Netflix (DVD Delivery Discussion Only)

[Perkins Cobb]

Another horrible-looking streaming entry that falls into the "only available on a crummy-looking OOP DVD, so why not" is Makavejev's Montenegro, although in that case, unlike with Insiang, I am holding out the faint hope that a print or a better-looking disc release will come my way someday.

[ando]

Well, you can also look at it in all its crummy glory on Barnes & Nobles' new Nook Tablet Netflix app. I've tested it - resolution is great (for a 7" Android tablet - no pixelation that I saw, for instance, on its Showtime app).

I'm finally getting around to watching Pasolini's trilogy of life series on streaming, although Arabian Nights is the only one in HD.

[Drucker]

So Arrested Development is officially coming back... to Netflix Instant exclusively.

[mfunk9786]

Hey, that's stupid!

[Drucker]

Netflix will lose money throughout 2012

[ando]

Netflix's New York Times Picks come to a total of 221 titles. Might not be a bad idea to try and make my way through these as most must have some salient feature. My random cherry picking isn't yielding very good results.

[hearthesilence]

I finally started looking into DVD subscriptions by mail, and I have to say, I wish they KEPT Quickster. I have no interest in paying more for streaming rentals, especially now that NetFlix is cycling out some better films for crappier ones (apparently, they have no interest in supporting indie and art film rentals, not unless they pull the same numbers as franchise films), and $8/month would've been a steal compared to other companies. Blockbuster ain't bad at $10 a month, but their selection's smaller, and apparently they have a bad habit of sending the wrong DVD, which can slow the turnaround time quite a bit.

[Perkins Cobb]

Blockbuster has never sent me the wrong DVD. Their selection is still smaller than Netflix and their disc turnaround is slower, but they are valuable for the number of recent releases (especially Blus) that Netflix doesn't carry.

[Perkins Cobb]

"They overspent on streaming content," says one television executive who has been on the other side of such negotiations. "What's amazing is, they are still trying to buy their way out by borrowing cash to cover even more content costs."

But they won't buy any Criterion DVDs. Dicks.

[ando]

Highly recommend Carlos Sorin's The Window (2008) now available on instant stream - a quiet little masterpiece. Best film I've seen in a while.

[domino harvey]

More bad news for Netflix, though at least this time it's not exactly their fault: New US Postal policies will eliminate next day local first class mail service. Translation for those who won't read the whole thing: the USPS is so broke that they're no longer promising next day delivery for first class mail, which includes Netflix envelopes. Waiting two days to get a disc and two days for them to get it back is probably enough for me to finally just walk away from ol' Netflixy, or at the most bump it down to one disc a month for those OOP titles Netflix still has copies of. The times, they are a changin'

[mfunk9786]

You'd better start streamin' or you'll wait a week for The Road

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Waiting two days to get a disc and two days for them to get it back is probably enough for me to finally just walk away from ol' Netflixy, or at the most bump it down to one disc a month for those OOP titles Netflix still has copies of.

This is how long it normally takes for mine so I hope this won't make it any slower. Two movies a week is ridiculous enough for me. Streaming is nice, but there's more in my disc queue that I want to see than is available for streaming.

[Bill Thompson]

I didn't see this anywhere in the last page or so,

Pretty interesting article about the way Netflix views/is currently ordering Indie films.

[neal]

I didn't see this anywhere in the last page or so,

Pretty interesting article about the way Netflix views/is currently ordering Indie films.

Six pages ago.

[domino harvey]

"We became a sort of a Bank of America symbol, which is super unfortunate," Hastings said Tuesday in comments monitored on a webcast. "We berate ourselves tremendously for that lack of insight because it didn't need to be that way. But, you know, in three or five years, we aren't going to remember it. It's going to be: `Did we succeed at streaming?' That's all people are going to care about in three or five years. So we are not losing too much sleep over it. We are charging ahead."

This guy, I swear

[Drucker]

Verizon is reportedly going to start a streaming service and didn't Blockbuster say that it would be a focus for them, too? There obviously is SOME market for physical discs-by-mail...does nobody want it?

I already canceled Netflix streaming and am about to get rid of Hulu+. As nice as it is to have a lot of these materials at my fingertips, the often inconsistency of the app working (videos/the program won't load but my internet is definitely working just fine) and the poor quality of the video leaves me finding myself reaching for stuff I have physically nine times out of ten.

[Perkins Cobb]

"We became a sort of a Bank of America symbol, which is super unfortunate," Hastings said Tuesday in comments monitored on a webcast. "We berate ourselves tremendously for that lack of insight because it didn't need to be that way. But, you know, in three or five years, we aren't going to remember it. It's going to be: `Did we succeed at streaming?' That's all people are going to care about in three or five years. So we are not losing too much sleep over it. We are charging ahead."

This guy, I swear

Yeah, and they're not going to succeed at streaming, and this clown is going to be the CEO of Coinstar or some shit. Which will be entertaining, but won't deliver me all those OOP movies that nobody cares enough to stream properly.

[Perkins Cobb]

Meanwhile, the post office thing, if it happens (and I think it's possible people will bitch enough to make them back off of it for a while, like they did with five-day delivery), will trigger a bunch more Netflix disc cancellations and finally give Reed his excuse to dump DVDs. And in the meantime I'll probably have to buy TWO fuggin' eight-disc subscriptions to try to see all the discs before Reed landfills 'em. Y'know, Reed better hope my health stays good, 'cause if it doesn't I might go all Dennis Potter on his ass.

[swo17]

Nerdy math post (sorry): If it really does end up taking an extra day both ways for discs to come and go in the mail, customers will get on average 60% of the value that they had previously and Netflix will be doing about 60% as much work. (This is true at least for people that regularly return their discs. Each 1-at-a-time disc in my plan presently gets me a disc every 3 mail days. Under the new plan, it would be one every 5 mail days. 3/5 = 60%.) Since the amount of work Netflix expends to send the discs will drop commensurate with the drop in the actual value of each member's subscription, it would seem like they could just drop all of their rates to about 60% of what they are presently. So if I'm on the 3-at-a-time program now, I should theoretically be able to get on the 5-at-a-time program after the change for the same price as I'm paying now, and everyone ends up more or less where they were before. Naturally, I'm simplifying things here (people who keep discs out forever will be affected differently, not all of Netflix's expenses are tied in with how many discs they send out, the perceived value of a membership is less when there's more of a lag between shipment and receipt) but the basic idea should hold.

This is of course all assuming that Reed Hastings knows math.

[domino harvey]

Let us not forget that this is the same company that, at the height of social networking, removed their friend functionality

[aox]

Let us not forget that this is the same company that, at the height of social networking, removed their friend functionality

[Perkins Cobb]

This is of course all assuming that Reed Hastings knows math.

That's an interesting point, but we can all guess how that's going to go: Netflix will keep the price the same and let the value drop by 40%. More profit on the books, AND it helps to kill off the disc business. Win-win.

[Perkins Cobb]

And another wrinkle: For the last week or so, Blockbuster has been trying to sell me the movies in my queue. I can keep one of discs I have out for $4.49, another for $2.99. Is the first step towards shutting down their disc business? Even if it's just a random cash grab, it'll mean the few advantages their library has against Netflix will dwindle. In fact, I'm actually tempted to buy some OOP discs of them at those prices, even without the packaging.

[jwd5275]

And another wrinkle: For the last week or so, Blockbuster has been trying to sell me the movies in my queue. I can keep one of discs I have out for $4.49, another for $2.99. Is the first step towards shutting down their disc business? Even if it's just a random cash grab, it'll mean the few advantages their library has against Netflix will dwindle. In fact, I'm actually tempted to buy some OOP discs of them at those prices, even without the packaging.

This is something they have done for quite awhile. However as far as i 've seen, Blockbuster only offers in print titles to "keep", so I think it has more to do with generating cash from used discs like they did with pre-viewed titles in store than trying to ween away the disc business...