Personally I think there is not an assumption in the world that is more wrong. HD content is the future of movie and television entertainment, it’s only a matter of time before the FCC follows through and removes non-digital cable and more companies jump on the high-definition bandwagon. For that reason alone this battle between Blu-ray and the Netflix HD service on the Xbox 360 is important to everyone who cares about this form of entertainment. I will look at the positives and negatives of each service and at the end choose a sole winner, based only on these points and my personal interaction with the service (which has ramped up over the past month for purposes of this article). This is only a comparison of the actual Xbox 360 Netflix service, as that is what most of our readers would want to know about.

Blu-Ray: It’s well-known that the major reason Blu-ray was able to conquer HD-DVD in the format war was the release of the Playstation 3, which had a built in Blu-ray player and was offered at a much lower price than anything the competition could sell. Once the format war was over and Blu-ray won it’s right to be the lone-provider of disc-based HD content to consumers most thought this was the end; it was Blu-ray or nothing (see below why this is not the case). Blu-ray has a ton of positive things going for it: 1) the resolution is unbeatable, 2) it is easier to sell movies in a physical form, for now, 3) thanks to the PS3 it has a huge user-base, and 4) many studios exclusively support Blu-Ray for their HD content. The negatives for me are a bit more serious: 1) expensive (around $20 per movie), 2) expansive but not complete catalog of available films, 3) physical nature of Blu-rays can be destroyed/lost/damaged, and 4) inconvenience of going to brick-and-mortar store to pick-up/purchase a Blu-ray (or delivery time from internet).

Netflix HD: It was a big day when Microsoft announced that it’s New Xbox Experience (NXE) would include the option to use Netflix’s service right from the comfort of your own home via the Xbox 360 console. At first I was a bit skeptical but after some time with the service it has become a daily thing in our family’s home. If there is some down-time me and my wife pull up the Netflix webpage, put some movies in our queue and sit down to decide what to watch. The process is so simple that I have taught my brothers, sister, and parents how to do it (they all now use Netflix instead of their Blockbuster subscriptions). For me the positives of the integrated Netflix HD service are overwhelming: 1) ease of use, 2) availability of HD movies, documentaries, and television shows (lots of unknown content), 3) instant access (no wait for store trip or delivery time), and 4) decent HD quality of content. The few negatives are: 1) not as large of a selection as Blu-ray and 2) depending on internet issues watching movies can be a hassle.

And the winner is . . . Netflix HD, by a small margin. This could change over time and feel free to bash and/or disagree with my opinion. The future of entertainment is heading in a downloadable direction, personally I have been getting a lot more use out of the Netflix service than my growing Blu-ray collection. People want instant access to things, and Netflix HD is currently the best option for that. Only time will tell if the service continues to be supported and the movie selection continues to grow. Sound off in our forums by clicking the link here or in the comments section below.

Source: PlanetXBOX360

Tags: NetFlixHD, Xbox 360, Blu-Ray, Sony HD movies, nxe, Xbox Live

Source: Videogamer.com

Tags: NXE, Xbox Live New Experience, Xbox 360, Avatars