Netflix furor: "REACHED MAXIMUM NUMBER OF COMMENTS"

Ok.

When your corporate blog article hits the "REACHED MAXIMUM NUMBER OF COMMENTS. NO MORE COMMENTS CAN BE POSTED" point (apparently 5,000 comments) that's either very good or very bad news. In this case it's bad news.

I am currently googling Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime.

beamer tragedy

A bit more info about our projector issue[s].

I mentioned before that the original (used) bulb finally died after about 5 yrs.

The projector (pj hereafter) was business-style pj that was produced around 2000. I bought it on eBay around 2005-2006 for $300. At the time new pj units were still hovering around $1000. I bought a replacement bulb for $150 at the same time, since bulbs were going for $180-200. That's the bulb I put in.

The bad news: the bulb I just installed died after a couple of months. :-( Either the bulb was damaged or there is a problem with the projector. The cost so far has been about $90/yr for 100" video.

The very cheapest I can find bulbs (actually lamp modules) for it now is about $130, or about $100 if I disassemble the old module and put in a new bulb proper.

The quality of this projector is not HD; it's in the range of what are now called "game" projectors for non-HD game consoles. The native resolution is roughly S-Video although it can scale from component and SVGA inputs. And that's just fine with us. We don't have any HD / Bluray gear to pump into it, anyhow. Well, the MythTV box captures HD but it's in the other room.

New game-quality pj are in the $200 range now, and lamp technology has changed in some cases. Some use LEDs for 20k hours running time, and others use simpler metal halide lamps that cost about $30, and are rated for 6000 hrs. I think we are going the latter route.

Will keep you posted.

beamer

Our projector[0] lamp died after about 5 yrs of use. Bought it used, so who knows how much was on it in the first place. I've got a replacement bulb already in waiting and will let you know how that goes. And, yes, the bulbs are $$$.

We were watching ep9 of The Tudors[1] at the time.


[0] "beamer" in the UK and the Continent, according to Linux Outlaws
[1] netflix + wii

wii, netflix

The Wii interface to netflix is "pretty cool" as Miley Cyrus might say. There is room for improvement:

• make the subtitle toggle available from within the stream
• separate the pause/play and timeline controls a bit. I accidentally moved along the timeline a couple of times when trying to pause playback.
• Allow a "mark watched" flag. If you don't watch a show through all the credits it believes (correctly) you didn't finish it, but this leaves detritus in the UI ("resume this show", etc).

I continue to be surprised at the quality of the stream, even on my cheapest-tier-possible cable inet.

I marked a stream I watched one star out of five (it SUCKED). Netflix followed up with a 2-second question about the streams visual quality. Nice! They are making sure I didn't downrate the show because of the stream instead of the content. Very smart.

directv out, netflix back in

DirecTV is $75/mo, so they go BYE-BYE after this weekend. It was a pleasant coincidence that one of the premium channels is having a free preview* this weekend. So I added those channels and kept the dual-tuner DirecTivo humming snagging movies. Tomorrow I'll disconnect the dish and quasi-landline** and call up to cancel.

We had Netflix before but wasn't using it much so we cancelled a few years back. They kept begging us to come back (free month), so I eyeballed how to stream 'flix to the Wii. Worked fine, as you can see in the inset pic.***

We were happy with the setup, so re-subbed with the the streaming+1dvd plan ($9.99/mo). Our approach is:

1. to pull down streaming content
2. check RPL for DVDs
3. use the Netflix mailed DVDs to fill in gaps from #1 and #2.

Bottom line: $65/mo savings over our current situation, with access to things like Mad Men on DVD.****

The mythbox is still cranking away recording broadcast tv. I set up His, Hers, and Both recording groups so we easily see what it's recorded for what audience.


Edited to add: we basically stopped going to the movies a few years ago. People are idiots in public. I have no desire to pay $20 to listen to cellphones ring and the unsocialized yell at each other. So we pop our own popcorn and watch movies on the wall. The projector was about $500 used off eBay 8 yrs ago and the bulb is still holding out. Does double duty for xbox/wii action. Awwww yeahhhhhh buddeeeeeeee...




* we don't have any pay channels, just basic stuff + locals.

** No landline, but I'm running the DirecTivo daily call through the mythtv box via serial cable. Werd.

*** LCD projector shooting on the wall. Didn't even move stuff out of the way because it was a test run. Still daylight outside, and windows open. The image as you see it is about 8' X 6'. Shot was from a season three ep of Drawn Together. Drawn is like South Park, only funny. If you have a high tolerance for offensive humor you'd probably like Archer. And why isn't Aisha Tyler a superstar? She's 12 kinds of awesome.

**** this makes the Dear Wife very happy