Netflix now does unlimited movie streaming, works on EVDO

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

For $9/month Netflix now allows streaming as many movies as you want. There are over 6000 titles available to stream. I thought I'd do the 2 week trial and guess what, it works pretty well on EVDO. It has 3 modes of quality depending on the connection speed, below 1Mbps is 'basic', 1-2 is 'good' and over 2 is high quality. I was able to get 'good' mode and it looked good enough for me. Also forced basic mode and it still was watchable.

If you are already a Netflix member, you are already able to stream w/out a special kind of account.

www.netflix.com

byrd · EVDO User Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 48

I've had netflix at home for about a year, and just got an email this morning about the new unlimited streaming. I took a quick look through the available library, and was a bit disappointed at the current selection, but I'm sure that will grow over time.

I'm looking forward to trying out the service at home tonight. I tried it out at work, and it worked great. Broadband at the office is quit fast though so I got the high quality stream. How were you able to force the stream to the basic mode? I didn't see any options for that on the netflix site.

I'm in the process of putting together a media PC, and instant netflix access will be a great added bonus (as long as traffic on the rural Sprint tower that I'm on stays fairly low).

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

^I was able to force basic mode by moving laptop into another room that consistently gets under 1Mbps.

I've checked the amount of data that is streamed. A 2 hour movie will pull about 1.2-1.5GB in medium mode. It's probably more for highest quality mode but the medium mode looks great, especially for content that was shot with HD cameras. Even did HDMI out to my 47" HDTV and it looks pretty good in medium quality. The basic quality mode was OK on the large panel, like video on demand on cable, but looks better on a laptop screen. Highest quality mode should be a breeze on a good WiMAX connection.

Now if they could just get more recent DVD releases available to stream. Lots of good indie titles though.

byrd · EVDO User Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 48

I tried it at home and at my office with my CDU680, and was only able to get the basic mode. Speedtest.net shows my connection at 1100kbps, but it think the rate is too inconsistent for Netflix's internet speed test. If I run Netmeter while I'm watching a Netflix movie, the download rate fluctuates pretty consistently from anywhere between 500kbps up to 1200kbps. I think it's probably fast enough, but Netflix doesn't. Can a booster antenna help make speed more consistent (my signal strength is usually somewhere between -80dBm and -90dBm).

On my 22" LCD computer monitor (1680x1050 pixels), the basic mode looks "okay" I suppose. The High quality setting through the office cable internet looks fantastic! I have yet to see the Medium quality. I only have a 32" standard def TV at home (648x486 pixels for NTSC), so I think it'll look much better once I have it set up to be viewed with that. I also think it'll be great when I'm traveling for work and can use it on my 15.4" laptop, whether I use the EVDO modem or a hotel's available broadband connection.

Maybe if the stars all line up in a couple years, and Sprint will have Wimax widely available and I'll have a new HDTV by then...

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 1969

Oddly, when I do speedtests while a movie is streaming, I can get over 1Mbps sometimes, typically still over 800Kbps.

So the next question is, would we be loading down the tower by streaming movies. If you want to be nice to your neighbors using EVDO and you have an EVDO phone as well on same carrier, do a speed test on phone while viewing a movie on laptop. If the phone speed is normal, you're probably not impacting your neighbors using DO.

And Verizon users would need to be wary of possible bandwidth reduction if doing 5GB/month.