Netflix Launches Snazzy New In-Browser Video PLayer

Netflix Wednesday rolled out a much-needed update to its in-browser video player. The new player features a revamped control bar, the ability to browse other episodes during playback, and informative text overlays that pop up when you pause the video for a few seconds.

The new player appears to have some issues with Google Chrome on Mac OS X -- if you try to start the player in Chrome running on OS X, you get a warning pop-up that says the browser is not yet supported. That said, it may still work on your particular machine -- if you click through the warning, you may still be able to get Netflix to run with no issues.

A Netflix representative explained to GigaOM that "Chrome on Mac support is a limitation of Microsoft Silverlight, not Netflix. It works on some Macs but not on others, so we allow it and give users a warning."

The first thing you'll notice when you open up the new Web player is that the picture now hits the edges of the browser window -- you're no longer looking at a little box within your browser. This is because Netflix has moved the control bar onto the picture -- it appears as an overlay when you move your mouse over the video.

The new control bar has a couple of new buttons, including a button that lets you change the language (if applicable) of the video and turn subtitles on or off.

If you're watching a TV show or a series, you can now preview other episodes from within the video. The "preview" gives you an image from the episode, as well as a brief synopsis. You can jump directly to that episode by clicking anywhere within the preview box.

The last major visual change is the lightbox-like text overlay that appears when you pause the video. After the video has been paused for a couple of seconds, the image dims and an informative text overlay pops up with the title of the movie/show you're watching, the rating (if applicable), the season and episode (if applicable), and a brief synopsis. This overlay disappears when you move your mouse over the video.

Netflix's browser app redesign comes after the company updated a few other platforms, including its tablet app and its Xbox 360 app.

Follow Sarah on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

View the original article here

Netflix Agrees to Delete Former Users' Video History

If you've ever quit Netflix -- only to come crawling back once you've realized that Hulu only has TV shows and the MPAA is cracking down on other video-streaming sites, you've probably noticed that when you re-signup for Netflix your data is still on the servers. Even if you quit the service over a year ago.

Well, those of you crying privacy foul need worry no more -- Netflix has agreed to delete former users' video history and queue data within one year of their leaving the service. The company agreed to this stipulation in a settlement regarding a class-action privacy lawsuit filed against Netflix last year. The lawsuit accused Netflix of violating the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which makes it illegal for video rental services to disclose viewers' video habits without written consent.

The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of California in March 2011, was settled for $9 million with no admission of wrongdoing. $6.65 million of the settlement money will be paid to various privacy organizations, while $2.25 million will go to the lawyers (of course).

Netflix VP of Corporate Communications for Netflix Steve Swasey provided this statement to Paid Content:

"Netflix has settled a lawsuit related to the company’s compliance with the Video Privacy Protection Act with no admission of wrongdoing. This matter is unrelated to the company’s concerns about the ambiguities contained in the VPPA, which keep Netflix from offering its U.S. members the ability to share their instant watching information with their Facebook friends, an experience Netflix members currently enjoy in 46 other countries."

As you can see from Swasey's statement, this isn't the first time Netflix has had a run-in with the dreaded VPPA. The company has been trying to get its frictionless-sharing Facebook app onto U.S. users' computers, and the VPPA is all that stands in its way.

The VPPA was passed in 1988, after the video rental history of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was leaked and published. Though Bork's video history was "unremarkable" and contained such titles as "A Day at the Races" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much," the VPPA was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

In 2009, Netflix also found itself at the center of controversy regarding the VPPA when it tried to execute a research contest that involved disclosing demographic and behavioral data of individuals. Though the disclosed data was technically anonymous, it was determined that the data could be used to identify individuals.

Follow Sarah on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

View the original article here

Samsung UN46D6000 Review: $1000 Set Has Great Features, Middling Video

On paper, or on a website, the Samsung UN46D6000 looks like an all-around excellent HDTV, especially for a street price of around $1000 (as of 5/5/2012). While the UN46D6000 refreshes the screen at a rate of 120Hz, Samsung claims that the HDTV's “Clear Motion Rate” technology simulates the smoother motion you might see on a 240Hz set (more on that later). The set's sleek, easy-to-navigate Smart Hub feature provides access to your home network and the Internet. You can even control the set from your iPhone or Android device.

But you can't judge a television by its cover--or its stats. You can judge one by looking at the image quality, and here the UN46D6000 disappointed--especially in tests involving complex motion.

Lab Tests: Picture and Sound Quality

In the PCWorld Labs’ subjective tests for image quality, all four judges noted motion problems in our Mission Impossible III and The Dark Knight tests. When the camera panned over a brick wall in Mission Impossible (chapter 7), judges disagreed on whether the visible distortion was trivial ("minor motion problems") or serious ("wall doing the wave"). But everyone agreed that when the camera approached a skyscraper in a helicopter shot from The Dark Knight (chapter 9), it looked like a disaster. The building vibrated badly, with bits of it going briefly black. It looked like it was having trouble beaming down from the USS Enterprise.

Fortunately (and illogically), these problems are fixable by disabling the UN46D6000's “Clear Motion Rate” feature. Samsung says "Clear Motion Rate" technology uses a combination of the set's refresh rate, response time, image-processing speeds, and LED backlighting to improve fast-moving images. With this "feature" turned off, the Dark Knight scene looked fine. PCWorld's policy is to test HDTV image quality with this and similar features left on their default setting, so my discovery did not improve the set’s overall performance score.

With “Clear Motion Rate” turned on, the UN46D6000 performed reasonably well with less-lively video. Judges complained about minor skin-tone issues, contrast, and saturation. No one in our panel of judges was blown away by great-looking images, but no one was horrified, either.

Unfortunately, the set’s built-in speakers didn't sound very good. With the volume cranked all the way up, distortion was horrible. On the other hand, the cranked-up volume was also way too loud, so you probably would never play it at that level anyway. At 60 percent of volume--a loud but reasonable setting for watching a movie at home--the distortion was still noticeable. Stereo separation in the front tracks was very good, but the set's faux-surround-sound feature was only moderately effective.

That said, the built-in speakers of even the best HDTVs can't recreate today's movie soundtracks. If you really care about audio, you'll need to invest in a separate home theater sound system.

Inputs, Basic Setup, and On-Screen Menus

Most of the inputs (including all four HDMI ports) are mounted on the side of the television, where they can be easily accessed. Unfortunately, the VGA, ethernet, and coaxial connectors are on the back and, even worse, face down. Depending on where you place your HDTV, you may need to be a contortionist to access them.

When you first turn on the UN46D6000, a wizard walks you through the initial setup. Its clear explanations help, for the most part, but not always. For instance, when you tell it to look for digital cable stations, it asks you to pick between STD, HRC, and IRC, with no on-screen explanation. You'd have to check the manual to discover that "Most cable systems use STD." Once you've set up the UN46D6000, you can launch the colorful, attractive, and--most important--helpful main menu to change settings. Every option is explained, sometimes with graphics.

A Tools button on the remote control brings up a mini-menu of options you may frequently want to set. The remote is large and somewhat boxy, but felt fine to my hand. The buttons are large and well-placed, with the ones you're mostly likely to use in easy thumb locations. Press the key in the upper-right corner, and all the other keys light up. But you can't program the remote.

If you have an iOS or an Android device, and it can access the same home network as the HDTV (more about networking below), you can control the UN46D6000 via the Samsung Remote app. But once you get past the "Oh, wow!" factor, a remote control phone app has only one advantage over a real remote control: text entry. The Samsung app will bring up your phone's keyboard for some of the UN46D6000's text screens, but not all of them. For instance, you can use it to log into the TV's Social app, but not to search for a movie in Netflix.

Internet-Connected TV, Mobile Sharing, and Documentation

Press the remote's Hub button, and you'll be taken to Samsung's "Smart Hub," a screen that gives you access to various entertainment sources coming to you via the Internet, your home network, or the television's USB port. The UN46D6000 doesn't come with built-in Wi-Fi; for network and Internet capabilities, you'll have to either plug in an ethernet cable or buy a separately sold wireless adapter.

Once you're connected to the Internet, the UN46D6000 brings you common streaming options such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and Pandora. The aforementioned Social TV gives you Facebook and Twitter access, although you have to sign in via a separate Samsung account (which is free).

But one enticing, Internet-based Smart Hub feature disappoints: search. In theory, you can search for a movie or TV show, and find out where you can watch it among your various streaming services. But it doesn't support two popular services that would likely bring up a lot of search results on Smart Hub: Netflix and Hulu Plus.

The network connection that brings the Internet to your TV can also bring content from your computer. If your PC is running DLNA server software, such as Windows Media Player, it can send videos, photos, and music to the UN46D6000. If the computer and server software are up and running, you can control everything else from the TV.

A new feature that you'll find in the Smart Hub, SwipeIt, allows you to view videos and photos that reside on your Android or iOS device. You'll need to install the SwipeIt app on your phone or tablet to do this, and as with the remote control app, the device must be connected to your home network via Wi-Fi. I found this feature reasonably easy to set up, but bringing a photo up on my phone didn't display it on the TV. The trick, implied by the feature's name but not really intuitive, is to swipe upward on your phone's or tablet's screen to send the image or video to the UN46D6000.

Of course, you can also simply copy your music, photos, and videos to a flash drive and plug that into the UN46D6000. This TV has an exceptional slideshow feature, with six transition effects, background music (with a shuffle option), and other settings. It supports a reasonably large selection of video formats (five of the seven I tested), but audio-file support is limited to .mp3. You'll find the list of video formats on page 219 of the large online manual.

Which brings us to documentation. The UN46D6000 comes with a thin, 24-page manual that doubles as a quick setup guide. It's well designed and gets you through the basics, but that's about it. You won't find the real details here. Fortunately, there's more documentation; it's just not on paper. Press the remote's E-Manual button, and you'll get a clear, menu-based help environment where you can probably find the information you need. The Try Now on-screen button will take you from the E-Manual to the right location in the television's menu to do what you've been reading about.

And if that doesn't do it for you, there's the massive, 303-page full manual that you can download as a .PDF from Samsung's site (click "See All Downloads" under the Downloads header on the linked page).

Bottom Line

The Samsung UN46D6000 has a lot of cool extras, including connected features, mobile apps, and slick menus for a very reasonable $1000 price. Motion handling is a weak spot, but some of the issues we encountered can be remedied by turning off the “Clear Motion Rate” feature. If it looked and sounded better, it would be a great TV. As it stands, it’s still a pretty good deal for the price.

View the original article here

Netflix Launches Snazzy New In-Browser Video PLayer

Netflix Wednesday rolled out a much-needed update to its in-browser video player. The new player features a revamped control bar, the ability to browse other episodes during playback, and informative text overlays that pop up when you pause the video for a few seconds.

The new player appears to have some issues with Google Chrome on Mac OS X -- if you try to start the player in Chrome running on OS X, you get a warning pop-up that says the browser is not yet supported. That said, it may still work on your particular machine -- if you click through the warning, you may still be able to get Netflix to run with no issues.

A Netflix representative explained to GigaOM that "Chrome on Mac support is a limitation of Microsoft Silverlight, not Netflix. It works on some Macs but not on others, so we allow it and give users a warning."

The first thing you'll notice when you open up the new Web player is that the picture now hits the edges of the browser window -- you're no longer looking at a little box within your browser. This is because Netflix has moved the control bar onto the picture -- it appears as an overlay when you move your mouse over the video.

The new control bar has a couple of new buttons, including a button that lets you change the language (if applicable) of the video and turn subtitles on or off.

If you're watching a TV show or a series, you can now preview other episodes from within the video. The "preview" gives you an image from the episode, as well as a brief synopsis. You can jump directly to that episode by clicking anywhere within the preview box.

The last major visual change is the lightbox-like text overlay that appears when you pause the video. After the video has been paused for a couple of seconds, the image dims and an informative text overlay pops up with the title of the movie/show you're watching, the rating (if applicable), the season and episode (if applicable), and a brief synopsis. This overlay disappears when you move your mouse over the video.

Netflix's browser app redesign comes after the company updated a few other platforms, including its tablet app and its Xbox 360 app.

Follow Sarah on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

View the original article here

Netflix Agrees to Delete Former Users' Video History

If you've ever quit Netflix -- only to come crawling back once you've realized that Hulu only has TV shows and the MPAA is cracking down on other video-streaming sites, you've probably noticed that when you re-signup for Netflix your data is still on the servers. Even if you quit the service over a year ago.

Well, those of you crying privacy foul need worry no more -- Netflix has agreed to delete former users' video history and queue data within one year of their leaving the service. The company agreed to this stipulation in a settlement regarding a class-action privacy lawsuit filed against Netflix last year. The lawsuit accused Netflix of violating the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which makes it illegal for video rental services to disclose viewers' video habits without written consent.

The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of California in March 2011, was settled for $9 million with no admission of wrongdoing. $6.65 million of the settlement money will be paid to various privacy organizations, while $2.25 million will go to the lawyers (of course).

Netflix VP of Corporate Communications for Netflix Steve Swasey provided this statement to Paid Content:

"Netflix has settled a lawsuit related to the company’s compliance with the Video Privacy Protection Act with no admission of wrongdoing. This matter is unrelated to the company’s concerns about the ambiguities contained in the VPPA, which keep Netflix from offering its U.S. members the ability to share their instant watching information with their Facebook friends, an experience Netflix members currently enjoy in 46 other countries."

As you can see from Swasey's statement, this isn't the first time Netflix has had a run-in with the dreaded VPPA. The company has been trying to get its frictionless-sharing Facebook app onto U.S. users' computers, and the VPPA is all that stands in its way.

The VPPA was passed in 1988, after the video rental history of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was leaked and published. Though Bork's video history was "unremarkable" and contained such titles as "A Day at the Races" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much," the VPPA was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

In 2009, Netflix also found itself at the center of controversy regarding the VPPA when it tried to execute a research contest that involved disclosing demographic and behavioral data of individuals. Though the disclosed data was technically anonymous, it was determined that the data could be used to identify individuals.

Follow Sarah on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

View the original article here

Samsung UN46D6000 Review: $1000 Set Has Great Features, Middling Video

On paper, or on a website, the Samsung UN46D6000 looks like an all-around excellent HDTV, especially for a street price of around $1000 (as of 5/5/2012). While the UN46D6000 refreshes the screen at a rate of 120Hz, Samsung claims that the HDTV's “Clear Motion Rate” technology simulates the smoother motion you might see on a 240Hz set (more on that later). The set's sleek, easy-to-navigate Smart Hub feature provides access to your home network and the Internet. You can even control the set from your iPhone or Android device.

But you can't judge a television by its cover--or its stats. You can judge one by looking at the image quality, and here the UN46D6000 disappointed--especially in tests involving complex motion.

Lab Tests: Picture and Sound Quality

In the PCWorld Labs’ subjective tests for image quality, all four judges noted motion problems in our Mission Impossible III and The Dark Knight tests. When the camera panned over a brick wall in Mission Impossible (chapter 7), judges disagreed on whether the visible distortion was trivial ("minor motion problems") or serious ("wall doing the wave"). But everyone agreed that when the camera approached a skyscraper in a helicopter shot from The Dark Knight (chapter 9), it looked like a disaster. The building vibrated badly, with bits of it going briefly black. It looked like it was having trouble beaming down from the USS Enterprise.

Fortunately (and illogically), these problems are fixable by disabling the UN46D6000's “Clear Motion Rate” feature. Samsung says "Clear Motion Rate" technology uses a combination of the set's refresh rate, response time, image-processing speeds, and LED backlighting to improve fast-moving images. With this "feature" turned off, the Dark Knight scene looked fine. PCWorld's policy is to test HDTV image quality with this and similar features left on their default setting, so my discovery did not improve the set’s overall performance score.

With “Clear Motion Rate” turned on, the UN46D6000 performed reasonably well with less-lively video. Judges complained about minor skin-tone issues, contrast, and saturation. No one in our panel of judges was blown away by great-looking images, but no one was horrified, either.

Unfortunately, the set’s built-in speakers didn't sound very good. With the volume cranked all the way up, distortion was horrible. On the other hand, the cranked-up volume was also way too loud, so you probably would never play it at that level anyway. At 60 percent of volume--a loud but reasonable setting for watching a movie at home--the distortion was still noticeable. Stereo separation in the front tracks was very good, but the set's faux-surround-sound feature was only moderately effective.

That said, the built-in speakers of even the best HDTVs can't recreate today's movie soundtracks. If you really care about audio, you'll need to invest in a separate home theater sound system.

Inputs, Basic Setup, and On-Screen Menus

Most of the inputs (including all four HDMI ports) are mounted on the side of the television, where they can be easily accessed. Unfortunately, the VGA, ethernet, and coaxial connectors are on the back and, even worse, face down. Depending on where you place your HDTV, you may need to be a contortionist to access them.

When you first turn on the UN46D6000, a wizard walks you through the initial setup. Its clear explanations help, for the most part, but not always. For instance, when you tell it to look for digital cable stations, it asks you to pick between STD, HRC, and IRC, with no on-screen explanation. You'd have to check the manual to discover that "Most cable systems use STD." Once you've set up the UN46D6000, you can launch the colorful, attractive, and--most important--helpful main menu to change settings. Every option is explained, sometimes with graphics.

A Tools button on the remote control brings up a mini-menu of options you may frequently want to set. The remote is large and somewhat boxy, but felt fine to my hand. The buttons are large and well-placed, with the ones you're mostly likely to use in easy thumb locations. Press the key in the upper-right corner, and all the other keys light up. But you can't program the remote.

If you have an iOS or an Android device, and it can access the same home network as the HDTV (more about networking below), you can control the UN46D6000 via the Samsung Remote app. But once you get past the "Oh, wow!" factor, a remote control phone app has only one advantage over a real remote control: text entry. The Samsung app will bring up your phone's keyboard for some of the UN46D6000's text screens, but not all of them. For instance, you can use it to log into the TV's Social app, but not to search for a movie in Netflix.

Internet-Connected TV, Mobile Sharing, and Documentation

Press the remote's Hub button, and you'll be taken to Samsung's "Smart Hub," a screen that gives you access to various entertainment sources coming to you via the Internet, your home network, or the television's USB port. The UN46D6000 doesn't come with built-in Wi-Fi; for network and Internet capabilities, you'll have to either plug in an ethernet cable or buy a separately sold wireless adapter.

Once you're connected to the Internet, the UN46D6000 brings you common streaming options such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and Pandora. The aforementioned Social TV gives you Facebook and Twitter access, although you have to sign in via a separate Samsung account (which is free).

But one enticing, Internet-based Smart Hub feature disappoints: search. In theory, you can search for a movie or TV show, and find out where you can watch it among your various streaming services. But it doesn't support two popular services that would likely bring up a lot of search results on Smart Hub: Netflix and Hulu Plus.

The network connection that brings the Internet to your TV can also bring content from your computer. If your PC is running DLNA server software, such as Windows Media Player, it can send videos, photos, and music to the UN46D6000. If the computer and server software are up and running, you can control everything else from the TV.

A new feature that you'll find in the Smart Hub, SwipeIt, allows you to view videos and photos that reside on your Android or iOS device. You'll need to install the SwipeIt app on your phone or tablet to do this, and as with the remote control app, the device must be connected to your home network via Wi-Fi. I found this feature reasonably easy to set up, but bringing a photo up on my phone didn't display it on the TV. The trick, implied by the feature's name but not really intuitive, is to swipe upward on your phone's or tablet's screen to send the image or video to the UN46D6000.

Of course, you can also simply copy your music, photos, and videos to a flash drive and plug that into the UN46D6000. This TV has an exceptional slideshow feature, with six transition effects, background music (with a shuffle option), and other settings. It supports a reasonably large selection of video formats (five of the seven I tested), but audio-file support is limited to .mp3. You'll find the list of video formats on page 219 of the large online manual.

Which brings us to documentation. The UN46D6000 comes with a thin, 24-page manual that doubles as a quick setup guide. It's well designed and gets you through the basics, but that's about it. You won't find the real details here. Fortunately, there's more documentation; it's just not on paper. Press the remote's E-Manual button, and you'll get a clear, menu-based help environment where you can probably find the information you need. The Try Now on-screen button will take you from the E-Manual to the right location in the television's menu to do what you've been reading about.

And if that doesn't do it for you, there's the massive, 303-page full manual that you can download as a .PDF from Samsung's site (click "See All Downloads" under the Downloads header on the linked page).

Bottom Line

The Samsung UN46D6000 has a lot of cool extras, including connected features, mobile apps, and slick menus for a very reasonable $1000 price. Motion handling is a weak spot, but some of the issues we encountered can be remedied by turning off the “Clear Motion Rate” feature. If it looked and sounded better, it would be a great TV. As it stands, it’s still a pretty good deal for the price.

View the original article here