I really liked it when the Xbox 360 put a new feature into netflix streaming. It used to be that you could only browse your instant queue, but about a year or so ago they started putting up 25-100 movies in various categories (horror, comedy, TV shows, new releases, movies you’ll like, etc). That made netflix on the xbox 10x more enjoyable.
I used to have a roku box and when I sold it I could still only use my instant queue.
As far as I know, the PC is still the only way to search netflix.com and add new movies to your queue. Do any of the other streaming options (gaming consoles, blu ray players, etc) have good options? Which streaming devices do people like or dislike and for what reason?
I am wanting to get rid of the xbox 360 since xbox gold membership is going up in price and get a Wii or PS3 to stream netflix since they have no fees. I figure they have the same option and layout that xbox 360 does with offering more than just your instant queue and offering titles in various genres.
My roommate got apple tv. It streams anything on Netflix’s Watch Instantly. There isn’t really a browsing feature but there is a title search function. I usually am on my computer anyway so it’s not a huge inconvenience to browse on the website and watch on the TV.
The PS3 has the features you like on the Xbox 360. I actually like it less now that they’ve gotten rid of the disc requirement, as browsing seems slower and won’t go in both directions, so it’s hard to get to the bottom of a long instant queue.
Had a Wii building dust in the closet, then realized I could stream movies in a matter of minutes. It’s awesome !Not all titles are available, but in essence it’s awesome and free - well with your subscription. I’m guessing subscriptions will rise in $$ when all movies are available to stream.
AppleTV (as already mentioned) and iPad/iPhone have access to the entire streaming library without having to add it to your queue. I almost never put anything on my queue any more.
Tivo does Instant Queue only, XBox has a subset of “Selections” (last time I looked, maybe they’ve got all of them now)–and even that only with the expensive Gold membership, LG networked Blu-Ray players have Instant Queue only. Macs and Windows have access to the entire streaming library through the web site.
That’s everything I have in my house (that I know of–the refrigerator may, these days) that streams Netflix. Ignoring the obviously more flexible PC/Mac options, the AppleTV seems to have the best quality and interface combination at the moment. Quality varies the most on the iPad, especially over 3G.
That isn’t true of Roku anymore. In the last 6 months or so they upgraded their software and now you can search Netflix and add to your que right from the TV. Between that, Amazon, MLB.TV and Pandora, the Roku is my favorite electronic gizmo in my house.
I don’t know about the older Apple TV devices, but the new little black one does a far nicer job with Netflix than my BD player.
As there’s no keyboard, it’s not as easy to put in titles, but there is an on-screen “keyboard” so you can enter titles and search for them. As mentioned above, you can freely access anything that’s available for instant viewing without having to go to a computer to add it to the instant queue.
My Blu-ray machine will only let me browse movies in my Instant Queue. But my PC is only a few feet away from the TV, so it’s not a big deal to browse on the computer, add it to my queue, then watch it on the TV.
I have a Wii but I haven’t bothered watching Netflix on it, since I have the Blue-ray anyway.
Slight hijack: If you’ve got an iPod Touch, iPhone, or (best) iPad, use the free Remote app with it, and it’ll let you use the remotes’s onscreen keyboard for the text entry fields; much easier than entering with the remote.
We’ve Wii. Quickly gave up on selecting movies via Wii. We select the movies at account at Netflix.com and put them in our instant watch queue then select from the queue for viewing.
Some say there are 28000 available and the current cost is $8.99 a month I think. They claim to always be adding more and there is talk of lowering the cost to $7.99.
BTW, you no longer need the Netflix’s Wii disk so you don’t have to remove your gaming disk to see movies. There is a small download from the Wii Store.
Also there are rumors that Netflix is beginning to add Close Captioning to some of the newer releases available for streaming.
I can’t speak for or against the PS3’s new interface, but I will say that for me, it has been a huge improvement. I have a slow internet connection (1.5 somethings), and Netflix would throttle my picture quality down. Ever since the upgrade, I’ve seen a vast improvement. Pictures are no longer double-letterboxed - they use my entire TV screen, there’s no more stuttering and everything else seems to be running fantastically.
If it’s between going out and getting a PS3 or a Wii, I think your decision boils down to:
Do I have an HDTV to take advantage of?
1b. If not, do I think I will in the (near) future?
Does bluray seem tempting at all?
Would something like Hulu+ be something I’d want? (The PS3 will be getting full access to Hulu Plus (after you pay for it, of course) in the near future - PSN+ members already have it.)
Is there any other media on my home network I’d like to access on my TV?
Any “yes” answers to the above point towards the PS3, “no” towards the Wii.
One of the nice features of xbox 360 is you also get last.fm, which I like better than pandora. But I don’t know what other netflix devices offer that.
Exact same here. I fact I didn’t know some devices even allowed you to search from the device until my dad talked about watching a friend do so on their X-Box 360 last week.
Just bought a Wii a few days ago (last one on the bandwagon!) and more or less immediately hooked up Netflix. We have an HD widescreen TV, and between the Wii and the TV the Netflix signals get mangled; the middle of the image is always slightly warped. We also own an XBox 360, so we might switch over to that. I didn’t know Netflix was available on it.
I have it on the PS3 and as others have said, the new upgrade makes it disc-less, AND able to search the (AFAIK) entire instant library.
It’s recommendations/“similar to this” areas are still off, though. For instance, I was watching episodes from Season 1 of Futurama, and wanted to go to a new season…but the only other Futurama episodes in the “similar to this” area were two of the movies…not all the movies, and none of other seasons. Bwa? Why is that? So I had to go back to the search and type in ‘Futurama’ to get the rest of the seasons to show up.
How is season 2 of Futurama not “similar to” season 1? And I’ve noticed it does the same with just about every TV show that has multiple seasons. Maybe 1 or 2 will show up in the “similar to” area, but never all of them, and oddly enough not the season you want.
Still, even with the flaws, it’s awesome. Especially without having to switch out the disc, since I’d always get into bed and then remember I’d have to put in the disc, and then do the same when I went to play the last game I was playing.
We use the Wii for streaming Netflix. As janeslogin indicated, selecting movies via the Wii is a little lame. You get 3 pages of categories, but the categories are not always consistent. The first page of categories gives you Instant Queue, Recently Watched, “Like: blah”, and then 2 or 3 “floating” categories, which are similar to stuff you might have watched recently. The other 2 pages contain major category headings such as Romance, Comedy, Drama, Action, etc.
The “floating” categories are typically subcategories and seem to change for no random reason, One of my recent “floating” categories was “Gritty War Movies”, but it changed over to something else and I can’t get it back.
But, we can always go out to Netflix to search and add to our Instant Queue.
I would love it if Wii did the subtitles. My ears just aren’t what they used to be.
You probably have your HDTV set to stretch your image in the middle - that’s a common 4:3 to 16:9 zoom function (that annoys many people). You can either disable that setting, or get component cables for your Wii.
The 360 Netflix does require a Gold XBL account, FYI.