News Netflix testing cheaper plan in UK too

New £5.29 plan offers SD only and if for a single device.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2014/01/03/netflix-testing-cheaper-plan-in-uk-too/1

 

Not compelling in the slightest considering I use Netflix on at least 5 devices, most of which are capable of producing HD displays.

 

Hardly seems worth it for a saving of 70p...

 

Am I right in thinking that their HD service isn't even full HD anyway and is only 720p? I'd want HD 720p (minimum) and a price of no more than £3.99 to even think about it, even for a single device.

 

Netflix is 'superHD' which is 1080p in a higher bitrate than standard 1080p. I think lovefilm is 720p on most devices.
I have the £5.99 package and have for the last two years, got myself a vpn and dns service to take advantage of the US content too which makes it all the sweeter. I lol'd when I saw the price and features of the budget deal, waste of time and effort.

 

Too much of a loss just to save 70p. I'd be interested in a single device HD service for a fiver or less, but there's no real incentive with their current "cheaper" plan.

 

It's not a deal for someone who wants to stream to five devices simultaneously, it's for someone who only wants to stream to one device at a time... and who doesn't care about HD.

 

You do not need vpn etc.

If you use Chrome or Firefox, use the Hola plugin. It works, is dead easy and I can view all the US content without issue with my UK subscription.

 

Anyone who picks the 'cheap' non-hd, 1 device £5.29 option over the 'regular' HD, 2-device £5.99 version wants their head examining...

70p/month [12% saving] is nowhere near enough of a saving to make it a worthwhile option... if they price it at say £4.49 or even £3.99 [25-33% off] it'd make more sense [imo]

 

HD content is pretty good, so I do not see the point not pay for it, if it stays at £6.
Afterall since I got Netflix, stopped buying films and series which was setting me back ~£15 per week.

 

I do need aDNS / VPN. I got rid of my tv licence last year and use a smart tv, netflix box, tablets and phones to view netflix. I pay £24 a year for my DNS and VPN and it comes in handy for a lot of other things besides netflix. I used to use a premium DNS service but moved to a VPN with free DNS, 6 months back which isn't as slick as the premium service I had, but is £2 a month (with VPN too) as opposed to £3.50ish for DNS only. I appreciated you can get access to the US for free on browsers but if your using anyhting other than a PC browser then a DNS is the way to go and for the ease of use and extra content it provides it is well worth the £2-3 a month cost.

 

I've heard of this sort of thing before but never followed it up. Not going to ask for a guide here but is there a guide source to this subject you can recommend?

 

What kind of connection have you guys got? Or rather, what connection speed is needed for at least the 720p streams?
I've got a 6000 dsl line and streaming anything over 360p is a stuttering mess.
Watching maxdome or lovefilm online makes me long for VHS. ;-)
Currently watch everything on Bluray, so I'm a bit spoiled for quality.

 

Am I the only person in the UK that is annoyed that BlockBuster is gone here?

Every time I've used Netflix to watch HD content it has looked awful... I couldn't even comment on the sound.

I've been renting physical discs for a reason and every time I see streamed HD content I end up disappointed - I should just go out and buy the film nowadays.

Lovefilm is useless to me also as by the time I receive the film I'm not in the mood to watch it. Last time I was stuck with Downfall for half a month because, funnily enough, I wasn't interested in watching such a heavy film.

As far as I can tell, all of these digital age streaming video services only work for people who care about a bare minimum of quality.

 

I find the quality of netflix to be okay, its absolutely fine for TV (which is most of what I watch on it) and for Movies that I would rent not buy its fine too, Better than Sky HD (as the lip-sync on sky is intermittently terrible) and better than Now TV (which only has stereo sound (at least on my broadband)). There no doubting that its not bluray (and possibly not any better than DVD) but if there's a film I want to watch that much or think will be worth the experience I'll buy the blu ray. And the convenience of instant streaming from a massive choice is well worth the money.

As for the budget price, I would assume this is just there to make the normal price look like much better value as "for just 70p more you get HD multiple devices etc etc" meaning why would you not pay 70p more whilst still giving them the option to put "from £5.29" in the advertising (and that looks even better in the dollar amounts) (I think its in freakonomics if your interested in how stuff gets priced to force you to make specific choices)

 

Netflix for me is amazing quality, Netflix have there equipment in most ISPs so your not actually getting from the internet but from your ISP. Netflix has adaptive quality so will start in 320p while it syncs the rest on my 60Mb Virgin line it take 20-40 seconds to get full 1080p - looks amazing on my 39" from 8 foot away. I used to have TalkTalk with around 5-9Mb and I could get two streams without noticing a drop in quality.

First find out if your router can change DNS - I had to purchase a router when I swapped to Virgin as it couldn't change DNS. Setting DNS in your router changes location of everything on the network. If you just want it for consoles or TVs you can set these individually. VPNs are a bit more fiddly to set up on router but some services have easy programs for windows and they are quite easy to set up on Android, so I use VPN on a device basis. I just jumped in the deep end, the decent DNS and VPN services will give you a free trial VPNs normally a day and DNS a week. Just use the trial to set it up and try it out.

 

I have 38mb down and 8.9mb up.

Without fail it always looks awful compared to blu-ray. I'd even hazard a guess that if I sat there and compared the sound to DVD, the dvd would come out on top.

TBF to Netflix, it is superior to others I've tried... but that isn't a particularly flattering benchmark; kind of like comparing Stephen Hawking's best football boots with a reticent school child in a house match.

The worst quality I have seen comes from the legal downloads and streaming services you get with DVDs and Blu-rays nowadays. Ultraviolet or whatever it calls itself... it's called at least two other things by the time you use it. Which makes me think I should have just used torrents and kept the receipt for all my DVDs and Blu-rays just in case.

Last I used NetFlix was on a 42" screen from about 10' away at the most. This was with faster broadband in the previous property.

Far as I am concerned, streaming is piss poor, unless as Sp! has said, you are watching TV or you are using on a laptop or something similar where it doesn't matter; which is kind of the reason why this has happened. Convenience is preferred over quality... as in all walks of life. Like buying Tesco's sausages compared to the local farm shop's butchers.

 

Ah?
I always though I was the only one who experienced horrible streaming.

 

I use lovefilm but the online stuff is just an added bonus for me. I can get 2 discs a week (1 at a time) which suits me just fine. Its always a ballache deciding what I want from the online catalogue so just accepting what I'm sent saves a lot of time!

If you have a device capable of receiving television broadcasts then you need a tv licence. Just saying you won't watch BBC isn't an excuse and never has been.

 

Nonsense. You need a TV licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast. That's it.