Nintendo Wii Scores Netflix… But Why?

A

admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
Nintendo Wii picks up a new feature, Netflix streaming. The biggest question here is ... why? We hope Mario and company hasn't changed the gaming first philosophy that made Nintendo the most successful console game system of the current generation. Perhaps Nintendo is just bending to market realities and seeks to be more competitive against its pricier competition.


Discuss "Nintendo Wii Scores Netflix… But Why?" here. Read the article.
 
Z

Zaluss

Audioholic
DVD quality streaming @ 480p.

Xbox 360 is still top but combined with a noisy machines (Falcon at and earlier at least), paying additional for Xbox Live Gold PS3/Boxee/Blu Ray streaming becomes a better choice for HD.

I'm curious about how the Wii will turn out for quality and options.
 
Ares

Ares

Audioholic Samurai
The Wii is meant for the casual gamer so adding Netflix IMO is a waste of time, PS3 and 360 are more geared to the hardcore gamers who want the ability to use these 2 consoles as a media server. Netflix on a Wii is like THX certification on speaker cable.
 
GlocksRock

GlocksRock

Audioholic Spartan
They should have added DVD playback capability to the Wii if they wanted people to use the Wii for movies. But I suppose since Netflix only streams with stereo audio, and since the Wii doesn't support surround sound, it's not that bad of a match, especially since you can get component cables for the wii, so you can at leat have 480p output.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Makes sense to have a door for a dedicated theater that has soundproofing, but I am sure I can live without the "certificaton".
 
MapleSyrup

MapleSyrup

Audioholic
THX Door?

Hey Wade. WOW, $1,500 for a door? california's wasting its money on green stuff. They should subsidize THX products. Whoahoo!!!
 
MapleSyrup

MapleSyrup

Audioholic
Two Christmases ago Mother bought the kids a Wii. Yes, the Mrs. and I were stunned but, whoahoo!!! This last Christmas Mother got us the $9/mo Netflix account. Whoahoo!!! This post Christmas Nintendo's brought the best of those two worlds to us.

Whoahoo!!!
 
ivseenbetter

ivseenbetter

Senior Audioholic
I think this makes perfect sense. Now the kids can stream their Dora the Explorer episodes to their own TV in the bedroom and I don't have to buy them anything extra to do it. Oh, and the kids don't care about 1080p. They are kids.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Actually, I've been streaming Netflix on the PS3 and if the source was good, the stream looks pretty decent. Not high def decent, but DVD decent and for the stuff that I tend to stream, it is fine.
 
gonk

gonk

Full Audioholic
I don't have a problem with this move. The Wii isn't a video powerhouse, but we're talking about streaming video - not exactly the end-all and be-all of video sources to begin with. It's a convenience for existing Wii owners and I doubt that Nintendo had to expend much effort on their end to get it implemented. My wife would likely be interested in using it with our Wii.
 
B

BGLeduc

Junior Audioholic
I was happy to see this, although we surely will not use it very often. Movie streams and/or downloads hold very little appeal in my household due to the poor quality. But, once in a blue moon, it would be nice to have the capability.

I have an Xbox 360 in the rack, but as we are casual gamers at best, having to pay for Gold is a non-starter. Personally, what I would like to see from this move would be for Xbox to move Netflix down to Xbox Silver to compete, not that I expect that to happen anytime soon.

Brian
 
Ares

Ares

Audioholic Samurai
Netflix wins on this one being that the Wii out sells both the PS3 and the 360 almost 2 to 1. So a very smart move on their part but if this gamble pays off expect to see some big numbers from Netflix this might be the final nail in BB's coffin.
 
Wayde Robson

Wayde Robson

Audioholics Anchorman
Some will definitely benefit. A friend just read the article and informed me that he happens to have a netflix account already and a Wii, he's excited at the prospect of streaming movies at no additional cost to him.

It's a good move, nothing wrong with it at all. Except that, as mentioned, streaming movies aren't exactly a glorious audio/video source.
 
HookedOnSound

HookedOnSound

Full Audioholic
Previously Netflix has been limited to the U.S. Will this still be the same?

Last time I checked Netflix (a long time ago) was not available in Canada or anywhere else.

I have a Wii hooked up and it would be great because I've got two young kids and my local video store has a lousy selection of kids movies. I was hoping to get more choices through Netflix as well as avoiding as those silly looks when I'm renting those Barbie movies!
 
Ares

Ares

Audioholic Samurai
Previously Netflix has been limited to the U.S. Will this still be the same?

Last time I checked Netflix (a long time ago) was not available in Canada or anywhere else.

I have a Wii hooked up and it would be great because I've got two young kids and my local video store has a lousy selection of kids movies. I was hoping to get more choices through Netflix as well as avoiding as those silly looks when I'm renting those Barbie movies!
Netflix had plans to expand to Canada and the UK in 2005 but either it has been postponed or canceled not sure. Zip.ca is suppose to be the equivalent to Netflix which is based in Canada.
 
HookedOnSound

HookedOnSound

Full Audioholic
Zip.ca had announced something back in June 2009 about an online streaming service for their members but as far as I know the service rollout is on hold. :confused:
 
Last edited:
Ares

Ares

Audioholic Samurai
From what I have been able to read they are having a hard time getting past some technical challenges. They don't want to leave any of their members out of the loop, it's easy to set-up the members that live in cities but for those that live in rural areas is where the problems begin.
 
Wayde Robson

Wayde Robson

Audioholics Anchorman
Too bad Canada has been regulated into the consumer-tech backwaters. It's a prime example of what happens when a government wants to "protect" its citizens with regulations.
 

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