Hidden Gems of Netflix's Watch Instantly

The selection changes but if Jesus Camp is still available, prepare to be scared sh*tless.

On the subject of documentaries:

King Corn, complete with Earl Butts himself, the reason we are so fat.

Small Town Gay Bar-a chronicle of several deep south, rural LGBT bars, clubs, hangouts. With interviews with straight, and often drunk, citizens. Some of the bars were open since the 70's.

I always found the Amazing Stories episode Mummy Daddy to be amusing, although the series was overall hit-or-miss for me when it was being broadcast.

Animation and science fiction fans could do far, far worse than Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and its follow-on, 2nd Gig.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Animation and science fiction fans could do far, far worse than Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and its follow-on, 2nd Gig.

That's an excellent addition to Watch Instantly!

KingGorilla wrote:

The selection changes but if Jesus Camp is still available, prepare to be scared sh*tless.

On the subject of documentaries:

King Corn, complete with Earl Butts himself, the reason we are so fat.

Small Town Gay Bar-a chronicle of several deep south, rural LGBT bars, clubs, hangouts. With interviews with straight, and often drunk, citizens. Some of the bars were open since the 70's.

Jesus Camp is a movie I have just so I can borrow it to people who haven't seen it. Scary stuff.

Hank and Mike is indeed a gloriously weird movie.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Kurrelgyre wrote:

Animation and science fiction fans could do far, far worse than Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and its follow-on, 2nd Gig.

That's an excellent addition to Watch Instantly!

Would be if Netflix's streaming quality didn't suck. I've got a 3 megabit connection. It's relatively slow by today's standards, but nothing terrible. I can watch content on Hulu with the 480p option enabled and not have any issues.

In fact, I can generally play video from all the major streaming sources, be it Fox, ABC, whoever. They all work fine and generally at least look passable, if not pretty good.

Netflix looks like a 320x240 video stretched to fullsize. And it looks like someone covered the screen in vaseline first just to add an extra layer of blur.

Drives me nuts. I was really excited about the streaming to the 360 thing and then.... ugh.

Maybe they should add an option to buffer more before starting.

The two movies I've watched so far, _Dan in Real Life_ and _Superbad_ were both pretty solid. My only real complaint was that the former was a 16x9 pan-and-scan version and not the original aspect ratio, and the panning was sometimes painfully obvious. I assume that's nothing to do with Netflix, though.

Thin_J wrote:

Would be if Netflix's streaming quality didn't suck. I've got a 3 megabit connection. It's relatively slow by today's standards, but nothing terrible. I can watch content on Hulu with the 480p option enabled and not have any issues.

In fact, I can generally play video from all the major streaming sources, be it Fox, ABC, whoever. They all work fine and generally at least look passable, if not pretty good.

Netflix looks like a 320x240 video stretched to fullsize. And it looks like someone covered the screen in vaseline first just to add an extra layer of blur.

Drives me nuts. I was really excited about the streaming to the 360 thing and then.... ugh.

I just watched a Ghost in the Shell episode and it looked fine. Are you watching on your PC or your TV via your 360?

I noticed a big step up in quality when I switched from watching it on my PC to watching it on my flat screen via the Roku device (on a 3 mb connection as well). You can force the quality on the Roku, making it always stream at the highest quality. 3 mb is fine for everything except for their HD content, which needs just a little bit more.

I've only run across a handful of movies that look like crap and that's either because they've were encoded at poor quality or they were a bad pan-and-scan job (those will look bad because they basically have to enlarge and crop the print, making everything slightly blurry).

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Animation and science fiction fans could do far, far worse than Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and its follow-on, 2nd Gig.

One other to add is the surprisingly good Street Fighter II Anime. Not sure if this does anything for you, but it is a dubbed version of the Japanese film, with the Chun Li shower scene where she fights Vega. The action is well drawn and brutal. Probably the best videogame movie, but it is not sharing lofty space there.

Thin_J wrote:

Netflix looks like a 320x240 video stretched to fullsize. And it looks like someone covered the screen in vaseline first just to add an extra layer of blur.

Netflix seems to scale quality depending on what it's getting for connection speed. I generally get HD or DVD-level quality, but occasionally it drops way down if the connection is burdened with something else or just slow.

Funkenpants wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

Netflix looks like a 320x240 video stretched to fullsize. And it looks like someone covered the screen in vaseline first just to add an extra layer of blur.

Netflix seems to scale quality depending on what it's getting for connection speed. I generally get HD or DVD-level quality, but occasionally it drops way down if the connection is burdened with something else or just slow.

I'd have to agree with this... Actually, I've never seen an actual change in quality. It's pretty consistently DVD quality, and I've had it stay there even after times when it says, "Your connection has slowed..." etc. It just seems to buffer more.

NSMike wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

Netflix looks like a 320x240 video stretched to fullsize. And it looks like someone covered the screen in vaseline first just to add an extra layer of blur.

Netflix seems to scale quality depending on what it's getting for connection speed. I generally get HD or DVD-level quality, but occasionally it drops way down if the connection is burdened with something else or just slow.

I'd have to agree with this... Actually, I've never seen an actual change in quality. It's pretty consistently DVD quality, and I've had it stay there even after times when it says, "Your connection has slowed..." etc. It just seems to buffer more.

I'm glad it works for everyone else. It looks like total crap for me on both my PC and the 360.

Thin_J wrote:
NSMike wrote:
Funkenpants wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

Netflix looks like a 320x240 video stretched to fullsize. And it looks like someone covered the screen in vaseline first just to add an extra layer of blur.

Netflix seems to scale quality depending on what it's getting for connection speed. I generally get HD or DVD-level quality, but occasionally it drops way down if the connection is burdened with something else or just slow.

I'd have to agree with this... Actually, I've never seen an actual change in quality. It's pretty consistently DVD quality, and I've had it stay there even after times when it says, "Your connection has slowed..." etc. It just seems to buffer more.

I'm glad it works for everyone else. It looks like total crap for me on both my PC and the 360.

Yeah, the PC is a different story... Not at all happy about the changeover to Silverlight. I think that's a major detriment to it on the PC.

Yeah, I just tried it again on the 360. It starts off with that measuring connection thing, shows 3 of the 4 bars on the quality rating thing. Then the video starts (and looks ok, at this point), plays for about 10 seconds, stops, and says it's adjusting quality to prevent further interruptions. Then it comes back looking a little bit chunky, plays for another 10 seconds, and then drops out yet again, and comes back the second time looking like I described it earlier with a blurry, jagged edged horrible looking picture that's not just bad it's unwatchable.

The 360 is hooked up with a wired connection to router with a gigabit switch in it, there's no throttling or anything enabled, and my connection maintains stable speeds on my PC when downloading things. I never have trouble with connections playing games or watching video anywhere else.

It's just Netflix.

Are you downloading torrents or other streaming activities over that router? I have occassional issues watching Netflix on the 360 when my wife is using the PC for MySpace or YouTube.

Also, you might want to look into Quality of Service (QOS) settings within your router. I set mine up to give priority & guaranteed bandwidth to my 360's data packets and that actually made a difference.

Just thought of something... Which broadband provider are you on? You might be the victim of your ISP performing packet-shaping on data coming from the Netflix servers.

You should also contact Netflix and see if they have any recommendations as I know they want to solve these types of problems before they turn into bad press.

I know that there have been some problems with Comcast users having problems with Netflix streaming media. Apparently, Comcast's PowerBoost moves you to a higher data tier for the first 30 seconds of a new connection and then throttles you down after that; because Netflix detects your speed in the first 30 seconds of streaming, it thinks that you have a higher speed connection than you do.

I don't know if that's your problem, ThinJ, but it's something to consider.

Edit: Nevermind. We cross-posted, and you mentioned others with the same ISP.

LockAndLoad wrote:

Just thought of something... Which broadband provider are you on? You might be the victim of your ISP performing packet-shaping on data coming from the Netflix servers.

You should also contact Netflix and see if they have any recommendations as I know they want to solve these types of problems before they turn into bad press.

I know other people in my immediate area that use Netflix with no issues on the same ISP with the same plan I have.

No torrents, no anything. I can shut down every other device that's even able to connect to the internet and still get crap streaming quality from the netflix client on the 360.

*edit*

Just tried setting all packets to and from my 360 as having top priority with the router, then shutdown the other computer in the house. Still stops twice and drops video quality both times in the first thirty seconds of watching something.

Anyway, I've been going without this service for a while now because of the performance. No sense derailing the thread further when it seems to work fine for everyone else.

Wow, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1 is now available. There's much love for it right here, and I couldn't recommend it enough myself.

South Park seasons 1-9 are now on Netflix. I know you can watch them online, but now it's easier to get on your TV and commercial free.

KingGorilla wrote:

The selection changes but if Jesus Camp is still available, prepare to be scared sh*tless.

Wow.. 5 minutes into this and I'm already terrified.. This is quite possibly a better horror movie then anything I've ever seen.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but I just don't understand why and how people get this way.

JC wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:

The selection changes but if Jesus Camp is still available, prepare to be scared sh*tless.

Wow.. 5 minutes into this and I'm already terrified.. This is quite possibly a better horror movie then anything I've ever seen.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but I just don't understand why and how people get this way.

That is a hard watch, but worthwhile.

Netflix has the third season of The Tudors in instant watch, but not seasons one and two. Bizarre.

garion333 wrote:
JC wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:

The selection changes but if Jesus Camp is still available, prepare to be scared sh*tless.

Wow.. 5 minutes into this and I'm already terrified.. This is quite possibly a better horror movie then anything I've ever seen.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but I just don't understand why and how people get this way.

That is a hard watch, but worthwhile.

I haven't seen it, but based on the description it doesn't sound scary. Not that I'd agree with it.

How is it possible that I forgot about the House of Cards trilogy? If you like political intrigue, you must watch this series. Ian Richardson is amazing in the series.

ohh I'll definitely check that one out. It will give me something to do as I wait for the constantly unavailable Quantum of Solace. I think it's going to be on HBO before I get the damn disc from Netflix.

JC wrote:

ohh I'll definitely check that one out. It will give me something to do as I wait for the constantly unavailable Quantum of Solace. I think it's going to be on HBO before I get the damn disc from Netflix.

I got it from Blockbuster the other day. Don't worry about waiting. It's decent, but not much fun. Blockbuster is running a new pricing plan for the moment that allows you to take out a movie for one night for $2, so I figured what the heck. Instant gratification instead of waiting on it.

So i finally made the plunge and dumped Blockbuster Online for Netflix. The deal killer was Blockbuster no longer sending a new movie as soon as you returned the old one if you picked up a free rental at the store. It used to be that I would return at the store, get a free rental from the store, and Blockbuster sent out my next selection the next day. That was pretty nice, but the scaled that back.

So we decided that we would give online more of Netflix a shot, and it is as good as advertised. I have set up through my Tivo right now, and that seems more convenient than the 360. It works much better than I had even imagined.

I'm looking forward to a heavy does of Monty Python this week. My daughter is a huge fan, and it looks like most, if not all, of the TV episodes on on Watch Instantly. Considering she can boot those up on the laptop as well, she is going to go ga-ga over those. Throw in the anime and she is going to be on cloud nine. When I was eleven, not only did we not have cable, we didn't even have a remote control for the TV yet. And Jordan will be watching Monty Python at will. What a world we live in!

Jayhawker wrote:

So i finally made the plunge and dumped Blockbuster Online for Netflix. The deal killer was Blockbuster no longer sending a new movie as soon as you returned the old one if you picked up a free rental at the store.

A couple of weeks ago I did the same thing for the same ultimate reason, and I couldn't be happier with Netflix. I'm saving money, getting better service, and sticking to Blockbuster at the same time. I was on the 3 dvd at a time plan so I took the three I received in the mail to the nearest store, exchanged them for three in-store rentals, returned home, and promptly canceled my service. The beauty is they are letting me keep the in-store rentals until 05/07/09!

JC wrote:

ohh I'll definitely check that one out. It will give me something to do as I wait for the constantly unavailable Quantum of Solace. I think it's going to be on HBO before I get the damn disc from Netflix.

I'm guessing you don't have a bluray player, because I get the bluray discs all the time even when it says "Very Long Wait". No surprise there, really.