Using vmcNetflix with Media Center to stream NetFlix movies

I’ll be spending some time this long weekend trying out the (beta) vmcNetflix to watch streaming movies on my TV using Media Center on my PC and my Xbox 360. Any Netflix subscription over $9 gets you unlimited (kind of grainy) streaming of something like 10,000 titles. I’ve played around with vmcNetflix and have found it to be pretty slow, so I’ll be experimenting with different ways to speed it up, so I can download “WatchNow” movies to my “WatchLater” gallery. I knew it was only a matter of time for Netflix to come to Xbox after seeing the survey below, particularly after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings joined the Microsoft board.

I was thinking about buying a Roku Netflix streaming box, because I think it’s a deal at only $99 even if it won’t play HDD, but I’m loathe to put one more electronic box in the TV room. With a 13 year old son, we already have just about every game system known to mankind overloading the prehistoric electrical circuitry of our 1950’s era house. Plus, it’s just plain cool to pipe it through the Xbox.