Netflix for PS3

As of a couple days ago, Netflix is finally available in Canada! Once I found out that you get the first 30 days completely free, I signed up. I've had my PS3 for a couple years now and usually illegally download my movies and TV shows. Mostly because I'm limited in my cable TV options and I really hate commercials, as well as watching a standard definition picture on an HDTV. Now that Netflix is available on my PS3 (it's disc-less too!) in the near future I may not have much use for my current PC.




Netflix has been available in the U.S. for a long time now, at least a few years that I'm aware of. I've had friends on my Playstation Network friends-list who have told me how great a service it was, and that I should get it as soon as it becomes available. Well it's here finally, and I snapped it up right away. So far I've been watching movies, documentaries and television shows for hours now. It's 3:00am and I just had to write about it.

To sign up all you need to do is go to the website here and fill out an application thingy. You'll need a credit card, but you won't be billed anything for 30 days. You get a completely free trial period to test out the service and it's very easy to set up. It didn't take me longer than 10 minutes I don't think. Once the trial period is over it's only $7.99 a month from there on out. I was looking to see if I was limited in what I could watch but I didn't find any such thing, $7.99 is insanely cheap for what you get. Watch whatever you want, when you want. Oh, also, it was really easy it set up on my PS3, it only took seconds to download the Netflix application, then just sign in with your username and password and you're set to go.

The application is accessible from the Video tab on the PS3's XMB. Once you load it up you wait maybe 15 seconds and you're in, ready to pick what you want to watch. When you set up your account for the first time you're asked to finish a couple quick questionnaires about what you like to watch. When I loaded up Netflix for the first time I noticed that it had "Suggestions For You" which were obviously compiled from the questionnaire. It wasn't the most accurate to begin with, but once you start watching a few things this list grows and I've found a couple things worth checking out that I would have probably missed without this system.

So far I've watched a movie called Animals, which was actually pretty damn good for a low budget movie. "After sleeping with Nora, a sexy stranger passing through town, Syd Jarrett undergoes a supernatural transformation that plunges him into a new reality and sparks conflict with Vic, Nora's angry ex-lover who behaves more like an animal than a man." It stars Nicki Aycox, Marc Blucas, Naveen Andrews (which is why I watched it in the first place), Eva Amurri, Andy Comeau, and Bart Johnson. I really enjoyed it for my first movie, it was also in very good quality, much better than a regular DVD, but not quite as good as a full HD blu-ray. I didn't expect anything on here to be HD though so it was a welcome surprise.

I checked out a couple quick shows in the anime category and might try some again some other time. I did however watch a few really good documentaries. Some movie length and some episodic. Like "What are Dreams?", "Future Weapons", and "Becoming Human". I have yet to finish that last one as it's getting really late. I then started using the search category and I've found some crazy things! How about some Cheech and Chong in HD? Crazy right? Or the actor that plays Commander Riker on Star Trek TNG, he plays a time traveler who goes through different time periods and explains biblical events in a PBS special. I just found that pretty funny, and it made me realize how great Netflix could be.

There are so many foreign films and genre's that I would have never thought about browsing, but some of these movies are sure to be worth checking out. Lots of them in HD with 5.1 Dolby surround sound too. How about Machine Girl? This seems like a very low budget Japanese movie, perhaps made by college students or something. I'm gonna do my best to find a clip from this movie to post below. I only watched the first 10 minutes or so, but it was extremely funny and quite shocking at times.

As long as Netflix updates their catalog at a decent rate, then I could see myself paying for this service for years to come. They have television shows like Madmen, Monk, The first 48, Heroes, and Highlander. If they add some more big name shows like Chuck, Lost, Supernatural, and Dexter, then I will be even more impressed. As it is tonight though, right after the Canadian launch, it is certainly worth a measly $10 a month. I feel like I'd be losing money if I canceled, really. Too great of a deal to pass up.