Do you remember that TV commercial that ran heavily during the Web 1.0 Dot Com bubble with the guy traveling in a futuristic wilderness expressing the desire to download every movie, every tv show, every piece of content, anywhere, on demand? Funny, I can’t recall the brand behind the ad (I believe it was for one of the upstart bandwidth or infrastructure providers that were popping up all over during that time) but I pictured that spot as that still illusive dream it expressed took another step toward becoming reality with the launch of the Netflix Watch Now on demand movie download feature in January.

Netflix Watch Now button is starting to appear for members

I’ve been a Netflix customer for about 4 years and with Watch Now being rolled out to members incrementally over the next six months I was happy to see that new Watch Now button appear in my account recently.

Here’s a recap of my experience with the Watch Now service so far.

Getting Started

To begin using the Watch Now service subscribers have to download and install the Netflix Movie Viewer, a special player that appears to work within the Windows Media Player DRM and content licensing framework. My experience was that the download was fast and the install was clean. So far so good, except if you’re a Mac user as I could find no option for installing the player on that platform.

Next, Netflix checked my available bandwidth to see what quality tier it could deliver movies at. Netflix currently breaks down their tiers of service like this:

High – 1.6 to 2.2+ Mbps
Good – 1.0 Mbps
Basic – 500 Kbps

I did a quick check on the CNET Bandwidth Meter to see where my RoadRunner connection was currently performing.

Results of bandwidth test of my RR connection

Watch Now correctly detected which tier my bandwidth would support and classified me for the High tier.

So, a couple minutes total investment and we are off to the movies.

Using Watch Now

One of the first things I noticed when I began my search for movies to view with Watch Now was the lack of inventory to choose from compared to Netflix’s complete movie library. On my first visit, many of the titles being promoted on the Watch Now opening page would likely be considered by most viewers to be less than premium content, but on the upside it seems that new content is being added at a very quick pace with new titles popping up every time I return. If the usual suspects like licensing issues and the challenges of physically digitizing content are responsible for this reduced selection that’s probably good news as obstacles like these are to be expected and usually work themselves out.

There are some good titles available already and Run Lola Run jumped out as a decent candidate to try out for an inaugural test run. The main thing I was looking out for first was how fast the Now in Watch Now translates into.

The answer? 11 seconds. That’s how long it took from my selecting the movie to the time it started to play. About comparable to opening a jewel case and putting a DVD into a traditional player. Pretty good I thought.

The quality of the movie looked decent on a couple year old 19 inch Samsung Syncmaster 191T flatscreen monitor. Few jaggies or compression artifacts jumped out at me and there was zero stuttering. All in all the picture quality met my expectations, but for some reason it looked like I was getting a 4X3 pan and scan version of this particular movie so I went looking for another title to try out on a bigger screen.

Projecting Watch Now on an 80 inch screen

First, some quick background on the test gear — A little over five years ago I was in the market for a new tv and while researching the latest choices I learned about a site known as the AVS FORUM and its’ wealth of knowledge about something known as the HTPC, or Home Theater Personal Computer. After spending some time there I decided to scrap my original plan to buy a big screen tv and traditional home entertainment system and chose to instead build my own HTPC and use it to power a home theater projector. This was before things like Windows XP Media Center edition, so it took a little effort to build a user friendly system. But the payoff has been a nice one. HDMI and broadband movie download services were really nowhere at that time either, so the goal back then was to construct a pure digital pathway for your traditional DVD based movie content from your HTPC to your projector via a DVI connection thus avoiding any potentially degrading analog to digital or digital to analog conversions.

So I built my HTPC relying on an ATI Radeon video card and the Theatertek DVD Player to project movies with a Plus Piano HE-3100 projector on a Da-Lite screen. The Piano is getting a little long in the tooth now, but it was a breakthrough DLP projector at the time and I still use this setup today to watch DVD’s on an 80 inch screen.

But how will Watch Now hold up in this big screen environment?

To answer this questions I ordered up one of my favorite movies, The Hunt For Red October, from Watch Now and settled in to see.

In short, I was pleasantly surprised. Seeing firsthand how unwatchable Youtube video can sometimes be on the big screen, I was prepared for the Watch Now picture to degrade to a point of being distracting when blown up to 80 inches. But, with the exception of the text based title sequences, that wasn’t the case. What I did find was that the picture quality was what I would describe as soft compared to DVD quality, though still of high enough quality to create a satisfying movie experience. You might say the quality is better than VHS but not quite as good as traditional DVD.

To help you visualize, here’s some screen shots captured with a Kodak Easy Share camera of the Watch Now version of The Hunt For Red October projected on an 80 inch screen:

It’s tough to be precise with screen shots like this, so let’s just say that the Watch Now picture quality is far from perfect and an obsessed videophile could easily pick it apart. Having said that though, I think the average viewer will find the quality to be more than adequate for enjoying a movie right away at home. The threshold question for me is are there are any distractions caused by technology to take me out of the movie? And for me Watch Now passed that test.

The Marketing Strategy of Watch Now

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was one of the first people I saw frame the ongoing disruptions in content distribution as the forces of freedom vs. the forces of control.

Google Video of Reed Hastings on Charlie Rose

If you buy the argument Hastings makes, then the way Netflix has chosen to implement Watch Now into its existing service may be a great case study of a company actually practicing what they preach.

As a Netflix subscriber you receive Watch Now as an add on to your existing subscription at no additional cost, receiving one hour of Watch Now service for every dollar of your subscription rate. For example, a typical Netflix subscriber on the 3 out at a time $17.99 a month plan will receive 18 hours of Watch Now service a month, or about 9 movies worth, all as a no cost addition to their existing plan.

Screenshot of how Netfilx tracks your Watch Now activity

After having been with the service for a number of years I was getting a wandering eye, starting to consider other services like Blockbuster Total Access which has that nice brick and mortar component that Netflix lacks. But with the new value that Watch Now adds to my existing Netflix subscription, I now lean much more toward staying loyal.

Watch Now also lays the groundwork for the complete transition from DVD delivery to digital download delivery while still allowing customers to take that journey at their own pace. Early adopters who have their own technology already in place can take full advantage of the Watch Now service right away while those that aren’t set up for it or who simply prefer to keep getting their movies by mail can keep doing what they’re doing. No matter where a content consumer is in that adoption cycle, Netflix remains a viable option.

What does Watch Now mean for content developers?

For content developers with film or video projects in need of distribution, Watch Now doesn’t appear to immediately offer any new options for you. Netflix does supply a method for submitting your film to them but encourages those with content looking for distribution on Netflix to form a relationship with an established distribution company.

Here’s how Netflix explains it:

Netflix is not always able to purchase films directly from the film’s owner and may suggest a third-party distributor as an alternative method for making your film available on Netflix.

The subscription model. Where to from here?

Some consumers like to buy their content and own it, while others like to rent it. Most of us do a little of both, but I’m one of those that likes the flat rate subscription model in both the film, video and audio world. One of the primary reasons for this is the ease with which you can sample new content. Ultimately for fans of that content subscription model it would be nice to have one service that delivered all of that content on demand, in one place, from one vendor.

As scenarios like that continue to circulate I wonder if there is an argument to be made for Netflix to acquire a service like Rhapsody which could provide perhaps a Listen Now component to go with the Watch Now service? This might make sense from both a consumer standpoint as well as for NFLX stockholders.

An acquisition like that could get us another step closer to the day when every movie, every tv show and every song is available to you any place at any time.

Just like that commercial promised.

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Related post: Video Demo of Watch Now service.

Related story: Netflix recently shipped its one billionth dvd rental to a customer down the road in neighboring Helotes.