It's Thanksgiving morning right now and I'm sitting in my dad's kitchen watching people cook. I'm thankful for so many things this year, but since this is a TV site, let's talk about the things in TV that I'm thankful for--things besides the murder that the poor Detroit Lions are going to face at the hands of the Tennessee Titans today.
1. Netflix Watch Instantly I've had Netflix basically since its inception, but with all of the TV that I watch, my Netflix movies have had a bad habit of collecting dust for months (I finally sent No Country for Old Men back after about six months on top of my DVD player). Even though I've known about the Watch Instantly feature for a while, I've never actually tried it out. I just watched Friday Night Lights Season 2, and let me tell you. it's so nice to just hit "Next" and have all of the episodes right there without having to change disks. Does that make me ridiculously lazy? Probably. I don't care.
No one's watching Terminator, the Dollhouse problems persist, and too many of my favorite shows are on hiatus until next year. Grrr! Argh! Still, I love TV, and now's the time to look on the bright side and give thanks for all the good stuff I've watched this season.
This year, I'm thankful for:
Battlestar Galactica – This last season has been challenging but thrilling to watch. Actually, that about sums up the entire run of the series. I'm confident that the final eps will be as good as what came before.
Netfilx Watch Instantly for Mac – I'm catching up with Doctor Who,Dead Like Me, and revisiting old eps of Joy Mohr's Action. I've never been so happy to be a beta tester.
Microsoft has announced plans to expand the internet video content available to Xbox Live users. Probably the most exciting new feature (although also the most predictable) is a partnership with Netflix that will let Netflix customers stream video using an Xbox 360 starting this fall.
Netflix currently lets users stream selected content using a web browser or a dedicated set top box developed by Roku. You won't need to pay any additional fees to watch Netflix videos. But you will need a Netflix subscription. Microsoft says the Xbox 360 will be the only video game console to support Netflix videos, but I wouldn't be surprised if what Microsoft is really saying is that the Xbox 360 will be the first video game console with Netflix support.
Microsoft has also announced that customers will be able to purchase and download videos from NBC and Universal. Titles will include Battlestar Galactica, The Office, Monk, The Mummy, and the Bourne Supremacy. The videos will be available in high definition. Microsoft says there are now over 10,000 movies and TV shows available through the Xbox Live marketplace.
Roku, the company behind the $99 box that lets you stream Netflix movies over the internet to your TV has released the source code for the set top box. And the hacking has already begun. Some folks have already reported they can access the box via telnet.
MythTV News raises an interesting question: Could the Netflix Player be a cheap frontend for the Linux-based MythTV media suite? MythTV's backend software requires a full computer with a decent CPU, hard drive, and RAM to run. But it might be possibel to shoehorn the frontend software, which lets you access media stored on the backend, onto a less powerful device.
As Dave Zatz points out, the software used on the Netflix Player is signed. What that means is that modified code will not run properly, and the box should automatically revert to the last good version of its software if it encounters hacked or modified code. But it is at least theoretically possible to send software updates to the box, and to update the bootloader. And that means it's possible that someone might be able to find a way to run MythTV or other software on the Netflix Player. Just because a platform is locked doesn't mean it can't be unlocked. Just look at the iPhone.
The developer of vmcNetflix, a Windows Media Center plugin that lets you watch streaming video from Netflix.com in the media center interface, has decided to relaunch the program as an open source project. He's looking for other media center applicationd developers who can help improve the project.
vmcNetflix already include features that other Windows Media Center Netflix plugins lack, such as support for media extenders like the Xbox 360. It'll be interesting to see what other features a community of developers can add.
You can download the latest version of vmcNetflix and check out the source code at its new home page.
Netflix has announced the a new set top box that will let you watch any video that you can stream from the web site. The Netflix Player by Roku is a $100 box, plus your Netflix subscription fee. You don't have to pay anything extra to user the player.
Remember yesterday when we mentioned that Netflix had hired Anthony Park, the developer of the MyNetflix plugin for Windows Media Center? Park said he'd be working on the user experience for boxes, and I'd assumed he meant boxes like video game consoles and other existing set top boxes. And maybe he did. Netflix is also partnering with LG and other hardware makers to release more Netflix-compatible boxes soon.
But the Netflix Player by Roku is the company's first foray into hardware. And by keeping the price extraordinarily low, the box looks pretty attractive compared to competing boxes like the Apple TV or SlingCatcher)
That said, CNET reports that the video quality and user interface aren't exactly up to Apple TV or Vudu standards. The box doesn't really need a great interface because all it lets you do is watch movies and TV shows that are already in your Netflix queue.
Netflix has hired Anthony Park. Now, normally I wouldn't bother writing a post to let you know that a media company has gone and hired a developer. But Anthony Park happens to be the guy who created MyNetflix, one of the first Windows Media Center plugins that allowed you to stream videos from the Netflix web site on your TV using Windows Vista MCE.
Park says he'll be working on a research team "to build the next generation of the Netflix user experience." What that means is he'll be helping develop the user interface for accessing the Netflix service on a variety of different devices. If Netflix develops software for the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or AppleTV, Park could be involved in developing the GUI.
Park says he also plans to continue developing MyNetflix on his own time.
Ever since it was first demonstrated that you couldcontrol the Netflix "watch now" interface from Windows Media Center, MCE plugins for Netflix have been populating like bunnies. There are now three different plugins that let you browse or search your Netflix queue and watch movies all from the comfort of your couch.
Missing Remote has an in-depth look at vmcNetflix, MyNetflix, and NetflixMC. And it turns out that not all Netflix plugins are not created equal. Some are Vista only, while others will run on Windows XP Media Center Edition. Al three have attractive interfaces and most of the features that you'd expect. But only one vmcNetflix supports Windows Media Center Extenders like the Xbox 360.
If you're looking for Windows XP MCE support, NetflixMC is pretty much your only option for now. And if you're looking for support for media extenders, vmcNetflix is the way to go. But if you're looking for a more detailed overview, you should check out the full article at Missing Remote.
Like the idea of being able to watch streaming video from Netflix on your Windows Media Center, but wish it would work with your media extender device? It looks like the developer behind NetflixMC, a Media Center plugin for watching Netflix Watch Now videos has managed to get the pllugin to work with his media extender. But not without spending quite a bit of time tweaking the application.
It's not clear at this point whether media extender support will be included in a future release, because it's possible that the solution he came up with only works on his particular system and it's not clear if it can be automated.
For anyone who got lost in the first paragraph, a media center extender is a set top box that connects to your main Windows Media Center computer over a home network. So if you have one PC that you use to record and store TV, you can place extenders in other rooms in the house that will let you watch recorded TV shows and other content. In other words, some people don't have a PC in their living room, they just have an extender box, which is why it's pretty significant that someone figured out a way to stream Netflix videos over one.
Anthony Park has added the ability to stream Netflix Watch Now videos in full screen mode to his MyNetflix Windows Media Center plugin. But that's just one of more than a dozen updates available in MyNetflix 2.1 beta. Others include:
Added the ability to pause and play videos using a media center remote control
Added a "select episode" screen that shows up when you select a TV series
There's a new indicator to let you know the program is busy (and still working) when looking up data
MyNetflix 2.1 is available for download as a public beta.
MyNetflix isn't the only Windows Media Center plugin for watching streaming movies from Netflix. Well, not for long anyway. NetflixMC is an upcoming plugin that will work with Windows Vista Media Center and Windows XP MCE. MyNetflix is Vista only.
NetflixMC lacks some of the features of MyNetflix, like the ability to manage your queue. Pretty much all you can use NetflixMC for is finding and viewing "Watch Now" movies from the Netflix web site. But the application's slick interface makes up for its limited feature set. Not to mention that it's nice to see a developer who hasn't forgotten about Windows XP users. Most of the cool new applications I've seen in the last few months have been Vista specific.
Independent developer Ryan Gray is also working on a Netflix Watch Now plugin for MeediOS, an alternate media center for computers running Windows. You can check out a video of his MeeFlix plugin in action after the jump, or read more about it at the MeediOS forums.
Anthony Park has released a new plugin for Windows Vista Media Center that lets you watch streaming videos from Netflix. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. MyNetflix also lets you manage your Netflix queue, browse movies by genre, new titles, top 100, or pretty much any other criteria, view your history and recommendations, and browse and play "watch now" videos.
MyNetflix is the evolution of the streaming plugin I told you about a few weeks ago. Developer Anthony Park has picked up on the work started by Ryan Hurst, and added the pretty MCML interface that makes MyNetflix look like it really belongs in Windows Vista Media Center.
MyNetflix is available as a public beta. As such, don't be surprised if not everything works perfectly. But development on the project has been pretty rapid, so I'd expect any major bugs to be stamped out pretty quickly. And of course, make sure to submit your bug reports to Park.
Incidentally, there's also a new plugin for SageTV that lets users of that media center suite browse and view Netflix videos as well.
Sure, Netflix is great if you like waiting for DVDs to show up in the mail or if you don't mind watching online video using a web browser. But I kind of like watching movies on a TV screen. And while I've got a computer permanently plugged into my TV, the last thing I want to do is pull out a keyboard and mouse and open up a web browser to watc my movies, when I've got Windows Media Center and a remote control.
Fortunately, it looks like someone's developing a Windows Media Center plugin that will let you watch Netflix videos without a web browser. Development is still in the early phases, but the promise is that you'll be able to find available movies and stream them in full screen mode all without visiting Netflix.com in web browser. When it's complete, the plugin should let you login to your Netflix account, browse and search Netflix "watch now" movies, and possibly even add DVDs in your queue for ordering the old fashioned way.
A few weeks ago a limited number of Netflix customers started getting emails letting them know they could watch as many videos as they'd like online using the "watch instantly" button next to selected items in their queue. Now Netflix has gone and made and made it official. Almost all Netflix subscribers can watch as many online videos per month as they want.
Previously the DVD rental service only allowed users to watch a limited number of hours per month based on their subscription rate. For example if you've got the $18/month Netflix plan, you were able to watch 18 hours of online video per month.
If you're a subscriber at the lowest level, paying just $4.99/month to rent up to two DVDs per month, you'll find you can still only watch a few hours of video. The change comes in advance of Macworld, where Apple is widely expected to announce a new iTunes video rental option. Will the move give Netflix an upper hand? Probably not, but it may be enough to at least keep Netflix in the game.
There've been rumors for a while that Netflix was planning to build its own set top box for delivering movies directly to your TV. Now it looks like the DVD rental service is building a platform that will work on many different set top boxes. The first partnership is with LG, but Netflix is looking for other companies to work with.
According to HackingNetflix the goal isn't just to provide one set top box, but to make the Netflix software embedded in boxes ranging from DVD players to video game consoles. And of course, cable boxes.
The box will be internet connected, and users will have access to the same 6,000 movies current Netflix users can currently get by clicking Watch Instantly from the Netflix website. No word on how much the box will cost, but once you buy the hardware, you'll need a Netflix monthly subscription to view the content.
It's Thanksgiving morning right now and I'm sitting in my dad's kitchen watching people cook. I'm thankful for so many things this year, but since this is a TV site, let's talk about the things in TV that I'm thankful for--things besides the murder that the poor Detroit Lions are going to face at the hands of the Tennessee Titans today.
Netflix has announced the a new set top box that will let you watch any video that you can stream from the web site. The Netflix Player by Roku is a $100 box, plus your Netflix subscription fee. You don't have to pay anything extra to user the player.
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