I just finished making this video, but it compares the time it takes from starting up the system to being able to view playback of a movie. For the PS3 running off of a disc and then streaming the video, the time lapse is really close, at least within 1 second. Even the selection of the video to actual playback is close, with the 360 having a slight 3 second edge.

Both streams are the HD stream of the cult comedy classic The Big Lebowski. They may be different scenes, but that’s not really going to affect streaming time all that much. The only differences between the two is that the 360’s is currently integrated into the Dashboard of the 360 and also has a party mode.

XMB integration will be coming next year, so that could shave a few seconds there. As far as the Party view goes, almost sounds like this Sony patent is rather comparable.

One thing, as mentioned in the video, the PS3 has a huge one up on is being able to go onto the PS3’s browser and search by title to add to both the DVD queue and the Watch Instantly queue, so being able to manage both queues would be made easier from the comfort of your living room there.

Apart from that, both are, indeed, pretty much the same in terms of browsing the lists of movies, rating them and watching them. Of course, the only real difference is just the layout. The 360s service uses the same setup as the Dashboard and the PS3’s is more proprietary to Netflix. When XMB integration hits next year, I’m sure that would be more proprietary as well, and will probably be its own program like Home or Living with PlayStation.

Now the question is, if you use the 360 solely for Netflix play, is the party mode really worth the extra $4 or so a month?