watch netflix free in Windows Vista

[dock98]

I realize I may be putting the cart before the horse here. After all, I could spend two to three blogs specifically talking about how cool I believe the new Netflix Watchnow feature is. First they break the mold with their revolutionary model for DVD rentals - a model which has all of the other major rental retailers scrambling to keep up - and now they take it one step further by allowing us to download movies directly from a very large (I think the largest) video collection online - for free (one correction: it is free with your DVD by mail subscription, which can be as low as $4.95, which I still think is a great deal. Thanks to Albert for catching that). I'm not the first to say it, but it is new services like this that I believe will eventually bring the downfall of DVDs, and makes the whole "Blu-Ray" revolution seem irrelevant. "So big deal," you say. You've already heard about this and you, like many others, are taking advantage of this great new service already. What's so special? Well, I'll tell you:

Until recently the only way to take advantage of the Netflix service was through your computer with all of the clunky interface issues that come with it. Even if you had a computer connected to your TV, you still had to exit out of Media Center's beautiful ten foot interface and squint your eyes at the OS/browser as you surfed clumsily towards the Netflix site. But now, thanks to Anthony Park this problem is solved. Mr. Park took up the flag of past coders who have tried to build a Netflix plugin and completed the task. This plugin is awesome. It let's you do everything you would normally do through your vanilla Netflix account, only now you can do it from the comfort of your couch with your Media Center remote. This includes such tasks as: Viewing your Queue, getting recommendations, adding movies to your queue … and (what I consider the Apple TV killer) using the "watchnow" feature. It even works through Media Center Extenders … so you can watch these movies from anywhere in your house!

As Netflix's online library continues to grow, I think lots of folks are going to wonder why they're paying >$3 a movie when they can get them, and TV shows like Dexter and Heroes, for free. Right now, if you HAVE to have the latest release for download, Netflix is not the place to get it.

But enough of my postulating … let's talk about how to get it.

heres how