The 360 set a high bar of prettiness
Two weeks ago, Netflix was announced for the PS3 and I got a little excited. I assumed it would be coming at some point in the future, like that far away month of November. Then November was here, and my disc was in the mail. ‘Hooray!’ I exclaimed, like a kid on Christmas morning running down the stairs in his footed pajamas.
(Okay, so I didn’t yell ‘hooray,’ but I do own a pair of footed pajamas thanks to my wife and internet specialty stores)
The main thing I was excited about was the prospect of being able to add to and shuffle around my instant queue. Here’s what got me going:
Members can use the Netflix Web site or navigate directly on their PS3 systems to add movies and TV shows to their Queues.
Reading it again now, that doesn’t say what I thought it did. It only promises the same functionality that the 360 has. So, imagine my disappointment when I popped in the disc and was presented with the same feature set as its Microsoft counterpart, but less useful as I needed a disc in the drive.
It's a tad on the slanty side, but this is the PS3 UI
Not only that, but the UI is nowhere near as polished. They couldn’t very well use the NXE’s visual style, so what they did was perfectly reasonable and serciceable but lacking the same finesse. Instead of box art vanishing off into the distance there’s a horizontal spread of them, with tabs at the top to change categories.
I can’t tell you how the video quality is, as I took the disc out once I realized there were no benefits to it over what I currently used. I was a little worried about HD streaming over the wireless connection, but I’m sure it’s good quality.
Does this mean that Netflix on the PS3 is useless or otherwise crappy? No. Not at all. When I say that I’m going to use the 360 interface still, it’s because I think it is moderately easier on the eyes, but that’s because I own a 360 and a Gold account. If you’re without both of those, by all means get the free and still decent looking option.
It’s a moot point anyway, most likely, because as long as I’m telling you overly specific information about my entertainment setup I’ll go ahead and say that I bought Windows 7 Ultimate yesterday (an easy thing with a university affiliate discount) and will be hooking our PC up to our TV, so I’ll get our Media Center, Netflix and Hulu all in one place.
In the end, this is free. Even if you don’t plan on using it, if you have a Netflix account get the disc anyway, because why not?
