Netflix is a two-pronged video service—with it, you can have DVDs delivered to your home or stream videos straight to your computer, NOOK Tablet, or any other device that supports the use of Netflix.
Because it’s a two-pronged service, it can be easy to get confused about what you’re buying exactly when you subscribe to Netflix, and what can be streamed versus what can be delivered to you on DVD.
It’s really pretty simple, though. You can subscribe to the streaming-only service, the DVD-only service, or a combination of the two. The unlimited streaming service and the DVD-only service are your least expensive options. The combination service charges different rates, depending on whether you want to have one, two, three, or four DVDs out simultaneously.
To use Netflix on your NOOK Tablet, you need to subscribe to the streaming-only service or one of the combo services.
To watch movies or TV shows on your NOOK Color using Netflix, go to the Apps screen, and then tap the Netflix icon. You’ll come to a login screen. Tap in your login information, or if you haven’t yet subscribed to Netflix, tap the Netflix.com link to set one up. You can also set up a Netflix account by heading to www.netflix.com on a computer’s browser.
At the top of the screen, in the Continue Watching area, you’ll see any movies or TV shows that you’ve started watching on your NOOK Tablet, your PC, or anywhere else. Each will have a red arrow on it. That’s one of the niftiest things about the Netflix app—you can start watching on your computer and continue watching on your NOOK Tablet, and vice versa. To watch something you were previously watching, just tap it. You can also scroll through the Continue Watching area by swiping with your finger.
Once you tap a show to watch, make sure to turn your NOOK Tablet horizontally, since Netflix always plays in landscape mode. When your TV show or movie begins, the bottom of the screen has a variety of controls for playing it (see Note for details). Those controls vanish after a second or two. To make them appear again, tap the screen.
The Netflix screen also shows you movies and TV shows in a variety of categories, depending on what you’ve watched before. So you may see a Top 10 list customized to your taste, French Movies (if you’ve rented them before), Crime Movies (again, if you’re watched them before), and so on. Swipe sideways in any category to see more movies and TV shows. Scroll down to see more categories. Make sure to scroll to the bottom to see the New Releases and “Newly Added to Netflix” categories if you want to find out what’s new. And look for the Instant Queue, which has the movies in your Netflix queue that you can watch on the NOOK Tablet.
Note
The Netflix app lets you watch streaming movies and TV shows, but it doesn’t include ordering DVDs to be delivered to your home.
Tap any of the movies or TV shows and you’ll come to a screen that tells you its title, release date, cast, director, rating you’re likely to give it based on your past ratings, and other movies or TV shows you might want to watch. To watch it now, tap the arrow icon on the shows picture. To add to your instant watching queue, tap “Add to Instant Queue.” If you already have it in your queue and want to remove it, tap “Remove from Instant Queue.”
If you tap a TV series, you’ll see a list of multiple episodes at the bottom of the screen. Tap any to play it.
When you tap a movie or TV show, the NOOK’s orientation changes to landscape, the movie or show starts playing, and you’ll briefly see a series of controls and information onscreen. To make the controls go away, tap the screen. To make them appear again, tap the screen again.
Title. Shows the title of the movie or TV show, including the season and episode number if it’s a TV show.
Play/Pause. Plays the movie or TV show or pauses it.
Time elapsed. Shows how much time has elapsed.
Slider. Lets you move forward or back.
Time remaining. Shows how much time is left.
Back. Takes you back to the screen where you were previously.
Choose audio and subtitles. Brings up a screen that lets you choose whether to use subtitles (if any are available) and the language of the audio track (if more than one is available).
Display subtitles. If subtitles can be turned on or off, tap this to turn them on, and tap again to turn them off.
Note
Not all movies give you control over subtitles or let you choose different languages. For example, many foreign films can’t have the subtitles turned off.
Control the volume using the NOOK Tablet’s normal volume controls.
Tip
You may find some movies and TV shows can play audio only at a low volume, no matter how high you turn it. To get around the problem, plug headphones or external speakers into the headphone jack. Also, the NOOK Tablet’s built-in speakers are monaural rather than stereo, so if you want stereo sound, you must use external speakers or headphones.
Netflix has thousands of movies and TV shows you can watch, not just those that show up on the screen when you log in. To browse all categories, tap the Browse button at the top of the screen, and then tap a category. You come to a variety of subcategories, like Classic Dramas, Courtroom Dramas, Newly Added, “Suggestions for You,” and so on. Swipe through each, or scroll through the entire list of subcategories. Tap the movie or TV show in which you’re interested, and then tap to watch it or add it to your queue.
To search for a movie, tap in the search box and type in your search term. As you type, the results narrow. When you find a movie or TV show you want to watch, tap it, and then follow the usual routine for watching or adding to your queue.
There’s one thing missing in the NOOK Tablet’s Netflix app—the ability to manage your queue or Netflix account. As explained before, you can add movies and TV shows to your queue, or remove them, but that’s the extent of what you can do. If you want to reorder what’s in your queue, change your subscription, or order DVD rentals, head to the Web.
