Instant Watching on Mac/Linux/X360/PS3 Status

The short answer is:
Intel Mac: probably around Nov/Dec 2008
PowerPC Mac: unknown (probably never)
Linux: probably mid-2009
Xbox360: Now
PS3: unknown (maybe never)
Stand alone set-top box players: On May 20th, the Netflix Player by Roku was released for $100, more expected in Fall 2008.

They are testing Intel Mac support via Silverlight 2 with a few people right now and it should be available to everyone by the end of the year. In the meantime, there is a workaround for Intel Macs by installing Boot Camp, Parallels, and Windows. There is a similar workaround for Linux.

As far as I know, Netflix has nothing planned that will allow them to support PowerPC Macs.

On April 21st, Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) said that they have deals with 4 companies to produce hardware for Instant Watching. LG was previously announced to be one of the 4.

On May 20th, the Netflix Player by Roku was released for $100, more expected in Fall 2008.

On Oct 14th, Microsoft released Silverlight 2.

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Permalink Reply by Baff on November 20, 2008 at 8:34pm: I have a PS3 and to the best of my knowledge there is no way yet to stream movies directly from Netflix to the PS3. However, you can use PlayOn to stream wirelessly from Netflix to a Windows computer then wirelessly to a PS3 to the TV.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by zwei on November 21, 2008 at 1:27pm: Unless you've upgraded to the new Silverlight player. Man, what I would give to get native Netflix support on my PS3...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TJ on December 6, 2008 at 10:11am: I'm apparently a double-minority where Instant Watching is involved...I'm just now able to stream Netflix to my Intel iMac, but now I can't seem to take it one more step to my PS3. Bummer.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Spindaddydad on December 6, 2008 at 11:47am: I'm pretty sure that the PS3 issue is one under the control of Sony.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jessica on November 20, 2008 at 10:01pm: I'm very happy that they finally got IW out for Macs b/c i might be getting a macbook pro sometime in the next couple months!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nathan on November 21, 2008 at 4:28pm: I have watched some IW content through my Xbox 360 on my Vizio HD set. I tried a supposedly "HD" program, and when I tried to watch, it said my quality was HD. That may be, but I didn't see anything that looked HD.

I also watched "The Grand" (love Herzog so I had to see it). The quality rating was the top one, but it didn't say HD (it wasn't listed in netflix as an HD program).

The quality on both the HD program I watched and the supposedly non HD program was near identical, if not even better quality on the non HD program. I'm not sure what's up with that.

Of course, I'm not trying to imply that the quality on either one was bad. In fact, I would say the quality was almost as good as watching an SD DVD on the 360. On a standard definition TV, I would think the quality would be nearly indistinguishable from a DVD. Quite amazing that I was watching a movie on my TV from the internet. Adding a movie to my instant queue on my laptop showed up in the Netflix pane on my 360 nearly instantly, and once I selected play, most content would start playback within 10-15 seconds. Very nice indeed.

Now I just can't wait to see how the HD content improves in quantity and quality. I'm thankful that netflix brought this functionality to the Xbox.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by William Kimberly on January 21, 2009 at 3:20pm: What about the Wii? is Netflix showing up on the Wii? Netfliix channel? Being so popular it would be an excellent way to get many new users on Netflix. Imagine, watch movies, TV series instantly on your Wii, it would be an instant boom! (with the proper marketing) I know there is problems with the Opera browser that only runs Flash 7. If there could be a Wii Channel for Netflix it would reach a broader audience.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Matt on June 7, 2009 at 8:35pm: It's now mid-2009, and we're still no closer to working Linux support, as far as I can tell. Even if you're willing to install the entire Mono/Moonlight framework just to get Netflix working, it still doesn't work (no support for the required DRM in Moonlight). There are no plans in the works by the Monolight team to make this work, either. So as things stand, it looks like a bait-and-switch: "Works now on Windows, with Linux support coming 'soon'!", then 'soon' never comes. Then, just as a slap in the face, suggested "workarounds" on various Netflix-related sites are usually along the lines of "use VMWare/Virtualbox". I.e. "you can get Netflix working under Linux, easy - just install Windows!"

With online distribution becoming ever easier, I'm moving most of my watching in that direction. Hulu has already replaced conventional TV, output from my Linux media center PC to the big-screen. But since Netflix can't seem to provide a working video service for Linux, it's slowly being replaced by the Pirate Bay, as there are no other [legal] alternatives. I wish that weren't the case, but as I utilize through-the-mail movies less and less due to the better convenience of downloads, Netflix is going to become unnecessary. Heck, if not for the fact that I can rip a DVD to my hard drive and immediately send it back, the slow turnaround time of snail mail would've already made it not worthwhile.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like it should be easy for a company of Netflix's size to transcode videos into a Flash-compatible format, and stream that via a Flash viewer as the fallback option (on systems without Silverlight). Hulu made Flash work just fine, so you wouldn't think there'd be a problem with the studios & DRM or anything. What gives?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Baff on June 8, 2009 at 11:47am: Sorry, I haven't kept up to date on Netflix's plans. I own a PS3, Wii and a couple PowerPC Macs. None of which seem to be likely to be supported anytime soon, if ever, so I gave up on reading every word that came out of Netflix.

As for Linux support, Netflix was always pretty wishy-washy about it. Sometimes it sounded like they were going to support it and other times it sounded like it would be 3rd party. The Roku has some sort of Linux code in it, so that sounded hopeful for you guys, but I guess not.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Matt on June 8, 2009 at 6:28pm: Yeah, I think Roku just coded up their own custom support, so unfortunately it doesn't help out those using Linux on other devices. :( Oh well.

The PS3 actually seems like it'd be a more "marketable" target for them to support, since I imagine that Linux users (without a spare Windows box) that want to stream Netflix are outnumbered by PS3 owners with no other means of streaming. But it might be harder from a development standpoint - I think that both Hulu and Sony had to go through several software/firmware iterations before Hulu worked properly on the PS3, for example, whereas any computer with a "real" Flash plugin works just fine.

I hadn't heard much about using the Wii for that kind of thing, though - can you use it similarly (Hulu/YouTube/etc)? That seems like it'd be really attractive, given its relatively low price: people who normally wouldn't spend the money on a "media center" box might start to get into online streaming.

It's annoying that we've battled for years to end the plague of IE-only websites, and now history seems to be repeating itself on the media front. :) Unfortunately it seems HTML5 might be too late to the game.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Steven Green on December 2, 2009 at 3:40pm: Is that supposed to be a joke?

Roku is a locked up box that happens to use a linux kernel. As far as we linux desktop users are concerned that is less than nothing. Instead of no support, netflix mocks us by proving it is possible and that they will not provide it for their paying customers.; ▶ Reply to This