Videos: Netflix Instant Streaming Disc for PlayStation 3 in Action

[PS3 News]

Recently many users have received their Netflix Instant Streaming Disc that began shipping a few days ago.

As mentioned previously, the disc is required to use the Netflix steaming service on the PlayStation 3 until 2010, when a Firmware update will take its place.

Below are several videos of it in action, the first is courtesy of otimus via YouTube with the other being from JoyStiq.

To quote from the video's caption: "If there's any stuttering in the video, it's not netflix or the PS3, but my Junky TV Tuner I'm using to record. I don't think I got any stuttering, however. We'll see!

Connection speed: 3Mbps
Connection type: Wired Ethernet

Sorry for the lack of sound. I connect my PS3 via optical, and I was too lazy to go get an audio splitter to put it in the audio in on my PC to record audio from my tuner card. I have some real big issues with the PS3 netflix disc:

1) It renders video in 480p. The UI is whatever the res of your PS3 is, but video is downscaled regardless. It does NOT upscale.
2) Also, video ratio does not scale, like, for example, I have to set my screen to stretch for widescreen, and 4:3 for 4:3 content, else things are out of whack.
3) and the worst part of all, is the video looks a fair bit worse than it does on the 360 :x
4) Oh, and the UI sucks

I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt here, and assume it's due to using BD-Live, and next year's XMB version will be much better. Also, not shown here, but it does show new arrivals and recently watched."

More PlayStation 3 News...

[A2theC]

What do people expect, 1080P streaming? FROM NETFLIX?! HA HA HA, yeah you huh... they dont even like bluray. This appy is just a placeholder for when they can integrate it into the XMB. Unlike on your precious xbox, sony has to work with them to make things flow, and barely have a contract with netflix, mircro$oft worked on the xbox version before it got released as to make sure it was solid. It is just a tiny bit harder to code for the CELL than say a run of the mill desktop/xbox so I would expect some delay in quality until someone with some skill codes for the PS3.

[kcb79]

I really enjoyed using my Netflix disc this past weekend. I have a 360 and a ps3 in the living room (46" 1080p) and another ps3 in the bedroom (27" 1080i). I have been using the 360 Netflix service for about 2 months now after finally getting a gold subscription. I really don't see much of a difference between the overall experience between the 360 and ps3 versions, except for UI polish. The ps3 is just a little clunkier in its implementation, but works great.

Overall, I was satisfied with picture quality on the 27" TV, but I have not compared the two on the same TV. I had only one movie that needed to buffer multiple times, but I blamed it on my ISP. The time to start a movie was a little slower on the ps3 but not by much, but the movie coverart/thumbnails did take a bit longer to download.

If you are familiar with the button layout for watching DVD/BD on the ps3, the buttons have the same functionality with the Netflix streaming disc, except L1 and R1 do nothing (no chapters to skip). Square goes to the menu, and the triangle pulls up the video menu. I would like to see a "chapter skip" or 10 min block skip equivalent for faster scene selection.

Connection: 2-5 Mbps (depending on the time of day)
Type: Wireless G