Jun 02 2008
Netflix Now Available Instantly On Your TV!
For those of you who have no idea what Netflix is, stop reading this and go here. You can come back once you’ve boned up on your knowledge. Most people have seen their ads enough through online banners and are probably sick of it by now. We started using Netflix about three months ago in my household. All I can say is that the service is fantastic. My family tends to forget about returning DVD’s, and end up spending about $20 per movie by the time it gets back into the video store, so this works out perfectly. We are on the $8.99 a month plan, giving you 1 DVD at a time, but there is no limit for the month. There is a distribution center right in our area, so I get a couple of movies a week if I remember to drop it in the mailbox the following morning.
But the DVD’s are only a piece of the membership. My plan offers unlimited hours from the instant viewing library, which allows you to choose from over 10,000 movies and TV shows directly on your computer. I have spent the last few months hunched over my laptop, watching movies on my small 13 inch LCD screen like it was the newest technology on earth. Of course, it can give you such a pain in the back and neck. Luckily, they have just come out with a new set-top box for your TV to cure our aches and pains, and gives us the chance to watch these instant flix right in front of our big screen TV’s.
Made from Roku, the Netflix Player is the hub to get those movies from the Netflix instant library without having to fiddle around with the computer. It hooks up to your home network, either wirelessly or via an ethernet cable, and feeds off of your instant viewing queue on your membership account. Simply add movies from the library into a list, kick back, and watch them on the tube. Your computer doesn’t even need to be turned on. It is compatible with any TV and comes with several hook up options.
I can’t wait to get this for my house. At first glance, there are a few drawbacks. The content is not yet offered in HD, although it says the box does have that capability, so look for that a little bit further down the road. Plus, without a high speed internet connection, you are out of luck. Plus, you only have a choice of 10,000 movies and TV shows, but I believe they are boosting it to someday get closer to their 100,000 they offer on DVD. I am leery on how the picture quality will transfer to my television, as on my PC it is still VHS quality. Good thing is the 30-day money back guarantee, so I will try it out for a month and decide then. This will surely bring in more customers for the already #1 DVD rental outlet. With the competition through Apple TV looming, I think this is a sure thing for Netflix.
