There's a post today on Hacking Netflix that mentions the prospect of HD being available this year to Netflix subscribers on the PC.  Great news.  Interesting comment about content license.

Here's hoping!

 Yeah, I really hope so too! The Netflix app in Media Center has the best Netflix interface yet, but its stuck at SD-only, killing any usefulness.

A Quote" We expect 2 enable some HD streaming on the PC this year"

Hmmm...Yea, we'll get 2-3 movies and then they are done. I canceled Nextflix due to no HD streaming movies. As there instant movies look like crap 1/2 the time. Sure you can watch it but, it just was not clear.

Time will tell on this one...

I am not entirely confident on this one as earlier this year Netflix made an announcement about 5.1 and HD on the PC then retracted the statement about HD being available.  I love the interface in MC, but there will always be limitations based on ISP speeds which inhibit many users.  Although there is nothing wrong with trying to provide more services that people want.

I currently have netflix and do not use streaming for the lack of surround and HD, which is irritating and disappointing to watch their elegant app go to waste.

Jonny561201

I am not entirely confident on this one as earlier this year Netflix made an announcement about 5.1 and HD on the PC then retracted the statement about HD being available.

Are you referring to the statement about 1080p?  I think this seems more cut and dry.  They are currently doing it so extending to the PC shouldn't be much of an issue.  1080p is another story.  They're aren't doing this at all and probably don't have the customer base capable of making worthwhile, those being customers with 30Mbps+ connections.

Streaming HD is definitely going to happen across the board, there's no way around it.  Your correct about the limitations based on ISP but I expect that to change quickly.  My ISP is now offering a 30Mbps connection, and that's probably not uncommon in a lot of cities.  AT&T is also in the process of laying fiber in our area so I expect that number to climb.  Once they reach the 10-12Mbps they are competing with HD from cable.  Based on how fast the Watch Now feature has been rolled out and upgraded I see no reason to believe it won't continue.

In addition I believe delivering video (even in HD) is cheaper than by mail, so even from a business perspective, I would expect them to move aggressively to give you quality streams.   A user on Hacking Netflix commented that it cost $0.78 for postage and Akamai charges $0.06 per 1GB to stream.  (I'm not sure if these figures are correct and if someone knows better please say so)  According to that, I calculate that a 120 min. movie can be streamed at 14.4Mbps for the same price as postage, which I find very interesting and telling.

I wasnt referring to 1080p as Ben from engadget has even been experiencing buffering issues on a Fios connection with Vudu.  I believe that earlier in the year Netflix said they were going to offer their HD streaming service (currently on other devices) to the PC by this year as well as 5.1 and then recanted the statement on HD.  I am assuming the quality is much closer to 720p, which is more than adequate in my opinion. 

I know they will eventually bring HD streaming to the PC.  I am not entirely certain they will make the 2010 deadline they indicated from a twitter feed.  Then again once they enable it on the PC will there need to be an update to the MC app or does it currently support HD?  Clearly Netflix is moving towards a streaming model as they agreed to delay new release rentals 28 days in exchange for more streaming content.  I am mainly concerned that they are going to focus on the delivery of their services on devices like the roku player or blu-ray players.  This announcement does give me hope, but these are my personal reservations.

Jonny561201

Then again once they enable it on the PC will there need to be an update to the MC app or does it currently support HD?

Silverlight currently supports HD as is, so I'm not even sure that the player would need to be updated from it's current form.  Maybe a DRM issue would need to be resolved, I'm not sure.

Jonny561201

I am mainly concerned that they are going to focus on the delivery of their services on devices like the roku player or blu-ray players.

I agree.  This has been the case so far, but as indicated from twitter, this is a license issue so their hands may be tied and they are doing the best they can.  However the WMC interface is usually considered one of the best interfaces so they aren't neglecting the PC completely.  I would image if Netflix was allowed they would give us as much content as they could at the highest quality possible, within reason of course and at a higher premium.

It would be great if they were on their way to resolve licensing issues. I live the MC interface over any other I have seen for their services. I don't know their intentions, but if they do make these changes (the sooner the better) I can guarantee that I would use netflix streaming more often than rentals

Before Netflix switched to Silverlight, I was able to watch everything crystal clear (bumping the bitrate up to it's highest).  Now, we have no control, and most streaming looks awful.

the ctrl-alt-shift-s (or something like that) brings up the bitstream menu option.  Unfortunately, it's on a per-movie basis & requires a keyboard (unless someone writes an awesome autoit macro-script that could be bound to a remote)....

 

 How could it be either technical or licensing issues?  If an XBox can play HD Netflix, why can't my computer?  It definitely specs out better in every way.

My wife and I use Watch Now A LOT!. However, we usually do this via the Xbox Dashboard app. The stuff labeled "HD" is 720. However, I hate the interface of the dashboard app and would prefer the Media Center solution. Unfortunately, movies look like uber-junk compared.

I was reading an article over the past couple of weeks that was talking about Netflix and their options when the USPS postage increase occurs and how ceasing Saturday delivery would effect their current model. They're going to have to either 1) increase subscription costs or 2) lose the speedy turnaround for the mailed DVDs and customer service we all currently enjoy.

The article also pointed out that top brass at Netflix estimate that they have to make $2 on every DVD in their inventory to stay in the black. While cutting postage out of the picture does reduce the cost of making a title available, they still have to pay licensing fees and material costs. Apparently, they aren't making squat on Watch Now at the moment.

From the article:

"In recent years, Netflix has increased the availability of films that subscribers can stream instantly onto their personal computers, game consoles, Internet-enabled televisions, and soon iPhones. Currently, some 17,000 of Netflix’s roughly 100,000 titles are available for instant streaming. But while instantly streamed movies obviously eliminate postage costs, they are not a cost-free proposition for Netflix. Analysts suggest that the streaming technology itself is very cheap — it costs roughly five cents to stream 90 minutes of content — but the licensing fees can be exorbitant. Netflix won’t release the data on how much it pays for online licensing, but can apparently be quite expensive. Dan Rayburn, an analyst with Streaming Media, has said that he’s seen some streaming movies that cost as much as $4 per play.

Even if Netflix did wish to abandon mail delivery altogether, it wouldn’t be possible. Hollywood studios actively limit the number of films they allow to be streamed, because they want to avoid cannibalizing their highly profitable DVD businesses. (Studios collect about 80 percent of the sales of DVDs.) That’s a big reason why Reed Hastings, the founder, CEO, and chairman of the company, recently told Bloomberg News that he expects Netflix to continue mailing DVDs for 20 more years."

 Once Netflix has a full HD library we'll face the next roadblock:  Bandwidth caps.  Comcast's 250GB cap is bearable in a family-household using standard-def, but is still a restraint at times.  ISP rates are going to increase once high-def is standard.  Unlike Netflix, Comcast won't take a substantial financial hit to provide customer satisfaction.

 That might be a motivator for Netflix to get cracking though.  More HD titles means less movies streamed (due to bandwidth caps), theoretically reducing licensing fees paid.

gregoryischeap

Comcast's 250GB cap is bearable in a family-household using standard-def, but is still a restraint at times.

Just out of curiosity, have you monitored your usage? At what point is it a restraint? I'm all for unlimited usage but 250 GB is actually quite a bit. More than I thought. I recently installed DD-WRT on my router and have found my usage is much less than I expected and we stream quite a bit from Netflix. Even doubling the bitrate for HD I don't think I would come close to 250 GB. 250 a month is a little over 8 GB a day and we're just not even coming close and we use the internet heavily as a family for standard usage. Now if Netflix started streaming 15-20 Mbit streams across the board there could be a problem. I do think 250 GB will become a problem in the future for many typical households but it doesn't seem to be a problem now or at least not in our house.