Since January 6, 2016, Netflix has expanded its broadcasting influence to 130 more countries, including Ukraine and Russia (and excluding Crimea). Now we have access to a civilized subscription to media content without registration and SMS dances with vpn and payment methods. I have been waiting for this service in Ukraine for a long time, so I subscribed, since the first month you can get acquainted with the service for free. Service overview below.
We launch
Miraculously, the application automatically logs me into Netflix (this is because I registered with an email from a Google account)
The main screen still looks the same except for the interesting “secondary screen” icon.
By clicking on the icon, we get a list of TVs on your network that already have Netflix installed. Those. videos can be played from a smartphone/tablet directly to the TV. The application on the TV will automatically launch and playback will begin. Moreover, if you started broadcasting on TV in the middle of the movie, it will start from the same place, minus 5 seconds.
The series card looks like this
Description, “broadcast to TV” and “share to different social networks” icons, “add to my list” button and selection of seasons and episodes
But when I tried to take a screenshot of the player interface, nothing happened. This is the notification it shows
Those. the application blocks the ability to take a screenshot of the video. The player interface is slightly reminiscent of YouTube. There are icons for changing the audio track and subtitles, selecting a series and season, the sound adjustment icon calls the system slider. The brightness and speed of the video is not adjustable.
The search button activates the search, which is logical :)
Search by movie and TV series titles, actors, directors, genres, etc. Voice search is present and working. Only a well-honed English pronunciation is required :)
Content
No matter how large and foreign a company is, no matter how beautiful applications it creates, the most important thing is content. For access to which people will pay money. And then there was a huge hole. There is no content, as such, for Ukraine. Sad but true.
Some personal statistics. To date, I watch 23 series. And they are massive. 4 of them are available on Netflix. And only 1 is complete, because it ended in 2013. And 1 more has a Russian audio track. For example, the same House of cards, the pride of Netflix, is not available to us. Like Breaking bad. And they are there. People from America write that Netflix has almost all the top video content that goes on cable channels.
The situation is the same with films. I spent 30 minutes clicking through different films and couldn't find one with a Russian track. Not to mention Ukrainian.
Total
On the one hand, I'm glad that Netflix broke into us like that and offers its service. On the other hand, everything is somehow chaotic. It seems that there are a lot of films and TV shows - see how much you like. Sharpen your knowledge of English. But after all, I watch TV shows to relax and unwind, and not to strain, understanding the pronunciation of this or that actor or trying to understand some legal or medical term. I don't talk about jokes at all.
My personal opinion is damp, very, very damp. If Google play music and Apple music did not fail with the musical content, because. knowledge of foreign languages is not a necessity when listening to music, but this does not work with video content. Moreover, the volume of this content is very limited. Again, foreign companies are stepping on the same rake. They bring us enlightenment in the form of a civilized payment for content, while limiting the availability and quantity of this very content for ordinary citizens.
They do not understand that we have all this, and even more and better, and, moreover, for free?
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- What is Netflix?
Netflix is a streaming service that offers a wide variety of award-winning TV shows, movies, anime, documentaries, and more on thousands of internet-connected devices.
You can watch as much as you want, whenever you want without a single commercial – all for one low monthly price. There's always something new to discover and new TV shows and movies are added every week!
- How much does Netflix cost?
Watch Netflix on your smartphone, tablet, Smart TV, laptop, or streaming device, all for one low fixed monthly fee. Plans start from EUR7.99 a month. No extra costs or contracts.
- Where can I watch?
Watch anywhere, anytime, on an unlimited number of devices. Sign in with your Netflix account to watch instantly on the web at site from your personal computer or on any internet connected device that offers the Netflix app, including smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, streaming media players and game consoles.
You can also download your favorite shows with the iOS, Android, or Windows 10 app. Use downloads to watch while you"re on the go and without an internet connection. Take Netflix with you anywhere.
- How do I cancel?
- What can I watch on Netflix?
Netflix has an extensive library of feature films, documentaries, TV shows, anime, award-winning Netflix originals, and more. Watch as much as you want, anytime you want. Join free for 30 days to see everything Netflix has to offer.
- How does the free trial work?
The Russian launch of Netflix took place in January of this year and caused an unprecedented stir. Back in February, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, namely the Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications Alexei Volin, spoke out against the service. According to him, the site needed to obtain a media and broadcaster license before officially entering the Russian market. The service was also opposed by entrepreneurs who saw Netflix as a serious competitor. A new surge of talk about occurred in November, when State Duma deputies Andrei Lugovoi and Shamsail Saraliev proposed limiting the share of foreign ownership of paid audiovisual services.
Russian viewers met the service rather cool. There are few films and series, Russian dubbing for most of the films was not done, the interface is not translated, prices are too high - the company clearly did not prepare for the launch. This can hardly be called a surprise. In January, Netflix launched simultaneously in 130 new countries, and residents of Poland, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey faced similar problems. Of course, the company did not have time to debug the service for each region. But Netflix can proudly declare real world domination at the end of the financial year.
The main problem of the service was and remains regional restrictions. The largest library of films and series (over 5.5 thousand) is available only to US residents. The rest of the countries get only leftovers from the master's table. In addition to America, Martinique, Puerto Rico and American Samoa can boast of fat libraries. Russian Netflix currently has 509 films and 113 series. No matter how users complain about the content of "Amediateka" and Tvigle, their libraries look more extensive. New arrivals leave much to be desired. While viewers in America are enjoying recent releases, we have "Hercules. The Beginning of a Legend" and "Viy 3D", which were released in 2014. Those who used the service through a VPN before sigh in disappointment and return to workarounds.
But we buy a subscription for the sake of the series, don't we? Netflix's main achievement over the past year has been the simultaneous release of original projects. Now we can legally watch Black Mirror and Luke Cage with the rest of the world.
The series of other channels also began to appear more quickly. So, the third seasons of "Peaky Blinders" and "Penny Dreadful" were available on the service just a couple of months after the end of the broadcast. This is a significant progress compared to the launch, when the hit "House of Cards" was not available to Russian viewers. It happened for completely ridiculous reasons: Amediateka bought the rights to broadcast it, and Netflix did not have the right to show its own series.
So, with the timing of the release, the situation has improved, but what about the translation? All major releases are still not equipped not only with Russian voice acting, but even with subtitles. We sent a request to the Netflix press service and received a disappointing answer: there are too few requests for Russian translation, so there are no plans to increase the number of adapted films and series yet.
We collect user feedback to understand what is in demand and what is not. Based on this data, we decide which languages to add
Netflix press office
Representatives of the company refused to provide data on the number of Russian users of the service, but judging by the fact that we have not been able to wait for the interface to be translated into Russian for a year, their number is clearly small. In addition, the press service reported that localization of the interface is also not planned in the near future.
As for prices, the service did not make any concessions. The price for a month of subscription at the standard tariff (one screen is available at normal image quality) is 7.99 euros (about 519 rubles). If you want to watch TV shows in HD, you will have to fork out for 9.99 euros (650 rubles). The prices, of course, are slightly lower than the starting ones, but for this we must say thanks to the jumps in rates, and not to the competent pricing policy of Netflix.
So no matter how Russian entrepreneurs panic and no matter what bans the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications threatens, the main battle, the battle for viewers, Netflix has already lost. And the service, it seems, is not going to win in it.
Hello Idea Fox friends!
Something I don’t feel like raising blogging topics today, I decided to digress from the endless picking in search engines and the bowels of WordPress. I didn’t really do anything during the holidays, I just watched movies and had a lot of rest. Of course, he indulged in the sin of devouring serials =)
You yourself know that in recent years in Russia there has been a zealous fight against pirate sites that host unlicensed videos. Let's face it, it's getting harder and harder for freeloaders to find the right movie.
And then I found out that a giant of the global video rental market called NetFlix.Com became available in Russia. It entered the Russian market just yesterday, on January 6th.
Of course, I immediately decided to test in order to understand how much I need it. At the same time, I decided to compare it with the Amediateka service, of which I became a subscriber a year and a half ago (de facto, this is the Russian analogue of Netflix).
Why are competitors afraid of NetFlix? Yes, because it is a huge business machine that operates in 130 countries and has a subscriber base of 50 million people. Naturally, Russian cinemas tensed up in anticipation of this monster.
And so, he came to us =)
What is netflix?
In fact, this is an Internet cinema. Pay a small monthly fee and watch movies and series in high quality. Looking ahead, I’ll say that movies and TV shows on NetFlix.Com are just a breakthrough + give one month for testing for free.
I repeat that Amediateka works exactly according to the same scheme.
How much does Netflix cost?
At the moment the rates are as follows:
If we increase each tariff by one marketing cent, we will get 8, 10, 12 euros per month. If we translate into rubles, at the rate of 1 euro = 81 rubles, we get:
- Basic plan = 648 rubles
- Standard plan = 881 rubles
- Premium plan = 972 rubles
I will say frankly that not all Russians will be delighted with such tariffs. But if you compare it with the price of a ticket in an ordinary cinema, then everyone will understand that it is very cheap.
By the way, why are prices in euros and not in rubles? Inconvenient, we have to translate prices into our currency.
How to get a month month in NetFlix for free?
But there is good news - when subscribing, they give one month for free at any tariff. (Immediately a big plus in favor of NetFlix, since there is no such bonus in Amediateka yet).
A free month is given immediately upon subscribing.
1. On the main page of the service, press the big red button “Start Your Free Month”:
2. Choose the desired tariff
I decided to test the “Basic” tariff for 8 euros.
By the way, please note that so far everything is in English. It's sad, because entering the Russian market with an English-language interface is a VERY strange decision.
And again a strange decision. Imagine our person who wants to get a free month, and he is immediately offered to enter the details of a bank card or an unknown to many PayPal service.
There is nothing to even guess at - most of our people will leave the registration as soon as they see the requirement to fill in the subscription details. In addition, in English, yeah =)
But I still decided to break through to Netflix, because it became very curious
I subscribed via PayPal (I think that very few people in Russia understand what kind of payment system this is).
By the way, here you need to understand that by choosing any of these payment methods you issue MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION. That is, each subsequent month after the free one, NetFlix will charge 8, 10, 12 euros from the card, depending on the chosen tariff. And if you do not like this service, then the subscription will need to be canceled in the account settings.
For example, PayPal honestly warned that a monthly subscription would be issued:
After making the payment, we check the tariff settings again, put a tick in which we confirm that we are over 18 years old (curious why?).
And click on the button “Start Membership”
Then we choose what we will watch movies and series on. I chose a computer (DescTop or LapTop)
And ... again an incomprehensible window popped up =) Something was too smart ...
Here you are asked to enter my name. How to contact me.
Okay, let them call me Dmitry. To be honest, I'm already fed up with entering my data.
And ... we are waiting for ANOTHER WINDOW in which we need to choose the series that we like.
Just choose three series that you like. Apparently, based on your choice, they will build a grid of viewer preferences.
Everyone broke through =)
Well, maybe TV shows with Russian voice acting?
I poked at a few serials at random - nothing like that. There is no Russian voice acting for January 7, 2016 for most films and TV shows.
For example, I was able to find a Russian voice acting for the series “Better Call Saul”
How to choose Russian language?
While watching the series, you need to do as in the picture below:
And you will be happy if there is Russian voice acting =) Unfortunately, it is far from being available for any film.
What are the benefits of NetFlix?
- A huge number of series that we don’t even know about. I'm serious - eyes run wide from such abundance.
- Picture quality - no complaints at all, even at the cheapest rate.
- Brakes did not notice at a speed of 8 megabits / sec.
- If there is Russian voice acting, then it is done at a very good level.
- There is a mobile application + software for set-top boxes + XBOX + PlayStation + Apple TV
Cons for Russia
- I repeat that entering the Russian video rental market with an English interface is a very strange decision. It remains to be hoped that soon at least the site will be translated into Russian.
- To date, few TV series and films have been translated into Russian. Sorting or filtering for already translated films into Russian film does not hurt at all. Even the profile settings do not have the ability to select the Russian language.
- Pretty confusing registration (and again there is no Russian language).
- Few payment methods. De facto, there is only Visa, since most Russians do not know about PayPal at all. Ideally, you need to add Yandex.Money + WebMoney + SberbankOnline.
My verdict
In my opinion, NetFlix hastened to enter our market. Already at the first steps of registration in the service, a lot of questions arise that can be solved only by knowing the English language. Well, there are gaps with the voice acting, frankly.
It turns out that today Netflix is useful only for those who know English (or want to learn it by watching films in a foreign language). To be honest, all this is more like an emergency launch, because they didn’t meet the deadlines, but they need to be launched.
I will watch for another month and most likely unsubscribe if the situation with transfers does not change for the better.
And for our video rental services, you don’t have to worry at all, to be honest. But if everyone finishes and translates, then competitors' marketers will run around the ceiling, trying to survive in competition with NetFlix =)
This is not a joke, since a truly WORLD leader has appeared in Russia, who will not stand on ceremony with smaller players.
Content:
Having built a reputation for renting movies on DVD using the DVD-by-mail business model, Netflix now provides a more convenient way to show movies: Internet video streaming. A service called "Instant View" gives access to a huge selection of movies online. There are many ways to set up Netflix on your TV. For example, you can buy a special router, use a console set-top box, or connect a computer to a TV. Whichever method you choose, here you will find instructions for each of them.
Steps
1 using a media player playing streaming video
- 1 You will need a multimedia player that plays streaming video, such players will give you the opportunity to watch YouTube videos and listen to music from Pandora and use many other services. Here are some players:
- Apple TV
- Boxee
- Sony Streaming Player
- 2 Connect the player. Connect the player to the TV to have an internet connection.
- 3
There are several ways to connect your media player to your TV:
- Connecting with an HDMI cable. If you have an HDTV input, then you will choose this option, because the high-resolution image looks great.
- Connect using a normal A/V cable if you don't have an HDTV. Correctly connect the yellow/red/white output cables to the corresponding color input.
- 4
Internet connection. Once you have turned on the player, you will need to connect it to the internet. Most internet players have wireless internet access, which means you don't have to run cables everywhere to get a signal. Just enter the hotspot name and password when you turn on the device.
- If you do not have a wireless Internet connection, then use this option: connect an Ethernet cable from your router to your player.
- 5
Let's check if you did everything. You have connected the multimedia player to the network, to the TV, and also set up the Internet. But before you enjoy watching videos on TV, lying on the couch, and not sitting at the computer, check one more thing:
- Download updates for your player. Perhaps the speed of work will increase, as well as new opportunities will appear.
- Adjust the resolution, especially for HD.
- Consider linking the player to your online account. Some players will show what you're watching on social media and suggest movies based on your preferences and those of your friends.
2 connecting a computer to a TV
- 1 Check the description of your TV to determine the type of video input connector. There is an HDMI input that gives a high-definition picture, VGA uses an analog signal to transmit color information with a resolution of 640 * 480, SVGA is the common name for video adapters that are compatible with VGA, but have enhanced capabilities in relation to it: resolution from 800 * 600 and up to 16 million colors
- 2
Determine what outputs your video card has. Look where the monitor is connected in your computer (this is exactly what the video card is). Pay attention to what other outputs are on the video card. This is how the signal from the computer to the TV will be transmitted.
- DVI - digital video interface, very often seen as an auxiliary output, but note that this is a different type of output (it is not in the previous list). You may need to buy an adapter cable.
- 3 Buy the right adapter cable to connect two jacks: output on the video card to the input on the TV. Two different inputs means you will need at least one converter to connect two different cables.
- 4 Make sure that the computer and TV are turned off, plug the cables correctly (into the correct sockets). After that, restart your computer.
- 5
Next, you will need to extend your monitor screen to your TV (optional). With the latest versions of Microsoft Windows, here's what you'll need to do:
- Right click on the desktop and click on "Screen Resolution"
- Select settings
- Select primary and secondary monitor. There are also several options for displaying images on an additional monitor. For example, there are duplicate screens, i.e. the picture that will be displayed on the main display will also be displayed on the secondary display. We will choose "expand screens".
- For a clearer picture, select a higher screen resolution on the second display.
- Click "OK" and the settings will be saved and this window will close.
- 6
Turn on the computer screen on the TV. This step is the same as the step of connecting the TV to the player, but this time you just need to select a different option to connect. If you did everything right, then you will see your computer's desktop on the TV.
- Note: The TV will not have a taskbar. It's ok, there is no taskbar in the extended screen.
- 7 Drag the browser from the monitor screen to the TV. To do this, you will need to drag the browser to the edge of the screen and drag further until the mouse cursor and the browser page itself is on another screen.
- 8 Select the show or movie you want to watch on Netflix and click play. You are now the proud owner of streaming video from Netflix.
3 Netflix connection via game console
- 1
The most important thing is that your set-top box supports Netflix. Today, Sony's PlayStation 3, Sony's PlayStation 4 (?) Nintendo's Wii, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 support Netflix, which means you can watch the Lord of the Rings movie first and then play it. At the same time, there are several "buts":
- For Xbox 360, you'll need an Xbox live Gold account as well as a Netflix account to access content from Netflix.
- Wii does not display streaming video in HD quality.
- 2 Make sure you have everything you need to connect: cables, free space. For example, for the Xbox 360, you need at least 5 megabytes of free hard drive space, high speed internet to run the Netflix app. Before you start, make sure you have all of these.
- 3 Install the application if necessary. Install the app from your console's app store. This application will be very easy to find in all three stores.
- 4 Sign in to your Netflix account and start watching videos. The first time you sign in, you will need to sign in to your Netflix account first, the console will remember your details and fill in the details automatically the next time you sign in. If you have enough space on your console and everything is in order with your account, then you will start watching the video immediately, enjoy!
- Many PC games will work on TV as well.
- You can simply drag the media player (or other media software) from the computer screen to the TV screen.
- You managed to connect the computer to the TV, but you got a distorted image. What's wrong? You may just need to update your video card driver (see caveats below), or you just need to change your TV's screen resolution.
- You can work with many Windows applications on a second screen (in our case, a TV).
Warnings
- Your video card driver may not support the correct resolution for your TV. If this is the case, then you will need to update the driver to select the correct resolution. Go to the manufacturer's website to update the driver (with changes related to TV compatibility).
- Almost everything, but still not all programs in Windows will work correctly on the extended screen.
What will you need
- TV with HDMI (high definition multimedia) or VGA (component video interface) input.
- A computer that will be located nearby and a video card with two outputs.
- A cable to connect a computer to a TV, while the input and output must match, for example, HDMI-HDMI, otherwise you will need an adapter.
