Netflix (DVD Delivery Discussion Only)

[Noiradelic]

Interesting you brought up Starz, because I'm wondering when they'll make a play for getting back in the online game again. They had a good thing going with Netflix, and it's still a little beyond me as to why they left.

The original Starz deal was cut when the streaming market wasn't nearly as lucrative. When it was up, Starz asked for way more than Netflix was willing to pay, an amount apparently based on the recent expensive Epix deal. Since Netflix had become so popular, I think Starz felt it was undercutting its premium cable business, asked for an amount that factored that in and were content with walking away. Their plans for the Starz Play online service probably had a lot to do with it too.

Starz Play has just launched their Roku app.

[flyonthewall2983]

Hopefully it gets to other platforms soon, I'm quite interested in their new shows Blunt Talk and Survivor's Remorse.

[George Drooly]

80 titles (or 1/4) from my instant watch list suddenly have expiration dates of 1 Oct. Lots of Jean Rollin, Mario Bava, Jess Franco, etc. but not sure if any one studio or label is specifically represented. I guess I can watch all these in less than seven days, sure.

[gorgeousnothings]

80 titles (or 1/4) from my instant watch list suddenly have expiration dates of 1 Oct. Lots of Jean Rollin, Mario Bava, Jess Franco, etc. but not sure if any one studio or label is specifically represented. I guess I can watch all these in less than seven days, sure.

What you're seeing is the result of Netflix letting their deal with Epix lapse. I'm sure there a ton of movies leaving, plenty of blockbusters and classics. One movie I'm sad to see go so soon is Dear White People, which is honestly a pretty funny film that deals with race on campus.

[flyonthewall2983]

Epix is going to Hulu. If it's like that service's similar deal with Showtime, it will cost 9.99 to purchase as an extra. The upside of that (using the Showtime deal as the model) is titles will appear soon as it premieres on the channel, whereas on Netflix you had to wait at least a month or two. And now that the channel is inching forwards to original scripted programming that's quite important.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Amazon also has a deal with Epix (the lack of exclusivity supposedly being part of why Netflix chose not to re-up). Most of the Epix titles leaving Netflix will be sticking around on Amazon Prime, though of course I realize most Netflix subscribers probably don't have Prime as well. I don't think it's just the Epix catalog though, since I notice most of Netflix's Kino titles are also leaving and I'm not sure those are part of the Epix deal. (I guess I could be wrong and Epix actually has the streaming rights to things like The Birth of a Nation.) Since Netflix always waits until the end of the month to release laughably incomplete lists of titles leaving the service, some folks on this blog have put together their own lists of the titles that will be gone on October 1st; these lists are themselves incomplete and new additions are constantly being found, but it's more than you'll get from Netflix on the 28th or thereabouts.

[flyonthewall2983]

Epix is an interesting case. They've had a bit of an uphill battle as far as getting noticed (Comcast turned them down because they said they had too many premium channels). What made it worse is that they didn't brand their movies on Netflix like Starz did. People not as savvy about this stuff think the stuff coming in from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM on Netflix was part of a deal they had with the companies directly, thus when this news came out I saw more than a couple "WTF is Epix" comments online about it.

[D50]

Very poor rating for usps from the day after Veteran's day to today. Mail arriving after 6pm, discs not received by netflix for days.

[Raymond Marble]

Though it has yet to surface in the U.S. on DVD/Blu-ray, Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat On a Branch Reflecting On Existence is streaming now on Netflix, for whatever reason.

[Roger Ryan]

Though it has yet to surface in the U.S. on DVD/Blu-ray, Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat On a Branch Reflecting On Existence is streaming now on Netflix, for whatever reason.

Frustratingly, the streaming feed employs English SDH subtitles. This is especially annoying for a film with so little dialogue as the viewer is constantly bombarded with captions like "[Whirring sound continues]". ](*,)

[Donald Brown]

Netflix will start delivering even shittier image quality for streaming customers thanks to more compression.

[D50]

Less than poor service over the last few months. Downgraded from 2 dvds out to 1 a couple weeks ago. Just cancelled yesterday. The last straw was the new "queue" page, with little bitty icons of dvd covers in front of each queue entry, making the page lock up at times, and very slow to load on others. They have zero pull with USPS anymore. With 1 dvd out, I got a total of 1 dvd last week, even though I returned it the same day before mail closed out.

[dustybooks]

Oddly, I've been impressed with the service lately; it's sped up in the last few months and there's been a decent amount of accommodation when a disc has to come from farther away. (Have almost always had an extra disc since November.) I agree the new interface is clunky but -- just for example -- this week I managed to get hold of Kino's second Avant Garde set versus paying $100+ for it on ebay, and I reckon it will be some time before I feel I can do without this. There have been major ups and downs though so my luck could easily change overnight.

[Cash Flagg]

I haven't seen any improvement at all - every single disc continues to take two or even three days to reach their fulfillment center. It's been that way for at least a year now.

[lacritfan]

I'm on the two DVD plan.
Sent two DVDs back (in the same envelope) Saturday 1/16.
Tuesday 1/19 (Monday was MLK holiday) they sent one movie from my queue. Queue showed three movies out, the two I sent back and the one they sent.
Thursday 1/21 queue still showed the same thing.
Today 1/22 queue is finally updated with two new DVDs out.

I'm thinking they've decreased the number of employees who fulfill/ship DVDs to account for the slow turnaround but have no idea why the software that manages your queue is so far behind.

[D50]

Just when I thought I was out - they pull me back in.

[lacritfan]

Wanted to catch up on some nostalgia DVDs I think might be going away and also recent Oscar (snubbed) movies so upgraded to the three-at-a-time + Blu-ray plan.
When I send two DVDs back in the same envelope they've been sending only one out right away, the second one a day later.
"DVDs out" status doesn't update for days, at one point showed I had six DVDs at home.
One good thing they've been doing is sending me Long Wait DVDs from across the country and not counting it against my plan.

[guidedbyvoices]

I just restarted my 2 Blu at a time plan. I'm in a weird loop where the USPS tells them somethings coming back so they assume both films, and send a third. Fine by me.

[D50]

I cancelled. Got tired of paying the same for less than half of what I used to get for my money.

[nosy lena]

I just joined back for lord knows what reason, after years away, and am I right that they no longer have Criterion discs? I'm on the 1 blu-ray plan and none of the Criterions I was looking for show up as being available in blu-ray.

[ando]

As far as I can tell they still have several Criterion discs for rental, though virtually nothing for streaming.

I was in the mood for an old b/w classic and was greatly disappointed at the poor selection for streaming. They seem to be pushing new movies/tv shows which have little to me. Settling on an old Fritz Lang flick I've never seen - Man Hunt (1941). Cast looks promising.

[Noiradelic]

As far as I can tell they still have several Criterion discs for rental, though virtually nothing for streaming.

Don't think that any film Criterion has streaming rights to is on Netflix. Any movies that CC have released on disc are only available there because someone else, like IFC, has the rights.

I was in the mood for an old b/w classic and was greatly disappointed at the poor selection for streaming. They seem to be pushing new movies/tv shows

Their movie selection is generally terrible (including recent Hollywood movies), though a decent lineup of recent foreign films.

[ando]

You're quite right, Noiradelic.

Btw, Man Hunt is terrible. Started out with a somewhat intriguing premise; namely, that Walter Pigeon's British game hunter character may or may not be out to assassinate Hitler, but neither Walter Pigeon nor Joan Bennett are believable as Brits. George Sanders sports a decent German accent but is as unpleasant to watch as Pigeon is too sickeningly slick a good sport to believe. Joan Bennett's wide-eyed dumbell routine grows old quickly and (papa) John Carradine's turn as the evil Pigeon doppelgänger Is the stuff of SNL parodies. Lang, never a terribly subtle director, is downright insipid here. The film is a beautiful confection, which has its visual counterpart in films from Lang in that era like Scarlet Street, but to my mind Lang was always more effective when he had a smaller world to pick on.

NF does have a handful of decent martial arts streamers, from good contemporary flicks like Ong-Bak to classics like Way of the Dragon and 36 Chambers. Sill looking for a quiet b/w classic, tho. In the meantime, Reel Injun (2009) may do the trick: You know the only thing more pathetic than watching Indians on tv is real Indians watching Indians on tv! Followed, of course, by Jarmusch's Dead Man ('95). Least it's black and white.

[Feego]

Netflix recently offered me a one-month free trial in hopes of luring me back after being away for a few years. I signed up for a month of free streaming in January, and their "classic" selections leave a lot to be desired -- very little in the way of classic black-and-white films of the 1930s and 40s, mostly stuff that airs regularly on TCM, and illustrious titles from way back in the 80s like 9 to 5. I pretty much spent the month getting my fill of recent horror movies.

[guidedbyvoices]

I just joined back for lord knows what reason, after years away, and am I right that they no longer have Criterion discs? I'm on the 1 blu-ray plan and none of the Criterions I was looking for show up as being available in blu-ray.

it's hit or miss, and can't always tell from the cover shot they use on the site. For example the copy of Days of Heaven I got a while back was definitely Criterion. they have criterion of French Lieutenant's Woman, but others like Monsieur Verdoux is some off brand dvd. I use the blu ray disc option as a way to see the films so I don't blind buy them.