Etflix

Netflix subscribers, if you’ve got an Xbox 360 and a Windows Vista PC, you don’t have to shell out for Roku’s Netflix Player box to get your Watch Instantly library on your TV screena”you already have everything you need. Using the free Windows Media Center plug-in, vmcNetflix, you can turn your Xbox 360 into a Netflix Watch Instantly box.

With vmcNetflix, you can watch, browse, and queue movies to your Netflix Watch Instantly queue all from your Xbox 360 or Vista Media Center. A highlight of the list of growing features listed on the vmcNetflix site include:

* Stream WatchNow movies directly to the Media Center player.
* Download WatchNow movies to a “Watch Later” gallery.
* Support for Vista Extenders on both x86 and x64 platforms.
* Support for Netflix Instant Queue.
* Support for Episode listings.
* Search for movies by keyword.
* Browse DVD and WatchNow movies by genres.
* Sort Gallery by Title, Year, or Star Rating.
* View your queue, history, and recommendations.
* Add, remove, move movies in your queue.
* Supports DVD/Movie Parental Controls

What You’ll Need

Now that you’ve got an idea of the end product, let’s take a look at the short list of things you’ll need to turn your Xbox 360 into a Netflix player.

1. An Xbox 360
2. Windows Vista with Vista Media Center (it’s included by default in Vista Home Premium and Ultimate)
3. A Netflix subscription
4. The freeware vmcNetflix plug-in

Step 1: Set Up Your Xbox as a Media Center Extender

If you’ve already set up your Xbox 360 as a Media Center extender, you can skip this step. Unless you’re already using your Windows PC as a Media Center powerhouse and have a tuner card installed on your Windows machine, chances are you haven’t had much reason to set up your Xbox as an extender. With vmcNetflix, you’ve got a great reason.

Microsoft already provides detailed instructions for setting up your 360 as a Media Center extender, so here’s the nutshell version. Start up your Xbox 360, head to the Media blade, and select Media Center. Since you haven’t already set up an extender, your Xbox will walk you through the setup process between your Xbox and your PC. The Xbox will generate an eight-digit code to authenticate the connection between the two. Then you need to fire up Media Center on your PC, go to Tasks -> Add Extender, and fill in the blanks in the setup wizard with your eight-digit code when prompted.