Content Distribution: Getting The Data To The Den

Continued from ‘Bandwidth Upgrade = Netflix Rocks, But…‘…

Although Netflix has seemingly done a solid job addressing the problem of delivering streamed video to the home, I’m still lukewarm on the service’s chances of attracting the masses (in spite of the admitted rights-infringing potential for possession permanence). Why? The company hasn’t yet made it simple to extend that video stream beyond the router at the premises boundary all the way to a viewer’s eyeballs. Look at my early-adopter setup, for example. To get Netflix content to my television, I either rely on an expensive and cumbersome wireless transmitter/receiver combo, or I direct-tether a PC to the display.

With all due respect to the ISM band- and UWB-based advocates, most consumers aren’t going to spring for the added cost and complexity of standalone transmission and reception gear. OEMs (with the possible exception of folks like Sony, who have a long history of successfully selling customers interoperable albeit proprietary single-vendor equipment suites) aren’t going to integrate wireless connectivity until the current "standards" morass consolidates. And, in spite of valiant solution stabs such as Microsoft’s Windows Media Center Edition and Apple’s Front Row, the penetration of PCs into the living room has been limited…with the possible exception of folks living in few-room homes and apartments, and in college dormitories.

Netflix and LG Electronics announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that they’re collaborating on a set-top box for streaming Watch Now material to the television, but I’m not enthralled with this idea, either. Many consumers already have too much gear tethered to their displays; asking them to free up the funds and home theater cabinet space for yet another expensive piece of hardware will go over like a lead balloon, I fear. Therein why the promise of the MyNetflix plugin, coupled with persistent rumours of a Netflix partnership with Microsoft and/or Sony, has me so intrigued.

MyNetflix runs on the Windows Vista (but unfortunately not Windows XP) version of the Media Center Edition O/S. It enables you to access various aspects of your Netflix account both directly from the PC and through a LAN-connected Xbox 360 game console (via its integrated Media Center Extender support). At the moment, those ‘various aspects’ do not include the ability to stream Watch Now material via the PC to the console. Developer Anthony Park noted in a comment posted February 11th:

I am working on a different approach to do the video streaming which will allow it to be played over the extender, but I have a few issues to work out with it. No promises at this point…

The Watch Now-to-game console direct playback potential is currently constrained, I suspect, more by business considerations than by technical challenges. The Xbox 360 has a larger installed base than the PlayStation 3 and would therefore seemingly be the preferable platform from Netflix’s standpoint, but Microsoft also has a competitive movie rental service in the Xbox Video Marketplace. Sony, in contrast, currently offers video trailers through the PS3’s PlayStation Network, but not (yet) full movie downloads. Will Netflix’s distribution negotiation efforts succeed with either company (or both)? Here’s hoping so; stay tuned.