Netflix Turns Focus Back to Disc

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by slick1ru2

But, gasp, you aren't watching on Blu-ray! Why would you watch them on 1080i, when you could wait and see them in 1080p on Blu-ray??? Is it because its inconvenient to wait for them to be released on Blu-ray before watching them? That means you also put convenience over quality, your statement you made about me. Your argument against streaming is absurd especially since respected technology websites such as CNET have said that NetFlix HD 1080p is at least as good looking as satellite. It sounds like, when you want to slip and watch something less then BD quality its OK, but if others do it, they don't care about quality. Not the case at all. If NetFlix looked like YouTube, I'd never subscribe.

The goog thing about replying to this person, is I know he won't reply back! Too much of my sound logic forced him to place me on ignore!

This is not true in my case. For example until late last year Directv did not carry AMC in HD...I very patiently waited for the BD seasons of: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, The Killing(later this year) all to be released before watching them. Also the BD offers extra features that you can't get via stream. How do you justify that? Oh yeah you can't hear me unless someone else responds!

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by rickah88

The goog thing about replying to this person, is I know he won't reply back! Too much of my sound logic forced him to place me on ignore!

This is not true in my case. For example until late last year Directv did not carry AMC in HD...I very patiently waited for the BD seasons of: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, The Killing(later this year) all to be released before watching them. Also the BD offers extra features that you can't get via stream. How do you justify that? Oh yeah you can't hear me unless someone else responds!

I'll quasi-reply in his place, since I have sort-of-kind-of the same train of thought as he does, I think.

As for the AMC shows you listed, even though I have had AMC in HD for several years I still wait for them on BD. That's because I consider those all to be big time "event" television (I'm going by reputation on the Killing). And AMC's HD piq quality sucks, bad. Its a head-end problem and its been discussed on avsforum. Plus they are all shows I'd like to watch logo/snipe free. As for Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, if I did see convenient (good quality) streaming options for them, I might watch them that way. I would always wait for the BD for Mad Men, since its a strikingly good looking show, with some very curvy eye candy.

That doesn't mean there aren't quite a few shows where I'm going to watch the most convenient way I can. Does it bother me that there's a big logo and program snipes during say Mythbusters? Yeah. Does it bother me as much as the AMC shows you listed? Nah, not enough to wait for DVD releases etc.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

I'll quasi-reply in his place, since I have sort-of-kind-of the same train of thought as he does, I think.

As for the AMC shows you listed, even though I have had AMC in HD for several years I still wait for them on BD. That's because I consider those all to be big time "event" television (I'm going by reputation on the Killing). And AMC's HD piq quality sucks, bad. Its a head-end problem and its been discussed on avsforum. Plus they are all shows I'd like to watch logo/snipe free. As for Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, if I did see convenient (good quality) streaming options for them, I might watch them that way. I would always wait for the BD for Mad Men, since its a strikingly good looking show, with some very curvy eye candy.

That doesn't mean there aren't quite a few shows where I'm going to watch the most convenient way I can. Does it bother me that there's a big logo and program snipes during say Mythbusters? Yeah. Does it bother me as much as the AMC shows you listed? Nah, not enough to wait for DVD releases etc.

I think you're, more/less, agreeing with me. And yes, AMC HD is heavily compressed, but after only have SD for so long(which IMO is unwatchable) it was a relief to finally get it. Also I forgot to add that I did not watch S4 of Breaking Bad, and will be looking forward to that in March(i think).
I'm not anti-streaming...I'm pro disc. For me extras that accompany a movie are a huge selling point. I've bought some lousy movies just to see some of the extras! Now if Netflix streaming offered extras...I'd, perhaps, give it some consideration on some movies/tv shows.
For right now, as I've said, Netflix disc has been(and continues to be) the best option for me. Could it be better? Of course, but we can probably say that about pretty much anything in life!

[havuk88]

Originally Posted by FlipperWasIrish

Why don't you contact Netflix and find out first hand.

lol

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Why would I want to watch Storage Wars, Hoarders, or American Pickers more than once for each episode? It just so happens that the shows I like on satellite have no repeat value.

Such high value placed on the PQ/AQ of what you are watching... and such low value on the actual content you are watching. You'll watch crap like Storage Wars as long as it is in HD... but if someone else wants to steam a classic indie flick or a very informative documentary, or watch a Mash marathon on an SD channel... they are the ones settling for poor quality entertainment? Ironic!

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

Such high value placed on the PQ/AQ of what you are watching... and such low value on the actual content you are watching. You'll watch crap like Storage Wars as long as it is in HD... but if someone else wants to steam a classic indie flick or a very informative documentary, or watch a Mash marathon on an SD channel... they are the ones settling for poor quality entertainment? Ironic!

Storage Wars has an IMDB average of 7.3 so it can't be as crappy as you think it is and yes it is nice that it's in HD.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by hd goofnut

storage wars has an imdb average of 7.3 so it can't be as crappy as you think it is and yes it is nice that it's in hd.

"yeeeeeeeeep"!!!!! :d

[raygendreau]

After Reed's paycut, sacrificial head finally rolls to the board :http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...executive.html

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

After Reed's paycut, sacrificial head finally rolls to the board :http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...executive.html

So she loses her job as marketing executive and gets a seat as a member of the board...how devastating!

[formula72]

Originally Posted by rickah88

"yeeeeeeeeep"!!!!! :d

Dave. H bust's me up every time !!! Hat, truck, shirt whats next? Good show!!!

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by formula72

Dave. H bust's me up every time !!! Hat, truck, shirt whats next? Good show!!!

The wife & I love the show. Tried the spin off: Texas SW...not as good. Oh and I definitely bought a "Yuuup" hat AND a "wow factor" t-shirt!

[lobosrul]

In case anyone cares, I was doing some comparing of PQ on Hulu+ HD versus OTA HDTV channels. Namely FOX, ABC and NBC since they don't have rights to CBS shows.

I was watching on a 24" Dell Ultrasharp 1080p monitor with my face about 1 foot from the screen, ie taking up pretty much my entire field of vision. The HDTV recordings were from an OTA PCI-e tuner card.

On FOX I compared the lastest episode of House. The OTA recording was SLIGHTLY sharper, I had to look at Hugh Laurie's beard to make out any difference. All FOX stations around the country should look pretty much the same, there system is different from the other stations. The HDTV stream is sent to the station and they just pass it along.

On ABC I watched the last episode of Modern Family. Hulu HD was hands down better than ABC. My local station (KOAT) runs a sub channel, and their encoder does this weird thing where the background of a scene kind of freezes. No surprise there.

On NBC I compared the last episode of Community. Hulu was definitely softer which is no surprise as NBC is 1080i. However, its also absent the obvious compression artifacts that I see on NBC whenever there's fast motion. The NBC affiliate (KOB) here also runs a sub-channel (THis TV)

There's also no programming snipes/adverts during the show on Hulu, and generally no logo, or a smaller non-"4:3 safe" translucent logo. Which to me makes up for a small loss in PQ. The downside is your forced to sit through about 2 minutes of commercials during a 42 minute show, no fast forwarding.

Hope I'm not de-railing this thread too much, its just that anyone who automatically thinks streaming is awful pic quality is well, dead wrong. Still, generally, far inferior to BD though.

[slick1ru2]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

In case anyone cares, I was doing some comparing of PQ on Hulu+ HD versus OTA HDTV channels. Namely FOX, ABC and NBC since they don't have rights to CBS shows.

I was watching on a 24" Dell Ultrasharp 1080p monitor with my face about 1 foot from the screen, ie taking up pretty much my entire field of vision. The HDTV recordings were from an OTA PCI-e tuner card.

On FOX I compared the lastest episode of House. The OTA recording was SLIGHTLY sharper, I had to look at Hugh Laurie's beard to make out any difference. All FOX stations around the country should look pretty much the same, there system is different from the other stations. The HDTV stream is sent to the station and they just pass it along.

On ABC I watched the last episode of Modern Family. Hulu HD was hands down better than ABC. My local station (KOAT) runs a sub channel, and their encoder does this weird thing where the background of a scene kind of freezes. No surprise there.

On NBC I compared the last episode of Community. Hulu was definitely softer which is no surprise as NBC is 1080i. However, its also absent the obvious compression artifacts that I see on NBC whenever there's fast motion. The NBC affiliate (KOB) here also runs a sub-channel (THis TV)

There's also no programming snipes/adverts during the show on Hulu, and generally no logo, or a smaller non-"4:3 safe" translucent logo. Which to me makes up for a small loss in PQ. The downside is your forced to sit through about 2 minutes of commercials during a 42 minute show, no fast forwarding.

Hope I'm not de-railing this thread too much, its just that anyone who automatically thinks streaming is awful pic quality is well, dead wrong. Still, generally, far inferior to BD though.

Both very by location and quality of internet connection. OTA is usually less compressed than what you get from pay TV providers. But how much less varies by station too. But generally, its a better signal than satellite or cable in most instances. When I record a show on TV vs OTA, the OTA of the same show is several gigs larger because its not as compressed.

And a bad internet connection of course will force the connection to downgrade, just like back in the days of modems. Modems would test each speed and if the line quality wasn't good, it would drop to the next lower speed so on a noisy line your 56k could end up being a 28.8 connection.

But its good you did that comparison. Streaming, for the most part, is very watchable, definitely better than many detractors say and as good as or better than most cable and satellite providers in the U.S.. I have no idea how they do it, but they do it. I got the NFL Sunday ticket and it looked as good as Dish's PQ of those Fox and CBS games. Sure, the stream was about a minute behind, but so what? The unfortunate thing about that was week 1 the stream was screwed up so many got refunds before they saw week 2. Week 2 was good and week 3 the PQ was even better. I saw a Forbes graphic that projects 40 million streaming on NetFlix by 2018. You can't do that without a good PQ because people are getting used to better PQ now since more and more are subscribing to HD TV and won't stand for watching crap.

[slick1ru2]

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Netfl...-TV-29565.html

Netflix Makes Deal With The Weinstein Company To Stream Movies Before They Go To Pay TV

Back in September Netflix completed a major deal with DreamWorks Animation. For years the studio had a deal with HBO in which the network would get first run of all of DreamWorks Animation films starting in 2013. It was the first time in history that a studio decided to go with an internet streaming service over a pay-TV station, and it was predicted back then that other companies could make similar deals. According to the Associated Press, that has now happened.

The Weinstein Company has completed a deal with Netflix that will give the online streaming network first dibs on all of the studio's upcoming releases. The contract is described as a multiyear deal, but it doesn't say just how long it will last. One of the elements that makes this such a notable story is that one of the films included in the deal is Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist, which is currently considered this year's frontrunner in multiple Academy Award categories, including Best Picture and Best Director. This news couldn't have come at a better time for the company. Next week the internet service will be losing a large chunk of their content as their three-year deal with Starz Entertainment is set to expire.

The AP story notes that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings previously identified HBO as their biggest rival in the next decade and in that respect this is a major power play. There's a very good chance that the Weinstein Company won't be the last studio to make a deal like this with Netflix or another streaming company, which means that the likes of HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and other premium channels are going to need to start getting creative.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by slick1ru2

Both very by location and quality of internet connection. OTA is usually less compressed than what you get from pay TV providers. But how much less varies by station too. But generally, its a better signal than satellite or cable in most instances. When I record a show on TV vs OTA, the OTA of the same show is several gigs larger because its not as compressed.

And a bad internet connection of course will force the connection to downgrade, just like back in the days of modems. Modems would test each speed and if the line quality wasn't good, it would drop to the next lower speed so on a noisy line your 56k could end up being a 28.8 connection.

But its good you did that comparison. Streaming, for the most part, is very watchable, definitely better than many detractors say and as good as or better than most cable and satellite providers in the U.S.. I have no idea how they do it, but they do it. I got the NFL Sunday ticket and it looked as good as Dish's PQ of those Fox and CBS games. Sure, the stream was about a minute behind, but so what? The unfortunate thing about that was week 1 the stream was screwed up so many got refunds before they saw week 2. Week 2 was good and week 3 the PQ was even better. I saw a Forbes graphic that projects 40 million streaming on NetFlix by 2008. You can't do that without a good PQ because people are getting used to better PQ now since more and more are subscribing to HD TV and won't stand for watching crap.

Well i always said streaming was a backwards technology!

[dyne]

Has their site been broken lately? I cancelled months ago and have not received a bill from them. I considered starting up a disc plan again but the site is screwy on both my work and home pc's as well as my ipad. I can log in and check my account status which lists my current membership plan as "streaming only" even though I'm not being billed. If I try to change membership it sends me back to the home page to log in. If I try to browse the discs I'm prompted to log in, even if I'm already logged in. It's just so completely broken. Anybody else having issues?

[slick1ru2]

Originally Posted by dyne

Has their site been broken lately? I cancelled months ago and have not received a bill from them. I considered starting up a disc plan again but the site is screwy on both my work and home pc's as well as my ipad. I can log in and check my account status which lists my current membership plan as "streaming only" even though I'm not being billed. If I try to change membership it sends me back to the home page to log in. If I try to browse the discs I'm prompted to log in, even if I'm already logged in. It's just so completely broken. Anybody else having issues?

There is another website for disc only that's hard to find.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/...flix-dvd-subs/

Qwikster Rebaptized: Netflix’s Name Game With Disc-Only Subscriptions



By Tim Carmody
Email Author
February 17, 2012 |

Here’s a new post title from Netflix’s company blog that wouldn’t have made sense five years ago, or even last July: “Now you can sign up directly for a DVD only plan.”

First, it’s all true. As of Thursday, new customers can sign up for a plan that includes unlimited DVD and Blu-ray discs by mail for $7.99 a month, with a free one-month trial. The trick is, you have to navigate to dvd.netflix.com, rather than Netflix.com or signup.netflix.com (which is where netflix.com redirects users who aren’t signed in).

Now, this actually isn’t so new. Netflix has offered a DVD-only plan at the same price for months. In fact, if you read the company’s famous July 2011 post announcing its forthcoming (and soon to be wildly unpopular) pricing changes, it outlines essentially the same procedure, even pointing to the same URL:

First, we are launching new DVD only plans. These plans offer our lowest prices ever for unlimited DVDs — only $7.99 a month for our 1 DVD out at-a-time plan and $11.99 a month for our 2 DVDs out at-a-time plan. By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members. New members can sign up for these plans by going to DVD.netflix.com.

Part of the decision to direct disc-only subscribers to a different URL was (and is) to funnel new Netflix subscribers into digital streaming. If you go to netflix.com or signup.netflix.com, you don’t even get an option to sign up for a disc-only plan. Netflix wants to sell discs-by-mail on top of streaming subscriptions, not separately — partly because it makes more revenue that way, and partly because the company’s priority is to boost subscribers for its now-flagship streaming video product.

But shortly after Netflix decided to rebrand its disc-only service as Qwikster, it actually became more difficult for new Netflix customers to sign up for disc-only plans.

For a while, the dvd.netflix.com address redirected to the placeholder Qwikster.com. But when Netflix cancelled Qwikster — partly because it made account and queue management even more convoluted — Qwikster.com began redirecting to Netflix.com. So it was nearly impossible to sign up for a new disc-only subscription over the web. Everything funneled back to streaming signups.

So what happened? DVD and Blu-ray subscriptions — whether standalone or paired with streaming plans — cratered. Netflix lost almost three million disc subscriptions between the third and fourth quarters of 2011. This wouldn’t be a problem except that disc subscriptions are still much more profitable than streaming video.

Plummeting disc subscriptions are the dirty little secret behind Netflix’s holiday-fueled bounceback in domestic subscription numbers. Some users dropped their DVD plans for streaming only. Others, upset that their prices had gone up, cancelled entirely. After years of disc-fueled growth, virtually nobody was signing up for new DVD plans.

That’s the problem the new signup service resolves. Netflix still needs to grow its streaming subscription base, so it’s always going to direct walk-in customers to streaming first. Every additional streaming subscriber translates both to Wall Street-friendly growth and overall streaming profit.

But there’s still a healthy, high-margin market for disc rentals, as Blu-ray adoption continues to grow and DVDs still remain the best choice to get any content in the world. Netflix can’t afford to lose the disc market to Blockbuster, Redbox or any other pretender.

Even if streaming is the future, optical media remains inseparable from our present. Qwikster clearly wasn’t the answer, but at least it began to address the right questions.

[The_Donster]

Originally Posted by dyne

Has their site been broken lately? I cancelled months ago and have not received a bill from them. I considered starting up a disc plan again but the site is screwy on both my work and home pc's as well as my ipad. I can log in and check my account status which lists my current membership plan as "streaming only" even though I'm not being billed. If I try to change membership it sends me back to the home page to log in. If I try to browse the discs I'm prompted to log in, even if I'm already logged in. It's just so completely broken. Anybody else having issues?

Since I do both BD and steaming I'm not sure what other website slick is talking about. Try giving them a call dyne instead, The phone number is (888) 811-1933. Customer service was pretty great when I called the other day. I lost my return label for my BD and they are sending me out the next thing on my que.

[dyne]

Thanks for the info guys. How could one company make so many terrible decisions in such short time? Oddly enough the dvd.netflix site takes me to a sign in page to restart my membership. I can either restart the $7.99/month for streaming which I don't want or add dvd to the streaming for $15/month. There's no dvd only option. To hell with them. I don't want them to have my money if they can't even get a website or business model right.

[The_Donster]

Give them a call and get it sorted out there. I'd think you'd be grandfather'd on the BD only, but I don't know for sure?