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Nintendo Wii To Get Netflix Streaming
motang writes "Netflix and Nintendo is set to announce Netflix streaming service for the Wii soon. Subscribers who have the unlimited streaming service can watch non-HD version of the movies on their Wii with a special Netflix disc inserted." The thing I can't understand is why the PS3 and Wii have to require a disc. Both are capable of downloading applications and executing them. Why should I be required to dedicate my disc slot to stream a movie? Of course, my netflix queue is half-filled with Ken Burns documentaries, so if I lost the disc, I think that would just make the wife happier.
By requiring you to have the disc, they make it difficult for most people to use the system without proper authorization.
Will it hinder most Slashbots? No. But it isn't meant to stop hardcore copyright infringers. It's meant to stop the average guy from sharing his copy of Netflix with everyone in the neighborhood.
wife.
Microsoft may have an exclusive deal with Netflix to have built-in Netflix support. Simply giving DVDs out with software for the other platforms *without* the possibility to install it may get around this agreement.
I believe the required disc for PS3 and now Wii is meant to get around the exclusive Xbox360 / Netflix streaming deal that exists currently. My understanding is that when the exclusive deal is over, the Netflix Player could move over to a normal installable program.
Rumor has it that Microsoft has an exclusivity contract with netflix for streaming built into gaming consoles which expires sometime near the end of year.
The PS3 will go disc free later this year, but didn't supply details as to why. However, since the Wii has far less storage, this may or may not be possible on the Wii...
http://kotaku.com/5391286/netflix-on-ps3-getting-embedded-solution-late-next-year
for roku.. At least my roku can do hd
It's my sick-nature you know !! http://techrc.blogspot.com
Think about it -- why do we have BluRay, which has a maximum capacity of 50GB? They already have solid-state memory devices that only weigh a few grams and have that much storage capacity -- and they don't degrade, scratch, or fall apart after a few months.
They only cost $100 more per unit. Who needs cheap media anyways?
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
It took 3 years for the Wii to get an easy way to watch movies.
Because a 50GB SSD costs about $100 per unit at minimum, and who wants to pay $100+the cost of the movie? You? I doubt it. Way cheaper to mass produce CD/DVD/Blu Ray.
Do you really want to pay $200/movie just for the media? That's the biggest reason we are still using optical media. It's CHEAP to make in huge quantities. We're talking a few cents per unit cheap here. Flash memory, even mask ROM, can't match that price point. That's also the biggest reason that the console guys moved from ROM to optical. More space, less production cost. DRM has little to do with it, it's just as easy to crack DRM on optical media as it is on other formats. Just google for the piracy scenes for the various consoles and movies. The media formats don't matter to the pirates.
...and they don't degrade, scratch, or fall apart after a few months.
Which is exactly WHY they have not transitioned to a "stick" format that you could plug into your player. They prefer to have the media to be a little fragile...that way you might have to replace it if your 3 year-old or your drunk friend mishandles your disc.
1331461 is only semiprime *sigh* Alas - I am just short of 1337.
Um from my understanding, the DRM is in the username... No I think the reason is far more likely that they have an exclusive agreement for the 360. Remember Sony AND Netflix has said the Disc is a temporary solution. I'm assuming it's temporary for the Wii as well, temporary until the end of the agreement with MS.
Why am I still relying on optical media? The only viable alternative is online. However not only can my ISP not sustain the Bitrate for audio and video that Blu supports (or even HD-DVD supported), but they'd cut me off within a week for going over my usage. The solid state media you talk about is more expensive (compared to a disc) to produce, and honestly doesn't last any longer then an optical disc would, especially if they had to mass produce them to replace every single DVD/BR disc sold. I can get a recordable BR disc for a few bucks, but a 64g stick goes for more then that.
Go go http://www.netflix.com/InstantStreamingDisc?device=Wii to reserve a disc.
...Microsoft has an exclusivity deal with Netflix for the time being. Either due to technical or legal reasons, requiring the disc is a way to get around this. Considering Sony has already said the required disc is temporary, this implies the exclusivity deal is nearing its end. This also implies any disc required for the Wii would be temporary as well.
Calm down people. Jeebus.
Living With a Nerd
Still no captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. It's almost as if it they want a class action lawsuit or something. Ten percent of your userbase is no small amount (I would think).
--why?
It amazed me that people closely watched the HD-DVD vs. BluRay "format war", and never once did they stop and think -- wait, why are we still relying on optical read-only media in the 21st century?
The same reason that CD beat out DAT (digital audio tape). For a tape to be loaded with content each tape had to be run across a record head which is relatively time consuming compared to stamping a CD. Flash memory, even some sort of write once version, still has to be loaded with content and is still orders of magnitude slower than stamping a disc. Plus the huge capacity solid state memory devices are much more expensive.
... my Wii does not output in 1080p, will movies streamed by Netflix display in HD? If not, why bother?
I wonder if we'll get this in Canada. Probably not. Xbox Live doesn't get Netflix in Canada, but I was hoping this would be a change. Not holding my breath though.
Wrong.
From a previous post of mine: "Microsoft has an exclusivity deal with Netflix for the time being. Either due to technical or legal reasons, requiring the disc is a way to get around this. Considering Sony has already said the required disc is temporary, this implies the exclusivity deal is nearing its end. This also implies any disc required for the Wii would be temporary as well."
To add to this, it's also possible that since Silverlight is currently used for streaming except to the PS3, there is a technology issue. Streaming to PS3's currently uses the BD-Live protocol, hence the need for a disc. Once either the exclusivity deal runs out or they implement a different streaming solution for the PS3, the disc will be no longer needed.
I hate the four-letter words you mentioned as much as the next guy, but they aren't the cause of everything.
Living With a Nerd
The highest output on the Wii is 480p. It looks great for Wii games but i would imagine most Netflix streaming customers want their stuff in HD.
Still waiting for this in Canada and other parts of the world. I think the main problem is the CRTC wanting to control how all content is distributed in Canada.
Netflix: Does not work
Hulu: Does not work
It would still be significantly higher production cost, which I clearly have no basis to put a real number to. Read-only SSD memory is not significantly different in production cost compared to a writable. The cost to product the hardware itself requires much more than a disc, and then the cost to duplicate is also significantly higher because of how long it takes to copy.
Back in August when this was news:
http://www.crispygamer.com/blogs/post/2009/08/11/NOT-NEWS-Xbox-360s-Netflix-Exclusivity.aspx
The exclusivity was tied to an online delivery service integrated into the console. Netflix gets around this with Wii and PS3 by essentially selling a "Netflix Game" that streams the video from the service.
I don't know whether I've just got one from a bad batch, but my Wii is terrible at streaming Flash video in its browser. Both BBC iPlayer and YouTube stop frequently to buffer.
I guess it could be lack of memory to buffer in. Or it could be a bad WiFi connection -- it's close to the AP and other nearby devices do fine.
I'd be mightily upset if I got this sort of performance on video that I'd paid for.
Cool, even more content restricted to geographical boundaries.
The reason the PS3 currently uses a disc is that the entire netflix program is written in Java. Specifically a BDJ. So the PS3 treats this disc as a Blue-Ray movie and runs their Java program as any Blue-Ray player is required to do. It really doesn't use any specific PS3 only code. They are working on a version that won't require the disc and will hopefully have it out soon (this year). I would "guess" it might be possible to take the PS3 disc and put it in to some modern BlueRay player and get it to work.
In my opinion this is pretty impressive what they have done with BDJ, and it shows what it is capable of. It also shows exactly why Microsoft didn't want this as a standard.
The more I learn about science, the more my faith in God increases.
It's a shame that perfectly good sense gets modded troll.
"We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all." - Douglas Adams
grief! You've really spoiled my day.
I mean for the PS3, Xbox360 and Wii. I tried watching Hulu on my PS3 and it wouldn't play. (And I'd rather watch TV on my TV than my computer. Oh, and I have a remote for the PS3 which further makes me want to watch hulu on my PS3.)
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
I didn't buy an expensive 1080p TV and 5.1 surround sound system to watch overly-compressed mish-mash! Most of my friends are the same.
Blar.
Why is this an issue? http://www.playon.tv/
I had mine setup in fifteen minutes and was streaming Netflix to my Wii and displaying it on my 1080p HDTV. Video quality was lower than DVD, due to transcoding to FLV. I did experience some buffering issues but that I attribute to using an ancient CPU (an old Athlon) on the transcoding host and trying to pull it down through a 1.5mpbs basic DSL link.
Since I'm using it to watch old movies with the kids, my expectations on picture quality are not above the Wii capabilities.
If you care that much about picture quality, I cant say I sympathize with whining about having absolutely no other options than streaming through your Wii.
e.g. hook up your laptop (with a proper graphics display card that can send the right RGB signaling) and send the display to your TV.
Or look into PlayOn. Or some other dedicated solution to get the video quality you desire to your TV.
Yeah, it's too bad there isn't some way to make solid state memory that gets its data all at once as part of the manufacturing process.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
... Now I have one more thing to use my Wii for other than playing the three decent Mario/Zelda games that get released every single year.
This would be awesome. I was wondering why I couldn't watch Netflix movies on my Wii.
How To Get Six Pack Abs
Easy way around this: use bannerbomb to install the homebrew channel, then install a cIOS, then install a USB Loader. Rip the Netflix disc to your USB hard drive, and you can load it from the drive (along with all your game backups). Works like a charm for everything else, takes no more time to load than any other channel.