We've been following the rumor since
January, today it's official: LG's BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player will begin streaming Netflix movies in the US this September. The player will cost "well under $500" and allow Netflix members to stream more than 12,000 standard definition TV and films through the device at no additional increase to their monthly paid subscriptions. Members will use the Netflix website to add movies or TV to their individual instant queues. Movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds when selected from the TV where users can browse, make selections, read synopses, rate movies, and fast-forward / rewind video streams using the BD300's remote control. While specs on the player itself are scarce, we do know that it supports BD Live and LG's SimpLink technology to integrate easily with LG TVs and AV products. One thing's for sure, with this deal announced and those with
Roku and the
Xbox 360 in the bag, it looks like Netflix is grown-up and ready for the digital age.
posted Jul 31st 2008 12:35AM
Can it stream iTunes music? That would be ideal.
i guess that's one way to futureproof bluray put digital downloads right in the player. the field day nfinity would have with this one.
This actually sounds excellent,finally a player worth owning, a BR player with next generation features, a player that potentially is finally living up to the promise, finally the justification why profile 2.0 should be mandatory ! (all though personally I would not buy LG)
There you go Mr.Ben Drawbough, this is exactly why ALL BR players should by this stage of their life cycle be profile 2.0, this and other features is what next generation DVD should be, how's the unwary consumer going to feel now when this becomes the new standard.
Are you kidding? LG has the best customer service around. They actually answer questions you ask them. Personally, based on my and my friends viewing preferences... Profile 2.0 is overrated. No one (except the few) actually hook up their player to the internet just to download some backgrounds or get additional info or play games. The average consumer cares about the movie, a few extras such as deleted scenes/bloopers or commentary at best.
I got my bh200 for about 329.99 new. However, it was severly underpriced. Not only does it have Qdeo processing (as good as reon HQV, believe me I used my HQV reference disc), it is one of the few players to be profile 1.1 and be able to do truehd and dts-hd ma properly. I emailed LG a while back and they said that they had a big firmware update in the works. Im hoping its profile 2.0 just for the sake of having it. Though i never once used hd-dvd's internet capabilities.
Profile 2.0 will have nothing to do with this feature, although in theory it could provide something similar. Maybe one day Netflix will send out a BD which enables any 2.0 player to become a streamer if you boot the player up from it. It sounds feasible.
But for now I see no reason 2.0 should be mandatory. Like it or not, the number of people who would hook up a player to the internet even if they could would be a small fraction of the total. Why should manufacturers be burdened with adding hardware or cost for a feature only a small number of people are going to use? Give it a few years and there might be a reason for a 2.0 player. For now there is practically none at all.
The issue right now with Netflix, as with all the other downloads systems, is that it's a proprietary closed system tied to a specific distributor. So this doesn't really make this player "next generation", though it does help shape what constitutes "next generation" by helping one possible model get field tested.
I'm very curious to find out what Download/DL will end up being. If it's just the kiosk system it was originally explained as (idiots at Engadget claiming it's upscaling aside...) then it's not terribly interesting. If, on the other hand, it constitutes the first component of an open downloads system based primarily on DVD Forum standards, with the first implementation being "Download and burn directly from your DVD player", then it could conceivably be the real kick forward downloads need.
For downloads to work, there has to be open access: players need to standardize on a single set of open access standards. Issues that also need to be addressed are substandard Internet connections (it should be possible to download before watching, buffering the entire movie so it can be watched without interruption), quality (it needs to be at least DVD quality, and HD really should be available too), and the fact people do not want to "rent" everything they watch also needs to be addressed. Netflix has addressed the last point, but it's early days with most of the other issues, and a service operated by Netflix is by definition not open-access.
Yeah, in the future I could see a Tivo like player that had a list of movies you were interested in and knew your favorite genres and downloaded in advance and asked if you wanted to watch that movie.
The content would be locked/encrypted in the box and would just delete it if you weren't interested, but if you were, it had already downloaded it in the background/past when the content was available so you didn't have to watch it streamed and could see a full 1080P movie.
You'd have to have some major HD space to be able to store multiple possible movies the average consumer might want, but it could be done, it's just the security that would be the issue. I could see Studios unwilling to even try this based on worries that the box could be hacked and people could just being downloading without purchase every new release.
In theory any profile 2.0 player could do VOD or streaming. It has the horsepower, and the connectivity and a Java runtime for the UI and control function. Imagine if you bought a BD that it came with a serial nr that entitled you to watch Disney / Fox / WB TV shows for a month through the disk. No that would be a cool feature. It would beat the crap that BD-Live is being touted for right now. Maybe in a few years...
This actually sounds excellent,finally a player worth owning, a BR player with next generation features, a player that potentially is finally living up to the promise, finally the justification why profile 2.0 should be mandatory ! (all though personally I would not buy LG)
There you go Mr.Ben Drawbough, this is exactly why ALL BR players should by this stage of their life cycle be profile 2.0, this and other features is what next generation DVD should be, how's the unwary consumer going to feel now when this becomes the new standard.
I'll say it again... I'd rather companies keep costs down and churn out sub $200 profile 1.1 players then have them release $400 dollar players but have the benefit of profile 2.0
Profile 2.0 is just so unnecessary right now... I'd say I used that online functionality once on my hd-dvd player just to see the fuss on transformers and all it gave me was the ability to download new background for the movie menu, some games, and info.
I'd much rather have great players that have the ability for profile 1.1 features such as PiP because ive found that the majority of people only watch stuff like deleted/extended scenes, bloopers, or audio commentaries. For that, you dont need profile 2.0
Yes its nice to have it, but a great profile 1.1 player for around $199.99 trumps a great profile 2.0 player for around 400 or so.
What is with this FN posting system!!
Have you guys actually watched any of this Netflix content? It looks like cr@p! I've got excellent broadband, so I get the highest quality stream Netflix sends out. If looks about as good as a regular SD channel on Satellite at the best of times - ie, the stuff I don't even subscribe to any longer.
I agree that streaming quality content is the future. But Netflix's setup of low quality and poor selection is not where it's at.
Maybe xtremeHD will take off -- or something like the new DISH 1080p VOD service.
This is great. Eliminates the need for another box sitting in ones AV rack.
This is pretty nice! Of course the main thing we're missing in all these various video download systems is an open standard among content providers. As long as each download box you buy is locked to a specific provider with proprietary DRM schemes, video streaming over IP will never become a truly universal, reliable solution for consumers.
But only standard definition?! It said 12,000 SD movies, but any HD?
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea, but the idea of standard def content coming through a Blu Ray player just seems . . . wrong. Will the player at least upscale?
Netflix isn't offering HD streaming. Not yet, at least.
Price still matters if you ask me. I don't think I would want to pay a price premium for Netflix, considering that Windows Media Extenders do it for free and 360's have it.
That said, if I was in the market between this and another Blu-Ray player, this feature would set the LG apart. I just wouldn't want to pay more.
There's a price premium on the 360, too: a Live subscription.
Cool. That's innovation, but I'm going to stick with my HTPC, since it does everything that this does, and quite a bit more.
Sounds like what Toshiba is trying to do with their new super upconversion DVD players in which they are adding the HD-DVD interactive/online spec to normal DVD. Toshiba is just trying to keep the standard DVD-format relevant in the brave new world of HD and digital downloads by giving it the very best up conversion possibl;e and the same online connectivity as BD Live.
Maybe if one purchases a DVD, one then gets access to watch a streaming HD version?? I'm curious to see what Toshiba has planned and how well their up conversion tech looks.
I have only one question: Where in the hell are the HD movies to stream? Standard Def is poof, what a waste. Until I can watch at a minimum 720p but preferably 1080p movies n this manor, this us pretty much bust.
But then what would be the point of the blu-ray player if you are allowed instantaneous streaming of HD movies?? Blu-ray is not going to stoke digital downloads by allowing cheap and mass streaming of HD content on the machine. Who would want to go get the blu-ray disc for 30 bucks or even take their fatass to the store to rent a blu-ray disc if they can just stream the HD movie in the comfort of their home.
This netflix deal is just an added bonus. Adding HD streaming downloads will be a double-edged sword and may hurt blu-ray just like 1080p upscaling DVD players and then wondering why people dont want to leave DVD anytime soon.
I think this is great deal , and ya many complaining about high price players.
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Pic quality is just ok. Only reason to get Roku or other near-future Netflix is to watch the stock of TV shows and old movies. The quality now on Roku is still far better than when I watched some 1965 show THEN. It does have some anoying 'flash' every once and a while. I think they have an update soon from the current 1.0. I am watching Donnie Brasso and really it isn't that bad. I have a nice 65" wide-screen and believe me I see every defect. Still, it is like watching broadcast TV. I've seen much worse after Dish Network gets done compressing the hell of of a movie.
HD downloading, at a minimum of 720P, would be for rental reasons and not for purchase really. The aspect of purchasing brings the watch it when ever you want, extras and physical ownership of the films in the that mix. So in the end, why settle for Standard Def movies when HD is where it's at regardless? Makes no sense to me. If someone is not going to buy a movie just because it isn't available for HD download doesn't mean they will run and buy it. HD or no way for me these days, they need to get with it. I love owning movies I love but why can't I be able to rental HD versions of what I don't and or am curious about? Retarded.
Do people realize you need pretty damn fast download speed to stream a full HD movie and actually have it look good? The average consumer internet speed for a home is not fast enough to stream HD. If you look at the bit rates for Blu-ray movies while watching they can jump as high a 40 Mbps (that is 6 MB/s you would need just to hopefully keep up, you would need a little more like 7 or 8 MB/s to be good). Considering I have a 20 Mbps internet connection (2.5 MB/s) and I know I wouldn't be able to stream true HD over the internet. This is a good article that explains it better than I do: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=959
-Shark2k
I use the Apple TV unit to watch 720p HD movies, they looks fantastic, I have been using it for about a month here in Australia on a 30Mbit cable connection, the movie starts within about 10 seconds, it doesn't need to download the whole movie before it starts playing, and no buffering issues at all, bring on this technology I say!