How Would You Change Sony’s Netflix Experience?

netflix

If you own a Sony BRAVIA (W5100, Z5100, XBR9, and XBR10 or the Internet Video Link), Blu-ray player (N460), or PS3, you may have used the relatively new Netflix streaming application. Having Netflix “watch instantly” (aka instant queue) on your Sony product enables you to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix’s varied library of content. Sony impressed me with their Netflix integration by giving it styling just like other Sony menu options from the XMB – which ensured that the customer had some sort of familiarity with the interface upon entering it.

Now that the service has been out for nearly a month, what changes do you feel Sony should make to their Netflix integration?

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07
Dec 2009
POSTED BY Christopher MacManus
POSTED IN

Hardware, Software, Televisions

DISCUSSION 37 Comments
  • lyris1

    “How Would You Change Sony's Netflix Experience?”

    Change it so that I can use it.
    -David Mackenzie,
    Glasgow, United Kingdom.

  • mionavmanspirits500thf

    A couple weeks ago, I bought a Sony 460 BD player. That's the model with NetFlix and all the other Internet access. Fortunately I kept my Sony BX2. The NetFlix experience with the 460 was terrible. It kept trying to up scale the movies to 1080/60p instead of …. It will then up convert everything to 1080p. My S350 does the same thing. The only way I see to avoid it would be to change the resolution each time

  • http://blog.lanternthree.com/ John Eisenschmidt

    I bought a W5100 in late-August to replace the bedroom TV. With Netflix Instant Queue, I figured I could get rid of the DVR and the satellite receiver. This TV has hung on the opposite wall waiting for Sony to add this support (which they announced in July). It's been working great on the PS3, but until I read this post I didn't realize the Bravia widget was just two update screens from working.

    Ten minutes later, I'm watching Netflix on this tv. Picture quality is as-good as my laptop or PS3, but not nearly as good as the Amazon Movie Service (which are Blu-Ray quality on-demand). Still, I think it met my goals. Time to unplug the old TV and pack those clunky peripherals in a closet.

  • mionavmanspirits500thf

    A couple weeks ago, I bought a Sony 460 BD player. That's the model with NetFlix and all the other Internet access. Fortunately I kept my Sony BX2. The NetFlix experience with the 460 was terrible. It kept trying to up scale the movies to 1080/60p instead of …. It will then up convert everything to 1080p. My S350 does the same thing. The only way I see to avoid it would be to change the resolution each time

  • http://blog.lanternthree.com/ John Eisenschmidt

    I bought a W5100 in late-August to replace the bedroom TV. With Netflix Instant Queue, I figured I could get rid of the DVR and the satellite receiver. This TV has hung on the opposite wall waiting for Sony to add this support (which they announced in July). It's been working great on the PS3, but until I read this post I didn't realize the Bravia widget was just two update screens from working.

    Ten minutes later, I'm watching Netflix on this tv. Picture quality is as-good as my laptop or PS3, but not nearly as good as the Amazon Movie Service (which are Blu-Ray quality on-demand). Still, I think it met my goals. Time to unplug the old TV and pack those clunky peripherals in a closet.

  • Jack

    Will the next generation 32″ XBR's have the widgets. I need no larger than a 32″ at this time and want that feature. I was going to buy the XBR9 now that they are commonly sold for $600, but would wait.

  • http://badeen.com/ Jonathan Badeen

    Amazon Movie Service is not Blue-Ray quality. It's HD content is 720p which is pretty different than the 1080p resolution on Blu-Ray

  • http://www.facebook.com/badeen Jonathan Badeen

    Amazon Movie Service is not Blue-Ray quality. It's HD content is 720p which is pretty different than the 1080p resolution on Blu-Ray

  • Mike

    I had a Samsung Blu-Ray player for Netflix streaming, it kept freezing up so I returned it an bought a Sony N460 thinking my problem was solved. It freezes with a bar across the botom of the screen saying “connecting”, after two or three minutes (an eternity when you are waiting to watch a movie) it starts again only to repeat the cycle a few seconds later. Sometimes you can watch an entire move with no trouble. I think I will return this and get away from Netflix streaming until the problem is fixed.

  • Phred

    You should be able to get the new releases on Netflix “watch instantly”.

  • Mike

    It worked good when I got this TV at the end of November. Now I can't make it through a movie without it pausing very frequently. Sometimes when it plays again the sound and video are not synced. Today I tried to watch a movie but it was just too hard to watch, very “notchy” movements, definitely not the full FPS. I have cable internet with a direct connection to the TV so Its definitely not my connection.

  • bryan

    sounds like you have an internet bandwidth problem…i stream flawlessly on my cox cable connection.

  • bryan

    try a bandwidth test on your cable connection…stuttering can only be due to lack of bandwidth

    • Anonymous

      False.

  • Marco

    I have a Samsung Blu-Ray player and the Netflix picture quality is DVD quality. I recently bought a Sony blu-ray player and the Netflix picture quality pales in comparison to the quality of the Samsung. It is a real dissapointment. I think I'll sell it and buy another Samsung blu ray player, unless Sony releases a new software update that will correct this problem.

  • Marco

    I have a Samsung Blu-Ray player and the Netflix picture quality is DVD quality. I recently bought a Sony blu-ray player and the Netflix picture quality pales in comparison to the quality of the Samsung. It is a real dissapointment. I think I'll sell it and buy another Samsung blu ray player, unless Sony releases a new software update that will correct this problem.

  • Mary

    When I bought my Sony XBR9 in November, streaming Netflix was awesome. Over the past several months, the move quality is terrible and movies start and stop every two or 3 seconds. I have a Sony BluRay and it is the same deal on that also. Yet I can watch Netflix on my HP computer WIRELESSLY with HD picture quality and no buffering stops. I have bought Sony gear my whole life, but wouldn't recommend a Sony internet ready TV to anyone and I will never purchase one again.

    • Jmichaelo

      I have the same experience. I can place my laptop in the same area as my Sone BlueRay player with Netflix. The laptop buffers well ahead of the movie and never pauses while the BlueRay player pauses to buffer every 20 seconds or so. This has got to be a Sony problem and I wish they would get it fixed. I bought it largely for the streaming which means that I wasted my money.

  • Jkl02895

    Both of my Sony blu-ray players would pause (many times) during streaming of a netflix movie. This is a recent problem. What have you changed!?!?!?!

    I can’t believe my cheapo Insignia blu-ray player outperforms my two Sonys when it comes to netflix streaming!

    • Anthony

      Both my Sony TV and Blu Ray player NEtflix apps stutter . Very annoying. Works fine when I play Netflix movies using Xbox on the TV. or use the DNLA feature for the blu-ray and play netflix through Playon. 

      Im pretty sure it is the built in Netflix app that is the problem.

  • Bsbooga

    Figure out a way to clear that stupid pause bar like on most digital devices. I thought it was no big deal, but I am starting to hate it so much I catch myself using On Demand more than my Netflix account. It is a big complaint on a lot of discussion boards, including the Roku box and the PS3

  • Kiddykidkid2000

    just copy what Microsoft XBOX does. it’s the best netflix integration i’ve seen. i’ve been spending the last 1/2 hour to get my netflix instant queue to update on my sony blu-ray player… i think the tools that write software at sony screwed up the netflix integration in their last software update… this stuff worked perfectly on my XBOX. please remember to test your software thoroughly before releasing it to the public.

    • TDIGGIDY

      DITTO!!!!!!!

  • Jwitt98

    Why can’t you browse other titles? The only thing I can browse is the instant queue. I have to add titles to the instant queue from another device before I can view them on the Sony. The Wii allows you to browse and watch titles from all instant categories such as action, suspense, etc.

    • http://www.midwestwebtrends.com Jwitt98

      To my surprise, I started up Netflix today, and all the other categories are now available for browsing and selecting. It’ sounds like Sony is at least listening so thanks for that.
      Now if only the fast-forward and rewind options could be improved. It’s frustrating when you only want to rewind a few seconds. The progress bar moves way too fast with no way to slow it down. As a result I always end up going way too far, then you have to wait for the re-buffering. The Wii has preview boxes on the time-line for reference that can be selected. It would also be helpful if the replay and advance features worked on Netflix titles so that you could skip forward or back by maybe 30 or 60 second intervals.

  • Harps

    Constantly stopping and starting on an XBR9, makes watching movies frustrating and unenjoyable. The tv is connected via ethernet cable to the router. All my other devices work fine with netflix whether wired or wireless… macbook, iphone and pc all work good. It’s sad that I can stream netflix on a 100 dollar apple tv or ipod or even a netbook pc and my 2500 dollar 52″ sony bravia xbr can’t handle it. I think my next tv will be a Panasonic or LG.

  • Scmartin52

    I to have injoyed the netflix experience with my Sony Blue Ray player…put the last few weeks it’s not work weel at all. Lots of “Network Down” messages, and lots of buffering, freezing while watching movies.
    SONY….GET IT FIXED…PLEASE!!

  • Caitlin

    Anything I’ve already rated on Netflix that shows up under “Watch It Again” on the website doesn’t show up on the Sony.

  • Jargon

    This past Xmas we bought a new Sony Bravia TV at Sam’s.  Virtually all of the big screen TV brands advertised Netflix as being “built in”.  That was a great idea I thought, because it meant that I didn’t have to buy a Roku box for the TV to do the streaming.  So we bought it.

    I was a bit disturbed that we had to register with Sony to get the netflix service, even though we were already registered Netflix customers.  Why does Sony want our personal information?  That upset me a bit, but I didn’t give it too much thought.

    After getting it hooked up, the experience was WONDERFUL.  Netflix streaming on a TV  without a ROKU box.  How cool.

    But, I started having trouble with movies pausing for no obvious reason.  I wondered if it was the Sony Wifi dongle, but couldn’t do much about it, because they don’t support generic USB dongles.  So, what I did is buy a VERY long internet cable to connect the Sony TV directly to my router (which is connected to a 10 Mb internet connection, which should be no problem since Netflix HD needs only about 3 or 4 Mb/sec.)

    The experiment worked.  Virtually no problems when the TV is wired directly to the internet. I’ll assume this means there are just too many darned wifi connections in my neighborhood.   I eventually replaced the long internet cable with a pair of power line internet adapters which I bought on ebay ($50 for the pair, refurbished).  This worked great, for a while….

    This summer the streaming pauses and connectivity issues started popping up again.  I called Netflix, and they blamed it on Sony.  I called Sony and after giving them more personal information, they finally con the problem is on their end.  Apparently they stream netflix through Sony servers, so even if the Netflix server is working on your computer, it doesn’t necessarily mean the Sony TV will work.

    Lately, the problems have been terrible, generally ever other day or so.  Almost unusable.  I’m seriously considering putting a roku box on the TV, but isn’t that what I was avoiding by buying a netflix equipped TV?  Sony is NOT on my good list these days.

    This past spring I noticed that none of the new TVs have netflix as a standard option.  It’s as if the TV manufactures dipped their toes into the netflix swamp, and decided to bail out.  But what about existing Sony TV users?  It’s starting to feel like Sony abandoned us.  I’m also not happy that Netflix has washed their hands of this, clearly putting the blame on Sony.

    A couple weeks ago it was all over the business new network that Sony is losing a great deal of money on their TV business, and they have been for years.  They won’t however abandon it, because they think it is one of their core businesses.  To me it looks like Sony’s venture into internet TVs has been a total disaster, and it has signfiicantly lowered my opinion of this company.  I used to see the Sony brand and instantly think: “Oh, it’s Sony, it must be good”.   But NO MORE.  I think it’s also possible earthquake and Tsunami could have caused them problems, but I don’t know the details.  It’s strange how we started to have a lot of new streaming problems right after the earthquake

  • Guest

    The layout isn’t too bad except for the fact that when you bring up a TV series, it automatically takes you to the last season. Why can’t it remember where you left off? When I first started using the system, I thought it did. Ever since an update, I noticed that whenever I bring up a TV series, it brings me to the last season.
    The Family Guy episodes is the worst. For some reason there are DVD Only links – so many of them that the interface won’t let me skip over them to click into the other season. So I can not watch any more episodes (besides the 5 or 6 episodes in the final season.) Big glitch there.

    Fixing it so that it remembers what season you were on, or at least lets you choose a season rather than dumping you into the final season would be beneficial, for TV show viewing.

  • Sca123

    Last week a guy at Best Buy told me that experiment with Netflix built into TVs was just a smoke screen to gather data on viewers, so Sony could figure out exactly what people are watching, and use the data to stock their own video streaming service. Sounds logical to me.

    The built in netflix service in my Sony TV is so unreliable I ended up buying a Google TV add-on box that hooks into the HDMI port, and IT WORKS GREAT.  No more Netflix problems.

  • sam a

    I’m giving up on my Sony blu-ray player with the inernet connections. when I go it, the amazon and netflix streaming was just fine. Then things started going downhill around evening prime time until about 11/12 at night. Connection problems, error sodes, telling me i had to activate my receiver with netflix numerous time. Outside those times it seemed to be ok. Now lately, it doesn’ have to be those timeframes. It won’t connect to anything for periods of time. It’s not my immediate connection as what works fine even when the blu ray can’t connect. It’s just a guess, but it almost seems like Sony has their service set up and they added more uses than they can handle capacity wise.  I’ve been looking recently for 55-60 inch tv for the basement as football season starts and while I have always had tons of equipment, I’ve already decided to exclude Sony as any possible choice. I’m not going to spend a couple/few grand on a set and have lousy service. (btw, if you think it’s my internet service. i have to differenve vendors coming into my house. one for business one for personal use. if fails on both providers during the same time frames)

  • Fair799

    It’s strange that Sony pulled their streaming movies from the Netflix subscription service a month or two ago, and now Sony isn’t even very well supporting the embedded netflix feature on their own TVs!  To me it looks like Sony wants their own piece of the movie streaming business, but they’ve badly stumbled at their first attempt.

    It’s hard to say how all of this will play out.  Netflix clearly wants to migrate more DVD users to streaming, and that is only going to clog up their networks and servers even more than they are now.  One big traffic jam for everybody.

  • Gav

    I’m on 25M/25M Fiber connection.  So its not my bandwidth…

    I purchased a new bravia 46″ and wired it into my network.  Sometimes I can watch netflix no problem.  Other times it will pause every few minutes making it impossible to watch.  Last night I gave up and watched on my ipad instead.  Its ridiculous to have to do that when my big expensive tv is on the wall taunting me.  Sony has to upgrade their firmware to allow more buffering (by allowing you to plug in a usbstick to add memory to the tv?), add more servers since the stream goes through their servers before hitting our tv’s, or make our connection to netflix direct.  Why should we have to proxy through sony servers?  I’m sure someone could make the point that doing so is some privacy issue.
    Wirelessly, my laptop and ipad will stream movies from netflix just fine.  I can stream wirelessly to my laptop and connect through hdmi to my tv and it works fine!  All evidence points to Sony.
      

  • Draeken21

    It seems to me that Sony has made a resolution change for internet streaming. Any videos I stream from Netflix or Hulu only shows up in a tiny box rather than full screen anymore. What happened?

  • LOADING

    “Loading” !!!!   

    Blu-ray player consistently interrupts Netflix streams with the display bar displaying “loading.” It may resume after a minute, few minutes, 15 minutes or never. Recycling (power off/on) often helps, only for the inevitable loading act to resume.  The new D-link N Router is perfectly configured with a strong signal.

  • james braselton

    hi there i want 3d netflix for my sony 32 inch 3d tv i want 3d movies for my 3d tv