I picked up an ATV 40GB model on clearance (I wouldn't have bought one at regular price) a while back and this is going to make it the media streamer that it should have been.

It's not $8 for the Blu-ray, it's a coupon for $8 OFF. Big difference.

@Buckaroo Banzai

I totally missed out on that deal. I would have loved to pick up an HDHomerun for $90.

This is my comment to enter this contest, but how do I activate this comment???

You're just a few letters off. It's iPhoto, not iPhone.

Someone on here mentioned that the MS/Netflix deal was only for a year and that year is now up. Not sure if that's true since all of the articles I found about the exclusive deal were dated August 11, 2009. However, I found a few articles indicating that Netflix streaming first came to the Xbox about a year ago. So MS has had Netflix streaming for about a year, but didn't announce that it was exclusive until August 11th 2009?

Anyways, I don't think the disc is a method of circumventing the terms of the deal; I think it's just a way to get streaming to PS3 owners ASAP while they work on integrating it into a future firmware update.

"The free instant streaming disc leverages Blu-ray's BD-Live™ technology to access the Internet and activate the Netflix user interface on the PS3 system..."

If it's using BD-Live, I wonder, what's stopping this disc from being used on a standalone BD-Live enabled player???

Goodbye Blockbuster!

Notice how they used the word initially when talking about using the disc: "Initially, watching movies instantly streamed from Netflix via the PS3 system will be enabled by a free, instant streaming Blu-ray disc that is being made available to all Netflix members."

I think the disc is just a temporary solution while they work with Sony to integrate it into the XMB. I imagine there will be a firmware update down the road that will eliminate the need to put the disc in all the time.

You should try out the new WDTV Live (aka WDTV2). It will play Blu-ray ISO's (main movie only, no menus though) and bitstream DD+, TrueHD, and DTS-HD MA. It doesn't have room for a hard drive in it like this Patriot device, but it has two USB ports for plugging in local drives.

You can pick one up at Best Buy for $119.99 right now. You might have to price match their online price since it's $139.99 in-store for some reason. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9539591&st=wdtv&type=product&id=1218121172453

There's a pretty big thread about the device at AVS Forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17031392

The Popcorn Hour A-110 and C-200 should be able to do what you're looking for as well, but those are a bit more expensive.