Soon, owners of the Nintendo Wii will be able to stream movies from Netflix to play on their TV. So when you get tired of the boy or girl beating you at Wii tennis, you can go to your Netflix que and instantly watch a movie about tennis. (Anybody remember Chad Lowe’s star turn in Nobody’s Perfect?)
A tennis movie
That means I’ll have two Internet-connected devices attached to my living room TV that can stream Netflix movies. The Insignia Blu-ray player, purchased for $129 before the holidays, also streams movies. Other Blu-ray players, the Microsoft Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and several new HDTVs currently stream Netflix movies.
All of this makes one wonder: How much longer will I need that cable box? How long will it be before HBO, ESPN and other cable staples start delivering content through new methods? (You can watch movies and TV shows on your computer of course — even live games through ESPN360.) The technology is already in our living rooms, waiting for more content providers to offer a streaming service. In the U.K., the BBC already streams shows through the Wii.
Netflix started to stream movies through the Roku box about two years ago. The Roku is a stand-alone device — think small cable box — that connects to the Internet and a home Wi-Fi network to stream movies to your TV. Netflix quickly followed that with hardware partnerships from makers of game consoles and DVDs. Netflix announced at the recently concluded CES show that it hopes to offer its streaming service on more than 100 devices by the end of this year.
Netflix sees a future where it will no longer mail DVDs to customers. A Netflix exec told me for a Chicago Tribune story in November 2008 that “DVD rentals by mail have a window of about five to 10 years. After that, the majority of movies will be delivered directly to your TV set via the Internet.”
The Netflix streaming service still has content issues — it currently streams less than 20,000 movies or TV shows as opposed to more than 100,000 DVDs it ships via mail. Also, the Wii service — announced today and available soon — cannot deliver movies in high definition. Other devices can.
It’s probably a good idea that Motorola is selling its cable box division. The question is, who would want it when HDTVs, DVD players and gaming systems are making those boxes obsolete?
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I own 2 devices that download movies directly to my TV – and I suspect you do too. Hint: Not a computer. http://bit.ly/6ibOT4
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