When Netflix announced that they would offer instant movie downloads to their customers, I might have gone so far as to send them an e-mail requesting early access to the program. Now, I don’t know if it was the e-mail or mere coincidence, but I just got a “Watch Now” tab on my account and have one hour of movie downloads available for every dollar that I pay for my subscription fee. The service is offered with no impact to my Netflix queue and at no additional cost.

Although the technology won’t run outside of IE (Sorry, good browsers), and requires Windows (sorry, Mac folks) with installed digital license and security updates from Microsoft, I was still intrigued by the coolness of it. When the movies streamed in good quality with no noticeable lag or pixelation, I was practically giddy. I tested several movies, and they all looked surprisingly good, with the exception of “Stroker Ace” which looked like it had been copied from a VHS tape that had been stored in a damp basement since 1985.

I output the audio to my stereo with an optical cable, but the sound was only encoded in stereo. The movies also lacked DVD-like chapters, but skipping to any point in a movie took only about 15 seconds to re-buffer. Even though I think chapters and multi-channel sound would have been nice, I can’t say that I actually expected them. To be honest, I really didn’t expect the service to function very well at all, so getting a decent quality movie streaming to my desktop in stereo with no noticeable lag far exceeded my expectations.

But, no matter how cool the technology is, if you don’t bring the content, no one is going to care. I will admit that Netflix has a ton of movies listed, but none in my queue were available. After searching for an hour or so, I did manage to find a small number of movies that I was glad were available, but most of what I found was nothing more than a collection of Saturday afternoon UHF specials and older classics that people only watch when they’re home sick. Hopefully, this is just an initial batch to test the service, with more popular movies being added as it catches on.

So, I’m torn. I’m psyched about the potential in the technology, but I’m only slightly more impressed with the service than I am with Comcast’s pathetic on demand offerings.

If you’re a Netflix subscriber, keep checking your account because the “watch now” service will be available to you soon. If you don’t have the tab listed yet, you may still be able to get it by following HackingNetflix.com’s Watch Now activation instructions. It worked for at least one person I know.

Good luck, and enjoy!

(On a related note, Blockbuster will once again be offering it’s free rental program for Netflix subscribers between 2/15 and 2/21.)

Posted in Geeky, Movies