Netflix to begin streaming to PS3

[Brikar99]

Sweeeeeeet:

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/26/netflix-is-coming-to-the-ps3/

So this is why Netflix's stock went soaring. After countless rumors, Netflix's streaming service is finally coming to the PlayStation 3. Even better: it'll be free for PlayStation Network members that have a Netflix account. According to the press release, "Netflix expects to begin streaming via the PS3 system next month at no additional cost to Netflix members in the United States who have a PS3 system."

I might never leave my house again. Bye, social life...

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm in trouble.

 

[gh4chiefs]

My internet connection to my PS3 is via the wi-fi setup. And frankly it sucks, it often takes hours to download a large demo. I don't see anyway in hell that I'll ever be able to stream movies over it.

 

[Brikar99]

I've heard a lot of people complain about the slowness of the wi-fi, but I've never had that problem myself. It always seems rather zippy to me.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Not only is my WiFi to the PS3 slow, it's also very unreliable. I get the "you have been connected/disconnected to/from the access point" about every 45 seconds. The Xbox 360 works fine, and it's about 5 feet further away from the access point than the PS3 is.

 

[RoJoHen]

Weird. I've never had a problem with my PS3's wifi.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Weird. I've never had a problem with my PS3's wifi.

Well you know I don't seem to have issues playing games online, and I don't really have dropped connections issues, it's strictly about the speed of DL's from the PSN store. And based on that experience, I don't see that I'd ever be able to stream a video, especially a HD video.

I suppose it could be some kind of router issue and unfortunately I'm not computer savy enough to really want to mess with it. I can online game with it, and if I tinker around with it, I'll end up screwing that up.

What I'm going to try is to take the Lynksys wi-fi adapter from my Xbox 360 and plug that ethernet cord into the PS3 and treat it like a wired connection and see if that works.

 

[Yoda]

My 360 and PS3 are wired... my Wii is wireless simply because they included Wifi but not ethernet. My downloads on Xbox used to be much faster... but everything else still gets my full bandwidth. I can only assume that MS either capped downloads to 500kb/s or so or they haven't been expanding capacity to keep up with demand. I don't know about PS3. I download so little on my PS3 I can't really comment there though.

If it's an actual wifi problem... maybe there's something next to your PS3 that is interfering. How far away is the PS3 from the router physically? I've noticed that sometimes devices can't maintain a decent connection if they're too close of all things. A friend of mine had spotty Wifi on his desktop PC until I moved his power strip farther from the antenna.

Oh, another thought. A different friend of mine had real issues with his PS3 connecting to PSN. He wasn't able to update Madden to get the latest rosters. Kept disconnecting. He had a Linksys WRT54Gv8. I had him update his firmware and voila, he got a stable connection.

Unfortunately there are lots of issues with networking computers, wirelessly or otherwise, that can make things not work as intended that aren't necessarily intuitive.

 

[The Evil Dead]

Goddammit, one of the few times I am annoyed at being a Canadian. I would absolutely love this service...

 

[Brikar99]

Weird. I've never had a problem with my PS3's wifi.

Well you know I don't seem to have issues playing games online, and I don't really have dropped connections issues, it's strictly about the speed of DL's from the PSN store. And based on that experience, I don't see that I'd ever be able to stream a video, especially a HD video.

Apparently, Netflix will send you a Blu-ray disc that when you put it into the PS3 will access Netflix - sounds like BD-Live - rather than going through the PSN store. Have you tried any of those features and had problems?

 

[Sheep]

As a Netflix shareholder who bought when the stock was less than $20 per share, a PS3 owner and a 360 owner, I wholeheartedly endorse this move. More Netflix subscribers = $$$ and I can move the Netflix streaming functionality from my 360 to my PS3 which is pretty much all I use the PS3 for anyway (assuming the interface and disc requirements don't suck).

I'm a bit surprised Netflix didn't court Nintendo with the Wii's giant userbase as well, although how many of those Wiis are actually in use and not collecting dust might be the big issue there.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Weird. I've never had a problem with my PS3's wifi.

Well you know I don't seem to have issues playing games online, and I don't really have dropped connections issues, it's strictly about the speed of DL's from the PSN store. And based on that experience, I don't see that I'd ever be able to stream a video, especially a HD video.

Apparently, Netflix will send you a Blu-ray disc that when you put it into the PS3 will access Netflix - sounds like BD-Live - rather than going through the PSN store. Have you tried any of those features and had problems?

No, actually I rarely play blu-rays on my PS3 so I've never tried the BD-Live features. (Which is ironic, beause I originally bought the PS3 as a blu-ray player and instead it's become my main gaming console.)

I'm sure I'll give it a try, I'm not a current Netflix subscriber, but this might make me one IF I can get the streaming to work.

 

[Skywalker]

Nice! Looks like I'll be joining Netflix soon.

 

[TemporalFlux]

I'm a bit surprised Netflix didn't court Nintendo with the Wii's giant userbase as well, although how many of those Wiis are actually in use and not collecting dust might be the big issue there.

Well, the best you can do on a Wii is component cable, so that completely cuts out the Hi-Def Netflix users. And as for other video, I'm just not sure the Wii was really designed for that kind of thing; the streaming video on the Nintendo Channel usually looks awful regardless of the settings I use.

And while I'm interested to see Netflix come to the PS3, we have to remember that only a portion of the Netflix library is available for streaming. For me, it is often the case that the things I would like to watch can't be watched by streaming.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Well, the instant streaming thing with Netflix isn't their whole library, but it still has a crap load of stuff on it. May not be recent stuff, at least super new, but its still cool. I just tried the Netflix streaming on my new X-Box and I have to admit, its kinda nice to finally watch Netflix on my TV instead of just on my computer where the video was nearly always kinda choppy from time to time (I think its because my laptop is a 1ghz, 512 meg'd old IBM Thinkpad with very little video memory) but on the XBox its been pretty decent. Wired connection, but still pretty good.

I think now that they have Netflix on PS3 I might seriously consider it even more now. Return the XBox and upgrade to a PS3 hehe

 

[firehawk12]

Hah, this makes the whole Xbox Live Gold thing seem lame again.

What I found interesting was that on the 360, the system actively blocked non-US IPs from Netflix and various other services... but on the PS3, you can make an account for any region with relative impunity. I just wonder if this will open up all the non-US Netflix subscriptions again.

That said, my connection is so crap I wouldn't be able to take advantage of this either way.

 

[dark angel_707]

What I found interesting was that on the 360, the system actively blocked non-US IPs from Netflix and various other services... but on the PS3, you can make an account for any region with relative impunity. I just wonder if this will open up all the non-US Netflix subscriptions again.

I doubt it as the US PSN movie service is blocked to non US people, even the previews

 

[firehawk12]

You know, I've never actually made a US account, but I guess that wouldn't surprise me. In Australia there's some music video streaming service and I haven't tried to see I could get to it from here.

 

[barnaclelapse]

As soon as I get a PS3 or even a 360 this will probably be much more awesome.

I actually do get Netflix, but I'm hideously old-fashioned about it, although I have taken to watching stuff on my desktop.

 

[dragunzng]

I used to be a super netflix abuser, no doubt the kind they actually lost money on. I'd get the 4 out plan, watch at least 2 the same day they arrived, then send 'em back same night.