Use your 360 to stream Netflix

by Justin McElroy on Jun 25th 2008 11:30AM

Though we love video games, we become frightened like cavemen every time they attain non-gaming functionality. (Funny story, we actually went through three PlayStation Ones because we kept smashing them with a ball-peen hammer whenever someone would use them to play a CD. We got past it.) So you can understand why we'd be frightened by this hack that lets you stream stuff from Netflix directly into your 360.

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.

Source

Tags: hacks, netflix, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (56)

Nope. There's no modifications to your 360. The 360 is just acting as a media extender for media center on your Vista PC. And, AFAIK, Netflix doesn't care either way.

I'll be honest....you don't fully unleash the power of your XBOX 360 until you couple it with Vista's Windows Media Center......
People make fun of Vista but I've been using it since its BEta with no issues. (I figure most people with issues with Vista either did an Upgrade of an old machine or are Mac users with an axe to grind).

Anyhoo...get this plug-in....it is in beta so you may get an occasional hang....but it has worked great for me.

Sorry for writing this, but

All the whining comes from the people that "will not be able to use this", since "they don't meet the requirements".

Come on people, with the price you've paid for a PS3, you could've bought an Xbox 360, and upgraded to Vista at the same time. Then this would've worked for you.

Do not misunderstand. I've a PS3, too. But that's only for playing MGS4.

I'm whining because i have one box using WMC XP and one with WMC Vista, and the XP version just works better, therefore i have all my content on that box.
Since WMC extenders can't sync up with more than one box at a time i have to choose if i want to stream netflix or stream the rest of my content.

And if i wanted to switch back and forth, to do the set-up each time would be the biggest pain in the ass ever.

Sorry I was not referring to you.

Anyways, I've heard that you can actually share the "Recorded TV" folder over network between different media center PCs. However, I think, it also requires some additional tweaking.

I cannot say much, but there was a discussion on this at the thegreenbutton.com site. Hope it helps.

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.

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