On Thursday, Netflix and Samsung announced a broad partnership to offer customers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from the Netflix Website directly to the Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray disc players.

The BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 are currently available at US$399.99. Consumers who already own one of these Samsung players can upgrade their device at no additional cost to enable instant streaming from a growing library of more than 12,000 movies and television episodes from Netflix, the announcement said. Current customers with those players can obtain an upgrade at Samsung's Website.

Samsung BD-P2500

These Blu-ray players are equipped with Ethernet connections, and typically 1-2 Mbps broadband is recommended for SD streaming.

"With the players' accompanying remote control, Netflix members will be able to browse and make selections right on the TV screen and also have the ability to read synopses and rate movies. In addition, they will have the option of fast-forwarding and rewinding the video stream," Netflix said.

Left unsaid in the announcement is that while the Samsung Blu-ray players can play movies from Blu-ray discs at 1080p resolution (HD), the content delivered by Netflix will remain standard definition (SD) for now, according to TVPredictions on Thursday.

This agreement marks the second agreement Netflix has announced that allows a partner's Blu-ray player to receive and display Netflix movies and TV shows. The first was with LG Electronics and the LG BD300 Blu-ray Player which is currently available.