PS3 People with Netflix

mutelight

The latest Netflix update is currently live, so when you start up your system you can run the 19MB download. Unfortunately it is not activated yet but it will offer 1080p video and 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus!

This will make the necessity of Xbox Live Gold on the 360 to use Netflix look a bit silly, especially when it is limited to 720p video with stereo audio.

leroyjr1

How is it done?

codyc1ark

"If you instantly watch movies and TV shows from Netflix on your PS3, here is the news you’ve been waiting for: starting Monday, October 18 you’ll be able to instantly watch movies and TV shows without inserting an instant streaming disc into your console.

In addition to eliminating the disc, there is a new user interface that brings a much richer and faster browsing experience, content search directly on the device, and dramatic improvements in how fast playback starts.

There is even more good news for PS3 owners: starting on Monday you’ll be able to instantly watch some movies and TV shows in 1080i 1080p high definition, listen to Dolby 5.1 channel surround sound, and view an increasing portion of our content library with subtitles. This will bring the home theater experience right to your living room and make instantly watching movies even more enjoyable. Here’s a news release from Netflix and Dolby with details.

Check out these improvements and continue to enjoy watching TV shows and movies streamed from Netflix."

Makes me very happy, we use Netflix quite a bit, in time I hope this is rolled our for everything possible, anything to convince her that all this 'speaker junk' is needed! :eek: Plus I'll like not having to get up off the couch, take the four steps and swap discs ever again.

kuntasensei

mutelight wrote: »

The latest Netflix update is currently live, so when you start up your system you can run the 19MB download. Unfortunately it is not activated yet but it will offer 1080p video and 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus!

This will make the necessity of Xbox Live Gold on the 360 to use Netflix look a bit silly, especially when it is limited to 720p video with stereo audio.

I've been using the new searchable Netflix app on the 360 for a bit now. 1080p and 5.1 will be coming to the 360 as well via an app update. They aren't doing it right now because they're still tweaking the app for Kinect integration, but the new Netflix on the 360 is still way more functional than what they've shown on the PS3.

It's good that they're making it so PS3 owners don't need that stupid disc. Still, the 360 lets you sync up playback with 6 friends and watch movies together, which has turned out to be great for really bad movies you can make fun of. Last night, we watched Zombies Of Mass Destruction, and with the voice codec update in the new 360 dashboard, the voice chat quality is very good.

KrazyMofo24

A big update. Will be there more of a selection to stream? That's the one thing that keeps me from using it very much. I haven't used netflix in about 2 months have it on hold currently.

kuntasensei

BTW: The Wii got a standalone downloadable app today, though obviously not as full-featured as the PS3's app. Still, at least none of the major consoles require a disc to stream Netflix now. Good news for us all!

codyc1ark

I played with it a bit last night, seems to run about the same speed as the disc. I didnt watch any video, the old lady is gone tonight so I'll check out sound and video quality. I deff like the setup better.

jdwmap

Anyone have any idea what speeds are required for movie playback on the PS3? I live in an area where the only option is wireless and I am getting less than 1MB speeds. Just wondering if Netflix is an option (I know you can get them through the mail too, doesn't really interest me right now).

mutelight

kuntasensei wrote: »

I've been using the new searchable Netflix app on the 360 for a bit now. 1080p and 5.1 will be coming to the 360 as well via an app update. They aren't doing it right now because they're still tweaking the app for Kinect integration, but the new Netflix on the 360 is still way more functional than what they've shown on the PS3.

Unfortunately the 360 won't be getting Dolby Dgital Plus.

I have done an A/B comparison on my systems between the 360 and the PS3 when the PS3 was still using the disc and the PS3 edged out the 360 in picture quality (less macro blocking and better performance in dark scenes in particular) but certainly not in the UI.

mutelight

jdwmap wrote: »

Anyone have any idea what speeds are required for movie playback on the PS3? I live in an area where the only option is wireless and I am getting less than 1MB speeds. Just wondering if Netflix is an option (I know you can get them through the mail too, doesn't really interest me right now).

1 megabit or megabyte per second? 1 megabit per second will yield pretty low image quality. For good image quality you want 3-5Mbps.

kuntasensei

mutelight wrote: »

Unfortunately the 360 won't be getting Dolby Dgital Plus.

I have done an A/B comparison on my systems between the 360 and the PS3 when the PS3 was still using the disc and the PS3 edged out the 360 in picture quality (less macro blocking and better performance in dark scenes in particular) but certainly not in the UI.

PS3's Cell processor definitely gives it an edge on video processing. But the 360 WILL be getting 5.1 surround on Netflix in the near future, as the capability was announced back in February. DD+ is simply the encoding method they're using to stream it to all platforms, but Netflix's primary streaming engine is Microsoft Silverlight, which can handle DD+ and 1080p video. Naturally, the PS3 will have an advantage should a title be 7.1 since the 360's audio chipset can't output native 7.1, but the 360 is more than capable of handling DD+ tracks in 5.1.

mutelight

kuntasensei wrote: »

PS3's Cell processor definitely gives it an edge on video processing. But the 360 WILL be getting 5.1 surround on Netflix in the near future, as the capability was announced back in February. DD+ is simply the encoding method they're using to stream it to all platforms, but Netflix's primary streaming engine is Microsoft Silverlight, which can handle DD+ and 1080p video. Naturally, the PS3 will have an advantage should a title be 7.1 since the 360's audio chipset can't output native 7.1, but the 360 is more than capable of handling DD+ tracks in 5.1.

The 360 cannot output DD+ as it requires HDMI 1.3. Undoubtedly the 360 will eventually get 5.1 but it will be limited to vanilla Dolby Digital.

kuntasensei

mutelight wrote: »

The 360 cannot output DD+ as it requires HDMI 1.3. Undoubtedly the 360 will eventually get 5.1 but it will be limited to vanilla Dolby Digital.

No no no... You're not understanding what DD+ is, man. Dolby Digital Plus is the medium they're using for streaming. It doesn't mean you're going to get higher-resolution audio like you'd get on a Blu-ray disc, where the DD+ spec opens up to 6mbps peak throughput. DD+ can be used for broadcast, streaming, disc-based media, etc. at varying bitrates and is compatible with legacy DD decoders. Dolby Digital Plus is used on most digital cable and satellite systems because it is a more efficient codec than standard Dolby Digital (up to 50% more compression at the same quality) and can transcode back to DD for output over SP/DIF. In the case of streaming, Netflix is using it because it is a more efficient encoding scheme than Dolby Digital, reducing the required bandwidth. I just fired up my Windows Media Center, and every channel I get from Comcast via ClearQAM shows the audio format as Dolby Digital Plus.

DD+ broadcasts and streaming do not even reach the maximum 640k bitrate of standard DD, and Dolby specifies that the data rate for DD+ broadcast is 192-256k. HDMI 1.3 is not required to output DD+ in this case (and in fact, if you read Dolby's DD+ FAQ, it says that DD+ broadcast/streaming can be carried over HDMI 1.0 providing the chipset supports the 192k clock rate). In fact, DD+ is what they're using to send the stereo feed for streaming to the Wii as well, and they can do this using the same audio tracks on the server side because the E-AC-3 codec allows for 2-channel downmixing.

So if you thought DD+ in this announcement meant you were getting Blu-ray quality sound, you're not. It just means that Netflix is using DD+ to carry the 5.1 bitstream because it is more efficient and reduces the required bandwidth compared to standard AC-3 encoding. The audio quality, by nature of being streamed, will essentially be the same as what you hear via 5.1 broadcast and will not remotely be close in quality to a DD+ track on a Blu-ray.

mutelight

Eh?

This is inline with what I know about the format but I am open to this alternate application you are stating it has if you have some info on it. My point is that the PS3 is capable of outputting the stream, whereas everything on the 360 will fallback to DD. DD+ is an improved codec. If your entire point is that it is like DTS-MA where it will fallback on DTS Core, I get that but that is not my point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital_Plus

kuntasensei

DD+ is an improved codec. But for broadcast/streaming, it is decoded before output. DD+ is just the transmission method to get it from one end of the chain to the other in a more efficient manner. For instance... does your cable box or satellite receiver send raw DD+ to your AVR? NOPE. However, DD+ is used to get the information to that box because it saves bandwidth (which lets them cram more channels into their available bandwidth). It's simply decoded and output as Dolby Digital or downmixed to stereo in the box for legacy output (i.e. people without AVRs or direct feed to a TV over HDMI).

Though I think the wiki is a poor source of info, pay attention to this from that page:
"As of 2007[update], HDMI 1.3 is the only means to transport a raw DD+ bitstream between two pieces of consumer equipment."
This is true... but you're not going to be transporting a raw DD+ bitstream between your PS3 and your AVR (and neither will the 360 when it gets this functionality), and the Netflix announcement doesn't say that you will. What it says is:

Netflix, Inc. and Dolby Laboratories, Inc. today announced that Netflix has selected Dolby Digital Plus to deliver 5.1-channel surround sound for TV shows and movies streamed instantly over the Internet. Beginning October 18, the PlayStation 3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system from Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. will be the first consumer electronics device to support 5.1-channel surround sound on movies streamed from Netflix. Netflix said more devices would be added over time to support streaming digital surround sound.

You're simply going to receive the DD+ bitstream to the Netflix software (again, because it saves bandwidth, making the streaming more efficient), which will then output as either a raw decoded PCM (likely in the case of the PS3) or a transcoded DD bitstream in the same way a cable box would.

There would be no advantage to outputting a raw DD+ bitstream with streaming media, since the bitrate is going to be below standard DD spec anyway, so even if the PS3 does output the raw DD+ bitstream to your AVR, it will be of no higher quality than DD anyway. Ultimately, my point is that if you're expecting the streamed 5.1 from Netflix to be of higher quality than a 448k DD track from DVD, you're setting yourself up for disappointment... and there will be absolutely zero difference in quality between the 5.1 tracks sent by Netflix to the PS3 and eventually to the 360, since they'll both be from the same source and transmitted to the same decoding software (which, again, is a variant of Microsoft's Silverlight, which the 360 uses right now for its video ads in the dashboard and for streamed 5.1/1080p media via Zune on the 360 - which also uses DD+ for transmission, by the way). The app you download to your PS3, just like the software you download now on the Wii and 360, is what interprets the DD+ bitstream for output.

Now, the reason DD+ is of higher quality on HD-DVD and Blu-ray is because the greater bandwidth of local storage lets you use the higher bitrate capability of DD+ (up to 6mbps, compared to DD's 640k, though Blu-ray spec peaks out at 1.7mbps) and output directly from your local player to the AVR in that format. THAT'S NOT WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH STREAMED MEDIA, nor could it happen with existing internet infrastructure... hence the 192k-256k bitrate of DD+ as a transmission medium for broadcast and streaming (which, because of DD+ being a more efficient codec than DD, is roughly akin to a low bitrate 320k DD track - not even DVD quality).

Ignore the wiki. If you're interested, go here and look at the broadcast overview document:
http://www.dolby.com/professional/technology/home-theater/dolby-digital-plus.html

kuntasensei

Actually, scratch what I said about Silverlight being the video platform solution for Netflix. They've since changed to Widevine adaptive streaming tech. Still, the rest of my point remains.

kuntasensei

Someone with a PS3 Slim who is bitstreaming, go into the new Netflix and play a recent episode of 30 Rock... then tell us what format your AVR is receiving it in. 30 Rock is up on Netflix in 5.1 using DD+ right now, so that should answer that question. Just curious how Sony is handling the output, since they have to allow for mixing of the console sounds into the 5.1 bitstream.

ballen823

I'm getting DD on my receiver when viewing 30 Rock. I'm bit streaming with the Slim to an SC-07.

kuntasensei

ballen823 wrote: »

I'm getting DD on my receiver when viewing 30 Rock. I'm bit streaming with the Slim to an SC-07.

And there you have it.

leroyjr1

I'm getting DD also.

mutelight

Cool