Update: Sony, which makes the rival PS3, is not allowing movies from Sony Pictures to be streamed through the Netflix service to the Xbox.
Adding to the options of streaming movies to your PC, Mac, or TiVo, Netflix now streams 12,000 movies to the Xbox360. That includes 300 HD movies.
Xbox watchers have been waiting for this since last July. Add the Netflix streams with the Xbox 360’s Live Party feature and you can watch a movie with your friends remotely.
Bringing Netflix streams to Internet-connected devices is part of CEO Reed Hastings’ overall strategy. At the NewTeeVee Live conference last week, he talked about the need ultimately for browsers to become TV-capable. From NewTeeVee editor Katie Fehrenbacher’s notes of his talk:
We need web browsers — Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc. — to play web on televisions. People tried it 10 years ago without success but that was in the age of low-speed dial-up. Today for the web-on-TV experience to begin we need broadband, high-def screens, and a pointer remote. The video game generation is quite comfortable with using a pointer on the TV.
Starting at CES next year I see breakthroughs for the web on television. The logical start is video game consoles — the Wii is so close, but we need high-def and to support modern codecs. Also built into televisions we’ll have Internet tuners. The issue with that is that device makers don’t want to bet too big on too-advanced tech, because then they could bet wrong on big devices. Web video will continue to grow, nurtured by PC and laptop-based ecosystem, then will expand to web browsers on the TV screen.
That web browser for TVs sounds like Boxee.
See all
Post
I like the way that guy talks for some reason.
Watch a movie on a TV!?! Brilliant!
As long as streaming stays on the PC/Browser platform it will remain a niche among geeks who know how to hook up a PC/Laptop to a TV. This move by Netflix is great as a first step to open up streaming to the masses.
I want my next LCD/Plasma/Hologram viewing device to come with an Ethernet jack for streaming.
The “New Xbox Experience” doesn’t actually go live (to the public) until tomorrow.
Not Exactly . Its already available to those who registered for the preview .
I got it, and netflix IS AWESOME! I started a two week trial and already have watched a ton of movies. Netflix is a definite addon to the new dash.
Are there plans to bring this to the PS3? I of course just sold my 360 and picked up a PS3 since I wanted to start watching Blu-Ray.
Does this require paying for the xbox live service? If not, I might as well pick up an Xbox Arcade, as opposed to a Roku box.
yes
What bout the costs. You will need to pay for the Broadband connection on average $50 a month ( with taxes), You will need a Netflix subscription ($12) a month , need an Xbox 360 ($150).
Now to be able to watch a movie you have to make enough money to pay for all this and I wonder where one will have time to watch that freaking movie. Oh I forgot this is for the rich folks and not targeted at the inner city folks. After all most of Techcrunch crowd is affluent upper middle class and that is about 5% of the population.
1) You are not just paying to watch a single move. Broadband service to your home enables your family to have access to much much more than movie watching. You can also play games on the 360. And with a Netflix subscription, you can watch several hours of streaming content and receive movies via the mail.
2) The TechCrunch audience has more diversity than you may think. There are plenty of people just like you who visit this site. Please consider the people who could afford these services if the migrate from other services like traditional cable or satellite. I do not subscribe to cable. Internet is all I need.
3) There is a large gap between rich and upper middle class. In addition, not all inner cities are equal. There are plenty of “affluent” people who live in inner cities. Many DINCs like my wife and I already have broadband and Netflix. Personally I do need a 360 and barely have enough time to watch the blu-ray movies we get from netflix as it is.
Are you serious “Whoindatgargen”?
I have had an xbox360 for 2 years now.
And of course I pay for internet.
And whats a measly $12 a month for movies?
I would hardly describe this as just for affluent rich folks.
Ya know what cracks me up. . . is usually the ones who say its to expensive buy starbucks and cigarettes daily. At $10 a day!
Netflix features aren’t working for Puerto Rico users. What gives? I’m a netflix customer.. and I get content from Live Marketplace without any issues.
I think Netflix service on xbox 360 marketplace is in US only.
The New Xbox Experience .
well it should work, they labeled our local IP’s as external even though my sprint mobile broadband works fine with netflix streaming, but is labeling the IP from my cable isp as not part of the US.
Exciting.
Is it available outside the US?
I was wondering this too. I can see how their mail service would only cater to the US but with streaming that shouldn’t be an issue. …though regulations might somehow restrict streaming to other countries (such as Canada) currently.
Anyone have any insight on this?
This is a good news!! the only issue with netflix is that they dont have a great collection of movies online ….the online movie collection is very old ..
awesome news! both of my boys have xbox live and i’ve got netflix, can’t wait - also using the new netflix mac player and it’s stellar, the bitter irony of course being that making it possible for apple meant using silverlight (which is outstanding technology!!)
PS3 please….
Do you know if they have any deal in place with Sony and the PS3?
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
Do these 300 HD movies include “300″ in HD?
“You can watch a movie with your friends remotely”
We can even all sync our watches and have popcorn at the same time!!
It’s really stupid that an XBox Live Gold membership is required for this feature. I already pay NetFlix, why would I want to also pay Microsoft? I don’t use any of their Live stuff anyway.
I know. for me its the other way around. I have xbox gold but no netflix. They should make it so that if you have one it will work for the other.
Nicholas,
I would think it’s because Microsoft wants something in return for developing software and providing a huge audience to Netflix.
And because Microsoft doesn’t make any money on the console, having a Live membership allows them to “charge” for this feature.
Then charge me a one-time fee of $15 or something, but not monthly. It couldn’t have cost _that_ much to develop such an app.
This isn’t actually live yet…only for those that got in on the Beta. Wont be live until tomorrow….
Well the PS3 guys have been doing this with their (crap) browser capabilities already, they can stream from any site.
Netflix is a must have, I got the update yesterday and its pretty cool. Takes about 15 minutes to download. And you download netflix as an add-on.
I doubt we’ll see browsers built into televisions. The PC will become the brain, the television just a peripheral viewing device.
If you don’t have an X-box, Tivo, or similar device - it’s easy and affordable to connect your PC to your HDTV
http://pctvcables.com
I was just thinking about this the other day. I’ll have to try that out once it’s officially launched!
Jake
NoteScribe: Premier Notes Software
Getting some serious value out of my xbox.
I’m just waiting for them to stream to my toaster oven. Then I’ll be impressed.
I’m still waiting for an XBOX 360 browser so I can finally surf the web online in my living room. The Wii does it and so does the PS3 (to an extent, I tried it but was very disappointed. It was slow and unreliable). Certainly, if the Wii can do it, the 360 should be able to handle the load.
One more thing, I’m not sure its going to be that expensive for Netflix. As long as you have an unlimited account, from what I’ve read you will be able to do Netflix. Xbox Live is $49 a yea rbut you do have monthly DSL or Cable broadband costs. The benefits is that you can watch movies via your 360 without having to buy an Apple TV or any other equipment. I think that’s great! Now,,,give us a web browser so we can surf the web in our living rooms and make the 360 the machine to own!!!
People! A DVD and a DVD player would suffice!
Oh btw.
Check out http://www.jobstaxi.com
New Jobs. Razorfish. Art.com. Edge of Reality.
Netflix is the Google of Video rentals. Go Netflix Go!
Well , gizmodo just reported many titles by Sony pictures being removed from the list of Netflix which were previously available.
Sony drops some
Not all “View instantly” movies play on the 360. Even though I have Ghostbusters and Ghost Riders on my watch instantly Netflix queue, they dont come up on my xbox 360. Is it possible these movies are affiliated with sony? Can you only watch bad independant films on the XBOX 360? Yesterday I was excited, today I’m not impressed.
Its actually kinda funny….I cant stream Sony movies from my Netflix through my Microsoft XBOX and watch them on my $2000 SONY LCD TV!!
Totally stoked for the Netflix-360 combination. Genius.
Anyone actually tried watching a streamed movie from Netflix with remote members of your Live Party? I’m assuming all party members have a Netflix account. I’ve been doing some research and found a site that said it isn’t possible (!)…I’m just wondering if that’s true…anyone know???
Thanks.
Correction: Netflix doesn’t stream video to mac computers. They use a format that is made to be used on only the latest version of windows media player. It sucks, I have a mac. Called netflix and told them I use a mac. They said they wouldn’t look into support because “if it’s not broken…”. Not broken my ass I want to stream f’n videos like all the PC people.
d, check out their site again. at least in the US, they have a beta service available for Macs, im on it (and its easy to sign up, I think TC even showed the link to enable it). It uses silverlight ( a newer MSFT plugin) to work.
As soon as someone figures out a way to stream online video sites like Hulu to the XBOX I’ll be able to get rid of my cable subscription.
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/video-sites
Not really impressed with this, lack of titles, lack of broadband speed (2mb) at my end, and cost. I can get hard copies from a dvd rental service for less cost, more titles and more reliable and less hassle.
Wow!! where have I been? This rocks, I wast aware of this. I give props to netflix for joining forces with xbox 360 and the customer happy!