You'll find the NXE's fledgling Netflix bookmark located under "Video Marketplace" with the trademark marquee-style Netflix logo. The service actually isn't installed by default, and you have to pull down a small 3MB file to get the ball rolling. Not a big deal, but step two's a bit less trivial -- any time you want to add or subtract content thereafter, you have to get up, walk over to a computer, and use a PC. Yep, you get to watch stuff on the 360, but your account and basic transactions aren't managed on the 360 at all.

Really? Really. I wouldn't call it a deal-breaker, but it does shatter the illusion that your Xbox 360 is an island. It's also bound to confuse the very secondary users Microsoft and Netflix seem interested in selling to, e.g. other household members who might not play games, but who'd use the 360 purely as a Netflix tool. Instead of popping their Netflix disc out of its envelope and popping it in the DVD drive and hitting "play," these folks now have to 1) leave the room, 2) hunt down a computer, 3) log into an different account, then 4) navigate around a completely unique interface to queue and organize stuff. Kind of annoying considering you don't have to "PC" anything when you're plucking down movies and TV shows on the PS3. Fingers crossed Microsoft and Netflix remedy this in a manner that puts control of adding/deleting content on the 360, where it belongs.

I wasn't able to test any actual video viewing because the service is region locked (I get a sad "sorry, content not available for your region" when I try to make it so). But I can at least pass along what I have seen and know.

Aside from gaining access to Netflix's considerable library of titles, the hook is that you can now watch movies instantly without downloading them first.

Oh, and they're high-definition.