Netflicks?

[monkey44]

Tried to get info from NetFlicks help/chat ... must be talking in Martian tho as I can't seem to phrase my questions properly.

We're thinking of dumping the cable again - What a waste of a good TV screen - such boring junk!!

So, we have 5G hotspot - I imagine it's too small to do well with streaming videos ... Can anyone estimate how much bandwidth ONE average movie takes to watch, operate, whatever it is we do to see it?

And, as an option, we might go with a hard-line ISP at home, when we're here. But the option is DVD thru the mail (or is it UPS) ...

How is DVD mailed and returned? Is it fast or slow delivery and return. Seems like mail procedure would severely limit the number of DVDs you could watch.

Can anyone give me an overview of NetFlicks - success or failure of the experience - both streaming or DVD mail.

I tried also to find an info page, and the movie title list, but it won't let me look at anything unless I open an account - it has a free month, but don't want to waste any free days 'investigating the service' ...

Found one page, but when I ask it about movie titles, each time, it only shows ONE title,then I have to ask it again. Instead of providing a list -- time-consuming and a PITA.

[docj]

schneid wrote:
My experience is that Netflix streaming sucks about 500mb per movie from my data plan. For DVD's, I use RedBox. Netflix, for me, because of the Post Office, amounted to one movie a week. I am sure if you live near a hub, it would be much faster.

If you're on a plan that charges you $10/GB for excess usage then what you're saying is that a movie on Netflix Streaming costs you ~$5. IMHO that's not really all that out of line since you do have to pay the RedBox fee and you should account for the gas you use getting the movie and returning it.

[schneid]

My experience is that Netflix streaming sucks about 500mb per movie from my data plan. For DVD's, I use RedBox. Netflix, for me, because of the Post Office, amounted to one movie a week. I am sure if you live near a hub, it would be much faster.

[mileshuff]

2oldman wrote:
And you made $3.50 an hour at your job. We now have the world's knowledge at our fingertips. I miss some things of the 60s, but not the technology.

While I earn my living based on technology I would gladly give it up and return to the life I enjoyed a few decades ago. People actually interacted with each other in person. They used voice too! Much less distractions and a lot more fun.

[monkey44]

2oldman wrote:

monkey44 wrote:
What happens if your watching a movie and you lose signal - something that happens pretty frequently when in rural and outlying areas --

The movie will stop, you'll see a spinning circle until it 'buffers' enough to play, then it will play until it happens again.

If you're in an area where you lose signal, it's highly likely you're in a fringe area and won't even be able to watch a movie at all.

Well, I lose signal several times in a day, even at home - then it comes back after a few minutes, usually - often, I have to re-boot the WIFI box. And, we live in Jacksonville FL - very close in town, not rural.

Course, that might be my WIFI box too, which is an older one, and set for a renewal in a week or so - will get the new version.

[docj]

With Verizon 4G and Netflix sometimes we can watch an entire 2 hour movie without a buffering pause; other times it might happen once or twice for ~1-3 minutes. The speed of the cellular network is not constant and can drop to zero for a minute or two. Netflix uses a buffer and an ability to change your resolution on-the-fly (with you hardly noticing it) in order to handle changes in your internet download speed so the number of actual "breaks" in a 2-hour period are usually small. When that does happen it's a great excuse for a "nature calls" break anyway. :B

[2oldman]

monkey44 wrote:
What happens if your watching a movie and you lose signal - something that happens pretty frequently when in rural and outlying areas --

The movie will stop, you'll see a spinning circle until it 'buffers' enough to play, then it will play until it happens again.

If you're in an area where you lose signal, it's highly likely you're in a fringe area and won't even be able to watch a movie at all.

[MrWizard]

when the signal is back
the movie continues at from exaactly were it stopped
you can even 'pause' the movie and take a 'nature break' or kitchen sanwhich
and come back and start playing again right where you paused it
just like the dvd or vcr

[monkey44]

2oldman wrote:

monkey44 wrote:
have you tried to buy a cell phone lately that only does phone calls?
NOW, it's nothing but an advertising rag, and you need special training to eliminate or skip the ads and use it as a real resource

I don't want a phone just to make phone calls. Phone calls are annoying, especially to businesses with voice trees, annoying waits on hold and incompetent employees.

Maybe that's why so many come here to ask questions which can easily be found on their own.

Two different comments you combined here - cell phone for only calls, and internet that has become an advertising rag. it makes no sense the way you quoted me.

And, "answers found on their own" ...hmmm, that's why this forum exists, to ask people that know about thing like this - first hand, not someone trying to sell me a product, and will 'bend the answer' to do it.

And I fully admit my tech stupidity - that's why I come here, and that's why I answer other questions where I do have expertise - sharing knowledge - a great concept.

But, my questions about NetFlicks can't be answered easily on the web, only by someone who has the service. tried NetFlicks too, and got a non-trained person (twice) who couldn't answer my questions either. Per usual, when you try CS at major corporations today.

For example - Now that I know it's a continuous 'stream' for two hours or so, instead of a minute or two download --- brings another question to mind.

What happens if your watching a movie and you lose signal - something that happens pretty frequently when in rural and outlying areas -- And, rural and outlying areas, the very reason we have portable signals in the first place.

SO, maybe someone can answer that - what happens to the movie when you lose signal - does it start again same place when it picks up signal, does it drop completely? A bummer in the middle of a flick, right? If you lose it?

Although, it seems in general, WIFI (streaming) is not a good idea. Probably a better service for those with home hard-wire ISP.

[2oldman]

monkey44 wrote:
have you tried to buy a cell phone lately that only does phone calls?
NOW, it's nothing but an advertising rag, and you need special training to eliminate or skip the ads and use it as a real resource

I don't want a phone just to make phone calls. Phone calls are annoying, especially to businesses with voice trees, annoying waits on hold and incompetent employees.

Maybe that's why so many come here to ask questions which can easily be found on their own.

[docj]

1775 wrote:
I did a bandwidth test and found that one hour of streaming movie uses one GB of bandwidth - so the 5 GB limit that many data plans have will be used up with two and a half average movies.

Redbox has machines in many Walmarts and supermarkets. You can rent a DVD from one Redbox machine and return it to another so this is an alternative to streaming video while traveling. There are apps to find Redbox locations and also their website should tell you where their machines are located.

I assume you are aware that you can control, to some degree, the bandwidth of your Netflix stream. For most of the shows we watch we are quite content with the "middle" setting of the three that are available and we find that the data usage is more like 1GB for two hours of viewing which is roughly equal to 1GB per movie.

I can't understand why people look at the data limits on their cellular plans as "absolutes" as if you can't go past them. If you have a plan that charges you $10 per GB over the limit and you can limit your data rate to ~1GB per movie, then a movie will cost ~$10 which isn't all that much more than the ~$7 DirecTV or cable providers charge for pay-per-view. Furthermore, if you take the car to drive to a Redbox to pickup or return you should include the cost of the gas used when considering the total cost of the entertainment. Redbox is fine if you like what they happen to have; there's a lot more content available through Netflix and Amazon. As full-timers we would run through things that interest at Redbox pretty quickly.

[monkey44]

2oldman wrote:
Nexflix.. nexflix.

monkey44 wrote:
Remember when a phone was wired to your house and cost $5 a month,

And you made $3.50 an hour at your job. We now have the world's knowledge at our fingertips. I miss some things of the 60s, but not the technology.

True enough, but problem with the technology - the "corporates' keep changing it - for example, have you tried to buy a cell phone lately that only does phone calls? Now, it does everything - which we often don't truly need - and ups the price - and because there's no where else to go, we either up the expense to get a simple phone, or we have no phone.

AND, the internet - when I first 'found it' in college, only the universities were 'connected' and you could only use it if you went to a university library ... and it was an amazing source of info.

NOW, it's nothing but an advertising rag, and you need special training to eliminate or skip the ads and use it as a real resource -- 'tag lines' make every search bombard you with ads instead of true and useful info - that is one of the saddest thing I've seen about this ISP revolution.

[2oldman]

Nexflix.. nexflix.

monkey44 wrote:
Remember when a phone was wired to your house and cost $5 a month,

And you made $3.50 an hour at your job. We now have the world's knowledge at our fingertips. I miss some things of the 60s, but not the technology.

[mileshuff]

We dumped our cable TV years ago as rates kept climbing. Don't watch enough TV to justify the absurdly high prices they want here. I put up an antenna and I have free digital TV on all the sets in the house. I subscribe to Netflix which can be viewed through smart TV's, most blue-ray players and my Wii U. Also use Redbox a few times a month. More than enough TV for me without going broke on monthly bills.

[monkey44]

buntina wrote:
Yes I remember those days. Now I pay $30.99 a month for a fiber Broadband connection which gives me access to my VOIP $19.95 a year telephone connection. Wifi throughout the home which gets me access to Netflix and Antenna's for local stations and all my computer stuff networked. I'd say that's pretty cheap.

The trouble is, with all this technology, you gotta know how to use it, connect and cross-connect items, and if something fails, even for a minor reason, we have no clue what to do and CS these days is like talking to a dead horse. You beat it and you beat it, and it still won't work ...

have a dead phone now, won't go into details as it would take pages and pages - but hours and hours with no results. Go into store, they say it's fixed. Half hour driving home, half hour driving back, store employee uses five minutes of her time - so far, three trips and also over two hours on hold and talking to a tech that is a dead horse.