Netflix Agree to Delaying Delivery of DVDs

If this allows my family to pull a better list of videos on our Tivo then I am ok with it. We upgraded to an HD Tivo in December and one of the first things I tried out was the Netflix streaming. We were extremely disappointed with the selection of movies. If this deal gives us a decent selection then I am not bothered at all.
 
Farseer said:
I don't care about newly released DVDs - I can another month. If I really wanted to see it that bad I would have seen it in the theater or bought the DVD. All I care about from Netflix is streaming and this deal will triple the Warner Bros catalog. How is this bad again?
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Exactly...I love straming downloads. Honestly, I'd prefer it if Netflix was exclusively streaming....really put the NET in Netflix.
 
I don't see what the big deal is :confused:

Are people really in that big of a rush to watch newly released movies?
 
I would rather have more streaming movies than having new DVDs straight away personally. Chances are if I really want to see a movie I'll see it in theatres and will want to wait awhile to see it again. It's a shame that movie studios will only let more movies stream through deals like this though. Either way, people will speak with their wallets and Netflix will eventually fall in line to what the majority of their customers want ;)
 
I've noticed NetFlix has been shifting to online streaming for some time. I have a PC near my TV that I stream movies to, so this is actually a benefit for me. I also have a 24" monitor bed side in my bedroom that we stream NetFlix to via a lap top.

My only complaints about streaming via netflix are:
1. Sliverlight
2. The choices are almost all 80's flicks (until now, it seems they may have newer movies on the way)

If you look at their website, they moved their Menu items around. Their streaming service is now the first tab, their DVD queue is now second. They are obviously pushing in this direction.

I've gotten more than my moneys worth of streaming and DVD videos out of netflix.
 
It seems I'm in the minority of those who have mixed feelings on this. I suppose it's an acceptable trade-off. I tend to procrastinate new releases.
 
avatardelta said:
Have they also admitted to throttling streaming to less than vhs quality if you watch more than X movies? :(
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They haven't admitted to it, as far as I'm aware, but I find it very likely. I'm no longer a netflix customer but was a customer of theirs between 2005 and 2009 and I suspected throttling of quality or otherwise just bad video quality.
 
This blows, I will drop my subscription today then. I was doing the bluray subscription which was kind of expensive anyway, now its worth even less.

There is no way they can get anywhere even remotely close to the same bitrate of a bluray movie. Not to mention the sound. Really, DTS-MA or TrueHD over the internet! Sure.

I think they will lose far more than they will gain, I hope its the worst decision they make and they go under. Fuck 'em, someone will take their place.
 
So, Blockbuster not only has new releases available when they're released (crazy, right?), but they offer Blu-ray rentals by mail without an additional fee and allow for local exchanges. And people still use Netflix?
 
This doesn't bother me at all, and in fact, I almost like it better.

New releases are crap anyway - in fact, I can think of only one movie last year (Avatar), which I would be excited to get on DVD. If this means Netflix can finally get some real movies on their streaming service, and not just old TV shows, then I'm all for it.
 
Wow - if people (out of here) actually get this news to them, I see a lot of cancellations.

I'll cancel. That's a crap deal. I don't use the streaming.
 
TechLarry said:
It doesn't say this will allow the movies to be streamed right away either...
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This. This. THIS. THIS. I don't know where people got off reading that physical copies of new releases would be delayed but streamed one's will be instant. :rolleyes:
 
I like to rent before I buy...this will just push even more people to download illegally, imo.
 
I think this is great. It's only a matter of time before physcial media rental/sales are eliminated anyway. This gets us 1 step closer 1 step faster. I'd much rather watch a movie NOW instead of waiting for a disk to get here.
 
I have a feeling that most people who prefer streaming don't have a huge TV with a good surround system and a bluray player.

Try that, and you'll never accept Netflix's shitty 2-bar quality again.
 
JohnnyNapalm said:
I have a feeling that most people who prefer streaming don't have a huge TV with a good surround system and a bluray player.

Try that, and you'll never accept Netflix's shitty 2-bar quality again.
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Agreed completely.

Haste266 said:
I like to rent before I buy...this will just push even more people to download illegally, imo.
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Also agreed - but personally I gave up on Netflix a while ago - if I want a quality movie now I drive to the nearest McDonalds / Walgreens / Walmart / Grocery Store for Red Box. More than convenient.
 
bigddybn said:
I think this is great. It's only a matter of time before physcial media rental/sales are eliminated anyway. This gets us 1 step closer 1 step faster. I'd much rather watch a movie NOW instead of waiting for a disk to get here.
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The goal of the movie studios if that if you want to watch a new movie NOW, you will go out and buy it at full retail or pay for an overprice digital download at the same price. After successfully killing off many video rental stores as people switched to Netflix, now studios will be using this to get people buying movies again. Warner Bros is not doing anyone favors with this deal. I've watched a ton of new movies from Netflix, usually I just queue up everything new, then sit back and see what shows up, but I get all the new movies within a few days of release (usually). If all the studios make deals like this my options will be:

1) Buy movie at a store
1a) Buy movie via digital download
2) Go to one of the dieing video rental stores in my area. There is about a 25% chance they will have new movies I want to see. All of the chain rental places in my area died.
3) Wait 28 days for a chance to get it from NetFlix
 
I am so behind on movies that this will help me catch up. I do think it will be nice having more instant movies not they it is so easy with the PS3, though the disk is still stupid if you ask me.
 
silverlight was never intended to be gpu accelerated. it was designed from the ground up to run on cpu's alone, and that is the SOLE reason netflix went to silverlight (flash required the right hardware for smooth playback, and it gave everyone too many problems). i go back to those fuckin atom chips that everyone expects to run everything, those little piles of garbage really screwed up the industry.
 
JohnnyNapalm said:
I have a feeling that most people who prefer streaming don't have a huge TV with a good surround system and a bluray player.

Try that, and you'll never accept Netflix's shitty 2-bar quality again.
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Does a 96" screen count as huge? :D I have no problem with Netflix's streaming quality. I'm sorry you only get 2-bars. I get 4-bars for almost everything (occasionally I get 3-bars).
 
Json23 said:
I've never had that problem from Netflix. Between my wife and kids they probably watch 15-20 shows a week. If you are being throttled it is probably by your ISP.
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no it's when you watch them in a row I had this same problem. I was watching a season of Lost and when you get so many movies in a row the next one is less then VHS quality it's so nasty on my big HDTV and it pisses me off. I watched seasons 1-5 of Lost over Christmas break and I even had my ISP boost my connection speed and it still did it after so many you watch in a row I just don't know the number. But yeah Netflix throttles your streaming down a lot after X amount of shows you watch in a row.
 
Farseer said:
Does a 96" screen count as huge? :D I have no problem with Netflix's streaming quality. I'm sorry you only get 2-bars. I get 4-bars for almost everything (occasionally I get 3-bars).
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You can have a TV as big as the screen at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium - the point he is making is the resolution as well as the sound of a streaming video will always be no comparison to a DVD, let alone a Blueray
 
I have no problem with this at all. I'm on the 1-DVD/unlimited streaming plan and can't keep up with new releases anyway. I want more streaming movies. The only downside I've experienced to streaming is poorer audio. They need to add 5.1 sound. The video quality has been fine, especially since we started using the Netflix DVD instead of PlayOn.

For those touting Redbox as an alternative, they're the next target for these delays.
 
Wonder what people will do when they can' pay for the dvd rentals? Hmmm. Indeed I am sure they will just wait. /sacrasm
 
Not a huge deal for me. I welcome more streaming options.
 
Cyraxx said:
You can have a TV as big as the screen at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium - the point he is making is the resolution as well as the sound of a streaming video will always be no comparison to a DVD, let alone a Blueray
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I agree that the quality doesn't match DVD or Bluray, but that wasn't his point. He was saying that size matters. I have a large screen and a nice surround system and the lower quality of streaming doesn't bother me - therefore his point in mute. I prefer the convienience of a larger selection of streaming content more the better quality of a few new releases.
 
ocellaris said:
Flash has hardware acceleration now as well...
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For a fairly limited number of GPUs. My own 8800 Ultra doesn't support the level of DXVA required for hardware acceleration in 10.1.

It's also, well...incredibly unstable at the moment.

krupted said:
i go back to those fuckin atom chips that everyone expects to run everything, those little piles of garbage really screwed up the industry.
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Those little "piles of garbage" created an industry, my man.

Farseer said:
He was saying that size matters. I have a large screen and a nice surround system and the lower quality of streaming doesn't bother me - therefore his point in mute.
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His point isn't moot just because you have a different preference than he does. Not everyone wants streaming-quality movies. These days, only Blu-ray is sufficient for me, which is precisely why I signed up with Blockbuster rather than for Netflix.
 
Farseer said:
I agree that the quality doesn't match DVD or Bluray, but that wasn't his point. He was saying that size matters. I have a large screen and a nice surround system and the lower quality of streaming doesn't bother me - therefore his point in mute. I prefer the convienience of a larger selection of streaming content more the better quality of a few new releases.
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Size has everything to do with quality :rolleyes:. You are acting as if size has no relation to quality. Download a shit video - then expand it to the full size of a 24" monitor - a whole less clear for obvious reason and that is the resolution. He never once hinted that size matters more than anything - he said a streamed video will never compare to a DVD in a home theater setup and that my friend, has everything to do with size as well as quality.
 
The word is "moot" boys, not "mute".

I can't honestly believe people are defending streamed over bluray. Sounds like typical "I don't have bluray so I'll argue for what I have" bs.
 
Hopefully this will result in lower subscription prices and higher availability when they do get released; I rarely get new releases for months anyway despite being at the top of my queue.
 
I know WB was trying to pull a similar stunt with Redbox, but so far, Redbox hasn't acquiesced to those crazy conditions.
 
Steve said:
Netflix has caved in to Warner Bros. demands by agreeing to delay sending out new DVDs by a month so it could gain rights to show more movies over the internet. According to the report, Netflix will eventually make the same deal with other studios later this year. :(
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Non-issue for me. Don't use Netflix, but if I did, 1 month isn't going to make or break it for me.

You also left out a key part of the deal: Netflix will get titles for roughly 50% less. That means they can get more copies of those titles to rent out to all of their subscribers....hell maybe they'll lower their prices (not gonna happen) or at least delay raising prices again.
If you're lucky, they'll drop the fee for renting BDs.

As a measure to stop piracy, this seems pointless, but it might get impatient renters to buy it instead of renting. In the end, it'll work or it won't. It may hurt Netflix, and it may hurt the studios (since all of them will surely follow suit), if it doesn't increase sales.
 
Parmenides said:
Redbox would be totally hosed if they acquiesced.
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No doubt. They're already trying to hose themselves by charging $2 for a rental in some parts of the country, from what I read. Fortunately for me, RB is still only charging $1 for DVDs, but they don't have B-Rs yet in my local kiosks.
 
beowulf7 said:
I know WB was trying to pull a similar stunt with Redbox, but so far, Redbox hasn't acquiesced to those crazy conditions.
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I was hearing that Redbox wasn't opposed to such restrictions if they could use it as a bargaining chip for lower prices (not for us of course).

I agree that it seems the entire market for Redbox is people wanting to see new releases cheaply. So if they did cut a deal for lower prices, who the hell is standing in line to rent their dvd's?

I'm still divided on this Netflix delay. Not thrilled at all to see Warner getting their way. We may be getting more online catalog, but don't fool yourself into thinking Warner wants that either. They will be happy to cut that off as much as they can get away with too. So I don't expect some floodgates of goodwill to open up regarding online availability.

IMHO, the studios are all just dirty, greedy, thieving bastards that can't understand their business model is dying so they are doing everything EXCEPT adapting just because they think they are a big enough bully to pull it off. If they had their way, we would pay them a fee every f'ing time we touched their content, just because they think we should.
 
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