Use your 360 to stream Netflix
by Justin McElroy 
{ Jun 25th 2008 at 11:30AM }
How does it work? That's the whole thing, man! We don't know. But we also don't want to stand in the way of your dalliances with the black arts. So there you go, you've got a link. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go turn around three times and throw salt over our left shoulder.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
deaftly @ Jun 25th 2008 11:38AM
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/11/watch-netflix-streaming-movies-in-windows-media-center/
sigh.
why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 25th 2008 11:43AM
'that lets you stream stuff from Netflix directly into your 360.'
He's pretty explicit in the video to say that doing this uses resources of both the computer and the 360, it isn't just being streamed straight into the 360.
Phi Nguyen @ Jun 25th 2008 11:48AM
Ball-peen hammer?!? LOL. You rock, Justin.
required @ Jun 25th 2008 11:49AM
That's nice but I want the PS3 to do that.
required @ Jun 25th 2008 11:55AM
though if it did I'd want it to do it all on its own rather than getting it streamed from a computer
Farseer (GDI) @ Jun 25th 2008 12:46PM
Any other requirements for Sony regarding this issue? I'm sure they're hanging on your every word. ;P
Mystic @ Jun 25th 2008 11:51AM
Oh yay, it only costs the price of Windows!!! Give me a free built-in version of netflix streaming!
ill trooper @ Jun 25th 2008 12:58PM
A friend of mine that works at one of the companies involved here tells me this is gonna be officially available for both the 360 and the PS3 soon... I hope that's true, this would be cool.
peteH @ Jun 25th 2008 12:01PM
Windows Media Center is the biggest sham. C'mon, if I have Windoze, let me do this.
tcc3 @ Jun 25th 2008 12:07PM
Works pretty good for me. Must be my imagination since its just a sham.
dorkimusprime @ Jun 25th 2008 12:02PM
very cool stuff now if only microsoft and netflix would just make one that works without having to use my pc to stream the content, i'll re-instate my membership to netflix in a second! Oh yeah they also need to stream HD movies and actually put GOOD movies and shows up
Grant @ Jun 25th 2008 12:04PM
But it uses Vista.
Why would i want to sacrifice my system performance?
And why make something that only a small minority uses when there's a much bigger group of people who use the practically same thing but better.
Vidikron (FU) @ Jun 25th 2008 1:08PM
If you have older hardware, sure, that's a reasonable complaint. But if yourhardware is fairly new Vista really doesn't degrade your system's performance. In fact, if you have a good amount of RAM, Superfetch can actually make your system snappier.
deaftly @ Jun 25th 2008 2:12PM
Exactly what Vid said, Vista runs awesome on newer hardware, and its pretty!
Grant @ Jun 25th 2008 2:19PM
too bad the majority is older, and most people refuse to update.
thesimplicity @ Jun 25th 2008 3:45PM
I have a fairly new computer (2x Core 2 Quad @2.66 gHz, 8GB RAM) and Vista is very sluggish. When I boot into XP it flies. And I do mograph work, so it's not like I'm just not pushing it in XP.
That said, this 360 MCE Netflix thing is a crock. I tried it a few months back when the plugin was first released. Since the computer you're extending has to stream, render, and then transmit everything to the 360 to run at a higher resolution it will be VERY slow, even on the fastest connection. And 'downloading' the Netflix streams is a huge TOS violation. Media Center Extenders just weren't meant to work like this.
Vidikron (FU) @ Jun 25th 2008 4:20PM
@thesimplicity
You've screwed something up somewhere. My Vista PC isn't the least bit sluggish. There's no reason at all your C2D CPU with 8 GB RAM should be sluggish.
"Since the computer you're extending has to stream, render, and then transmit everything to the 360 to run at a higher resolution it will be VERY slow, even on the fastest connection."
That's just flat out false. I click on a movie and a few seconds later the movie starts playing. It will sometimes hang and sit at a black screen for over 30 seconds, but most of the time the movies start playing within 10 seconds.
thesimplicity @ Jun 25th 2008 5:11PM
Then there must be something very wrong with my version of Vista. I have Home Premium and it came preinstalled on the computer (I installed XP on a second drive myself). Whenever I have After Effects or Maya open in Vista everything slows WAY down and occasionally crashes. According to Adobe's tech services this is because of the amount of video memory Vista uses (and, last I checked, 512MB on my card was plenty). Are you saying that's not the case?
The Netflix plugin works fine in Vista itself, but becomes unusable over MCE. It sputters, crashes, and doesn't seem to buffer above a frame a second. The general consensus I got from forums when this plugin came out seemed to be the same. You're saying this is a user error as well, and you can get uninterrupted streaming to your 360?
Vidikron (FU) @ Jun 25th 2008 6:21PM
Hmmm... I don't use those programs so I'm can't say for sure. But I have a hard time believing that the Windows Aero theme is responsible for crashing your programs. Window's Aero can run on a PC with with as little as 64 MB video RAM and an integrated graphics processor. Sounds like a cop out on Adobe's part.
As for the plug-in, maybe you just gave up on it too early? It's developed quite a bit since the start. It now has settings where you manually set things like the buffer size.
And, yes, I can get uninterrupted streaming to my 360. My wife and I watched the first 3 seasons of The Office via this plug-in. In how ever many episodes that was, I think we had 1 episode that paused for a few seconds to buffer... and I have no idea what was at fault. It could just as easily have been a hiccup in my ISP's connection or in Netflix's servers. It only happened that once so I didn't worry about it.
I've seriously had no issues with the plug-in. It works great.
Grant @ Jun 25th 2008 8:21PM
"Window's Aero can run on a PC with with as little as 64 MB video RAM and an integrated graphics processor."
Yeah, but there's no way that's with all the effects turned off. I have 256 dedicated video ram, and it still sputters every so often with all the effects on at only 1280x800
Vidikron (FU) @ Jun 25th 2008 11:32PM
"Yeah, but there's no way that's with all the effects turned off. I have 256 dedicated video ram, and it still sputters every so often with all the effects on at only 1280x800"
Honestly, I don't know what the deal is here. Granted, I'm using a 512 MB video card, but I've got absolutely no sputters or sluggishness in Vista. Aero runs spot on perfect at 1920x1200 with Deskscapes running (animated desktop). I can even run Crysis windowed (so that Aero stays activated) and not have any crashes of any kind. So why you guys would be having sluggishness and crashes with dedicated videos cards is a mystery to me. Now, I don't know your computer's specs, Grant... yours may be lower than thesimplicity's.... hell, mine are lower than his... there's NO WAY he should be having crashes and sluggishness with a 512 MB card, TWO Quad CPUs, and 8 GBs of RAM. Those are ridiculous specs. Either he's got something set up wrong, or the problem lies with those specific programs.
FWIW, I'm running Vista Ultimate x64, Core 2 Quad @ 3.3 GHz, 512 MG 8800GT, and 4 GB of RAM. Pretty damn beefy, but not as good as 2 Quads and 8 GB RAM. I can be downloading, browsing the web, and transcoding 1080p video and not see a single hitch. The problem's he's having simply shouldn't be.
Grant @ Jun 26th 2008 4:37AM
I think the problems just come from bad drivers.
Even with the most up to date drivers, things still suck, and most hardware manufacturers are clueless on how to make things properly work with vista. It's been out for over a year, there's no excuse for these problems to still happen.
born2kill @ Jun 25th 2008 12:06PM
Thats stupid as hell. Just connect your comp straight to the tv (all HDTVs have inputs for PC) and watch netflix or youtube or whatever that way. Theres no reason to have your 360 be involved in this and kill 120 volts. Its just moronic.
Intentless @ Jun 25th 2008 12:29PM
Personally not an option for me. Due to sizes of rooms in the apartment my PC and TV need to be in seperate rooms... Otherwise yeah I'd do that... But if netflix lets me stream to the 360 directly to the 360 that will be awesome... Hopefully it will upscale the non HD like the HD attachment does for my DVDs.
343 Guilty Fart @ Jun 25th 2008 12:31PM
My HDTV doesn't have inputs for PC.
Riot9 @ Jun 25th 2008 12:32PM
Some of us have multiple TVs throughout the house, and want the same media to be available wherever they may be. I may be in the minority, but this solution works perfectly (and has been for a few months already). Admittedly, this is only a good solution if you have extenders, or more than one 360. My wife has her own 360 though, so that's why this works for us.
Some people may not want to have their computer in their living room as well.
Grant @ Jun 25th 2008 12:42PM
Personally, i bought a video card with an HDMI output just for this reason.
But the reality is not everyone has their PC in the same room, or even close enough in the same room, for this to be feasible, but running CAT5, or just using wifi and media extenders works alot easier.
jsn @ Jun 25th 2008 12:07PM
this has been out and working for a while now. Media center is pretty much the bomb.
Cameron @ Jun 25th 2008 12:56PM
I use vista media center w/ an hd homerun and have the vmc netflix streamer up and running...its so easy even my wife can use it! It's not perfect...but as the guy says its beta and its free so no complaints. I've watched all the episodes of BS, Weeds, Dexter, and 30 Rock using it. It's awesome.
Eddy @ Jun 25th 2008 12:34PM
This is great but I don't have a Vista PC. Come on Netflix work with Microsoft to let the 360 watch movies instantly.
Korova *of the highlands* @ Jun 25th 2008 3:17PM
Hmmm, sell a copy of Vista or give the functionality away for free?
How hard is that decision for MS?
Eddy @ Jun 25th 2008 4:04PM
MS has to concede Vista isn't all it was touted as. How about provide something for the 360 to compete equally against the Blue-Ray PS3.
Korova *of the highlands* @ Jun 25th 2008 5:33PM
Not yet, my even-banged alien friend. Not before PS3 comes closer to profitability.
MS wants you to buy an Xbox to play games and a PS3 to watch BD. Just make sure not to buy any PS3 games, and MS wins.
colin @ Jun 25th 2008 10:33PM
don't worry, the netflix instant movies blow hard. they have all the classics like chained heat 2, the cutting edge 3, and mean girls.
Eddy @ Jun 26th 2008 10:59AM
Korova - I agree the the 360 has more/better games, the PS3 started to and will continue to sell more units. People I know who have no interest in games buy PS3 for Blue Rays. The hardware numbers will be used to convince developers that the PS3 has a large install base even if it is skewed by non gamers.
Colin- the watch instantly movies may not all be AAA titles but the library is growing and Netflix has admitted that their goal is to get away from the mailing of DVDs and shift to more download based programming. Personally I have at least 10 movies in my queue that are watch instantly but I am not interested in watching on my monitor.
nealbailey @ Jun 25th 2008 12:52PM
That's WAY too much work and it's unacceptably slow compared to the $99 Roku Netflix Player which comes out of the box with HDMI/Component/SPDIF etc, etc and doesn't depend on any media center. It connects directly to Netflix and is supported by netflix.
Vidikron (FU) @ Jun 25th 2008 1:05PM
It's not all that slow, it's not really that much work, and it's free if you already have Vista. And since I have Vista and a 360, why would I want to spend $99 on another device that's just going to take up space and another input when I have devices that can already accomplish the same thing?
nealbailey @ Jun 25th 2008 1:41PM
"why would I want to spend $99 on another device that's just going to take up space and another input when I have devices that can already accomplish the same thing?"
If you already have all the dependencies then obviously there's no reason for you to do so, but for others who want to stream netflix movies to their TVs without having to satisfy all these dependencies (Media Center, XBOX360, netflix plug-in, etc) or prefer a significantly faster direct connection to netflix, the Roku solution is a much better solution that this backwoods hack.
Vidikron (FU) @ Jun 25th 2008 1:54PM
Why the hate against a useful plug-in? What makes it a "backwoods hack" and what makes the Roku the "better solution"? They both provide the same service, but in different ways. I've got no need for the Roku since I have a 360 and Vista. So the vmcNetflix plug-in the better solution for me. Obviously, if I didn't have Vista and/or a 360, then the Roku would likely be my best option. I don't see a reason to disparage either one.
nealbailey @ Jun 25th 2008 2:49PM
I'm not discouraging one use over another and perhaps I'm speaking pre-maturely in calling the plug-in a backwoods hack as I have not seen the source code for that plug-in. If it's like most of the existing Media Center or XBMC plug-ins then it's using Regular Expressions to scrape data directly from the HTTP response stream and this makes these plug-ins difficult to maintain over long periods due to the volatility of the content (source changes, etc).
If this particular plug-in uses the framework I describe above then it is indeed a backwoods hack that will not work forever and if this is the case then the only real netflix streaming solution is by using a netflix approved device like the Roku. This plug-in may be an approved device and if so then I take back my criticism.
Vidikron (FU) @ Jun 25th 2008 3:46PM
I don't know how it's coded, but so far it's been working fine. In fact, it has some advantages over the Roku. As I understand it, the Roku can only display items in your Instant Queue or movies in your normal DVD queue with the "Watch it now" option... correct?
With the vmcMetflix plug-in you can actually browse the full Netflix selection... including by category (Top 50, Action, Sci-Fi, etc...). You can also browse your instant queue and even manage your queue (add/remove items). On top of that, you can also add movies to your normal DVD queue via the plug-in. And on top of that, there's even an option to download the movies.
I know what you're saying though, if this plug works purely off HTTP urls then it will break down if the author quits working on it and Netflix changes the arrangement of their site. But as of right now, if you have the hardware already, vmcNetflix is not only the cheaper option, it's also the more fully featured option.
Even if the author does quit work on it, there's a good chance someone else will fill the gap anyway. vmcNetflix isn't even the only plug-in like this right now, it just happens to be the best one. And if they all fail at some point, then I'll still have the option to go buy a Roku. For those of us with a 360 and Vista, there's really no reason not to use the plug-in at this point.
I'm actually hoping there will some sort of official application for the 360 and/or PS3 at some point. Then the PC could be cut out completely without having to add another device to my entertainment center. But until then, I fully support vmcNetflix and appreciate the author's work.
nealbailey @ Jun 25th 2008 4:00PM
"I'm actually hoping there will some sort of official application for the 360 and/or PS3 at some point. Then the PC could be cut out completely without having to add another device to my entertainment center."
Indeed that would be the optimum solution.
"Underground" offerings always have better features than official offerings, for example the XBMC compared to XP-MCE is no comparison when you look at the features and awesome capabilities of XBMC which only exist because a programmer decided to just do it and not worry about getting permission or violating someone's patent or copyright.
The only potential consideration is the knowledge that the offering can fail at any point or become un-available if legal conflict arises so it would be best to operate under the assumption that eventually the offering will disappear, be legislated out of existence, or be absorbed by a buyout.
Vidikron (FU) @ Jun 25th 2008 4:25PM
Fair enough, the Roku may indeed be the better option for the average consumer in the long term. But, IMO, if you're the least bit tech saavy and already have a 360 and Vista, there's no reason to avoid this plug-in. It has virtually no downside other than possibly having to switch plug-ins or buy a Roku at a later date if the auther quits working on it. Neither is a big deal for the average tech nerd.
Zeromaru @ Jun 25th 2008 1:21PM
"we become frightened like cavemen every time they attain non-gaming functionality" I see where you come, but it's more frightening when you're forced to pay for the non-gaming functionality when you don't want it (*coughbluraycough*)
Conversely, the Xbox 360's streaming features I find quite useful. I have a 500 GB harddrive full of music, movies, and TV shows connected to my Mac and shared via Connect360. My Xbox 360 accesses something over the network almost on a daily basis, where now I'm considering buying an Apple TV and hacking it to run as a media server to feed the 360 full-time (the harddrive is quite loud and I have to turn it off at night in order to sleep).
Farseer (GDI) @ Jun 25th 2008 2:07PM
Man, I'm totally with you about the steaming features. I have a 1.5Tb array in my home server on a gigabit LAN. The 360 streams music and videos perfectly from it, as well as letting me view my photos.
ronald.raygun @ Jun 25th 2008 2:35PM
this is basically what i do, d/l divx movies or tv shows and just stream with wmp 11 that way. works well enough for me and if the video is of decent quality then it looks about HD on my tv.
Nintendo Power @ Jun 30th 2008 12:46AM
Indeed - I filled up a TB array with Netflix burn'n'return converted to h264 hidef streaming.
Tasty, tasty.
IceKXG @ Jun 26th 2008 8:01AM
vmcNetflix. Works good, I use it all the time. Too bad that all these netflix plugins for the 360 are so slow that you're better off buying the nicely priced Roku player for $100
Overgauss @ Jun 25th 2008 2:29PM
We used to do a lot of streaming to our PS3 with Tversity.
Now we've just been copying HD content to a jump drive from our 'download' PC.
Then we just play it straight from the usb drive after we plop it into one of the four usb ports on the front of our PS3. Next we delete the content and start all over again.
We like it because it's fast and there's no streaming lag from the pc etc.
It's doubtful that I'll use the service as it is when it comes to the PS3.
Kuro @ Jun 25th 2008 3:12PM
does this void 360 warranty or cancel netflix account?