Posted on 07/13/2011 6:55:27 AM PDT by Dacula
Edited on 07/13/2011 8:26:55 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
I get Netflix streaming in HD using a top-end Roku. We used a Wii at first, which had much poorer picture quality.
My oldest daughter immediately ODed on Hitler documentaries when we got Netflix streaming. LOL
I watched the whole series of “Miami Vice.”
Netflix HD is highly compressed 720p at 4-5 megabit for video and sound.
Blu-ray is 1080p with 48megabit total. Often the sound track alone has as much as netflix streaming has for sound and audio.
It’s basically comparing an Edison era wax record to the best CD ever made.
Video and sound I meant. Blu-ray often has 5-6 megabit alone for audio.
32 something for sound. Compared to 5 megabit total for netflix “HD”.
Streaming always has the costs involved when it comes to quality too. It’s going to take a decade or more to get cheap enough to offer even 2d streaming at Blu-ray quality. 3d will probably be 20+ years, if not way more.
There are no cheaper or practical alternatives to Netflix.
Streaming:
* Cable - tons more expensive.
* Pay per stream (like Amazon) - more expensive $2-4 per move, you’ll easily go over the cost of Netflix in a couple of movies.
* Legit Free Sites (like Crackle and Hulu) - actually good, but very limited content.
* Non-legit Free Sites (like project free TV) - also serve as virus/malware/adware distribution sites. The is the PC version of unprotected sex, eventually you’ll catch something and the cost of cleaning it up will dwarf you “savings.”
DVDs
Redbox - the one everyone points at, but when you do an apples to apples comparion, Redbox is actually more expensive than Netflix (even the new plan).
Redbox: $1 per day you keep a DVD, so unless you watch it the night you rent it and immediatly return it, the practical cost is $2-$3 per rental (not including gas and time to make a special trip to get and return the DVD). Watch 3-4 DVDs a month and the practical cost is $9-$12 per month (still not including gas & hassle costs).
Netflix: flat $8 per month for DVD rentals. If I watch a DVD the night I get it and mail it the next morning I can get 8-9 DVDs per month. That works out to be a max of $1 per DVD. If I keep them a few days longer it works out to be 4 per month and $2 per DVD.
Let’s say you watch 1 DVD a week (Tuesday is family movie night). Redbox pick up the movie on the way home, watch it that night, return it on the way to work in the morning. Cost = $4 per month. Forget to return it immediatly the next day, have to put off movie night a couple of days, or split up watching the DVD (the movie one night and the extras the next, or you got a TV show with 4 episodes on the disk) and the cost = $6-$8-$10 per month.
Netflix: As long as you mail in the movie by Saturday, you will get the next one by Tuesday to watch. So you have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurday, & Friday to watch the movie. Flat rate of $8.
If you only watch 1-2 DVDs a month or ALWAYS (every single time, no exceptions) return the DVD the day after you rent it, then Redbox is cheaper, but not by much.
What do you think cable/satellite HD is? It's just as bad.
Ironicly, the best quality "live" HD available is the over the air HD from you local broadcaster. When the over the air HD switch happened, I put up an antenna. When I toggled by TV between the FOX NFL game of the week on cable and over the air (exact same game/channel) I couldn't believe how much better the broadcast picture was than the cable picture. The cable company and taken the great over the air HD picture and compressed it down to junk (and this was "cable HD" I was paying extra for).
One of the reasons I dropped cable. Combine over the air with what is available on the internet (including Netflix) and I just couldn't justify the high cable TV costs.
IMO the netflix HD looks significantly worse than my FIOS HD package. Time Warner looks far better as well. Not to mention cable almost always has 5.1 sound now.
My main point is that streaming (or even over the air HD) can’t touch Blu-ray, which is why I consider the Blu-ray rental from Netflix to be their only real value.
This is the same argument I had with someone about mp3 files a decade ago.
He said mp3 music files would never catch on, because the quality was so much lower than CDs (which is true). Well, mp3 music did catch on, and if anything is the standard today.
There is a quality threashold beyond which most people dont’ care.
The reason blu-ray hasn’t caught on big time is most people (95% of people) don’t care enough about the extra picture quality to pay the extra.
For me, the streaming quality of Netflix is fine for everyday viewing. I’m not willing to pay the extra for a better quality picture.
It’s like music. There’s the best (CD quality) and there’s good enough (mp3 quality). For 95% of people good enough is all they’ll pay for, and it’s good enough.
There's a big difference between video and audio quality however. Video takes so much more bandwidth that the streaming companies will always try to go for the least possible quality. Audio now can be losslessly compressed and end up pretty tiny.
I know there's a giant market for streaming and I use it myself sometimes. As TV’s improve in quality the streaming just can't keep up with that and the difference between Blu-ray and streaming get more apparent. Also, when 3d starts coming on stronger there's no way streaming will double bandwidth for that either, they'll just not have it. There will be a market for both for a long time. I've never bought music much but I've always bought movies and I want the case and extras and all that. Both have advantages and I use both. Streaming for me is best for older stuff I might rent or that used to be on late night local TV shows (B movies).
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