Hacking NetFlix

Is Netflix Streaming Helping To Reduce Movie & TV Show Piracy?

TorrentFreak has an interesting story about Netflix and movie piracy, Netflix is Killing BItTorrent in the US.

Movie piracy is not quite gone yet, but Netflix shows that people are willing to pay for access to movies online, even when plenty of pirated copies are available. The next step is to offer easy access to movies in the rest of the world, and get rid of the artificial delays in release dates.

Update: Of course Netflix is not going to stop piracy entirely, as people have many different reasons to use BitTorrent to download movies without consent of the copyright holders. This post was merely to accentuate that Netflix is taking away one of the main piracy motivators (lack of availability) for a group of people. We have some preliminary stats which show that the number of abslute US downloaders slightly decreased over the last year, but more thorough research is obviously needed to make conclusive statements.

Do you think that the price, convenience and (improving) selection of Netflix streaming titles is encouraging more people to stop pirating movies and TV shows?

via Gawker.

Marvel Movies & TV Shows Coming to Netflix Streaming

Marvel announced that several Marvel movies & TV shows will be coming to Netflix streaming. A partial list includes:

Coming April 29
The Incredible Hulk (1996-1997): Season 1
Spider-Man Unlimited
Iron Man: Extremis
Astonishing X-Men: Gifted
Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D.
Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes
Silver Surfer
Black Panther: The Animated Series
Iron Man: Armored Adventures: Season 1  

Coming throughout the summer
Marvel Action Hour: Iron Man (1994-96)
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Season 1 (2010)
X-Men Evolution (2000-3)
X-Men (1992-7)
Spider-Man (1994-‘98)
Spider-Man (1967-‘68)
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1981)
Spider-Man (1981-‘82)

Coming in the fall
Iron Man (1966)
Thor (1966)
Captain America (1966)
Hulk (1966)
Sub-Mariner (1966)

Thanks to Matt for sending this in.

Why is Time Warner CEO Bewkes Suddenly Being Nice to Netflix?

Home Media Magazine reports that Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, famous for comparing Netflix to the Albanian Army, is suddenly being nice in his comments about Netflix (I wonder what changed his mind).

“I do have a fondness for subscription television, and Netflix is subscription television. So, welcome, brother!” Bewkes joked.

The CEO said he approved of Netflix’s recent big-dollar acquisition of the rights to a serial remake of British serial drama “House of Cards,” which will be released next year starring Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and directed by Oscar nominee David Fincher (The Social Network).

"We think it's great that they are doing that,” Bewkes said. "If they move toward original programming, then they will be like HBO.”

Is an Android Netflix App Coming Soon?

Android Central has a photo of a LG Revolution brochure that says "Coming Soon!" and "High quality video streaming by Netflix." Is the Android Netflix app coming soon?

The Washington Times on the PRC Gamefly Ruling

The Washington Times has additional coverage of the US Postal Regulatory Commission ruling on the Gamefly complaint that Netflix received preferential treatment by the US Postal Service.

 The commission gave the Postal Service 60 days to fix the “unreasonable preference.”

GameFly wanted the Postal Service to offer every DVD-rental company manual processing at the same level currently given to Netflix, but the commission said there were drawbacks, including “potentially significant administrative costs.” Instead, the commission called for the Postal Service to offer a reduced rate for round-trip, flat-shaped DVD mailers weighing up to two ounces.

“The rate is designed to ameliorate the disparate treatment in the Postal Service’s current application of the rate schedule to Netflix’s and GameFly’s mailpiece designed,” the commission ruled

The commission’s ruling came nearly two years to the day that GameFly first filed a complaint about the hand-sorting practice.

Thanks to John for sending this in.

Hulu Plus Coming to the Xbox 360 April 29th - Free for a Week

Major Nelson confirmed that the rumor is true: Hulu Plus is coming to the Xbox 360, and thanks to Jack Link's Beef Jerky, it'll be free for all Xbox 360 users until May 6th.

Thanks to FearNo1 for sending this in.

PlayStation Network Outage Continues, Credit Cards Stolen? Is Netflix Streaming on PS3 Working for You?

The PS3 outage continues and Sony has sent an e-mail to customers that includes a warning that credit card information might have been stolen. From an e-mail I received tonight:

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.

Have you been able to access Netflix streaming on the PS3 using the workaround?

Should Netflix Save the Soap Operas?

Reader Alex wonders if Netflix should save "One Life to Live" and "All My Children," two soap operas that are in the process of being cancelled.

"I'd say a lot of soap fans are probably not Netflix customers, but they are so loyal that they would probably buys a subscription and sign up just to see them."

What TV shows do you think Netflix should save or resurrect?

Hulu Plus Coming to The Xbox 360 This Friday?

It's only a rumor at this point, but Joystiq is reporting that Hulu Plus might be coming to the Xbox 360.

Do you use Hulu Plus? How do you like the selection of titles?

Thanks to Brian for sending this in.

Possible Fix for Netflix Streaming Problems on Windows Media Center

Reader Jay has a possible solution if you're having trouble with Netflix streaming on Windows 7 or Vista Media Center.

"I have been noticing HD playback issues when using Media Center in Windows 7 and Vista for Netflix playback. It is more like a shutter or jitter. I narrowed down the issue to GPU Acceleration is not enabled in the Silverlight/Netflix Plugin for WMC. If you do "Ctrl", "Shift", "Left Click"; under A/V; you can see that GPU Acceleration(Attempted/Enabled) True/False, playback has jitter. If you do the same thing in the Browser playback on the same machine GPU Acceleration(Attempted/Enabled) True/True, playback has no jitter. I have checked 5 different machines with windows 7 or Vista and they all have the same issue. I am not sure who to contact for this issues Netflix or Microsoft, but I am sure that no one would listen to me. Maybe if more people complain this will get fixed."