September 2, 2010

• Is it fair that you can’t use Netflix on the 360 unless you have a paid XBOX LIVE GOLD account, when the other consoles get it for free? No it isn’t fair. Yes it’s Microsoft’s right to do this, and no it’s not the end of the world that you can’t use Netflix on a free silver account, but I’d still honestly not defend their position on this.

  In general, we all should just look at that Gold membership as a simple means to play online games on xbox, and just treat all the other extras as what they really are… extras! No headaches with that line of thinking, especially since it’s clearly not changing anytime soon. In terms of social interaction with online gaming on a console, the xbox 360 is still undisputed king, so the costs count towards that experience.

  Me on the other hand, I have recently turned off my automatic renewal to my Gold membership that I’ve had for 7 years. Simple fact of life is that as the years have passed, I honestly hardly ever go online to play anymore. There have been times that I’ve literally gone without playing online for months. I’ve only really used my Gold membership this past year to play Street Fighter IV online and Netflix. Was that worth $50 a year to me? Is that worth $60 a year to me? Yeah, the price hike, even if it’s not THAT significant of a hike, has made me decide to try being a silver member after my Gold runs out.

  I may be able to live without online play, but I want an easy media box for Netflix still. Which leads me to this question…
  Between these two Netflix capable devices below, which one should I get?

  Roku HD Player – $70
  or
  Panasonic DMP-BD65 Blu-Ray Disc Player – $120

  I’m leaning more towards the Roku HD Player, but having a Blu-Ray player handy wouldn’t be a bad thing I guess (no, I do not own a PS3). Now many of you are going to think I’m insane, but I’m honestly not planning to build a Blu-Ray collection even if I do get the blu-ray player. I’ve got a humongous DVD collection as it is, but streaming movies and TV shows via the cloud is the future, so I’m not dipping my feet into building yet another disc based media format that’ll go obsolete a few years from now. I’ll rent/borrow Blu-Ray’s from time to time, but that’s it.

  So now, let’s compare the Roku HD Player to five years of xbox LIVE Gold.

  5 years of Gold = $200
  5+ years of Roku HD Player = $70

  Now since we’re playing the price numbers game; come the price hike, in all honesty $5 a month for XBOX LIVE GOLD to do online play and Netflix is NOT a bad deal. If you go with the $40 GOLD deal that sites like Newegg has (stacked renewals max at 5 years per account), then that’s only $3.33 a month. Free is still a better price to pay for online play (plus extras); sure, but the price of GOLD is not as bad as some people make it out to be. However that $5/month (or $3.33/month) perspective is really the price of me using Netflix on the 360, with the ability to play online as a side thing. Is it worth it?

  In all honesty, if a future game comes out that I really want to play online with (3rd Strike, SF X Tekken), I may go back and get GOLD anyway. I only really play Super Street Fighter IV online (Don’t care for FPS online play), and the last time I played that was over a month ago. I’d like to have an alternative solution to stream Netflix to my HDTV for the time being. I already have my computer hooked up to my HDTV via HDMI, but the quality of the stream for some reason isn’t as good as LIVE, and I’d like the convenience of having a remote control for Netflix. The Roku HD player seems to be the solution for my current situation.

  With all that said, my Gold membership expires on Dec 27. The price hike happens Nov 1. I’ve got less than 2 months to convince myself to stick with xbox live gold to take advantage of the $40 deal. What will it be?

  • 7:48 pm
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