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Movies Nintendo Wii Games

Netflix Streaming Arrives For the Wii 171

Posted by Soulskill from the hopping-on-the-bandwagon dept.
Grant,thompson writes "As announced in January and mentioned here on Slashdot, Netflix is sending out discs today to enable streaming on the Nintendo Wii. 'Netflix has sent out emails to customers who pre-ordered the Wii's instant streaming disc, indicating that the disc will arrive in mailboxes tomorrow, and that the service will likely start within the next day.'"
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Netflix Streaming Arrives For the Wii More

Netflix Streaming Arrives For the Wii

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  • great.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Michael Kristopeit ( 1751814 ) on Thursday March 25, 2010 @03:04PM (#31616576)
    now if my tivo HD XL, mac mini, and xbox 360 all crap out, i can still watch streaming netflix in my living room.

    i can finally sleep at night.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Eil ( 82413 )

      The Wii appeals to a broader audience than just gadget freaks who buy all the latest HDMI-3D-HD-everything. The little white box has a huge market share, especially among people who don't play "typical" video games. That's why it's a smart move for Netflix, it brings them much a wider audience for not very much effort.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fm6 ( 162816 )

      Funny thing, not everybody runs out and buys every electronic toy on the market. So there's less redundancy in most households.

  • You need a disc? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Sparkycat ( 1703438 )

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I gather that you need to load the netflix disc every time you want to stream stream something?

    On my 360 (and I assume on PS3s as well), netflix streaming is built into the software of the device: I can play a game off of a disc until my wife gets home, then switch over to netflix and watch some tv with a few button clicks.

    If you have to get up and fumble with discs every time you want to switch tasks, this is a big Fail for the Wii in terms of convenience. Why not a WiiWare app

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by nateand ( 1487549 )

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but I gather that you need to load the netflix disc every time you want to stream stream something?

      On my 360 (and I assume on PS3s as well), netflix streaming is built into the software of the device: I can play a game off of a disc until my wife gets home, then switch over to netflix and watch some tv with a few button clicks.

      If you have to get up and fumble with discs every time you want to switch tasks, this is a big Fail for the Wii in terms of convenience. Why not a WiiWare application?

      PS3 streaming also requires a disc. I heard it has something to do with xbox 360 exclusivity agreements, but I could be wrong.

    • Re:You need a disc? (Score:5, Informative)

      by BassMan449 ( 1356143 ) on Thursday March 25, 2010 @03:09PM (#31616650)
      PS3 requires a disc as well. I believe it is Netflix's way around the agreement they made with Microsoft to get it on the 360.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Michael Kristopeit ( 1751814 )
      netflix made an exclusivity deal with the xbox 360 that expires next year or soon after... i dont have a link, but someone with the wii netflix team already said that once the deal expires, there will be a downloadable app made available.
    • Well, I won't know until I receive mine and try it out, but it is possible to install software to the Wii. Many games install little "channels" that access leaderboard-style stats and whatnot, so perhaps this does the same thing, and makes a Netflix channel so you don't need the disc every time you want to watch something.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by BobPaul ( 710574 ) *

      PS3 requires a disc, but a Wii can easily be softmodded so that a USB loader (such as USBLoader GX [google.com]) to launch the service from a thumbdrive/usb HD instead of a DVD.

      It would be best if they made it into a channel, but they haven't even done that on PS3, so that seems unlikely.

    • Re:You need a disc? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Richy_T ( 111409 ) on Thursday March 25, 2010 @04:00PM (#31617566) Homepage

      If you have to get up and fumble with discs every time you want to switch tasks, this is a big Fail for the Wii in terms of convenience.

      Think of it as "Wii Fit Lite"

  • Netflix streaming (Score:5, Insightful)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Thursday March 25, 2010 @03:05PM (#31616588)
    I'm beginning to think that everything will one day stream Netflix. It would be nice if Netflix would concentrate less on getting their service on my refrigerator and more on expanding their selection of movies and shows available for streaming. It doesn't seem to have improved all that much since the service started.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by fullfactorial ( 1338749 )

      Good luck with that. Netflix is beholden to the content owners for that, and they are VERY particular with the who-what-when-where-how of content distribution.

      I expect to see Hulu streaming to the Wii before I see a week-old TV show on Netflix.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by LandDolphin ( 1202876 )
        I believe Legend of the Seeker updates to Netflix weekly. I'm sure there are others too.

    • because by limiting the platforms on which a service runs will broaden their customer base, enabling them to have better bargaining power with the studios who control source distribution? Thank god you don't run netflix.

    • I'm beginning to think that everything will one day stream Netflix. It would be nice if Netflix would concentrate less on getting their service on my refrigerator and more on expanding their selection of movies and shows available for streaming. It doesn't seem to have improved all that much since the service started.

      Because selection is dependent on the content providers and not technological limitations, which is far as I can tell are much easier to overcome. However, they have been working quite hard at improving their streaming selection http://criterioncast.com/2009/12/21/criterion-on-netflix/ [criterioncast.com] http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10426792-261.html [cnet.com]

    • Re:Netflix streaming (Score:5, Informative)

      by CrankyFool ( 680025 ) on Thursday March 25, 2010 @04:38PM (#31618096)

      They can do both, you know.

      (I work at Netflix, on the IT side. I mean, duh, I read slashdot).

      The groups working on device support have nothing to do with the groups working on more content; the latter is largely a business effort anyway, whereas the former is SOME business efforts, and lots of technical efforts.

      And my impression is that the top two priorities are:

      1. More content;

      2. More devices.

    • They can do both, and the two goals reinforce each other -- the skills to do both are pretty non-overlapping anyway. For me, the streaming has been a non-starter so far because I run a MythTV media center and own a Wii -- the only place I can use the streaming right now is on my laptop (a Mac), which is not the best movie viewing machine.

      This brings me into the market now, and makes me think that when I move out of my current place (the account is in my roommates name) I'll get my own subscription as well.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fm6 ( 162816 )

      ... more on expanding their selection of movies and shows available for streaming.

      What makes you think they're not already doing all they can on that score? They can't show a movie unless the people who own the rights say they can — and the entertainment industry hates and fears the very concept of online availability in any form. Short of hiring mercenaries or mobsters for a little extralegal negotiating (traditional [youtube.com] in the industry, but frowned upon these days) there's not much more they can do.

      Meanwhile, the more devices they support, the bigger their customer base, and the mor

  • Wii is not listed as a supported player yet here: http://www.netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevices?lnkceData=0&lnkce=gssiclk&trkid=1445376 [netflix.com] Nor in the "Watch Instantly" view menu here: http://www.netflix.com/GetStartedStreamingInstantly# [netflix.com]

  • So I don't have to wait for the DVD to come in the mail, huh? That's awfully con-Wii-nient!

    • The PS3 and Wii require a disc purely because of MS' exclusivity deal which must run out at the end of this year because Netflix announced that PS3 owners won't need the disc after this year. The Wii may be different due to lack of storage space.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Richy_T ( 111409 )

        The Wii /should/ have plenty of space (mplayer has been ported to it on homebrew) but there's no telling how much cruft the streamin app will have.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by tepples ( 727027 )
        Wii has 512 MB of internal storage. A channel for streaming video would probably be no bigger than a WiiWare game. Compare to VLC media player, which is a 15 MB download.

        • And look at all that VLC can do ... play darn near anything, stream content in *multiple* formats, transcode, etc.

        • To answer your .sig:

          I play Smash Bros. but want to switch to PC gaming. What platform fighting game should I try? (SFIV != platform.)

          Don't try to switch. PCs suck at fighting games, in the same way that consoles suck at RTSs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      After I read you post, I find I must agree. You did put all joking aside~

  • I signed up for this as soon as I heard about it. I just checked the email account assoicated with my Netflix account and there is nothing there yet. Hopefully soon, I've been really looking forward to this.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Pontiac ( 135778 )

      Log onto your Netflix account and check this page..
      http://www.netflix.com/InstantStreamingDisc?device=Wii

      It should give your delivery status.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by stoolpigeon ( 454276 ) *

        I did that as soon as I saw I had no email. It says the same thing it said back when I signed up.
            "Thanks for reserving your FREE instant streaming disc for your Wii console.

        You don't need to do anything else - your instant streaming disc for Wii will ship automatically when it is available this spring."

  • Linux (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Thuktun ( 221615 ) on Thursday March 25, 2010 @03:31PM (#31617100) Journal

    Now if only we could stream instantly to a Linux PC without having to resort to a VM running Windows...

    • Duh (Score:2, Funny)

      by BancBoy ( 578080 )
      RTFA! All you have to do is build a Wii Emulator for Linux and then you can run it in that instead of a Windows VM. Sheesh.

  • Hopefully they will release a Linux version at some point. In the meantime, please take a minute and fill out this petition:

    http://www.petitiononline.com/Linflix/petition.html [petitiononline.com] (right now it is at 4429, we can do much better)

  • I don't watch enough movies for Netflix to be worth the cost. Redbox works better for me for the 1 or 2 times a month I want to rent a movie.

  • Great, so now I have Netflix on my Vista Media Center, DVD/Bluray player, and now Wii...all hooked up to the TV. Can we get some more content? I totally understand not being able to get recent releases and highly popular new content. But why can't I get 10+ year old movies and TV series from 3+ seasons ago on Netflix Streaming? Probably the last dozen titles I've looked up haven't been available. They should be building up their back catalog and getting obscure titles....streaming should be the answer

  • Netflix seems to count streaming views similarly to physical disc rentals, so they de-prioritize your disc rentals the same way as many have reported for people who run through a lot of discs.

    I picked up a Samsung Blu-Ray player which supports Netflix streaming. I found the selection to be fairly poor, but because of the easy access I ended up sampling a lot of material. After digging a lot, I turned up some good options, like some Showtime series, and PBS Frontline episodes.

    During this time I had actual

    • I'm curious, did your coworkers have the same movies at the top of their queues? "Very long wait" seems indicative of "very popular movies".

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