Netflix Player by Roku, Retflix Playber by Shmoku…

So a while back, Corey informed us about the new netflix player that allows you to stream your Netflix movies straight to your TV, instead of having to sit in front of you PC like a geek. This was new territory Netflix and was a step in the right direction, but as you read (or should have!), it wasn’t an award-winning product by any means…

But today, lifehacker (found via digg) explain an entirely FREE way to stream Netflix to your TV! …as long as you currently own an Xbox360, and a Windows Media Center capable version of Windows (most likely Vista Premium or Ultimate)

Basically, as long as your computer can connect to your Xbox360, you download a free plugin called vmcnetflix (source post). This plug-in will then connect to Netflix with your account info.

You go to your Xbox, connect to your computer via the onscreen GUI, and then browse to the easy to find plug-in.

Once you’re that far, you’re ready to watch videos! Over 9000 titals of (currently only) standard def movies and TV shows. Watch the video courtesy of HackingNetflix.com on the post on lifehacker (which also has a great step-by-step breakdown if you already own the Xbox and Media Center PC) and you will see how simple it really is. It even allows you to download the videos to your Xbox hard drive, which umm.. isn’t exactly legal as far as we can tell.

Of course, the software may be buggy. It is somewhat slow loading on the Xbox, but that may also be your wireless connection or the speed of your computer, as it does have to use the PC’s resources in order to pull the content… But for FREE? It is definitely worth a shot at this price if you already have the 2 peices of hardware needed, and it may even bring you into Netflix if you haven’t bit the bullet yet, I know I’m about 30 seconds from starting my own free trial, just let me finish this paragraph….. anddddddd done.