(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

Gotta love this article about the competition to improve Netflix's viewing suggestions. I, for one, think $1M is totally appropriate, if not even a little lean of a prize to offer. I've personally reviewed at least 1500 titles on Netflix only to get about one or two recommendations, usually out of the blue, no-way-I-would-ever-want-to-watch-that types. Sure, when you add something to the queue, you get a pop-up window with about ten new selections, but they're tiredly predictable. (Just because I wanted to see North by Northwest doesn't mean I have to see everything with Cary Grant or directed by Alfred Hitchcock nownownow.)

This is all relevant, too, seeing as the new Netflix-enabled XBOX 360 upgrade is, in a word, awesome. The picture quality is superb, and it automatically upgrades if you have the capability to broadcast the feed in HD. (We do, and we did.) It takes hardly any time at all to download and get started. (At least, one episode of a TV show did; I have not tried any movies just yet.) It works beautifully. Yes, you have to have a gold account to get the streaming across, but feiran does, and it didn't ask us to prove that she is in any way invested in my Netflix account. (The set up process took all of a minute. Bonus!)

And, relevant to this development: cinema is dead? (Again?) Yes, let us play the dirge for the cinema, it's gone gone gone. Because it's not like teenage girls just dropped $70M on Twililght this weekend or anything...

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Really? You're having trouble finding stuff to stream instantly? Because I have been shoving "Play now!" items down my queue for months in anticipation of this upgrade. I've got thirty titles, easily, ready to go, many of them television shows that will take me a while to get through. Television shows being streamable is brilliant, seeing as I've had one too many encounters where I get left with a disc ending in a cliffhanger. No more!

How long is your Netflix queue anyway?

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

About 100 long. The only TV show I've found that I wanted to stream was 30 Rock--they removed Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t, and I don't think the Office is available anymore either. The comedy section of the instant movie selection is abysmal--the best I found was Austin Powers 2.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I had The Office come up on the XBOX when I activated my account for the service there. Maybe that was a temporary thing? And yeah, I've been holding off 30 Rock until now, and it's' awesome.

Comedies are a problem, mm? Well, I guess that's true. I haven't got many on my queue that I've noticed, so I wouldn't be able to tell if they're conspicuously missing from the instant viewing list. I have a lot of small movies, big ones I missed in theaters, and older movies in addition to TV shows. No problems getting those to stream.