Netflix Instant watch

We used to be a member of Netflix and we cancelled our membership for a couple of months since we realized that we are not watching and turning around the movies effectively. We also had other pressing priorities lined up which led to that decision. I was also bummed by the fact that I could not watch the Instant movies from Netflix on my television. They used some rather bizzare DRM from Windows media player which prevented those movies from playing on my television which was connected using a component output from my desktop.

With the onset of new year, we decided to give Netflix another try. So I enabled our account with the very basic version which will let us have 1 DVD at a time and we could also watch unlimited Instant watch movies for $8.99/month. With very little hope I decided to give another try to play the Instant watch movies on my television. I came to know that they have now started using the Microsoft Silverlight techonologies to stream the Instant watch movies. That gave me a little more hope. But the initial trial of installing Silverlight from Microsoft website was a bummer. So I called Netflix support and they gave me another link to install Silverlight from and that did the wonders. I am now able to watch the online movies from Netflix on my television. Watched Outsourced and Transsiberian and I was very impressed with it DVD like quality. I did have some glitches in between where my IE browser would freeze and I had to wait for about 5-10 mins before I could kill the browser and start all over again. But again Netflix has this cool feature of saving the last viewed frame from where it will restart if there was a disruption. Also when there was some disruption in the Internet connection, the movie would not restart after the connection has been restored. These are some annoying glitches that Netflix can work on to improve the user experience

There are still room for improvements but overall I am quite satisfied with their online streaming technology and also their collection of movies that could be watched online. Looking forward to more online movies from Netflix.

2009 - A New year and a new post

Welcome new year 2009. With it comes a few resolutions, a few absolution and an oath to revive this blog yet again. No promises like last time and no listing of resolutions like last time. Just a note to myself to visit this page atleast once a day and try to pen some thoughts if possible as often as possible.

In preparation for 2009, I entered the world of Facebook. Invited a few friends and colleagues. My wife cautioned that I would get addicted to it and I must agree that I was the first couple of days. Its starting or wear off a bit but its been one of the most interesting social network I have come across so far. So I am hoping its going to keep me engaged for a few months. 

Looking back at 2008, I am glad that it was a great year and a memorable one for us on a personal level. The one we would cherish for a long time to come as a family.

I am getting into 2009 with a lot of hopes and promises to myself as always. I also wish each and everyone who comes across this post a very happy, prosperous, eventful, engaging, surreal and a dream come true for each and every one of you.