FreeAgent Theater and GoFlexTV

[thomasr]

Same problem. Bought from Newegg and everything works well except Netflix. Is Seagate going to stall untill the 30 day Newegg RMA period runs out? Really dissapointed - except for the Netflix, it works really well. Will be contacting Seagate chat support and Netflix tomorrow to see what I can find out.

BTW - Newegg has this as todays "shellshocker" deal for $59.

[TwiceOver]

Glad I got this at the $45 price rather than todays $60.  I'd be pretty upset at spending $60 and no netflix.  I can wait a little while longer for the FAT+ to work, but if not working by the return time, it goes back.

[matttyl315]

I also got my FAT+ from Newegg and have the same issue. I called Netflix, and they told me to contact Seagate. I purchased mine for $45 earlier this week, so it's not worth going through a lot of trouble, but Netflix was a main reason of me purchasing this unit. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

[capatty]

I ordered my FAT+ from Newegg a few months ago, and I can confirm that Instant Watch works.  My unit initially came loaded with firmware 1.55, and I've since upgraded to 2.20.  It would be really nice if the powers that be at Seagate would add some of the newer features like adding and deleting from the Queue, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Is it safe to say that the problem you are all experiencing is with the intial connection to obtain an activation code for your FAT+?

My brother's Roku box recently had problems connecting to Netflix, and Roku issued a firmware update to resolve the issue.

It wouldn't surprise me if Netflix is tweaking their systems to deal with the huge numbers of people connecting.  A recent study found that as much as 20% of US bandwidth is going to Netflix Instant Watch, and they are probably running into some growing pains.

[thomasr]

Yes, capatty. These devices ca not retrieve an activation code fro Netflix. The other streaming services work an I suspect once activated, the Netflix would be fine. I can not help but think Newegg got a bad batch from Seagate.

[illegal_op]

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capatty wrote:

Is it safe to say that the problem you are all experiencing is with the intial connection to obtain an activation code for your FAT+?

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Yeah, that leads me to believe that it is a netflix issue. I would like to see someone who wouldn't mind losing netflix support for a little bit deactivate their box and try and reactivate. That would prove that it's not hardware if they have the same problem.

[thomasr]

Look at this latest review from Newegg:

Rating: 3/5DOES NOT SUPPORT NETFLIX CANADA

Pros: Supports playing most of the same codecs as the WD TV for less money.

Cons: It will not, and may never, support the Netflix Canada service.


"Although the NetFlix service became available in Canada on 22 September 2010, NetFlix on GoFlex TV and FreeAgent Theater Plus devices will not function in Canada. NetFlix for Canada utilizes the latest generation of the Netflix service, whereas current GoFlex TV and FreeAgent Theater Plus hardware only support the Netflix 1.6 platform. The limitation is found in the devices' hardware, and does not allow the devices to utilize the new version of NetFlix.
Unfortunately, at this time there are no plans for updates to make this current generation of GoFlex TV or FreeAgent Theater Plus able to support NetFlix in Canada."

Other Thoughts: Buy it if you want to play content from your network, but do not buy it for Netflix support in Canada.

If Netflix upgraded/upgrades thei system, we all have bricks.

[TwiceOver]

I won't be using mine in Canada, so US support is fine with me

[matthewgorman]

I also purchased from Newegg on the $49 deal. These were my second and third units. I have not been able to activate either of the new units. The original unit (purchased earlier this year) is streaming fine.

I vote for bad batch.

[danyim]

I bought mine from Newegg at $49 dollars. The first thing I did after unboxing was to upgrade the firmware to v2.20 via the cold method. I just set up a new Netflix trial account, and everything is working fine.

All in all, I don't think Newegg had a "bad batch"--this seems more like a software problem. The only thing I did differently than most of you (that I can think of) is that I used my own ethernet cable to wire it up to my router's switch. That really shouldn't be the source of the problem, but maybe the cables are defective?

Best of luck..