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Atv and Netflix a good team

powerman

powerman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 19, 2010
107
0
Netflix has announced that the Atv has had more people view movies on it in 4 months than the Ipad has had in 9 months. Google tv has not had much netflix traffic. The Iphone did good. This shows that the atv is getting a lot of use. 1 million + units sold, good reviews from netflix, money coming in from itunes, I wish I had a hobby that paid that well.
 
Apple is going to have to offer an iTunes subscription service if it wants to compete with Netflix.

Who would pay $4.99 per movie and 99¢ per tv show when you can get unlimited watching of either for $7.99?

I'm all for Netflix, but I'd rather use iTunes if they can offer a similar deal.
 
I don't know. A lot of people who are using AppleTV 2 are high end consumers with a lot of disposable income. I have a friend who "plays by the book" and doesn't copy or pirate or hack anything. He says "Why do i need to fuss around with all that crap when I can just click a button and watch the movie for $4.99?"

More power to him! I watch about 20 movies a month, and I don't think I have $100 bucks a month laying around to donate to Apple!!!! But I'm sure my friend only rents 3 or 4 movies a month...

I know one thing, they won't get a dime out of me for $5 bucks, but hey if those movies were $1.25 like Redbox, then I'd be all over it. At the $1.25 price point, it becomes more convenient to pay the rental then it does to hack the device and download the torrents or the newsgroup files...

But the industry doesn't get it, so they will suffer just like the music industry did (and still is).
 
ipedro said:
Apple is going to have to offer an iTunes subscription service if it wants to compete with Netflix.

Who would pay $4.99 per movie and 99¢ per tv show when you can get unlimited watching of either for $7.99?

I'm all for Netflix, but I'd rather use iTunes if they can offer a similar deal.
Click to expand...

iTunes has newer content.
 
Yeah, the iTunes and Netflix streaming content are complimentary to each other. Movies are usually available on iTunes the same day they come out on DVD and Blu Ray and it has a very complete collection of what is available. Whereas the selection on Netflix's streaming service is rather thin. If a popular movie does come, you usually have to wait a year or more. And iTunes is in noticeably better quality with 5.1 surround sound.

I use iTunes mostly to watch new releases of good movies. I use Netflix mostly for older movies, tv show seasons, and documentaries. It makes for a very good combination.

When you start having a busy life with kids and a job and only have time for a couple of movies per week, that $4.99 for instant gratification and better selection and quality means a lot more than the time and hassle of the "alternative" methods someone mentioned. Your time has a cost associated with it and some people's time is more valuable to them than others. Also, there is a reason most people don't rob people, sell drugs, or become prostitutes. The majority of people have a moral conscience.
 
It's not surprising that ATV2 got lots of Netflix traffic. Most people are either buying it for streaming iTunes content or streaming Netflix. Since the interface is better than most Netflix apps on blu-ray players and TVs, I can see a lot of people using it for their primary Netflix device.
 
I find the Netflix interface really poor actually. I wonder how bad the others must be for this to be better.

Unless you know exactly what you want, it's difficult to find a movie. There's also no way to bookmark or wishlist a title so if you find something you do want to watch, you have to watch it right then. Going back means you have to remember which titles you liked and then remember under which genre you found them. The iTunes interface is actually much better. You can search through popular titles, you can browse by actors/producers/directors and the wishlist feature is very useful.

I've been using Netflix for a week and now see why this is no threat to iTunes. 9 out of 10 tv shows or movies that I look for come up unavailable.

It's not bad for documentaries or killing time with one of the older movies. If you have something in mind though, the odds are you won't find it on Netflix.

For $7.99 per month, I guess it serves its purpose nonetheless.
 
ipedro said:
I find the Netflix interface really poor actually. I wonder how bad the others must be for this to be better...

The iTunes interface is actually much better. You can search through popular titles, you can browse by actors/producers/directors and the wishlist feature is very useful.
Click to expand...

You must have incredibly high expectations for what is considered a good interface. You can search by genre in both TV and Movies, it provides a list of new arrivals (very useful considering the instant watch selection are older releases), it offers suggestions based on your previous viewing and ratings, and it has a search function for specific titles. I'll agree that it would be useful to be able to search/browse based on something other than just title name, being able to search/browse through popular titles would be useless based on the content currently available (no new releases).

ipedro said:
There's also no way to bookmark or wishlist a title so if you find something you do want to watch, you have to watch it right then. Going back means you have to remember which titles you liked and then remember under which genre you found them.
Click to expand...

And while there is no 'wishlist' per se, you do realize that you have an Instant Queue to which you can add anything you find while browsing selections, don't do?
 
That's great! I'm not sure what I like more, the sound dropouts, buffering or the fact that every other Netflix device streams more reliably.
 
ipedro said:
I find the Netflix interface really poor actually. I wonder how bad the others must be for this to be better.

Unless you know exactly what you want, it's difficult to find a movie. There's also no way to bookmark or wishlist a title so if you find something you do want to watch, you have to watch it right then. Going back means you have to remember which titles you liked and then remember under which genre you found them. The iTunes interface is actually much better. You can search through popular titles, you can browse by actors/producers/directors and the wishlist feature is very useful.

I've been using Netflix for a week and now see why this is no threat to iTunes. 9 out of 10 tv shows or movies that I look for come up unavailable.

It's not bad for documentaries or killing time with one of the older movies. If you have something in mind though, the odds are you won't find it on Netflix.

For $7.99 per month, I guess it serves its purpose nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Uh, yes there is. You can remove or add to your Instant Watch queue directly in the interface so that you can come back and watch later. Not sure how you could miss that. It's right there in the list of options after selecting the movie. You also have the ability to browse by actor, director, etc. You must be using something totally different because the Netflix interface is nothing like what you are describing.

Are you just hitting play on the icons instead of selecting them? Doing that will send you straight into the movie instead of seeing all of the information about the movie and all the options you have available.
 
^ Thanks for the info, but I absolutely don't have those options. I'm in Canada so the interface may be different. Here there is no queue because there's no DVD mailing service, only online streaming.

EDIT: Now that I know that it should be there, I went to YouTube and found a US review of AppleTV and indeed the main Netflix menu shows instant queue and the movie menu shows the button as well. I only have PLAY | RATE | MORE
This video will show you how I see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIerxRpPISQ

EDIT 2: ...and a little more Googling shows me that Netflix is discontinuing the Instant Queue. I guess they're starting off by not introducing it into their new markets and eventually they'll spread it to their US market as well. The article says they're looking at other ways to bookmark. In the meantime, not having a way to bookmark a movie is a glaring oversight in usability.

EDIT 3: You may notice in your US Netflix UI that TV Shows don't have an Instant Queue button, although your Movies do. So you may encounter the same problem that I've had when I wanted to remember a movie or tv show to watch later but had no way of doing it.
 
Last edited:
ipedro said:
Apple is going to have to offer an iTunes subscription service if it wants to compete with Netflix.

Who would pay $4.99 per movie and 99¢ per tv show when you can get unlimited watching of either for $7.99?

I'm all for Netflix, but I'd rather use iTunes if they can offer a similar deal.
Click to expand...

cuz 75% of Netflix instant is straight-to-DVD rubbish... Beauty and the Briftcase anyone? :eek:
 
As a Canadian Netflix user I agree that the lack of bookmarking is problematic. One technique I have used to overcome this obstacle is if I come across a movie that I would like to watch later, is to play it for a minute or so. That way the title will be linked it my recently watched list and I can find it again.
 
I do that too but it's a clumsy workaround. If I'm browsing around and see a few titles I want to watch, I'd rather there be a way to tag them quickly and move on. Netflix says they're looking for something to replace their Instant Queue but why reinvent the wheel? Apple's got a great implementation. A Wishlist.
 
i find watching netflix thru ATV horrible....on the ATV its constantly buffering..

if i watch it on my PS3 no problems...at all...
 
Sean006 said:
i find watching netflix thru ATV horrible....on the ATV its constantly buffering..

if i watch it on my PS3 no problems...at all...
Click to expand...

I have no problems whatsoever playing Netflix on AppleTv. The only grievance that I have is about the wishlist/queue that I mentioned above.
 
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