Oh yes. The time has come. Netflix has arrived to the almighty Xbox.
Now, previous to this Netflix/Xbox marriage, I already thought Xbox Live was solid. I’ve had a Xbox Live Gold membership for a few years. While it is true that in the recent years I haven’t logged as many hours as I used to (aka while I was in college), I still believe Xbox Live is a great service.
With this new addition of Netflix and the redesign of the Xbox Live Dashboard, I really think Microsoft and the Xbox Live team have really taken this product to the next level.
A few quick observations from my initial (and short) hands on experience with the new Xbox Live:
- New Avatars are kinda ripped off from the Nintendo Wii Characters (sorry)
- NetFlix movies start up super fast and I have a mediocre DSL connection
- NetFlix movies are of acceptable quality
- I would like to see the ability to browse Netflix movies right from the Xbox. Currently you have to use your Mac or PC to login to the Netflix website and make your selections there.
- New Dashboard layout will take some time to get used to. Things which were 1 click away seem to be a little more hidden now. (IE where do I turn on/off automatic Arcade downloads? Can’t find it!!)
- Will we see more games that make better use of the new avatars? Perhaps some MMORPGs?
- Saving original game disc data to the console for faster loading time is cool but I haven’t tried since the games are HUGE and my hard drive isn’t that big. Also, how long will it be before someone hacks this new feature? How long before that will it take Microsoft to patch it.
- Movie list looks a bit short and outdated, hopefully they work out those deals so I can watch newer movies.
I’m sure there are still some new features I have yet to discover and as I do … I’ll be sure to share. Hope you are also enjoying the new Xbox Live!