Netflix Set-top Movie Player

NetFlix announced the release of a new set-top movie player today. Previously, anyone with a NetFlix account costing $8.99 or more per month could stream unlimited full-length movies to their computer. This box will allow you to stream them directly to your TV. The box costs $99, and after that you’ve only got all the movies you can watch displayed right on your TV for $9/month. It looks like the only down-side is that while a large number of movies are available for streaming, there are almost no new releases available. If NetFlix upgrades their streaming selection in the future, this will be an awesome service. It would be cool if they could incorporate Hulu into it too, for a wider selection, but that seems unlikely.

Hulu now open

Hulu, a site by NBC, opened today (via LifeHacker). You can view full-length episodes from some of your favorite TV shows and also some full-length movies. Currently, the TV shows seem to just be a conglomeration of whatever was available on the individual shows’ websites. I’m hoping this service continues to grow and expand to include more episodes and many more movies. I’m also curious about how speedy and reliable the streaming is.