Netflix Controller

If you have a TV connected to your PC and you use it to watch Netflix in Chrome, selecting titles and managing playback is understandably difficult once you’ve moved away from your desk. In case you have a controller, but not a wireless keyboard and mouse, this extension may be just what you need.

Netflix Controller allows you to use either an Xbox or PlayStation gamepad to navigate through your Netflix library and manage playback from your couch. It’s not perfect, but it does a pretty good job.

To get started, all you have to do is install the extension, open Netflix and make sure your gamepad is connected. It should be detected automatically as soon as you press a button, and presets are available for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 gamepads.

Once everything is set up, the device essentially becomes a remote control. The button scheme is quite intuitive, and all available actions are displayed in a bar at the bottom of the window.

From the browsing page, you can navigate through the available titles, view more information about particular ones, and search using a virtual keyboard. However, you can’t switch genres from the list in the top-left corner, and, more importantly, you can’t view the episodes list after selecting a series.

From the playback screen, you can play and pause, mute the audio and toggle fullscreen mode, as well as control the volume and jump 10 seconds back or forward. Unfortunately, though, you can’t hold down the jump buttons to seek back or forward more easily, and audio track/subtitle selection is also not available.

Netflix Controller isn’t a complete product just yet, mostly because there are still some important Netflix functions that cannot be accessed using a gamepad. The developer does seem to have big plans for the project, however, so we can expect to see some improvements soon.

Nevertheless, even in its current state, the extension can be very useful for watching Netflix on a TV in a browser, tough you may still need to use your mouse and keyboard for certain things.