What does netflix mean? NETFLIX has come to us! Let's figure it out

Material prepared

Rodion Danilov

Netflix is the world's largest video service with a huge database of movies, TV series and cartoons. By September 2013, company management announced that total number subscribers exceeded 40.4 million. However, it is still officially impossible to use the resource if you live, for example, in Russia. We have prepared instructions with which you can trick the system and watch your favorite movies and TV series.

First way

You need to create a free account in the Unlocator service or its equivalent. Keep it simple step by step guide on the website: select your device that you will use to watch the video ( operating system, media player, game console, brand of smart TV or mobile device) or router model, then follow all the steps specified in the instructions for setting up your device and reboot it.

How does this method “hide” your location? Netflix servers determine a user's location based on where their network request is coming from. Unlocator “stands” between you and Netflix - and the video service recognizes that your request allegedly comes from the United States.

Second way

You can also use a special browser extension that changes your IP address, thereby unblocking sites, including Netflix. One of the most common is Hola, it can be built into Firefox browsers, Chrome and even Internet Explorer.

Hola is a peer-to-peer VPN service, meaning that all people who have installed application, contribute to the system, so you can get the IP addresses of most countries completely free of charge.

Once on the site, click Start using Hola and follow the instructions. Allow Hola access to your browser, after which the download and installation will begin, after which you will have access to all resources blocked in your country, including the Netflix service.

Setting up an account on Netflix

After doing steps 1 or 2, go to the Netflix website from the reconfigured device and create an account. You can enter the number of your Russian bank card (Visa Classic cards were used during the verification), from which the monthly fee will be debited - $7.99.

In the “zip code” column, enter any 5-digit code found on the Internet, for example, the one everyone knows from the TV series 90210.

If you can’t pay with a Russian card, try using the EntroPay service, which makes it possible to get a virtual American Visa or MasterCard. The minimum card balance can be $20, and the service will also request a 5% commission. Another option is virtual QIWI card, which can be found out in more detail on the company's website.

On January 6, at approximately 21:00 Moscow time, the Netflix service became available to users in Russia, as well as in another 130 countries around the world - the company announced the removal regional restrictions at the CES 2015 conference in Las Vegas. We explain what this means and how to live with it further.

Stop. What is this Netflix of yours?

It's the largest subscription streaming service in the world - you pay a fixed amount once a month for unlimited access to huge library films and TV series: tens of thousands of titles from How I Met Your Mother and Family Guy to Breaking Bad and films by Quentin Tarantino. All this is available in Full HD, and some films and TV series can even be watched in UHD 4K.

And is all this included in the subscription price?

Yes. A few years ago Netlfix became so huge and rich that it started making: House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Jessica Jones and others. You won’t be able to watch them legally anywhere other than Netflix (the only exception for Russia is the Amediateka service, where there is “ House of cards»).

What's happened?

Essentially, Netflix just removed region blocking on Russian addresses. The interface and all content in the system remained in English. There are rumors about Netflix coming to Russia, so it is possible that a Russian interface will soon appear in the system, as well as films translated into Russian.

And how much does all this cost?

Considering the current ruble exchange rate, it’s not very cheap: 10 euros for FullHD quality and support for two devices from one account; 12 euros - for the opportunity to watch films in UltraHD. Let's hope that along with localized content, Netflix will come with localized prices.

And why is this better than other streaming services?

The beauty of Netflix is not only the most extensive library, but also the most advanced recommendation system, which is compiled by the system based on the work of thousands of freelancers, called “tagers.” These people are engaged in looking through a multi-thousand-strong catalog and giving each film unique tags - from the genre to the mood of the film and the characteristics of the actors. Based on this data, the system will recommend movies to you.

And how to start using all this?

Netflix is supported by all modern game consoles - from Xbox One to Nintendo Wii, there are also applications for smartphones and tablets and, of course, a web version.

In almost every modern TV with Smart TV you can also find Netflix app. Where exactly to use it is a matter of taste; The picture quality via HDMI will be approximately the same everywhere. On consoles, the interface works a little faster than on Smart TV, but on TVs you can control everything using the remote control.

If you like to watch movies and TV series in the original, try Netflix - the first month of subscription is free.

Surely, while wandering around the Internet, you have come across the name Netflix. "What it is?" — a sultry thought was spinning in my head. You can find out the answer to this question in this article. We'll talk about Netflix: what it is, its features, series and much more. Interested? Read this article!

Netflix - what is it and what do you eat it with?

TV series have become an important part of life for millions of people. In circles of TV series fans you can often hear the word Netflix. What is it and how is it related to the series? Everything is very simple. Netflix is a renowned company that distributes various streaming media. Simply put, Netflix sells its users access to a variety of artistic, documentaries, shows, television series, etc. online. The company was founded back in 1997. You can learn more about the history of this company in this article.

History of Netflix

As you may have read above, the company was founded in 1997. However, at that time it was engaged in rental of DVDs by mail. Netflix was founded by Reed Hastings, an IT entrepreneur who was just looking for where to invest his money. And the choice fell on a disc rental company. An incident that happened to him prompted Reed to make this decision. An entrepreneur rented a cassette of the film "Apollo 13" and lost it. For the loss, Reed had to pay a rather large fine by 1997 standards of $40. It was then that Reed, with the support of friend Mark Randolph, created his own rental service.

The company developed rapidly, and already in 1999 the online service Video on Demand (or, as it was called in America, VoD) was developed. The company was increasingly focused on selling video on demand, but the mail-order portion of its sales accounted for about 7 million orders.

IN last years The company is actively developing. The company has own channel- "Netflix". In addition, the Netflix system was recognized as one of the most successful business ideas over the past 5 years. A couple of years ago, Netflix began producing its own series, which are famous for their high quality. Netflix series often receive prestigious awards and, most importantly, they are a huge success among the audience. Why has Netflix become so popular?

Secrets of Netflix success

Perhaps the first reason for such popularity is the availability of the service. Most (like NBC, FOX, ABC and others) for a standard package television channels they charge about 25 dollars. And in order to add a dozen or two additional channels, you will have to pay another 30-40 green ones. A subscription to Netflix, in turn, will cost only $8, which is a trifle for Americans. It was also officially announced that the cost of subscription will not increase, and on the contrary, it may soon decrease.

The second reason is multiplatform. Netflix is not tied to a specific device. You can watch TV series on your computer, smartphone, TV, tablet and even game console. It is very convenient and practical.

Well, the third reason is quality content. Netflix invests crazy amounts of money into its projects. Thanks to this, it is possible to create truly quality series with an excellent plot, famous actors and realistic special effects. For example, relatively recently the company released the series “House of Cards.” This political drama cost the company $60 million. Such huge amounts of money are rarely invested even in films, not to mention TV series (for example, only $40 million was invested in the global bestseller “50 Shades of Grey”). Moreover, the costs more than paid off. The series received a lot of awards and at the same time made good advertising for the company itself. Want to know about other Netflix series? This article will help you with this.

Series

As mentioned above, main feature Netflix series have huge budgets and high quality. Besides this, one more characteristic feature is that Netflix series come out on the same day. The company does not torment its users, but immediately shows all its trump cards. But, perhaps, let’s move on to specifics and talk about the company’s most promising projects.

Daredevil is a recently released series based on a graphic novel from Marvel. History tells us about someone who became blind due to an accident. But after losing his sight, Matt gained heightened senses. The boy grew up and, together with his friend Foggy Nelson, opened a law office. By day, Matt defends the innocent in court, and by night he fights crime in Hell's Kitchen. The series is famous for its subtle and thoughtful plot, well-choreographed battles and excellent actors. What is Vincent D'Onofio worth as the main antagonist? this moment The first season of the series has been released, and the second is being prepared for release (the premiere is scheduled for April 2016).

Orange is the New Black is another worthy series. The plot tells us about a girl named Piper Chapman, who, by coincidence, ended up behind bars for 15 months. Now the girl has to not only get used to the new environment, but also survive.

At the moment the service only works in the USA and some countries Latin America and Europe. In March of this year, Netflix opened in Australia and New Zealand. The service will launch in Japan this fall. In 2016, it is planned to launch Netflix in Russia, China, South Korea and other countries.

Hello IdeaFox friends!

I don’t feel like bringing up blogging topics today, so I decided to take a break from endless poking around in search engines and the depths of WordPress. I didn’t really do anything during the holidays, just watched movies and rested a lot. Of course, I indulged in the sin of devouring TV series =)

You yourself know that in Lately Russia is waging a zealous fight against pirated sites that host unlicensed videos. Let's face it, it's getting harder and harder for freeloaders to find the movie they want.

And then I found out that a giant of the global video rental market called NetFlix.Com has become available in Russia. It entered the Russian market just yesterday, January 6th.

Of course, I immediately decided to test it to understand how much I needed it. At the same time, I decided to compare it with the Amediateka service, which I became a subscriber about a year and a half ago (de facto, this is the Russian analogue of Netflix).

Why are competitors afraid of NetFlix? Yes, because it is a huge business machine that operates in 130 countries and has a subscriber base of 50 million people. Naturally, Russian cinemas tensed up in anticipation of this monster.

And so, he came to us =)

What is NetFlix?

In essence, this is an online cinema. Pay a small monthly subscription fee and watch movies and TV shows on high quality. Looking ahead, I’ll say that there’s just a ton of films and TV series on NetFlix.Com + They give you one month of testing free of charge.

I repeat that “Amediateka” works exactly according to the same scheme.

How much does Netflix cost?

Currently the rates are as follows:

If we increase each tariff by one marketing cent, we get 8, 10, 12 euros per month. If we convert into rubles, at the rate of 1 euro = 81 rubles, we get:

Basic plan = 648 rubles
Standard plan = 881 rubles
Premium plan = 972 rubles

I will say frankly that not all Russians will be delighted with such tariffs. But if you compare it with the price of a ticket in a regular cinema, then everyone will understand that it is very cheap.

By the way, why are prices in euros and not rubles? It’s inconvenient because you have to convert prices into our currency.

How to get a month of a month on NetFlix for free?

But there is good news - when you subscribe, you get one month free on any tariff. (Immediately a big plus in favor of NetFlix, since Amediatek does not yet have such a bonus).

You get a free month immediately when you subscribe.

1. On the main page of the service, click the big red button “Start Your Free Month”:

2. Select the desired tariff

I decided to test the “Basic” tariff for 8 euros.

By the way, please note that for now everything is in English. It’s sad, because entering the Russian market with an English-language interface is a VERY strange decision.

And again a strange decision. Imagine our person who wants to get a free month, and he is immediately asked to enter the details of a bank card or the PayPal service, which is unknown to many.

There’s nothing to guess here - most of our people will leave the registration as soon as they see the requirement to fill out the subscription details. In addition, in English, yeah =)

But I still decided to break through to Netflix, since I became very curious

I subscribed via PayPal (I think that very few people in Russia have any idea what kind of payment system this is).

By the way, here you need to understand that by choosing any of these payment methods you are registering MONTHLY subscription. That is, every subsequent month after the free month, NetFlix will charge 8, 10, 12 euros from the card, depending on the chosen tariff. And if you don’t like this service, you will need to cancel your subscription in your account settings.

For example, PayPal honestly warned that a monthly subscription would be issued:

After making the payment, we check the tariff settings again, check the box in which we confirm that we are over 18 years old (curious, why?).

And click on the “Start Membership” button

Then we choose what we will watch movies and TV series on. I chose computer (DescTop or LapTop)

And... again an incomprehensible window appeared =) Something was too clever...

Here they ask you to enter my name. How to contact me.

Okay, let them call me Dmitry. To be honest, I’m already tired of entering my data.

And... ANOTHER WINDOW awaits us, in which we need to choose the series that we like.

Just choose three series that you like. Apparently, based on your choice, they will build a grid of viewer preferences.

That's it, we broke through =)

Well, maybe TV series with Russian voice acting?

I tried several series at random - nothing like this. As of January 7, 2016, there is no Russian voice acting for most films and TV series.

For example, I was able to discover Russian voice acting for the series “Better Call Saul”

How to choose Russian?

While watching the series, you need to do as in the picture below:

And you will be happy if there is Russian voice acting there =) Unfortunately, it is not available for every film.

What are the advantages of NetFlix?

There are a huge number of TV series that we don’t even know about. I'm serious - my eyes widen from such abundance.
Picture quality – no complaints at all, even at the cheapest tariff.
I didn’t notice any brakes at a speed of 8 megabits/sec.
If there is Russian voice acting, then it is done at a very good level.
Eat mobile application+ software for TV set-top boxes + XBOX + PlayStation + Apple TV

Cons for Russia

I repeat that entering the Russian video rental market with an English interface is a very strange decision. We can only hope that soon the site will at least be translated into Russian.
Today, few TV series and films have been translated into Russian. Sorting or filtering films that have already been translated into Russian will not hurt at all. Even in the profile settings there is no option to select the Russian language.
Quite confusing registration (and again there is no Russian language).
Few payment methods. De facto, there is only Visa, since most Russians are not aware of PayPal at all. Ideally, you need to add Yandex.Money + WebMoney + SberbankOnline.

My verdict

In my opinion, NetFlix was hasty in entering our market. Already in the first steps of registering for the service, a bunch of questions arise that can only be resolved by knowing English language. Well, there are some gaps with the voice acting, to be honest.

It turns out that today Netflix is useful only to those who know English (or want to learn it by watching films in a foreign language). To be honest, all this looks more like an emergency launch, since they didn’t meet the deadlines, but they needed to launch.

I'll watch it for another month and most likely cancel my subscription if the situation with translations doesn't change for the better.

And to be honest, our video rental services don’t have to worry at all for now. But if everything is finished and translated, then competitors’ marketers will be running around trying to survive in competition with NetFlix =)

This is not a joke, since a truly WORLD leader has appeared in Russia, who will not stand on ceremony with smaller players.

Since January 6, 2016, Netflix has expanded its broadcasting influence to another 130 countries, including Ukraine and Russia (and excluding Crimea). Now we have access to a civilized subscription to media content without registration and SMS dances with VPN and payment methods. I have been waiting for this service in Ukraine for a long time, so I signed up for a subscription, since the first month you can get acquainted with the service for free. An overview of the service is below.

Let's launch

Miraculously, the application automatically logs me into Netflix (this is because I registered with an email from a Google account)

The main screen looks the same, except for the interesting “secondary screen” icon

By clicking on the icon, we get a list of TVs on your network that already have Netflix installed. Those. Videos can be played from a smartphone/tablet directly to the TV. The app on your TV will automatically launch and playback will begin. Moreover, if you started broadcasting on TV in the middle of the film, then it will start from the same place, minus 5 seconds.

The series card looks like this

Description, “broadcast on TV” and “share to different social networks” icons, “add to my list” button and selection of seasons and episodes

But when I tried to take a screenshot of the player interface, nothing happened. This is what the notification shows

Those. The application blocks the ability to take a screenshot of a video. The player interface is slightly reminiscent of YouTube. There are icons for changing the audio track and subtitles, selecting an episode and season, and the sound adjustment icon calls up the system slider. The brightness and speed of the video are not adjustable.

The search button activates the search, which is logical :)

Search by titles of films and TV series, actors, directors, genres, etc. Voice search is present and working. All you need is well-honed English pronunciation :)

Content

No matter how large and foreign the company is, no matter what beautiful apps no matter what she created, the most important thing was content. People will pay money to access it. And then a huge hole appeared. There is no content as such for Ukraine. Sad but true.

Some personal statistics. Today I watch 23 TV series. And they are massive. There are 4 of them available on Netflix. And only 1 completely, because it ended in 2013. And 1 more has a Russian audio track. For example, the same House of cards, the pride of Netflix, is not available to us. Like Breaking bad. And they are there. People from America write that Netflix has almost all the top video content that comes on cable channels.

The situation is the same with films. I spent 30 minutes clicking on different movies and couldn't find one with a Russian track. Not to mention the Ukrainian one.

Total

On the one hand, I’m glad that Netflix has suddenly burst into our country and is offering its service. On the other hand, everything is somehow chaotic. It seems like there are a lot of films and TV series - see how many you can fit. Hone your English skills. But I watch TV series to relax and unwind, and not to strain myself, understanding the pronunciation of this or that actor or trying to understand some legal or medical term. I generally keep quiet about jokes.

My personal opinion is damp, very, very damp. If with music content Google play music and Apple music We made a right decision, because... knowledge foreign languages is not a necessity when listening to music, this does not happen with video content. Moreover, the volume of this content is very limited. Again, foreign companies are stepping on the same rake. They bring us enlightenment in the form of civilized payment for content, while limiting the availability and quantity of this very content for ordinary citizens.
Don’t they understand that we have all this, and even more and better, and for free?

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