Netflix Available For Android

supersloshy writes "Netflix has just announced the release of a Netflix Android application for streaming movies to Android-powered mobile devices. As streaming movies requires certain features and specifications, only a select number of devices are supported for now."

Supported devices

[x*yy*x]

So out of hundreds of Android devices it runs on five, while Netflix runs on all iPhones and iPads. And who still says Android isn't fragmented?

Re:Supported devices

[LordStormes]

Unless you root it...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/13/how-to-install-netflix-on-most-android-devices/ [techcrunch.com]

US only?

[Cougar Town]

I was excited by this... my Nexus One is on the list! So I clicked the Market link... and... "This item cannot be installed in your device's country." ... damnit! Netflix is available in Canada, why can't they make the app available? I use the Boxee Netflix app just fine here... sigh...

Re:iOS? Check. WinPhone7? Check. Android? NOPE!

[h4rr4r]

This has nothing to do with android fragmentation. The app runs fine if you lie to it about what phone you have. This is very clearly a business decision.

Enjoy your crippled devices, this android user is watching netflix on an unsupported device.

Rooted Droid X w/ 2.2.1

[Anonymous Coward]

As others have noted, it is possible to get this on any android device, so long as you have 2.3. I'm on a rooted Droid X 2.2.1, and the app crashes back to desktop after I've changed the build.prop. If I revert by build.prop to factory default, I get an error message that my device isn't supported, and it won't stream anything, but I can still look at my queue, suggestions, etc.

I believe that VZW has leaked many beta builds of 2.3. You can find them on a few droid enthusiast websites. If you're looking to get netflix on a droid device and you don't have 2.3, I wouldn't hold your breath. (I of course could be wrong).

Re:Supported devices

[iluvcapra]

Joe Sixpack has probably never heard the terms "Osborne Effect" or "aircraft failure to maintain lateral clearance with terrain," but he still knows better than to buy Gamestation5 when Gamestation6 has been announced, and that a plane hitting a tree is bad.

The problem is people don't know what Android is, or what makes it different from iOS or Blackberry, aside from the fact that "having Android" doesn't seem to guarantee any particular functionality aside from the barest and most simple things, and that having an iPhone guarantees a lot more things will "just work." Hardware can vary but past a certain point it ceases to be a "platform."

Netflix can't get their client to work acceptably on slower hardware, so they aren't selling an Android app, they're selling a Droid/Nexus/etc. app.

Re:iOS? Check. WinPhone7? Check. Android? NOPE!

[shutdown -p now]

From here [mobilecrunch.com]:

Research is showing that the key piece needed (and why some OG Droids with GB builds are able to run it unmodified) is the Stagefright media framework. Stagefright is SUPPOSED to be included in 2.2, but it looks like most OEMs decided not to ship with it for whatever reason.

It looks like most GB builds out there have Stagefright installed (as they should), which would explain why they seem to work with nothing more than a quick tweak to build.prop.

What's interesting is that the only official mention of Stagefright I can find is in the high-level 2.2 changelog for developers [android.com], and even there only in passing. No API docs & no reference so far as I can see. Googling only gives me a bunch of posts on the forums asking where to get more info, with no answers. Closed APIs? on my 'droid? WTF.

Wonder why Netflix came up with this wonderful idea of using a media framework that is available on such a minuscule number of devices. Is it because it's the only one that has some hardware or at least OS-level DRM support, perhaps?