Netflix helps you digitize your life

In the eight years that I've been a fanatic Netflix subscriber, more than 2,000 bright red mailers containing DVDs have arrived in my mailbox. I've ripped off the outer flaps, tossed them in the trash, watched the movies, and mailed them back. Life has been good.

Now Netflix wants to eliminate the mailing part of the process.

With the new $99 Netflix Player, a small black box you position by your TV, Netflix movies are piped directly to your set via your home network.

Like its slicker competitor Apple TV, Netflix Player is controlled from the TV. You simply sit down, choose the movie you want to see, and watch instantly. Netflix has offered this service free to its premium subscribers on their computer screens for some time, but this is the first time it's been available for TV.

There are some drawbacks, most notably the fact that only 10 percent of Netflix's 100,000-movie collection is available for instant viewing. (For more analysis, see PC Magazine's review.)

Still, this is another great example of the steady digitialization of our lives. We pay bills online, download our music, share digital photos, and now this. In each case, we may be using a bit more electricity, but we're saving a good deal of resources: less paper, less plastic, less gasoline burned by the Postal Service.

Don Willmott's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.