Which Console Should I Use to Stream Media / Netflix To?

I have seen that my previous article on the Yahoo contributor network were popular when it came to streaming and watching footage on your home gaming console. It has been some time since then, and the Xbox has made some improvements on their Netflix usage, and I have also been able to utilize Netflix on my Wii and PS3.

I have had issues with streaming a variety of content between these devices, and I have also recently received an Ipad to throw into the mix. I have gone through a variety of resources such as Tversity, Hulu, Netflix and the media server sharing abilities between my wireless back up hard drive and the gaming consoles hooked up to my entertainment center. I guess, overall, I would like to store all of my information on the wireless hard drive, and stream it to my television via either the PS3 or Xbox 360, but I have been having constant issues to this day and I have been working on projects like this for a few years now.

This all started as I foresee the future of home entertainment will be us utilizing our televisions as home media servers. We need to be going further and further away from these amassing piles of VHS, DVDs and Blu Rays, and instead just keep the digital version of the file so that it can be stored, compressed and accessed whenever I want it just by a push of a button. I am really seeing the potential with this concept through my Dish DVR receiver, which has the ability to store hours of standard and high def broadcasts. I can organize my recordings into folders, and if I run out of memory on the hard drive, I can plug in another external hard drive via a USB connection.

But what about home movies, stuff I downloaded off the internet or other videos that I may have created? I like to utilize the programs of Picasa and Photostory 3 in order to make slide shows of my student work and it creates a video file when it is completed. I have tried to stream these from the Mybook World to my Xbox and PS3 but both of them do not support the file format. This also happened after I ripped Blu Ray movies from their digital copy via Itunes, and these will not play through the PS3 or Xbox with the same message. There was issues with clips that were recorded with the Flipcam were not supported on either of my devices, but clips off of my wife's little digital camera were streamed without fail to the devices.

But what about other movies? Perhaps you are some of the millions that subscribe to Netflix, and you are unsure what route to go. If you read my previous article on Netflix and the Xbox you may have seen how much the two have advanced in the past year since I wrote it. I also have a bit more working knowledge of it, now that I have other devices to watch Netflix on. The things that I have been griping about have now been fixed. Users across all platforms can add movies to their queue within their console, instead of organizing and maintaining everything through a computer. You can now search for videos within the Netflix app and they have drastically increased their storage capabilities. Before I was really confined to just the hundred or so movies in my instant queue, but now, Netflix offers up other categories for you to browse through, just like on their web site (such as Recommendations, New Releases, or by the various film genres that you love so much).

Each console does essentially the same thing, but there are a few differences as far as online access goes. For example, if you own an Xbox, then you must have an Xbox Live Gold member account (which will be about twenty to twenty-five dollars per year) in order to access Netflix, but you also have to pay your Netflix membership, which, at its lowest and just for streaming videos, will cost you about eight dollars per month. Although I must say, that the user interface on the Xbox is a lot smoother than the other consoles. But one upside to those consoles is that the Wii and PS3 do not charge additional online services. In fact, I would highly recommend that you pay the additional two to three dollars per month via Netflix, and get Blu Ray movies sent to you and really utilize your PS3.

Throughout the duration of writing this article, I have been simultaneously trying to download and install the Tversity media server onto my backup hard drive via my laptop while I watch the "how to" video on You Tube on my PS3 (the web surfing aspect of the device is the best!) I have had several issues between the server and my network, and I feel that I am putting more time into it than getting back. I probably wouldn't have these issues if I had installed Tversity directly onto my lap top instead of the back up hard drive, but then I would have to have my computer on at all times. SO, In a nut shell, I would recommend that users go for the PS3. It can easily interface with my media server by automatically detecting it, and it has a pretty decent web surfer. I would stay away from Hulu and Tversity and just use the web sites such as You Tube or follow the direct website of your favorite tv show if you miss an episode. Unfortunately, the PS3 web surfer does not support all web sites (personally found issues with Spike and the CW) but hopefully the folks at Sony will be upgrading their Flash players to resolve this issue.

References:

www.netflix.com

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/joinlive?xr=shellnav