Like many people, I suspect, I’ve been waiting eagerly for Netflix, and specifically for the client for Samsung’s SmartTV system. This morning, I was in luck – going into the SmartTV section, I was prompted for an update, which added Netflix in the ‘Recommended’ section of the App list.
That’s not all you need to do, however. After updating the SmartTV software, launching Netflix prompted me to update the TV’s firmware, and told me what buttons to press. You can go directly there, which many users might be tempted to do, while the instructions are on screen.
Unfortuantely, you can’t do that – if SmartTV is running, then you can’t update the firmware, so you need to back right out of it to the live TV signal, before you can update the firmware. That took my set from version 001018 to 001021. It takes a few minutes, and after that, you can go back in and start the Netflix app.
You’ll be asked if you’ve signed up, and if you say no, you then have to fire up a browser on your PC or Mac, and register for the trial that way; once that’s been done, you can sign in on the TV with your email address and password.
It’s worth noting that, though the default way of signing up is via your Facebook account, there’s a link just below to register with an email address instead, so you don’t end up annoying your friends by constantly advertising Netflix to them. The default option selected when you finally get into Netflix proper on the TV is once again to link to your Facebook id, so they’re clearly pretty keen for you to do it.
I’m writing a more in depth piece for Register Hardware, which I’ll link to when it’s live.
