media addict

Entries in the Category "Technology"

Netflix Streaming and Physical Media

Since Netflix launched their movie and television streaming service there has been a lot of speculation about the imminent death of physical media. Consumers don't want to have stacks of discs around just to listen to music or watch a movie. When I read tech blogs, all I hear about is that people only stream movies and have DVDs and Blu-rays sitting around for months. My experience with Netflix streaming is the exact opposite and I have noticed two key shortcomings of the service that never seem to be part of the discussion.

1. Catalog Stability - In addition to the limited catalog of titles available, those that are available are often only available for a limited time. Multiple items in my streaming queue have expired and can no longer be watched because Netflix's rights agreement have expired with the content owner. This is easily the biggest issue with any media streaming service. Content availability is everything, and having a catalog that is constantly in flux is a big problem.


2. Stream Quality - I have a standard cable internet connection with a download rate of 6Mbps. When I initiate Netflix's service I typically get a 4 bar quality rating for my stream. When available this also gives me the HD stream. This sounds great, but the fact is that even the HD stream is basically DVD quality. To compare this with a Blu-ray is laughable. To make matters worse, virtually every time I stream a movie the quality regularly starts high and then drops to 3 and sometimes 2 bars, rendering it a far less enjoyable experience. I realize that this is due to my internet connection, but that also means that others with similar connections are suffering the same problems. For this to be a legitimate replacement for physical media, this issue needs to be resolved.


3. Transfer Quality - Quite a few of the streams I have come across in Netflix's system are not in widescreen format, even when a widescreen version is available on DVD. Others are presented in letterbox widescreen and appear as a small rectangle in the center of an HDTV. This is unacceptable for a service meant to replace physical media.

Don't get me wrong, I love Netflix. I have been a subscriber for over five years and it has allowed me to become a voracious consumer of movies (I have rented over 1100 movies since June 2004). The death of physical media is coming, but not for many years. Many areas of the country still have only dial-up or slow broadband connections available. The time when the average consumer has enough bandwidth to stream 1080p content is several years, if not a decade, away.

Playstation 3

A few weeks ago I wrote about my debate over whether or not to buy a PS3. Last week Target ran a deal where if you bought the 40GB PS3 you got a free $40 gift card. This combined with the announcement that Toshiba will no longer produce HD-DVD players, resulted in me buying a PS3.I have owned an XBOX 360 for over a year and I have to say that from a hardware standpoint the PS3 is in another league. From the design, to the capability, this is one slick machine.

Pros:
- Quiet Fans (while the PS3 produces plenty of heat, it does so without the considerable fan noise that my 360 emits)
- Quiet Disc Drive (unlike the jet engine in the 360, the PS3's drive is virtually silent)
- Clean Interface (the blade interface of the 360 is good, but at times can be clunky with too many sub-menus per blade, I found the crossbar on the PS3 to be better)
- Movie Playback (the PS3 has a huge advantage due to its built-in Bluray player, but even the options for upscaling regular DVDs and the interface itself are far superior to the 360)

Cons:
- PSN (it doesn't come close to the content available on XBOX Live & its interface is clunky)
- Game Demos (require an install process which for some reason is not done automatically)

That said I am very pleased with my purchase. I definitely spend more time watching movies than playing games, so my PS3 will see a lot of use from all media.

Buy a PS3?

I have been considering buying a PS3 but I can't quite bring myself to do it. My interest in the PS3 ramped up a couple of weeks ago when Warner Brothers announced they were going Blu-ray exclusive. This solidified my belief that the HD format war was Blu-ray's to lose and that the best that HD-DVD could hope for was a stalemate. I have two primary reservations about getting a PS3: the number of exclusive games that I am interested in and the video quality difference between DVD and Blu-ray.

My first reservation stems from the fact that the only PS3 exclusive that has come out that I am interested in is Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Some other games on the horizon look interesting (Little Big Planet, and others), but they are at least several months away. The other source of doubt for me is that the difference between DVD and Blu-ray is marginal on a 26" HDTV like I have. That said, I do spend more time watching movies than playing games and while I can definitely tell the difference between HD and DVD, it isn't a make-or-break situation. In order to sway my decision I need more justification to spend $400 than just somewhat better video quality, ie. interesting games to play. The PS3 is also the most future proof Blu-ray player making it the obvious choice for a player if I'm going to buy one.

The wild card in all this is that there are a couple of movies that I would like to buy (Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Planet Earth). But there is no point in buying them on an obsolete format so why not get an HD player already? Maybe I'll wait for my economic stimulus from the government and blow it on a PS3 to do my part for the country. For the foreseeable future, however, I'm going to stay in a holding pattern. But if a couple more PS3 exclusive games look compelling or they drop the price again (come on Sony you know you want to) I'm going to have to cross to the dark side.