Have you done this? Wii and Netflix

[Chris in VA]

So we don't have cable, just regular TV, but we do have a Wii and a Netflix description. Dh ordered the special disk that goes in the Wii and then allows instant movies to come to the TV. We are having so much fun with it! Dd doesn't watch much TV as it is, but she enjoyed her first Mr. Peabody and her first Bullwinkle cartoons. We had to explain about Natasha being a parody of the old "USSR villian" seen in spy movies of that time.

There's not a ton available, but some of it is good stuff. Going to watch "Food, Inc." later this week! (And as I said in Aubrey's Pizza Thread, our lives are about to change because of it, I know! :D)

 

Has anyone else done the Wii-based instant movies?

[TravelingChris]

Yes. We just did this this week. We do have cable but so often everybody would rather see a Netflix.

[Rhonda in TX]

Oh, my word, yes! What's funny is how much DH is enjoying it. He has never been interested in Netflix before this.

[Jennifer in MI]

Yes!!!! We just got this and spent the afternoon yesterday in front of it. My excuse? It was COLD and rainy.

[hsmom3tn]

Yes! We got ours last week and have been loving it. It's like a new toy. :)

[Gratia271]

Definitely!

[mrs.m]

I've been watching Netflix the on the x-box 360 for over a year! LOVE IT! I'm glad they got it for the wii peeps!

[Tess in the Burbs]

we have it and yes, we love it! The kids love watching Looney Tunes which they have never seen before. Dh and I are using the Wii to watch movies. It does help make the overall cost more cost effective :001_smile:

[TxMama]

Can you watch unlimited movies with this?

[jg_puppy]

We just started this as well. Does anyone have some suggestions of things I should add to my queue?

 

Jan

[Chris in VA]

Can you watch unlimited movies with this?

 

Yes you can, but the selections are limited. "Hundreds of titles" is accurate, but a lot of it is not that great. But there are some gems in there!

Oh, and it doesn't "count" as a movie out--if you have the two movies at a time option, for example, you can still get two movie dvds in the mail. It doesn't count towards that.

[Night Elf]

Yes, it's very cool. We were watching Red Dwarf a couple of days ago. It's a britcom.

[Kari C in SC]

We just got ours. My dd is loving it. My dh was already using the streaming on his laptop, so he knew he would love it. I am just so so with it. As much as I know the cost of Netflix is better than going to the video store - I don't like searching for a movie when I don't know what to watch. I liked going to the new release walls and finding the movie I wanted. It is minor and I am glad they added this to Wii... I just wish they had more new releases and it was in a clear NEW RELEASE list that you don't have to keep scrolling through.

[Wendi]

From what I understand, you can browse movies on the Wii, right? So for now we are just sticking with our Roku. I don't want ds to have free range on Netflix. With the Roku, I load up the queue online, and he can watch whatever is on there.

 

As for what to add to your instant queue, here are some things that are on our queue:

 

various MST3K episodes

Dirty Jobs

Survivorman

Man vs. Wild

Emergency!

Clash of the Titans

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Doctor Who

The Princess Bride

various wildlife specials

travel/nature documentaries (just finished "Around the World in 80 Days" with Michael Palin)

Jurassic Park III

Rough Science

Mythbusters

Pink Panther cartoons

Leave It to Beaver

some Ken Burns documentaries

and a whole lot more!

 

I am thinking of getting into some of the series everyone else is watching, like "24" or "Lost". They are both on there.

 

Wendi

[Smurphygt]

We just started this as well. Does anyone have some suggestions of things I should add to my queue?

 

 

 

Hi all! I hope nobody minds a newbie jumping in. We just received our Wii disk in the mail and have really enjoyed it so far. Before we were using our HDMI cable from the computer to the tv which was a real pain because the sound didn't always work.

 

Some of the movies/shows we've watched recently are:

 

Jason and the Argonauts

Legend of the Seeker series

Terry Jones: Medieval Lives

Clash of the Titans

Neverending Story

 

My kids sometimes watch Disney shows and there's a whole series called Tall Tales and Legends that we keep meaning to watch. I have several documentaries on the list, but I'd have many more if Netflix would narrow down their categories a bit so it would be easier to find what would interest us. Eleven pages of historical documentaries becomes tedious to sift through. Overall though, we've been really pleased!

 

Stacy

[Julie in CA]

Our internet connection is too slow to really run it well, so every so often the movie stops for about 5 minutes to load another section. We're trying to view those interruptions as "intermissions".

 

One question I have though, is there more of an advanced search feature with Netflix, other than the regular main search box? I'd love to be able to browse all movies that are rated G or PG, but not PG-13 or R. Is there a way that I'm just too dense to figure out? :confused:

[Krista in LA]

We are loving the Netflix on the Wii! I think the kids have watched a bit too much on it this weekend, but I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon. We don't have cable so they have enjoyed watching Mythbusters, Survivorman, and Dirty Jobs without having to move the computer in there and hook it up with the hdmi cable. The interface is pretty nice, but we couldn't find a way to search on it. Did we miss something?

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

It is great:)

[Lizzie in Ma]

More bang for my $$ I love it!:D

[K&Rs Mom]

From what I understand, you can browse movies on the Wii, right? So for now we are just sticking with our Roku. I don't want ds to have free range on Netflix. With the Roku, I load up the queue online, and he can watch whatever is on there.

 

 

The main screen of the wii disk is you queue. I think there's a way to get up & down to some suggestions based on your queue, but it's not a total browsing capability like on the internet (at least not that I've found yet).

 

My girls are loving the Pink Panther, and dh & I have been watching Dirty Jobs & Mythbusters.

[MomLovesClassics]

There is something called playon, it also alows you to watch even more stuff. There is also quicksilver screen too I believe. We us playon as much as netflix.

[runamuk]

We just set ours up this weekend and are having fun adding shows to our queue. The kids were thrilled to see the newer Dr. Who episodes are available.

 

I would love to see more documentaries available, though.

[Chris in VA]

We just use the Wii remote up/down to find catagories and the side-to-side arrows to scroll "horizontally" thru the catagories.

Does that help?

[Guest rosebud1020]

We have both Wii and Netflix but have never done this. Can you explain how this works? I would imagine your Wii needs to be hooked up to internet, right? Very cool idea.

[Xuzi]

What kind of internet connection do you have for doing this? (Broadband? WiFi? what???)

[Night Elf]

see post below :) :)

Edited April 18, 2010 by Night Elf

[Night Elf]

We just use the Wii remote up/down to find catagories and the side-to-side arrows to scroll "horizontally" thru the catagories.

Does that help?

 

I so didn't know that! Cool!! It's still not as easy as typing in a title, but they recommend shows based on what is in my queue. Awesome! :)

 

Thanks.

[MomLovesClassics]

About playon, it is a one time fee, and sometimes they have a 2 week free trial. With playon, you can surf on the computer, and watch tv at the same time. You can even stream nerflix. I am not tech savy at all, but everyone else in my family is. You can watch some tv shows the next day. Here our tv hardly works, but the next day I get to watch 24. I am not sure what all is on it, because I don't watch much tv, and when I do, everyone else puts it on for me. We gave up our tv service, and my husband is addicted to tv, so if it can be found online he usually finds it.

[abbeyej]

We watch Netflix through the xBox. It works great, and while I wish they had even more, it's certainly great to have such a selection available instantly.

[BabyBre]

So we don't have cable, just regular TV, but we do have a Wii and a Netflix description. Dh ordered the special disk that goes in the Wii and then allows instant movies to come to the TV. We are having so much fun with it! Dd doesn't watch much TV as it is, but she enjoyed her first Mr. Peabody and her first Bullwinkle cartoons. We had to explain about Natasha being a parody of the old "USSR villian" seen in spy movies of that time.

There's not a ton available, but some of it is good stuff. Going to watch "Food, Inc." later this week! (And as I said in Aubrey's Pizza Thread, our lives are about to change because of it, I know! :D)

 

Has anyone else done the Wii-based instant movies?

 

 

We just got this set up, too, and it's great! I've had Food, Inc in my instant queue for weeks, but I just haven't been able to do it - pull my head out of the sand of denial! I'm planning on watching it tonight.

[Chris in VA]

We just got this set up, too, and it's great! I've had Food, Inc in my instant queue for weeks, but I just haven't been able to do it - pull my head out of the sand of denial! I'm planning on watching it tonight.

 

I just watched it, and actually, they didn't show as much as they could have, graphic-wise. I once saw a PBS show called "Meat" that was much grosser.

 

I do think, however, they made their point--and now I hate Monsanto. :D

[mom2abcd]

Thanks for posting that the software is available! I signed up to get word, but never did.

 

It looks like there are no parental controls for this and kids could be exposed to some nasty stuff.

 

Here are some suggestions I found:

My suggestions / concerns are adding parental controls so that I don't have to lock up the disc and adding a text search feature for the Wii via the Wii's built-in keyboard input or via the use of an external USB Keyboard.

 

Adding a way to contact you via your Netflix site would be nice too.

 

--

 

Please, please add captioning. Playon managed to do it for Hulu really quickly.

 

--

 

Without parental control, this will get little or no use. The RED disk is safely locked away for now :-(

 

--

 

The WII UI has a hole in it from parental controls.

 

The normal UI only allows access to movies on the instant Q. The new WII UI allows access to many movie queues including the recent history.

 

My current method is to use a password to control the movies that can be selected for watching. I set the parent level to PG. The kids only see PG movies on the list in the WII UI. If I want to see an "R" rated movie, I switch it watch the movie and switch it back.

 

With the hole in the security allowing "R" rated movies in the instant watch activity queue to be viewed even if the parent control is "PG", this prevents any workaround to the situation.

 

Netflix needs to recognize that the streaming content is shared by adults and children in the same household. I find it frustrating that they cannot recognize that kids live with adults.

 

The real fix is to allow the owner of the account to delete recent activity, even if its password protected. I have seen complaints in online discussions forums on this for several years.

 

 

--

 

This was a totally botched, completely unacceptable solution. Neither the Netflix profile setting for parental ratings nor the parental controls of the Wii allow enforcement of Ratings with the ability to override them...it's "nothing or all" (or what Netflix thinks you want to restrict viewing to).

 

For the Wii, they should have stuck to Instant Queue ONLY (like a ROKU or LG Networked Blu-Ray player), or had built into the application a parental password feature to enable the categories that are not part of the Instant Queue (including "recently viewed."

 

Having this "convenience" of other lists of titles other than the Instant Queue is total unacceptable when the only parental control for the Wii is to allow/disallow the internet access. i.e. you can keep your kids from starting the Netflix application, but once it's running they'll have access to whatever Netflix decided to throw into the categories.

 

Setting ratings on the netflix profile is unworkable since they are inconsistent about Not Rated/Unrated (if I select Family/Unrated, I can't watch A&E or History Channel program that are "NR" even if I have them in my Instant Queue).

 

I have an Xbox 360 hooked up via HDMI to the same TV and get the same category choices plus HD streaming when available. (Shame on MS for requiring "Gold" membership - they should provide basic instant-queue-only access for Silver member, and then could enable the enhanced categories and hopefully someday a search/browse feature as a Gold benefit...that's another rant for another board, though).

 

Anyway, the hope was that the Wii would provide my kids a way to watch the Instant Queue on the Family Room's big screen TV...might as well send the Wii streaming disk back now. Pity.

 

--

 

You can set a maturity level on the account, if you visit your account page there is an "Account Profiles" link, and you can edit the account to set the level. That will filter out movies from the recommendations that are shown on the web site and the TV devices, I think it also filters the rental history row shown on the TV, but it doesn't affect what you have in your queue.

 

--

 

Edit the Instant Watch queue so that you are comfortable with it and you feel that all the titles are suitable for the entire family. Move all of your grown-up stuff to another(!) profile queue that's dedicated to your adult Instant Watch titles. You now have them in your own queue and they can be seen only by you. You'll just have to queue them into your Instant Queue whenever you want to watch one.

 

--

 

I put a parental control password on my Wii so the kids can't acces the disk at all without that. Not a perfect solution but it works. Sort of.

 

--

 

Sorry, I should have been more specific on which parent control. I was talking about the control for Netflix itself. My solution is a workaround and a little painful, but its all I have figured out to do.

 

From anywhere on the the Netflix site:

1) On the upper right there is a link that says "Your Account & Help", click this link

2) On the "Your Account & Help" page towards the bottom left under the heading Preferences the last link will be "Account Profiles", click this link

3) On the "DVD Profiles Queue" page you should see your account with an "Edit" link towards the far right, click this link

4) On the "Your Account | Owner Profile" page, choose the maturity level you want.

5) Click the "Save" button at the bottom and you will return back to the "Your Account & Help" page with the new settings.

 

This will cause the user interfaces for both the Wii and the Netflix Web Site to only show movies for that level and below.

 

I generally set this to PG and leave it there. When I am looking for a movie for myself to watch I will go back to this screen and change the level. I then add the movie to my queue, watch the movie, remove it from my queue and then come back to this page and change it back to PG.

 

However, as I mentioned before once the movie is on your Recently Watched Queue it stays there regardless of this setting. The recently watched queue is visible and selectable from the Wii, so your kids will see these movies. It is also there from the Netflix Web Site, but the Wii puts it right on the TV. The nice thing was before Wii, it is not there from my TiVo interface. This allowed my kids to only view what was in their instant watch queue.

 

--

[RegGuheert]

 

Our internet connection is too slow to really run it well, so every so often the movie stops for about 5 minutes to load another section. We're trying to view those interruptions as "intermissions".

Julie, can you please tell me what type of internet connection you have? (If you have DSL, please include the speed, such as 765 kbps, etc.) I can use this as a indication of the minimum speed require for this service. TIA!

[BabyBre]

I just watched it, and actually, they didn't show as much as they could have, graphic-wise. I once saw a PBS show called "Meat" that was much grosser.

 

I do think, however, they made their point--and now I hate Monsanto. :D

 

 

I had never heard of Monsanto. I learned quite a bit. Now to get dh to watch it and begin our own food revolution!

[Chris in VA]

I had never heard of Monsanto. I learned quite a bit. Now to get dh to watch it and begin our own food revolution!

 

I know they sponsored something at Disney or Epcot, and it was wonderful.

[mommylawyer]

My husband gleefully waved the Netflix Wii disc in the air when it arrived in the mail - much like he did when he received the Netflix PS3 disc.

 

I think I lived off of documentaries from Netflix On Demand in the first 3 weeks after my youngest was born. By the way, the documentary on Chickens (by PBS?) is FABULOUS!!!

[Julie in CA]

Julie, can you please tell me what type of internet connection you have? (If you have DSL, please include the speed, such as 765 kbps, etc.) I can use this as a indication of the minimum speed require for this service. TIA!

You'll laugh if I tell you. :D

We live in a *very rural area*.

So technologically handicapped that even our regular phone service often doesn't work right. When we aked about caller I.D. service on our line, the phone company folks were laughing so hard they couldn't answer. There isn't cable within miles of us.

We use Clearwire, and it's one of the few ways to get Internet where we are.

According to Speedtest.net, our download speed is .97 mbps/upload speed is .99 mbps/ping 56 ms.

[Rhonda in TX]

We just started this as well. Does anyone have some suggestions of things I should add to my queue?

 

Jan

 

Endless Summer (surfing documentary from the 60's)

As Time Goes By (British tv series - very sweet)

Lie to Me (season 1)

[OnTheBrink]

Endless Summer (surfing documentary from the 60's)

As Time Goes By (British tv series - very sweet)

Lie to Me (season 1)

 

I just discovered Lie to Me! I love it!

[anotherbrother]

Mom2abcd -

 

I'm surprised out how frustrated you sound. Both our Wii and PS3 have a control so that you can enter your password before anyone has internet access.

 

My children also know what is an acceptable choice to watch and what might not be. The only reason I keep the password on is because they have accidently purchased things in the past. They didn't realize that you had to pay for OnDemand movies.

 

Streaming netflix or any tv show is also a fairly new phenomenon in the whole scheme of things, I'm sure that in the future it will be much more user friendly.

[Guest mindulous]

You should put Doctor Who, all seasons in your instant queue if you haven't seen it already. It is great for people of all ages with lots of humor, action, and more.:lurk5:

[Blessedwithboys]

We got our disc about a month ago, and we are all LOVING it!

[mom2abcd]

Mom2abcd -

 

I'm surprised out how frustrated you sound.

 

In my post I quoted a bunch of others' concerns and how they were managing things. We don't have Netflix although we are interested in it.

 

I thought others might like to see the options for "keeping it clean" so their kids don't accidentally see something that they might not be able to get out of their minds.