Netflix Canada Review

I noticed that Netflix had finally come to Canada.

Their offer certainly sounded enticing – unlimited TV and movies streaming to your TV, computer, laptop or iPhone all for $7.99 per month Canadian.

So I signed up for the free trial and thought I would share my thoughts in this Netflix Canada review.  I am not associated in any way with Netflix, I am just a happy user.

My Viewing Background:

To put my TV/movie use in perspective, my wife and I enjoy watching shows together and on our own. We don’t rent a lot of movies or buy a lot of DVD’s instead we record TV shows and movies to watch later using our Shaw PVR. This lets us choose our viewing time and skip the commercials.

I was looking forward to Netflix Canada because I could watch over 7,000 movies and TV shows on demand without commercials.

The Netflix Xbox 360 Interface

To get Netflix on my TV, I needed a Netflix enabled device. Fortunately I already had an Xbox 360. Netflix also works on the Wii and Playstation3. In addition, you can also view your Netflix movies on your computer laptop , iPad or iPhone.

I found the Netflix interface on the Xbox 360 easy to use. As I rate shows I like, the system automatically suggests similar shows. The suggestion feature works reasonably well, usually coming up with at least a few other interesting shows for me to check out.

One drawback is no alphabetical listing of movies. You can type in movies you want in the search box, but there is no overall list to scan - say of all the documentaries or all the science fiction movies on Netflix Canada. 

Also, less genres show on the Xbox than on the web version of Netflix.  All the same show and movies are there, but just less search by genre.

Video Quality

After a couple of months of viewing, I have to rate the picture/video quality as excellent. No annoying buffering, the movies load very quickly. And nice not to pause whenever you want, avoid commercials and not worried about running out of space on my PVR.

Service

The service so far has been excellent. On one day of the trial, apparently their service had a problem for some of their customers. So they extended my trial for an extra day. I hadn’t even watched Netflix that day!

Selection

The selection at Netflix Canada is where some people will have concerns. If you are looking for the same content as Netflix US or wanting new releases, this is not the service for you. There are a LOT of movies and TV shows (over 7,000) on it but it will be missing a lot of your favorites. I believe Netflix US have over 21,000 movies and shows.

The reason for less content is that licensing for many of the newer shows and movies is different in Canada than the US.

I was really pleased to see that Netflix.ca included popular web series like Dr Horrible’s Sing A Long Blog and The Guild. The Guild is a favorite of ours, so it is great to watch it on the big screen instead of on the web.

I did find a feed that shows what's new on Netflix Canada on a daily basis.

So what have we been watching?

• A medical drama series about nurses called “HawthoRNe”
• A BBC series “Robin Hood”
• “Heroes” series
  
•  "Dead Zone" series
  
•  "Earth 2" series
  
•  "Farscape" series
• First season of "Merlin"
  

And many, many movies.  The documentary selection is also excellent.  We watched a three part series on Yellowstone Park that was stunning.  While many newer TV shows are missing, I love that there are lots of entire seasons/series of TV shows for me to explore or reacquaint myself with.

In my case, I had been planning on buying Season 4 of Heroes which would have cost me $50. This alone pays for 6 months of Netflix and makes the service worth it for me.  If I had to buy all the series I have been watching, I would have paid thousands of dollars.

Can Netflix Replace Cable Television?

It did for us, but or most people, no. Netflix has no sports, so if there are sports lovers in your household, you will need to keep your cable. Also, if it is important to you to be able to see more recent shows and movies, you will NOT like Netflix Canada.

In our case, there is more than enough shows to watch for now, so we canceled our cable and saved $50 per month.

One thing to be careful of is that many Canadian cable companies have established bandwidth limits to counter people switching to Netflix.  So you should monitor your bandwidth useage to make sure you don't get a large penalty on your cable bill.  A 90 minute movie on Netflix Canada takes about 1.5GB of bandwidth in standard viewing and 2.5GB for a high definition movie.

If you are watching a LOT of Netflix, and/or downloading a lot on your computers, it may be cheaper for you to upgrade your Internet level to a higher bandwidth than to pay the penalties if you only have a "light" Internet package.

Rating

Here is how I would rate Netflix.ca overall

• Value: 5 out of 5
• Viewing Experience 4 out of 5
• Selection: 3.5 out of 5

The main concern is selection, but I have noticed that Netflix Canada has been adding new shows almost every day.

Is Netflix Canada for you?  II suggest you look through the selection so see if you feel there is enough to keep you happy.  Then give the free trial a go.  If you don't like it, you can always cancel.