Netflix: Should I or Shouldn't I?

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

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Stefen

Netflix raises their prices for Blu-Rays's + streaming again for the second time in a year. This time from $11.99 a month to $17.98 a month.  :yabbse-angry:

Effective September 1st for existing customers and immediately for new customers.
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.

Pubrick

Looks like Netflix has jumped the shark.

Glad I never had the chance to get it.
under the paving stones.

polkablues

Price increases are always obnoxious, but realistically, the service that Netflix provides is still well worth it at that price. I'll probably end up dropping my plan from three discs at a time to just one or two, but that was something I needed to do anyway.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Sleepless

I'm disappointed because it seems like such a cop out move. They've got to realize that the majority of people are going to just cut the DVD option and go streaming only. There are plenty of other options out there (i.e. Redbox) for movies not available on streaming which will cost a fraction of the price to rent, especially if it's only for the occasional recent release. All I can think is that by doing this Netflix are hoping to convince studios to give them streaming rights at the same time the DVDs become available for rent, but it seems like a perilous bluff on their part, particularly when there are so many competitors out there just waiting for Netflix to take the one wrong step which will lead to their ultimate failure. This may well have been it, but fuck I hope it isn't.
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.

john

Paul Schrader's Blue Collar is now streaming, thereby justifying the existence of all previous and future monthly rate increases... well, not quite... but if you still haven't seen it and you have Netflix you now have no excuse.

Further convincing from Patton Oswalt:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39802
Maybe every day is Saturday morning.

Jeremy Blackman

In other news, I find it interesting that this thread's title is once again a valid question.


O.

Film rights are such a pain. If Netflix offered $50/month to include instant streaming to its whole (its DVD catalog), I would so do that. No need for cable/DirecTV
superb

Stefen

So not only are you not going to be able to do one price plan for blu-ray/DVD by mail and streaming, but you're going to have to go to two separate sites to do both?

Netflix is garbage.

Quote from: O on September 19, 2011, 02:28:05 AM
Film rights are such a pain. If Netflix offered $50/month to include instant streaming to its whole (its DVD catalog), I would so do that. No need for cable/DirecTV

Eff that. The best thing about the mail service is that you can get special features that only come on discs. If they offered all their content at BD quality and included special features, then yeah, $50mo would be worth it, otherwise, anyone can just download just the movie in the same quality Netflix charges for it.
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

I agree with O. If they had the catalog to justify it, I would gladly spend $50 a month for streaming. Last night's announcement is just giving the people unhappy about the price-increase the opportunity to bash them some more. It's really not a significant move considering the streaming and DVD-by-mail arms of the service are already divorced. I'm actually optimistic about this development as it shows that they really are committed to the streaming side of things and choosing to keep the recognized Netflix name for the streaming side of the business is a clear indicator (yet again) that streaming is the future of their industry.

I don't have cable right now, I refuse to pay what I consider an obscene amount of money for essentially 200+ channels of reality TV. How many real housewives can you watch? I know that streaming and Netflix in particular doesn't have the wealth of choices that DVD rentals and some cable channels offer, but hopefully someday soon it will be. I'd bet money that eventually you can subscribe to HBO and Showtime directly through their websites and bypass cable providers entirely. I know a bunch of you download often shitty torrents of movies and premium TV shows and studios know they're missing some revenue by not offering instantly-available online streaming options. Same with your favorite sports team - one day you're going to be able to just buy a season pass and stream all their games live without bothering with local TV networks or a pricy cable sports package. Granted, I'd already decided to drop the DVD part of my Netflix subscription and retain just the streaming prior to last night's announcement, but I'm taking it as vote of confidence by Netflix in what I've long thought must be the logical future of all home entertainment.

The problem right now is that Netflix doesn't have the titles to truly justify such a cost - even at $8 a month it's annoying to not have access to many of the latest releases. Also annoying is that since they're not available on streaming, you can't "save" them to your list like you could with "not yet released DVD titles." But I guess that's a relatively minor gripe. For now, I'm going to hold tight where I am and probably look into another temporary option for latest release DVDs. Hopefully things will improve significantly by early next year.
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: Sleepless on September 19, 2011, 11:06:32 AMI would gladly spend $50 a month for streaming. Last night's announcement is just giving the people unhappy about the price-increase the opportunity to bash them some more. It's really not a significant move considering the streaming and DVD-by-mail arms of the service are already divorced. I'm actually optimistic about this development as it shows that they really are committed to the streaming side of things and choosing to keep the recognized Netflix name for the streaming side of the business is a clear indicator (yet again) that streaming is the future of their industry.

$50 a month is worth it to people who don't give a crap about picture quality or special features and just want to watch Breaking Dawn on their standard definition television, but for those of us who have spent a good chunk of change on our home theater systems, getting only streaming means absolutely nothing for us. A lot of us have tailor made our entertainment systems for blu-ray and their special features, not crappy streaming.
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

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.
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.

Reel

I gotta say Sleepless, you're right about not paying for cable. I've been surfing that shit everynight and there's never anything good on, now that IFC's gone to shit. The only benefits of having cable for me is getting to watch Louie and Curb, but that ain't worth the whole package! Cable Tv sucks nowadays.

Oh and I'm glad you netflixers are getting screwed, finally. I'm sick of hearing "ooh, it's on Netflix. I'll watch it on Netflix.You don't have Netflix? You gotta get Netflix." This is what you deserve.

Jeremy Blackman

Like Stefen I'm pretty much done with the streaming service. I'm going to 1 DVD at a time, maybe 2 because it's fairly cheap. Really irked about this Quikster silliness, though. The article I linked above suggested that it might be an attempt by Netflix to kill off the delivery service in a way that doesn't directly tarnish Netflix.

Sleepless

Quote from: Reelist on September 19, 2011, 02:18:42 PM
I gotta say Sleepless, you're right about not paying for cable. I've been surfing that shit everynight and there's never anything good on, now that IFC's gone to shit. The only benefits of having cable for me is getting to watch Louie and Curb, but that ain't worth the whole package! Cable Tv sucks nowadays.

Oh and I'm glad you netflixers are getting screwed, finally. I'm sick of hearing "ooh, it's on Netflix. I'll watch it on Netflix.You don't have Netflix? You gotta get Netflix." This is what you deserve.

Haha.

Honestly, other than the lack of big recent releases not available on Netflix (of which there seem to be A LOT at the moment) the complete lack of HBO titles is perhaps my biggest frustration. I really wish they would just allow you to subscribe directly through HBO Go, but right now you can only access it if you already subscribe through a cable provider. I've got to believe that they'll change that at some point down the road, surely?

Clearly I'm a big believer in streaming as the medium of the future. Hell, even canceled TV shows are getting a new life as web series. So what if they're soap operas? I never made the jump from DVD to BluRay. I just didn't have enough interest early on, and then the cost negated any benefit of doing so. Now, I'm confident that BluRays and DVD will both become obsolete as both streaming and digital downloads become the norm. I don't really understand Stefen's complaints, but then I don't have a uber high-end entertainment center like he does. Regardless, down the road, HD streaming that even he'd be happy with is surely likely.
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.