The Buzz Media » Netflix

Netflix iPhone App Released

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:08:25 +0000

In an effort to become the first company in the world that literally has no downside to owning a subscription, Chris Hunkele sends in news that Netflix has released their official iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad app today. Preliminary streaming results show that the app is really intended to be used over WiFi as 3G gives [...]

This is Why People Pirate Movies

Riyad Kalla — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:54:38 +0000

The graphic above is a chart showing the different experience between a person who pirated a movie and a person who purchased it. It’s one of the best visualizations I’ve seen of why people pirate movies in a long time. Beyond that, I would add that accessibility of the media is the most-common reason for piracy. [...]

Netflix Bumps Blu-ray Access Price up 500%

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:41:59 +0000

Given the already impecable service we are receiving from Netflix, it looks like we are getting blessed with a price-hike as well for Blu-ray movie access. When HD disks (Blu-ray and HD-DVD) first dropped at Netflix, they were free for months. Then after Blu-ray won, Netflix shortly announced a premium price-hike for Blu-ray access that [...]

Netflix Throttling Instant Video Streaming Performance for Viewers

Riyad Kalla — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:36:39 +0000

What’s Going on with Netflix Streaming Performance? I noticed about 3 weeks ago my streaming video performance from Netflix has become unbearably slow. I’m on a 7 mbps Qwest DSL line in Tucson, AZ and my previous experience with Netflix “Watch Instantly” service had generally been excellent, almost never showing the buffering screen for a [...]

Sony's Poor Playstation 3 Sales and Marketing Isn't Sabotage – It's Just Sony

Riyad Kalla — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:06:31 +0000

The Washington Times’s Sonny Bunch wrote an article recently that raked Sony over the coals for: No price cut this holiday season — instead they actually released a more expensive bundle Not properly promoting DVD-upscaling capabilities of the PS3 No Netflix (or other 3rd party) streaming movie support This is all in the wake of [...]

How to Get the New Xbox Experience Early

Jigsaw hc — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:14:47 +0000

For those of you who have not heard the “New Xbox Experience” is the upcoming dashboard update for the Xbox 360. It is scheduled for release on November 19th and includes a large number of changes including: Netflix Streaming XNA Community Games Avatars Xbox Live Marketplace on the Web Updated Games Marketplace Plus a complete [...]

Netflix Watch Instantly Services Gets a Boost with Starz Play

Riyad Kalla — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:19:24 +0000

As a big fan of Netflix I’ve always been annoyed since the Watch-it-Now service first launched (before it was renamed 3x), had a ton of Triple-A titles, then immediately cut them all… I’m guessing due to licensing with the studios. Fortunately it looks like Netflix has inked deals with NBC, Starz and a few others, [...]

Netflix Releases Developer API, Surprisingly Powerful

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:52:43 +0000

Netflix released it’s long-awaited developer API yesterday (JavaScript, REST) and to a lot of people’s surprise, was quite a bit more open-ended than expected: We’re pleased to announce the availability of the Netflix API. The team has been hard at work on this and we’re glad we can finally let people see what we’ve built. [...]

NetFlix Roku Streaming Movie Device Review

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:54:07 +0000

Matt Young has been kind enough to send along a mini-review of the Roku, NetFlix set-top-box streaming media player used to stream the NetFlix “Watch it Now” library directly to your TV over the internet. I had originally been concerned at the size of the NetFlix Watch-it-Now library as well as the picture quality, but [...]

The Breastford Wives: Where The Hell is this Neighborhood?!

Riyad Kalla — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:01:47 +0000

So I was browsing around NetFlix, looking for documentaries on space travel, charity work, parenting and knitting when I ran across The Breastford Wives (a knock off of The Stepford Wives… which was arguably no better). The description of the movie is what caught my attention and made me realize this was practically a documentary [...]

Recommendation Systems – Let ME Decide What I Like

Riyad Kalla — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:21:51 +0000

I’ve been a NetFlix user for years, and always pretty happy with the service (except for a few throttling issues), but one aspect of the service that has really been bugging me recently is how the stars that NetFlix shows you for the movie ratings is not based off the community’s collective reviews, but rather [...]

Netflix Releases Set Top Player

Riyad Kalla — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:08:53 +0000

It’s official, Netflix has announced the first of 3 stand-alone set top boxes that integrate directly into their Watch it Now service to stream content directly to your TV. The first STB out of the gate is the Roku, and from the word on the street, sounds like a bare-bones $100 player. My guess is [...]

Netflix Streaming to Xbox 360

Riyad Kalla — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:20:04 +0000

A while ago Chris Hunkele gave us a heads up on a Windows Media Center plugin that allowed you to watch the Netflix “Watch it Now” or “Instant” streaming movies on your Xbox 360 by streaming the content to it. Hacking Netflix has an update on that vmcNetflix plugin with a movie showing it in [...]

Netflix Recommendation System Snafu?

Riyad Kalla — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:01:24 +0000

So I was looking on Netflix to see how I scored Hitman after a friend asked me about it, and noticed down in the “More Like This” section where Netflix recommends more movies to you… it was telling me if I liked Hitman (Action movie, gore, full frontal nudity) that I might like Cesar Milan: [...]

Netflix Mediacenter Plug-in

Chris Hunkele — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:26:02 +0000

Anthony Park has released on open beta plug-in, that allows you to utilize your Netflix “Watch it Now” functionality on your Media Center PC. The plug-in is still in beta and still a little buggy, but to be able to cruise movies, shows and concerts with your remote on watch a movie on demand is [...]

Netflix picks Blu-ray (See ya HD-DVD!)

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:11:26 +0000

Laurence Hartje just sent in news that Netflix has decided to go Blu-ray as a response to the trend of other major studios doing the same. While you can still add HD-DVD movies to your queue as of this morning, I don’t know how much longer those disks will stay in circulation. My guess is [...]

Netflix "Watch it Now" Unlimited Streaming

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:39:02 +0000

Chris Hunkele sends in news that it looks like (in response to rumors that Apple will drop a Movie-rental bomb tomorrow at MacWorld) Netflix will be uncapping the already generous limits for it’s “Watch it Now” or “Watch Instantly” or now “Instant” media streaming service. Update #1: It’s official, on the “Watch it Instantly Activity” [...]

Netflix Set-Top-Box Coming Soon

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:24:30 +0000

For the folks out there that went ape-shit when Netflix first launched its “Watch it Now” service (now called “Watch Instantly”), and were getting ready to build their own home-theater-PCs (HTPC) to connect directly to their TV to stream the movies, here is your salvation. EngadgetHD reports that the rumors from a while back about [...]

Vongo Online Movie Rental Review

Chris Hunkele — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:04:18 +0000

Vongo is an online, on demand video download service. The thought of not having late fees, not having to leave the house, or for that matter leave the couch to rent a movie it quite enticing. So after seeing the a Vongo ad on TV, I decided to give them a try. They advertise for [...]

Netflix Throttling: 1.5 Months

Riyad Kalla — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:07:43 +0000

Well it happened, I sent Netflix an apology for my mean email about throttling and 1 week later it looks like Casino Royale Blu-Ray is shipping, WOOT!