In case you needed another company to choose from when selecting your next set top box for streaming Internet video content directly into your 50" HDTV, consider Netflix. The DVD rental king is making another somewhat preemptive strike in the movie rental industry to retain its rather large presence in the market, beating Blockbuster to the punch. It's only somewhat of a preemptive strike, however, because TiVo, Apple, Moxi, Sling Media and others have begun moving in this direction already, presenting more competition than Netflix would like to deal with right now.
Even though I don't have much time to watch more than one Netflix video per month, I am a bit disappointed with Netflix's current Internet streaming options for viewing videos on demand. It's not really a quality issue, but more of a disappointment with the feature set and options available for this service, so I can't say that the presentation of a set top box fixes anything on that end.
Do I Need Another Device In My Entertainment Cabinet?
And considering other set top options out there, like Apple (which may, in fact, be teaming up with FOX) and Moxi, the Netflix set top is pretty limited to one thing: movie rentals. One thing I find particularly difficult to sell to a large consumer base is an extra device for a service that's limited to a sole function. According to USA Today, it's being reported that Netflix's set top box will need to be priced at about $100 with a $12 per month subscription in order to make it worth the company's while. I don't love Netflix that much--do you?
