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Netflix announed it will be expanding to Canada this fall. There are a variety of articles and sources on the net, so hit google if you want to read opinions/press releases.

What I found interesting is that Netflix Canada will be 100% streaming. They are ditching hard media altogether. It's pretty obvious they want to phase out the disc rentals in the USA as well....don't really see that as a positive.

Great news, although I would have preferred the option for discs. If the price is right though, I don't really care.

You will when you see the transfers.

If you go to the US netflix site, it redirects you to a form to sign up for the Netflix Canada newsletter. I signed up in the hopes that they offer newsletter subscribers exclusive coupons/promotions as part of the launch.

If not...spam folder it goes!

I assume the fact that Canada already has a vesion of Nextflix, zip.ca, influenced their decision to go streaming only.

swo17 wrote:You will when you see the transfers.

Are they really that bad? With such high speed you'd think dvd quality would be possible with all the great compression methods.

This is why I'd rather have discs, and the option to stream, since Canada Post can be terrible. I can recall discs from zip taking days, and I lived like 3 hours from where they ship from.

Zip would barely be competition if they could offer a similar price as the U.S. version.

Whatever the transfers are like now, they'll improve over time. If YouTube's already capable of streaming 1080p surely Netflix can manage something watchable.

Alphonse Doinel wrote:

swo17 wrote:You will when you see the transfers.

Are they really that bad? With such high speed you'd think dvd quality would be possible with all the great compression methods.

It varies by film, but in a lot of cases they are not using the DVD transfer (see À nous la liberté for a particularly alarming example of this that I just recently discovered). There is also a weird kind of digital interference that is seemingly unique to Netflix's instant viewing program, where frame stuttering and jaggies (especially whenever the camera pans) are ever present nuisances.

Now, I've gotten a lot of use out of the instant viewing program, and it's always nice to be able to add value to my Netflix membership by watching unlimited streaming titles for no additional cost, if it's something I'm only mildly curious about, but if it's something I really want to see in the best presentation possible, I will never ever ever watch it on Instant Watch. A good old fashioned DVD will always look better. Hell, I'd probably rather watch an SD television broadcast in most cases.

It's going to be English language only streaming at first. French language will be added sometime later.

As far as the UK and Europe goes, looks like they'll take their time getting there.

A lot of the streaming looks fine when the screen is small size. It's when you enlarge it to full screen that it gets really bad.

The films encoded in HD look quite good: a few notches above DVD quality, but below Blu-ray. The problem is there aren't that many HD encodes at the moment. Also, it is recommended to have at least 10 mbps coming through your system to stream HD which can even be a problem for broadband customers (My home hits about 7 mbps, so I need to watch the HD stuff during non-peak times to avoid freezes and stutters).

As mentioned above, the quality of the standard encodes is all over the place. In some cases, you're stuck with 4:3 pan-and-scans of widescreen films. Every SD encode suffers from a stuttering image when the camera pans, but most of the time this is not too distracting. More problematic is that lesser known or older films often seem to get clogged up on Netflix's end with lots of freeze frames and distortion during streaming whereas more popular films play just fine. I watched BLACK DYNAMITE (2009) Sunday night with no problems, but trying to watch PANDORA'S BOX (1928) last night was a real chore - the film would only go about 7 minutes at a time before seizing up.

As swo17 commented, instant streaming is a nice feature to have for free, but I definitely choose DVD or Blu-ray for those films I really care about.

Roger Ryan wrote:Every SD encode suffers from a stuttering image when the camera pans, but most of the time this is not too distracting.

Really? Jesus. This makes it unwatchable for me. But do you mean HD? I noticed this on the HD transfer of Food, Inc., but not on some SD episodes of The Riches. Hulu does the same thing, incidentally, which is especially infuriating given that you're also subjected to commercials.

Perkins Cobb wrote:

Roger Ryan wrote:Every SD encode suffers from a stuttering image when the camera pans, but most of the time this is not too distracting.

Really? Jesus. This makes it unwatchable for me. But do you mean HD? I noticed this on the HD transfer of Food, Inc., but not on some SD episodes of The Riches. Hulu does the same thing, incidentally, which is especially infuriating given that you're also subjected to commercials.

Sorry, I just found this thread again today.

I have not seen any stuttering problems with HD streams and the SD encodes vary. I just watched the SD encode of FOLLOWING last night which has a lot of hand-held work and the stuttering was barely perceptible and easily overlooked. The film did freeze up once about 50 minutes in, but that was probably related to bandwidth issues with my internet provider. Of course, this is going to be a major problem with streaming for a while yet: if DVD rentals are eliminated completely, then everyone who wants to watch a movie on Friday night will be dependent on an already crowded bandwidth for streaming.

Netflix Canada launched today. It's $7.99 a month. I signed up and am marginally impressed. It takes a few days for them to mail out a netflix disc that I put into my Wii, so have no idea how streaming looks on the television. On the computer it looks fine if I watch the default size on the netflix player. When I blow it up using the "full screen" icon, the image becomes quite jerky/staggered.

The selection is really good. I browsed a few different selections including the television show Mad Men and a couple films like Red River, The Killing, Antichrist. The image is pretty decent and they load quickly.

ianungstad wrote: On the computer it looks fine if I watch the default size on the netflix player. When I blow it up using the "full screen" icon, the image becomes quite jerky/staggered.

Do you have basic internet service? That's pretty much what I have. It may require going up the next highest grade to enjoy a better picture. On my Mac I can increase the screen size without sacrificing image quality by shrinking the font size to the smallest possible size. The picture at that point isn't quite full screen but at least much better than the default size.

The Canadian service seems not too terrible right now, and the price is certainly agreeable (along with a one-month free trial). "La Strada" and "M" both run fine with minimal glitch or stuttering on my "fast" computer, older desktop and netbook. The HD of "Antichrist" is much less smooth, but that may be my own fault for not having faster internets.

Selection is not bad, although from the comments here the licensing seems much more limited compared to the US service, at least for now. There's a smattering of Criterion titles (the aforementioned Lang and Fellini, Truffaut, some P&P, Kurosawa, "Solaris") and a solid quantity of documentaries. Won't stop me from renting or buying the films I truly give a damn about, but for stuff in which I have a vague interest but couldn't be bothered to pay real money for, this will likely fit the bill. It could also be extremely convenient for traveling: the ability to simply stream on a whim to the iPhone/iPad, assuming the app works properly, is more enticing than re-encoding a bunch of rips and screwing with VLC on an Apple device.

I found it a bit curious that I couldn't simply download a Netflix app through the Wii store, and that they had to send me a CD to load the software (which I imagine won't be here until next week). Is this the same process in the US when using a game console to stream?

prokosch wrote: I found it a bit curious that I couldn't simply download a Netflix app through the Wii store, and that they had to send me a CD to load the software (which I imagine won't be here until next week). Is this the same process in the US when using a game console to stream?

Yes, for the Wii and PS3 you need a disc. I suspect it's some contractual thing with XBox/Microsoft, where the service is availble directly on the system, but don't know for sure.

cdnchris wrote:

prokosch wrote: I found it a bit curious that I couldn't simply download a Netflix app through the Wii store, and that they had to send me a CD to load the software (which I imagine won't be here until next week). Is this the same process in the US when using a game console to stream?

Yes, for the Wii and PS3 you need a disc. I suspect it's some contractual thing with XBox/Microsoft, where the service is availble directly on the system, but don't know for sure.

In Canada the PS3 version is an app.

hidaniel wrote: In Canada the PS3 version is an app.

That's interesting because I need a disc for the PS3 here and just assumed it had something to do with their deal with Microsoft. Not sure why the Wii would still need a disc then.

The US update for the PS3 that will eliminate the need for the disc is supposed to hit in October.

Matt wrote:Netflix apologizes for using actors to meet press at Canadian launch

This isn't that uncommon of a practice though, is it? For instance, I'm sure I'm not the only one here being paid by Criterion to pretend to be excited about whatever it is they do...make DVDs, I think?

hidaniel wrote:In Canada the PS3 version is an app.

Further punishment for purchasing a Wii and expecting it to do anything other than provide weight tracking and play Mega Man 2, I guess.

swo17 wrote:This isn't that uncommon of a practice though, is it?

Not at all, so much so that I find it cute that the Canadian media ran with it as a "big" story yesterday, and Netflix felt the need to apologize on their blog for not keeping a leash on the actors. I'm still waiting for the US Democratic Party to admit that this guy was part of a similar arrangement.

Can anyone confirm or deny the absence of an "Instant Queue" function on the Canadian Netflix service, and why it might not be available?