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mrhollender

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Disc-less Netflix on PS3

Up until now, using Netflix on all three consoles, the 360 was the obvious winner.  The interface is snappy, no disc to mess around with, and it seems to gradate the quality depending on connection speed at a smoother pace than the other two.  This week, however, the PS3 (and Wii, but it is really not powerful enough to contend with HD video, so we're going to drop that one off right here) released a new app-version of the Netflix streaming service.  This new version parrots some of the features in this fall's Xbox update, including search.  I have not tried the new Xbox version, as I was late to the Beta Invite program a few weeks back.  The new PS3 version, I will say, is excellent, and may well supplant my use of the service on Xbox.  The layout is much more like the website, allowing a brief view of several categories at once, and an appealing side bar menu that you can go back to at any time.  This side bar includes the Search and Genre (an excellent addition) tabs as well as the Recommended for You tab.  Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems the old version and the Xbox version just gave you a selection of Netflix's obscure personalized micro-genres (e.g. "Witty 19th century crime dramas", "Surrealist Action-Adventure Cooking Shows").   
 
The search function is more helpful than I would have guessed.  This basically makes the "Instant queue" function more like it should, as a queue of movies you'd like to watch, rather than a storage container for movies you would like to have the option of watching, even if the likelihood of this happening is slim (I'm looking at you Star Trek 1-6, and you Lost Seasons 1-5).  Now I can put stuff in the Instant Queue the same way I would with the Disc Queue, basically a reminder of films I have not yet watched. 
 
I am aware that some folks love the Xbox's quick movie flipping, in the "fwip fwip fwip" manner, but for me this scrolling method works great for one person, but is nauseating for anyone watching.  The PS3 version shows you a handful of movies, and brilliantly, you can hover over a title and view a one-sentence summary, as well as the star-rating.   
 
If anyone else has used the new Xbox version and it addresses these things, do comment, but here's to better Netflix integration across all platforms, and here's to hoping the Canadian streaming-only plan will show up next year.

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