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Netflix Is Now Sort of Kinect-Enabled

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Don't expect Minority Report just yet. Wait, is that on Instant Streaming?

So, this morning I used Kinect at home for the first time since around launch. That’s great. But I wasn’t using it with a game; I used it with Netflix. As Xbox Live guru Major Nelson noted on his blog earlier today, the long-awaited support for Kinect on the streaming service’s channel is now live, allowing Kinect owners to pick and choose movies, and fast forward and rewind content without a controller. Voice is also thrown into the mix, too, so prepare to talk to your TV like crazy men do.

The support, as a whole, is extremely limited. For starters, you’re restricted to the suggestions tab, which whittles down your hands-free content options if Netflix doesn’t have your interests pegged. Also, in this lone menu, you only get a total of four movies to choose from per tab. You’ll need to wave your hand around to get to another set of four, and then another, and then another. 

Pretend this is the suggestions queue and then whittle down the options.
== TEASER ==You can use your voice to pick your content, too, by saying the number of the selection. In the actual movie or TV show, you can tell the content to pause, fast forward, stop, or rewind and tweak the speed of that even further by telling it to go faster or slower. 

This probably sounds a bit familiar to you. This support is very similar to the original Kinect UI experience, which has you pushing through menus with your hands and stating flat commands.

The takeaway I get from this is the same takeway I got from using Kinect with most of the games released so far: it works, but it’s not an ideal or incredibly precise method of control. In the specific case of the Netflix app, you need to pick up a controller to browse through your Instant Queue or do anything that you would normally do, so I’m sort of at a loss as to a practical application here. I suppose it’ll be nice to scream at my Kinect to fast-forward, but I very rarely re-watch or blaze through Netflix content.

So... I know I won’t be replacing my controller with my fist in Netflix anytime soon, but hey, it’s there and it’s free. That's always a plus.
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28 Comments
Posted by BradNicholson

So, this morning I used Kinect at home for the first time since around launch. That’s great. But I wasn’t using it with a game; I used it with Netflix. As Xbox Live guru Major Nelson noted on his blog earlier today, the long-awaited support for Kinect on the streaming service’s channel is now live, allowing Kinect owners to pick and choose movies, and fast forward and rewind content without a controller. Voice is also thrown into the mix, too, so prepare to talk to your TV like crazy men do.

The support, as a whole, is extremely limited. For starters, you’re restricted to the suggestions tab, which whittles down your hands-free content options if Netflix doesn’t have your interests pegged. Also, in this lone menu, you only get a total of four movies to choose from per tab. You’ll need to wave your hand around to get to another set of four, and then another, and then another. 

Pretend this is the suggestions queue and then whittle down the options.
== TEASER ==You can use your voice to pick your content, too, by saying the number of the selection. In the actual movie or TV show, you can tell the content to pause, fast forward, stop, or rewind and tweak the speed of that even further by telling it to go faster or slower. 

This probably sounds a bit familiar to you. This support is very similar to the original Kinect UI experience, which has you pushing through menus with your hands and stating flat commands.

The takeaway I get from this is the same takeway I got from using Kinect with most of the games released so far: it works, but it’s not an ideal or incredibly precise method of control. In the specific case of the Netflix app, you need to pick up a controller to browse through your Instant Queue or do anything that you would normally do, so I’m sort of at a loss as to a practical application here. I suppose it’ll be nice to scream at my Kinect to fast-forward, but I very rarely re-watch or blaze through Netflix content.

So... I know I won’t be replacing my controller with my fist in Netflix anytime soon, but hey, it’s there and it’s free. That's always a plus.
Posted by Chirag4

YAY

Edited by Presto

Wow, that's sort of lame how limited it is.

edit: you son of a bitch

Posted by allenibrahim

Main thing this article did: Made me check to see if Team America really is on Streaming, realize it's not, and rage.

Posted by CoheedFavorHouse

i'm quite enjoying not having to keep my controller on me. i'd much rather yell.

Posted by isles

Woop?

Posted by Krakn3Dfx

Just tried this.  Why did they even bother?  Better to just ignore requests and save face rather than implement it and have it be useless.

Posted by This_Dude

wow,  that's really terrible,   there's absolutely no need for this if you are limited to the suggestions tab.   the movies found there are almost never a reflection of things you like.

Posted by Vonocourt

Don't have Kinect, but that four movies at a time thing is really off putting. I have 233 in my queue.

Posted by iam3green

wow seems pointless to put that if you can only put in suggestion tab. they should let you do everything just without a controller. i don't have netflix account, so i don't use netflix.

Posted by MrKlorox

Haha you use a controller to navigate netflix? The 360 has an IR port. Most universal remotes work on it.

Using a controller to navigate a video service is dumb.

Posted by Xpgamer7

Sometimes netflix glitches on me and skips an episode or rewatches one. I have a near perfect completion rate and I don't want to spoil it. Still the 4 movie thing kinda sucks. I have 500 movies in my instant queue.

Posted by bko

Boy, is Microsoft all in with its Kinect support or what? Superb job, boys. You got your sales so you no longer care.

Posted by Wolverine

I'm pretty happy about this. There is something nice about being able to use voice commands to pause and play the show I'm watching.

Posted by chickdigger802

who cares. Give a few months and I'll be dancing my ass off to control Netflix on my pc.

awesome pointlessness. The best kind.

Posted by CowsWithGuns

Here's a better solution to not using a controller.  Buy a cheap 20 dollar universal remote and program it to work with your xbox 360.  Now you don't have to speak to your xbox or have a controller connected to it!  I just don't see the point of kinect yet....

Posted by Pitta
@CowsWithGuns said:
"
                Here's a better solution to not using a controller.  Buy a cheap 20 dollar universal remote and program it to work with your xbox 360.  Now you don't have to speak to your xbox or have a controller connected to it!  I just don't see the point of kinect yet....
            "

Who has wired controllers?
Posted by teh_destroyer
@Pitta said:
" @CowsWithGuns said:
"
                Here's a better solution to not using a controller.  Buy a cheap 20 dollar universal remote and program it to work with your xbox 360.  Now you don't have to speak to your xbox or have a controller connected to it!  I just don't see the point of kinect yet....
            "
Who has wired controllers? "
haha, i broke all mine :).
Posted by UncleBenny

can we hack the kinect SDK so that it rewind the film back 7 seconds and hit pause whenever it hears the sound of pee hitting water?

Posted by Sjupp
@UncleBenny said:
" can we hack the kinect SDK so that it rewind the film back 7 seconds and hit pause whenever it hears the sound of pee hitting water? "
Does it take you 7 seconds to get up, go to the bathroom, unzip and then piss?
You are either a ninja or live in a very small house.
Posted by detectivepbert

this is pointless and major nelson is a total dumbass

Posted by James_ex_machina

So with Natal I would have to do 10x the amount of work to pick a movie I don't want to see. 

Posted by lumberingjackal

Great... where are the games?

Posted by Aslan186

Everyone on here has serious entitlement issues. Do you know what I did last night as I was watching a movie on Netflix. I told my Xbox to pause so I could get a drink and it did it! On my way back I told it to start playing again, and it F&^*ing did it! No more trying to hunt down the remote from the couch cushions or any of that shit. So it is not perfect it is still amazing.   

Posted by lordofultima

KINECT-FLIX...hahahah

Posted by sarahsdad

Haven't tried it myself, but the idea of being able to play or pause by voice seems nice.

Posted by Shuborno

I was infuriated when I heard about the limited gesture support until I used this for myself.


What I've noticed with Kinect in general is that menu navigation is actually one of its worst features. It will always be faster to select movies with your controller. Dance Central is the only implementation of competent menu navigation that I've seen so far (and even that lets you just use a controller if you want).

The voice control is where it's at. I have a new daughter and it's already proven extremely convenient to simply tell my Xbox to pause when my hands are tied up taking care of her.

I don't think MS gets a pass on this - it's a lazy design for them not to have figured out how to get the entire library controlled - but the update is useful in the way I was hoping: hands-free Netflix control.
Posted by Positrark

Someone needs to find a video on Netflix where a person says one of the commands besides play, e.g. 'pause', and see if that makes the application react.