Netflix is working with a variety of partners to further the next generation of video rental — on demand rentals delivered to your television over the Internet. One of the latest announcements regarding this effort is Netflix’s partnership with Microsoft to bring movies to your TV over Xbox Live.
Requirements
In order to rent movies and tv shows from Netflix with your Xbox 360, you must have an Internet connection, and Xbox Live Gold membership, and a Netflix membership that allows for unlimited streaming. At the time of this writing, Xbox Live Gold costs $8.99 per month and a Netflix 1 DVD at-a-time unlimited plan is also $8.99. According to Netflix customer service, their 1 DVD at-a-time unlimited plan is the cheapest plan that can be used to rent through Xbox Live.
Getting started
Movies and TV shows added to your Netflix “Watch Instantly” queue are available through “Netflix” section of the Xbox Video Marketplace.
- Go to the “Watch Instantly” tab on Netflix.com and add a few titles to your Instant Queue. Locate a title that has the blue “Play” button, hover your mouse over the play button and click the “Add to Instant” button that appears.
- Boot up your Xbox 360, go to the Dashboard and navigate to “Netflix” under “Video Marketplace” to browse the titles in your Instant Queue that are available for viewing over Xbox Live.
If this is the first time you have used Netflix with Xbox 360, you will be prompted to install the Netflix application. It is a free download and installation takes just a minute or two.
What’s available?
Not every “Watch Instantly” Netflix title can be watched over Xbox Live. Those that cannot be watched over Xbox Live will have an warning message next to their listing in your Instant Queue on Netflix.com. The warning is displayed in red and informs you that the title is not currently available on Xbox 360. It may also say that the title is only available until a certain date.
From time to time, titles will drop in and out of your Netflix Watch Instantly Queue. This is not an error. The movie and TV studios require Netflix to disable instant rentals of certain movies and TV shows when those titles are run on premium or pay-per-view TV channels, since TV currently generates more of a profit for the studios than on-demand Internet rentals.
At the time of this writing, Netflix states that about 12,000 titles are available to watch instantly with roughly 300 presented in 720p HD (source).
How is the quality?
Over the course of my free trial I have watched roughly a half dozen Netflix movies and all 3 seasons of “Heroes” instantly with my Xbox 360. I have been very impressed with the video quality. There are times when viewing is interreupted by “buffering”. The title stops playing and a Netflix warning messages states “Your internet connection has slowed. We are adjusting playback to reduce further interruptions.” In these situations Netflix will often downgrade the video quality in order to get the title playing again.
Most of these interruptions occur during peak viewing times — during the evening and on weekends. It is difficult to say whether it is the Netflix system responding to high demand, or my ISP dropping connectivity (which it does quite often).
Finally, I am not a pixel peeper or a videophile but I do know enough to say that the Netflix movies and TV shows I have watched instantly look great on my plasma TV. I am very pleased with the results.
Netflix photo by Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar. Xbox 360 photo by aditza121.
