Netflix Turns Focus Back to Disc

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I do wonder why Netflix hasn't tried to make their own kiosk system.

That ship departed port sometime back, same as disc by mail. Sometimes you can come up with a fair chance of competing (iPad), sometimes you can not (kiosk). Once a business model becomes entrenched it can be almost impossible to compete with it.

Another MAJOR problem, how do you get around those Redbox kiosk patents.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

My thought process for many years now. The last time I calculated the cost of disc rental by mail I had an average of ≈ $1.92 per disc, for me that is a bargain.

Yes, like you I do 3BD/month, and figure to be slightly less than $2....or another way of looking at it: Basically the cost of one new release BD nets me ~15 BD/month. Definitely a great deal, for me.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

That ship departed port sometime back, same as disc by mail. Sometimes you can come up with a fair chance of competing (iPad), sometimes you can not (kiosk). Once a business model becomes entrenched it can be almost impossible to compete with it.

Another MAJOR problem, how do you get around those Redbox kiosk patents.

Well I was wondering why they didn't consider it in the past too. Netflix is still a stronger brand name than redbox, so if it weren't for the patents, I still think Netflix kiosks would realy bite into redbox's physical rental marketshare over time.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I know, I just got a call from a friend in Howard County, that's why I responded as I was thinking of you.

Remember guns don’t kill people….people kill people….that’s why we have such a large problem here in the U.S. with deaths due to knifings.

I'm completely in favor of gun licensing and other controls, I'm a member of several organizations that support this and I'm also happy to be living in NYC where it's pretty tough for a private citizen to get a gun permit. Personally, I see absolutely no reason to own a gun. I think we live in a society that worships violence and one in which there seems (subjectively) to be an ever-increasing number of very paranoid and disturbed people. There are still an awful lot of people in this country who think we're still fighting the Civil War.

And we also live in a society of very poorly-informed people. A recent study, which asked people five topical questions demonstrated that people who watch Fox News knew less than those people who didn't watch any news at all, but no one, no matter how they got their news, did very well. And that lack of having a handle on the real facts of any situation causes, IMO, more people to seek violence as a response to the perceived ills of society.

And while I don't believe in any form of censorship, I think there are plenty of young people who grow up on a diet of violent media and games. If that's all you see, then that becomes normality for you and it's not such a big deal to act violently yourself. So we have these extremely disturbed kids who arm themselves and because somebody "dissed" them at school, decide to murder a bunch of people.

But having said that, it IS people who kill people. Having a gun just makes it a lot easier. But I still think our society is completely nuts when it comes to guns. We have more laws and regulations about masseuses and nail polish salons than we do about gun ownership.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I'm completely in favor of gun licensing and other controls, I'm a member of several organizations that support this and I'm also happy to be living in NYC where it's pretty tough for a private citizen to get a gun permit. Personally, I see absolutely no reason to own a gun. I think we live in a society that worships violence and one in which there seems (subjectively) to be an ever-increasing number of very paranoid and disturbed people. There are still an awful lot of people in this country who think we're still fighting the Civil War.

And we also live in a society of very poorly-informed people. A recent study, which asked people five topical questions demonstrated that people who watch Fox News knew less than those people who didn't watch any news at all, but no one, no matter how they got their news, did very well. And that lack of having a handle on the real facts of any situation causes, IMO, more people to seek violence as a response to the perceived ills of society.

And while I don't believe in any form of censorship, I think there are plenty of young people who grow up on a diet of violent media and games. If that's all you see, then that becomes normality for you and it's not such a big deal to act violently yourself. So we have these extremely disturbed kids who arm themselves and because somebody "dissed" them at school, decide to murder a bunch of people.

But having said that, it IS people who kill people. Having a gun just makes it a lot easier. But I still think our society is completely nuts when it comes to guns. We have more laws and regulations about masseuses and nail polish salons than we do about gun ownership.

Ahhh, the old media chestnut. IMO, that's such bull. A person has got to be disturbed in the first place to commit acts of violence. People were blaming virtua fighter and street fighter decades ago. Utter bullshit in my opinion.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I'm completely in favor of gun licensing and other controls, I'm a member of several organizations that support this and I'm also happy to be living in NYC where it's pretty tough for a private citizen to get a gun permit. Personally, I see absolutely no reason to own a gun. I think we live in a society that worships violence and one in which there seems (subjectively) to be an ever-increasing number of very paranoid and disturbed people. There are still an awful lot of people in this country who think we're still fighting the Civil War.

And we also live in a society of very poorly-informed people. A recent study, which asked people five topical questions demonstrated that people who watch Fox News knew less than those people who didn't watch any news at all, but no one, no matter how they got their news, did very well. And that lack of having a handle on the real facts of any situation causes, IMO, more people to seek violence as a response to the perceived ills of society.

And while I don't believe in any form of censorship, I think there are plenty of young people who grow up on a diet of violent media and games. If that's all you see, then that becomes normality for you and it's not such a big deal to act violently yourself. So we have these extremely disturbed kids who arm themselves and because somebody "dissed" them at school, decide to murder a bunch of people.

But having said that, it IS people who kill people. Having a gun just makes it a lot easier. But I still think our society is completely nuts when it comes to guns. We have more laws and regulations about masseuses and nail polish salons than we do about gun ownership.

puuuuhhlllease, violent crime in the U.S. is at an all time low... all it is is the media hyping up these isolated incidents to a frenzy in an era of instant communication.

and getting rid of guns won't solve anything. look at England and Australia, the poster childs of the anti-gun movement. if you look closely at the stats their gun crime IS very low, but violent crimes, rape etc are ENORMOUSLY high comparatively. London subways are one of the must unsafe places in all 1st world countries. mankind is by nature going to have the same amount of violent people. why do you think wars and violence have happened for THOUSANDS of years. guns weren't invented back then, they used the tools that were available to them.

all of this isn't to say that England or Australia is some crime littered place, but that blame the people, NOT the tools used for a crime. if the columbine kids hadn't gotten guns they had the tools and equipment in their house (and all laid out ready to go) for pipe bombs..

[mredman]

Good god netflix looks horrible on a projector screen. Tried Dark Knight Rises its just so dark and smudged looks like SD and its even supposed to be in 1080p HD or that "superHD". Put in the blu ray of TDKR. Looks freaking fantastic on it. WOW the quality is just miles away from Blu Ray not to mention the AQ. I was actually surprised how bad the movie looks on netflix compared to the amazing picture and audio on the blu ray.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by mredman

Good god netflix looks horrible on a projector screen. Tried Dark Knight Rises its just so dark and smudged looks like SD and its even supposed to be in 1080p HD or that "superHD". Put in the blu ray of TDKR. Looks freaking fantastic on it. WOW the quality is just miles away from Blu Ray not to mention the AQ. I was actually surprised how bad the movie looks on netflix compared to the amazing picture and audio on the blu ray.

Exactly. and Netflix with these crappy bitrates use 30% of the ENTIRE U.S. bandwith available... I want to know how this is going to be solved if EVERYTHING goes streaming

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by mredman

Good god netflix looks horrible on a projector screen. Tried Dark Knight Rises its just so dark and smudged looks like SD and its even supposed to be in 1080p HD or that "superHD". Put in the blu ray of TDKR. Looks freaking fantastic on it. WOW the quality is just miles away from Blu Ray not to mention the AQ. I was actually surprised how bad the movie looks on netflix compared to the amazing picture and audio on the blu ray.

Huh? Netflix doesn't have The Dark Knight Rises. Are you from another region?

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Huh? Netflix doesn't have The Dark Knight Rises. Are you from another region?

he's probably talking about TDK and accidentally put in the R

[mredman]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Huh? Netflix doesn't have The Dark Knight Rises. Are you from another region?

yeah Denmark

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by mredman

yeah Denmark

Ah, okay. I've been pretty pleased with the Super HD option here. It's definitely nowhere near BD quality, and not even up to Vudu's HDX yet (close though with some movies), but it's not terrible by any means. I'm not viewing on a huge screen though so I imagine it would look way worse when projected.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I'm completely in favor of gun licensing and other controls, I'm a member of several organizations that support this and I'm also happy to be living in NYC where it's pretty tough for a private citizen to get a gun permit. Personally, I see absolutely no reason to own a gun. I think we live in a society that worships violence and one in which there seems (subjectively) to be an ever-increasing number of very paranoid and disturbed people. There are still an awful lot of people in this country who think we're still fighting the Civil War.

And we also live in a society of very poorly-informed people. A recent study, which asked people five topical questions demonstrated that people who watch Fox News knew less than those people who didn't watch any news at all, but no one, no matter how they got their news, did very well. And that lack of having a handle on the real facts of any situation causes, IMO, more people to seek violence as a response to the perceived ills of society.

And while I don't believe in any form of censorship, I think there are plenty of young people who grow up on a diet of violent media and games. If that's all you see, then that becomes normality for you and it's not such a big deal to act violently yourself. So we have these extremely disturbed kids who arm themselves and because somebody "dissed" them at school, decide to murder a bunch of people.

But having said that, it IS people who kill people. Having a gun just makes it a lot easier. But I still think our society is completely nuts when it comes to guns. We have more laws and regulations about masseuses and nail polish salons than we do about gun ownership.

What study was this, exactly?

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Netflix is still a stronger brand name than redbox, so if it weren't for the patents, I still think Netflix kiosks would realy bite into redbox's physical rental marketshare over time.

Well I don't know about that, neither brand is in the top 200. DirecTV is number 112, even AutoDesk is in the top 100. The last number I saw some time back was > 40 million unique renters at Redbox. 39,000 Redbox kiosk is a lot of signage .

[The_Donster]

I get where you're coming from Rick. This thread has been derailed so many times that I've lost track myself. Unfortunately neither side can stick to the topic and those of us who use both are kind of stuck in the middle. Back on point, when did they go to 3 BD's a month? Never knew that, but apparently the mrs. was aware of it. 2 BD's, when they are BD's is fine with me. I realize that not everything is on BD, but when something is released on it I wish Netflix would upgrade the discs to BD. If I had one complaint about Netflix, it would be that. While I have over 200 movies in my que I am tired of bumping things around hoping that they'll upgrade. Like some, I don't see the appeal of standing in line at the kiosk and I hope that Netflix doesn't go that route. If they do, since it makes sense from a business sense I hope they don't eliminate the mail route. Although again, it would make sense from a business sense. I honestly pay a buck or two to stay with mail and non-rental discs. So here's my question to those overseas, how does Netflix work over there? Is it both, disc or just streaming?

[mredman]

Originally Posted by The_Donster

I get where you're coming from Rick. This thread has been derailed so many times that I've lost track myself. Unfortunately neither side can stick to the topic and those of us who use both are kind of stuck in the middle. Back on point, when did they go to 3 BD's a month? Never knew that, but apparently the mrs. was aware of it. 2 BD's, when they are BD's is fine with me. I realize that not everything is on BD, but when something is released on it I wish Netflix would upgrade the discs to BD. If I had one complaint about Netflix, it would be that. While I have over 200 movies in my que I am tired of bumping things around hoping that they'll upgrade. Like some, I don't see the appeal of standing in line at the kiosk and I hope that Netflix doesn't go that route. If they do, since it makes sense from a business sense I hope they don't eliminate the mail route. Although again, it would make sense from a business sense. I honestly pay a buck or two to stay with mail and non-rental discs. So here's my question to those overseas, how does Netflix work over there? Is it both, disc or just streaming?

just streaming from i am aware. How does the discs work can anyone explain to me about netflix and discs ?

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by The_Donster

Back on point, when did they go to 3 BD's a month?

Quite sometime ago. I have the 3 BD at a time. They have plans ranging from 1 to 8 at a time. On the Change Plan pane click Show More Plans to see them all.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by mredman

just streaming from i am aware. How does the discs work can anyone explain to me about netflix and discs ?

Click here for details. If you are a streaming member go to your Account and you can add a disc plan. They may let you sign-up for the first month for free.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by mredman

just streaming from i am aware. How does the discs work can anyone explain to me about netflix and discs ?

You create an account, then start placing movies in your queue. As your queue builds up(and this is key, as Donster mentioned), you can start raising/lowering different movies as you desire. Obviosly the first slot will be the next disc Netflxi will send you, then 2, right on down the line. You can have anywhere from 1 to 8(i think this is the highest amount) discs out at a time, and Netflix has different pricing tiers based on how many discs. They charge a $2 fee for blu-ray which increases one dollar per disc tier(an extra $9 if you have 8 discs out at a time, totalling $52.99/month - the most expensive).
Then as they send you discs, you watch them, place them in the return envelope, and they will send you an email when they receive it(usually that same day for me, but this depends on your USPS courier).
Obviously this is not for everyone, but it works out great for my family.
The trick is staying on top of your queue, and to keep adding things to it. As long as you do that, odds are you'll never run out of discs. For example, I usually visit my queue every Wed or Thursday evening, and at the same time have Apple.com's movie preview page up. Netflix usually has all the newly announced movies in their system(sometimes you have to wait on a few of the smaller studio films to appear), so I'll add movies that haven't even been released in the theatre yet. Of course I've been doing this for several years, so I've got ~500 films(and a few TV shows) between my queue(~220), and they also have a "Saved" portion below your queue listing(~280). Of those ~220 discs in my queue, ~50 are BD, and the rest are dvd "waiting to be upgraded to BD". As Donster said, this is my biggest gripe with Netflix, not getting as many of the smaller films, and independant labels on BD, but I more than get my money's worth every month. I pay $21/month for 3BD, and average about 13 discs per month.
So I'm never going to run out of discs, unless:
1) Netflix stops offering discs
2) Studios stop making discs
3) The world ends
4) All of the above

[mredman]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Click here for details. If you are a streaming member go to your Account and you can add a disc plan. They may let you sign-up for the first month for free.

It sadly says that this service is only available for US customers.