What is Netflix?

Right, there seems to be some confusion as to what Netflix actually is, so I thought I’d put this quick post together to clarify it.
Let me just get right to it and clear up what Netflix is NOT. Netflix is NOT a catch up service, that is, it is not a 4oD / RTE Player / TV3 Player type service where you can go on there after a show has just aired and watch it again (or for the first time if you missed it!).

Netflix is essentially an online video rental store, but you don’t have to pay almost 5 euro everytime you want to watch a movie, you pay 6.99euro a month for unlimited movies / TV Shows. For example, and to clarify the point above, you wouldn’t go to down to your local video store / Xtravision to get last nights episode of The Republic of Telly / The Good Wife, no, you’d wait and go down and get the whole box set when it’s been released. The same is true of Nexflix! It’s comparable to something like Sky Box Office (the guys from Netflix’s words, not mine) in terms of how soon movies / content is available on the service. As a general rule of thumb, the release will hit the video rental market about a month before it’s on Netflix / Other similar service (this time frame varies depending on studio agreements)

Also, Netflix will give you the highest quality your internet connection will handle / your TV System will allow. One of the streaming experts on the Netflix team said that a 1mb connection is good enough to give you DVD quality stream (a 500k is more like a compressed youtube stream), BUT if you have a good connection (and by the sounds of it, 3mbps+ “should” do the trick), AND your AV Setup can handel it, you can get full HD with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound from alot of the titles on there (there is little icons that show you if the title is in HD with 5.1). One of the beautiful things about the system, is that it will start to play instantly and as things buffer in some, the quality gets better, so if you’re watching it for a min and think it looks a bit “iffy”, pause it for a min and let it buffer some content in! Also, remember, Netflix automatically remembers what the last point you were in the title. So if you’re in your sitting room watching a movie through your Xbox / PS3 / Wii and want to go to bed, you can just log in on your Phone / Tablet / Laptop and continue on exactly where you were!! Nice!

To summarize, if you rent movies a lot, or find yourself constantly looking for something to watch, you should 100% try Netflix (in fairness, you get the 1st Month Free), if you’re curious as to if you’ll use it, well you should also give it a go as well. It works and I for one will be subscribing as I’ve already watched like 4 movies and a bunch of TV Shows on it since Monday!  After talking to a few people who have been giving out saying that there isn’t enough content there, I asked that question of the Netflix team and was told that new content it being added daily and that they didn’t / couldn’t launch with all content as the system would have been over whelmed, and that they are still finalizing agreements with content providers! So give it time. It’s not like your local Xtravision has every movie you’ve every wanted to watch right there and then (if at all).

If you’ve any problems / questions about it, get in touch via the usual methods (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Email or Comment below)