identi.ca - Sucks that Netflix “instant watch” thing is Windows only. Don’t want to set up a VM on my mythtv box, so have to resort to alternative means

Sucks that Netflix “instant watch” thing is Windows only. Don’t want to set up a VM on my mythtv box, so have to resort to alternative means

2 Comments

  1. jim
    Posted March 7, 2009 at 9:44 am | Permalink

    Don’t worry, because the windows “instant” player sucks big time. First, you have to download a browser plugin because they haven’t figured out how to make a decent web interface without active-x. You would think that a plugin-based player should be at least as nice as a “regular” website, but it’s a piece of crap. It downloads the whole movie before playing, only works on a handful of setups, and is bugtastic.

    It’s a real waste of space, and surprising that *Netflix* produced such a lousy product when there are sites like Hulu that can stream movies perfectly. I’m a fan of the regular Netflix service, but WOW is this disappointing. If I were Netflix, I would take this offline immediately until I could produce something that doesn’t make me look like an amateur on the web. Netflix was such a strong brand name before this.

  2. Posted March 10, 2009 at 6:19 pm | Permalink

    Well, I have used the Windows version a couple times, and I think you are misinformed about a few things.

    1. It very definitely does not download the whole movie before it starts, unless my internet connection got a heck of a lot faster recently. The times I’ve tried it, it has started playing right away and the quality was decent.

    2. The plugin you have to download is Silverlight, and I don’t think you can knock them for requiring a plugin to play the videos, since every video site also does the same (it’s just that more people already have the Flash plugin installed).

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