Is netflix good?

[recessionisnotfun]

Hi, we hate our sattelite service and I see that netflix is now available in Canada. Does anyone use it? We would want to watch it on tv not computer. Theres a free month trial and claims it's only 7.99 month after. Too good to be true? I'd love to dump bell, please if anyone can give me some advice I would really appreciate it. Thank you

[nishgitz]

Netflix Canada is beyond belief awful. Check it out to see what you get for your money. It's a joke. One day to kill some time, we started typing in movies and shows we might like to see. They didn't have any of them, but their "alternatives' were hilarious. "Star Wars is not available, you might try Lost in Space" lol
The real Netlicks has everything you might ever want to see, and you get a choice of a hard copy mailed to you or a download. Calling this version "netflix" is a travesty.

[FallenPixels]

They are still waiting for a lot of licensing for Canada so I would wait longer before signing up.

Personally we kept it after the trial because it does have some series that we like and it saves us buying the whole series on DVD but I dont think it would replace satellite.

It does depend, however, on how much TV you watch. We realised that we just were not getting the value out of cable and cancelled it. We watch very little TV and most stations we get though a digitial set top box on free to air (NBC, CBC, the CW etc) so Netflix is a nice 'extra' for not much money

[Bubbelinchen]

i love it...and they add more and more movies. i love the kids stuff for my little one(thomas and friends,bob the builder) if i go in store and buy him the movie it cost me $10 for 1.

you can add up to 6 devices. we have netflix(same account on all 6 devices) on wii(we watch on tv), on 3 households computers and 2 ipod touchs. you can watch whereever you are. my husband works in a camp and he can watch with same account on his computer. and all this for $8. i recommened it. (like i said they add more and more stuff...also seasons from tv and so on). sure they don't have the really good new movies.... but what do you expect for $8?

[Star Gawker]

Here is a review I wrote last month about Netflix Canada. As an update, I have noticed they are adding a lot more shows since I wrote the review.

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I noticed that Netflix had finally come to Canada.
Their offer certainly sounded enticing – unlimited TV and movies streaming to your TV, computer, laptop or iPhone all for $7.99 per month Canadian.
So I signed up for the free trial and thought I would share my thoughts in this Netflix.ca review.


My Viewing Background:


To put my TV/movie use in perspective, my wife and I enjoy watching shows together and on our own. We don’t rent a lot of movies or buy a lot of DVD’s instead we record TV shows and movies to watch later using our Shaw PVR. This lets us choose our viewing time and skip the commercials.


To get Netflix on my TV, I needed a Netflix enabled device. Fortunately I already had an Xbox 360. Netflix also works on the Wii and Playstation3. In addition, you can also view your Netflix movies on your computer laptop , iPad or iPhone.


The Netflix Xbox 360 Interface

I found the Netflix interface on the Xbox 360 easy to use. As I rate shows I like, the system automatically suggests similar shows. The suggestion feature works reasonably well, usually coming up with at least a few other interesting shows for me to check out.


One drawback is no alphabetical listing of movies. You can type in movies you want in the search box, but there is no overall list to scan.


Video Quality


After a couple of weeks of viewing, I have to rate the picture/video quality as excellent. No annoying buffering, the movies load very quickly. And nice not to pause whenever you want, avoid commercials and not worried about running out of space on my PVR.


Service



The service so far has been excellent. On one day of the trial, apparently their service had a problem for some of their customers. So they extended my trial for an extra day. I hadn’t even watched Netflix that day!


Selection

The selection at Netflix.ca is where some people will have concerns. If you are looking for the same content as Netflix US or wanting new releases, this is not the service for you. There are a LOT of movies and TV shows (over 7,000) on it but it will be missing a lot of your favorites.


The reason is that licensing for many of the newer shows and movies is different in Canada than the US.


I was really pleased to see that Netflix.ca included popular web series like Dr Horrible’s Sing A Long Blog and The Guild. The Guild is a favorite of ours, so it is great to watch it on the big screen instead of on the web.


So what have we been watching?

• Season 1 of a medical drama about nurses called “HawthoRNe”
• Season 1 and 2 of a BBC series “Robin Hood”
• Season 4 of “Heroes”

In my case, I had been planning on buying Season 4 of Heroes which would have cost me $50. This alone pays for 6 months of Netflix and makes the service worth it for me.


Can Netflix Replace Cable Television?


It did for us, but or most people, no. Netflix has no sports, so if there are sports lovers in your household, you will need to keep your cable. Also, if it is important to you to be able to see more recent shows and movies.


In our case, there is more than enough shows to watch for now, so we canceled our cable and saved $50 per month.


Rating

Here is how I would rate Netflix.ca overall

• Value: 5 out of 5
• Viewing Experience 4 out of 5
• Selection: 3 out of 5

Is Netflix.ca for you? I suggest you look through the selection so see if you feel there is enough to keep you happy.

[TudorChick]

if you like brand new tv shows,no.if you want a good selection of movies you otherwise would find on the internet or via a torrent,no. so to me,no it isn't worth 8 bucks.i get new movies on my digital cable as is and if i want brand new i torrent.

[khipson]

Ditto to everything Star Gawker said!

We're happy with it. There is a lot of kids' programming, and most kids' shows on TV are two year old reruns anyway so there's no difference except that they aren't bombarded with commercials and getting a case of the gimmes every time they watch Dora.

For the grownups, there is a big database to choose from, but there are no new releases. So it doesn't eliminate your local video store. And there are a lot of "not available" titles, which I find annoying. Apparently those are the ones in the queue waiting for permission to broadcast. There are quite a few TV series available as well. We haven't had cable since 2008, so most of the shows on it are new to me at least.

Billing can be done by Paypal, which was a bonus for me. There's no contract, so you can ditch it whenever you want to. It's fully legal, unlike torrents etc which are digital piracy. You don't need any new hardware if you already have one of the systems it will stream through - we use our Wii wirelessly connected to our home network.

Downsides... sometimes there is lag time, which frustrates the kids immensely... parental control is a joke so you do always have to monitor the kids' watching.


Get the free month and try it out. You're not out anything, and it's the only way you'll really get a feel for it.

[tvwatcher]

The downside is the amount of bandwidth it uses - if you're not familiar with what bandwidth is, and what your limits are, you could be in for a huge shock when your bill arrives from your ISP - and with this UBB fiasco coming this year, it's going to hurt Netflix

[FallenPixels]

Yes but all streaming uses large amounts of bandwidth, I have a friend who got dinged with overage charges because she is a youtube addict

[tvwatcher]

Yes but all streaming uses large amounts of bandwidth, I have a friend who got dinged with overage charges because she is a youtube addict

Same here! LOL

My isp went from unlimited to a 100gig/month limit - which isn't that bad, but I'm hearing that Bell wants to implement a limit of 25gigs/month (and Bell seems to be The Boss of the internet lately)

That is so unrealistic in this day and age! I wish there was someone who would take Bell on and stand up for us internet users!

[FallenPixels]

It is one of the reasons we switched from Cogeco, the speeds were not as promised, the CS was crappy, it was down for a week because they accidentally cut their cabling and no apology (apart from the poor tech guy working on it) the actual cabling took 3 days to fix but they took forever to send out the guy who activates the cables for the customers. I was so happy when I read about TekSavvy because if they were bad, I was only out the initial fees - no contracts

[nadiabreckon]

We have the free trial of Netflix because we aren't happy with zip.ca anymore, but are going to cancel it because we thought there would actually be stuff worth watching on it. Fine if you're somebody who likes movies that have been out for 3-4 years already, or 2-3 seasons behind on TV episodes, but it's not for us...we like New Releases and like to watch them when they come out, not 3yrs later.

The quality is great, I'll admit that, and the download times are surprisingly quick! We double checked with Eastlink on how much bandwidth we are allowed and we have unlimited downloads, so that's the only reason we actually signed up. We're now thinking of sticking with zip.ca, although we are quite unhappy with their not shipping our movies after receiving the previous ones. Ugh, I guess it's a lose-lose for us...

[abirdd]

We signed up for the trial during the holidays... then proceeded to sit and laugh. Honestly, the Canadian version is NOTHING like what is offered in the United States. As nadiabrekon stated - we too prefer to watch new movies. I refuse to pay even $7 a month for stuff dating back 2-3 years. No thanks Netflix.

[rattleandhumm]

I Love netflix. It blows any conventional movie channel subscription out of the water. I am a movie addict I love the selection. I use a wii to watch it on my tv but the selection is easier on pc to decide on a movie. It is as good as any conventional movie remtal shop minus the lack of new releases. Which you would have to pay about $5.00 per pp view anyway. I had a friend who bought it, then started to type in movie titles and rarely were the selected titles availabe so he dumped it. A couple of weeks later he was over here and we were browsing THEIR selection and he was shocked. He re ordered it and is a super fan.
It is the best $8.00 I have ever spent.

[thatgengirl]

I'll tell you this, Telus does not like the word "Netflix." I called today to cancel TV with them, and ended up walking away with $37/month less on my bill, the same services, and a couple of bonus features.