Xbox 360 and Netflix Team Up...A kick in the balls to Apple TV?

[dan-o-mac]

Los Angeles—An exciting new home theater experience is coming to living rooms this holiday season. At E3, Microsoft and Netflix, the world's largest online movie rental service, today unveiled an exclusive partnership to offer the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to your television via Xbox 360®.

Xbox 360 will be the only game system that lets you instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix. This movie-watching innovation will be available to Xbox LIVE® Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers, and will let those users enjoy streaming movies from Netflix on Xbox LIVE at no additional cost.


I found this to be a unique feature. I would like to see how they implement this.

LIVE Party system. Create a party of up to eight friends, and stay with them from one game to another, or watch a Netflix movie together, or share a slideshow of your personal photos. It works with all Xbox 360 titles, not just upcoming games. LIVE Party allows up to eight people to chat in the dashboard, so you can meet up before playing.


http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/events/e32008/articles/0714-netflixteamup.htm

http://xboxfocus.com/news/535-micro...ashboard-new-avatars-new-xbox-live/index.html

 

[DeaconGraves]

Should be noted that this service will require both an XBox Live Gold account ($50 a year I think?) plus a paying Netflix account.

Also, Netflix still has no HD support.

 

[Alan Taylor]

interesting none-the-less...

 

[Jaykay]

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[Jaykay]

I have both a 360 and an apple tv and the apple tv gets turned on maybe once every couple of months. With the connect 360 software coupled with all the other media features of the 360 (including all the codec support) i really cant see the apple tv competing with 360 as a media device at all right now. Possibly as an HD movie rental service (though not for me in Ireland) but most definitely not as a full blown media streamer for your home. With netflix support (with some interesting new features) and the fact that even some of the cheaper models (not including the arcade) have an awful lot more storage, it just seems a better deal to me. Oh, and it plays games and is 20€ cheaper.

I can't stand Microsoft products usually and as a company they annoy the hell out of me (Apple Zealot through and through I am), but ya gotta admit, the 360 is one product they do very well.

 

[i.Feature]

I have both a 360 and an apple tv and the apple tv gets turned on maybe once every couple of months. With the connect 360 software coupled with all the other media features of the 360 (including all the codec support) i really cant see the apple tv competing with 360 as a media device at all right now.

I'm the exact opposite. I sold my 360 recently. It rarely got turned on, while the apple tv got use everyday. The 360 is a huge, noisy, ugly machine that take up a lot of space. It worked as a media machine, don't get me wrong. But most people don't want to clutter up their living rooms with consols. (I know alot of people with wiis that complain about their footprint.)

 

[Jaykay]

I'm the exact opposite. I sold my 360 recently. It rarely got turned on, while the apple tv got use everyday. The 360 is a huge, noisy, ugly machine that take up a lot of space. It worked as a media machine, don't get me wrong. But most people don't want to clutter up their living rooms with consols. (I know alot of people with wiis that complain about their footprint.)

I can see your point. It is both noisy and ugly and does have a very big footprint. But in my case, i find that those are not big problems. The lack codec support is a big dealbreaker for me, not to mention the fact that i use the 360 as a games console as much as a media centre. So there's no point having an apple tv there as well if it doesn't even do anything the xbox cannot.

 

[macworkerbee]

I don't have an appleTV but I do have an xbox360. I've been using connect360 and this has been suitable for my needs. I have to say that I was starting to consider getting an appleTV for rentals but I think that I would rather have a netflix subscription and watch as many as I want.

On the other hand HD would be nice . . .

 

[kjr39]

The addition of Netflix to the 360 absolutely will reduce my need to buy from iTunes.

My xbox is my most used device, ATV is next with cable TV being a distant last.

Overall, I'm highly annoyed with all of the devices out these days and the lack of an open architecture that would allow me to play files on my Xbox/AppleTV/PS3/iPhone/whatever withouth having to convert them over and over again.

 

[savar]

Should be noted that this service will require both an XBox Live Gold account ($50 a year I think?) plus a paying Netflix account.

Also, Netflix still has no HD support.

For those of us that already have both, this is great news. I enjoy both products separately already, so getting something new for free is pretty cool.

I can see your point. It is both noisy and ugly and does have a very big footprint. But in my case, i find that those are not big problems. The lack codec support is a big dealbreaker for me, not to mention the fact that i use the 360 as a games console as much as a media centre. So there's no point having an apple tv there as well if it doesn't even do anything the xbox cannot.

The newer xbox is quieter. Can't argue about the ugly thing, but I don't think it's better or worse than the other electronics I have. (I got a black one, however.)

I haven't had any codec problems. There was actually some kind of download that enabled a few extra codecs (like mp4) -- did you install that? Also, (this is really annoying) those extra codecs don't work unless you're connected to XBL.

 

[whooleytoo]

Given how Sony won the HD disk war, I guess this is an excellent way of MS buying back into the game. Why go down to the store to rent a Bluray disk when you can get it immediately without leaving the couch with Xbox Live?

(Having said that, not having HD is a problem. I've tried HD rentals from Xbox Live and they're fast to download and high quality.)

 

[frankiepdx]

I'd say more like a kick in the ass.

I stream on my 360 from time to time but it is so noisy I usually convert to mp4 just to play on my ATV. I have the Roku also. It needs better sorting like the ATV with genres.
I figure why fight it. Buy them all and cancel cable TV.

 

[Jaykay]

I haven't had any codec problems. There was actually some kind of download that enabled a few extra codecs (like mp4) -- did you install that? Also, (this is really annoying) those extra codecs don't work unless you're connected to XBL.

I meant on the apple tv as it only plays itunes compatible video which is quite limited e.g. no divx/xvid, ogg, flac etc. They have added quite a few codecs to 360 in the updates. Plus the new dashboard they're bringing out in the fall update might be kind of cool. Seeing as they kinda blew the PS3 UI out of the water with the current dashboard.

Plus, i would assume getting HD rentals is just a matter of time on the 360 as it would be very easy to implement (If they can get the rights that is)

 

[bacaramac]

I will stick with ATV, I had Xbox 360 and returned it to Target as it was so loud. I use my ATV everyday (for kids, etc) and my PS3 apx 3 times a week. If anything, I wish Apple would release software that allowed PS3 to pick-up iTunes library.

 

[Jaykay]

I will stick with ATV, I had Xbox 360 and returned it to Target as it was so loud. I use my ATV everyday (for kids, etc) and my PS3 apx 3 times a week. If anything, I wish Apple would release software that allowed PS3 to pick-up iTunes library.

There is. It's made by the same people who do the connect360 software.

They're called nullriver. www.nullriver.com

 

[bacaramac]

There is. It's made by the same people who do the connect360 software.

They're called nullriver. www.nullriver.com

thx, don't know how I didn't know about this.

 

[iRabbit]

I'm the exact opposite. I sold my 360 recently. It rarely got turned on, while the apple tv got use everyday. The 360 is a huge, noisy, ugly machine that take up a lot of space. It worked as a media machine, don't get me wrong. But most people don't want to clutter up their living rooms with consols. (I know alot of people with wiis that complain about their footprint.)

While I didn't sell my 360, I do not at all use it for a media device... I exclusively play games on it. The AppleTV is used all the time for content, music, TV, and movies. Mind you, I had the 360 long before the AppleTV and have NEVER liked their content interface, so it rarely got used for anything other than games.

I also find it humorous when people (not you) complain about Apple's prices considering Microsoft with their 360 nickle and dime you constantly for everything.... and lets not even get into their tech support or the whole "recovering" your gametag thing. I like the 360, don't get me wrong, I just don't think it's all rays of sunshine and it will not replace my AppleTV for content.

 

[wordmunger]

Ah, so this is the same service that's available through the roku player. Yeah, that definitely makes the Xbox more powerful than the Apple TV. I'd like to see the Apple TV get the same functionality -- why not?

 

[rogersmj]

I'm personally very excited about this. I'll continue to use my (hacked) Apple TV for all locally-stored content, but having access to thousands of movies on demand for just a few bucks a month is irresistible. I already have a 360 and a Gold membership for playing online games; I had been thinking about buying the Roku box but now I don't have to. I don't have a problem with my 360 being really loud. It's a black Elite, I don't know if those were made with better heatsinks or what but the noisiest thing in it is the DVD drive, not the fan.

There's lots of nights when I just feel like a "good movie" but I have no idea what. Having access to streaming Netflix content will be great.

 

[gwerhart0800]

XBOX 360 is as loud as a hoover!!!

I will stick with ATV, I had Xbox 360 and returned it to Target as it was so loud. I use my ATV everyday (for kids, etc) and my PS3 apx 3 times a week. If anything, I wish Apple would release software that allowed PS3 to pick-up iTunes library.

While my kids would kill me if I tied to take their xbox 360 away, it has to be the loudest piece of technology I own. Microsoft XBOX HW engineers must have their offices inside a data center where they can't hear anything over the fan noise. (Maybe MS assumes that all of these kids are deaf after years of playing MP3's at high volume and don't notice.) The killer is that our xbox 360 has already had one death because of too much heat. So all of that fan effort seems to fail to actually cool the system down! I would have thought that MS could have turned the HW by now to use lower power/heat parts.

I don't see this has a huge threat to ATV. The Roku box is probably more of an issue, but for me, I have a wireless ISP and I can't reliable stream movies on a PC using the existing netflix streaming service. (A penality of living in the country!) I also think that many of the ISPs around will have bandwidth problems if movie steaming takes off big time.

 

[minik]

I think it's good for people who already own the Xbox 360 and Live! Gold membership.

It's quite interesting to me since I sold my Xbox 360 (after I got my PS3 and Wii) and cancelled my NetFlix subscription (after I bought an Apple TV).

 

[drummerbooker14]

Given how Sony won the HD disk war, I guess this is an excellent way of MS buying back into the game. Why go down to the store to rent a Bluray disk when you can get it immediately without leaving the couch with Xbox Live?

(Having said that, not having HD is a problem. I've tried HD rentals from Xbox Live and they're fast to download and high quality.)

As of yesterday, sony has that same ability

sony videos

also to people considering losing ATV because of xbox and netflix, right now movie selections aren't very good for their streaming content but will hopefully get better now that the 360 will have watch now capabilities.

 

[Scarpad]

I'm the exact opposite. I sold my 360 recently. It rarely got turned on, while the apple tv got use everyday. The 360 is a huge, noisy, ugly machine that take up a lot of space. It worked as a media machine, don't get me wrong. But most people don't want to clutter up their living rooms with consols. (I know alot of people with wiis that complain about their footprint.)

I agree it's a hell of a gaming machine, but really a lousy media machine due to the interface, however the interface is getting an upgrade, so it might compete with Apple TV yet, the PS3 also has much more capability as a media machine, but it too is hampered by a terrible interface for playing movies and music, in that dept it's hard to be the ATV

 

[w00master]

I agree it's a hell of a gaming machine, but really a lousy media machine due to the interface, however the interface is getting an upgrade, so it might compete with Apple TV yet, the PS3 also has much more capability as a media machine, but it too is hampered by a terrible interface for playing movies and music, in that dept it's hard to be the ATV

Hmmm, for me interface is important, *however* the fact that the XBox 360 (and PS3) can *actually* reliably play more types of media is an immediate win over AppleTV any day.

I really want to like the AppleTV, but it is so limited on what it can play that I can't even be bothered to even consider it as an option. It's why I'm really looking into XBMC (Plex) instead. This way I can cover both the media playing aspect as well as interface.

Although, I will say that the new XBox 360 dashboard imho a big improvement (except for the terrible Mii rip-off portion).

w00master

 

[ajnvt]

Ok, so now I'm officially confused. I'm moving in a month or 2, and I really want to discontinue my cable service. Right now, I don't have an ATV, PS3, or Xbox360, just a Wii. So with all the recent developments, which system should I go with? Gaming isn't exactly as important to me as it used to be, so it would mostly be for playing media. HD would be nice, but I mostly just need it to play avi's and the such...