Have a Netflix account? Got an Xbox 360? You’re in Luck!

I wrote a post a while back about watching movies via download rather than on DVD because of the environmental impact. The one downfall to this, I noted, was that it sucks to watch amazing movies on a small laptop screen. Well, now this isn’t a problem for those of you with an Xbox 360 and a Netflix account: starting this fall, you can stream Netflix movies directly to your Xbox and watch them on your TV. Microsoft has also signed deals with TV studios to allow users to download TV episodes and seasons, which is awesome. So far, NBC, Disney, and Warner Bros. have signed on for television show deals. As someone who has both a Netflix account and an Xbox in the house, you’d think that I would be ecstatic. But I have mixed feelings about it, which is due to the fact that Ted and I recently decided to cancel our TV for the summer.

We have had a satellite TV subscription for a while now, and we decided to nix it for several reasons. It’s been hard, because I haven’t been able to watch my beloved So You Think You Can Dance, and the new season of Project Runway starts tomorrow. Not having access to TV left a time void in my life, and though it was hard to get past missing some of my favorite shows, I have been so much more productive in other areas. I’ve started to turn the side yard at our house into a garden, a yard that was previously inhabited by ivy and invasive blackberry plants. It’s been a lot of work, and I honestly think that I never would have taken it on had we not banished TV for the summer. Who wants to dig for four hours straight on a Sunday when you could be watching an ANTM marathon instead? And I have plans to take up playing piano again, especially now that Ted bought me a piano bench for our anniversary last month. And, the reading! I have read an average of two books a week for the last month. And they’re not small books, either.

Are any of you Simpsons fans? Remember when Barney and Homer were training with NASA to become astronauts, and Barney quit beer and became a super-human? That’s how I feel right now.

So, would I be doing all of these things if we still had TV service? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t. So the idea of being able to watch TV on our Xbox is a little scary, frankly. I’ve really been enjoying my new projects and pursuits, and the idea of giving them up to watch the idiot box seems, well, idiotic. Sure, my heart hurt when those first few weeks of So You Think You Can Dance came and went, but now I just don’t really care that much. Being committed to watching entire seasons of several shows, as those with a DVR are wont to be, takes a lot of time. Removing those time-sucking hours from my life has been really freeing. But, you know, TV is fun. Though I’m enjoying a TV-free summer, I am a little worried about missing out on the fall TV shows. I can feel myself getting sucked back in, mentally preparing myself for the new seasons of shows to begin. I’m not sure if that’s out of habit, or if I really will decide that TV is worth it. This is why I’m conflicted by the future ability to watch TV downloads on our Xbox, and I’m not sure what I will eventually choose.

What I’m NOT conflicted about, however, is the Netflix part of the deal. I love watching movies, but the excitement of receiving the next movie on my queue is always accompanied by a little pang of guilt. That little silver DVD and its paper packaging were mailed to me, which requires gasoline and other resources. And when I ship the DVD back, I feel the same guilty pang. That’s why this deal is so brilliant: I can download that movie instead, thereby saving the effort and expense of shipping me a DVD. And Lord knows how many CDs and DVDs end up in landfills every year. (Actually, the CD Recycling Center of America knows: it’s millions.) So, yay for Netflix. And, boo on behalf of the Netflix subscribers who don’t have an Xbox. I’d love to eventually see Netflix allow owners of other consoles the ability to watch movies, but I don’t think the licensing deals work that way. And, for what it’s worth, Netflix currently only has the download rights for a tenth of the movies they have to offer in the mail, so maybe those of you who want to watch a more obscure title like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari won’t be able to use the download service that often anyway.

Regardless of whether or not I use the coming Netflix deal to watch TV or not, and even if I can’t get all the titles I want to see via download, one thing is for sure: Being able to press a button and watch the Bourne movies any time I want is going to be AWESOME.