Netflix streaming purportedly hitting Nintendo's Wii next

Mmhmm. We see precisely where this is going. First came Microsoft's Xbox 360, then came the PlayStation 3. Now, the beast that is Netflix's "Watch Instantly" is coming to Nintendo's Wii... or that's the scuttlebutt, anyway. According to StreamingMedia, an undisclosed source close to the project has confirmed that the Big N is currently testing Netflix streaming on the Wii, and that it'll be rolled out to the public "very soon." Our initial reaction is to think that "very soon" will translate into "before the holidays," though we all know that only time will tell. But hey, when you've been waiting for this to happen since March, patience comes naturally.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2009 5:50PM]

Well you can forget about HD streaming on the Wii... but I can see why Netflix would want to target Wii owners, given how many of those toys are in peoples homes right now.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2009 9:08PM]

Okay, so it won't be in HD. So what? This service is all about convenience more than anything else. If you are oh-so-uptight about HD, then rent the Blu-ray version and (horrors!!) wait for it to show up in your mailbox or go out and buy one of the other methods of streaming HD signals.

I guess I shouldn't expect much when people care so much about how they **look** wearing 3D glasses in the privacy of their own home.

[nrb Posted Oct 28th 2009 10:04PM]

"Okay, so it won't be in HD. So what?"

Seeing that a lot of people won't pay the extra few dollars for a Netflix Blu-ray subscription, they can't really complain about the Wii not being able to do HD.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 29th 2009 7:45AM]

"I guess I shouldn't expect much when people care so much about how they **look** wearing 3D glasses in the privacy of their own home."
That's not the only reason people don't like wearing the glasses to get 3D. Personally, I don't like them because everything gets blurry the second you tilt your head a little off axis.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 29th 2009 5:47AM]

Wii has not business on engadget HD .. Since um .. not HD

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 29th 2009 5:48AM]

Not ? .. um no is the word i was looking for

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 29th 2009 7:49AM]

I'm pretty sure this is old news and was reported a month or two ago - the screenshot looks rather familiar.

In any case, the "It's not HD!" crowd needs to calm down a little. I'm pretty sure most X-Box 360 users who have the feature do not stream in HD anyway (simple bandwidth issues put paid to that), and it's also worth noting that Nintendo has an HD version of the Wii waiting in the wings, the question isn't "Will they release it soon?" but "How soon, will it be in 12 months or 24?" With sales still through the roof, Nintendo has no incentive to release the HD version early, but time will tell.

I'm still waiting for the elusive "All you can eat buffered downloads" service though, so I can have something of moderate quality that doesn't require an Internet connection that isn't available to me. We watched a movie (Transporter 3) on Amazon VOD recently, which is Flash (H.264 + AAC) based, and the damned thing looked worse than a DVD despite a 3Mbps connection. I suspect Amazon assumes logic along the lines of "Anyone who wants SD needs to be sent data at 1Mbps, regardless of connection speed, Anyone who wants HD needs to be sent data at 4Mbps, regardless of connection speed", but the results really don't work. I hope Adobe can iron out the kinks, or else Microsoft can be a little more forthcoming with Silverlight and stop relying on their fanbois to port it to Ubuntu (which they can't do because Microsoft's DRM remains proprietary.)

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 30th 2009 6:40PM]

Fake