Playon is awesome regardless. One of the best $30 I've ever spent. Best part of this service for me is the guys over at playonplugins.com. They are doing some amazing work and not getting anything for it.

Sucks for them because they'll likely continue throwing resources towards Netflix support for all the non-PS3 users.

Not good when you have to do so much work for something that won't even be used by most of your userbase.

I don't feel bad at all. This product is completely and utterly broken and they've been forcing people to pay for a beta test for far too long.

I agree. When it first came out, the program was rock solid and I was able to play movies on my PS3 without issues. Performance has become more and more unusable with each new feature added. Now, I am lucky to get 30 minutes into a movie before everything needs to be reset. Personally, I am sorry I spent my money (and convinced others to do the same)on this crapware. Premise was good. Execution is a Fail.

The possibility that this might happen is exactly what kept me from paying for PlayOn. With Netflix being offered for free, and Hulu going subscription based, it looks like that would have been money ill spent. At least as far as I’m concerned, being that those would have been the only two uses I got out of the program. I’m sure that it does plenty more, but it’s not likely to be anything I can’t do using a free alternative, or that I care enough about to justify spending the money for PlayOn to be able to do.

Not that PlayOn wasn’t awesome when I used it during the trial. It’s just that its future was too uncertain for me to be able to justify paying the asking price for it. I don’t have a ton of disposable income, so I don’t like dropping money on something unless it looks like a sure thing. PlayOn never did, and it looks like my misgivings were justified after all.

Netflix charges $8.99 per month to stream to XBOX so I still feel like I'm ok with the one time purchase of Playon. Now if Netflix let's you start streaming brand new releases that's a whole new animal.

I bought PlayOn for Netflix, but I barely ever stream from Netflix anymore. I'm moustly using it for Hulu, Youtube, and justin.tv plugin. As long as Hulu doesn't start charging a fee, it's still worth it for me.

hack14u, look into PS3MediaServer for local files if you want to stream local files in HD and/or preserve 5.1 (blu-ray rips).

frroberts, there is no additional charge to stream Netflix to the Xbox 360, a normal subscription to Netflix includes Xbox streaming. You do have to have Xbox Live Gold @ $50/year.

For me where PlayOn really shines is Hulu and all the stuff over on playonplugins.com

...one more thing

I've had virtually no problems with PlayOn. Any time I've had a weird issue, support got back to me same-day with a fix. My wife and I have watched LOTS on Netflix through PlayOn... entire seasons of The Office, Heroes, 30 Rock, Doctor Who. Not to mention HGTV plugin (her) and southparkstudios plugin (me).

And here is the kicker that is going to make Netflix on the PS3 suck until late 2010:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/26/netflix-for-playstation-3-requires-a-...

Netflix for PlayStation 3 requires a disc, software solution coming late 2010

It can't all be sweet, right? So Netflix is indeed coming to PlayStation 3, but there's a catch, and that is a disc (badly photoshopped into the picture above) will be required for use -- not just for a one-time install, but every time you want to stream. Joystiq shot some questions off to the company, who justified this as being "fastest and easiest way to let PS3 enthusiasts get Netflix on the PS3" and that an embedded software solution through XMB will be coming late next year. It denies this has anything to do with Microsoft's exclusivity agreement, but frankly we're a bit bummed by this perplexing hurdle in convenience. At any rate, be sure to go reserve your disc now if you want to start streaming -- assuming, of course, PlayOn hasn't already satisfied your Netflix needs.

So let me get this straight. I have to put a disc in to use Netflix on my PS3?!? The nerve! Next thing you know they'll require that I put a disc in to play games on the thing! Sorry Sony but that's just too damn hard!

..

I can't imagine that it would take a year to get a diskless solution together. For this reason, I suspect it has *everything* to do with lawyers. For that reason, I expect a solution to surface very shortly after the first dvds ship

Everything I've read is they are doing it that way because Netflix and MS have the deal for it to just be on the 360 console. The disk is going to be a BD-Live disk (which might be able to work in all BD-Live players) that way they are not breaking there contract with MS. They can't legally do it any other way until late 2010.

So are there some ms lawyers getting reamed out right now for missing this possibility?

I could care less about Netflix streaming movies most of them are crap.

PlayOn and HULU is great, plus plugins! Who could ask for anything more?

We have been discussing this very same thing on the PlayOnPlugins forum
http://www.playonplugins.com/index.php?topic=2051.0

Its going to be interesting to see it eventfully work with out a disc.

No matter what happens I will still use PlayOn as my local media stream. I tried Win 7 and the new Media Player with it and so many bad things happened I can't even see straight. Let's just say I am back to Vista and PlayOn as my local media server and it works so great. On another note, anyone want a cheap Win 7 upgrade disc, don't think I hurt it too bad when I stompted on the plastic case, lmao... Keep it going PlayOn, this really is one of the best ways to get my vids to my PS3! Next is WD TV Live, and I heard it works great on that too!

Thanks for the words of encouragement! We're excited about our upcoming development plans, and high on our list is to make big improvements to local media file sharing.

Like I've said before, I'll be interested to see if this company is around in a year.

Local file sharing? They have FREEware that works great for that.

I thought you guys said your main customer base was using this has a "cable replacement"... I guess that won't be the case once Hulu starts charging.

Hey guys, good try and it was a good idea, sadly, this is the case of you being the little guys and simply not having the power to change or influence anything. I give you kudos for having the guts to take a chance. Good luck in the future.

Sure they have freeware for local media streaming, and for me I have tried them all, and they all can't compete with this. TVersity could NEVER keep a connection, and the PS3 Media Server is java based, and well, I must not be the sharpest tool in the shed but I could never get it to work, I don't have any java junk on my machine anyhow.

PlayOn is by far the best local media server I have used, of course YMMV, but for me it's the easiest, fastest, and is working GREAT. I can't wait to see the improvements coming. I would rather give 40 bucks for folks who work tirelessly making sure this works (considering this is all very recent tech) than to use freeware that may or may not work all the time. It's just great when you have friends over and show them streaming video, and then the connection is lost, how great is that. With PlayOn, I don't ever worry about that anymore since the last few updates.

And, more great additions to internet media streaming are coming!

You really shouldn't discount free software that quickly. Many free applications work far better than paid ones.

However I have problems with Playon's My Media local media streaming in that it doesn't work - doesn't work at all! You see my media is on a Linux box and I use Samba to share it. I have no idea why Playon can't see my media files when the LocalFiles plugin from Playonplugins.com can. MediaMall cops out and says that Samba's not supported. Technically it should make no difference if the other end is a Windows box using SMB or a Linux box also using SMB. I'm hoping they fix it sometime down the road.

In addition to using the LocalFiles plugin I have to run the Playon service as my own user instead of Local System. Just found out last night that because of this I can't use Netflix. So I'm between a rock and a hard place in that I can't view my local media unless I do this and if it do this I can't stream Netflix (I can stream Hulu, et. al. - just not Netflix). Screwy! Totally screwy!

Aaaa Eventually I just use Netflix own streamer and probably eventually switch to Boxee anyway. There ya go - back to freeware! Why? Because the paidware doesn't work!!!

I got my PS3 disc from Netflix today - easy activation method, pretty vanilla interface but the video quality is pretty good. Seeking, jumping to a particular time works decently.

I'm probably pretty content with this because of how low my expectations were; Sony is projecting middle to late 2010 for netflix integration.

I'm a little disappointed in the video quality with the Netflix disc. Hulu (via PlayOn) definitely looks better.

(3mbs connection, tests at 2.65mbs)

I think it depends on what you are watching. Have you tried watching the HD material that netflix offers?

I'm psyched about the PS3 Netflix deal and have been evangelizing for it ever since getting my PS3. At the same time, many of us can recognize the importance of products like Playon continuing to extend video streaming capabilities beyond what services like Netflix or Hulu can provide. Count me among those who feel we've already gotten more than our money's worth from Playon as a bridge technology while the industry evolves. On top of this, we continue to reap benefits in the form of extended capabilites (local file streaming, You Tube, plugins, etc) AND excellent customer service and support.

I strongly agree that everyone should be able to express their point of view, so I am really curious to know from a few who continually come to this site complaining about PlayOn being too expensive--Why do you keep coming back? Why don't you just happily use the amazing freeware you keep mentioning instead of spending time trying to convince Media Mall to charge less for Playon or give it away for free?

These are rhetorical questions obviously, but maybe you'll surprise me. Many of us have already tried the freeware out there (including various flavors of Linux BTW, but that's a whole seperate discussion). Sure, you can find freeware alternatives that work fairly well for some features, but all players in this area (freeware and payware) have their "issues", in-part due to rapidly evolving technology, so many of us are happy to pay a reasonable amount for a higher level of quality and support. That will still be true even with Netflix and at some point Hulu out of the picture.

I doubt if you'll find those who actually contribute to development and support of freeware spending time complaining about someone charging for software. They understand someone has to pay. For them it could be parents footing the bills or they might work a fulltime job and then contribute to their labor of love in the wee hours. Doers don't have time to whine. They're too busy contributing something to the world. Maybe if more of you joined in to contribute, the freeware alternatives would meet all your needs and you wouldn't have to spend time worrying about the price of payware. Some of us need to devote our spare time elsewhere, so we either do without, accept whatever is available, or pay someone who does it well enough to meet our needs.

I'm one of those "fools" who will actually send a donation for exceptional freeware products that I end up using a lot because I know how much work it takes.

I'm not seeing this at all. I got my Netflix disc yesterday, and even the worst looking movies look better than anything i've seen through PlayOn, including Hulu. In fact, they even look better than when streamed through my 360.

I was hoping PlayOn was my ticket to get rid of my Live! subscription, but the quality with Netflix is horrible. Now i can finally do that!

I'll still PlayOn for Hulu and such, at least until something with better picture quality comes out, but it's not up to par when it comes to Netflix.

Steppinwolf,

I could not have said that better myself!

Ditto, I feel I got my moneys worth and more from this product as I use it on a daily basis

Ditto again to Steppinwolf, and same here. While I do prefer to use the Netflix streaming disk (hard to argue with the better rewind/fastforward support, plus 720p source), the Hulu, CBS support and wealth of external plug-ins easily make it worth the investment. I've never had a problem with the software (hence the first post in nine months of usage), it's always just worked and I'll continue using it.