Netflix: Should I or Shouldn't I?

[polkablues]

The Netflix app is now available for iPhone and iPod touch.  You can stream your Netflix Instant to your phone.  Yep, it's awesome.

Another reason to never give up my unlimited data plan.




EDIT: Dammit, I Stefened.

[S.R.]

I haven't stefened in awhile. I think I'm done.

This is the greatest app in the history of mankind. The quality, even over 3G is astounding.

I feel bad for anyone who doesn't have an unlimited plan. I hear each film takes up like 200mb. That's basically only 10 movies a month with nothing else.

[S.R.]

So get this crap, 4 days ago I changed my $9.99 one out at a time plan to the $16.99 two at a time plan. Only because there was two films I needed real quick this weekend for something. Today I was going to change it back but I get an email stating their prices have just increased and the $16.99 plan is now $18.99 and my old $9.99 plan isn't available, but there is a new $11.99 plan. This wouldn't be a big deal, but it turns out if you were already on the $9.99 plan, you get to keep it. I was on it 4 days ago! Do you think they'll let me switch it back? Hold time is ridiculous right now so I'm going to wait until tonight.

[matt35mm]

You can only keep the 9.99 plan until the end of the year.  That's the plan I'm on and I got an email saying that I'll be charged more starting in January.  So it doesn't make a difference really.

[modage]

Speaking of Best Buy, THIS is so annoying.  The studios evil plan FORCING Netflix not to be able to carry titles until they've been out for a month so you'll be inclined to buy them.  Makes me really mad.

[RegularKarate]

Yeah, that's old news.  They've been through a few different waves of that now.
Redbox is about to cave too, I hear. 

Funny, cuz it used to be the other way around.  I remember when movies would come out for rental only on VHS... you'd have to wait to be able to buy it.

[S.R.]

I remember those wait to buy VHS days. You could buy them right away, but they would be like $100.

That was one of my selling points in getting my mom to buy me a DVD player. "You can buy DVD's right away! You don't have to wait! Plus they have all kinds of cool features like where you can put them in the cd-rom and it will bring up photos from the movie! Please, mom! PLEASE!!!"

She actually bought my PS3, too. But that conversation didn't have yelling, just facts like how it can play video games and blu-ray movies. Ya know, adult talk.

[modage]

Yeah I mean I knew about it a while ago too.  But didn't realize how much it annoyed me until I stepped foot into a Best Buy and saw them rubbing it in my face.  I'll just have to do some pirating or something so me and the studios can be EVEN again.

[JG]

That was one of my selling points in getting my mom to buy me a DVD player. "You can buy DVD's right away! You don't have to wait! Plus they have all kinds of cool features like where you can put them in the cd-rom and it will bring up photos from the movie! Please, mom! PLEASE!!!"

I remember having a vague understanding of what a DVD player was but I knew that I really wanted one. I was under the impression that you could choose your own camera angle in every scene. I also was super excited to get to watch each movie's alternate endings. This began a recurring theme of watching movies with my dad, where, if he didn't like the ending, he would get angry and ask to see the alternate endings. he was almost always disappointed.

[Sleepless]

That whole Netflix doesn't get it for a month after release but it's on PPV now is bullshit. It's basically these old failing companies banding together to try and survive while these new companies are raking in all the bucks. Look at Blockbuster, it's on it's last legs... or has it died already? Netflix will survive this recent attack, it's a completely different business model based more on cinephiles renting obscure movies from all eras and all countries. The only time of year it really matters about when stuff is available is when people are rushing to make their end of year lists. And there is a crapton of stuff I haven't seen from 2010. But yeah, it annoys me too - it's the new equivalent of "Fullscreen format - no more annoying black bars." It'll pass. Hopefully. Heil Netflix!

[Jeremy Blackman]

I remember those wait to buy VHS days. You could buy them right away, but they would be like $100.

Fun fact... I worked at Blockbuster for a year during the transition to DVDs (a unique experience for sure), and $100 was always the price they paid for each new release VHS copy they had in stock. This is why they made such a push to sell off their "previously viewed" VHS tapes. For some reason, as DVDs became available, Blockbuster was able to pay the cheaper price of $20-25 or whatever it was. (These were the prices I saw in the actual Blockbuster computer system in the "what we paid" column, and my managers confirmed it, so I'm pretty sure it's true.) Maybe this explains some of the speed with which the DVD transition happened.

[modage]

It's crazy that movie studios had rental chains over a barrel like that.  I remember going to Suncoast video and seeing a VHS of Pulp Fiction on the counter being sold for $100.  That was crazy.

[socketlevel]

some movies were priced for rental and some priced for sale on VHS. it really came down to the amount of copies made based on the title and how confident the studio thought it would sell. considering the manufacturing cost of a VHS was much more than a DVD (in the neighborhood of 4-5 dollars in the early days, because of moving parts and magnetic tape vs. pennies for a DVD) the mark up is actually a smaller ratio. the profit margin for a DVD was much higher with considerably less risk.

video games were very similar, there was more risk of losing money with a cartridge before the jump to CD and then in turn DVD.

the fact that VHS were so much is what brought about the rental market in the first place.

[Sleepless]

Maybe I'm incorrect, but I always thought that rental versions of VHS/DVDs were intentionally priced much higher that "for sale" units anyway?

[socketlevel]

yes that's what i'm saying, it's fundamentally supply and demand.