It's not - but with a good friend I trust with my account info, why not max out the account I'm currently paying for? Is there some downside or moral issue here I'm not seeing?

(And clearly I'm not going to ask him to pay me $5/month to share the account.)

-Al

My account is constantly used in different towns about 15 miles apart and we have no problems at all.

Thanks, PT. Good to know.

One downside actually of multiple account user activity is that if this hits critical mass (truly eroding Netflix subscriber increases going forward), this could theoretically be bad for the entire Netflix user base at some point w/r/t plan pricing.

But I'm not super knowledgeable on the economics of the Netflix universe. And they do already cap the number of simultaneous streams based on your plan.

-Al

halfway through "felon" on streaming,

not for everyone probably but its one of the most intense "prison movies" i've ever seen.

yeah if i didn't like my roommates i'd be on them to do this, or at least pay me something. but we're on friendly enough terms that i don't want to erode the relationship, so whatever.

plus i'll be kicking them off the TV once basketball season starts, so muahahaha.

It's emotionally brutal, any one of us could be in that ****ing place if things go just a little bit wrong.

when you guys download something in hd, does it look good or sort of questionable?

It looks soft but usually acceptable for streaming. It's not going to look like a Blu-Ray. Some look like a VHS from 1982.

it is way better then the standard streaming but as stated above, certainly not blu-ray. The silverlight player is ass though compared to wmp.

I just hooked up the Roku HD box and have to say the picture is quite impressive, I would say pretty close to HD TV Cable. Not bluray but way beyond what I was expecting.

Also, you can get many more "channels" besides netflix as well. Well worth $59 if you watch netflix instant frequently. Also, if you buy by the end of Sept, you get a $10 credit towards any programs you buy on Amazon.

amp, what are your connection speeds like?

-Al

FIOS 20mb

Haha ok, then I guess it's not slower speeds impacting your picture quality!

-Al

Yes.

Yeah I just set up a Roku HD player last night (thanks Woot!). I was using a Wii to stream before. It's connected via WiFi. In some cases the picture looked really good (like HDTV) but in other cases it would show the connection quality as being 2 or 3 dots out of 4 and it would actually look worse than it did on the Wii. For example, Arrested Development (supposedly available in HD) looked marginally better on the Wii. Chuck, streaming in HD from Amazon, looked great. Lie to Me (Watch Instantly) looked great. As I watch more I'll probably know whether it's generally an improvement or not. I feel like it's totally possible that the wifi chip in the Wii is of better quality, but who knows.

I think it's just an issue of my wifi network not being that great. I have a 20mb connection (that's actually 20mb!) and an wireless-N router, but the Roku HD (and the Wii) use wireless-G and are not that close, physically, to the router.

I am debating if I should give this one to my dad for his birthday (he won't care that it's used) and pick up the Roku HD-XR, which uses the wireless-N standard.

But between the HD streaming, surround sound, and streaming Amazon (and to a lesser extent Pandora and such), I think this will definitely be worth it. Hopefully the NBA releases a MLB.tv like app and not just the crappy GameTime app that doesn't actually stream any games.

Huh - weird, especially in light of the fact that Wii doesn't even support HD.

-Al

There is an IPhone app out now. The picture is quite stunning and loads fairly quickly.

Yep. Yhat's why I'm wondering if the wifi chip in the Wii is better than what's in the Roku, considering that they are both wireless-G.

It might also just be small sample size, either an issue with the network at the moment I tested AD or it might just be an issue with the encoding for that series/episode or something. Like I said, Chuck and Lie To Me both looked great, either HD or very close to it. I'll watch some more over the next week, obviously, and update with my impressions.

Oh hell yes. Downloading now.

^^^ Very cool.

I was using a "workaround" on my Jailbroken iPhone to stream content from my netflix account. Now I'll just use this App.


Edit: Can't install until I connect to iTunes.

iphone app is sick, wheeeeee

edit: couldn't get it to run smooth with 3G the one place I tried, but even if it only works with wifi it's still pretty awesome

It was a temporary issue that was just bad timing. Maybe they are experimenting with a lower bit rate but disallow a true full screen if they notice that your BW isn't too hot so it doesn't look absolutely horrible.

My ISP was having issues at the time but it fixed itself the next day and seems fine now.

'Undisputed III: Redemption' is going to be instantified on August 30th btw. The first 2 aren't on instant but I happened to watch them over the last week or so (snail mail) and if you like action movies that are based around prison and underground fighting circuits with an influence from various mobs you'll probably like the trilogy. I haven't seen the 3rd yet but I have no reason to think it's going to completely tank.

Dukemagic, you can get a wireless repeater/range extender for $70. I have this one in my house http://www.google.com/products/catal...CBcQ8wIwATgA#p. Easy to set up and made everything so much better. Also, the fios supplied router really isn't very good.

netflix app is pretty good. I tested it on 3G and wifi, didn't really notice too much of a difference, very good quality of the streams. Let my kid watch hannah montana in the car, she hooked it up to my FM modulator, no audio lag but it was annoying to listen to it while driving

My only wish so far is that you could manage your disc queue (and didn't see a way to add stuff to you instant queue either), currently using an app called Now Playing for that. Also the scrolling could be a little more responsive, but it's not bad. My phone is a 3G though so I'm still very happy. Also, the town I work in is Edge so I'll test that out on monday to see if it is in the least bit usable.

General Question - does anyone use anything other than Instant Watcher to search and queue titles to stream?

-Al