Support for Netflix "Watch Instantly"

I thought Tivo and Netflix were in negotiation to offer rentals? Did that change once Tivo started working with Amazon?

 

The short version:

The Netflix/TiVo deal fell through when the movie studios wouldn't approve download of movies (well over a year ago)... Netflix backed off from TiVo, TiVo then later connected with Amazon, which is what we have now...

 

Although support for Netflix "Watch Instantly" would be nice, it seems to me it's of limited value due to the chokehold the studios have Netflix in. There is practically no top-tier (i.e. major new releases) content available via Netflix Watch Instantly; it all seems to be older stuff and PBS programming, with a small smattering of new. Blockbuster, with the studio backing, seems to be doing better in this regard.

 

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Ask yourself a few questions like:

1. Will NetFlix add any subscriptions by paying TiVo to make NetFlix downloads available on TiVo?
2. Will TiVo add any subscription by paying NetFlix to make NetFlix downloads available on TiVo?

My guess is that neither party could find away to make this profitable. NetFlix doesn't really want to increase downloads - offering them at this point is because of competitive pressures - after all they are not getting anything extra from it (yet).

With Amazon Unbox being a pay per download service there is actual new revenue for TiVo and Amazon to split.

Thanks,

 

I would be more excited if I could transfer HD content to my PS3 or computer from my Series 3, or if I could watch netflix on the PS3, but netflix and tivo don't seem like a reasonable fit.

 

NetFlix would have to re-work their system. Right now they use Flash, and Flash video won't work on the TiVo - ANY of them. The video decoders on-board do not support the On2 codec FLV uses.

Down the road NetFlix is supposedly going to switch to Microsoft Silverlight, which uses WMV. The Series3 and TiVo HD have hardware that can support WMV (VC-1 == WMV9, basically), but it would remain to be seen if the streaming format for Silverlight could be made to work. And that still blocks the vast majority of TiVos - to the point that it probably isn't worth it for Netflix. The S2/S2DT are the vast majority of units, and it will be a while before the HD is a significant market on its ow (the original S3 will remain negligible, but can be lumped in with the HD).

 

There is a good chance that Netflix has the movies in a native format (probably MPEG 2, taken from DVD masters) so it would likely be trivial to get this working. The number one hurdle would be the business agreement side of things

 

I would like to do do be able to watch movies on my TV like this, I'm in the process of buying a new TV is there a feature I need to look for on the TV to make this work? I saw a review of a TV that said it "wasn't PC compadible" is that what I need?

thanks!

 

A VGA Input.

We watch NetFlix "watch instantly" content on our Visio 37" LCD. We connect the Visio to our laptap with a 15' VGA cable (about $25 from MonoPrice). The results are very good (frankly, we are amazed at how good it is - to us it looks about the same as any SD DVD).