Netflix: Should I or Shouldn't I?

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

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Stefen

Quote from: Sleepless on September 19, 2011, 02:08:45 PM
Of course not. If you can afford to spend thousands of dollars on a TV then you can afford to piss away a hundred plus bucks a month on cable anyway.

I don't get this. :ponder: Cable doesn't have the picture and sound quality/special features of blu-ray, either. Both Netflix and cable tv are lacking in quality compared to a blu-ray disc.

Both plans on Netflix were great because streaming had some gems, but you could also always get the BD disc for films you wanted to watch in quality and see special features.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Sleepless

Fair enough. I assumed that you were also taking odds with my streaming versus cable argument as well. Obviously not.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

RegularKarate

Oh my god, the whining.

Do you not remember what you used to have to do to rent movies?  Do you remember how much it would have cost to rent 15 to 20 movies a week?  Do you remember what the quality used to be like?  VHS?

This is like that Louis CK joke about the guy who's on an airplane complaining that the Wifi is slow.

All that's happening here is that one website is now two and they're offering games.  The price isn't going up again (unless you want games, but you SHOULD have to pay more for that).  Is it THAT hard to go from one site to another?  Are you that fucking lazy?

I think it's a strange move and I'm curious if it's to either smooth the process of phasing physical media out once it becomes necessary (it will) or if it's just to separate figures so they can impress investors so they can widen the selection of streaming movies.  Still, Netflix has done so much for the way we rent movies, you can't sit through a rough patch of (very likely, necessary) change without throwing a temper tantrum?

Jeremy Blackman

It's not so much laziness as it is feeling betrayed that Netflix is trying to dump their disc service... and sending it to an uncertain (at best) or doomed (at worst) future.

Jeremy Blackman

And I realize these are all first-world problems, as they say, but at the same time I think it's silly for consumers to be simply in awe of technology so much that they'll accept anything.

Sleepless

Quote from: RegularKarate on September 19, 2011, 04:17:40 PM
Oh my god, the whining.

Do you not remember what you used to have to do to rent movies?  Do you remember how much it would have cost to rent 15 to 20 movies a week?  Do you remember what the quality used to be like?  VHS?

This is like that Louis CK joke about the guy who's on an airplane complaining that the Wifi is slow.

All that's happening here is that one website is now two and they're offering games.  The price isn't going up again (unless you want games, but you SHOULD have to pay more for that).  Is it THAT hard to go from one site to another?  Are you that fucking lazy?

I think it's a strange move and I'm curious if it's to either smooth the process of phasing physical media out once it becomes necessary (it will) or if it's just to separate figures so they can impress investors so they can widen the selection of streaming movies.  Still, Netflix has done so much for the way we rent movies, you can't sit through a rough patch of (very likely, necessary) change without throwing a temper tantrum?

:bravo:



Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on September 19, 2011, 04:46:06 PM
And I realize these are all first-world problems, as they say, but at the same time I think it's silly for consumers to be simply in awe of technology so much that they'll accept anything.

Can we please get a marque that says "Netflix = White People Problems"?
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Stefen

Quote from: RegularKarate on September 19, 2011, 04:17:40 PM
Oh my god, the whining.

Do you not remember what you used to have to do to rent movies?  Do you remember how much it would have cost to rent 15 to 20 movies a week?  Do you remember what the quality used to be like?  VHS?

This is like that Louis CK joke about the guy who's on an airplane complaining that the Wifi is slow.

So because things used to be worse, but as technology advanced, got better (because, ya know, that's what happens as time goes on), then someone got greedy, so things got worse again, we're not allowed to bitch and complain about it?

Fuck outta here with that.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

RegularKarate

Quote from: S.R. on September 19, 2011, 05:33:38 PM
So because things used to be worse, but as technology advanced, got better (because, ya know, that's what happens as time goes on), then someone got greedy, so things got worse again, we're not allowed to bitch and complain about it?

Fuck outta here with that.

No one said you're not allowed to do anything.
How is this that greedy, by the way?  Prices go up, that's how businesses afford to offer you more, they charge you more (because, ya know, that's what happens as time goes on).  It's still cheaper than anything (legal) that's out there offering the same thing.

I'm also not saying I wasn't bummed when NetFlix prices originally went up, but I'm over it... businesses do that.  This isn't another price increase... just a small change.

Bitch and complain all you want (I really am more on your side than Netflix's)... I just find it funny.

polkablues

I'm pretty much with RK here.  Netflix got everyone so fat and happy that minor alterations are being met with hugely disproportionate freakouts.  So now I have to have one bookmark to watch streaming and one to manage my disc queue.  There goes one-and-a-half seconds of my day that I'll never get back.  Yes, it seems clear that they're pushing the very profitable portion of their business (streaming), to the detriment of the less profitable portion (disc mailing), but proclamations that the sky is falling and they're going to eliminate discs altogether are wildly premature.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: RegularKarate on September 19, 2011, 05:44:08 PMI'm also not saying I wasn't bummed when NetFlix prices originally went up, but I'm over it... businesses do that.

Successful businesses typically don't. Case in point: Netflix's stock has plunged, Netflix's execs have been dumping their stocks, they're facing a mass exodus of customers, and they're splitting off a core (and the original) part of their business into some random destined-to-fail subsidiary. ("Quikster?" Really?)

After the massive popularity of streaming, which is a cheaper service for them to run, Netflix got greedy... and stupid. It's that simple. Their attempt to split and/or kill off their disc service has only been followed by more stupid decisions.

I'll say it again. It's silly for people to be so in awe of technology that they will just accept whatever is given to them, as long as it's shiny and magical. That's such a dumb way to approach things as a consumer. We should be way past that.

Stefen

Quote from: RegularKarate on September 19, 2011, 05:44:08 PMBitch and complain all you want (I really am more on your side than Netflix's)... I just find it funny.

It's a pain in the ass. Do a price increase, fine, people will complain a bit then get over it, but what they're doing now by making you visit two separate sites, and pay two separate bills, for the exact same service as before, is just a complete pain in the ass.

It might not be a big deal to people who only use either streaming or the mail service, but for those of us who use both, it's a complete inconvenience for a service that was flawless for us just a few months ago. For example, I've been going through Bergman's filmography, so I would watch some streaming, but the ones that were available on blu-ray, I would watch on blu-ray. It was flawless integration. I also wanted to hear the Carpenter and Russell commentary on The Thing, so even tho the stand alone movie is available on streaming, I waited for the blu-ray.

Just settling for something because it "used to be worse" is silly and dangerous. That's the same type of attitude so many people have in other things in life. Take for example employment. When people are just happy to have a job, that's when they got you right where they want you. They can take away all they can because you're content just having the most basic of whatever. If you're feeling cheated about anything, you should always speak up, regardless of what it is and how silly it is.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

pete

"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Stefen

Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

Jeremy Blackman

I thought the AV Club headline summarized it very well: "Netflix finds a new way to offer less service for more money"

Though to be honest I've never been that upset about the price hike, because it's still a fair price. I'm mostly concerned/disgruntled about the future of the disc service. If that does go away, it will feel like a betrayal, for obvious reasons. We are one big step closer to that.

And to be absolutely clear, this is what I'm talking about:

Quote from: RegularKarate on September 19, 2011, 04:17:40 PMDo you not remember what you used to have to do to rent movies?  Do you remember how much it would have cost to rent 15 to 20 movies a week?  Do you remember what the quality used to be like?  VHS?

While I understand this way of thinking, it absolutely drives me crazy, for all the reasons Stefen and I described. We might as well be saying, "Watching movies over the intertubes... what'll they think of next?" We badly need to get over this technological hypnosis.

It's like smartphones. Many, many years after the iPhone was released, people are still so in awe of the technology that they (at least in this country) don't demand reasonable prices for mobile phone service.

pete

Quote from: pete on September 19, 2011, 09:06:17 PM





sorry my original post only included the first part of the panel. now it's complete. sorry about that.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton