Monday 19 March 2012

A month with Netflix........

I decided to give one of the streaming video services a try. My girlfriend and I love a night in front of a movie or a TV series (currently ploughing through 8 series of 24 we both missed first time round!) so in theory it's a no-brainer for us. I have an Xbox 360 and we both have tablets, for which the Lovefilm and Netflix apps are available, so we have easy ways to digest the content. Having cancelled Lovefilm twice and having my email addresses rejected for the free trial I decided that Netflix was the beast to choose. 

I have to admit that compared to Blinkbox and Zune the movie content is a little underwhelming but that isn't to say there isn't value to be had (@£5.99 a month). Certainly the movies on offer are not the near DVD releases you get on the aforementioned services but there are some good older films and some very decent TV shows. The likes of 24, Prison break and Spooks stand out but dig a little deeper and you might find some gems. I have already got into a couple a couple of mid-noughties American series that I had never heard of (Jericho & Surface). I look forward to getting into the highly rated Dexter as well! It's true that if you want to watch stuff that's just come out on DVD then your options are going to be the DVD itself or Zune and Blinkbox if streaming is your thing. 

Of course streaming is what makes it convenient and I have had no complaints about the quality so far on either my tablet or via my 360 to the TV. I am pretty convinced anyone could find enough content to warrant the outlay but it would be great to see some newer content available for streaming soon to make it REALLY attractive. I guess it is difficult to get the just on DVD stuff at this kind of price due to competition with other services I have mentioned.

Overall I give Netflix a thumbs up but why, oh why would I want to sign up using Facebook and share my watching habits with the world!? Seriously....... 

(You can get round the Facebook sign-up to be fair, but it should be an optional add-on not a default).

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