Netflix Instant Watching Not too shabby
Netflix just rolled out Instant Watching (Watch Now). I got a chance yesterday to try it out, thanks to this tip from Hacking Netflix.
Quality isn’t too bad…. I have a 6mpbs connection, although Time Warner sucks so badly that it really tops out at around 2-3mbps most of the time (read: almost always). Too much net traffic in NY kills it (I am in northern New England). Anyway, even though speed tests showed about 2.5mbps last night, Netflix decided my connection was only good enough for their basic stream… from what I’ve read the high end speed gets you near-DVD quality. Even on the basic setting the picture was good in wide screen on my 42″ plasma.
Movie selection is slim right now, but I expect that to pick up in the months ahead. Yes you need to be running windows vista or XP SP2 and you cannot use any other browser other than IE 6+, but the player plugin is small and slick and works well… not a huge price to pay to get an extra 24 hours (in my case) of movie and tv show viewing.
The offering is pretty good overall, they didn’t have to do it, and I think it is a good differentiator for Netflix who is in a battle with Blockbuster right now to own the online DVD rental space.
Nice work Netflix, now please figure out how to give me a better stream so I can watch in a higher quality.
