Netflix DVD-by-Mail Becomes Quickster

[sholling]

Life is a trade-off of things, right? Good points and bad points.

The only thing that I miss is Costco and Sam's Club. I have to drive 35 miles one way to get to either. But even though I live in a housing tract on the edge of town its so very quiet. No traffic noise just crickets and the occasional coyote.

 

[bikdav]

Yea right. We'll see how long all of this lasts before both ships go under water.

 

[skizzerflake]

My bet is that Netflix survives, after a few weeks of pissing and moaning. DVD rentals are obviously a sinking ship, but even without rentals, 8 bucks a month, for all the video you can stream is still a bargain. It's cheaper than one lunch at Chipotle, 3 gallons of gas or a 4 pack of heavy ale. I ignored Netflix as long as I had a Blockbuster a block away but when they went down in flames, I got hooked on being able to stream something in segments, on my Mac, iPhone or TV, at my convenience. It is not a replacement for good movies on Blue Ray, but it's really something different from that experience and once you have it, 8 bucks a month is a pretty trivial cost.

My big question is about the future. When Netflix signed contracts with movie distributors a few years ago, the movie companies didn't have much faith in streaming. Now they do. They will never sign up as cheaply ever again and it's inevitable that Netflix will have to increase its price. How far? What will the market tolerate? Is streaming already dead? What will take its place?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Well Netflix just pissed me off today.

I had like 10 titles all shown as AVAILABLE on My Queue, but instead of sending me the FIRST one, they sent me the 10th one!!! And I have not been moving the titles around either.

Bastards!

Blockbuster OTOH sent me the FIRST title on my queue even though it showed as "Short Wait".

 

[majorloser]

Netflix never did right by me. They never gave me items high on my queue, they were always slow with shipping and not a great selection of new bluray titles to choose from. I started with a "4-at-a-time" account and only this year switch to a "2-at-a time" account. Even with that four possible movies they could send at a time and well over 30 movies in my queue, they never could send me the new releases in a timely manner.

The only reason I switched from BB to NetF*x was because they started to carry Bluray and BB didn't. NetF*x streaming service is also useless. No new releases and pretty lame streaming quality. I have the highest possible connection speed available from Brighthouse and my home network is running at 1.0 Gb speed. The only way to increase my internet speed is PIOS, which is not yet available in my area. But that realy should matter all that much. At least I should have decent DVD quality speeds and 5.1 surround sound.

NetF*x blows. Good riddance

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Netflix never did right by me. They never gave me items high on my queue, they were always slow with shipping and not a great selection of new bluray titles to choose from. I started with a "4-at-a-time" account and only this year switch to a "2-at-a time" account. Even with that four possible movies they could send at a time and well over 30 movies in my queue, they never could send me the new releases in a timely manner.

The only reason I switched from BB to NetF*x was because they started to carry Bluray and BB didn't. NetF*x streaming service is also useless. No new releases and pretty lame streaming quality. I have the highest possible connection speed available from Brighthouse and my home network is running at 1.0 Gb speed. The only way to increase my internet speed is PIOS, which is not yet available in my area. But that realy should matter all that much. At least I should have decent DVD quality speeds and 5.1 surround sound.

NetF*x blows. Good riddance

I really hope BB can compete and stay alive.

I'm not big into streaming because 100% of the time it will never compete with blu-ray quality in terms of PQ & SQ. Sure, some movies are better than others. But my wife and daughters love the Netflix streaming, so I'm kind of screwed in that regards.

I just hope BB can at least offer the same crappy streaming as Netflix, but at a lower price so that I have some ground to stand on in terms of convincing my family to switch.

Right now, this is not the case.

 

[sholling]

I'm really surprised by BB, 2 of the 3 top picks in my queue were listed as very long waits and the 3rd was listed as a short wait but all three shipped out today. We'll soon see if the shipping is as fast. The nearest NF distribution center is 80 miles away (4 hours in traffic ) and turn around was always same day with 1 day for transit. Anyway so far I'm impressed, I'm getting 3 movies that aren't even available on NF yet.

 

[sholling]

BlockBuster Streaming

It just got more interesting.

Link

At a press conference scheduled for Friday, Dish Network is expected to announce its entry into the streaming-video market via a Blockbuster-branded service that could emerge as a rival to the recently troubled Netflix.

 

[j_garcia]

It just got more interesting.

Link

And now we know why Starz had a falling out with Netflix. Dish already has a deal with Starz, and that's exactly what I thought would happen when the announcement came out about the issue with Netflix.

 

[sholling]

And now we know why Starz had a falling out with Netflix. Dish already has a deal with Starz, and that's exactly what I thought would happen when the announcement came out about the issue with Netflix.

I agree with you. Dish already has relationships with all of the studios and BB's relationship with Studios has always been pretty good since they're the ones that built a business model on cutting the studios in for a piece of the DVD rental action right from the get-go. Now I wonder if they'll come out of the gate with Roku and PS3 channels. Since I just got my first Roku I may be interested if the price is right.

This is also exactly why Netflix needs a better management team. One that will work their butts off to restore the relationship with the once fiercely loyal customers that the current management team managed to alienate.

 

[Pyrrho]

And now we know why Starz had a falling out with Netflix. Dish already has a deal with Starz, and that's exactly what I thought would happen when the announcement came out about the issue with Netflix.

I say, good riddance to Starz. They give crappy video quality AND screw up aspect ratios. They are run by morons who are completely incompetent.

 

[Pyrrho]

...
I actually like the streaming concept for old movies and TV shows and would pay a very small monthly fee for just that sort of service. I'm just ready to give up Blu-Ray quality for new movies and streaming older movies just isn't something that I'd use often. I occasionally enjoy a classic TV show but I'm slowly adding DVD box sets like The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel Megaset and Secret Agent and a few others as they go on sale. I have an ebay bid in on another favorite classic series (DVD) right now and I buy favorite old movies as soon as the Blu-Rays get dirt cheap.
...

The Avengers is a great TV show, and so is Secret Agent. I just wish they had filmed the early episodes of The Avengers (with Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale), which are great, but in poor video and audio quality. And most of the very first season (before her) is just gone. Here is a great website about the show:

http://theavengers.tv/forever/guide.htm

I am very happy I bought all the episodes that still exist.

 

[sholling]

The Avengers is a great TV show, and so is Secret Agent. I just wish they had filmed the early episodes of The Avengers (with Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale), which are great, but in poor video and audio quality. And most of the very first season (before her) is just gone. Here is a great website about the show:

http://theavengers.tv/forever/guide.htm

I am very happy I bought all the episodes that still exist.

Diana Rigg was a delight even if she had no clue how to hold a gun and the fight scenes were extra hokey. She just had a certain coolness. I read someplace she so thoroughly despised George Lazenby that she ate garlic before their love scene in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Anyway I recently picked up the Jesse Stone set of DVDs and keep hoping that John Wayne's The War Wagon gets ported to Blu-Ray soon. I love that movie.

 

[Pyrrho]

Diana Rigg was a delight even if she had no clue how to hold a gun and the fight scenes were extra hokey. She just had a certain coolness. I read someplace she so thoroughly despised George Lazenby that she ate garlic before their love scene in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Anyway I recently picked up the Jesse Stone set of DVDs and keep hoping that John Wayne's The War Wagon gets ported to Blu-Ray soon. I love that movie.

The show was very cool. Part of that was due to the fact that when Honor Blackman took over as the second star, the part originally had been envisioned as for a man, so they wrote her part differently than was normal at that time. Some of that sensibility was kept through the years with Diana Rigg.

The show was witty and clever, despite a good deal of silliness. The writing worked very well, and the main actors played their parts beautifully. There were plenty of plot holes, but the show did not take itself too seriously, and so some flaws are easily overlooked.

They also did some details exactly right for the sensibilities of the time, while making Emma Peel a woman of the world. Her having been married, but with her husband missing and seemingly dead, was perfect to enable her character to work without upsetting people too much in that era.

There are many issues with the show, with quite a lot that is wrong with it. But it is a show that greatly exceeds the sum of its parts, and works regardless of the flaws. It is the greatest TV show of all time.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

For now I will be keeping the Netflix streaming for my wife and daughters.

However, I will be cancelling the Quickster disc rental.

I will go with Blockbuster disc rental + unlimited in-store exchange.

 

[cornelius]

This whole thing is a mess. If I end up keeping anything, I think I'm going to go stream only with Netflix. I didn't rent very many movies from them - ironically I'll be keeping a service that I complained about recently. I never had a problem with their rental service, but the new streaming on-screen format is terrible - it's the worst thing I've ever seen. The peeps at Netflix said that they were getting complaints about the old format from customers, so they changed it. That's hard to believe. This new format is impossible to navigate...

I hope BB goes down - editing scenes out of movies is despicable.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I hope BB goes down - editing scenes out of movies is despicable.

What are you talking about?

 

[j_garcia]

What are you talking about?

I don't think they are actually performing the editing themselves, however they do carry only edited versions of movies. Edits that are intended for conservative climates, (think Mormons) that are apparently not approved by the studios or directors (I don't know that for sure). I do know for sure that most R rated movies at BB are NOT what you would see in the theater or if you rented it anywhere else. They don't have the right to choose what I do and don't get to see in a movie, so I no longer rent movies from them.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I don't think they are actually performing the editing themselves, however they do carry only edited versions of movies. Edits that are intended for conservative climates, (think Mormons) that are apparently not approved by the studios or directors (I don't know that for sure). I do know for sure that most R rated movies at BB are NOT what you would see in the theater or if you rented it anywhere else. They don't have the right to choose what I do and don't get to see in a movie, so I no longer rent movies from them.

I'm thinking that's the old Blockbuster regime.

I think the new BB regime is more liberal and smarter to compete with Netflix.

BTW, BB just sent me 3 BDs exactly in order on my queue, something Netflix is having an issue with. Worse than that, Netflix can't even send me these same 3 titles anytime soon.

 

[darien87]

Unfortunately our BB closed sometime ago and the nearest B&M is 35 miles. What can I say I live in a small town 20 miles from the nearest freeway - and love it.

Yeah, but it gets HELLA hot in Hemet. I used to date a girl from there. You don't happen to know a Blanca Lara do you? Too bad I screwed things up with her she was hot.

But back on topic, I haven't tried Vudu even though they gave me a free trial through PS3 because their regular prices are crazy, ($5 for a rental is WAY overpriced IMO) and when I signed up and did a bandwidth test they came back with SD for me. Screw that!