http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2011/07/dvd-only-and-streaming-only-netflix-plans-now-799-each.ars Apparently they'll no longer be offering their $10/month plan for DVDs and streaming. You can pay $8/month for either standalone streaming or standalone DVD rentals, or pay $16/month for both. Pretty lame that they're now charging more for the same service. I don't really care because I just download everything off bittorrent. Tried their streaming one time at my brother's and it was all crappy 1 star B movies like Troll 2 and Zombie Strippers. I can't believe anyone would pay money for that by itself. To be honest, I find it perplexing that anyone with a fast internet connection would pay for movie rentals at all. It seems just as archaic to me as buying music CDs. They need to be careful or they'll go the way of Blockbuster. People eventually got tired of Blockbuster's greed, and Netflix's main competition right now is bittorrent, which is free and way better than the service they're offering.
Big brother studios already neutered the hell out of them. You can't even rent alot of new releases now since the studios want their time limit to sell dvd's before netflix customers are able to rent them. So you have to wait a long time + the wait you have since another netflix customer already beat you into the wait queue. It's pathetic.
Hollywood is going the way of the music industry. Technology is going to leave them in the dust. I would go back to paying for movies if there were a service that was $5/month or less that allowed unlimited downloads of every movie in existence at super fast speeds with no DRM.
I think the movie industry, much like the music business, can see the writing on the wall. What we're seeing now are the death throws of a business that knows it's numbers up and they WILL have to adapt, just not yet; not until they've bled as much as they can from their customers before the curtain comes down on them
this very conversation makes me wonder if ya'll even realize how much well ya'll have it in the first place.
Fact is, Netflix used to be better than what it is now. You used to be able to rent new releases same time you could buy them. That's gone now. You can still do it the other way (Redbox) but that's kind of archaic. You have to drive to the unit and return it to the unit. Not much different than the old Blockbuster way, just cheaper. Selection for streaming is still lackluster at best. And now, it's potentially more expensive depending on how you use their service. But if you're comparing us to Africa, yes.. this should be listed under #firstworldproblems
Charging more for less is never okay. Netflix probably thinks they can get away with this now that Blockbuster is gone. But if they're not careful, bittorrent will do them in the same way it did in Blockbuster. If anything, they should be dropping their prices.
Actually I'm comparing this to how annoying it is to hear you bitches complain. :lol: If your not happy than just skip the bonus that was old netflix,, new 'corprified' netflix + redbox is STILL a million times better than the days of the 6 dollar 3-day rentals...
bittorrent is a complete dead-end in terms of a "service". It doesn't produce anything of value. It only exists because of the "greedy" companies that create all of the material that is downloaded, so it really doesn't make sense to complain about services that actually pay for the stuff you get for free. bittorrent has no purpose or use without "greedy" companies, therefore it's no better than those "greedy" companies.
I was waiting for you to show up. Here he is ladies and gentlemen. Mr High and Mighty. Mr Law and Order.
There's nothing high and mighty about what I said. It's just what bittorrent users don't like to admit: that it has no purpose without all those "greedy" companies producing content.
Don't take this as criticism, but just thoughts. You pretty much fall into the category of people studios shouldn't bother with, because you are unlikely to pay for anything under any circumstances. They don't lose money, because you wouldn't have paid anyway. That service you talk about is ridiculous. But you can get an idea for what it would be like for free by watching the thousands of "movies" and weekly "tv shows" on Youtube. I'm all for reasonable pricing, and I'd pay more for netflix to have new releases available immediately. But I think for $8 there are enough classic tv shows to get me by when I'm bored.
I'm not sure what I will do. I've had my 1 DVD out for about 5 months now so obviously I don't use that anymore. I do use the streaming though. I only need the disks for the new releases I want to see. Netflix was so cheap I didn't care that I wasn't using it to it's fullest. Maybe I'll start using those red boxes kiosk.
The streaming service that Netflix offers has always represented a "value added" component rather than being the main product. And it has improved over time. I just looked at the instant 'Watch It Again' area for my account and it includes: Full Metal Jacket, Silence of the Lambs, Poltergeist, Bladerunner, The Graduate, Twin Peaks, Battlestar Galactica (new) Season 1-4, Clockwork Orange, This is Spinal Tap, Raging Bull, The Verdict, Le Femme Nikita, The Thin Red Line, The Hustler, Farscape Seasons 1-4, The Sting, The Third Man, and others. Granted, some of them might be Starz Play which can be pan-and-scan rather than widescreen, but the majority aren't. As a supplement to the discs, I think it's hard to complain that much. The overall service is still dirt cheap IMO.
The streaming has been great for TV series. A TV series might take me a month or more to go through and the system always knows the newest episode I need to watch.
The Nintendo 3DS is getting Netflix soon. Would you rent a film and watch it on that tiny screen? Pretty cool if you've got a long journey ahead of you I guess, I wonder if this has anything to do with the recent price hikes.
That 3DS screen is about the same size as an iphone screen, no? People have been content with it on the iphone. I think the only concern would be the wifi only streaming on 3DS.