Sony movies trickling into Xbox 360 via Netflix Instant Watch

Last week, we reported that Sony had balked at letting its movies and TV shows be streamed by Netflix to Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console.

That was then. Now it seems that a number of titles from Sony and its subsidiaries have found their way to the 360 via the Netflix Instant Watch service -- but not all.

"A few titles that were not available last week have come," said Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey, who declined to say which of the several hundred movies affected are now viewable. "But others have not."

Netflix streams about 12,000 movies and television shows free to its subscribers, who can view them on their computers or on their TVs via devices such as the Roku Netflix Player, TiVo digital video recorder, Samsung Blu-ray player, LG Blu-ray player and the Xbox 360. The Sony titles were available on all those devices except the Xbox 360.

"We hope to have all available titles on all devices soon," said Swasey, who declined to specify a time frame. Just not instantly.

-- Alex Pham

Photo by Netflix

Comments

[Comment Guy]

Download set top boxes and download portable players ( ie Blockbuster, Apple TV, VUDU, Hulu, PS3 ) are a thing of the past, only to be replaced by the technology used by service providers such as MyTVPAL ( www.mytvpal.com ) and Netflix ( www.netflix.com ).

Service providers like MyTVPAL offer 1080p instant blu-ray streaming video on demand and live tv over PC Player, set top box, and I think they will have a portable device out soon.

Keep in mind also that P2P is on the way out because it uses to much bandwidth, both up and down, and is unstable. I'm refering to service providers such as VUDU ( a one trick pony ) and Joost, who latest foray into portable video on demand on the itouch / iphone is frezing, buffering, and providing a horrible user experience even on my 6mbps connection.

Streaming video is a great addition for live tv an video on demand, but at the end of the day only those technology companies like Matrixstream ( www.matrixstream.com ) will be able to support the best quality over the best effort public internet when doing a triple play ( set top box, PC Player, and portable device ) because currently where Netflix requires 8mbps for 720p streaming, MyTVPAL can support 720p streaming a 3mbps and 1080p blu-ray streaming at 6mbps.

Keep the above in mind when considering the average person today in the United States and Canada has between 1.5 - 3.0Mbps. So While MyTVPAL can service the majority of broadband users today in the United States and Canada in both 720p and 1080p today it will be years before Netflix can service a fraction of the broadband population in high definition instant video streaming.

At the end of the Day service providers such as Netflix and Blockbuster will have evolve to provide a service like MyTVPAL or suffer the consequences of not providing low bandwidth, instant playing, 1080p blu-ray high definition platform that we've come to expect from MyTVPAL ( www.mytvpal.com ) on PC Player, set top box, and soon I would imagine, portable player.

Comment Guy