Netflix: now available in SA and disappointing

Written by Tashi from the blog Tashi's TV on 12 Jan 2016
Favourite this post

I've always been under the impression that Netflix is marvellously special and that it's crammed with masses of cool TV shows so I'm freaked out because it's such a letdown.

It launched in South Africa last week so I signed up and tried it out and I was stumped by the selection because it's a yawn-fest. Don't get me wrong, they've got some good titles among them but there isn't nearly as much choice as I imagined there would be. I assumed they'd have thousands of shows and that you'd feel as if you don't have enough life to watch everything but it isn't like that at all because they only have a couple of hundred shows.

Also, there are loads of series that aren't real A-list shows. There's a huge amount of hot property that's missing from the line-up which means you'd feel as if you're missing out if you only had Netflix and not another TV platform to complement it.

What annoys me about the overall experience is that they've paid much more attention to movies than to TV. The movies are neatly categorised according to genre but the TV shows aren't so they're lumped together with no structure which makes the TV section random and arb.

The streaming works well though - the episodes I played streamed perfectly with no buffering which could prove to be a drawcard for them. Another positive is that they have Netflix original series, which is cool but doesn't make up for the lack of other titles.

Pricewise, it's a lot more expensive than any of the four South African VOD services which are mostly priced at R99 per month. I haven't streamed a whole episode with each of them so I don't know how well they work but if they stream well then they offer much more value for money.

ShowMax in particular has a much more attractively sized selection and includes South African shows which Netflix doesn't have. I've heard that they'll getting but they don't have now.

The prices for Netflix reach double the others:

- It costs $7.99 (R133) for the basic package, which allows you to watch on one screen only and doesn't offer Ultra HD streaming.
- $9.99 (R166) for the standard package, which allows you to watch on two different screens at the same time and also doesn't offer Ultra HD streaming.
- $11.99 (R199) for the Premium package - you can watch on four screens and in Ultra HD.

Here's a link to the site... you get a month's free trial so you can give it a try to see if you feel the same as me: Netflix.

Channels in this post: Netflix South Africa, Netflix

8 Comments

Timone
12 Jan 2016 09:19

DStv was giving its customers a 30-day ShowMax voucher in December, maybe I should redeem mine. Problem with me I dont particularly enjoy watching series/movies on a computer/laptop screen :-(

Tashi
13 Jan 2016 11:40

I know, I don't like it either so I always hook up my laptop to my TV. I have an HD connector on both the TV and laptop so I got an HDMI cable and it works perfectly.

It's also very easy if your TV has a computer connector at the back like this... you can get a cable that fits into the back of 'puter and then connects to the TV.

It's a more complex situation if your TV only uses RCA cables - I'm not sure how to do that. I investigaed over the festive but nowhere had a cable for connecting a computer to RCAs.

Timone
13 Jan 2016 15:21

Ow wow thank you very much for this Tashi! Its very helpful!

Tashi
13 Jan 2016 15:32

Pleja Timone!

Timone
15 Aug 2022 14:16

Tashi I take it our convo above was before the introduction of smart tvs

I still dont have one by the way but atleast theres ways of converting your tv into one

Tashi
15 Aug 2022 14:46

A real blast to the past Timone!

Good to hear you're still using vintage conversion methods.

I was too until recently when the loadshedding blew my TV.

It's only after it happened that I realised how precious my TV was. A 32-inch Full HD Samsung - was a real beaut and impossible to replace.

I've actually been considering writing a story about it because the quality of 32-inch TVs is so poor I was shocked. You can't get them in Full HD anymore, only "HD Ready" - even though some misleading advertising claims otherwise.

Full HD is 1080 pixels and HD Ready is only 720 pixels and yet some places advertise the 720 as Full HD.

It's a real con because it makes a big difference to the picture quality, even though they claim it doesn't on a smaller screen size.

I argued and argued with the insurance, saying they needed to replace my precious with a 40-inch because that's where Full HD starts now, but they refused and wouldn't listen to my argument.

I eventually had to pay in and got a Hicense 43-inch Ultra HD Smart TV - bought it at Game for a major discount. I think they gave me the discount to stop me going back because I kept returning the 32-inch TVs that were so bad!

Timone
15 Aug 2022 17:10

Shame poor Game

and thanks for this heads up on the distinction between Full HD and HD Ready

I hope your model of the Hisense is supported by Showmax, I heard many models of the brand are no longer supported by Showmax following a system upgrade some months back .....

Tashi
16 Aug 2022 09:28

I hadn't tried Showmax on it but I've just tried it and yes, it works. I use DStv Now on it a lot because I'm working from different locations at the moment and take it with.

It's been an interesting experience... at the beginning I was blown away by DStv Now because it worked perfectly all of the time and it's awesome having live TV anywhere you are, but recently it's been losing connection quite a lot.

It's improved the past week or two but about month ago it was really doing it a lot. Seems as if they were working on it maybe.

I use it with fibre and I've seen MTN's dissy ad about streaming and fibre but I don't think it's the fibre because it was so perfect on the same fibre line previously.

Remembering my precious 32-inch yesterday made me realise that it was too small now that I have the 43-inch.

I feel like a traitor saying it because it went through so much with me and was bought at a very evocative time but the 43-inch is gorge and I'm very happy with the model: 43A6G

It's got all the bells and whistles: three HDMIs, Bluetooth and two USBs. I've insured it up the wazoo!

Only TVSA members can reply to this thread. Click here to login or register.