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Netflix Instant View, 360 and You

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Posts

  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Feral wrote: »
    This is an interesting thread, because I just re-signed up for Netflix to try the Instant Queue.

    I found it... extremely lacking in titles, to say the least. After going through the entire comedy section, I found five titles I actually wanted to watch, and a couple of them were a stretch.

    And now you guys are linking all these awesome movies.

    I... I don't know what to think. :P

    Like I said earlier, the Instant Viewing service used to be completely and utterly worthless. Without any redeeming qualities what so ever. But with this improvement, I'm actually finding stuff I want to watch and that is actually good and that I've actually heard of before.

    Compared to how things used to be, I'm fucking drowning in quality here. But for someone that signed up just for the Xbox compatability, I can see how it would still be extremely disappointing.

    A large part of it has to do with Netflix's deal with Starz!. In my opinion, that's when the service really took off.

    Yeah, the Starz! deal is when rotating selection was introduced, which I hate...but it also added an order of magnitude more movies I want to watch, so it's a net improvement.

    The Netflix instant viewing, though, really works a lot better in conjunction with your normal Netflix queue. Trying to sift through and find something good can be maddening, but building your DVD queue up and then just looking occasionally to see if anything has become available for instant is awesome.

    EDIT: I have like 150 movies in my DVD queue, and like 30 or 40 are available for instant...then I've got another 20 or so that I added straight to the instant queue.

    mcdermott on
  • NailbunnyPDNailbunnyPD Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    How do you determine if movies in your DVD queue are available for Instant (aside from clicking each title)?

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  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    How do you determine if movies in your DVD queue are available for Instant (aside from clicking each title)?

    It'll show up in the Instant column, with a Play button.

    freakish light on
  • NailbunnyPDNailbunnyPD Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    How do you determine if movies in your DVD queue are available for Instant (aside from clicking each title)?

    It'll show up in the Instant column, with a Play button.

    Ahh, missed that column, since nothing I have in the DVD queue is available on Instant.

    NailbunnyPD on
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  • GihgehlsGihgehls Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    mcdermott wrote: »
    Feral wrote: »
    This is an interesting thread, because I just re-signed up for Netflix to try the Instant Queue.

    I found it... extremely lacking in titles, to say the least. After going through the entire comedy section, I found five titles I actually wanted to watch, and a couple of them were a stretch.

    And now you guys are linking all these awesome movies.

    I... I don't know what to think. :P

    Like I said earlier, the Instant Viewing service used to be completely and utterly worthless. Without any redeeming qualities what so ever. But with this improvement, I'm actually finding stuff I want to watch and that is actually good and that I've actually heard of before.

    Compared to how things used to be, I'm fucking drowning in quality here. But for someone that signed up just for the Xbox compatability, I can see how it would still be extremely disappointing.

    A large part of it has to do with Netflix's deal with Starz!. In my opinion, that's when the service really took off.

    Yeah, the Starz! deal is when rotating selection was introduced, which I hate...but it also added an order of magnitude more movies I want to watch, so it's a net improvement.

    The Netflix instant viewing, though, really works a lot better in conjunction with your normal Netflix queue. Trying to sift through and find something good can be maddening, but building your DVD queue up and then just looking occasionally to see if anything has become available for instant is awesome.

    EDIT: I have like 150 movies in my DVD queue, and like 30 or 40 are available for instant...then I've got another 20 or so that I added straight to the instant queue.

    Wait a sec. Tell me about this rotating selection. It sounds bad.

    Gihgehls on
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  • NailbunnyPDNailbunnyPD Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Gihgehls wrote: »
    mcdermott wrote: »
    *snip*

    Wait a sec. Tell me about this rotating selection. It sounds bad.

    Some films have a date in which they will no longer be available on Instant, and then new ones become available. The date displays in the queue, so you are encouraged to bump these up to the top of the queue so you get through them before they go back to DVD only.

    For example, the top 8 selections in my Instant queue expire between Dec 30th and Jan 1st. The remaining 60-some have no date listed.

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  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Gihgehls wrote: »
    mcdermott wrote: »
    *snip*

    Wait a sec. Tell me about this rotating selection. It sounds bad.

    Some films have a date in which they will no longer be available on Instant, and then new ones become available. The date displays in the queue, so you are encouraged to bump these up to the top of the queue so you get through them before they go back to DVD only.

    For example, the top 8 selections in my Instant queue expire between Dec 30th and Jan 1st. The remaining 60-some have no date listed.

    Yeah, it kinda sucks...especially because a lot of the movies I see expiring didn't used to have any sort of expiration date attached. I think like half my instant queue expires over winter break.

    It's not a huge deal to me, because I mostly see Instant as something to augment my DVD queue (as in "oh, I don't feel like watching this DVD I just received tonight anymore but I do feel like watching this other one in my queue that's on Instant...cool"), but , and not some kind of standalone service. But when they're trying to shill devices specifically for Instant viewing, they really need to beef up their selection.

    I guess it'll really depend, for me, on what titles become newly available when all these ones expire.

    EDIT: For clarity, I don't use an Xbox for my Instant viewing, I just use my PC and a set of cables permanently hooked to my entertainment system (optical out, VGA out, and a cheap wireless keyboard/mouse receiver...it all hides really nicely, and my computer is both quiet and relatively small). I'm thinking of dropping about $300 and building a decent little media center PC, something that will largely just pull data off the network (and play shit like Netflix and Hulu). Especially if Netflix ever adds Linux support (or if I buy the wife a new computer with Vista pre-installed freeing up my old retail copy of XP).

    mcdermott on
  • Vargas PrimeVargas Prime King of Nothing Just a ShowRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I just recently watched Meet Bill and Fido.

    Meet Bill was a fairly standard mid-life crisis tale and I queued it pretty much because of Aaron Eckhart. If you liked him in Thank You For Smoking, I'd recommend this one. It was decently absurd at points, and Eckhart was convincingly awkward and desperate. Also, he punches Timothy Olyphant right in his face.

    Fido was good, clean camp about Zombies being tamed and used as household labor. It's a pretty funny movie, and Billy Connelly is pretty awesome as a zombie.

    Vargas Prime on
  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I just recently watched Meet Bill and Fido.

    Meet Bill was a fairly standard mid-life crisis tale and I queued it pretty much because of Aaron Eckhart. If you liked him in Thank You For Smoking, I'd recommend this one. It was decently absurd at points, and Eckhart was convincingly awkward and desperate. Also, he punches Timothy Olyphant right in his face.

    Fido was good, clean camp about Zombies being tamed and used as household labor. It's a pretty funny movie, and Billy Connelly is pretty awesome as a zombie.

    Oh yeah, anybody who hasn't seen Fido should queue it up.

    Meet Bill has been sitting towards the top of my queue for months now, I just keep bumping crap past it. I'll get to it eventually. I still haven't even seen Thank You For Smoking

    mcdermott on
  • EliteBattlemanEliteBattleman Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Watched War Inc.

    Avoid it. Seriously bad.

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  • LutExIVLutExIV Thieves Guild Chairman In the ShadowsRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Hey, for all you Netflix weilders out there:

    How long does the instant movies take to load on the Xbox? Are they in HD? Does your equipment need to be HDCP compatible? Is there support for 5.1 etc...



    I ask because I have been considering netflix for a while, and I already have an AppleTV, which I can rent and buy indvidual movies in HD if I want. However, renting and buying movies indivdually can be expensive, even though it is still cheaper than Blockbuster. I was looking at this to see if it is a viable alternative.

    LutExIV on
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  • OremLKOremLK Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I don't actually watch Netflix on my Xbox, honestly. I have an HTPC hooked up to my TV so I don't see the need to run my Zephyr RROD-monster.

    OremLK on
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  • LukinLukin Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    LutExIV wrote: »
    Hey, for all you Netflix weilders out there:

    How long does the instant movies take to load on the Xbox? Are they in HD? Does your equipment need to be HDCP compatible? Is there support for 5.1 etc...

    Ten to fifteen seconds. Yes. No. Not sure. It's a really smooth experience and you should try it.

    Lukin on
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  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Wait, Netflix movies are in HD on the Xbox? Do they use a different source than on the PC? Because on the PC, unless this shit just changed, they're only up to 480p. You sure it's not just being upscaled? Also to my knowledge they do not include 5.1 audio, just Pro Logic...but I could be wrong.

    mcdermott on
  • EliteBattlemanEliteBattleman Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    The quality is based on your connection. It always loads pretty fast. Your equipment needs to be an Xbox. Compy only needed to add stuff to the queueueue.

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  • polaris314polaris314 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Dourin wrote: »
    Goose! wrote: »
    when Harry Met Sally is on there. Anyone who does not see this movie is not alright in my book.

    Also has the first 2 evening with kevin smiths, which I dig because I'm a loser sometimes

    Hook is another treasure of mine.

    Plenty of other stuff, too.

    Wait...first 2? You mean there's a third? Where can I get this?!

    Seriously, anyone who is a fan of Kevin Smith's brand of humor, stand up comedy(ish), or just beautifully told stories about cocks and zippers, needs to check these out. I may actually get this service just so I can see these again. What is the monthly?

    YES. Hearing his rant about the whole Jon Peters/Superman experience is amazing. To my knowledge a third DVD hasn't been released yet, but the first two comprise three lectures total, so maybe that's where the confusion is.

    Edit - Nevermind, just saw someone's comment about the third DVD being out already. Hopefully that will be added to stream soon!

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  • SixSix Caches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhex Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Not all movies are available in HD. As far as I can tell, there's no way to tell which ones are or are not until you actually start the stream.

    The HD quality is decent but not great.

    Six on
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  • FawstFawst The road to awe.Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Gizmodo had a writeup about HD streaming for the 360 via Netflix. It actually says "Presented in HD" on the screen when you're loading it if it's an HD film. There are something like 300 titles available in HD, but they don't tell you until you're actually loading. Also, you need a connection of 8mbps to get the full-on HD stream, apparently. The reviewer said his connection maxed out around 5mbps, so he was in their "second tier" quality-wise... *shrug*

    Fawst on
  • LutExIVLutExIV Thieves Guild Chairman In the ShadowsRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Lukin wrote: »
    LutExIV wrote: »
    Hey, for all you Netflix weilders out there:

    How long does the instant movies take to load on the Xbox? Are they in HD? Does your equipment need to be HDCP compatible? Is there support for 5.1 etc...

    Ten to fifteen seconds. Yes. No. Not sure. It's a really smooth experience and you should try it.

    Sweet, thanks. I guess I'll just have to try it out then. 8-)

    LutExIV on
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  • OmeksOmeks Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I hope they get more TV shows on the instant list. So far I've watched all four seasons of The Office and am currently blasting through 30 Rock. After that, I'm not sure what I'll go for (Heroes maybe), but I wish House was in the instant section. I also saw a couple episodes of Psych and want to watch the first two seasons of that.

    Also, I'm getting a PS3 and was interested in Netflix's Blu-Ray selection, until I saw the catch that adding the ability to receive Blu-Ray movies will add another dollar onto the monthly fee. I'm trying to figure out if its going to be worth it.

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  • SixSix Caches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhex Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Omeks wrote: »
    Also, I'm getting a PS3 and was interested in Netflix's Blu-Ray selection, until I saw the catch that adding the ability to receive Blu-Ray movies will add another dollar onto the monthly fee. I'm trying to figure out if its going to be worth it.

    If you have a tv that's 50" or bigger, it is.

    Below that, it's questionable. A good upscaling DVD player (which the ps3 is) will likely do a better job of scaling than your TV will, and produce a great picture from a DVD. At less than 50", the difference between that and bluray isn't huge. At below 42", it becomes very difficult to see a difference.

    Six on
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  • nlawalkernlawalker Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Fawst wrote: »
    Gizmodo had a writeup about HD streaming for the 360 via Netflix. It actually says "Presented in HD" on the screen when you're loading it if it's an HD film. There are something like 300 titles available in HD, but they don't tell you until you're actually loading. Also, you need a connection of 8mbps to get the full-on HD stream, apparently. The reviewer said his connection maxed out around 5mbps, so he was in their "second tier" quality-wise... *shrug*

    I've managed to get a full 4 bar HD stream for a few episodes of 30 Rock, but I always lost it within the first couple of minutes.

    nlawalker on
  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Six wrote: »
    Not all movies are available in HD. As far as I can tell, there's no way to tell which ones are or are not until you actually start the stream.

    The HD quality is decent but not great.

    Ah. Well I guess old information is old. I'll note that either this is an Xbox-only thing, or they simply haven't updated their FAQ, because the Instant FAQ still lists max quality at 3mbps and "DVD quality" (which is to say 480p).

    EDIT: Doesn't affect me, because we can't maintain 8mbps on our connection anyway. I really don't care much about upscaling the picture, I expect no better than DVD quality over the interwebs...but I'd kill for fucking 5.1 surround sound, which would only add like 300kbps to the stream.
    Omeks wrote: »
    Also, I'm getting a PS3 and was interested in Netflix's Blu-Ray selection, until I saw the catch that adding the ability to receive Blu-Ray movies will add another dollar onto the monthly fee. I'm trying to figure out if its going to be worth it.

    It's a fucking dollar. What plan are you on? We're on the 3 out plan, so you figure 17$ to 18$ is no big difference. Even on our 37", the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray on a well-mastered movie is pretty noticeable (and we're only at 1080i). On a poorly mastered movie (like many older titles) less so. Still, I recommend it.

    If nothing else, it can be turned off or on at any time. Spend a dollar, check a couple out, and decide.

    mcdermott on
  • twmjrtwmjr Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    For those wondering about how to tell what titles are available in HD -- if you select the "Watch Instantly" tab and look under Genres, there's an HD category. Not much help for things already in your queue, but if you're looking for new movies to watch it's a starting point. Everything I've watched that's available in HD has played quite nicely for me.

    twmjr on
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    edited December 2008
    Fido is an awesome movie.

    So I'm starting to see this less as a movie rental service, and more like having on-demand cable.

    Which isn't exactly a bad thing, but I think I kind of needed to wrap my head around it before I understood the value.

    Feral on
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  • twmjrtwmjr Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Guys, I just watched Primer.

    I'm pretty sure it was awesome, but...what the hell did I just watch? Can anyone summarize? I want to make sure I understood what was going on right. :)

    twmjr on
  • mxmarksmxmarks Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    twmjr wrote: »
    Guys, I just watched Primer.

    I'm pretty sure it was awesome, but...what the hell did I just watch? Can anyone summarize? I want to make sure I understood what was going on right. :)

    Ill try...

    This is the most confusing movie ever, but I really loved figuring it out, and found this graphic to help me understand the movie immensely.

    Dammit, I cant get the picture to embed. It's here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Time_Travel_Method-2.svg

    Basically, because LATER in the movie as we view it they start backstabbing each other by going back in time (earlier than the 4 hours or so they used to do it), and the way time travel is structured in the movie, the scene where Abe approaches Aaron and Aaron claims to be listening to the basketball game the first time - that's really like Aaron #5 or something. He's listening to the previous conversation, which is why when he keeps going back to that moment to document what happens (as he uses that moment to start the chain of events that will lead to him being a hero at the party), and Abe is all fucked up from also travelling, Aaron spouts off responses that don't make any sense - he's reciting lines, but the script has changed.

    This EXTREMELY detailed chart is massive, but seems to be pretty accurate.

    http://www.terminally-incoherent.com.nyud.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/primer_timeline.jpg

    I'd love to talk specifics, but am being vague because I don't want to de-rail the thread, and Primer could most likely get it's own thread. But the most interesting thing I read about the one part that stuck out most as not making sense (the scene where that guy goes into a coma, presumabley from them getting too close and fucking up time) was that the intent was to put the viewer in the place of Abe and Aaron. You don't understand why he collapsed? Neither do they. You don't get why that would cause a coma? Neither do they. The writer said that because no one has time travelled, he tried to make thier theories and ideas come from what the viewer would be thinking. Did they NEED to hold up in a hotel to make sure they didn't interfere with the duplicates? Who knows? But would YOU risk it?

    All in all, I really found the movie to be very very interesting.

    mxmarks on
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  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited December 2008
    mcdermott wrote: »
    I just recently watched Meet Bill and Fido.

    Meet Bill was a fairly standard mid-life crisis tale and I queued it pretty much because of Aaron Eckhart. If you liked him in Thank You For Smoking, I'd recommend this one. It was decently absurd at points, and Eckhart was convincingly awkward and desperate. Also, he punches Timothy Olyphant right in his face.

    Fido was good, clean camp about Zombies being tamed and used as household labor. It's a pretty funny movie, and Billy Connelly is pretty awesome as a zombie.

    Oh yeah, anybody who hasn't seen Fido should queue it up.

    Meet Bill has been sitting towards the top of my queue for months now, I just keep bumping crap past it. I'll get to it eventually. I still haven't even seen Thank You For Smoking

    Oh god, you seriously need to see Thank You for Smoking. It. Is. Fantastic.

    Within five minute of pressing play, my wife and I had decided we needed to own it.

    Bionic Monkey on
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  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited December 2008
    LutExIV wrote: »
    Hey, for all you Netflix weilders out there:

    How long does the instant movies take to load on the Xbox? Are they in HD? Does your equipment need to be HDCP compatible? Is there support for 5.1 etc...



    I ask because I have been considering netflix for a while, and I already have an AppleTV, which I can rent and buy indvidual movies in HD if I want. However, renting and buying movies indivdually can be expensive, even though it is still cheaper than Blockbuster. I was looking at this to see if it is a viable alternative.

    Somethings steam HD, some SD. I haven't found a way to distinguish between the two short of actually playing them, though. And the only thing I've found in HD so far is 30 Rock.

    As for time to play, I'm on Comcast cable internet, and if I'm not currently downloading anything, total time to from pressing play to streaming is about 20-30 seconds.

    Bionic Monkey on
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  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited December 2008
    Six wrote: »
    Not all movies are available in HD. As far as I can tell, there's no way to tell which ones are or are not until you actually start the stream.

    The HD quality is decent but not great.

    30 Rock looks to be about 720p.

    Bionic Monkey on
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  • twmjrtwmjr Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    mxmarks wrote: »
    twmjr wrote: »
    Guys, I just watched Primer.

    I'm pretty sure it was awesome, but...what the hell did I just watch? Can anyone summarize? I want to make sure I understood what was going on right. :)

    Ill try...

    This is the most confusing movie ever, but I really loved figuring it out, and found this graphic to help me understand the movie immensely.

    Dammit, I cant get the picture to embed. It's here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Time_Travel_Method-2.svg

    Basically, because LATER in the movie as we view it they start backstabbing each other by going back in time (earlier than the 4 hours or so they used to do it), and the way time travel is structured in the movie, the scene where Abe approaches Aaron and Aaron claims to be listening to the basketball game the first time - that's really like Aaron #5 or something. He's listening to the previous conversation, which is why when he keeps going back to that moment to document what happens (as he uses that moment to start the chain of events that will lead to him being a hero at the party), and Abe is all fucked up from also travelling, Aaron spouts off responses that don't make any sense - he's reciting lines, but the script has changed.

    This EXTREMELY detailed chart is massive, but seems to be pretty accurate.

    http://www.terminally-incoherent.com.nyud.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/primer_timeline.jpg

    I'd love to talk specifics, but am being vague because I don't want to de-rail the thread, and Primer could most likely get it's own thread. But the most interesting thing I read about the one part that stuck out most as not making sense (the scene where that guy goes into a coma, presumabley from them getting too close and fucking up time) was that the intent was to put the viewer in the place of Abe and Aaron. You don't understand why he collapsed? Neither do they. You don't get why that would cause a coma? Neither do they. The writer said that because no one has time travelled, he tried to make thier theories and ideas come from what the viewer would be thinking. Did they NEED to hold up in a hotel to make sure they didn't interfere with the duplicates? Who knows? But would YOU risk it?

    All in all, I really found the movie to be very very interesting.

    Thanks, that actually helps a lot and makes a lot of sense. Seems I had the right idea for the most part but missed some of the intricate details. Both of those images helped kind of put everything together.

    With that said, I don't want to derail the thread either so the last point I'll make is to agree with the other recommendations for you all to watch this movie. It's only 77 minutes anyway so what the heck?

    twmjr on
  • OmeksOmeks Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    LutExIV wrote: »
    Hey, for all you Netflix weilders out there:

    How long does the instant movies take to load on the Xbox? Are they in HD? Does your equipment need to be HDCP compatible? Is there support for 5.1 etc...



    I ask because I have been considering netflix for a while, and I already have an AppleTV, which I can rent and buy indvidual movies in HD if I want. However, renting and buying movies indivdually can be expensive, even though it is still cheaper than Blockbuster. I was looking at this to see if it is a viable alternative.

    Somethings steam HD, some SD. I haven't found a way to distinguish between the two short of actually playing them, though. And the only thing I've found in HD so far is 30 Rock.

    I've found The Office and 30 Rock to both be in HD. Strangely enough, The Office would always start in HD but scale down less than 30 seconds in. Sometimes it would scale down so bad that it looked like you installed Youtube on the 360 and full-screened the video. 30 Rock almost never scales down, though, and has never looked as bad as The Office did.

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  • twmjrtwmjr Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Omeks wrote: »
    LutExIV wrote: »
    Hey, for all you Netflix weilders out there:

    How long does the instant movies take to load on the Xbox? Are they in HD? Does your equipment need to be HDCP compatible? Is there support for 5.1 etc...



    I ask because I have been considering netflix for a while, and I already have an AppleTV, which I can rent and buy indvidual movies in HD if I want. However, renting and buying movies indivdually can be expensive, even though it is still cheaper than Blockbuster. I was looking at this to see if it is a viable alternative.

    Somethings steam HD, some SD. I haven't found a way to distinguish between the two short of actually playing them, though. And the only thing I've found in HD so far is 30 Rock.

    I've found The Office and 30 Rock to both be in HD. Strangely enough, The Office would always start in HD but scale down less than 30 seconds in. Sometimes it would scale down so bad that it looked like you installed Youtube on the 360 and full-screened the video. 30 Rock almost never scales down, though, and has never looked as bad as The Office did.

    Weird, I've been plowing through episodes of The Office and haven't experienced this yet. I read someone post something about their servers getting hammered with the introduction of the TiVo service - maybe that's the cause? I haven't been watching them in "prime hours" exactly.

    twmjr on
  • nlawalkernlawalker Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Omeks wrote: »
    LutExIV wrote: »
    Hey, for all you Netflix weilders out there:

    How long does the instant movies take to load on the Xbox? Are they in HD? Does your equipment need to be HDCP compatible? Is there support for 5.1 etc...



    I ask because I have been considering netflix for a while, and I already have an AppleTV, which I can rent and buy indvidual movies in HD if I want. However, renting and buying movies indivdually can be expensive, even though it is still cheaper than Blockbuster. I was looking at this to see if it is a viable alternative.

    Somethings steam HD, some SD. I haven't found a way to distinguish between the two short of actually playing them, though. And the only thing I've found in HD so far is 30 Rock.

    I've found The Office and 30 Rock to both be in HD. Strangely enough, The Office would always start in HD but scale down less than 30 seconds in. Sometimes it would scale down so bad that it looked like you installed Youtube on the 360 and full-screened the video. 30 Rock almost never scales down, though, and has never looked as bad as The Office did.

    I've had one or two episodes of 30 Rock look so bad that when the camera angle was wide enough to fit multiple people into a scene or conversation, you couldn't use their faces to tell who they were.

    nlawalker on
  • Zoku GojiraZoku Gojira Monster IslandRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    twmjr wrote: »
    Guys, I just watched Primer.

    I'm pretty sure it was awesome, but...what the hell did I just watch? Can anyone summarize? I want to make sure I understood what was going on right. :)

    You're not supposed to understand Primer the first time you see it. You just get caught up in it. Second time you see it, you'll pick up on things you missed.

    Also,
    while I usually hate time-travel as a plot device, the way this film does it at least sticks a little more closely to the loophole in special relativity that leaves the door open ever so slightly to the notion of going back in time. That is, you can only go back as far as the date the time-machine became operational, no further.

    Zoku Gojira on
    "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
  • Medium DaveMedium Dave Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    30 Rock is really great once you get about 6 episodes in. It's solid until then, but unspectacular except for Baldwin who is always great. I say this about the show even though I almost completely hate Tracey Morgan.

    War, Inc. is not that bad. Don't get me wrong. It's not great. It's got a lot of problems. Lots. But it's got a lot of weird goodness, too. I wouldn't say you go out of your way to watch it, but if you have time and don't mind catching a flawed flick for about an hour and half, it's worth that. Plus, Cusack is always great. Speaking of Cusack being great...Grosse Point Blank. It's Instant View. If you haven't seen it, you are a fool. A damn fool. Still as great as it was in '97. Fuck yeah! Watch it! Or I'll fuck your brain hole!

    Severance - It's not near as funny as it thinks it is, but other than that, it's a damn fine horror flick. My favorite thing about it is that the characters react like real people and not just objects waiting to be bleed and carved.

    Medium Dave on
  • PatboyXPatboyX Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    For fans of MST3k:
    Two of The Film Crew movies are on there. So far I've only watched Killers from Space which was pretty funny. It was exactly what you would expect. Could do without the sketches but whatever. I like it better than Cinematic Titanic but it's not as fun as seeing new movies get the treatment - I think Rifftrax has spoiled me.

    PatboyX on
    "lenny bruce is not afraid..."
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  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    War, Inc. is not that bad. Don't get me wrong. It's not great. It's got a lot of problems. Lots. But it's got a lot of weird goodness, too. I wouldn't say you go out of your way to watch it, but if you have time and don't mind catching a flawed flick for about an hour and half, it's worth that. Plus, Cusack is always great. Speaking of Cusack being great...Grosse Point Blank. It's Instant View. If you haven't seen it, you are a fool. A damn fool. Still as great as it was in '97. Fuck yeah! Watch it! Or I'll fuck your brain hole!

    High Fidelity, too. It's also on Instant.

    Vintage record store owner Rob Gordon (John Cusack) has been dumped by his girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), because he hasn't changed since they met. In an attempt to figure out where things went wrong, Rob revisits his top five breakups of all time. As he seeks out his former lovers to find out why they dumped him, he continues his efforts to win Laura back. Based on the Nick Hornby novel, the film is a clever, funny tribute to the music scene.

    Also a decent pre-huge fame Jack Black role.

    freakish light on
  • OremLKOremLK Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Yeah, High Fidelity is some pretty good shit. Although a bit over-the-top.

    OremLK on
    My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    oh shit they just put on A Clockwork Orange.

    Heroes fans, see if you can recognize Malcolm McDowell. Hell, Fallout 3 fans too.

    freakish light on
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