DISQUS

Jeff Standen · 1 year ago

I've actually been thrilled with Netflix on my 360 and managed to remove a bunch of things from the physical DVD queue that I can stream. My tastes are pretty eclectic though -- the Watch Now feature definitely has documentaries covered.

If they offered everything, I'd probably knock my physical DVD plan down from 5-at-a-time to 2-at-a-time. I'm sure they'll get there, since Netflix is Microsoft's current play to make BluRay's win irrelevant.

For #1: Use a laptop. When you add something to the queue it updates on the screen queue automatically (it will even re-order as you drag things around in your browser).

For #2: Try "Paranoia 1.0", "Revolution OS", "e-Dreams", "The Pixar Story", "Helvetica", etc. If you want the latest blockbuster, add it to your physical DVD queue.

For #3: Yeah, the HD movies you can rent from XBL for a couple bucks are nice. To be honest, with a decent movie I don't even notice if it's in 4:3 or 16:9 once I'm immersed.

For #4: Yeah, and the sound is great. If your network connection slows down (aka if you use Time Warner in O.C. and it's not midnight) then it'll gracefully pause, adjust the stream, and resume.

I'd call my experience better because compared to October I'm a lot better off than I was just _waiting_ for Netflix to finally jump into a reasonable VOD model. Baby steps, but much better than hooking up my laptop to the HDTV.

-Jeff (via Twitter)

Brian Desmond · 1 year ago

I completely agree on the selection thing. Regarding HD, some of the TV series they offer via XBOX are available in HD. Unfortunately while my Comcast tends to let the XBOX detect my Internet is HD capable, it usually slows down less than 5 minutes in and becomes "not-HD".

Kirsten Hamstra · 1 year ago

I too was psyched about the announcement of Netflix and the new Xbox 360 Experience. I even was invited along with a few other hundred others to throw a houseparty (houseparty.com) to try out the new dashboard.

Totally agree that the Netflix partnership is a disappointment. Not only does the selection stink (except for documentaries - many good ones), but the quality was average - and like you said, no HD as advertised.

Since I just purchased a Blu-ray on Black Friday, I'd much rather spend my money on buying a real cinema experience (Have you seen Dark Knight on BR yet? AHH! Awesome).

gm · 1 year ago

Did anybody really think that they were going to be able to stream HD much less 5.1, 6.1, 7.1? This does not surprise me one bit. I imagine that if they did, it would take FOREVER to dl a single movie. Sorry folks, but the infrastructure is simply not in place for this to happen. At least 5-10 yrs away, that's why DVDs and Blue Rays still king...

timheuer · 1 year ago

Good post. The title selection does suck, but understanding how movie rights owners distribute movies helps me at least understand this. While it's easy to point the finger at Netflix for having a sparse instant-watch selection, and we could say they shouldn't have launched until they had a better selection...I know that they don't make the decisions of when movies are released to certain channels. David Pogue did an excellent job describing where/when these movies are distributed. I think this (along with music industries) need to adapt better/quicker to digital media. This mentality of how rights are distributed is still very 'old school' and not adapting quick enough to how we, their customers, want to use their content.

Gott · 12 months ago

So complaining for the sake of complaining are we?

I will address your concerns:

1. The netflix on your 360 is updated almost immediately after you add something to your instant watch que on your computer. Takes maybe 15 seconds. That too long for you to wait?

2. The selection is same as Netflix's Instant Watch section. Exactly the same! This is what we were told it was going to be from the start. Netflix will be adding movies to the Instant watch section as time goes on.

3. HD is coming. You don't just flip a magtic switch and everything appears. it takes time.

The more i read your complaints the more you sound like a 10 yr old girl stamping her feet on the ground because she got a blue barbie car instead of the pink one she requested for christmas. Good things take time...and Microsoft just broke new ground by streaming video through their video game machine with Netflix. Be happy you even have that.

Chris · 11 months ago

@Gott

Thanks for leaving a comment, but you really missed my points entirely:

"The netflix on your 360 is updated almost immediately after you add something to your instant watch que on your computer. Takes maybe 15 seconds. That too long for you to wait?"

See you missed my point, which was the experience separates the browsing from the viewing - I should not need a PC at all. And I actually noted that the sync/load experience was good.

"The selection is same as Netflix’s Instant Watch section. Exactly the same! This is what we were told it was going to be from the start. Netflix will be adding movies to the Instant watch section as time goes on."

Again, not my point. My point was that the Instant queue selection is not a great catalog for me personally. And as for adding movies to the Instant queue, don't tell me that takes time. New releases could be encoded for Instant in a matter of days, weeks maybe. I'd even give you months, but most movies in the Instant queue are years old. It's likely a licensing issue, not a technological issue.

"HD is coming. You don’t just flip a magtic switch and everything appears. it takes time."

HD is here. It has been for quite some time, and other services such as Apple TV and Amazon Unbox offer it right now. I can even get HD on demand through my DirecTV DVR.

"The more i read your complaints the more you sound like a 10 yr old girl stamping her feet on the ground because she got a blue barbie car instead of the pink one she requested for christmas. Good things take time…and Microsoft just broke new ground by streaming video through their video game machine with Netflix. Be happy you even have that."

Funny, but still off base. I would appreciate a Barbie as long as it was a real Barbie and not a clunky wooden doll that was just pretending to be a Barbie.

Still, I have not canceled my Netflix subscription (the one I started to try Netflix on my Xbox 360) but will give them some time to catch up. there is certainly potential here, but it just isn't quite there in my opinion.

Chris · 11 months ago

@timheuer

Points taken on licensing models. You are absolutely correct.

abhishek · 7 months ago

, it's a Microsoft product. Get over it. After you spend your hard-earned $400 on the console itself (a device Microsoft will likely lose money on anyway), the software giant need never see another cent from you. But because Xbox 360 is a next-generation console with better-than-PC capabilities, the PC ports available for that system are first-rate, identical to the PC versions. Today, that's titles like Quake 4, Call of Duty 2, and King Kong. In the future, Half-Life 2 and other titles will be added. So if you're looking for the full experience, but don't want a PC, and could conceivably rally around playing these games on the biggest screen in the house, Xbox 360 mighEnter Xbox 360. Yeaht just be the obvious solution.