Netflix on Wii now

[HaRuMaN]

I just got an email from Netflix saying I can order the disc for Netflix streaming (free, of course).  I'll probably order it just to have, but I already have it on Xbox 360 and PS3 already.

I prefer watching Netflix on the 360 since it's integrated (no disc required).

[Ginsu Victim]

My friend has the disc and says it works great. I don't have enough time to justify having a Netflix account or I'd be all over it.

Coming to iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch soon.

[HaRuMaN]

The Netflix streaming is great for watching TV series.  We're currently catching up on Heroes... no commercials, HD, noice!   

[Ginsu Victim]

We're currently catching up on Heroes

Should've just stopped at the end of season one.

We gave up at the end of season three.

Not trying to derail the thread, though....

[Hoopz]

We're currently catching up on Heroes

Should've just stopped at the end of season one.

We gave up at the end of season three.

Not trying to derail the thread, though....

I watched one and two.  Based upon what I read in EE and have heard from a group of friends that watch it, 3 is bad and season 4 is hit and miss.

I prefer torrents for TV shows and streaming to the Xbox.  I haven't tried Netflix but don't have a lot of time.

The Netflix streaming is great for watching TV series.  We're currently catching up on Heroes... no commercials, HD, noice!   

Noice?  What are you putting in your mixed drinks?  Probably some fruity umbrellas!   

[HaRuMaN]

Noice?  What are you putting in your mixed drinks?  Probably some fruity umbrellas!   

I drink beer.  And the occasional whiskey sour.  Thankyouverymuch!

[Dartful Dodger]

I got my CD yesterday.

I use the PS3 to stream my Netflix but the way these companies are always falling in and out of love I figured it'd be better to have it than not.

[Smoker]

I've been using netflix on the wii for weeks now and i absolutly love the interface. so far its the best by far! and if you hack the wii you can install it as a channel and not have to worry about the disc!

[crashwg]

Could this be used on multiple Wiis?  Multiple IPs?  Like let's say I have Netflix and I watch stuff at home on my Wii then I go to a friends, can I use the disc in their Wii?

[AtomSmasher]

Could this be used on multiple Wiis?  Multiple IPs?  Like let's say I have Netflix and I watch stuff at home on my Wii then I go to a friends, can I use the disc in their Wii?

I'm fairly certain you can (but not positive), however, you will need to activate each Wii you use through your Netflix account.
Also, it looks like they're giving 10% off your next bill if you activate your Wii with Netflix, which was a nice surprise, even if it is less then $2 off.

[shmokes]

Yeah . . . I was gonna activate it for my Wii for that reason, though I won't use it.  A really smart move, considering how many people have Wii's in the house, but figure something like streaming movies directly must be complicated.

[shmokes]

Agreed.  The interface, by itself, is designed for Grandma and Grandpa.  It's like going to a (quite awful) rental store with no particular title in mind and just randomly browsing for something to watch.

With that said, Grandma and Grandpa are going to be amazed.  Seriously.

[Dartful Dodger]

Also, it looks like they're giving 10% off your next bill if you activate your Wii with Netflix, which was a nice surprise, even if it is less then $2 off.

It may sound silly, but I'm going to move my Wii to my PS3 TV and use it once just to get my $2 refund.

I’ve never plugged my Wii into the internet so I’m probably going to end up screwing myself over.

But $2 is still $2.

[RTSDaddy2]

This also sounds silly but Netflix is currently doing a two-week trial period.  We've never tried it, but wanted to look into it.  That said, we also wondered if you all know of anyone who's ever had any trouble cancelling the trial period - or a membership - with the company at all, in case we don't like it, get tired of it, or can't afford it.  Netflix says it's not an issue, just call and cancel, but - after all, they are the company.

[AtomSmasher]

I canceled them about 4 years ago and it wasn't a problem then (and have since reactivated the account), but I can't say with any certainty that its still the same.

[shmokes]

This also sounds silly but Netflix is currently doing a two-week trial period.  We've never tried it, but wanted to look into it.  That said, we also wondered if you all know of anyone who's ever had any trouble cancelling the trial period - or a membership - with the company at all, in case we don't like it, get tired of it, or can't afford it.  Netflix says it's not an issue, just call and cancel, but - after all, they are the company.

Netflix is a great company.  Not only is it super easy to cancel your account, but they'll even save all your stuff, so you won't lose your queue in case you sign up again later.  You can cancel any time you want.  Or if you're going on vacation you can even schedule your temporary cancel date and your resign-up date, so you just won't get charged (or receive movies) for a period of however many weeks you choose.  

Go for it.  You won't have a problem.  Or don't.  The 2-week introductory offer is perpetual.  If you're short of cash now you can always get the same deal when things look up a bit.

[RTSDaddy2]

Sounds like a good thing then. Reason I asked is that I ran a complaint check against them on Google, but as I told my wife, it sounded like a bunch of people just belly-aching for no apparent reason.  For instance, one person said his parents read about the Wii -Netflix combo and for the $8.99 thought it a good deal....UNTIL they realized they had to buy a router, cables, etc. :    It was almost like a who's who of people who didn't bother to read the fine print. (edit) That's probably a bit harsh, but it looks like their son (who was doing the complaining) would have looked into how to hook a Wii up to the net a bit better than apparently he did...

I don't know how many of you did this with this program, but back in the early days of Wii homebrew, Red Kawa (sp, I think correct) released a video converter for the Wii.  I ran one or two short programs through it, and it looked ok on our TV.  That's one reason I'm thinking of at least trying out NetFlix streaming to the Wii...I am curious to see if the picture quality is actually any good.  Mind you, I don't expect earth shattering....but we have the additional video cable you can buy for the Wii to improve the picture, so I thought it might be worth the shot.

[AtomSmasher]

I'd say the quality is usually somewhere between TV quality and DVD quality, which means the quality is pretty good IMO.

Your talk about the complaints reminds me of a movie review I recently read on Netflix where they gave the movie a 1 out of 5 and the review went something like this, "This movie has been at the top of my queue for 3 weeks and Netflix still hasn't sent it to me.  I called them up and they said they didn't have enough copied of the movie to send to everyone and that I wouldn't get a copy until one was available.  It's just not fair."   Some people are just idiots.

[shmokes]

 Mind you, I don't expect earth shattering....but we have the additional video cable you can buy for the Wii to improve the picture, so I thought it might be worth the shot.

Frankly you should expect earth shattering.  It's not, of course.  I mean, it's no blu-ray.  But you will find the picture quality absolutely acceptable.  You seriously won't have any complaints.  And it starts almost instantly (only like 5-10 seconds of buffering and then the entire movie plays).  Generally speaking the entire movie plays without any stuttering or rebuffering or anything like that.  It works fine.

The interface is pretty awful.  It basically mimics walking into a poorly stocked video store and browsing through the movies.  They're sorted by genre, but that's it.  They're not even alphabetical.  If you want a specific film you need to get on your computer and put it in your "instant queue" and then on the Wii it will appear in your instant queue and you can play it from there.  It's clunky, but the epitome of simple, thus super accessible for old people, I guess. 

All in all it's a really good experience.  Just needs a better selection and more powerful interface.

[Ginsu Victim]

It requires 4.2 system update.

[Smoker]

Waste of a dvd, but the only way to run it on the wii at the moment(legaly). Netflix has an agreement with Microsoft that the 360 is the only game console that can run their software on the console. The PS3 and Wii have to use discs until that agreement is over. then you becha there will be channels built into the next firmware upgrade after the agreement is over.

[Ginsu Victim]

Googled it, says any USB loader will block the update and the NetFlix disc will still run.

FWIW, the NetFlix software is only ~36MB.... real waste of a DVD there...

Well, I shouldn't have said "requires". It contains the update, but it isn't needed and, yes, it can be blocked.

[RTSDaddy2]

Shmokes & others: We're sold, totally.

I see what shmokes is getting at with the interface; a search feature of some type would be nice.  Don't you imagine that will come as they add more movies to it?  Likewise, selection via the Wii is limited, and I'll be glad to see it increase. We also have the PC in the arcade that could stream the movies if needed, though, so this is a minor problem.

In so far as the picture goes, I gotta tell you - we have an older model DVD player here, so I may be comparing apples to oranges, but the picture on our TV is actually BETTER than any DVD I've seen on it so far.  I grant you it probably isn't HD quality (that may come when I stream one through the PC in the aracde cabinet that has the HDMI hookup) through the Wii, but it's damned impressive considering what I was expecting.

At $8.99 a month, this is simply a steal. Unlimited streaming, Unlimited rentals, and STARZ play now also a part of that package. My wife and I usually go to coffee every week after her prayer meeting, and we were discussing the fact that if we started that only twice a month (twice instead of four times), that would pay for our Netflix membership. For as much as movie tickets cost these days, it's just hard to think of not making use of this. I realize that means we may not see several new films for months, but good god - you can easily spend 4 times this much at one movie for two people these days! I went to our local "Movie Tavern" the other day to see the remake of Nightmare. $5.50 for the movie, and $14   dollars for the lunch ($8 pizza, 4.50 for a MEDIUM DRINK???!!??), for a total of $20 for one person.  That's past insane, that's highway robbery. I know the solution is easy, don't eat....but that's still crazy.

Add to it the fact that I already had a VERY pleasant encounter with their customer service team, and you'll see why we're sold. Once again, y'all are right - this is a great company, far as I can tell.

[HaRuMaN]

I'm seriously considering getting a secondhand Wii solely for the purpose of bringing NetFlix upstairs, though.

I've thought about this, too.

[AtomSmasher]

Just thought I'd mention that the Roku Netflix player (which I got before Netflix was even on the 360) will soon get an update that lets you search for netflix titles.   It's only $80 new (which means you can probably get it for $50-60 used), so if you just want a netflix player, it may be better to just get one of those.  It also has the nice things like HDMI out, built in wi-fi, and they keep adding new "channels" to view other online content, such as any digital videos you buy at amazon can be watched on the roku.

[HaRuMaN]

Now that's interesting.  Looks like it does Pandora, too (big plus for me).

[shmokes]

Lots of Blu-ray players have Netflix streaming too.  Bought one for my in-laws for like $130 for Christmas.  It was a Samsung.  I think Best Buy has an Insignia one that periodically goes on sale for $100.

[Samstag]

I just bought a Samsung BD player for $80 that does Netflix, Pandora, and Youtube.  That was a Woot refurb, though.

[RTSDaddy2]

Jim,

No, we're not cutting our time together. We were just saying if we needed to cut something from our budget, we could have coffee here together and watch a movie once a month, then go out the rest of the month if we wanted for coffee in order to pay for Netflix.  Guess I didn't explain that properly.

The point was, the cost of Netflix is about two cups of coffee. Since it's easier to find a place to  cut that from the budget, we could stay home and watch the movie together one week of four - and chat (or both) - and use that one week's coffee fund to cover our Netflix membership for now.

Documentary section SOLD her. She watched one on the Coral Reefs via Wii that blew her mind at how good it looked here (was originally filmed for IMAX) and that was it.

Other thing I like about it - and someone eluded to this in an earlier post - we are not limited to using the Wii.  If the kid wants to watch "Scooby Doo" on the PC, while I watch "Nightmare on Elm Street" in my bedroom on the laptop, we can do that too.  It pays for itself really quick with the savings from not renting movies too. Last time I checked we'd collectively watched either in part , or whole, about a dozen films.  That don't even CRACK their TV options - I can finally ( here at the end) get caught up on LOST!

[Benevolance]

Is netflix still just US only?

[HaRuMaN]

Nope, no issues.  Nights and weekends is the only time I use it...

Maybe it's a Wii issue?

I mainly use Netflix on the 360 because I can get 720P that way.

[shmokes]

My internet connection is a very steady 250KBps, but NetFlix has failed on me three different evenings now.  It's got a couple more strikes and then I'm pulling the plug.

Your problem is having barely-than-faster-than-dial-up internet.  I've had no trouble, but my internet is 6 MBps, which is pretty slow around here (if I wanted to pay $15 a month more I could double the speed).  Even 12 is slow compared to what people get in other parts of the country.

[HaRuMaN]

You're downloading 6 megabytes a second?  Really?   

On an average day, I get about 1.2

[Ginsu Victim]

Well, I finally signed up the other day and I gotta say, I love it so far. There needs to be WAY more stuff available on the streaming, but considering what is there, it's worth the price.

[Ginsu Victim]

I'm using an older router but I've not had any problems. (Watched a lot of TV and only one movie so far....Moon....awesome flick)

As for browsing, I have it bookmarked on my Wii, and if I'm already watching something, I use my iPhone.

[RTSDaddy2]

UPDATE

In case you've not heard the news yet, they just added Netflix as a channel via the Wii Shop Channel. Why is this important?

1) This is the new version of Netflix with a search engine for the Wii - and it ain't half bad.

2) It is free - costs you zero Wii points (which is only fitting, seeing as how Netflix is at best $8.95 and is its own service)

3) Once again, it now acts as a channel - no more hogging the drive; and no more "system files are corrupted" errors from the disc.

The search engine works pretty well, as I said...it does list all the titles both DVD and streaming, but I can't see that's any different from the PC search engine myself.  VERY nice and needed touch!  After talking with them last week and trying to get them to send us a copy of the search engine disc, finding this added to the Shop Channel was a NICE surprise!

[rlemmon]

That is pretty cool news rtsdaddy2. It will be nice not to sit down to watch a movie only to discover i for got to put the disc in. The search feature is really great. Nomore having to use my pc to add movies to my queue. Thanks  for the info. 

[RTSDaddy2]

WHOOPS! I stand corrected....I got the "system files are corrupted" message once last night with the channel when I tried to go back to the main menu.  Oh well.  Still a nice thing to have it as a channel!

[Ginsu Victim]

I've had to go download this via "other" means, since trying to connect to the shop channel asks me to perform a system update.

[versapak]

I've had to go download this via "other" means, since trying to connect to the shop channel asks me to perform a system update.

Why not just update your system?