Netflix bumps official app for Windows Phone 8, adds double wide tile and 720P support

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Good news for those of you who watch Netflix “on the go” and who also have 720P devices like the ATIV S or HTC 8X. Netflix version 3.0.0.1 is now out on the Store, and it adds at least two things that we can see right off the bat: support for 720P resolution (meaning no more “black bars” for viewing) and double wide tile support.

That first one is pretty huge as being able to see full HD video on a 720P HD screen is kind of a big deal for Netflix fans. Now that the app has the full resolution support, videos can be watched “wide screen” and boy do they look great.

Netflix Windows Phone 8 Tile

Doublewide Tile support is less awesome but still, that bold logo looks great on our ATIV S. Sure, it doesn’t do anything cool like flip or reveal information (Last played video? Recommendations? C’mon, Netflix) but for those who want to fill up some space on your device, you can now do so.

There are probably some other “under the hood” improvements but seeing as we rarely use this app and don’t have a list of bugs to check against, we’ll have to rely on  you to post anything you notice in comments.

Pick up Netflix v3.0 here for Windows Phone 8. Thanks, Jon D, Dr. Martin M., Kyle and Rasmus for the tips

QR: Netflix

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Executive Editor

Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.

93 Comments
  • One of the FEW apps that allows scrubbing. Hey Microsoft! Get the hint. Too bad I like the other phone OS' overlay when watching a video...
  • Most video players I've encountered supports scrubbing...? Vimeo, Metrotube, Crackle, Crunchyroll, the actual native Video player (local files) etc.
  • He's referring to watching pr0n
  • I hate when I can't scrub my dirty porn
  • You watch videos straight from the browser, in which only allows seeking and no scrubbing?
  • I agree with you - and to be more precise you're referring to html5 video sreaming.
  • Fucking awesome update. Thanks for the heads-up you guys, always takes forever for the Store tile to update. :D
  • I hope Netflix updates their WP and Win8/RT apps to support searching by sub-genre. For instance, I can search by genre (comedies), but then I dont have the option to narrow down the options by sub-genre (romantic comedies). Right now, on my Surface RT and Win  8 laptop, I do the search (based on genre and sub-genre) online via IE, and when I click play, it prompts me to open the Netfiix app. So its a 2-step process.
  • Awesom! Love it on my 8X!
  • Sounds awesome, I sold my 8x a while ago because the sound straight up didn't work, got a Lumia 920 after, now I wonder how netflix looks on that awesome super widescreen 8x.
  • Daniel, I sent you a tweet about this last week :P you never responded. Customer Support told me it was coming this week.  :P
  • Ah shizz, vaguely remember that...still, it was little to go on and now it's available, so :P  ...though I do appreciate the effort).
  • Daniel gets like a billion tweets a minute, give him a break :p
  • Does he have a hot Russian chic as his display picture on twitter? ;)
  • lol, touche
  • Lol!
  • It won't let me download it - t-mobile USA carrier.
  • Same here!
  • You'll be stuck with the T-Mo version :'(
  • WTH!? Really?
  • Is there any workaround?
  • Um, why?
  • I definitely need to know a workaround
  • is there a workaround?? I really want this 720p support seeing as Netflix is a big part of my day, i've been waiting FOREVER!
  • Please someone find a workaround for this.  Super lame of T-mo.
  • I reported it to T-Mobile on twitter, they of course deny the issue. I recommend you all send tweets to @tmobilehelp to report it as well and get a solution.
  • I can't download for some reason! Doesn't even show up in the store for me! I tried to send it to my phone from windowsphone.com and that didn't even work.
  • Same here, Bell in Canada
  • Same here. Fido Canada on my Lumia 920
  • Your Welcome! Just wish the tile was live - who needs to waste all that space? Well, maybe they're working on it. Might require some modifications to their contracts with the content Owners first. "Any Love for Windows Phone is good Love!"
  • I hope Netflix on the next update adds live tiles like the Windows 8 version.  So glad they added 720p support!
  • Just thought I would open it on my 920, but I can't...data is not working.
  • Is there a prob with store tile not showing updates? I'm not seeing any updates for any apps. Have to go to the app in the store to 'force' it thru' Anyone else got this prob?
  • It usually takes about a day or a few hours after the update is live for it to show
  • Tks - yep i know, but some updates have never shown - Nokia apps for example - still waiting for over a week :-(
  • My phone checks for new app updates once every day, at 6am.
  • Same Here.... never had any update notification on the tile showing.  Have to look 1 app at the time every 2 weeks to see if there is a new version.  Already talked twice to microsoft support and they don't know why.
  • Coolio! At least it's not just me going crazy then! I just had a thought... I've still got my old HTC HD7 set up on my account so have deleted it on windowsphone.com Was thinking it may get confused now I have a Lumia 920. Let's give it a couple of days and see if that fixes it?
  • I get update notifications fairly well. Was surprised seeing '12' updates for my apps today. Got '4' yesterday.
  • Does the quality on the 920 increase?
  • Was just wondering the same thing. I know because of out res we didn't have the black bar issue, but do we not have 720p support?
  • I'm only connected via LTE at the moment, but it looks to be upscaled content to me. I'll have to try from my Wifi connection when I get home.
  • I just tried Hunger Games, and it was pretty bad when first loaded, but it got much better after a few seconds on wifi.
  • It starts as bad as it always did, however once it buffs looks pretty darn good now. Makes watching Netflix on phone okay now.
  • I still get black bars on 920... Watching Sons of anarchy :)
  • Of course, because your 920 is 1280x768 and not 1280x720.
  • I've never had black bars on my 920, whereas my friends ATIV S has had them since he got the phone
  • I thought this was a cartoon network app article. I was about to be super excited. I wish they made one. :/
  • Well, CN just added their catalog this week to Netflix, so it's a start!
  • Yeah, I figured, because when I used to have Netflix they didn't have it. I love Reg show. I'm gonna email CN asking them to port their app.
  • I been tweeting and emailing adult swim about porting their app over but no answer yet. we need to blow em up on twitter!
  • Yeah, I know! I've been emailing so many app developers: imangi for TR, kiloo for candy crush saga and so much more. Sadly, you'll need a multitude of people to do jt. But I'm not giving up.
  • why am i seeing so much of ativ s on wpcentral these days? have you guys made some kind of deal with those copycats or what?
  • Copycats? How so?
  • What'cha all watching currently? DocWho, ofc...
  • Right now, I'm watching Ringer (a show from The CW almost 2 seasons ago). 
    Some Classic Who. 
    Cheers
    They just added Justice League and Justice League Unlimited 
    And then there are staples that just stay in my queue like Lost, BSG, Buffy/Angel. 
  • Looks like the Netflix site may be down... Anyone else seeing this?
  • Are you trying to use your 920 with the 1308 update? :-)
    Netflix site is working just fine.
  • Yeah, 920 after the update. What's odd is when trying to go to Netflix.com, it takes me to https://signup.netflix.com/error.html. No matter if on WiFi or LTE...
  • Love the regular show spot on the main picture
  • Really, really want to see a Lovefilm app for both wp8 and windows8.
  • So no real significant change for 920? Meh, don't care. J/k!
  • Microsoft really screwed the pooch on the video player UI. It's not standard, and almost all of them are terrible. They should have one standard everyone sticks to, and make it useable. As it stands now it's pretty awful. Even content on the phone can't be scrubbed easily (more often than not I tap the button and the UI disappears), and when you do scrub it hangs for 3-5 seconds while it catches up. Tsk Tsk!
  • I LOVE REGULAR SHOW!!
  • Only the first season is online so far. Awesome show
  • Had to uninstall then re-install after updating in order to log in.
    Unfortunately, the quality on my 920 isn't anywhere near as good as it is on my iPhone (on the same network).
  • @Daniel All due respect, technically speaking, this is a bit of a funny article, sorry m8.
    1) Nokia Lumia 920 IS a 720p device (small Ps) and I shouldn’t need to explain the reason. Now I know you didn’t say it isn’t but some folks are obviously confused by the article (read the comments above).
    2) ‘720P resolution means no more “black bars” for viewing’ – very wrong! If I understand correctly what you’ve got wrong here then let me say this: 720p (or 1080p) ≠ widescreen.
    3) “full HD video” is commonly used to refer to 1080p, and you're talking about 720p (devices and resolution). Sorry, I know you didn’t meant it like that but it’s just very funny to me :)
  • So are videos now able to play in 720p HD on devices with 1280x720 and up? Or did they just fix the aspect ratio for the widescreen devices...
  • It seems the latter, and BTW it seems to me like the right way to describe it ;)
  • NO HD Video, is only support  for 720p screens, the current SD video now just takes advantage of the hole screen. but still SD video not HD
  • FYI, this update does NOT allow HD streams. Just allows SD streams to zoom up to the whole screen real estate like it already did on non 1280x720 devices. I repeat, NO HD streams. So calm down people.
  • Thought so - thanks for the info!
  • Regular Show! :really:
  • LOVEFILM app is needed
  • Netflix...whatever, we need an Amazon Instant Video app. It's on Xbox Live, bring it to WP8/7.x
  • I personally use Netflix more, but you are correct amazon needs to get with it.
  • Tmobile customers: if you are unable to download the app, you need to report it to tforce@t-mobile.com I did after being told to do so on a twitter response, but T-Mobile claims its not a problem because they haven't gotten any other user reports. They won't even look into it unless you all report it. Do it. Unless you want to be stuck with the old, outdated Netflix app that mobile provides. In case you haven't noticed, that's the issue, we're being forced to download the app published by T-Mobile instead of the official Netflix one.
  • Just emailed them, thank you. Hopefully we get a fix for this soon. It would suck to get screwed out of an app by a carrier.
  • Talked to T-Mobile and Netflix. Both are blaming each other for the issues.
  • Same thing happened emailed T-Mobile and they sent me to Netflix support but the publisher is T-Mobile not Netflix
  • So how exactly did the update affect my L920?
    I noticed the tile looks awesome but the streaming still takes forever to buffer. Nice to see Netflix show some love to WP but I think we deserved a better update... Especially after waiting so long.
  • For T-Mobile people. I managed to get the new version on my 8X, its a bit annoying to do, but it seems to work.
    Turn off your phone, take the sim card out, power on, turn on the WiFi, and try to install the app through the website. (make sure you uninstall T-Mobile's Netflix app first) You should then start to see it install! Log in to make sure it works, then put your sim card back in and reboot. Everything should be fine then.
  • Thanks! It works!
  • These only for usa rigth?
  • Updated my UK copy of Netflix so not just US only.
  • Now Netflix needs to update its actual app the layout is so old and ugly now.
  • No available for ascend w1
  • Aw, I got so exited for HD stream :( But no, the image looks just as blurry now as before (tested of wi-fi that is capable of Netflix HD on other devices)
  • Found this available on my 920 purchased from the UK (residing in Norway) and figured it weird that it wasn't mentioned here, so figured id send a tip for once.
    Clearly a higher def than previously, which was holding it back.
    Happy about this.
  • Has anyone with t-mobile received the update?
  • The titled is misleading,  the 720p support is only to allow the app to use the full screen on 720p devices, the streaming video is not HD at all it still the same quality as before...  so NO HD Video yet.
  • I don't see an update on my HTC 8x, my carrier is t-mobile .. I've been checking but still no update :/ .. Why?
  • They are the UNcarrier, which means your device is UNupdated and UNsupported.  
    The publish their own Netflix app, so it is not updated.  Someone described a workaround above, which involves uninstalling Netflix, removing the sim card, installing over wifi, then reinstalling the sim card.