Bye Netflix!
We signed on with Netflix last summer sometime. During the time that we have been members, its been embarrassing how few movies we have watched for what we have paid in membership fees. Except viewing the Ken Burns baseball documentary (which I really enjoyed), I think we could have bought the movies that we watched for nearly the same price that we paid in membership dues.
Today, Netflix announced that they will begin offering downloadable movies. This is really one feature that I had been waiting for. I figured that if anybody could do this well, that Netflix would be able to. There have been rumors in the past of them partnering with someone like Tivo to provide a direct-to-tv experience from two companies that demonstrate that they understand customers. The details of the download feature were very disappointing. It will be to computers, not to televisions and will be for windows only. Sounds to me like just another movielink/amazon unbox product.
It feels right now like there are two solid options for incorporating internet media into your home entertainment center: xbox 360 and apple tv. Of these two, only apple tv supports independent media such as podcasts.