Netflix Froze My 3DS!!! Oh, But It’s Working Fine Now

My first impression on Netflix on 3DS wasn’t the best. I had downloaded it before registering, but a simple screen comes up asking if you’ve already registered with Netflix or not comes up right away. It took me less than five minutes to get to the website and fill out the page to become a member. The 3DS gives you a link to follow and a code to enter, and after that, you’re done.

After browsing the selection, I clicked on one of the titles to see how it looked. I picked Iron Giant, and while I waited for it to load I went off to go find something to munch on. When I came back, it had finished loading and was going through the intro.

The image would blur every once in a while, but other than that everything looked pretty good. The top screen has an 800 x 240 resolution, but it’s a nice little screen. Not as pretty as my new HD tv that I hooked up last week in my room, but hey, it’s on my handheld! It didn’t take a long time to buffer the movie when I compare to how long I had to wait for it to start Netflix. You can pause and drag a slider around to choose where you want to watch, too. Iron Giant is one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid. I watched it for about ten minutes before I had to run a few errands.

It’s at this point that I had a problem.

Just as I was about to go back to my main menu, the movie froze and started to work on retrieving the video. I tried to exit out, but it wouldn’t let me and continued to try to retrieve data. I pressed the B button a zillion times, but still it wouldn’t do anything. After about five seconds of staring at the screen, I knew it wasn’t ‘retrieving’ anything.

I tried to return home, but it wouldn’t do that either. Pressing the power button didn’t do much for me at first, but eventually it went the shut down screen where it asks if you really want to shut down. It said my software was closed, but when I pressed on the Power Off button, it went to a black screen and didn’t shut down.

Let’s just say at first I was a bit perplexed at why the little blue light wasn’t going away. I could still see that the 3DS wasn’t just a blank screen, but projecting the black background. I closed it, opened it, hit the power button a few more times, and still nothing. After leaving it alone for about ten minutes, I picked it up and tried again, and somehow it shut off. I didn’t have to wait for the battery to die as I’ve seen some other people have to do online.

So I don’t really have any solid ways to get your 3DS working again. I just kept messing with it, then waited a bit, and eventually it was fine. Nothing happened to any of my software and I haven’t had the problem again, yet, but if anybody else is having problems, please share.

Besides that, this really is a nice new feature for the 3DS. I don’t think I will opt this compared to Netflix on my laptop or other consoles, but when I’m on the go and have access to it, it will be used. I’m still on the trial period since I just signed up, so I have a month to see if I really want to keep it.

The Netflix is pretty easy to use though. For a person who doesn’t watch movies, I was able to find shows that would appeal to me fairly quickly.

After downloading the new software, it takes a few minutes for it to fully load. Once there you can use the touch screen move up and down to browse different genres. Pressing Y brings up a Search option. I used it and found Ponyo, which I was able to add to my Queue with a single click. You can also choose to turn on subtitles, which is useful if you’re in a loud area and don’t have headphones.

Pressing the B button also allows for you to jump between lists. Most of the movies I’ve seen on it I have no interest in watching, while a hand full I have added to my queue for later enjoyment.

All in all, my first experience with Netflix was a little rocky. Well, I was having a panic attack that I would have to go to college without my 3DS. But it’s working normally again, and I think I might begin watching movies in class when I start to pass out in lectures. Just slip on the subtitles and oh goody, giant alien robots during Beginning Math and Physics for Game Programmers (no worries, I have an A).