Microsoft and Netflix Announce Streaming Partnership for Xbox 360
It seems that just a few months ago there was a lot of buzz that Netflix was going to have a tough time surviving in today's marketplace. Since the buzz started we've seen Neflix creatively adapt and look at other opportunities besides just DVDs. Their partnership with Roku was brilliant and now Netflix and Microsoft have teamed up to allow Xbox Live Gold members to stream Netflix content over their Xbox 360 at no extra cost.
According to TVSnob:
The partnership was announced yesterday at the E3 gaming conference and will bring over 10, 000 TV shows and movies to members when it launches. Combining the new Netflix offerings with other Xbox Live content means the Xbox 360 will be home to more content than any other "connected" device on the market at the moment.
Now might be a great time to take advantage of the Xbox 360 price drop we told you about yesterday.
Microsoft Cuts Xbox 360 Pro Price - Unveils 60GB Xbox 360
A few weeks ago we told you Microsoft was going to drop the price of the Xbox 360 Pro. Well they also threw us a curveball by releasing a 60GB model. According to PCWorld:
We knew a price cut for Microsoft's mid-grade Xbox 360 was imminent, but who knew it'd be such a tempest in a teapot? Instead of a permanent price drop on its "Premium" 20GB $350 model, it turns out that Microsoft's merely discounting that model and selling it for $300 "while supplies last."
In its place, the company says it'll sell a new 60GB version for $350, identical to the 20GB version except for the 40GB bump.
So the big question is do you go after the $50 price break for the 20GB model or spend an extra $50 and get the 60GB model? Don't you hate tough decisions? Leave us a comment and let us know what your big decision will be.
TVersity Finally Launches Version 1.0 of Media Streaming Service
TVersity has finally come out of beta after several years and has launched as Release Candidate 1. If your're not familiar with TVersity, it's free software that allows you to stream media from your PC to multiple devices. While there are quite a few pieces of media streaming software out there, TVersity is a Truly loaded product. According to the TVersity website:
Play Internet audio, image and video streams and RSS/RDF/ATOM/OPML
feeds and podcasts on your TV, Stereo and other connected devices
The media server streams media from the Internet and delivers it to
connected devices via HTTP, the only protocol supported by those devices
The only truly universal media server (including support for the
Apple iPhone, Sony PSP, the Sony PS3, the Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, The
Nokia 770/N800 and many more devices)
Use the same server for home and mobile networked devices (with multimedia
capabilities) whether they support UPnP AV / DLNA or just have a web browser
or an RSS/Podcast Reader
Enter your own Internet URLs or select from the bundled Audio and
Video Guides
The media server is bundled with hundreds of TV stations from all over the
world and thousands of radio stations
Play your ENTIRE media collection on your connected
devices
Finally almost any content that plays in Windows Media Player can be
played on any of the supported devices disregarding their codec limitations
Automatic Real-time Seamless Transcoding
Let the Media Server automatically detect when a given media needs to be
transcoded for playback on your media player
Very fast browsing of your media library with unprecedented speed
for huge libraries (up to 100,000 items and more)
You can see the full (and very long) list of features here. At the great price of free, you got no reason to not give the software a try.
How To: Turn Your Xbox 360 into a Streaming Netflix Player
Looking for another way to get the most out of your Xbox 360? Well, if you're a Netflix subscriber you can stream "Watch Now" content over your Xbox 360. What makes this possible is a neat little add-in for Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center called vmcNetflix. Lifehacker.com has put together a nice tutorial on how to install vmcNetflix to your Xbox 360 and gives a rundown on what vmcNetflix does:
With vmcNetflix, you can watch, browse, and queue movies to your Netflix Watch Instantly queue all from your Xbox 360 or Vista Media Center. A highlight of the list of growing features listed on the vmcNetflix site include:
Stream WatchNow movies directly to the Media Center player.
Download WatchNow movies to a "Watch Later" gallery.
Support for Vista Extenders on both x86 and x64 platforms.
Support for Netflix Instant Queue.
Support for Episode listings.
Search for movies by keyword.
Browse DVD and WatchNow movies by genres.
Sort Gallery by Title, Year, or Star Rating.
View your queue, history, and recommendations.
Add, remove, move movies in your queue.
Supports DVD/Movie Parental Controls
Here's a nice little video from HackingNetflix.com that gives you more information about vmcNetflix:
Overall Lifehacker did a great job with the tutorial, so be sure to check out the link below if you want the complete details to stream Netflix over your Xbox 360.
First Hand Account of Xbox Media Streaming Experience
One of the things we are constantly talking about is how media streaming has yet to hit the masses. There are a ton of options out there, but it seems that the market hasn't really taken off just yet. We keep reading articles predicting that this is the year of streaming and whatnot. Well we have seen how well the AppleTV has done and it is clear that mainstream America is not ready for media streaming.
One area that has made some serious inroads into getting your average person into streaming media has been the newest generations of game consoles. They all have the ability to stream media from your local network with some being better then others. The Xbox 360 seems to be the best of the lot so far in dealing with getting your media onto your TV. A great piece of software that people have been using to stream their content to the 360 is a software product called Connect360. This has proven to be one of the better solutions to using the Xbox as your main media streamer.
We stumbled across a very interesting post about one persons dealings with taking the plunge and making their 360 their main streaming device. They provide a great first hand account of what you can expect if you decide to use your 360 as your media streaming device of choice. It is a very well written article and one that we think can help people to get a better grasp of what they have in store for them if they decide to go that route. You can check it out here.
Do you have an old Xbox system lying around the house collecting dust while you enjoy the splendor the the Xbox 360? Do you want a fully functioning home media streaming device, but don't feel like spending all that money to get one. Well here is your solution; grab that old Xbox, dust it off and get ready to enjoy a pretty sweet media streamer. In the old days in order to hack the Xbox to allow it to become a media streamer you had to do some pretty serious hacks whether they be hardware hacks or complicated software ones. Now those days are gone with the simple XBMC( Xbox Media Center ).
The new way to hack the box is by using certain games that people have found an exploit via a saved game. Once the hack has been completed you are treated to a pretty stunning interface that has just about all the functionality of the more expensive media streamers on the market. Lifehacker has a great article on how to unlock your old Xbox to achieve all of this.
There is also a large online community over at xboxmediacenter.com and detailed descriptions of what you can do with this new software over at their wiki. This is one of the cooler projects we have seen for taking old and obsolete hardware and really making it into something new and exciting, something that can be very useful and become the center of your streaming media world.
With all the high tech and fancy systems out there it is nice to see people working to make what many thought a dead piece of hardware a very viable alternative to multi-hundred dollar investments.
If anyone out there has one of these running at their place we would love some feedback as to what your thoughts are on it. How does it compare to other streamers you have experience with, how hard was the setup and what problems do you face with it.
Stream iTunes and Video from your Macintosh to your Xbox 360
Nullriver is the creator of Connect360, a media streaming software package that allows your Xbox 360 to stream content off of a Mac connected to your network.
It works by indexing all of your iTunes and iPhoto libraries and grants access to the Xbox. Then via the dashboard in the Xbox you can browse to your Mac and play or view any of the media you have opted to share.
Some of the nice features of Connect360 include:
Automatic updating of iTunes library as you add or subtract
Ability to sort by song, artist, album, genre or playlist
Updates your play count and play date in iTunes for songs played on the Xbox
Microsoft and Netflix Announce Streaming Partnership for Xbox 360
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