catalog via the internet, allowing you to watch just about any movie your heart desires, any time. And you don't even have to go to the mailbox to get it. ::New York Times via ::Unclutterer
Are you kidding me? We already have something basically like this. It's called pay per view or On-Demand. The whole point of Netflix is to have an actual DVD in your hands with all the extras and the ability to watch the movie as much as you want. And, don't forget to mention, that most people don't live with some incredibly fast internet connection. In order to make decent download times there will need to be a cut in quality, which is very noticeable and discouraging when watching a movie on a nice TV.
I would use this service I think it is a great idea
This is obviously the future, and netflix is very smart to start moving on it.
They actually offer this service right now, but only via internet explorer. The quality is surprisingly good, but the selection absolutely sucks.
They have an online watching service. That is, unless you have a mac.
Considering I have already watched a few streamed Netflix movies on our TV, I am not certain this is news. Unless the news part is that the are trying to expand it beyond computers hooked up to a TV.
I'd like to echo heresyoftruth's comment. Though Netflix claims that they, “want to be integrated on every Internet-connected device, game system, high-definition DVD player and dedicated Internet set-top box," the fact that they can't provide Macintosh compatibility doesn't leave me feeling confident in this statement. I am an avid supporter and subscriber to Netlifx, though I'm quite curious to see how this idea actually materializes.
if you like this you should check out vudu. It was put together by some of the original developers of the tivo and already has a library of about 20,000 movies. Lots of good stuff. Anyway I got one for christmas and it has been eating my lunch money.
After subscribing to their normal DVD service (and loving it)I I tried the Netflix download service (to my PC) and liked it. A month or two later, they implemented a DRM requirement which takes a while to load, and gives them a bit of insight/control over your media collection (if I understand the EULA correctly). I understand the point of protecting content, but people can rip their DVDs.
I guess I'm tired of being treated like a thief when I'm actually paying for content. Hopefully, Netflix will come around and do away with the DRM. Until then, I'm sticking with Miro (www.getmiro.com).