Sony and Netflix have announced instant streaming on Playstation3 devices will be coming later this year. XBox owners already have this ability as do many other devices, but there are a few differences between the Netflix program on the two units.

• XBox 360 owners must be subscribed to XBox Live Gold to receive Netflix service ($50) a year, while PS3 owners have no extra charge
  
• PS3, like laptops, TiVo units and many Blu-ray players will use Flash to deliver video, while XBox uses its proprietary Silverlight.
  
• PS3 owners (at least initially) will need a Blu-ray disc from Netflix to activate the service, XBox owners only need to log onto XBox Live. A future Sony firmware update, may remove this need
  
• Sony Bravia owners also have the option to stream through their BraviaLink ports. There is no indication that this will have any effect on PS3 usage
  
• The PS3 will be the first streaming device to allow users to browse beyond their own instant queue. This functionality may come to XBox, Roku, etc in the future

Streaming is scheduled to begin in December.