Netflix Launches New Personalization Features
March 27, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
Netflix has posted an update to their online streaming service. The competition is heating up, and Netflix looks like it’s still a serious contender for online streaming content. With the news that BlockBuster is entering the on demand market, this competition is always beneficial for the end user.
The features include:
Taste Preferences: The ability to set taste preferences across a variety of moods (e.g. feel-good, dark, goofy, gritty, etc.); storylines (e.g. courtroom, dinosaurs, mid-life crisis, etc.); qualities (e.g. critically-acclaimed, visually-striking, etc.); and other category types, on a new, easier, three button system.
Some of the rows will be based on what the member explicitly sets. Others will be based on a member’s recent activity.
Please comment on what you find helpful and suggest possible areas of improvement so we can continue to take personalized movie discovery to the next level for you.
Netflix’s Chief Product Officer Speaks About Streaming Issues
March 21, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
This was just posted on the Netflix Blog….
This is Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer at Netflix.
There’s been some blog swirl about Netflix streaming delivery, and I’d like to explain what we are doing to improve our streaming delivery. Our aspiration is to deliver to everyone the best bitrate that their broadband connection can support.
Congestion Could Affect Some Users, But Not Others, at Some Times, but Not Always
Content from Netflix originates on CDN servers that are distributed around the US (just as our DVD shipping centers are) so that the data doesn’t have to traverse the Internet backbones to get to our customers, but instead can usually reach its destination via regional and metro networks that have much higher aggregate bandwidth. This means that if there is any congestion and slowdown, it will be different in different regions (by Internet topology, which isn’t completely tied to geography). Hence some customers may be affected, while others are not. Also, routing to different ISPs in the same region may be quite different, thus performance may also be quite different, even for neighbors, if they are connected to different ISPs. Moreover, congesting points can rise and fall with ISP configuration changes and other conditions.
Different Content, Different Devices, Different Characteristics
Finally, different titles, and different encodes for different playback device types, may come from different CDNs or different servers at a particular CDN, so may have different paths and different bottlenecks. Accordingly, customers may see better performance on Xbox than their PC, or vice-versa. Equivalently, some titles may stream unaffected, while others suffer congestion. There is no purposeful discrimination between different clients – we want them all to perform very well.
Getting to More Consistent Delivery by Routing Around the Problems Read more
Netflix will instantly stream directly to LG Electronics HDTVs
January 6, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
LG Electronics and Netflix have announced the first broadband-enabled HDTVs with Netflix streaming software embedded directly in the TV, requiring no external device. LG’s new LCD and plasma “Broadband HDTVs” will display the library of movies & TV episodes that Netflix members can watch instantly directly on the TV with Ethernet connectivity.
The new broadband HDTVs will be available for sale this spring. LG will demonstrate the HDTVs this week at the 2009 CES show in Las Vegas. In addition to the HDTVs, LG Electronics announced plans to release five new models of Blu-ray Disc players and home theater systems that can stream movies & TV episodes from Netflix.
Source: Netflix.com
Netflix Changes Its Shipping Policy
December 29, 2008 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
Netflix recently changed the DVD shipping process when your first choice movie is not available at the shipping center nearest you.
We have 55 shipping centers throughout the U.S., including Anchorage, Alaska and Honolulu, Hawaii. Previously, if the movie you wanted was not in stock locally, we sent it from another shipping center. Since this DVD was shipped from farther away, it took longer to arrive and you could end up without a DVD for a few days. This was especially inconvenient for our members on 1-disc plans.
Now, if your first choice is not available in your local shipping center, we immediately send the next locally available movie in your Queue, and whenever possible, we also send your first choice from another part of the country.
We want you to receive DVDs as quickly as possible, so we’re taking this extra step to ensure you have another movie to enjoy as a complimentary extra DVD rental if your first choice will be delayed.
This change took effect Dec 11, 2008 and applies to all Netflix members.
Source: Netflix.com
Columbia Pictures movies (mostly) available again for NXE Netflix Streaming
November 26, 2008 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
One week after their abrupt disappearance from the service caused quite a stir, many of the Columbia Pictures films that were unavailable for streaming via the New Xbox Experience‘s Netflix client are now back. We’ve confirmed that almost everything, from Ghostbusters to The Karate Kid in your Netflix Instant Queue can now be streamed to the 360.
There are still some that aren’t available (Superbad stands out) but this could be due to another aspect of the “availability” issue briefly explained last week on the Netflix blog. At least we know it’s not a Sony conspiracy.
Source: Joystiq
