I'm a big fan of Netflix's "Watch Now." If you aren't familiar with the feature, it lets you stream (some) of Netflix's rental content to your computer or a few other devices. I use it with a $99 Roku Digital Video Player. You can also access it via an HD Tivo, certain Blu-ray players, or Microsoft's Xbox 360, assuming you have a Gold Xbox Live account.
But I'm puzzled over the news that "Watch Now" has just been added to Windows Vista Media Center (see posts at cnet and Engadget). I don't understand why we need this capability; it just seems very limited to me. First, it only works on the Vista version of Media Center (though presumably Windows 7 support will be coming soon). But more significantly, it doesn't work with Media Center Extenders (Extenders are what allow you to get content from your Media Center PC to your TV, without hooking the PC directly to the TV). This means you have to watch on the PC. But you can already enjoy "Watch Now" on the PC; that's where the service got its start!
I suppose there's some additional convenience in that you don't have to drop out of Vista Media Center to access "Watch Now". This is a bigger deal if you do have a PC hooked to the TV always running Media Center and controlled only via remote, but I have to wonder how large that audience really is.
I can't help but feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle here. If you're a heavy Media Center user, please leave a comment and tell me why this matters!
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
Esther Schindler
If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly
claird
SVG a graphics format for 21st century
pasmith
Take Chrome OS for a test spin
Sandra Henry-Stocker
Solaris Tip: Have Your Files Changed Since Installation?
jfruh
Android fragments vs. the iPhone monolith
mikelgan
What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive
Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
HA!
That is an excellent point. I've been trying to figure out how this could be beneficial to a WMC user...to no avail. You're right on the money, Peter!RE: Watch now
The only possible benefit to me, and the reason I've spent past hour trying to put Win7 MCE on my spare harddrive was the ability to control the Watch Now playback with the MCE Remote Control.Well for one thing ......
Well for one thing it fixes a major problem I (and many others) have been having with the new Silverlight player.When using the new silverlight viewer in a browser , users with dual monitors can not watch a movie on a second monitor while working on the first. Any attempt to use the main monitor takes the netflix viewer (on the second monitor) out of full screen (just as flash player does).
With this new MCE viewer, along with the help of a small program called "The Maxifier" (which fixes MCE's own dual monitor problem of creating a bounding box for the mouse when full screened) netflix can be watched in full screen once again.
I was thinking of canceling netflix and this new MCE application has been my savior !