The reference thread for streaming movies...

I just found out that Verizon is planning on joining into the streaming movie chase, along with Wal-Mart and the all too common Net-Flix. While this will not be happening until next year [2012], it seems to me that streaming movies is going to be an all out war to win your business. With the introduction of the Blu-Ray player I have gotten earlier on this year, I have been using this more and more for on-demand programming.

What do you all use? Feel free to chime in and answer what you like and dislike about it, the amount of movies available, reliability,, sound, quality of picture, cost, news and other observations or tid-bits of information you have experienced with the streaming services you are hearing about, use or have used.

I haven't used any yet personally but my brother uses and recommends graboid. http://www.graboid.com/ I guess its like the old napster but you pay so much a month, I think he pays $15 a month for up to 50 gig of downloads. He gets movies before they're out in the theater some times and always long before they hit shelves. 90% of the ones I've watched are dvd quality.

My experience with Netflix, which I subscribe to, I was not happy with the quality of both the picture and sound. So I dropped the streaming portion of it. Did not even come close to the quality of my OPPO blu-ray player which I have grown accustomed to over the last few years.

That's strange, Don. I have streamed HD off of Netflix and I couldn't tell the difference between that and an HD signal coming from Directv. The sound was comparable but no matter what I get my source from, nothing so far has come close to the sight and sound from a Blu-Ray. I'm using a Sony BD-S570 via HDMI to a regular HDTV with the analog out from the TV straight into the Dodd pre, if that helps. For some F'd up reason, I got/get better sound that way than when I went straight from the Sony to the Dodd regardless of the IC used.

I actually dropped the Netflix after the price hike and upgraded my Directv's programming and upgraded all equipment to HD and whole house DVR. Now I can record 4 movies at once and watch 2 other programs, regardless if they are in HD or not. I miss the Blu-Ray's I used to get in the mail but I have enough non-streaming options now to keep me and the wife happy and the price ended up washing out once I dropped Netflix and paid up front for the upgrades. One thing I didn't like about Netflix was the limited amount of movies I wanted to watch. Many of them weren't available in HD as well. Even the mail order was limited with regards to what I wanted to watch, especially in Blu-Ray. The price increase just wasn't worth it to me. Well, that and I have experienced random but infrequent dropping of the Wi-fi in the house which became more than aggravating when 3/4 of the way through a movie. Still working on that issue.

Thanks for the link, jjptkd.

Currently I am using Direct TV and Netflix. I too have whole house HD DVR with 6 tvs connected at the house and a separate HD box and antenna for the garage.

Direct TV has the best video and audio. I can run netflix either from my Oppo BD or from my Apple TV. The Oppo didn't support 5.1 Prologic, it only worked in 5.0, which was extremely disappointing. When I launched netfilx from the Apple TV I was able to get 5.1 sound, so that is what I use.

All of my tvs are wired connections, digital off the DVRs. All of my audio devices and all connected to Apple tvs, so I can listen to music via wireless networking and or watch streaming movies via netflix. The thing I like about netflix is they usually have a movie
I want to watch before DTV does.

What I don't like about netflix is all of the video is compressed, whether you select HD or not.

If it's a good movie with sound effects I'll wait untill I can get it on DTV before I watch it. If I really like it I'll buy a blue ray version of it for the oppo player. Then I have the best audio and vidio available

Not exactly HD, but how can you really bitch about FREE?
http://www.movie2k.to/

Mostly theater copies of new films before they are released on DVD.

I see that you can get them for free for 14 days but how much is it after that?

well it is llike this. i clicked and then a minute or two later it played. i started the age verification with the credit card, but then it went to a page not found screen. so as i am reading and looking for the free, the movie started. still not sure what i did to get it going, i did it again somehow. pretty cool, it not just free porn available for streaming on the pc now.cool