Has anyone tried this? We are looking for options to have when we drop our cable next month. My son seems to think that we will have to buy a wii app to use it, but the website doesn't say anything about it. It just says you must have broadband. Anybody heard any pros/cons?
We use netflix for the wii, yes you will need a broadband internet connection and you must request a free streaming disk from netflix. Other than that you are good to go. Oh, you must either have a wireless router or a special adapter for the wii. That's it. BTW...we love the streaming on the wii, I am always getting stuff for the boys to watch on there, and dh and I will sometimes get a movie or two...it's also good for getting TV shows. Just be warned that not the entire netflix library can be streamed.
You request the Wii disc and Netflix will send it to you (to KEEP, you don't send it back and it doesn't count as one of your three movies.) Whenever you want to do View It Now on your TV, hook up the Wii, put the special disc in, and Voila! Movies on your TV!!! We love it!!! (There are a lot of educational documentaries on View it Now. Make sure you watch the Beaver documentary. It think it's "The Biggest D@mn Movie You'll Ever See' -- I thought it might be a joke movie, but it was a very good documentary and the boys talked about it for weeks.)
We currently have wi-fi and the wii is hooked to the internet. Would I still need a router or adapter?
I can't find where to request the DVD. I just get a free trial page. Do I have to sign up for the trial to get the disk? We planned to do the free trial, but would like the disk first so we can take advantage of it from the start.
If you have wi fi and the wii is internet hooked up you are good. you already have the router I would guess. After you sign up for the trial you can get the disk...you'll get it in just a day or two. Netflix has amazing fast shipping. I Send a dvd back on Monday and by Wednesday I've got my new disk!!
We have both wii and xbox 360 but only use Netflix on the xbox. I have to say that I love having that watch instantly option. It is so cool! Just last night we had a veggie tales marathon, lol. When we move I'm not going to get cable...I think we're just going to go with the netflix! also...we didn't need a disk for the xbox, but not sure if wii works differently.
So how does this work? Is it like cable, then? Do you pay a monthly fee, or pay-per-view or what? And how do you know which movies are available and how do you "order" them?
It is a monthly fee. We have get 2 movies at a time unlimited and it's $13.99 a month. The view it nows that you can watch on your computer or Wii are NOT included in the 2 at a time so you can have 2 physical disks at home and still watch the view it now. There is a search on netflix. You can just type in the movie you want and it will pop up if they have it (they 99% of the time do have it). you can also just browse their library of movies. Then there's a button to click to add it to your cart. They will send you the first item in your cart. It's really easy. We watch through the Wii sometimes. That feature has only been available for about a month or 2. We just have WiFi and it works fine. We are thinking of cancelling our satelite too and just using Netflix and the computer to watch stuff.
We like it. We dont have cable any longer . Our monthly fee is $8.99 but we only get 1 dvd at a time. Which is fine with us.
We love it. We actually have the wii to stream at one house and a Blue Ray DVD (which will also stream Netflix) at the other. Personally, I prefer the wii. I find the interface simpler. I also like being able to use the Internet channel (free) on the wii to websites up on the TV screen, nice and big, so all the boys can see pictures of something we're studying. The BlueRay DVD player doesn't do that
We cut out our dish a while back and now just have Netflix. We got a Roku box to stream through though instead of using the Wii. (but the Wii disc wasn't out when we first signed up) I have a couple of post about it on one of my blogs http://theskinnywallet.wordpress.com/?s=netflix We pay $18/mo for 3 DVDs out at a time. Super fast shipping. Like someone else said, I mail a disk back to them Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon, I have the next disk in my queue waiting on me in my mailbox. I was really worried the kids would be mad about cutting the Dish off. But they still get most of their favorite shows instantly, and all of their favorite shows are offered on DVD, so it's not a big deal. I'll never go back to dish or cable. Ever. I do like having the Roku vs just using the Wii though, cause through the Roku box we get other 'channels' too. Netflix is just one of their channels. We also get mediafly, bliptv, pandora, and more. ETA: I've exchanged a few emails with a couple of people at the homeschool channel, and they are actually looking into setting THC up as a Roku channel as well. I hope they do, I would LOVE to be able to view THC on the big screen TV instead of just the computer!
I see, thanks! Say, $15/month times 12 months, that would be $180/year. That's way more than we'd be willing to pay! We'll stay with watching movies from Red Box!
Jackie, you can get the 1dvd at a time plan for only 9.00 a month, that's what we have! plus we can watch all we want on streaming in addition to the one dvd! So for us it's $9/month times 12 months $108 a year!
Jackie.. think about it this way, redbox is great but the selection is usually quite limited. To go to a video store and rent 1 dvd it's what $6 or more now? (That was how much it was at Movie Gallery back before we had netflix which we have had like 3 or 4 years now). For the cost of renting 2 movies (plus their late fees :roll we can have as many movies as we can watch in a month. As far as getting the Wii disk first.. you won't be able to get it till you sign up.. but don't worry, netflix is super fast, you should get it the day after you request it (or the 3rd day if it's after mail hours I think possibly.. but I know they get the disks we mail back to them at like 6am the next day usually so who knows how it really works for them). But if I mail out like today, they will get it tomarrow and on day #3 I get my new disk(s).
Yes, Redbox is limited, but they're $1 a film. So I'm thinking that's 9 films a month, way more than the two or three MAX my family watches. I guess it comes to what you're willing to spend money on, and in my family, there's things we'd rather spend it on. (And that does not mean I think any of you that DO are "wrong", it only means we have different priorities, which is perfectly fine :love:!)
I see it as a tool for school also.. about 75% of what we get from netflix is educational... you can't get that from redbox or the video store (thinking like the math series from the teaching company, the standard devients and all of the science and history documentaries we have gotten). There are times when I may have one of my disks for a month (either the kids really like it or there just wasn't time to watch it) and then some months we go through 6 movies in one week! We have the 2 at a time plan. It's also way cheaper than taking everyone to the movies (we took everyone to see the Christmas Carol in 3D.. yeah over $100 till the 6 of us got in, got popcorn (1 large with free refills each kid got a small baggie to put some in at a time), soda (again a large with free refills and we shared one cup) and a few small packs of candies because we had to have them too... we don't go to the movies more than once or twice a year! I don't see spending $75 a month on dish a big deal either, so it may be where our family priority lies?
Same here. ME and hubby had a DVD for 20 days before we watched it! LOL Our 3 year old usually watches his DVD every day/night for a week. Plus, the documentaries and educational stuff you can't find at red box and I can't find at our small town video store. The have leap frog, rock n learn, there is an ASL series I plan to use. Way to much for my 3 and 6 year old but I did notice while browsing the educational section that they had a huge algebra series and a geometry series as well. (I'm talking like 30 DVDs in the series) We're TV watchers for sure. So Netflix for us, I didn't look at it as wasting $18/mo (3 DVDs out at a time-one for me and hubby, one for each kid) That's only $216 a year. I save over $40/mo by switching to netflix and cutting off dish so I saved $480/year! (WOW!! I never calculated the yearly savings!!! LOL) I never did Red Box cause it's $1/night, and it's rare we watch a DVD the night we plan to. Plus I save gas, I don't have to drive to pick up or take back my DVDs and I'm not rushed to get them back before closing. I can't tell you at the times we had to RUSH out the door cause we remembered a DVD was due back that day-but we haven't rented DVDs in years, it just became too big of a hassle I guess. It's probably been 4 years since we used the video store. We started paying for premium movie channels instead. Once hubby lost his job we cut those off, then cut back to the most basic package, then eventually switched to just Netflix. But $216/year, our TV is on almost constantly, whether anyone is watching it or not. But a large part of the time, someone is. LOL And I'll tell you another thing I never even thought about with Netflix that I like. My kids can't watch anything on TV unless *I* put it there! I LOVE this aspect. If *I* don't add a TV show or movie to our instant queue, the kids can't watch it! I used to hate that my 6 year old would flip the channel and start watching a cartoon I didn't approve of (like Flapjack or spongebob, ect) Now, of course, as they get older, they'll figure out how to browse netflix and add what they want, but for now, it's a nice plus I didn't expect.
