Mmedia Center plug-in streams Netflix movies to Xbox 360

Tired of waiting for Netflix to officially allow movie streaming on the 360? Try this on for size: A still-in-beta plug-in that lets you stream those Netflix "WatchNow" movies to Microsoft's gaming console via Windows Media Center.Credit Hacking Netflix for spotting vmcNetFlix, which—once installed on your Vista machine—lets you browse all the movies on Netflix, manage your queue, or watch any of the 9,000-odd "WatchNow" movies, all over your Xbox 360 (or any device that acts as a Media Center Extender, for that matter).

I haven't had a chance to try the plug-in yet—I need to get my Vista machine and my 360 in the same ZIP code first—but Hacking Netflix has a video that shows vmcNetFlix in action.

As the editors point out, performance is somewhat sluggish, and you'll have to put up with bugs and rapid-fire updates to the vmcNetFlix software, which is still in beta. That said, browsing and watching Netflix videos seems to work just fine, and you can even download videos to your console—although the Netflix legal team would probably have something to say about that, so be warned.

If nothing else, vmcNetFlix is a great example of how streaming Netflix movies over the Xbox 360 and/or the PS3 might work. Now if Netflix, Microsoft, and Sony could just make it happen officially, we'd really have something.