AfterDawn: News

Netflix streaming in HD finally available for PC and Mac users

Top movie rental company Netflix has quietly begun offering HD streaming of its "Watch Instantly" streaming service for PC and Mac users, many months after it made HD streaming available to console and set-top box users.

Computer users, however, have had to stick with plain old SD streams, which is probably okay if you are watching on a monitor but discouraged users that wanted to connect their media servers to an HDTV and save on having to purchase a set-top box or console.



So far it seems the titles available for HD streaming is limited, but GL says it should be about half of all streams soon.

If you are unsure the movie you want is available for HD streaming on the PC, hover the mouse over the cover art and check if it says "HD Available."

As with HD streams through set-top boxes like Roku and the PS3, HD is only available up to 720p.



Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 May 2010 16:04

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• 4 comments

• KillerBug

  LOL...and when I said movies looked better on the PS3 than they did on PC, no one believed me!

  13.5.2010 00:24 #1

• Deadrum33

  Originally posted by KillerBug: LOL...and when I said movies looked better on the PS3 than they did on PC, no one believed me! i found this option today when I was setting up Netflix on my PS3.
  My PS3 is networked wirelessly and I was afraid HD content would be too much to stream. Suprisingly, it looked flawless, without stutter. Of course I was the only one using up bandwidth and once my son surfs while downloading things I told him not to and wife gets on Facebook mafia wars...
  

  
  
  http://www.myspace.com/livingdeadband

  13.5.2010 01:25 #2

• hildred

  ok do it has 5.1 sound with hdtv is there now

  13.5.2010 12:40 #3

• Mr-Movies

  And this is news now? they have been doing this for some time now and keep adding more and more content as they go. They started with 720p and are now doing 1080 but again this is old news as far as I'm concerned.
  
  You have to have a SA player with a big buffer and your high speed needs to provide lots of bandwidth to get the HD but if you have that it is great. I've never been impressed with the SD streaming this is a big improvement.
  
  

  13.5.2010 14:49 #4