--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu <noozg...@...> wrote: > > With the local Hollywood Video going out of business and a new Samsung > networked Bluray player I decided to sign up again for Netflix. As I've > mentioned before I used Netflix over 10 years ago when DVD first came > out because few if any of the local stores had DVDs to rent. Then they > began getting them and I stopped using Netflix. So upon Turq's > recommendation I put Starz's "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" in my Instant > Watch list. Last night I watched the first half of the first episode. > Interesting series though nowhere as well produced as HBO's "Rome" but > quite interesting how they put green screen and CG to work to create the > episode. Not sure if it's my cup of tea as I found plenty to fill the > queue otherwise. Of course I've seen enough to see why Turq liked it. ;-) > > The first thing I watched in HD on Instant Play
I recently suspended my membership -- lack of time -- but when I was active, I was disappointed in many of the instant plays. First, many were edited to 4:3 format -- losing 2/3's of the actual picture. i have refused to watch that format for years. (sort like using a 1/2 inch thick condom.) Second, the resolution was mediocre on many (better on some). I have a 25 MB connection so I assumed they hwouldhave the throttle opend up a bit on their side -- maybe 6-10 MG which would enable HD streaming. Have they changed and upped their "output" speeds? Third, selection was primarily old cable fodder -- though still a lot of old art house films. >was was a quirky > psychological thriller which could easily make the "weird film" list > called "Order of Chaos". I had stumbled across the movie looking at the > Alan Watt www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com site as they used a couple of > Alan's Internet radio raps in the movie and he had put a link to > Amazon's listing there. Those not familiar with Alan is he is a > Scotsman living in Canada doing historical conspiracy podcasts. You > can find these on his site and they can be very entertaining. One > interesting thing is he claims that TM was an attempt by the Freemason's > to create a new religion using Maharishi. I suspect that Alan may have > at one time practiced TM or was even a teacher. The movie was > interesting enough that I had Netflix send me the DVD so that I could > listen to the commentary and see what was behind the making of the movie. > > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1159721/ > > Between Netflix, Vudu, Redbox and Amazon's service I might ditch most of > my cable bill. Cable companies are so yesterday. I cancelled my subscription. A lot of stuff I watch is on hulu or you tube -- at least the "best" parts. > The MPEG-4 (AVC) > encoding for these Internet streams looks far better than Comcast ever > looks because Comcast starves the bit rate on their MPEG-2 streams. The > Amazon app is yet to appear on my player but Samsung has it on their TVs > so it is undoubtedly in the works for the players too. With Amazon I > can ditch extended basic because they have many of the current series > for rent that I watch (and way overpay for with the subscription). >
