Oh Netflix, which entertainment industry entity won’t you terrify? Starz has declared a 90-day waiting period on its TV content, with movies following shortly thereafter. What’s this mean? Bad things, if you like Netflix streaming – fewer new releases. Bummer. More »
Netflix just signed a deal allowing them to stream 2,500 Starz Play movies to their subscribers, boosting their streaming video library to over 12,000 pieces of content. Current Netflix subscribers will receive the bonus content free (1,000 films immediately) and cheapos who just want access to the Starz movies can get a subscription through Netflix for $US7.99. Good stuff. Now just to wait for that announcement where Apple, Amazon, Netflix, VUDU, the movie studios, satellite providers and cable networks all team up to offer a Utopian platform of instantly streaming HD films.
Starz is upgrading their infrastructure, transitioning from their MPEG2 systems of old (old, fat DVD codec technology) to sweet MPEG4 (efficiently-packed video that can be scaled more easily to HD). So why am I telling you this? Well, it’s totally geektastic knowledge and sometimes I can’t help myself. And also, these MPEG4 systems are being installed to offer customers more HD content by clearing bandwidth. The catch? Like many content providers, Starz’ transmissions will peak at 1080i/720p. No 1080p for you, guy who apparently spent too much on his television. Just remember this when 4K TVs are all the rage. [CNN]
