Netflix has come to the UK – read on to see what Sudogamer think about it. . .
Why are we reviewing Netflix UK?
Primarily we’re a PC gaming site – but we like our TV at Sudogamer, so figured this is worth mentioning. At the moment you can register for a Netflix UK 1 month trial – all you need is a credit/debit card and (seemingly) a Facebook account.
The Netflix UK account then ties to your Facebook account, and presumably ensures you (your facebook profile) only receieve a month of free service.
Onto the service itself – I had problem with Firefox. It freezes a at ‘loading’ after logging in – I presume this is some kind of Netflix UK / Silverlight / Firefox incompatibility at the moment, as the issue was alleviated by using Internet Explorer.
I had problems with Netflix UK sticking on the loading page in Firefox..
Interface / Picture Quality?
Once loaded however the interface is nice – videos load quickly and the video quality is . . . OK. I wouldn’t consider watching a blockbuster action movie that relies on picture quality / fast moving action – but it is certainly ‘watchable’ enough to keep up with your favourite TV show.
Netflix UK's interface is clean, quick and videos load quickly
How good (big) is the library?
The selection of TV shows available is reasonable, but there are a notable gaps in the library. I did a search for a few of my favourites; ’30 Rock’, ‘Curb Your Enthusiam’, ‘Frasier’ & ‘House’ – and none of them were available. Similarly, I searched for a few of my favourite random movies; ‘dumb and dumber’, ‘ shawshank redemption’, ‘forest gump’ and ‘the departed’ and again, none were avaible.
In addition to my disappointment; of the TV Shows there were available (that I like), such as ‘The Office’; they don’t have a full catalogue of episodes, they only have seasons 1-5.
This is a massive shame the big draw for a service like this would be to have all the TV shows I could ever want to watch at my disposable, either on my computer or my (android) mobile.
It’s good but not good enough. Yet…
Perhaps the catalogue will grow, inline with the service on offer in the US ; at which point I might consider revisiting Netflix UK. As it stands, it simply doesn’t have the library to make me part with money for yet another monthly subcription service – particulary when companies like LoveFilm already offer a ‘physical’ service with a far suprior catalogue of content.
Seems on Par with the American version of NetFlix. Lacking a current library and missing small features like the ability to see who the actors and actresses are, even the ability to toggle subtitiles would be a nice change without having to restart the feed.
I already have a Lovefilm account but opted for the Netflix 1 month trial.
The device convergence of this app will make it a biggie. On launch day I downloaded the Netflix app for Nintendo Wii, XBox 360 and it just appeared automatically as an option on my Apple TV2 after a restart.
The interface on all these devices is different but equally easy to navigate. The big plus for lots of people will be that it streams lots of titles in HD with 5.1 sound. Lovefilm and Blinkbox only stream in SD in my experience.
The launch date library doesn’t bother me. It will only get bigger when they demonstrate a sizeable user base to the content providers. Two seasond of ‘Mankell’s Wallander’ and 8 seasons of ’24′ will keep me busy for a while.