Netflix Streaming Coming Soon to an Xbox 360 Near You
In the quest to reign the world of home entertainment streaming, partnering with Microsoft to provide your movie download service on Xbox 360 is definitely a good move. In fact, it’s a safe bet that a good percentage of potential set top box owners are already packing an Xbox 360 and for these guys you’re practically a shoo in. Netflix, of course, is the lucky winner here. Showcased at a Microsoft roundtable event held yesterday, Netflix’s Xbox 360 streaming service was actually quite impressive. Movies and TV episodes added to the Netflix queue (this still has to be done on a PC for now) become available on the Xbox 360 almost instantly and playback is controlled with the same familiar navigational elements used during DVD and video playback. As Netflix continues to expand its streamable library beyond the 10,000 movies and TV episodes already present, this partnership with Microsoft is going to help their service tremendously. Once it launches, the Netflix on Xbox 360 service will require a Gold level Xbox-Live subscription.
This is gonna be hot. Only issue is what’s the resolution gonna look like on an HD screen?
After my initial “whoohoo”, I’m now really mad that it will require a gold level subscription. That’s just crap.
Only Xbox? What a shame. My PS3 should have it also.
I have the Netflix roku box, when currently maxs out at 480p, I wonder if this 360 set up will be higher rez?
Hopefully it’ll push the delivery of more titles, I’m getting a little tired of Columbo.
I know, RTFL.
It’s still SD.
Any word on if they’ll offer this same service for Windows Media Center?
Quoting Andrew: “After my initial “whoohoo”, I’m now really mad that it will require a gold level subscription. That’s just crap.”
I totally agree. I was going to give MS a lot of money to buy an XBOX 360 but now I will keep my money and give them the big middle pointer. MS has also said officially they will not add Blue-Ray to the 360, so my only hope now is that someone figures out how to watch NetFlix on a PS3, which has been impossible so far. If the iPhone 3G can be cracked in 4 days, why can’t we watch Netflix on a PS3?
Oh an you likely also need a Media Center PC hooked up for the whole XBOX 360 Netflix thing to work, which makes this even more dumb.
No you don’t need a PC to have netflix on xbox360 after the update rolls out in the fall. It sucks that you need gold, but can you blame them, they’re not charging you for using the service and if you already have live gold, it’s just an extra perk.
The roku box is great, but is also $99, so yeah. If you don’t have a 360 and don’t play games may be better to get the roku box. But you also get to stream pictures and movies with the 360 though.
Quoting ChrisNYC: “I have the Netflix roku box, when currently maxs out at 480p, I wonder if this 360 set up will be higher rez?”
Actually the Roku box supports 1080p thru HDMI,if you check their site they identify this info. It’s just that Netflix is currently only streaming SD content, but when they do HD, your Roku box will be ready. Look it up in the “HD Ready” section and it explains it.