If you are thinking about subscribing to the NetFlix UK service, this is definitely a review to read.
It has been two years since I last blogged about Netflix and a lot has changed, both in my computing setup and the service.
Warning: I actually wrote the draft of this blog post and took photos in late July 2014. I’m sure a lot hasn’t changed in the two months since I last used the service.
The available content
I was quite happy with Netflix UK two years ago, but the quality of the available movies and television shows has definitely improved. Whereas NowTV is definitely king of on-demand movies in the UK, and whilst Netflix UK does have some good movies, for me, Netflix in the United Kingdom is primarily about TV shows. Plus not forgetting the added bonus of no adverts breaking a programme apart!
I was able to finish watching Chuck the TV series, which Channel 5 in the UK had dropped a while back. Plus it gave me the opportunity to experience whole seasons of TV shows that I had heard about, but had never watched. Thus I discovered and enjoyed discovering and watching Continuum and White Collar.
Admittedly this meant I binged watched some TV shows, and watched too many episodes back to back!
The watch list
Two years ago there was no watch list for the service, and in the end I just bookmarked pages in a folder on my browser. Thankfully they have rectified the problem, and now you can easily add and remove items from a list.
Watching Netflix via mobile phone, tablet and computer
I don’t have a small smart box or TV with Netflix inbuilt, which is a major shame. However this didn’t stop me from watching the service via a few different ways!
Computer linked to the TV
At one stage I was connecting a laptop running Microsoft Windows Vista to the TV via the VGA cable, and later I used a computer with Linux Mint 16. Both not ideal, especially with the frustration of the sound setup, but meant I could easily watch from my couch.
Using a tablet computer
I’ve not tried connecting a tablet to a television screen yet, but I did successfully watch Netflix via a first generation Google Nexus 7 and a Kindle Fire HDX without issues. I also tried the subtitle functionality on the Kindle tablet and the text was well presented.
Testing on mobile phones
For the sake of this review, I tested and discovered it ran okay on a Samsung Galaxy ACE GT-S5830, but not on a Mini GT-S5570.
Conclusion
For me Netflix UK is currently a service that I will use for a month or two at a time, rather than continuously. Often when not subscribed, I am briefly using other on-demand services, such as NowTV and at the time of writing I’m also currently trying out Amazon’s Prime Instant Video package.