can you watch Netflix in HD on apple TV?

those of you who stream netflix to an HD tv, how is the quality?

It varies. Not all Netflix content is HD. I use both the TV2 and an LG BD player with Netflix viewing on a Panasonic 42" Plasma HDTV. The TV is more consistent (i.e. does not stop and renegotiate connection speed) than the LG unit but quality is about the same on both devices depending on time of day and the amount of streaming traffic in my local area. I tend to watch my own content more since netflix does not seem to support multichannel audio at all.

bscepter wrote:
right now, we stream netflix via the wii on our 42" plasma, and it looks terrible. i'm considering buying an apple tv, if the netflix streaming picture quality is HD or at least near-HD.

those of you who stream netflix to an HD tv, how is the quality?

thx.

How fast is your internet connection? That is what will make the biggest difference.

IMHO Apple TV processes Netflix streams at a higher quality in general. The HD feed looks really good on it -- better than any other streaming device I've seen.

But your results may vary somewhat based on your location and local traffic.

For best results, I usually do a quick network speed test with the SpeedTest app on my iPhone before I decide to watch Netflix on Apple TV. You want to be higher than 6mbs or so for download speed.

Netfilx quality streaming ***** on most things!

Netflix HD quality is pretty good. Netflix in SD leaves a lot to be desired. I have the Wii too and Netflix in HD on the Apple TV on an HDTV is far, far better than using the Wii. You will be pleasantly surprised. I moved my Wii to a small SDTV in the bedroom and now it looks acceptable.

I'd go for the apple, never bought into blu-ray and the interface is much better than what i've seen of the latter.

If you were to go blu-ray, I'd advise spending a bit more and getting a PS3. It streams Netflix (the interface is not quite as good as Apple TV, but it supports 1080p and Dolby Digtal 5.1 from Netflix, which are not yet available from Apple TV). Sony has done a very good job of keeping it updated to support the latest blu-ray features, and it is also a particularly good upscaling player for standard DVDs. Oh, and it plays games, too.

HD just defines a resolution (1920x1080 or 1280x720) not a picture quality.. picture quality is made up of resolution, data rate, codec and frame rate... just for comparison the data rate of BlueRay is 42Mb/s and for netflix "HD" and appleHD ave around 5Mb/s.. max peaks at 15Mb/s

HD Netflix content on appleTV looks very good on my 58 inch plasma, but we have 25Mb/s internet connection (i think if you have 5Mb/s your fine).. even so Netflix varies the data rate in the case of network congestion.. so sometime you'll see the picture degrade.. i find if you pause and let the caching catch up it come back to the higher quality.. 95% of the time though it's very good.

depending on your network connection it might be a step up if you have a less than 3Mb/s connection i probably wouldn't bother..

Message was edited by: tmartine