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It's been a long time coming, but the floodgates have opened on Australian all-you-can-eat streaming video services.
Unlike traditional overnight movie rentals, the new generation of internet video services offer unlimited access to a vast library of movies and TV shows for roughly $10 per month. Quickflix is Australia's subscription video pioneer, but this month it's joined by Presto Entertainment and Stan (co-owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this article). All three are bracing for the arrival of United States streaming video giant Netflix in March.
While subscription video is a welcome addition to Australian lounge rooms, don't tear down your TV aerial or cancel your pay TV subscription just yet.
You won't find new TV shows the day after they're broadcast, nor new movies the day they're available to rent. Meanwhile the back catalogues are extensive but far from complete. Rather than video nirvana, think of these all-you-can-eat services more like unlimited access to the weekly rental shelf of your local video store.
There are no lock-in contracts, so it's the exclusive content deals that will likely win you over. Stan has Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, while Presto offers the HBO back catalogue – but you won't get new episodes of Game of Thrones. Netflix has its own exclusive programming such as Marco Polo, although Foxtel still controls House of Cards for now.
So how do you tap into these vast subscription video libraries? The easiest way is via a web browser on your computer, but you'll also find streaming video apps for Apple handheld gadgets and some Android and Windows Phone devices.
You can watch different movies on different devices simultaneously, which is great for busy households. You can even pause a movie on one device and pick up where you left off on another – whether you're at home or out and about.
Of course when you're at home you might prefer to watch movies on the big screen in the lounge room. Thankfully all four services let you stream video to your television.
You can watch Quickflix on a wide range of Smart TVs, internet-enabled Blu-ray players, games consoles and personal video recorders. It also works with Google's tiny Chromecast streaming media stick, letting you send video wirelessly to your television from computers and handheld gadgets.
For now Stan and Presto work with Google's Chromecast, plus Stan supports streaming video from Apple devices to the Apple TV set-top box. Meanwhile, practically every internet-enabled home entertainment device is compatible with Netflix, from smart TVs and Blu-ray players to the Chromecast and Apple TV.
It's just a question of how long it takes the device makers to make the Netflix app available to Australians.
The biggest challenge when streaming video is the quality of your broadband connection. You'll want download speeds of at least 2-3megabits per second, the faster the better because some services can ramp up the picture quality. This makes it difficult to judge how much data you're chewing through.
To play it safe allow around 1GB per hour on a 3 Mbps connection, but keep a close eye on your broadband usage meter.
