
TED Talks joins Netflix's stable of streaming content - zeppelin_7
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/ted-talks-joins-netflixs-stable-of-streaming-content/29044
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evincarofautumn
This is a great offering for people like my dad: he’s a smart guy who would
love TED talks, and he uses Netflix daily. But he would never go out of his
way to discover content such as this on his own, in part because it’s not
centralised, but mostly because he really dislikes using computers. Getting
this kind of stuff on Netflix is a huge boost to discoverability, and I look
forward to seeing what else they will offer next—online learning, perhaps?

~~~
michaelbuckbee
Out of curiosity, what device does your father use for Netflix? My elderly
relatives have significant difficulties using any of the Netflix clients other
than the iPad app.

~~~
rkudeshi
My grandfather likes watching YouTube videos, but even the simple Apple TV
interface was too difficult for him (remembering all the remote buttons,
mostly). I know it's very simple, but it was just too much for him.

However, he knows how to use his iPhone to play music and use AirPlay to
stream it to a stereo (Airport Express). So I showed him how to AirPlay to an
Apple TV and now he doesn't need to know anything about how to work the Apple
TV (as long as he changes the input, the Apple TV will automatically wake up
as soon as it receives an AirPlay stream).

Basically, if your relatives like the iPad app, just have them continue to use
that and then send the video to an Apple TV via AirPlay.

~~~
brlewis
To learn more about HNers' experience with Apple TV, Boxee, Roku, etc I
created a poll: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3713059>

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shad0wfax
Wonder what makes Netflix more desirable with this partnership. TED content is
free AFAIK. Some benefits I can think of:

\- Making TED content more accessible across devices/platforms? (Netflix has
better device reach)

\- Applying Netflix's categorization and recommendation algorithm to TED's
vast content.

\- As the article said, grouping related videos for longer viewing, but I am
not sure how good it would be.

I think this is just a value add to existing customer, but I want them to
figure out a way to add more movies.

~~~
harisenbon
For me, it's simply that I can easily watch TED content on my TV without
having to airplay it from my iphone / ipad.

While the free TED talks would never be a reason to _subscribe_ to netflix in
the first point, they do increase the value of the platform by providing ease
of access.

It's nice when all of your content (free or paid) is available in one place.

~~~
DiabloD3
Buy a Roku, Roku has a TED app.

~~~
eitally
Without search it is nearly impossible to use.

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brlewis
That may be true for the TED channel, but they claim a searchable interface
for their Netflix channel: <http://www.roku.com/netflix-partner>

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pasbesoin
Really, I'm not this positive in my outlook. But I find it ironic -- if
perhaps a bit naive -- to think that Hollywood's rampant, myopic self-interest
might end up "forcing" the public into the arms of better quality content.

All those "History" and "How Things Work" and the like shows on cable have
proven quite popular. (And "Mythbusters", with its enhanced entertainment
factor.) Maybe not just Netflix, but aggregate culture, is onto something,
here.

~~~
StacyC
I don’t think it’s naive. Many people are getting fed up with the substandard
crap that mostly comes from the studios anymore and are demanding something
better. Hollywood does not have a monopoly on talent. Spend a little time on
Vimeo and you can see that there are some terrific filmmakers and storytellers
out there.

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justncase80
This is great. I've seen nearly all of them already but it should widen it up
to a lot of people. It's really interesting to see what was exclusively web
based content moving onto Netflix. Also netflix seems like the one of the
least evil content delivery companies out there right now and I'm glad to see
TED endorse them.

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TheCapn
Word on if this is American netflix only? This interests me a lot but I'm a
foreign subscriber

~~~
AgentConundrum
They appeared for me in Canada yesterday.

This site[1] seems pretty reliable about finding new items as they're added to
Netflix, and I find it easier than using Netflix's own "new" page. If you're
in the US (I know you aren't, TheCapn, but it's good info), you can replace
"can" in the URL with "us". I don't think there's a UK version (yet?).

[1] <http://can.whatsnewonnetflix.com/>

~~~
narcissus
Thanks for the link AgentConundrum... that's definitely easier for sure.

It's just a shame that the Dirty Deeds movie that the site is linking to on
IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes is another movie with the same name, that's
apparently nowhere near as good as the actual one that is 'now available'.
Well, I thought it was pretty good at least :)

~~~
AgentConundrum
Interestingly enough, I noticed the same thing regarding a movie called
"Project X" recently. The cover (and Netflix link) were to a Matthew Broderick
movie from the 80s, but the rest of the information shown was for a movie from
last year with a 25% RT rating.

I sent an email to the guy behind the website telling him of the error and
suggesting that maybe there need to be a few sanity checks (release year +/-
1, cast, etc.).

He responded pretty quickly, and lamented that the problems are due to the
limited information he gets from Netflix Canada:

> _When I get new releases from Netflix, I actually don't even get the release
> year, just the movie name, summary, and box art, and then I try to
> extrapolate as much as I can from that. I usually just keep a close eye on
> it and fix the errors as I see them._

His email did state that he's found another way to get more information, but
that he's had to rewrite a lot of the site because of it. He's beta testing
now, and hopefully it will be live relatively soon.

For now, I just try to be mindful of the limitations of the site, and if a
movie looks vaguely interesting, I'll check it out on Netflix and/or directly
on RT myself.

You've actually just accidentally save me from falling victim to this trap
again, since I saw Dirty Deeds on the feed today, but dismissed it based on
the extremely low RT rating. I guess even knowing about the problem doesn't
always save you from being influenced by it. Either that, or it had a lot to
do with looking when I got up at 7am today, and was still too groggy to think.

~~~
narcissus
That's good to hear that he's working on a better solution. I had a really
quick look and couldn't see a way to email him so I didn't bother.

To be honest I wouldn't have noticed either except for the fact that I
remember seeing Dirty Deeds as new last night on the actual Netflix app and
exclaimed "Awesome! I have to watch that again!", then started to second guess
myself when I saw the rating...

Thanks again for the link, though: I'll use it more for the information than
the ratings.

~~~
AgentConundrum
> _I had a really quick look and couldn't see a way to email him so I didn't
> bother._

It's at the very bottom of the page, under all the ratings:

> _Questions / comments can be directed to aaron@andcuriouser.com._

It's sort of a footnote, so it's probably easy to miss.

> _I'll use it more for the information than the ratings._

The ratings, from what I can tell, are correct more often than they're not. If
the ratings look good, and you're interested in the movie, I'd say go for it.

A coworker once told me he doesn't pay attention to bad ratings anyway. He
said that if a movie gets a good review, then it's probably at least worth
watching because people were finding good things to say about it. If it gets
negative reviews, it could just be that it wasn't what the reviewer was
expecting or wasn't up to _their_ particular standards. Think of Watchmen:
that movie was heavily advertised as an explosive action superhero movie, but
those bits are a very brief tangent on an otherwise slow moving character
study. It's a good movie, but a lot of people were probably pissed off when
they saw it. Still more were probably pissed off because it didn't live up to
the book in their minds.

Either way, I've been using that site since before the RT integration, and it
was always useful. I check it every couple of days and add interesting things
to my list/instant queue. It's nicer, to me, to have a textual list of new
movies in chronological order than it is to have graphical listings by genre
where new things get drown out by less recent, but still "newish" listings in
the genre.

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Feoh
_SQUEE_ I've been watching the TED Talks that are available via YouTube on my
Xbox 360 lately. I could watch them all day long :)

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joelmaat
It is funny that Netflix doesn't seem to be serving up relevant content to me.
Discovery is just not that good yet. Everytime I visit the site, I have to go
digging. Maybe (and I'm hoping) its just this selection problem. I hope they
add more (good) titles to streaming, and fix this discovery issue.

I wonder how much licensing fees factor into them hiding good content vs.
playing it up to show that they are still relevant.

~~~
goostavos
"Still relevant"? What is threatening Netflix right now? Hulu maybe, I guess.
If you really like TV shows, and _paying_ to see ads.

I'm also an Amazon Prime member, but their streaming catalog is abysmal -- I
mean, it borders on embarrassing. I check it every now and again when Amazon
uses the home page to tell me all of the 'great' new content they've added,
but going back to the Netflix comparison, by that benchmark, it doesn't even
come close.

I've never run into an issue with them hiding content. I'm not sure to what
you're referring. They didn't plaster Iron Man 2 all over the landing page
when it became available?

You can more or less watch the views flood in on instantwatcher.com anytime a
'modern' movie is released on streaming. It shoots to the top right away,
which makes me think that, for most people, finding the 'good' content is not
an issue.

~~~
danilocampos
> What is threatening Netflix right now?

Hostile rights holders who are forcing their catalog to shrink. Continually
whittling away the streaming catalog's value is Netflix's biggest problem, not
competing services.

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Qweef
I don't get it...can't pretty much any device capable of running Netflix also
run Youtube?

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netmute
I really, really want Netflix in Germany. What politician do I have to bribe?

~~~
latitud10norte
<http://unblock-us.com> (ssshhhhh...)

:)

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tbourdon
Been watching them for months on Roku... No subscription fee required.

~~~
cpeterso
I have tried to watch TED talks on my Roku, but the quality is terrible. Many
of the videos (especially the older ones) freeze, cannot be rewound, and have
audio sync problems. According to the Roku support forums, the TED channel is
an unofficial hobby project maintained by a Roku engineer in his spare time.
He says the video problems started after ted.com changed their video formats.
He can't afford to pay for transcoding/serving of Roku-friendly videos.

~~~
aditya
Could you give me a link to the forum thread?

We now have an official channel on Roku:
[http://blog.roku.com/blog/2012/02/28/get-inspired-with-
the-o...](http://blog.roku.com/blog/2012/02/28/get-inspired-with-the-official-
ted-channel-on-roku/) \- but I'm not sure if the quality is still terrible?

I'll test it out myself, but any feedback/steps to reproduce would be more
than welcome.

~~~
cpeterso
Thanks for the link! I didn't know an official TED channel had been released.

Note that most of the comments on that Roku blog post describe the same audio
sync and video freezing problems I experienced (and that have been reported in
the Roku forums since early 2011).

Here is a (May 2011) Roku forum post from Dylan Doxey, the developer of the
unofficial TED channel. And I was mistaken: he is neither a Roku nor TED
employee.

[http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=39328&st...](http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=39328&start=15)

    
    
      The previous TED channel was based on the TED RSS feed and assumed that all the 
      videos would be Roku compatible. Sadly, starting some time in April 2011 TED 
      stopped publishing videos in Roku friendly encoding. After being flooded with 
      support requests, the TED people contacted me and asked me to make it clear on 
      the channel description that the TEDTalks Roku channel is not built or 
      supported by TED. They also said, "We're working on the encoding issues that 
      are causing the poor performance on Roku; this platform just wasn't on our 
      radar when we built our encoder."*
    
      Just to be clear, TED is no longer publishing videos in a Roku friendly format. 
      If some long period of time goes by, I may consider downloading the videos, 
      re-encoding them, and re-hosting them. However, I'm not sure my humble server 
      will support hosting video files for some 55K+ channel subscribers. The TED 
      servers are much more capable of handling that kind of demand.*

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funkah
The whole talks, or the 10-minute dinguses they have on ted.com?

