When the pairing of Netflix instant queue and the the new Xbox 360 dashboard was announced, I was more then a little excited. I have never had the Netflix subscription service, though I did subscribe to the Blockbuster plan which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I knew what to expect. Since I already had an Xbox 360, all I needed was the Netflix account.
This morning I hopped on the 360 to see if the new dashboard, sometimes called the New Xbox Experience, or NXE, was available for me to download. When I booted up it asked if I wanted to do a system update, just like I wanted it to. I clicked yes and around 5 minutes later I was all set. I also because a statistic because I signed up for Netflix today, after the update. I’m sure this will be a closely watched metric for them.
There are many new enhancements with the NXE, but the feature I was most interested in is the new Netflix Instant Queue. The instant queue allows you to watch movies, TV shows, and documentaries instantly on your TV through your Xbox 360.
So far my experience with the Netflix instant queue has been great. While I was in the other room adding movies and TV shows through the Netflix website, my 4 year old was in the living room watching all of them pop up on screen and was excited each time one popped up for him. Adding them to your instant queue is super easy and quickly done. The selection is quite a bit smaller then the full Netflix library, but there are many quality movies and TV Shows available to watch instantly.
Tonight I fired up the ol’ Xbox 360 and was all set to watch Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. If you have not closed down the article after reading that last sentence thank you. After a short 10 to 15 second quality check on my connection I was greeted with a status bar that looked like it was loading up. After waiting the 10 seconds for it to buffer, it was Pee Wee time. And there I was, watching Pee Wee Herman in near DVD quality streaming from Netflix to my 360 and onto my TV. I thought to myself, this is just the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
