Digital Solecism

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So after being without my Netflix for a while, I was finally drawn back in by the promise of their new Instant Watch movies on demand. Nothing too crazy was on it, but there was enough good programs to keep me entertained for quite a while when I was bored.

So I reactivate today. Spent a decent chunk of time redoing my queue (which they delete when you cancel service). Then I finally get home from work and decide “Hey. I’m gonna watch a movie!” And I then proceed to log in, head on over to the Instant Watch section and pick out a movie. It starts to load up, then tells me it is only compatible with Internet Explorer. Not a problem - even though I dislike IE. Load up IE, log back in, and go to queue up the movie. It then gives me a rather generic DRM error. Digital Rights Management. You know, that thing they use to try to protect their precious information that causes so many headaches with iTunes and whatnot. So I spend a decent chunk of my evening scouring the web, resetting my Vista DRM, uninstalling this or that, trying this fix here or there until I finally give up and call their tech support.

After a twenty-six minute wait time I finally get ahold of a guy. After briefly describing my problem, I thought I might get a solution. This guy sounded smart. He didn’t talk to me like an idiot and when I explained what was going on he asked me a few questions about my system. We didn’t have much troubleshooting to do because he quickly figured out my problem:

Netflix Instant Movies requires an HDCP compliant monitor and video card

My video card is up to date and HDCP compliant. My beautiful 22″ Samsung monitor is not. He had 2 suggestions for me: Get a new monitor, or downgrade from a digital DVI connection to old standard Analog RGB cables. In essence: Too bad you have standard equipment that the vast majority of users have, you can’t watch the service you pay for unless you downgrade it or buy new stuff.

I even tried a copy of AnyDVD, which will bypass the HDCP and other protection on HD-DVDs and BluRay Discs but it does nothing for streaming, sadly.

Well screw you, Netflix. I immediately called up to cancel, at which time I was informed that my card had already been charged from when I signed up earlier that day. After sternly demanding that they refund my money or I’d happily dispute it with my credit card company they caved and canceled my account and refunded my money.

You would think when you signed up and they are filling your screen with promises of instant movies and lollipops that they would mention the requirements first.

After having spent a decent amount of time working in the computer industry and paying attention to regular consumer grade stuff sold in stores, I’m pretty sure a large majority of the people buying their HPs, Dells, Gateways, etc are not going to be able to watch movies on their computers either. Especially after all those salespeople talk them out of that standard analog monitor into the nice LCD from last year that supports DVI connections but not HDCP.

Whatever, Netflix. I’m heading back to my Blockbuster mail service with free in store exchanges.

To anyone thinking of getting Netflix because of their Instant Movies, or upgrading to a plan that has it - make sure you have an HDCP compliant video card and monitor, or are using an analog connection.

(PS - does anyone else find it weird that it if you are using newer equipment it requires you to have all this stuff to keep you from pirating stuff, yet if you have an old piece of junk they don’t care and let you watch it anyways? What’s the point?)

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