Please help me get Netflix instant watch to work on my Xbox 360.

August 1, 2009 3:43 PM

I apparently need help getting Netflix Instant Watch to work on my Xbox 360.

I just started to my Netflix trial offer and I fired up my 360 and clicked on the Netflix icon and it just goes dark for a moment and then back to the screen with the Netflix image. I have no idea what to do and I couldnt find anything close to it on google. Thanks for your help.

posted by carefulmonkey to Technology (9 answers total)

Do you have an Xbox live gold account?
posted by wongcorgi at 3:54 PM on August 1, 2009

Response by poster: Yes I do
posted by carefulmonkey at 3:57 PM on August 1, 2009

You do need a gold account. and a netflix account, and you need to go through the registration procedure on the Xbox and netflix.com ("Instantly to your TV" tab, and then "Instant Devices"). The netflix site should give you a pass code to enter into the xbox, then your game system is linked to your netflix account and most (but not all) of your instant streaming queue will appear on the xbox.
posted by Science! at 3:59 PM on August 1, 2009

You could try going into your memory settings and if there is any sort of Netflix thing listed there try deleting it and then try downloading again. I have noticed their "channels" (Netflix, 1vs100) sometimes act weird, but they usually would sort themselves out.
posted by Phantomx at 4:00 PM on August 1, 2009

Umm, this sounds kind of dumb, but did you make a Watch Instantly queue on the Netflix website? As of now, you can't manage your queue from the 360, you have to add movies on the website first.

They're fixing it, though, because it's really irritating.
posted by InsanePenguin at 4:16 PM on August 1, 2009

Going to agree with what mister penguin said. You can't just browse random movies you can only browse ones that are in your Instant Queue not your regular queue.
posted by WickedPissah at 6:00 PM on August 1, 2009

Also, yeah, you should make sure that you linked your 360 to your Netflix account like Sciencel said. I had totally forgotten about that.
posted by InsanePenguin at 11:24 PM on August 1, 2009

Response by poster: How do I get it to link ? I tried selecting the netflix icon several times with no luck.
posted by carefulmonkey at 6:56 AM on August 2, 2009

Try here to sort out what issues you might be having. Specifically, you need a Gold Live account, a Netflix unlimited plan, an instant watch queue set up on Netflix's website and to link your Netflix account and Xbox hardware on Netflixs website. It sounds like a pain, but only took me about 15 minutes to do.
posted by Phoenix42 at 7:32 AM on August 2, 2009