Hacking NetFlix

Netflix New Releases for May 31st, 2011

Click here for the full list of new releases this week.

Interesting titles include Biutiful, Passion Play, Mao's Last Dancer, The Green Hornet, Drive Angry, The Dilemma, Swamp People, Cross, Waiting for Forever, The Waiting City, Undertow, A Nightmare in Las Cruces, and Rookie Blue.

Anyone Having Netflix streaming Device Activation Problems?

Reader Matt writes, "My Roku, while in Netflix, lost its activation. I am hardwired into my network. I have tried multiple times now to activate and either I cannot get a code, or the code won't take or it says it takes on the computer, but never activates on the Roku. Are others having this problem?  I just called and got a recording saying they are having problems with other devices other than PCs."

I had to reactivate my Roku Player this morning, but I was able to re-enter the code and activate the device.

Is anyone else having trouble with a Netflix-ready device?

 

Fast Company Names Netflix's Sarandos on List of "Most Creative People 2011"

Fast Company has included Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos on their list of Most Creative People 2011, and includes updated numbers on the number of streaming titles (20,000+) and devices (400+). 

RIGHT NOW, somebody, somewhere is enjoying Shark Week on his iPad. Animal porn wherever you are, thanks to chief content officer Ted Sarandos. He has helped Netflix grow to 20,000-plus movies and TV shows, available on more than 400 devices. Sarandos is betting big on the upcoming Kevin Spacey-David Fincher production, House of Cards. Its debut will stream on Netflix.

Facebook Has Been Talking With Netflix About Adding Social Features

The NY Times reports that Facebook has been in talks with Netflix about making the service more social, making it seem less likely that Facebook would compete directly with Netflix. We first saw signs of this integration in March when an early test of the integration was discovered. 

Facebook has long worked to spread its tentacles across the Web, and to persuade media companies to use its data about connections between people to make their services more “social.” In France, Mr. Zuckerberg mentioned Netflix as one of the companies that had been in talks with Facebook.

Several music services, like Spotify and Pandora, already allow users to log in with their Facebook credentials, and they personalize their sites for users based on the activities of their friends. But Facebook wants to make it easier for users to tap into those activities on its site.

According to the people involved in the negotiations, Facebook’s various media partners would each have a part in a continuous feed displaying the songs a user is listening to or the video a user is watching. Friends could then gain access to the same content with a click. By using outside partners, Facebook itself would not license any content from record companies or television networks.

Would you want to share the movie or TV show your'e watching on Facebook?

Fox President: Avatar on Neflix? "Not in my Lifetime"

Eric Savitz from Forbes spoke with Fox president Mike Dunn about movies, Netflix, 3D, Coinstar, Blu-ray and more: Avatar Coming to Netflix Streaming... The Day After Never. 

On the question of the role Netflix plays in the movie distribution business, Dunn has mixed feelings. “They’ve made digital content acquisition ubiquitous by getting the service on so many different devices,” he says. “You can see content so many different ways. And then on the other hand, the value proposition is all you can eat….It’s a great place for TV content. For renting a movie, I would rather deliver it through Comcast video on demand or through a DVD to a high-def TV with a fat file.” Netflix, he says, is a great way to serve up “library content.” But not Avatar.

Dan Rayburn Compares Top Netflix Streaming Devices

Dan Rayburn from The Business of Online Video posted his seminar on Netflix-ready devices from the Streaming Media Conference. Rayburn compares the Apple TV, Roku, Xbox, Boxee, Google TV, and more.

The takeaway from my presentation is that Apple TV is the weakest box on the market today and the Roku XDS and Xbox 360 are the strongest. For those looking for a device that acts as a media center hub, then the Boxee Box by D-Link and the Western Digital WD TV Live Hub are the best choices.

How would you rate your Netflix-ready device(s)?

Canadian Cable Company Shaw Increases Bandwidth Caps

DSLReports reports that Canadian cable company Shaw has increased caps for customers and introduced unlimited plans, reversing a move towards caps that would limit customer use of Netflix streaming.

The important news is that it appears that Shaw has eased off of the caps slightly, and is giving users two different options for data.

Option one: users can stick to Shaw's existing speed tiers and pricing, but will immediately see considerably higher caps. Shaw Lite 1 Mbps customers will see their cap raised from 15GB a month to 30 GB a month, Shaw 7.5 Mbps standard customers will see their cap raised from 60 GB to 125 GB a month, and Shaw Extreme customers will see their cap raised from 150 GB to 250 GB a month.

Option Two is more interesting, and shows that Shaw may have been listening to customer complaints after all. Starting in June Shaw will begin offering users 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps and even 250 Mbps tiers featuring much higher caps (see right). In July, Shaw will also start offering 250 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up tiers with caps as high as 1 TB. The company will also offer some unlimited tiers, albeit only at speeds of 1 Mbps or 250 Mbps. 

With this second option, users are bumped to the next highest price/speed tier should they go over their usage allotment. 

via NewTeeVee.

Bloomberg "Game Changers" Show Features Netflix CEO Reed Hastings

Update: I fixed the auto-play video. Sorry, I was traveling with limited acces to the web. E-mail me if there is a problem with the site.

Bloomberg featured Neflix CEO Reed Hastings on the Game Changers show, and while Hastings declined to participate, there are some interesting guest appearances. 

Netflix Adding DVDs Instead of Blu-ray When Blu-ray Preference Set?

Christopher writes, "I noticed recently that even though my account is specifically set up to have the Blu-ray added to my queue when available, the DVD is added and I have to manually change to Blu-ray in the queue.  I noticed this after receiving a DVD copy of a film that was also on Blu-Ray.  I assumed it was an error in the warehouse, but after adding additional titles, I noticed that DVD is now the default despite clearly stating that Blu-ray will be added per the screen cap below:"

If you have opted for the Blu-ray plan, you can set the preference for Blu-ray or DVDs that you add to your queue on the "Your Account & Help" page.

I tested this and it added Blu-ray over DVDs for me -- but is anyone else having this problem?

Was Your Streaming Queue Randomly Reordered?

MC writes, "I've been watching a bunch of stuff on my Instant queue today, and I noticed that several hours ago that it was in a different order than how I had set it.  Kind of a pain in the ass as I keep it ordered so I can find things easier.  I know I don't really "need" an Instant queue anymore, but it's still kind of annoying that the site re-ordered my queue randomly like that."

Jack also had a similar experience and has some suggestions, "I spent the better part of two hours organizing my streaming queue last week, carefully sorting through the titles and arranging them by genre and in an order that made sense to me. Then two days ago, without any notice, Netflix pulls close to 30 titles from the 250 I have sorted, places them in Saved Instant with a notice saying "coming soon", then today just dumps them unsorted at the end of my queue.

I am glad that Netflix allows me to save such a large list, but there's no question that the system is in need of serious revision. Getting the titles in any kind of an order if there's more than a hand full is a tedious and needlessly time consuming chore . But to completely ignore the order I took such time to select for them is more than annoying, it's boarder line ignorant.

Netflix needs to reconsider three things. First, the ability to select multiple queues or tags. I'd like to separate the Rashamon's from the Robocop's. Second, they need to change the way the interface for the list works. It could be so much easier if you could change the view between a list or a cover flow to accommodate larger lists. Third,  if they really must pull a title from instant streaming for a short time at least have the decency to put it back were it came from."