Nintendo fans can all breathe a collective sigh of relief this week. Thanks to a new app, Wii owners will never have to deal with another disc for all of their Netflix streaming needs. The plucky little console is getting a new Netflix channel, which lets Wii owners streaming Watch Instantly videos directly to their TV sets through the console.
The announcement comes shortly after the introduction of a similar application for Sony’s PlayStation 3. An update to the Xbox 360 Netflix app is set to arrive later this fall. No word yet on when I’ll be able to watch movies on my Super Nintendo–I’ve been waiting for a special occasion to break out my special edition of The Wizard.
The Wii version, in the meantime, is free for Netflix subscribers.
The Wii joins its Xbox and Playstation 3 game console rivals in ditching the disc. Users can now download a Netflix Watch Instantly channel through the Wii Shop, meaning you don’t have to fumble around to find the disc when you want to watch a movie on the biggest screen in your house.
“Wii is a consummate home entertainment platform and has quickly become one of the best and most popular ways to enjoy movies streamed from Netflix,” said Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix. “The availability of Netflix right on the Wii Menu adds significantly to the ease and convenience that attracts our members to the Netflix streaming experience and is an important step in our efforts to continuously improve the service.”
It’s hard to believe that the Netflix has only been available on the Wii since April 12, 2010. Since then, discless streaming video from Netflix has come to the iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, Google TV, PS3 and other devices, joining Xbox, the Roku Player and TiVo. But the Wii doesn’t have the HD video output many of those other devices have — for Netflix or anything else.
It’s not just the PS3 that will be doing its Netflix streaming disc-free from today: the Wii is joining in the fun as well! Americans and Canadians alike will be able to download and install Netflix from the Wii Shop Channel, provided they’ve signed up for a subscription of $8.99 (C$7.99 in Canada) or above. Notably, over three million Wii consoles are said to have been hooked up with Netflix since the service launched back in April, and this step should make that number grow even larger. Only question is what we’re all going to do with those three million redundant discs now. We can’t turn them all into coasters, any ideas?
You can’t really use it for anything for two more days, as Netflix will tell you “this product is not currently available in your location,” but if you turn on your PlayStation 3, you might notice the disc-less, 1080p and 5.1 surround sound version of the instant movie streaming service is already available to download. The above install screen popped up on our console without even requiring a trip to the PlayStation Store, which suggests that 1.) Sony has decided that this is a big deal and 2.) should an evil force ever wrest control from the Japanese manufacturer, they’d have some pretty rad propaganda pushing power.
Since it was first introduced a year ago, Netflix playback on the PlayStation 3 has required an Instant Streaming disc. Beginning next Monday, PS3 owners will be freed from those oppressively shiny, round bonds.
Netflix is rolling out a new app from Sony’s gaming console that also promises to deliver faster browsing, improved content search, and increased video playback speed. As always, consuming said content requires a Netflix account. The application itself is free and can be download through the PlayStation’s Video and What’s New icons.
The PS3 is also adding movie and TV content in 1080p hi-def video, Dolby 5.1 channel surround sound, and more subtitled content.
PlayStation 3 just leapfrogged Xbox 360 and snagged the best Netflix experience on a videogame console yet.
The new Netflix application for PS3, rolling out for download Monday, will enable Netflix subscribers with PS3s to watch movies and TV without a disc. Some titles will even stream in 1080i HD and 5.1 digital surround sound.
Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” streaming-video feature has been available for PS3 since late last year, but it required a Blu-ray disc in order to access the service. Now, by running Watch Instantly as a native PS3 app on the console, users can ditch the disc altogether. Netflix also has a new user interface, optimized for the PS3 controller’s analog joysticks.
In the new UI, search especially seems smartly designed for the PS3 controller, using an alphabetical grid and intelligent auto-complete to minimize the pain of text entry, as seen in this still:
Still from Sony PS3 promotional video.
I even like the way the controller buttons control common text-entry commands in context — like Space, Delete and Enter. There are keyboards available for PS3, but being able to use the controller well is a real asset.
Netflix has not only continued to bring its streaming service to seemingly every device with a screen, but to make that service better. Still, among consoles, the announced PS3 app stands out: Xbox users don’t have 1080i or surround sound, and Wii users have only now added search to their service, which still requires an “Instant Streaming” disc.
Adding media services has become part of the continued rivalry between Xbox and PS3, along with new motion-capture interaction devices like PlayStation’s Move controller and Xbox’s Kinect.
Besides videogame consoles, Netflix can now stream to personal computers on Windows and Mac; TiVo, HD, Roku, Logitech and Apple TV boxes; Windows Phone 7 and all iOS devices; and a wide array of net-connected TVs and Blu-Ray players, including those using Google TV.
Rejoice, PS3 owners, your Netflix streaming experience just got vastly better than anything else on the market. Starting October 18 Netflix on the PS3 will no longer require a disc, and it’ll stream some content with 1080i 1080p resolution and / or 5.1-channel surround audio, while everyone else will be stuck with a max of 720p stereo for the time being. Oh, and you’ll get subtitles on some content as well. Netflix is partnering with Dolby on the audio side, and the surround format will be Dolby Digital Plus, which is the same codec used by the VUDU HDX streaming service — we’re guessing it’ll require a tiny bit more bandwidth but the results should sound pretty great. Netflix says 5.1 will come to other platforms “over time,” so we’ll see how long that takes — and given that the PS3 is now disc-free and the company’s eschewed the SRS surround features baked into its Silverlight-based platform, we’re guessing Microsoft’s exclusivity period has now completely run its course. Video and PR after the break.
Update: Though the official PlayStation Blog originally reported the service would display streaming video at 1080i resolution, they’ve since struck that out — they say it’ll do 1080p now. Much better.
With thousands of developers churning out thousands of apps, we’ve no doubt exploring the Marketplace is going to be a full-time job for at least a day or two after you nab your Windows Phone 7 device this fall — but with all the hullabaloo today, we thought this would be a good opportunity to highlight a few that Microsoft and its partners have been talking about recently. Dig in!
Alright, so by now we all know that HTC’s HD7 is mostly a HD2 in imperial new clothes, but let’s give the new phone a chance, shall we? We’ve just gotten to grips with the latest member of HTC’s 4.3-inch brigade and predictably enough it feels just as snappy as the rest of the Windows Phone 7 devices introduced today. Navigation is blazingly quick, interrupted only by Microsoft’s excessive fascination with animated screen transitions. Clearly, designing the new WP7 OS around hard-set minimum specs has paid off for Microsoft, whose end product exhibits a great deal of polish. T-Mobile, the HD7’s exclusive carrier in the US, is keen to point out that it’s the largest Windows Phone 7 launch device, so if size is atop your list of priorities, this will be the phone you’ll want to start your journey with. We’ve got some in-depth impressions of the hardware after the break and a video is coming right up as well. Enjoy!
Update: As promised, a lengthy video exhibition of the HD7 awaits your eyeballs just past the break.
Stop us if you’ve heard these specs before: 4.3-inch WVGA (800 x 480) TFT screen, 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8250 system-on-chip, 576MB of RAM, 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, and Microsoft’s latest mobile OS on board. Yes, the HTC HD7 is almost a carbon copy of the much-loved HD2, albeit with a major upgrade to Windows Phone 7 software and an appreciated bump to 720/24p video recording. Beyond those enhancements, American buyers will be greeted with preinstalled Netflix, Slacker, and T-Mobile TV entertainment apps, along with 16GB of built-in storage.
T-Mobile gets the honor of being the exclusive US carrier, with exclusives also going out to O2 in the UK and Ireland and Telstra in Australia. O2 Germany will also distribute the phone, along with Movistar in Spain, Bouygues Telecom in France, and a choice of carriers in Italy. Bear in mind that the non-US HD7s are likely to come with a less capacious 8GB of storage. The phone is scheduled for an October 21 retail debut in Europe, to be followed by a mid-November arrival on US shelves. You’ll find the full press release after the break, although you shouldn’t bother if you expect it to explain why the nearly identical HD2 isn’t getting a WP7 upgrade.
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