Netflix On Demand?

[Junk Parts]

My wife found this thing on the Netflix site which we belong to. Its a box that you hook up to your DSL line then to your TV. You go to the Netflix site on your PC and pick a movie, and then they stream it right to you. The Box cost $79.00 USD. Can I get around having to buy this box and just have Netflix stream the movie to my PC then export the movie to the big TV using my video card that has TVout?

[i4004]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

from their web:

Questions? Call us at 1-866-636-3076
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

this

"Can I instantly watch movies streamed from Netflix over the Internet to my PC or Mac?

Yes, you can. The ability to instantly watch movies (some new releases) & TV episodes (including current season) streamed from Netflix to your PC or Mac is included with all plans. Choose from over 17,000 movies & TV episodes. With an Unlimited plan, you can watch as often as you want, anytime you want. This is included with your membership for no additional monthly fee and doesn't impact the number of DVDs you get by mail."

suggests you can..

system requirements:
"What are the system requirements to watch movies instantly on my PC or Mac?

You must have a computer running Windows XP or Mac OS X and an active broadband connection to the Internet.
Windows XP requirements: Service Pack 2 or higher or Windows Vista; Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher or Firefox 2 or higher; 1.2 GHz processor; 512 MB RAM.
Mac OS X requirements: an Intel-based Mac with OS 10.4.8 or later; Safari 3 or higher; Firefox 2 or higher; 1 GB RAM."

but it would be good to ask them first...

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Thanks i4004. You just answered every question that I had. I'm tired right now but in the morning I'll be streaming a movie to my PC.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

I tried it with IE8 but the site told me my browser couldn't stream video. It didn't tell me why IE8 couldn't do it. I've watched other streaming vids on the news with IE8 and it worked just fine. Next I tried FireFox 3.5 and it couldn't do it at first ether but it did go get a plug in called Silver Light from Microsoft, and the Fox kicked right in. I watched two Daniel Whitney aka "Larry The Cable Guy" movies and the Fox did it just fine. Now that I have "Silver Light" on the system I'm going to try IE8 again sometime today. Now I have to go back and do some reading....Yes most of us Rednecks did learn the read by the 6th grade or so.....We had to with the kid on the way and all...LOL. I need to know howmany free streaming movies I can watch before Netflix starts charging me.
Git-R-Done!

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Question! My wife's PC doesn't meet the system requirement for the NetFlix Streaming Vids. She has Xp Sp2 or better, "Check". She has 512megs of Ram, "check". 1.2 or faster CPU, "fail." but she does have a 128 meg NVidia DDR 2 AGP card installed. Do you think the Netflix site will let her try to stream a vid or will it shut her out because of her CPU speed. Her PC is a Dell GX180, 1Ghz PIII CPU, 512 megs PC133 Ram, 7200 RPM WD Ultra ATA 133 80 gig drive on primary IDE 0. I have never had any problems playing streams on the old GX180 PIII. I think that it does a better job of it than my Dell 4550, P4 2.4 with a gig of ram does. I think this is because of the pipeline difference between the PIII and the P4. Don't qoute me on this, and don't fry me if I'm wrong, but I think the pipeline on the PIII is like 10 things long, and on the P4 its like 20 things long. If the P4 makes a mistake it has to go back many more steps to fix an internal error. The PIII can do it quicker because of its shorter Pipeline. Back in a better time I had and Abit VL6 with a 1gig PIII Northwood? in it. The mobo rocked until the caps went bad. It was given to somebody on this forum. I hope that person made it live again. It was still working but had become unstable just like me!

[kc8adu]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Back in a better time I had and Abit VL6 with a 1gig PIII Northwood? in it. The mobo rocked until the caps went bad. It was given to somebody on this forum. I hope that person made it live again. It was still working but had become unstable just like me!

yes it is still alive after a recap.it now resides in a hot,smelly,noisy,metal dust and coolant mist infested place where its sole pupose in life is to provide a isa home to a delta tao pmac board.
rough retirement eh?

[washu]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Junk parts: I'll start by saying that if your wife's computer is in good running order and doesn't have a lot of crap running in the background it will probably work. I don't know if Netflix checks your CPU and rejects one that is "too slow". If it doesn't the difference between a 1.0 and 1.2 GHz CPU isn't going to make a huge difference.

However:

1. Just because other things stream well doesn't mean Netflix will. Stuff like Youtube is a lot easier to decode then a movie stream optimized for quality.

2. Your video card is too old to help much with any significant video decoding. It does scaling and might do MPEG2, but it's not going to help with Netflix in any significant way.

3. You are essentially correct about the pipline differences between a PIII and a P3. The PIII has ten stages and the P4 has 20, 21, or 31 stages in the Willamette, Northwood and Prescott cores respectively. The P4 has a higher branch penalty, but it makes fewer mistakes than the PIII. Also, the P4 has way more memory bandwidth and SSE2 (or higher) which help a lot with video decoding.

Clock for clock the PIII is much faster, but it's not enough to make up for a 1.4 GHz difference. If your P4 2.4 is perceptibly slower then something is likely wrong on that PC. A 1.0 GHz P3 can beat out a 1.5 - 1.7 GHz Willamette depending on the workload, but not higher than that in any real-world task.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Delta Tao was founded in 1990 by Joe Williams and Tim Cotter, who had developed
Color MacCheese, a paint program notable for being the first to use 32-bit color
and for its $49 price tag at a time when its nearest competitor, PixelPaint, was
$399. Its early products included several innovative graphics programs for
Macintosh, including Zeus and Monet, but within a few years the company had
shifted almost entirely to games, usually geared for network play.

As I'm a dumb ass sometime I guess you mean the VL6 Is acting as an interface for a Mac ISA graphics board of some type to control CNC machine tools???? XYZ and that sort of stuff.
That board is like a smart old man who is in a home for old people. If you give him nothing to do, and leave him sitting in a dark room all by his self day after day he is going to die on you.
When you upgrade these people if the VL6 is still good you could aways sell it back to me. Its always been better that the Dell GX 180 we have here, and the Dell has more ram than the VL6 ever had.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

3. You are essentially correct about the pipline differences between
a PIII and a P3. The PIII has ten stages and the P4 has 20, 21, or
31 stages in the Willamette, Northwood and Prescott cores
respectively. The P4 has a higher branch penalty, but it makes fewer
mistakes than the PIII. Also, the P4 has way more memory bandwidth
and SSE2 (or higher) which help a lot with video decoding.

Clock for clock the PIII is much faster, but it's not enough to make
up for a 1.4 GHz difference. If your P4 2.4 is perceptibly slower
then something is likely wrong on that PC. A 1.0 GHz P3 can beat out
a 1.5 - 1.7 GHz Willamette depending on the workload, but not higher
than that in any real-world task.


Washu I don't know the model name of the PIII 1ghz CPU in the GX 180, but its the same CPU the Abit VL-6 mobo would use. My 4550 P4 2.4 is a Northwood core with 1gig of DDR ram. The Gx180 has 512 megs of PC133 ram. I've had three of these 4550 Dells and they have all seemed to run about the same. Going from 512 megs to 1gig of ram in the 4550 unit didn't seem to give it boost you would think it would ether.

[washu]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Washu I don't know the model name of the PIII 1ghz CPU in the GX 180, but its the same CPU the Abit VL-6 mobo would use. My 4550 P4 2.4 is a Northwood core with 1gig of DDR ram. The Gx180 has 512 megs of PC133 ram. I've had three of these 4550 Dells and they have all seemed to run about the same. Going from 512 megs to 1gig of ram in the 4550 unit didn't seem to give it boost you would think it would ether.

There are a few variants of the PIII 1 GHz, but they are all pretty close. You likely have the Coppermine version with 256K cache and a 133 bus. If you are lucky you have a Tualatin with 512K cache. If you are unlucky you have the Coppermine with only a 100 bus. It's not a huge difference speed wise between one or the others.

What HD do you have in the 4550s? You said you had a 7200 RPM drive in the GX180. If the 4550s have slow drives then that can make a huge difference in perceived speed. Also do they have the same background stuff? A crappy Anti-Virus on the 4550 would also explain the speed diff.

[kc8adu]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

http://www.deltatau.com/Common/produ...ionStr=release

[kc8adu]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

if it comes back after a upgrade which i doubt as these folks run this stuff till it dies then have me fix it i will let you know.
there are sure to be a few vl6 floating around.just get one and recap it.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Doing a Recap is something for a skilled Mechanic such as yourself to do. My self, I am only a skilled abuser. If I "fixed" a VL6 board death for it would follow...

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Got you Kc8adu. Thats what I was thinking in a round about way. Now I'm up to speed with you. Hope the old VL6 does a good job for them.

Now Washu I feel like a fool, and I have some new numbers for you. The service tag on the PIII Dell is 9MSMQ01. Its a GX150 not a GX180. The Dell numbers for the CPU are as follows: 80526 1Ghz 256 133 FC DO. I'm not sure if this is right but here are some Intel numbers that may be it. Code Name Salano. 82815 Intel 815E 1Ghz CPU. Is a Dell 80526 also and Intel 82815? Sorry about that Washu. From looking at the front of the old PC I alway thought it said GX180 but I guess that 8 is a 5. Going to kick the pig and see if it says anything in the BIOS about the GX whatever it maybe stuff. Oh I don't think this is the same type PIII that I ran on the VL6. That one kicked ass, and took names!

[washu]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Now Washu I feel like a fool, and I have some new numbers for you. The service tag on the PIII Dell is 9MSMQ01. Its a GX150 not a GX180. The Dell numbers for the CPU are as follows: 80526 1Ghz 256 133 FC DO. I'm not sure if this is right but here are some Intel numbers that may be it. Code Name Salano. 82815 Intel 815E 1Ghz CPU. Is a Dell 80526 also and Intel 82815? Sorry about that Washu. From looking at the front of the old PC I alway thought it said GX180 but I guess that 8 is a 5. Going to kick the pig and see if it says anything in the BIOS about the GX whatever it maybe stuff. Oh I don't think this is the same type PIII that I ran on the VL6. That one kicked ass, and took names!

I was going on the assumption that it was a GX150 you were talking about or something similar. There's no GX180 listed on Dell's support site, but that could just be a Canadian thing.

Your CPU is a standard Coppermine PIII 1GHZ, 256K Cache, 133 MHz bus. The 80526 is just Intel's product code for it. The 82815 is the 815E chipset, code name "Solano". Standard 815 with integrated video. The GX150s are good machines. Had lots of them here at work, never any major issues. I still have one going at home.

I'm not 100% sure, but the VP6 probably had the same CPU. The VP6 didn't support Tualatins without an adapter, so it likely had the same CPU as your GX150. It might have had the slower 100 MHz bus version, but those weren't as common. It could support more RAM, up to 2 GB if you had the later revision of the VIA Apollo Pro chipset. However, the 815 in the GX150 has a much better south-bridge connection so things like HD bandwidth would be better.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

I don't know, maybe I did know it to be a GX 150 in the past. I forget things now and then....LOL The only reason I know that mine is a Dimension 4550 is that its on my desk right in front of my face. Now here is a funny one about the 4550. If you have the one with the 533 fsb it was advertised as being able to handle 1 gig of ram. One gig DDR sticks must have been very hard to come by at the time because even Dell only had 512 mb sticks to test this unit with I'm told. There is and update on the site now stating that the 4550 with the 533 fsb can and will run just fine with two gigs of DDR ram installed. They should have talked to my brother. He got one brand new and the first thing it got was two one gig DDR sticks and it flew with it. Maybe thats what I need to do to get my 4550 kicking butt, because I do have the 533 fsb too.
Now here are some more numbers right out of the GX 150 BIOS.
GX150, Intel PIII 1.00Ghz Level 2 cache: 256 kb integrated.

[washu]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

According to Intel the 845PE as used in your 4550 supports 2 Gigs so as your brother found out it works fine. I've seen a few other Dells like that. My Inspiron 6400 says it only supports 2 GB and it's running 4 just fine.

It shouldn't matter if your FSB is 400 or 533, the 845PE supports both. A 400 FSB CPU should work fine with 2 Gigs.

Having 2 Gigs is always nice, but it's not really necessary under XP unless you run a crapload of stuff. It will help, but it won't make a huge difference. Check your RAM use in task manager when you have all your usual stuff open. If you are getting close or over 1 Gig then more would be a good idea. If you are well under 1 Gig then a faster HD would probably help more.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Now you asked about the hard drive in the Dimension 4550. Here is what it is: WDC WD600BB-75CAAO. I dont know if the last letter is a zero or an o. The drive is Ultra ATA 100, and its a 7,200 RPM unit.

[washu]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

Now you asked about the hard drive in the Dimension 4550. Here is what it is: WDC WD600BB-75CAAO. I dont know if the last letter is a zero or an o. The drive is Ultra ATA 100, and its a 7,200 RPM unit.

That's not a bad drive by any means. You can get faster PATA drives, but you are already doing well. An 8 MB cache drive would be a bit faster, as would a bigger one, but not night and day. I don't think any performance issues are caused by your HD.

Unless you are maxing out your 1 GB of RAM, I would guess that any performance issues with your 4550 are software related. If the OS and software installs were similar, the 4550 should be a fair bit faster than the GX150 with the hardware you have.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Netflix On Demand?

JP, I'm not sure if someone already mentioned this, but you can stream an unlimited amount of movies (or at least you could back when I had netflix).