fabrhath yuannah clarinda

[Domenec Reynolds]

Thanks to the folks at Microsoft and Netflix, I've gotten the new Xbox 360 console upgrade and have started watching Netflix movies on my Xbox this morning. A couple gaming sites have been doing some reviews as well and have raised a bunch of questions, some of which I have already asked Microsoft and Netflix and will update this post if I get answers.

The new Xbox 360 console update, which will be release to the public on November 19th, includes the highly anticipated ability to stream Netflix content to the Xbox 360 console as long as you are a Microsoft Live Gold customer and a Netflix customer.

After downloading the new console update and then downloading a small Netflix update, you active the streaming functionality by entering a code from your Xbox 360 into your Netflix account via the computer. From there, you can add Netflix videos into your watch now queue and they instantly show up on your Xbox 360. Navigating through your movies is done by going to the Netlfix box in the "Video Marketplace" channel which takes you to an app that allows you to very cleanly and very quickly flip through the movies in your queue. The movies are represented by cover artwork of each movie and even when you have a hundred or so titles in the queue, the app is super fast. I would compare the experience to being almost identical to flipping through albums in iTunes using Cover Flow. The only major downside here is that movies still have be added via the computer first, before they can be played back on the Xbox 360.

Once you select a movie, you get a screen with details about the video and the ability to rate the content as well as the ability to start, resume or remove the video. When you select play, the app checks your connection speed and buffers the video. For me, the videos buffered very fast and I never waited more than about ten seconds for any video to start. That may not be the startup time for the average consumer though as I am on a 20MB FiOS connection. While most movies are in SD, Netflix has to date made about 300 videos available in HD, many of which are TV series and not actual movies. Watching the SD movies on a 50" plasma screen looked amazing and HD is really incredible. The quality of the stream is all based on your connection speed and I am waiting on Netflix to hopefully give me details on the encoding bitrates being used. But the bottom line, the video quality is really, really good and in my eyes, is DVD quality with no frame rate issues.

Netflix and Microsoft have clearly thought about the experience, the ease of use and the quality of the videos being delivered and overall, I expect users will be very happy. That being said, this hands on review leaves me with three main questions that will dictate how successful the offering will be.

For starters, what is the business relationship and model behind the new service? With three parties involved, Microsoft, Netflix and content owners, whom is paying whom to make all this happen and how will money be made? I know this is a new service to start and hence, a clear business model has not yet been established. But over time, one will have to emerge.

Second, does the availability of getting movies on the Xbox 360 now mean that more content owners and in particular, major movie studios, will start giving Netflix the rights to encode and deliver more first-run movies? Hopefully so, but they still control the content and have a big say in the success that the Netflix service will have.

I recently purchased an Xbox and I must say, considering that have yet to acquired a sports game, that I am very impressed. I got the Xbox 360 pro (with the 60gb hard drive) and this allowed me to take full advantage of the recent updates for the New Xbox Experience (NXE).

There is a metric ton of videos, demos, pictures, community games, themes and online goodness that really extend the entertainment experience of the Xbox. The interface is really intuitive and looks great in 1080p.

Netflix Instant Watch is a really significant addition and adds a really solid value, if you are in fact a Netflix subscriber. The only problem with Netflix Instant Watch is that there is a really limited movie list and it can take quite a while to find a decent movie for your Instant Queue. The HD movies streamed consistently without interruption and the picture quality was pristine.

The other problem is that you cannot add movies to Instant Queue directly from the Xbox, you have to go online via a PC, but the instant queue will update almost immediately. There was an announcement of a Netflix app for Windows Mobile so this should relieve that bottleneck (or maybe I could create a Media Center app).

The only real unresolved disappointment was the poor performance of Windows Media Center. While it only took a few minutes to connect to my home PC, once I got it up and running the controls were really slow (I mean in the order of 10-20 seconds per click). My network is running fine, it handles high def streaming with ease. So right now am I assuming there is some contention between the various apps that can share data from my Vista PC (Zune, Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center).

We often think of Adam Sandler as a guy who stars in wacky comedies about dopey guys in absurd situations who, somehow, have gorgeous wives. But in the last few years, he's begun to branch out, This year's The Spaceman is the latest example, but Uncut Gems is Sandler's standout. As a New York jeweler with a gambling problem, Sandler's Howard Ratner has one last chance with a bunch of dicey bets to save his own skin. If you want to have a panic attack for over two hours, this is your best bet.

If you're a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, don't miss this one. Despite the "Tim Burton's" that appears before that movie's name, the film itself was directed by Henry Sellick, who also directed Coraline and James and the Giant Peach. There are very few directors working with stop-motion animation these days, and Sellick is a master. Wendell & Wild is the story of a 13-year-old girl named Kat who helps two demons make the jump to the mortal plane in an attempt to reunite with her dead parents. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele reunite to voice the titular characters, and the flick has one of the best punk and ska soundtracks you'll find anywhere.

Space travel is one of the most incredible and dangerous things humanity has ever done, and we have our share of historical tragedies to match. Apollo 13 retells the story of the near-tragedy of the titular mission after an electrical short caused an explosion, severely limiting the crew's access to oxygen and power. The film, directed by Ron Howard, stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, and Ed Harris.

Mitchells is one of those animated movies made to be enjoyed by the whole family--something parents can laugh at while their kid watches it for the thousandth time. The movie follows a young aspiring filmmaker named Katie on her way to college. After her father pushes her into a last-minute road trip, a tech entrepreneur who definitely isn't based on Mark Zuckerberg accidentally kicks off an AI takeover. Only the (self-admittedly) weird Mitchell family (and their dog/bread/dog/bread/dog) stands between the AI and total world domination.

Released six months apart, Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2 were initially intended to debut as a single movie. Director Quentin Tarantino split the flick into two parts to avoid cutting scenes. The story follows a woman known as the Bride (Uma Thurman), out to take revenge on her former comrades, a group of assassins. The movie is an homage to martial arts and samurai, grindhouse, blaxploitation, and spaghetti western films, and has all the important elements for that. Whether you tune in for the story or the Quentin Tarantino of it all, it's still a killer way to spend four hours. There are tons of cool fights in both movies, but the Bride's fight against 88 swordsmen, and then her duel against O-ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) are two standouts.

1984 was a killer year for movies, including Ghostbusters, The Terminator, David Lynch's Dune, Footloose, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, and more. That year also marks the birth of another slasher movie icon, the dream-walking serial killer known as Freddy Kreuger. His clawed glove is responsible for some of the most memorable kills in slasher movie history, including Johnny Depp's death by water bed and the original spinning room.

The Sting is the quintessential caper movie. Starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman at the height of their stardom, the movie follows two con men trying to separate a mob boss from his money with a complex plan-within-a-plan scam. The twists and turns are as fun now as they were in 1973, when the movie was released on Christmas, ranking in huge numbers at the box office and the Academy Awards alike.

The talking bear Paddington travels from Peru to London in search of the big city. He finds a welcoming family and a determined taxidermist who wants the unique specimen for himself. Both this film and its sequel (which is not currently available on Netflix) are heartwarming little movies that you can put on and just feel the love.

This neo-noir crime film stars Australian actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce, who were relatively unknown at the time, alongside Kim Bassinger, Danny DeVito, and others. It centers on the intersection of the corrupt Los Angeles police department of the 1950s and the scandal magazine Hush-Hush. Each officer has secrets to reveal as this movie twists and turns up to an epic final shootout.

The four-part Hunger Games trilogy (we know what we just said) is also available on the streaming service; only last year's prequel film, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, is missing. You can take in the full adventures of Katniss Everdeen from when she volunteers as tribute for the Hunger Games--a lethal battle royale that pits the children of the 12 districts of the nation of Panem against each other for the enjoyment of the elite--to the finale when she brings the whole government crashing down.

90f70e40cf