NetFlix on a game console?

[Dave Rickey]

NetFlix offers a streaming service (over the internet) for movies and some TV shows that runs on games consoles (XBox 360, PS3, and Wii). I was wondering if anyone had used it in an RV? I was considering getting a XBox with the 250GB hard drive upgrade, filling it with movies and TV shows, and using that for my entertainment (I'm also a huge geek, so being able to game on it would be an extremely nice bonus) as an alternative to paying Dish or DirecTV for service I'd use only a few weeks a year at most.

Specifically I'm wondering if I could load it up over my home network, and what (if any) connection it would need to make to access the content on the road.

--Dave

[Clonetrooper]

We Netflix all the time, at home and on the road. Use Wii, pc and Vizio at home, pc and Vizio on the road with a Mifi Wifi hotspot thru Verizon. Caneled our ATT Wifi. If there is a good verizon signal it works very well. Wii and Vizio player seem to work the best, probably due to video memory. Were looking at in motion sats, have manual, but no need for one now. Netflix sends you a Wii disc and presto magico, streaming on your tv. We don't watch much primetime stuff, but there is plenty to watch on Netflix. Some movies I could not find anywhere. For $13 a month. Our home sat bill was $90 and we used about 1% of it. Really like it.

[FlyingDiver]

Dave - You can't "load up" the XBox. It's a streaming service, not a download service.

Clonetrooper - you no longer need the disk for the Wii. You can go to the Wii Marketplace and download the app and it'll be stored in the Wii memory.

joe

[RickO]

We use Verizon air card with Cradlepoint router and were not able to get our Wii to connect to the network. After an extensive thread here on this forum it seems the consensus was that the Wii needed a "real" internet connection and the air card just wasn't going to cut it... but I guess YMMV.

Rick

[Abnmarine]

Another option I did was load several Blue Ray movies onto a 2TB external hard drive and then use a media converter made by Western Digital and a HDMI cable to play the movies on the TV. This doesn't require a computer either. Total cost was $200 and I have over 200 movies.

[Clonetrooper]

Thanks for the info Joe, my wife had downloaded it the day after my post and I didn't post this because I didn't think there would be much interest here but guess I was wrong, but now others will know. No wonder Blockbuster is going out. We netflix a lot.

Kelly

[John Hilley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clonetrooper We Netflix all the time, at home and on the road. Use Wii, pc and Vizio at home, pc and Vizio on the road with a Mifi Wifi hotspot thru Verizon. Caneled our ATT Wifi. If there is a good verizon signal it works very well. Wii and Vizio player seem to work the best, probably due to video memory. Were looking at in motion sats, have manual, but no need for one now. Netflix sends you a Wii disc and presto magico, streaming on your tv. We don't watch much primetime stuff, but there is plenty to watch on Netflix. Some movies I could not find anywhere. For $13 a month. Our home sat bill was $90 and we used about 1% of it. Really like it.

How many Megabytes do you consume in a month?

[Clonetrooper]

Will ask the electronics guru, Wife or Son, and let you know, proably alot because there is usually a movie or tv show going on multiple devices any given low homework night, still have young children at home. Only problem is we live in a normal, not high signal strenght area and the Mifi Wifi does not always stream as quickly as the device requires to run video without a buffering pause once or twice during a movie. Depends on the video device as I said earlier. Works very well while rolling down the highway, can be online and watch two movies at the same time on three devices.

[Clonetrooper]

Oh yeah the good thing, the way I understand it, is with the Verizon 3g to Mifi Wifi broadcaster you can pay for a month or hours as you need it, like the go phone. Not going to use it for the season, lets your time stop so you don't waste your money.
In other words no year to year contract.

[WindRVer]

You can "load up" at home, but not via netflix. Netflix requires an active connection to the internet. Most campgrounds I've been to cannot reliably support streaming content (but some can!). The alternative is one of the cellular connections, which seem to work most of the time.

Personally, I chose to take all the DVD's I bought and load them onto a large hard drive that I attach to my PS3 (formerly my Xbox 360, but the 360 got moved to the bedroom TV, so now it's the PS3). I can watch any movies I want via that hard drive.

Another legal option is to get the Apple TV. You can buy movies and tv shows via iTunes, and then stream them to your TV from your computer hard drive (also ripped movies in the right format). I believe the Apple TV also supports some sites such as Netflix if you are a member, and look for them to support sites like HULU in the future. (There are alternative devices to using the Apple TV that do the same thing and already support HULU, however, they may not be as easy to set up). The best part is the Apple TV is only 99 dollars.

For the cost of the 360 (~250-300), you can get a 2 TB hard drive (109.99 at office max) or 1 TB (75 at walmart) and connect it to a media converter (Western Digital has a decent one already mentioned) for about 90 online, and you're in for a little less.

If you want the Video Game aspect, I recommend the PS3. I have used my PS3 more than my 360. The PS3 has blu ray, can support playing content from a hard drive or flash disk, can have HDMI (1080p, Composite, or Component out (the new 360 or an old 360 elite will support HDMI, but not 1080p)

Sorry, I kind of went a little extra than just a straight answer to the question. Hope that helps some!

[Dave Rickey]

Thanks, you answered the question I should have asked, how to get my video entertainment on the road without a satellite dish. I'm bummed that you can't pre-load Netflix, it seems like a obvious feature. I might get it anyway, just for those occasions where I'm able to find a net connection that can handle it.

I'm getting a Droid 2 from Verizon, and I think I have the technical skills to defeat its monitoring (encrypted VPN to my home fiber-optic service ought to be pretty impenetrable to their packet sniffing) and get around the 5GB sharing cap. But I would consider the MiFi, or the pay as you go options, if they'd get the job done. Just don't want to pay $100+ a month for satellite service I'd use a few hours a month at most (always-on internet has other benefits).

Probably my best bet is just to add lots of storage to the low-wattage linux box I already plan on building into the system, and using it as a media streaming server for Myth TV or something similar.

--Dave