Netflix on Board?

[tulsag]

We are going to live on our boat this summer cruising along the Florida coastline and will make several stop where WiFi should be available. Does anyone use "streaming NETFLIX"?

If so, what is your setup?

Do WiFi connections to a boat work well (I have a 5mileWiFi antenea) with streaming video?

Mark

[wahoo40]

Last summer we spent 2 months in Florida and the Bahamas (home port is New Orleans). We use the Alpha AWU...(I forget all the numers & letters) to enhance our WiFi, it worked great even in the Bahamas but we never could get Netflix movies to stream. Ended up upping our membership so we had a bunch plus buying a few.
But that was last year maybe something better is out there now.

[ActiveCaptain]

We do a lot of streaming video over WiFi when we can find it. We currently don't use NetFlix and have somehow managed to watch everything for free. I can see NetFlix in our future though because there would be more choices.

For TV, there's almost nothing that beats hulu.com. Hulu is like having a TiVo. You tell it what programs you want and it will alert you when it has them in your queue. Then you watch them from there. It's really quite well done.

For movies and TV that hulu doesn't carry, try www.ovguide.com.

[tulsag]

Originally Posted by ActiveCaptain

We do a lot of streaming video over WiFi when we can find it. We currently don't use NetFlix and have somehow managed to watch everything for free. I can see NetFlix in our future though because there would be more choices.

For TV, there's almost nothing that beats hulu.com. Hulu is like having a TiVo. You tell it what programs you want and it will alert you when it has them in your queue. Then you watch them from there. It's really quite well done.

For movies and TV that hulu doesn't carry, try www.ovguide.com.

Is Hulu free? (It's asking me to sign up before telling me about it)?

Do you record to a laptop and watch it from there?

I'm guessing that your recording device has to be on (using battery power) full time to catch the programs live or does it download non-live shows only, therefore can do it instantly?

Mark

[Strygaldwir]

Your streaming video will largely depend upon the quality of the wifi connection. They vary greatly around boat location/ Some times our is okay, sometimes good, sometimes non-existent. All at the same location.

Having said that, we do a lot of DVD collecting. We go to Blockbuster and instead of renting, we buy their used disk. We are especially fond of the 4 for 20$ sales. We put them in our video collection and have them for sharing with friends when we are cruising. Netflix is very cool when you're at home, when you don't have that internet connection, is when you're going to need that alternate form of entertainment the most!

[sck5]

instead of streaming we download. even marginal wifi connections are good for that - it just takes a bit longer. Almost none of the wifi connections we have cruising around are good enough to stream hi quality video. I dont know if netflix will do downloads but Amazon does and I am sure there are others.

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by tulsag

Is Hulu free? (It's asking me to sign up before telling me about it)?

Yes.

Originally Posted by tulsag

Do you record to a laptop and watch it from there?

No, you watch it live although there is some buffering. Again, it's not something we're able to do every day. But often, with a higher powered WiFi device, it's quite possible. Over the last month in Florida, we've been able to watch about 50% of the evenings we're on a mooring or at anchor and 95% of the evenings we're at a marina (with free WiFi). We've been in Vero Beach, Jensen Beach, and Stuart.

Originally Posted by tulsag

I'm guessing that your recording device has to be on (using battery power) full time to catch the programs live or does it download non-live shows only, therefore can do it instantly?

It's none of that. It's all live. You only use battery power while actually watching.

It really is quite good. Don't be afraid - try it!

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by sck5

Almost none of the wifi connections we have cruising around are good enough to stream hi quality video.

There's some truth there. It really depends where you are and what equipment you have. There's another live thread now going on about equipment. It would be worth searching on "Island Time PC" for a guy who puts off-the-shelf parts together to create an inexpensive long-range WiFi system. I have no affiliation with him other than I bought things from him because he had the best prices.

He runs the business from his sailboat (even shipping the products) which is kinda cool.