I know about the mailing service, but what’s this about a remote from your computer to show films on the TV? Or something. The website isn’t all that clear about it. 
Do you have an xbox 360, PS3, Wii or compatible bluray DVD player?
Netflix allows you to stream any of their “watch instantly!” selections to your computer or TV.
If you want to go to the TV, you need it hooked up to a Netflix-ready device. In addition to the devices Todderbob lists, the newer TiVo boxes and the $100 “Roku” box also allows streaming.
Supposedly they’re working on an iPhone/iPad interface for it.
It works pretty good. The TiVo interface isn’t great, but it’s usable. You can’t fast-forward/reverse as cleanly as you can with a DVD or TiVo-recorded show. There’s a decent but not great selection of stuff to watch.
The Wii interface is better than the TiVo one. For example, if you’re watching a series, the TiVo doesn’t show you that you’re on episode 3 of 12 (or whatever) whereas the Wii does. The Wii’s fast-forward/rewind is also slightly better (but still not great.)
Overall, we’ve been watching Netflix instant stuff a lot since we got a TiVo that supports it a couple months ago. There are lots of documentaries and BBS/Masterpiece Theater type things, which is right up my alley. Also fun is old TV series like Arrested Development. We’ve watched the occasional movie, but in general it only has older movies, foreign movies, or not-so-popular movies.
Moving from IMHO to Cafe Society
We bought three Roku devices as Christmas presents. All the receivers thought it was the coolest thing ever. All had Netflix subscriptions that were underutilied because of the turning disks around thing.
Some disclaimers: The entire Netflix catalog is not available on instantplay. There is a LOT of choice in older, bad movies, and not much opportunity to see the latest just released blockbuster. But there are a LOT of movies and TV shows in existence, so its easy to find something to watch. And sometimes the newer stuff is out there.
If your internet connection is slow, quality might be poor or it might be choppy. My daughter will call “are you guys playing World of Warcraft - the tv is slow!” Sometimes we are, sometimes its just slow.
Since the “wireless” part of the OP wasn’t specifically addressed…
As many of the posts have stated or implied, you need to have an internet connection for the Netflix Instant Viewing. This can be a physical wire or a Wi-Fi connection.
The biggest downside to the instant viewing for me is the lack of subtitles/captioning. I have some hearing loss and especially have trouble with heavy accents. When I have a DVD, I will turn on captioning. With instant, you don’t have that option except with foreign language films where you can’t turn it off.
I mostly use it to watch the beginning of obscure movies that have been recommended and if I like them I request the disc.
Another point: not all devices are made equal. Some will vary in quality of the stream and the xbox 360 will limit your selection (some movies are not part of the library that will stream to the xbox).
I have a PC (my home theater PC) hooked up to the TV and I use that to stream netflix. You can hook up a laptop or old PC. Also, some TV’s (Sony Bravias for example) will stream netflix natively.
I have none of the devices mentioned (just a DVR and a DVD player), and am not willing to spend $300 for a game box so that I can watch movies. Not even sure I’d want to buy a $100 box for that purpose. For some reason, I thought Netflix sent some sort of device to you. Back to the dark ages for me, I guess.
As others said, the quality varies. My DSL connection is just over 1 Mbps and the video quality for me is poor enough that I don’t watch much streaming content.
We have a Netflix-ready BluRay player and the streaming video works great over our DSL line (almost always, anyway). That’s good.
But our BuRay apparently just died. That’s bad.
But we have a Wii! That’s good.
But you need to get a disc from Netflix to stream from your Wii. That’s bad.
But they’re free! That’s good.
But I have to wait for the mail…
We used to just plug our laptop into the TV and do it that way - you can watch them directly on your computer, too. For that, they don’t have to send you anything, just log into Netflix, go to the Watch Instantly section to pick a movie. You’ll have to install a plug-in the first time, but that’s it.
We use a media computer with a wireless keyboard that has a trackball in it. We love it - over our Roadrunner the quality is absolutely fantastic. We never have trouble with it (except when we were having trouble with the internet in general.) The boyfriend build the computer for maybe a hundred bucks using some stuff we already had.
We use the same setup to watch stuff on Hulu, too.
Is this true? Do you have a cite for this?
I go on netflix.com and edit my instant queue, and I have yet to find a single movie added to my queue that wont show up on my 360.
Seconding the call for more info. I stream through my Xbox and I’ve never had any issues.
I don’t think Kinthalis meant YOUR queue doesn’t show up entirely. If you look at what else is there for Netflix to choose from (like New Movies, New Television, etc) you have a very limited view of what’s available.
This probably goes without saying, but for a lot of connections outside of a PC or laptop directly connected to the TV, you’ll need a wireless router for your Wii, Playstation, etc.
We stream our Netflix through our Wii’s wireless connection, it works great. I love it. There’s just too many shows and movies in my damn queue that I know I will never watch.
Chefguy, get something connectable to the stream and do it. You won’t regret it. It is awesome.
I got caught in this a few weeks ago. “Hey, I’ll just instant stream on the Wii… oh. guess not.”
I was annoyed.
Can anyone tell me about the difference in interface/quality between the PS3 and Wii versions? I’ve got both systems, and I already have the PS3 disc, just wondering if it’s worth it to get the Wii disc too.
I don’t know if its still true, but originally, you couldn’t stream Sony releases onto the XBox. I believe they had DRM incompatibilities. Sony said “its Microsoft’s fault” - Microsoft said “damn Sony.” With two companies so well known for making up their own standards or “building on” standards to the point where they aren’t standards, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. It may be fixed by now - probably is.
So as I understand things, I would either have to buy some sort of game box or attach my computer directly to the TV. Is this correct?