I recently got around to ordering the (free) disc from Netflix which allows you to stream “Watch Instantly” movies on your PS3. I’m glad I did, and recommend anyone who owns one and subscribes to Netflix do the same.
With my 16 megabit Comcast connection, the service works great. I grabbed “The Black Dahlia” in HD and it started playing in less than 10 seconds while looking very crisp.
Compared to watching Netflix streams on the computer, this is much more useful. While having to load the disc each time I want to stream something is a little bit of a hassle—as opposed to the Xbox 360’s built-in Netflix streaming function—I anticipate using this means of accessing Netflix’s streaming library quite a bit more than I did on my laptop.
I do agree with another blog I read regarding the interface in that it “definitely feels like a version 1.0 product”. Despite that, it adds a useful function to my Playstation, and over time the interface will improve. For now it is adequate. Judge for yourself.
Late next year, their obnoxious exclusive agreement with Microsoft which dictates that only the Xbox can have the streaming functionality built in to the device (hence the PS3’s disc requirement), will expire. Then we can look forward to streaming directly, sans disc.
Click the title of this post to be taken to the Netflix page where you can get set up with the required disc.
