286 replies to this topic

[NBooth]

Well, I finally decided to drop the streaming and go with disc-only (adding blu-ray into the mix). Truth is, I don't have an awful lot of time to take advantage of the streaming anyway.

[NBooth]

Well, that was short-lived.

Quote

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.

[via ComingSoon]

[Buckeye Jones]

I'm increasingly dissatisfied with Netflix, but I'm not sure it's all their fault. With the kids getting bigger, and my duties at our church increasing significantly over the last year, my wife and I have not had the time to really watch the films we have show up on dvd. Not to mention my queue, influenced by the good folks at Artsandfaith, does not scream Friday night movie night. It screams, 4 hour Russian epics! French silents! African tales of woe! Which inevitably sit on the tv stand for weeks until realizing we just paid $10 for Jules et Jim to gather dust, we halfheartedly attempt to watch it and then ship it out after falling asleep in the first twenty minutes. And since earlier this year, when Netflix made it impossible to manage your queue using your mobile device, I never remember to check it and ensure I've paced in some easy viewing for this life season. Grrr. So I'm thinking tis on to streaming only plan we go, and if we need something else, hello Redbox. For now.

[Tyler]

Buckeye Jones, on 10 October 2011 - 08:04 AM, said:

I'm increasingly dissatisfied with Netflix, but I'm not sure it's all their fault. With the kids getting bigger, and my duties at our church increasing significantly over the last year, my wife and I have not had the time to really watch the films we have show up on dvd. Not to mention my queue, influenced by the good folks at Artsandfaith, does not scream Friday night movie night. It screams, 4 hour Russian epics! French silents! African tales of woe! Which inevitably sit on the tv stand for weeks until realizing we just paid $10 for Jules et Jim to gather dust, we halfheartedly attempt to watch it and then ship it out after falling asleep in the first twenty minutes. And since earlier this year, when Netflix made it impossible to manage your queue using your mobile device, I never remember to check it and ensure I've paced in some easy viewing for this life season. Grrr. So I'm thinking tis on to streaming only plan we go, and if we need something else, hello Redbox. For now.

But can you get tales of African woe and French silents from Redbox?

[Buckeye Jones]

Tyler, on 10 October 2011 - 08:53 AM, said:

Buckeye Jones, on 10 October 2011 - 08:04 AM, said:

I'm increasingly dissatisfied with Netflix, but I'm not sure it's all their fault. With the kids getting bigger, and my duties at our church increasing significantly over the last year, my wife and I have not had the time to really watch the films we have show up on dvd. Not to mention my queue, influenced by the good folks at Artsandfaith, does not scream Friday night movie night. It screams, 4 hour Russian epics! French silents! African tales of woe! Which inevitably sit on the tv stand for weeks until realizing we just paid $10 for Jules et Jim to gather dust, we halfheartedly attempt to watch it and then ship it out after falling asleep in the first twenty minutes. And since earlier this year, when Netflix made it impossible to manage your queue using your mobile device, I never remember to check it and ensure I've paced in some easy viewing for this life season. Grrr. So I'm thinking tis on to streaming only plan we go, and if we need something else, hello Redbox. For now.

But can you get tales of African woe and French silents from Redbox?

I sure hope not.

[Jason Panella]

The comments on Hastings's blog are interesting. Some are saying thanks or something similar, but the most are people still upset. One refrain is how people want more streaming content, and they also want the price to go back to how it was last year. This strikes me as silly to even consider. Aren't that various studios waking up to the worth of streaming content, however? To get more content, doesn't Netflix need more cash monies?

[Tyler]

Jason Panella, on 10 October 2011 - 09:10 AM, said:

The comments on Hastings's blog are interesting. Some are saying thanks or something similar, but the most are people still upset. One refrain is how people want more streaming content, and they also want the price to go back to how it was last year. This strikes me as silly to even consider. Aren't that various studios waking up to the worth of streaming content, however? To get more content, doesn't Netflix need more cash monies?

The customers want to get more and pay less for it even as it becomes exponentially more expensive. What's so hard to understand?

[Jason Panella]

Tyler, on 10 October 2011 - 09:22 AM, said:

The customers want to get more and pay less for it even as it becomes exponentially more expensive. What's so hard to understand?

[Peter T Chattaway]

Jason Panella wrote:
: Aren't that various studios waking up to the worth of streaming content, however? To get more content, doesn't Netflix need more cash monies?

On that note:

- - -

Paramount To Offer Latest Transformers Movie On Own Site
In a landmark antitrust ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948 (United States vs. Paramount Pictures) motion picture studios were barred from owning the theaters that showed their movies. Since then, they have operated through distribution companies (most of which they own themselves) that are essentially middlemen between themselves and theater owners. A similar arrangement now exists online, whereby the studios have signed rights deals with leading video websites to sell or rent their films. But on Wednesday, Paramount, the defendant in the 1948 case, said that it is planning to eliminate the middleman in the case of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and directly offer the movie online via streaming on its own site. There’ll be no price reduction, however. A standard version of the film will cost $3.99; an HD version (for Windows users only), $4.99.
Studio Briefing, October 6

[Peter T Chattaway]

David Poland says Netflix streaming has never been in business with 20th Century Fox. Is that true on the American side of the border? Because here in Canada, I've been able to catch up on a number of Fox films that I've missed in recent years.

[Overstreet]

Many of the Blockbusters in Seattle right now are having their clearance sales.

As tears soak my shirt, I'm leaning over bargain bins.

For $5 each: Blu-rays of Raging Bull, Heat, Fifth Element.
For $5, a DVD of Hot Fuzz.
For $2 or less each: DVDs of three Johnny Depp films for Anne (Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd) and The Road, Star Trek (2009), Duplicity, Cars, Scott Pilgrim.

Oh, the humanity.

[Darrel Manson]

You should give them all a good home

[andrew_b_welch]

All the Blockbusters in the Dallas area look like they're shutting down too. I knew the company was in bad shape, but I didn't realize they were this bad off.

[Tyler]

Overstreet, on 27 January 2012 - 11:41 AM, said:

Many of the Blockbusters in Seattle right now are having their clearance sales.

As tears soak my shirt, I'm leaning over bargain bins.

For $5 each: Blu-rays of Raging Bull, Heat, Fifth Element.
For $5, a DVD of Hot Fuzz.
For $2 or less each: DVDs of three Johnny Depp films for Anne (Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd) and The Road, Star Trek (2009), Duplicity, Cars, Scott Pilgrim.

Oh, the humanity.

If you're leaning over, wouldn't your tears fall straight into the bin?

[Jason Panella]

Tyler, on 27 January 2012 - 11:59 AM, said:

If you're leaning over, wouldn't your tears fall straight into the bin?

Jeff cries at an angle, see.

[Overstreet]

I cry through the pores of my chest.

And yes, my choices may not be anything to get really excited about. I could have picked up Summer Hours for $1, as well as The Secret of the Grain and Monsoon Wedding for $2 each - but I already have one, and I'd rather wait for the Criterion editions of the others.

Edited by Overstreet, 27 January 2012 - 12:45 PM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

David Poland:

And of course, there is the bomb that drops this month, as Starz falls off the Netflix streaming system altogether, leaving the company only Paramount, Lionsgate, Open Road, and Relativity as studio providers for now, with DreamWorks Animation landing next year.

My response, at Facebook:

Does the American version of Netflix really not have any films by Fox, or DreamWorks Animation, or...?

Oh, and no Universal? Really? . . .

Meanwhile, a brief scan of my Canadian Netflix home page shows lots of films by Fox (Narnia 3, Knight & Day, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etc.), a handful by Universal (United 93, The Mummy, Sixteen Candles, etc.), some DreamWorks Animation (The Road to El Dorado, a couple of Halloween and Christmas-themed packages, etc.), some MGM videos [The Black Stallion, RoboCop 2, etc.] and even some Sony (The Pursuit of Happyness, Das Boot, etc.).

I have gotten so used to complaining about all the stuff my American friends can see on Netflix that I can't, that it comes as a surprise to hear that I may be able to access entire major distributors on my side of the border that you Americans cannot access on yours.

Or does the output from all these studios vanish when the Starz deal ends this month? I thought the only big loss to you guys there would be Disney (which we Canadians don't even get via Netflix to begin with), and I didn't think the Starz deal affected the Canadian Netflix one way or the other, but I could be wrong about that.

So... Americans, tell me: do any of those titles show up in YOUR Netflix streaming accounts?

I could also point out certain New Line and Weinstein titles, but those distributors are handled in Canada by Alliance, so it wouldn't surprise me if Alliance had a deal with Canadian Netflix while New Line (owned by Warner) and Weinstein did NOT have a deal with American Netflix.

[Thom Wade]

Well, the loss of Starz is hit and miss. Simply because the lineup is dependent on what Starz has in it's lineup month to month thru the Starz and Encore channels. I never took advantage of the starz films on Netflix because I have Starz through my satellite provider. Starz had a lot moer than Disney...but yeah, that was how they had Disney titles on Netflix at all.

[Jason Panella]

Nezpop, on 10 February 2012 - 08:41 AM, said:

Well, the loss of Starz is hit and miss. Simply because the lineup is dependent on what Starz has in it's lineup month to month thru the Starz and Encore channels. I never took advantage of the starz films on Netflix because I have Starz through my satellite provider. Starz had a lot moer than Disney...but yeah, that was how they had Disney titles on Netflix at all.

My current streaming queue has 190 titles in it, and the loss of Starz will knock five titles out. I get the impression that I use Netflix a bit differently than some (I'm always surprised by what they actually DO have, rather than the other way around), so I'm not too worried about the loss.

[Tyler]

Netflix announces an exclusive deal with the Weinstein Co.