Netflix has finally added support for Frame Rate Matching on Amazon Fire TV devices. See here for a thorough explanation of the feature but, in short, this change now allows Fire TVs to change the refresh rate of your TV to exactly match the frame rate of the video being played through Netflix. The result is a perfectly smooth one-to-one correlation between the frames of a video and the frames being shown on the TV, which eliminates video judder artifacts. Read more ›
Netflix’s Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has confirmed at the Cannes Lions advertising festival that an a new ad-supported plan will be coming to Netflix, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Ads coming to Netflix has been rumored for a while but this is the first official confirmation that it’s coming. The existing tiers will not change and remain ad-free, but at least one new tier will be added, costing less and including ads. This change comes after Netflix lost subscribers last quarter, 200,000 of them, for the first time in a decade. Netflix also laid off 150 employees last month and another 300 this month.
Netflix has revealed that it will be raising the price of all of its plans in the US and Canada. The basic plan, which allows for only one non-HD stream, is increasing from $8.99 to $9.99. The standard plan, which allows for 2 simultaneous HD streams, is increasing from $13.99 to $15.49. The premium plan, which allows 4 simultaneous 4K streams, is increasing from $17.99 to $19.99. Here’s a look at the history of Netflix price increases and where the trend says prices will be in the coming years. Read more ›
Netflix has announced that it will begin streaming video using the AV1 video codec to certain TV devices. The list of devices to get the newly supported video codec from Netlfix is short, but Netlfix tells The Verge that the list includes “select Amazon Fire TV devices with Fire OS 7.” The exact Fire TV models in Netflix’s trial, among those that can support the AV1 codec like the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, is unknown, but your device may be among them. Read more ›
Amazon has announced that the voice command “Play Something on Netflix” is now available on Fire TV devices in the US and Canada. Saying the command, either to the remote microphone or hands-free to Alexa on a Fire TV Cube or Fire TV Omni Smart TV, should begin playing something that Netflix thinks you’ll enjoy, making it the quickest way to start watching anything on a Fire TV. This was one of the new upcoming Fire TV features that Amazon teased last month. I tried the voice command myself and, while Alexa seems to indicate it understood the command by responding “Getting something from Netflix,” all that happened is the Netflix app opened. So, it seems like the feature is still in the process of rolling out and may not be available to everyone just yet.
I’ve spent a large part of today testing how fast every Fire TV model can launch apps for a performance benchmark article I plan to put up on Monday. Something I immediately noticed is that Netflix launches fast. Like, very fast. Actually, it launches too fast. From a fresh reboot of the device, most apps take several seconds to launch. Netflix, on the other hand, launches in 1 to 2 seconds every time. It shouldn’t be launching that fast when the device was just rebooted because there shouldn’t be any apps in memory (RAM). After a bunch of testing, I’ve determined that Amazon is preloading Netflix into memory on Fire TV devices before it is ever launched, making it load faster when/if you do decide to launch it. Amazon is not doing this for other apps, including Prime Video. Read more ›
Netflix has officially arrived on Amazon Echo Show smart displays. The integration was announced a few months ago and now all Echo Show models can stream Netflix directly. The service works on the 1st-gen Echo Show, 2nd-gen Echo Show, Echo Show 5, and Echo Show 8. The Echo Spot is the only Echo model with a screen that is not supported, which is no surprise considering its screen is so small. Read more ›
Along with the plethora of things announced today by Amazon, among them is the news that Netflix is finally going to be available through Amazon Echo Show smart displays. The world’s most popular streaming service joins Prime Video and Hulu as the newest streaming service on Amazon’s displays, just a couple of months after Netflix became available on Google’s smart displays. Amazon says you will be able to use your voice to search Netflix for shows and movies, as well as control playback. It’s not known yet if all Echo Show models will receive Netflix or only select models. It was shown off on the new Echo Show 10 announced today, so it’ll obviously be available on that device, which makes sense since it can literally follow you around the room to keep the screen in view while watching content.
Netflix has started offering a small selection of content for free. The good news is that you don’t need to create an account or log in to start watching. The bad news is that they’re not making it easy to watch the free content on your TV. If you install and launch the Netflix app on a Fire TV, you’re just greeted with the usual login/sign up screen and no way to get to the free content. Here is how to watch the free Netflix content on an Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick. Read more ›
The Nest Hub, and larger Nest Hub Max, smart displays from Google are the first of their kind to receive official support for Netflix streaming. Despite entering the smart display market over a year after Amazon, Google has beat out all of Amazon’s Echo Show models in supporting the largest streaming service. To watch Netflix on a Nest Hub, just say “Hey Google, open Netflix.” Read more ›
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