Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly strongly encourage you all to watch 'Making a Murderer' on Netflix. I haven't been that sucked into TV since Breaking Bad. It felt like every 20 minutes I was thinking 'I don't believe it'... not in a Victor Meldrew way.

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

So Netflix have done the obvious and made their service something you can pay for in most non-sh*tty parts of the world. That gives them a potential audience/subscriber base of something like 3 billion people. If they could sign up just 10% of that, they are the biggest TV broadcaster, with some very deep pockets.

Only problem is, from those who have looked at the service in these new countries, the available selection is woeful. Aussie Netflix might be bad, but these new countries don't even have all the Netflix originals, let alone other shows. Still, I guess they can VPN 'visit' some other countries (like aussies do) and Netflix will strongarm the copyright owners over time. Regionalisation needs to die.

Also, Netflix is going to have to beef up it's subtitle/voiceover offerings to really access those markets. Automatic translation will become a must, and a unicorn will likely arise to service it.

BBC/Sky etc. really need to get off their fat backsides fast if they are not to get left in the dust.

Reach>subscriptions>money>killer content>more subscriptions

CES 2016: Netflix extends its service to almost all the world - BBC News

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

Absolutely. Sky and Foxtel keep focussing on the cost of each subscription rather than the number of subscriptions. The new business model of TV (and other things for that matter) is all about volume.

The only way to get volume is to go global.

The BBC could be making a killing if they came into this century and thought globally. They are loosing so so so much cash by thinking with UK only blinkers on.

BBC iPlayer 'watched by more than 60m outside the UK for free' - BBC News

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

You'd have thought my now they would have release "get all Foxtel content with an online subscription for $10" offering. But no, they don't want to hurt their satellite offerings, so the prices are way out of line, and it's all 'channel' based still.

Thing that occurred to me - there are three main massive marketplaces for media in the world, US, Europe, SE Asia. To really win in future, any provider is going to need to hit at least two of these, preferably three. Netflix from the US has hit two, but the chinese censors are keeping it out of much of the third. Amazon are still very limited. Murdoch's Sky/Foxtel can play in Europe and US, and maybe a bit of SE Asia via STAR. The Beeb could play wider, but is getting knobbled by Cameron. Otherwise, I can't see any other players that can cut it in those M3 areas - and thus those are going to be the big boys going forward.

We know that Oz TV companies were going to die away, but that suggests that the big US companies will also wither unless they get less parochial, along with other national broadcasters. The big creators will gravitate to the companies with the money, away from the incumbents. As TV series have a finite lifetime, the new replacements will progressively be via one or other of the big global players, with global outlooks and global concerns.

Unless that charter renegotiation is explicitly global and online focused, the Beeb will be set on a withering away path - and from all signs of how those negotiations are going, it looks like Murdoch and his tory lackeys are going to damn the Beeb in fighting obsolete wars that neither will end up winning. Sometime around 2022 the EU will wake up to being bypassed in the culture wars - but by then the moment will have passed.

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

Credit card, login ID, password - $10 - boom ......... money :)

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

Seriously? Why aren't they getting Netflix originals?

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

No idea, but that's the report.

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

Looking at some of the prices in other countries I think we're still getting a good deal here in Oz. $12.99 for HD and $14.99 for UHD is pretty good.

Even more so if you subscribe using Apple TV and pay via iTunes (where cards are virtually always 20% off somewhere).

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

But at most using Netflix UHD you are only saving $36 per year on that 20% off. There's many years of suffering the unnecessary price of an Apple TV before you can recoup that cost.

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

The best deal is sharing a subscription.

SD for one @ $8.99
HD for two @ $6.00 each
UHD for four @ $3.75 each (if you can wrangle it)

and that's just for simultaneous usage, if the users are around the world then you can make more people work.

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

I would get the Apple TV just for Netflix even if I didn't save $36/yr. Not the newest version that just came out, but the previous one (aka ATV3) that can be bought for something like $107 or even less.

It is quite simply the best way to watch Netflix. And if I can recoup part of the cost by paying less for Netflix each month, then that's an added bonus.

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

That's what we do in the family, sharing the HD pack between my parents and us. But once my internet is unmetered I will probably hop over to the UHD pack just to get the kids' iPads streaming as well. :)

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

I'm happy to be sold on it, but I'm yet to be sold on it. Please go ahead though.

Is there any point having an older model? The newer is $250+ depending on giggage.

I thought the only plus point was that you could speak into the remote and it could search all your sources. I might add that I can do this with my Samsung TV - it has a speakable remote which searches all sources.

Unless Apple come up with some earth shattering advancements, it has a short shelf life considering its competitors are as competitive, if not more and TV's already have this inbuilt.

I must admit, Cromecast has taken a bit of a backseat for me. The Samsung TV has it all built in, expect for the TenPlay app (you know, Channel 10). I have to use the Chromecast to watch Homeland

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

Chromecast to access Netflix for me, with the tablet as second screen controller. I wish it were a bit more competent on the different codecs and containers though.

Seriously looking at a Rasp Pi Zero and a Wifi dongle with Kodi for maximum flexibility. 80-120mA at full idle makes me wonder about a solution that's always on and doing other things in the background.

Re: Streaming video - my experience
 

The newer one has some decent storage but you cannot download films/shows to it, so it's primarily used for... apps/games. Bit of a waste if you want to use it just for tv purposes.

Regarding using it for Netflix, I think it's the best/easiest way to go about it:

- only way to pay Netflix and get a 20% (or higher) discount every month
- only way to pay Netflix without giving them any personal details, you don't even have to register with them
- easily switch between 60 and 50Hz modes (60 for US, 50 for UK/Euro)
- easiest device to set up Getflix on (unlike the Chromecast or Nexus Player), just one DNS setting to change and that's it
- solid interface that lets you search Netflix based on the cast (for instance selecting an actor and seeing all films with him)

Can't fault it - it does everything I need it to do and more. No other device gives you ALL of the above.