Overwritten.net
Games => General Gaming => Topic started by: PyroMenace on Thursday, January 14, 2010, 04:18:03 AM
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Epic fail.
Honestly, your better off not owning a Wii and having a Netflix subscription directly.
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That seems weird. Is anyone really going to use that?
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I just read about that (http://www.industrygamers.com/news/wii-netflix-service-much-less-significant-than-xbox-360-or-ps3-says-pachter/) yesterday. My feeling is that there will be a very small minority of Wii owners who will do this, much less than the 20% who are estimated to be online with the thing. But given the number of Wiis in the wild, that may still end up being a big enough number to be worthwhile to Netflix and Nintendo. The demographic is different, not as online-savvy as owners of the other consoles. Once they manage to get connected, they're going to have an appetite for content, and many won't know any better.
Here's an example that's very close to me. Sandy got her mother a Wii Fit and console for Christmas. I had to tell her the console wasn't included in the Wii Fit box. She ended up getting another such setup for herself. I set up the consoles at both houses, and immediately got them online through WiFi. Switched the router's channel from 6 to 1 because Nintendo can't get their online shit together except on a couple of specific wireless channels. Both consoles display on standard tube TVs (4:3 480i). When you go to the Nintendo channel (mostly advertising) it looks comparable to DVD on this setup. She couldn't care less about HDTV (although I did help her get a 19" Vizio for the kitchen recently, but that's another story). The tube TVs will be there until they die, and they both look great (for what they are).
She would be a prime candidate for streamed Netflix through Wii. She doesn't know or care much about options. She doesn't know a thing about games or consoles, or media centers. And if it works as well as it could (assuming the right tech people did their homework), it would look as good as anything on what she has.
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Epic fail.
Honestly, your better off not owning a Wii and having a Netflix subscription directly.
So Microsoft and Sony do it and it's fine, but when Nintendo does it, it's somehow a bad thing? It's the exact same type of service.
I know for the Xbox 360 you need Gold membership to get Netflix access. I'm not sure how it works for the PS3 or how it's going to work for the Wii.
But for households that don't have a Xbox 360 or a PS3 or an HDTV, how is this a "fail"? I don't understand the anti-Wii sentiment of people sometimes. It borders on fanboyism. How is one better off by not owning a Wii? I mean for people that just aren't interested in the Wii's library or features, I can understand that because they are worse off in the sense of missing a few hundred dollars. But for the rest? It can't possibly be a negative to own one.
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On standard (old) TVs, yeah, my feeling is that it's going to look as good as anything. But I can see a big difference between the Wii and the 360 on my Samsung LCD (both using component inputs). I think most of us here would consider the Wii a poor choice to stream Netflix because of the higher-res displays.
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True, but I agree with scott that I don't really see this as a "fail". All the other consoles stream netflix, so why not the Wii? Its not an ideal solution, but if you only have a Wii...why not?
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Does this cost anything extra if you have a Wii and a Netflix subscription? I could definitely see my parents using this, since they have both.
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On standard (old) TVs, yeah, my feeling is that it's going to look as good as anything. But I can see a big difference between the Wii and the 360 on my Samsung LCD (both using component inputs). I think most of us here would consider the Wii a poor choice to stream Netflix because of the higher-res displays.
...assuming you have an Xbox 360 or a PS3 and a HDTV.
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I hear the video quality of Netflix services through the Xbox360 and PS3 are mediocre at best. I haven't tried it myself as the service is unavailable in Canada though.
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Does this cost anything extra if you have a Wii and a Netflix subscription? I could definitely see my parents using this, since they have both.
Pretty sure its "free" as long as you have a netflix subscription. Not sure if its on the netflix site yet, but you'll just request the Wii disc to be sent to you and you just pop it in to access it. Just remember to not send that disc back.
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I hear the video quality of Netflix services through the Xbox360 and PS3 are mediocre at best. I haven't tried it myself as the service is unavailable in Canada though.
I've been using it on my PS3 since it came out and I can easily say it isn't mediocre. Even some more recent TV series in the last few years look fine on my 26" HDTV. I just watched Serenity on it recently and it looked great. I can't say what it looks like on a bigger TV though.
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I hear the video quality of Netflix services through the Xbox360 and PS3 are mediocre at best. I haven't tried it myself as the service is unavailable in Canada though.
It probably depends on the speed of your Internet connection. I haven't watched anything from Netflix on my Xbox 360 because I don't have a Gold subscription, but I've watched some things on my PC and before it plays it goes through a check to determine your video quality. I'm sure the bigger your pipe, the higher the bitrate.
BTW, is the Netflix connection free on the PS3?
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BTW, is the Netflix connection free on the PS3?
Yeah, if you have an existing Netflix subscription you are good to go, you just insert a disc they send you for free and it pulls up your Instant Queue. There is supposed to be a firmware update in the future that gets rid of the need for the disc as well.
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I can say that the service is still a bit wonky. They've got some kinks to work out. Julia's had a number of problems with it crashing on PS3 and such. Don't really know what's wrong and don't care enough to look into it. But generally it's been stable, and the quality is actually quite good. She's been watching Lost on a 46" plasma and it looks crystal clear.
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Got my Netflix for Wii disc yesterday. I am really impressed with the service. I mean of course I've done the Watch Instantly on the computer many times before, but there is something different about watching it on my (old school) big screen TV. I didn't have any hiccups or parts where it was all blocky either.