Netflix coming to Canada this Fall!

[vividweb]

Finally some of the great services in the US are making there way up North.

Go to www.netflix.ca to find out more about what's coming. All they have posted for the moment is that it will be available this Fall.

[wayner]

Being a Canadian I haven't followed this in the past but can you integrate Netflix into Sage, including via extenders?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by wayner

Being a Canadian I haven't followed this in the past but can you integrate Netflix into Sage, including via extenders?

You can. But it requires PlayOn. Here's an oldish article I had on SageTV w/Playon and the Playon Add-on page

[pvrpenguin]

Can't wait!

[can3gxw]

Especially if their pricing is similar to what they're charging in the US.

"Entry level" pricing is $8.99 - this includes one DVD per month (although they're not sending DVDs in Canada) and all the streaming you can handle!

This will suck bad though for anyone that has caps... like Rogers.

Just found this article on Digital Home Canada - looks like Rogers just keeps screwing its customers....
http://www.digitalhome.ca/2010/07/ro...ices-the-same/

[stuckless]

Cool.... $7.99/month for unlimited TV and Movies (streaming only)... That seems reasonable to me.

Here's an acticle from the toronto star

I signed up... so I guess I'll see shortly if it's worth it or not. I might soon be in the camp that asks... "Why doesn't SageTV support Netflix natively"

[computer33]

What's with that very limited selection? I could not find Boston Legal or Stargate SG1 or House or many other tv shows.

What's the appeal?

[stuckless]

Yeah I agree... not sure if we have the same selection as US or not, but I wasn't really really that impressed with the selection so far.... I have 30 days to try it for free... I'll how much I use it. I currently have TMN (on belltv) so hopefully they have a better selection of movies than that

[vividweb]

Was hoping some of the movies I have in my collection could be removed and played via Netflix if I felt the need. But the majority of old movies that I searched were not available. Did notice that there are quite a few TV series that are available, most older, but a few current. I'll have to dig deeper to see exactly what is there.

[beach40]

www.netflix.ca

$7.95 Unlimited viewing per month!

How do I get this on my HD Theatre?

[j3rt]

signed up for the trial, the movie selection is slim pickings, just about all the films i searched for weren't available.
even breaking bad is not offered.

they'll need to fix this or folks will stay away, i am not impressed yet

[stuckless]

I used the netflix client for the ps3 to watch a part of a movie last night... Overall, I'm not that impressed. The ps3 client seems sluggish, and the video quality was very pixalated. I realize this is new for canada, but I would have thought it would have been better, since I keep hearing all the great things about netflix, and how it's a must have app for a media center, etc. So far, I'm not convinced... but I'll probably keep it, since for a full year of netflix, it's about as much as I pay for 1 month of satellite

[vividweb]

I agree, I'm disappointed with the selection so far. Everything I searched for wasn't available and I had not heard of just about everything it suggested in place of what I was searching for. The TV series for kids has some good selection though.

[bmac.to]

I tried it out just using the Silverlight player from a web browser displayed on my tv and the playback quality was quite good. A bit of stepping during fast moving scenes but quite sharp on other scenes - definitely better than I expected.

However, the selection is pretty poor - we'll see if it improves over the next couple of months, and if not I will probably cancel.

If it does improve, I'll start looking at one of the Sage integration methods. If netflix is added to Sage for v7, then that may be the driving factor to upgrade from v6.
________
Bondage japanese

[stuckless]

I don't really care, personally, if sage ever has native support for netflix, since the ps3 has a decent netflix app (although it is a little sluggish, but that's probably a side effect of remotely browsing the collections via http services).

I did read somewhere where the ceo of netflex stated that he realized the selection is fairly poor right now... but he did say, that as more people use the service, and canadian revenues poor in, then that money can be used to license more content, which makes sense. I'll give this a try for a year, and see how it matures.

[mozerd]

My first impression --- very poor selection for Canadians. Maybe it will improve over time -- but quite a letdown. I am very surprised by the lack of content -- One would think that Netflix would want to make a good impression --- very disappointing.

[mayamaniac]

I would probably not use netflix for just the streaming service. It is well worth it to pay an extra few dollars to get DVDs in the mail. I don't know why they don't offer DVDs to canadians, maybe they just can't do it. But I don't think it is Netflix's fault regarding the streaming selection. It seems that they license what they can afford and keep the price affordable. They stream what the movie studios allow them to stream. I think if Netflix have their way, they would stream everything they have and do without the DVD mailings. I haven't been a netflix customer for long, but they seem to be a good company similar to SageTV.

[wayner]

The cynic in me wonders if the Canadian TV networks and cable channels will consciously not license their content (most of which is US produced content for which they own Canadian distribution rights) to Netflix, Apple, etc in order to ensure that these services do not become a viable alternative to cable or satellite. Since almost all of the TV networks are owned by cable/satellite/phone companies then it is not hard to understand their motivation. Rogers/Shaw/Bell/Telus/Videotron would prefer that you continue to pay $60-$100 per month to them rather than pay about $10/month to Netflix.

[j3rt]

I read somewhere that online viewing (like Netflix)only accounts for 10% of the entire US rental scheme.
But their DVD mail program accounts for 25% of the market, and ontop of the there's a couple ATM sytle rental serices ($1/nite) that makes up another 15-20%. Eitherway, these types of services are what's killing Blockbusters business model. People don't want to A) pay a lot B) leave their house.

If you are interested in a DVD mail order service in Canada, try Zip.ca. I did it for a couple months. It wasn't for me but I can appreciate the value and what it means for the casual movie watcher. The prices are good. You will find at the root of Zip.ca, is Rogers.

[j3rt]

I just came across this news tidbit in one of my emails.
Comcast is going to charge L3 a "toll fee" everytime a customer request a Netflixx file.
http://www.cediacrosspoint.com/conte...etflix-carrier
An interesting situation, something that could have a huge impact down the line (no pun intended).