# Netflix Launching User Profiles Later This Summer



## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

http://bgr.com/2013/06/12/netflix-account-sharing-multiple-user-profiles/

If you have a Netflix account, chances are that you have shared your password with another person. In fact, it has been estimated that as many as 10 million people are accessing the service without paying.

Netflix is currently testing multiple user profiles with a small group of individuals and plans to launch the feature by the end of August...


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## Leon WIlkinson (Feb 13, 2000)

This would be great...enough said!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I still don't get why some people are so cheap that they need to get an $8 a month service for free.


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> I still don't get why some people are so cheap that they need to get an $8 a month service for free.


In my case, I've shared my Netflix password with my mom, daughter, niece, nephew, sister, brother-in-law, and one friend. I have hit the two-stream limit a few times and have considered upgrading to the four-stream plan for $11.99. If Netflix locked-down the service, I'm guessing they would lose customers. They've probably figured out the churn associated with a more restrictive policy and decided the current two-stream plan is a better way to handle password sharing.

If I cut-off my sister to Netflix, I'm not sure she would subscribe...although Orange is the New Black was very good!


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## moedaman (Aug 21, 2012)

The only person who I've shared my password with is my son. He watches Netflix in his dorm room at college. Other than that I haven't given it out. But there is a good chance that I'll be moving to another city for work while the family stays behind. And if I do, then I'll get the $11.99 plan just to be safe.

I agree that $8 isn't much. I do understand why people share accounts though, but in the majority of cases I still don't think it's right.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I don't currently sub to NetFlix but if they offered multiple user profiles I might sub and make a gift of it and one of my Ruko's to my sister. She would never sub on her own as she only watches TV now and then (last time I talked to her about TV she hadn't watch any TV for over 2 weeks) but she does like to watch a movie now and then and sometimes rents DVDs. I have enough to watch without it but between the 2 of us we might get enough use to justify the $8.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Aside from sharing your password with other outside your home, this would be really useful for those of us whom have not shared our passwords with anyone but those we live with.


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## hefe (Dec 5, 2000)

Awesome. I have long been wanting to be able to have my kids launch Netflix, and click a profile selection that will just show them items in THEIR queue, not mine. And suggestions appropriate for them.

I hope this will do that.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

That's cool. I actually haven't shared my password with family specifically because I don't want them adding stuff to my queue or messing up my suggestions. If they add profiles I'll probably set one up for my Wife, my Mom and my Sister.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Of course the TiVo Netflix app will likely be tied to a specific user profile so won't really be of any help if that is your primary client.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

moyekj said:


> Of course the TiVo Netflix app will likely be tied to a specific user profile so won't really be of any help if that is your primary client.


The Premier one will likely get updated eventually, but the one on the S3 units probably wont.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

aaronwt said:


> I still don't get why some people are so cheap that they need to get an $8 a month service for free.


Then you don't understand why people pirate movies, TV shows, music, games, etc.? Think of all of the talk of BitTorrent and Napster. Yes, those *can* be used legally... But are they? Mostly not. (Obviously I mean the *old* napster)


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I already had user profiles with DVDs!


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## Leon WIlkinson (Feb 13, 2000)

moyekj said:


> Of course the TiVo Netflix app will likely be tied to a specific user profile so won't really be of any help if that is your primary client.


It would still work good for a TiVo in a Kids/playroom then.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

User profiles would be fantastic. My house has six Netflix watchers, each with unique tastes. I'd love to be better able to separate out queues and recommendations.

I seem to recall, way back, didn't Netflix have multiple profiles? I seem to recall having separate queues for my kids' discs and our adult ones, back when we were on a 2-discs a month plan. Then we went streaming-only.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

They did have profiles for discs. I remember seeing something about them phasing out the disc profiles in a few months. I wonder why they're getting rid of disc profiles and addi streaming profiles?


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> They did have profiles for discs. I remember seeing something about them phasing out the disc profiles in a few months. I wonder why they're getting rid of disc profiles and addi streaming profiles?


They still have profiles for discs? I'm fairly certain those went away a long time ago. I can see why they wouldn't want to deal with queues for discs. I think the logistics of shipping from multiple queues could be difficult.

Adding profiles to streaming makes perfect sense. I hope Tivo will do the same to the Tivo.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

aadam101 said:


> They still have profiles for discs? I'm fairly certain those went away a long time ago. I can see why they wouldn't want to deal with queues for discs. I think the logistics of shipping from multiple queues could be difficult.
> 
> Adding profiles to streaming makes perfect sense. I hope Tivo will do the same to the Tivo.


I don't know for sure when it went away. I remember seeing something about it in the Happy Hour very recently saying that it was ending. But I haven't had netflix disc service in almost 2 years so I can't say for sure.


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## Scyber (Apr 25, 2002)

aadam101 said:


> They still have profiles for discs? I'm fairly certain those went away a long time ago. I can see why they wouldn't want to deal with queues for discs. I think the logistics of shipping from multiple queues could be difficult.
> 
> Adding profiles to streaming makes perfect sense. I hope Tivo will do the same to the Tivo.


They were going to remove them, but then enough people complained that they allowed anyone with existing profiles to keep them. I think the option was hidden from new subscribers and anyone that didn't utilize the feature. Profiles for disks worked pretty well for me for years. I had 2 discs from the queue while my wife's profile had 1 disc assigned. But I went streaming only a few years back.

While I'm excited to see the profiles being added to streaming, it all comes down to client support. If it isn't implemented on the clients I use, then it is basically useless to me.


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## alex_h (Feb 10, 2004)

Have two discs, didn't ever use the profiles (but thought about it). For streaming, I would be fine with each App being linked to a Profile. The wife and I can have an unrestricted account, the kids can have a restricted account with their shows. I don't really want to pay for two accounts, but I hate not being able to watch non-child-friendly content without risking my little kids accidentally clicking on it if they are given unsupervised access via an iPad or something.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

They definitely still had profiles when I cancelled netflix within the last year. I used them to bypass the 500 DVD/queue limit. Yes, I know I will never watch all of the movies, but I use(d) the queues to keep track of things that I might be interested in sometime. So they would add up fast, PLUS each DVD of a TV show set counts as one slot in your queue, so it's not quite as silly as it may seem. So I had mostly movies in one profile's queue and mostly TV in the other. ("Mostly" mostly (heh) because I didn't bother to move everything from the first queue to the other.)


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> I still don't get why some people are so cheap that they need to get an $8 a month service for free.


My wife should have a separate subscription?


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## NJ Webel (Dec 8, 2004)

davezatz said:


> My wife should have a separate subscription?


Only if your wife doesn't live in your house.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

I missed this and opened a "Netflix rolls User Profiles, but not for TiVo" thread elsewhere, with a brief description of what it is. As implied by the title, it's not in the TiVo Premiere's Netflix player yet, but then again it's not in the players of some other devices that I own so who knows? Maybe it will come to TiVo soon (not holding my breath ).


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Anyone playing around with this yet? I noticed tonight on my AppleTV that it asked me to choose a profile, so it has rolled out to me. I selected my name from the three profiles it listed, and it showed what appeared to be exactly what's been there for the last several years - a hodge-podge of suggestions appropriate for the various members of my family. I was surprised that it had named the profiles "Daniel" (me) "Stacy" (my wife) and "Zoe, Lila, and David" (three of my four children). I'm not sure how or where it got that information from or how it decided to do that grouping. It's possible I had Netflix Disc queues with those names back when I was on the disc plan several years ago - that's the only thing I can think of.

I next went over to the Netflix website and visited https://movies.netflix.com/EditProfiles which gives you very limited ways to change your profile - basically you can change the icon, the profile name, and indicate whether it is a kid profile. That's it. By selecting the profile name from the dropdown in the upper right corner, you can presumably then start modifying your queue etc on a per-profile basis and set up your "taste profile" for that profile. However, since I've no idea when (or if) profiles will make it over to the Tivo Premiere, I'm a little wary of culling all the kid stuff from my profile. I suspect I'll be able to do so but then they'll no longer have access to it from the Premiere unless there's some way to mark their profile as the default profile?

Reflecting on it further, I think what I may have to do is rename my profile (the main profile) as their profile, and remove all the adult stuff leaving only the kid stuff. That'll then be the default one. Downstairs, where we have the AppleTV and can select profiles, I'll be able to select one of the other profiles, which I will rename as mine and populate with my adult shows. Confusing. It'd be much simpler if Tivo just jumps on board and updates their Netflix app.

ETA: It looks like my main profile has my full instant queue. The other new profiles have empty queues. There's no apparent way to transfer the queue in masse to the other profiles, or to transfer individual selected items. I'm basically going to have to delete items from the main queue that I no longer want on it, and manually add items one by one to the new queues. It would have been much simpler (from the user-perspective) if Netflix could show me one master queue on the website, with little checkbox columns next to each queue item so that I could indicate on which profiles I want that queue item to appear.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

danterner said:


> It would have been much simpler (from the user-perspective) if Netflix could show me one master queue on the website, with little checkbox columns next to each queue item so that I could indicate on which profiles I want that queue item to appear.


It'd take an awful lot of work to implement that operation for something a customer would only ever want to do once and which people who create their accounts in the post Netflix streaming profiles era will never have a need for.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

mikeyts said:


> It'd take an awful lot of work to implement that operation for something a customer would only ever want to do once and which people who create their accounts in the post Netflix streaming profiles era will never have a need for.


I know; that's why I added the parenthetical.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

It's generous of Netflix to allow even two streams at $8/mo. They should allow just one stream and options to bump the limit for perhaps a dollar per stream. 

Of course the real question is: how much would you pay if they offered the recent and best movies and series?


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

dlfl said:


> It's generous of Netflix to allow even two streams at $8/mo. They should allow just one stream and options to bump the limit for perhaps a dollar per stream.


In addition to $8/month for two streams at a time they now have a $12/month option for 4 streams simultaneously.



dlfl said:


> Of course the real question is: how much would you pay if they offered the recent and best movies and series?


I doubt that the latest and greatest properties will ever be offered in an "all-you-can-eat-buffet" service like Netflix. Why should they when people will pay $4 or more to rent such titles (or $2 or more per episode to buy television)?


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

mikeyts said:


> .......
> I doubt that the latest and greatest properties will ever be offered in an "all-you-can-eat-buffet" service like Netflix. Why should they when people will pay $4 or more to rent such titles (or $2 or more per episode to buy television)?


Not all people. I wonder if they're missing a market, similar to the music industry before they woke up to 99-cent tunes.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

dlfl said:


> It's generous of Netflix to allow even two streams at $8/mo. They should allow just one stream and options to bump the limit for perhaps a dollar per stream.
> 
> Of course the real question is: how much would you pay if they offered the recent and best movies and series?


They are still giving me four streams at $7.99. My streaming plan page has showed two choices for months. Watch on four devices and watch on two devices. Both at $7.99 a month.

Although, something has been messed up with my account page this weekend. I wanted to increase my disc plan, but every time I go to the change plan for discs, it takes me to the streaming page. And I can't view my disc shipping history either. They keep gong to a redirect loop. I have no problem with the same things for the streaming titles.


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## Robin (Dec 6, 2001)

Availability:



> The new feature initially will only be available on Netflix's own website and several other viewing outlets, including the iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Apple TV and some smart TV models. It may take up to two weeks before the profiles choice pops up in these options. Profiles should be available on the Wii console before the end of August and on Android devices before the end of the year. Netflix subscribers who use Netflix on Roku's set-top box probably won't be able to use profiles on that device until early next year.


http://www.theindychannel.com/news/netflix-allows-5-viewing-profiles-on-same-account08052013

I'm eagerly awaiting Android availability. That'll make the chromecast 100x better. (Since I'm not holding my breath on my Panasonic Viera app ever updating.)


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

Robin said:


> (Since I'm not holding my breath on my Panasonic Viera app ever updating.)


It did in the Netflix Viera Connect app on my DMP-BDT220, on the day the feature was announced, as it did on the Netflix players in my Sony BDP-S390, WD TV Live and, of course, PS3. It has not shown up on my Panasonic DMP-BDT110, Roku 2 XS, Roku 3, Xbox 360 or the Win8 Netflix app. Its presence on the Netflix web site is subtle; you can create profiles here (I haven't found a link to that page on the web site; you can also create profiles on a PS3). Once you've created profiles you can switch between them on the web site by pulling down the menu of your account name on the top banner (above the search term field). I see no advertisement of this feature on Netflix.com at all.


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## Robin (Dec 6, 2001)

How did you know it was there on the Viera? My account has profiles but I haven't seen anything on the TV about it.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

I ran the Netflix player in my DMP-BDT220 BDP and it came up asking me "Who's watching?" Maybe it's not in all Viera Connect/Cast Netflix players; as I said, it's not in the BDT110's.


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## marrone (Oct 11, 2001)

I haven't seen this yet on the website, nor on the Windows 8 app.


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## Robin (Dec 6, 2001)

For the web site there's a link upthread for turning it on if it hasn't appeared on its own.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

mikeyts said:


> It has not shown up on my Panasonic DMP-BDT110, Roku 2 XS, Roku 3, Xbox 360 or the Win8 Netflix app.


Profiles have now appeared on the Xbox 360.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Tried out profiles for 1 day and everyone in the family found it to be a PITA. So I deleted all but the main profile.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

moyekj said:


> Tried out profiles for 1 day and everyone in the family found it to be a PITA. So I deleted all but the main profile.


What device where you using? On my Vizio TV it simply pops up a thing that says "who's watching" with your profiles listed. Prior to this update it had a similar option for Adult/Child so it's the same number of steps.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

I wound up naming my pre-Profiles profile "Everyone" and then creating new profiles for each person.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

moyekj said:


> Tried out profiles for 1 day and everyone in the family found it to be a PITA. So I deleted all but the main profile.


Expand on why you found it to be a PITA.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

dlfl said:


> Of course the real question is: how much would you pay if they offered the recent and best movies and series?


As much of a fan of Tivo as I am, I would pay AT LEAST as much as cable if I could just stream *current* shows (even delayed a week or two) _WITHOUT COMMERCIALS_. That is, I would cut the cord and use this theoretical service instead. And yes, I say at least. I would arguably pay more... But not the $2/episode that the various existing services charge per episode.. and it would have to clearly tell me when shows expire (I live in the real world, I realize contracts expire), so I can order my watching at least _partially_ based on expiration.

My 'fantasy' world would also allow me to watch shows faster than realtime with audio, which I do with podcasts on my iPhone, and do for some un-copy-protected things (news, documentaries, some reality shows) via dubbing to another recorder I have. I realize that's a very small use case, but I think the podcast case has made it slightly more well known.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

mikeyts said:


> Expand on why you found it to be a PITA.


 We share same computers and every time someone navigated to netflix.com you have to then select a profile before you could do anything else. Next we didn't find any easy way to copy instant queue items from main profile to a new profile. I tried keeping 2 different tabs each in its own profile and searching 1 by 1 and adding, but that got very tedious. When I had some things copied over to new profile I deleted them from main profile only to find that TiVo Netflix client only looks at the main profile to get titles, so the titles I had "moved" to my profile were no longer visible. i.e. Creating my own profile and attempting to put my titles in it was useless since TiVo couldn't see them.

So unless the clients you use can actually make use of profiles I see no point in creating profiles since you have to keep everything in main profile anyway, rendering alternate profiles useless.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Well yeah, if the client doesn't support it then I agree it's useless. But there are several clients that do support it and if you use one of them it is very handy. Netflix promised to bring it to all clients eventually.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> Well yeah, if the client doesn't support it then I agree it's useless. But there are several clients that do support it and if you use one of them it is very handy. Netflix promised to bring it to all clients eventually.


 Believe or it or not aside from a computer which I don't find enjoyable to watch Netflix from, TiVos are the only clients we have in the house, and no plans to change that, especially with new TiVo hardware coming our way that theoretically will give us a much better experience if it's anything like the Mini running flash apps.


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## Robin (Dec 6, 2001)

Dan203 said:


> Well yeah, if the client doesn't support it then I agree it's useless. But there are several clients that do support it and if you use one of them it is very handy. Netflix promised to bring it to all clients eventually.


Yeah, I consider that a given.

Our tv is our primary netflix client so I hadn't bothered setting up profiles because it would be less than useless.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

We mainly use Roku so we have a long wait ahead...so it looks like we'll have to use AppleTV instead. That said, I haven't tried it yet after setting up two profiles.


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## cwoody222 (Nov 13, 1999)

My boyfriend's Western Digital streaming box now has Profiles. I was surprised a little-known box like that got it so quick. I expect my Roku will soon.

I'm not holding by breath for TiVo.


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## hefe (Dec 5, 2000)

My Samsung TV has it now.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

hefe said:


> My Samsung TV has it now.


Mine doesn't. 

Did you have to update the app, or did it just show up without and update like it did in the iOS app?


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

On every device I have that has received the update, for profiles to appear I had to log out of Netflix on that device's Netflix app and then back in again. I was presented with the profile selection choice upon login. Except for the AppleTV, come to think of it - it just magically appeared on that.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Just tried that, no dice. The Netflix app on my Samsung TV is basically identical to the one on TiVo.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

cwoody222 said:


> My boyfriend's Western Digital streaming box now has Profiles. I was surprised a little-known box like that got it so quick. I expect my Roku will soon.
> 
> I'm not holding by breath for TiVo.


Good thinking on TiVo.

As far as WD TV Products, which I own several of, they have ALWAYS been the first to update their firmware when any update rolls out for any service that has been updated, or WD chooses to begin supporting.

My several RoKu 2 units are always getting "channel" updates, but are the last of my non-TiVo devices to get anything like a client update.

TiVo has always been dead last, if at all, for me.

I gave up on TiVo for any online services long ago. If you own any other device that supports what TiVo does, it will likely be a better experience. But, I don't own EVERY alternate device out there, so there could be some as bad as TiVo, or worse.

If you don't own an alternate (other than TiVo) device for online services, The WD TV line is the best, but will set you back more than a RoKu (in most cases). These are the two devices I recommend, and if you have the extra cash, the WD TV line is my #1 pick. RoKu does not support DLNA, and uses it's own special (and limited) versions of the Netflix and Hulu Plus clients. WD uses the ones that are standardized, and all functions that the service has to offer will be available.


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## hefe (Dec 5, 2000)

Weird. I just looked at the installed app on the TV, and it's version 3.229 that was last updated in October 2012. No update, but it shows profiles.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Mine says version 3.105 and was last updated 10/19/2012. I think you might have a newer generation TV.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

These players are primarily written in HTML5 for the Webkit layout engine, which allows them to make big changes to functionality and presentation in the HTML5 code which they download dynamically without any change to the underlying resident code. When they first introduced this player on PS3 they used this to test half a dozen different UIs on different machines before they settled on the one that they use now on pretty much everything. If you're a technical person, you can learn about how Netflix uses these tools here.

On the day that they announced this feature it was available on my PS3, WD TV Live, Panasonic DMP-BDT220 and Sony BDP-S390. My TiVo Premiere and Panasonic DMP-BDT110, which both have that UI, did/do not have profile support. The Xbox 360 (different UI) didn't, but it was added a day or two ago.


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## hefe (Dec 5, 2000)

I have profiles on my Samsung TV, but it doesn't work.

I set up 3, one for me, and one for each kid.

When I start Netflix, if I select my profile, it proceeds to my screen of the queue and other stuff. If I select either of the kids', it goes into a loading screen, and hangs forever.


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## marrone (Oct 11, 2001)

It doesn't appear the Windows 8 app has it updated yet. Unless they just did it. I updated a few days ago and no profiles.

Now, I didn't do the logoff and log back in thing, but does anyone know any different?

(iPhone app hasn't been updated either)

-Mike


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## stoli412 (Nov 22, 2003)

marrone said:


> It doesn't appear the Windows 8 app has it updated yet. Unless they just did it. I updated a few days ago and no profiles.
> 
> Now, I didn't do the logoff and log back in thing, but does anyone know any different?
> 
> ...


Not sure about Windows 8, but I had to log out and log back into the iPhone and iPad apps to get profiles.


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## marrone (Oct 11, 2001)

stoli412 said:


> Not sure about Windows 8, but I had to log out and log back into the iPhone and iPad apps to get profiles.


I'll try that. Thanks!

-Mike


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## marrone (Oct 11, 2001)

marrone said:


> I'll try that. Thanks!
> 
> -Mike


Yup, did the trick on the iPhone app. Still no go on Windows 8, though.

-Mike


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