Netflix: Should I or Shouldn't I?

Started by pookiethecat, October 08, 2003, 02:40:05 PM

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Gold Trumpet

Alright, assholes, I gave in. I now subscribe to Netflix. I managed to get a monstrous late fee at Blockbuster during the time of their no late fees. I have no idea when I'll be able to pay it off and I want to see too many films they don't have so I fucking got Netflix.

So far, best decision of my life. My Criterion purchases will happily drop off by 80% and I can make my future purchase all essential DVDs. I apologize for ever ranking on Netflix.

edison


Gold Trumpet


Pubrick

under the paving stones.

last days of gerry the elephant

#94
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on July 29, 2006, 11:00:39 AM
2 at a time, unlimited.

Netflix sounds better than zip.ca,
I am subscribed to the 3 DVD Plan, but it does cap the limit to 11 per month unlimited.
I should also mention the plan is $24 cdn or so...

They're both pretty much the same now...

modage

refresh me, gt, why were you ever opposed?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

Netflix offers $1 mln prize for better movie picks

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Online DVD rental company Netflix Inc on Sunday announced that it would pay $1 million to the first person to develop software to improve the accuracy of Netflix's movie recommendation system by 10 percent.

Netflix's Web-based recommendation system "learns" what kinds of films subscribers like by asking them to rate the films they watch. The system then recommends lists of similar titles, unique to each user.

Netflix Chairman and Chief Executive Reed Hastings, who made his fortune designing software, predicted that Web-based recommendation systems would play "an increasingly significant commercial role in the future."

"Right now, we're driving the Model-T version of what is possible," Hastings said in a statement announcing the price. "We want to build a Ferrari, and establishing the Netflix Prize is the next step."

The winning software designer must improve the accuracy of Netflix's current rating system by 10 percent. The system is composed of more than 1 billion ratings, in which subscribers use one to five stars to describe how much they liked a film.

The Netflix system uses those ratings to "predict" how many stars a consumer would assign to each of the 65,000 titles in its library.

The current system comes within one star of accurately predicting a consumer's true feelings about a film, and the company wants to cut that margin by one-quarter of a star, Jim Bennett, vice president of recommendation systems, said.

"If we can guess the really great ones for you and the ones you really abhor ... we can really choose the four- and five-star movies that people want," Bennett said.

If there is no winner, the company will award a $50,000 "progress" prize to the designer who makes the most significant advancement toward the goal.

Netflix will continue awarding the progress prize annually until someone wins the grand prize of $1 million, the company said.

The prize was modeled on the Longitude Prize, offered by the British government in 1714 to the inventor who could determine a ship's longitude during transoceanic travel.

John Harrison won the prize in 1761.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Bethie

I got this email again:
QuoteFor a limited time, we're offering you a special opportunity to give your friends and family one month of Netflix service for FREE--that's twice the length of our regular free trial!

This special offer expires 10/05/2006, and quantities are limited, so forward this email to your friends and family today!

-Your Friends at Netflix

I could forward this email to you if you'd like to give Netflix a try. And you have to be fast about it, cause it looks like the offer expires soon. And quantities are limited so you're probably out of luck anyway.
who likes movies anyway

JG

NETFLIX OFFERS SUBSCRIBERS THE OPTION
OF INSTANTLY WATCHING MOVIES ON THEIR PCs

New Feature Will be Included in Subscribers' Monthly Membership
at no Extra Charge and Will Have a Phased Roll-Out Over Next Six Months



LOS GATOS, Calif., January 16, 2007 -- Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, today introduced a new feature that allows people to immediately watch movies and television series on their personal computers and said it will make the new feature available to its subscribers in a phased roll-out over the next six months.

The introduction marks an important enhancement to the Netflix service. Subscribers will continue to receive DVDs by mail from the company's market-leading catalog of over 70,000 titles and will have the additional option of instantly watching about 1,000 movies and TV series on their PCs. The new feature will be included in subscribers' monthly membership plans at no additional cost, and the company said its phased roll-out is meant to ensure that subscribers have a great initial experience with the feature.

"We named our company Netflix in 1998 because we believed Internet-based movie rental represented the future, first as a means of improving service and selection, and then as a means of movie delivery," said Reed Hastings, the company's chief executive officer. "While mainstream consumer adoption of online movie watching will take a number of years due to content and technology hurdles, the time is right for Netflix to take the first step.

"Over the coming years we'll expand our selection of films, and we'll work to get to every Internet-connected screen, from cell phones to PCs to plasma screens. The PC screen is the best Internet-connected screen today, so we are starting there. "

Netflix said the introduction of immediate viewing is part of its plan to lead movie rental in total by adding electronic delivery to its existing DVD delivery platform. Netflix is specifically focusing on the rental segment of electronic delivery, distinct from the download-to-own market and advertising-supported electronic delivery.

The new immediate viewing feature differs from current services in that it does not require the often lengthy downloading of a large video file. The Netflix feature uses real-time playback technology that allows video to be viewed at virtually the same time it is being delivered to a user's computer. Following a one-time, under-60-second installation of a simple browser applet, most subscribers' movie selections will begin playing in their Web browser in as little as 10 to 15 seconds. Movies can be paused and a position bar gives viewers the ability to immediately jump to any point in the movie. In all, the instant watching feature requires only Internet connectivity with a minimum of one megabit per second of bandwidth. The more bandwidth a consumer has, the higher quality the video displayed, ranging from the quality of current Netflix previews to DVD quality with a three-megabit-per-second connection.

Initially, the new feature will offer about 1,000 titles and its selection will expand over time as licensing for electronically delivered movie rentals widens. The number of titles available at introduction roughly mirrors the number of DVD titles Netflix carried when its subscription service was launched in 1999. In seven years, that DVD catalog has grown to over 70,000. Most of the major and many independent studios are supporting the introduction of the new feature, including NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and Lionsgate.

In addition, content is being provided by A&E Television Networks, Anime Network, Allumination FilmWorks, BBC Worldwide, Cinema Libre Studios, Egami Media, Film Movement, Hart Sharp Video, The Independent Film Channel, Magnolia Pictures, New Video Group, New Yorker Films, Palm Pictures, Seventh Art , Silvernitrate Entertainment, Starz Digital, ThinkFilm, Video Action Sports, WMG Productions and Wolfe Video, among others.

The new feature will feel familiar to Netflix subscribers. Once it is made available to them as part of the phased roll-out, members will access instant movie watching by clicking on a "Watch Now" tab on their home page. As with the Netflix DVD catalog, subscribers can browse movies available for immediate viewing by title, genre or star rating. Personalized recommendations, based on an individual's historical preferences, will also appear at the top of the member's "Watch Now" page.

Netflix said it expects to make the new feature available to all Netflix subscribers by the end of June. The hours available for instant watching will vary based on subscribers' monthly plans. For example, subscribers on the entry-level $5.99 plan will have six hours of online movie watching per month and subscribers on Netflix's most popular plan, $17.99 for unlimited DVD rental and three discs out at a time, will have 18 hours of online movie watching per month.

http://www.netflix.com/MediaCenter?id=5384

squints

Damn You NETFLIX!! You're going to drive my humble video rental facility out of business!!!
"The myth by no means finds its adequate objectification in the spoken word. The structure of the scenes and the visible imagery reveal a deeper wisdom than the poet himself is able to put into words and concepts" – Friedrich Nietzsche

Rudie Obias

its not mac campatable.  kinda pointless for me to resubscribe.
\"a pair of eyes staring at you, projected on a large screen is what cinema is truly about.\" -volker schlöndorff

matt35mm

Quote from: rudiecorexxx on January 20, 2007, 02:53:27 PM
its not mac campatable.

Well fuck that shit.  I was getting excited about this, too.

JG

this feature has been enabled for a lot of people without them knowing.  i know it has been for me.

check here:  http://www.netflix.com/WatchNow

the selection isn't great, but i'm going to watch last life in the universe right now. 

Astrostic

dammit.  it only works for PC users.  I have a Mac with Virtual PC and it won't play movies on that either.  This sucks.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

I finally caved, this has been a long while, but I got Netflix.  It took some convincing since I've been moving each year to a new address as each lease lets up.  Although I could've easily changed my address, I guess any kind of subscription didn't seem necessary.

As with anyone who is unsure if they want it or not, I am a complete and true convert.  My first two DVD's should be in my mailslot tomorrow (Bad Lieutenant and Tron).

Anyone want to be netflix buddies?
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye