Netflix goes live in Blighty CES 2012 Week Netflix goes live in the UK today, offering Brits streaming access to its collection of online content for £6 a month. The US company said it will also offer one-month trials for free. At launch, Netflix is offering films and TV programmes from All3Media, the BBC, CBS, Channel 4’s 4oD, Disney, ITV, Lionsgate …
This post has been deleted by its author
This post has been deleted by its author
NewFlix uses Silverlight IIRC so maybe it will just work without a special app?
Also remember NF is not a new service, they've had iOS/Android clients a while now rather than building a new service and choosing not to support WP.
I used NF when in the US and it was great, but they also had a great variety of streaming titles... LoveFilm was crap when we tried it.
I also would prefer option to download (even with time-limited DRM) as well as stream.
You don't need facebook... I signed up for the trail without out linking to facebook.
However, I'm not very impressed so far. Ignoring the derth of content (Spotify was missing lots of stuff when it first started), the video quality is terrible, though that could be my connection. The android client is useless on my mobile, though that could just be the age of the device. And so far of the 3 items I tried to watch one wasn't available 'instantly'* and then crashed firefox (so now using it on IE). The the web interface is slow and clunky having to switch between browsing and watching feels like an unnecessary step that you don't get with iplayer et al.
*So this might suggest that there is a native Windows client for watching films 'non-instantly' though I can't find one anywhere so it probably refers to renting disks by post.
I was expecting something akin to the Spotify user experience (seamless, painless, fast) but this feels like a step backwards. The jury is out and I have a few weeks to make up my mind if I want to pay...
Well I watched 45 minutes of the pilot episode of Breaking Bad last night and then spent 45 minutes trying to figure out what the Nxxxx error code meant when Netflix refused to play the last 3 minutes. It wanted to play episode 2 instead.
Killing IE and trying again or trying another browser didn't fix it. In the end I rebooted the PC and Netflix started working again. I guess Sliverlight is well hooked into the OS then...
Anyway I was able to watch 3 episodes on projector and the video quality isn't too bad - about on par with a decent freeview channel. A way off HD but very watchable. I expect I could still have found a better quality torrent though...
I just went to the netflix site and had a look though their available films.
I think the best way to describe the few options there is that they would be what you might expect to find left over at the bottom of the "bargain bin" at a garage, once all the good stuff had gone.
Why on Earth did they go to all the effort of setting up a website, and presumably some small amount of streaming capability, just to fill it with that crap?!
I abandoned Lovefilm because discs were getting cracked by the postie forcing then through my vertical letterbox with a top flap. Lovefilm did not respond to my request to ship the rental discs in a case.
Naturally I explored all online offerings as an overnight download service is what I really want - DVDs are so last century. As above posters say , online offerings are of a rubbish catalogue.
So having permanently cancelled Lovefilm, I now order online and physically collect from the local library. Rental is £1.50 to £3.00 for a full week.
I think we all know why the online selections for the services are crap, and you're absolutely correct about the publishers. Unfortunately that doesn't help Netflix get access to my hard-earned. And I have to say, the titles on Netflix are particularly bad, (Acetrax and Lovefilm have better selections, and Blinkbox is almost decent).
I use Lovefilm and am happy with the discs in the post delivery method. I've tried streaming from them and found it rubbish due to a lack of interesting content and low image quality. My connection also drops now and then and the Lovefilm player (I used the PS3 one) couldn't cope with it. If it had just paused until reconnecting and then carried on, I'd be ok with it. Instead it just died and that was that.
My broadband has a 40GB limit anyway, so what's the point? Sigh.
i signed up to this early this morning and watched a few episodes of a series id never seen before - the quality is fantastic and the choice of films and tv shows isnt to bad.
Im taking advantage of the free trial at the moment, if Netflix can update the content on a regular basis they can happily have my £6 a month.
Oh, I didnt need to sign in using Facebook either, just an email address
It looks like Netflix have changed their signup page as there appears to be no eMail signup link any more. Even selecting the links from the many "you don't need Facebook to sign up" pages (e.g.:- https://signup.netflix.com/?locale=en-GB#useemail) still land you on the Facebook signup page.
Quite interested in NetFlix, but not by signing up for Facebook. They'd have to pay ME £6 a month for *that*!!!
Fail yourself!
I don't have a Facebook account. I don't want a Facebook account. If you could have been arsed to read my post you would know that I don't have a Facebook account and, therefore, could not have been signed into my Facebook account (on the account of me not having an account).
It turns out the problem was browser related. When I tried in IE8, I got the sign in. In Firefox it seems to think you are signed into Farcebook, even if you aren't.
Have never seen a firm so junk mail happy. even cancelling the service did nothing to stem the tide, nor did phoning them up and asking to be removed from their mailing list. I have since moved house but I bet they're still sending it through to the old address.
I also never once got sent the top choice from my list.
Wow that initial selection on Netflix is hilariously bad!
Until the film studios get their collective act together, realise that they need to evolve their business models and allow companies like lovefilm and netflix to stream their content, no one is going to get access to recent/interesting/worthwhile titles for streaming. The hurdles the studios put in front everyone trying to distribute titles via streaming makes it nigh impossible to innovate/disrupt the market - for obvious reasons. Is it any wonder everyone pirates the content? They simply need to make it too easy to stream (i.e. too much effort to pirate) and things will begin looking up. Until then, those of us who prefer to remain on the right side of the law will continue to have access to a less than stellar catalogue.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
