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Today they talked about why Watch Now is not avalable for Macs on their blog:
http://blog.netflix.com/2007/08/instant-watching-o n-mac-firefox-and.html

According to them it's because there are no publicly available DRM systems for the Mac that the studios recognize.

Right they want to prevent fraud, but they don't want your credit report fixed. Those are two separate ideas. Preventing fraud makes them more money by helping their brand. Not fixing your credit report means that you get offered credit at more profitable rates which helps them make money.

I'd highly recommend Maxed Out. It's on Netflix's "Watch Now" so you can... uh... watch it now.

There was a documentary made of the U of C scavenger hunt a few years ago. You can buy it here. Or request that Netflix or your local library get a copy, so you can check it out.

* disclaimer- I know the people who made this film. I still liked it.

Most people probably aren't aware that the trigger event for the massacre of over 900 people in Jonestown was a "New West" article on Jim Jones which included damning interviews of former members of People's Temple. Moreover, the cult had a "don't be evil" mantra -- which took the form of preaching anti-racist, anti-homophobic doctrine (essentially the state religion of political correctness) thereby shielding it from journalistic or governmental scrutiny.

Jones panicked when he discovered the article was about to be published, and immediately ordered all his followers to grab their children and move to Jonestown, where he could make like John Galt on Viagra with his "flock". This allowed him some more time to sodomize his male followers and work them into a state of "compliance" leading to the fateful day when mothers, under the indoctrination of political correctness and under the guns of "security guards" stuffed cyanide in the mouths of their children to watch them die and then, assisted by the realization of the horror of what they had done, stuff cyanide in their own mouths to follow them to the rain forest topsoil.

The merit of this sort of cult is the simplification it brings to the mantra from "Don't be evil." to, simply, "Don't be."

And why do video download services such as http://www.netflix.com/WatchNow require Windows XP SP2? What's missing on Windows 2000 and Media Player 9? Do I really need millions of lines of unrelated bloat in XP to play the movie?

Apparently the rental versions of Dr. Who season 2 were burned with a serious error. Specifically, the "New Earth" episode on disc 1 cuts out and starts showing gruesome scenes from the new "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Netflix pulled ALL discs with no word when fixed copies will be available, if ever.

I don't know why your post is modded as "informative," because you haven't provided any information about the incident to which you are referring.

Should you happen to rent or buy This Film Is Not Yet Rated the "incident" discussed in-thread is detailed during the audio commentary (by the film's director and producer) and again within a deleted scene (the phone call from an MPAA lawyer that informed the director of unauthorized copying was filmed, though the MPAA's half of the conversation was not directly recorded).

In a nutshell, the director had submitted the film to the MPAA for ratings review and was told that no one other than the raters would view the tape provided. He was also told that no copies would be made of the supplied materials. It came to pass that members of the MPAA admitted to not only screening the film for several non-raters but also to making at least one complete (and unauthorized) copy of the supplied tape.

Wikipedia covers this same ground though that summary is about as lacking as mine in terms of substantive references.

iTunes is the competition space here though, not Netflix

It is competing with Netflix instant watch, not with their traditional mail service.

From Netflix:

System Requirements:
Windows XP with Service Pack 2
or Windows Vista

Internet Explorer version 6
or higher

The fact is that I'm not going to pay $50 a month for cable or satellite for something that's, frankly, not worth that much to me.

I agree, and this is why Free-to-Air satellite, and the dismal excuse for basic cable that Comcast gives me are okay options. I record those things of interest with my MythTV Knoppix distro. While there aren't that many science fiction shows, I am quite satisfied to watch whatever comes across the airwaves, like ST:TNG, and the weekly episode of Farscape. I can't justify spending an additional $40-$80 per month for expanded cable -- I just don't watch that much TV, and I generally don't care to have the latest and greatest shows.

That being said, there are a few movies that I haven't seen yet, which I record and watch at my leisure. We do have a Netflix account, which satisfies any other desire to watch anything else. Besides, I spend my days in front of a monitor, I'm not so interested in sitting in front of a TV when I get home.

Blue-Ray is not solely Sony's. Blue-Ray is the result of the Blu-Ray Disc Association, of which Sony is a member. This does not mean Sony gets a cut of whatever Blu-Ray disk sells. It means Sony takes part in developing, through the strategic alliance of the Blr-Ray Disc Assoc., the standards of what can be called blu-ray such that a blu-ray player plays it. Sony only profits from blu-ray media it produces (as in films from Sony Motion Pictures.) Of which there are only 23 I was able to find. Although there may be more Blu-ray movies, they do not benefit Sony (outside of intagables like having a reason for a Blu-ray player or solidifying it's chose format in the market.)

Also, as far as I've seen, your website says it has nearly 150 And according to this website of releases plus previous releases, as of Nov. 14 it's only up to 99. And again, most of those are not from Sony.

Even if Sony hopes Blue-Ray will become a big factor, there are 23 Sony Blue-Ray DVDs out and not alot of those titles are going to appeal to everyone (little man? Stealth? The list goes on,)

Press release: http://www.netflix.com/MediaCenter?id=5368

Offcial registration and competition information for the Prize: http://www.netflixprize.com/

Complete details for registering and competing for the Netflix Prize are available at www.netflixprize.com

# Netflix has more than 1 billion movie ratings from customers. The average subscriber has rated more than 200 movies.

# Netflix members select approximately 60 percent of their movies based on movie recommendations tailored to their individual tastes.

# Netflix's members rent more than 95 percent of all titles in the Netflix library each quarter.

http://web.netflix.com/MediaCenter?id=1005&hnjr=8

Not even a mention in their press releases section....hmmmmmm?

Here, let me help you.

It's supposed to be in all of the existing players. But, the enforcement of the down-rez'ing is enabled on a per-disc basis. Movie A might require HDMI for high definition, while Movie B will not.

Most of the studios have announced they will not enable this flag on the discs they distribute until sometime in the future. But as I noted in another posting, I really wonder what will be distributed until then: the movies that no one really wants? Will they release popular movies without the down-rez flag set?

I have a pre-HDMI projection TV. I'm perfectly happy with it, and am not going to run out and buy a replacement just because the movie studios decided to cripple it a few years after I bought it. If HD players drop in price to the point of being an impulse purchase, I might buy one before I replace my TV.

But the studios must clearly label their HD-DVD or BluRay discs to indicate whether it can be viewed in high-definition without HDMI. If it's not labeled and I buy one and find that it's been restricted to standard definition, it's getting returned as defective for a full refund.

Or I may skip the HD player altogether. FIOS TV will be installed at my house in a couple of days, and it includes an HD PVR. I own only a handful of DVDs and rent everything else from NetFlix. For almost the same monthly cost, I can subscribe to several premium HD movie channels and record movies until I'm ready to watch them.

I rarely watch movies more than once, and usually don't find the extra content on DVDs to be interesting. My selection will be limited, but I won't have to worry about whether I can view the movie in high definition.

As a netflix users, yes, I can attest to the throttling. My wife and I had a feeling that was happening before I read the stories on /. We rent TV series on DVD and we easily go through 10 disks in a two weeks, thereby hitting the limit quickly. They slow down service by not acknowleging returned disks (it takes 2 business days in the beginning of the month and over 4 busniess days in the latter part--all being returned to the same local address. Oh, and for the official gobbeldy-gook, go here http://www.netflix.com/TermsOfUse?hnjr=8#how and scroll down to Allocation. They don't make throttling a secret. The result of giving priority to low renters is slowing down top renters. Nevermind that top renters tend to go through DVD fast thereby keeping a scarce resource in circulation. Oh, what I would give for an on-demand digital medium. I would gladly use it, DRM be damned.

I especially like the Netflix "Urban" genres. It's just movies with black people in them. http://www.netflix.com/SubGenre?sgid=1129&pgid=296 &hnjr=3

I'm not going to be using it anytime soon, but I noticed the other day that Netflix is starting to roll out their support for blu-ray.

Or if you don't want to pay the money, why not request that Netflix carry it. Or your local library.

Uh, no.
http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=700380 22

Cowboy Bebop is in fact being rereleased as a remastered version. Supposedly, it's finally free of that damn rainbow effect that plagued the previous encodes. (and it's totally on my shopping list)

This reminds me of the scene in "They Live" where the protaganist finds some sunglasses that lets him see through the hypnotic haze created by the "capitalist" aliens and and finds there's this little UFO shaped thing following him around with a camera trained on him -- which he then blows away with a shotgun.

Nobody watched MST3k for the movies

I guess I'm nobody then.

I'll admit sometimes they had good jokes, But I watched MST3k for the bad movies :) if it takes a bunch of comediangs ripping on bad movies to make airing them palatable to the general public, then so be it...

Netflix even has a b-horror category, so clearly I wasn't the Only one watching MST3k for the movies...
http://www.netflix.com/SubGenre?sgid=745&pgid=338& hnjr=3

Admittedly not all B-horror flicks are bad, but there are Plenty of bad b-horror flicks, and netflix has a LOT of bad movies for rent.. i mean cmon with over 55,000 titles they can't ALL be winners..

I agree, Why are people complaining so much?

Obviously Unlimited does not mean Unlimited.
There are many limits.

The most restrictive right now is the throttling.

After that it is the Post Office. (Nextflix could hire people to deliver, just like pizza, in just hours depending on the closest distribution point.)

After that is the number of movies that exist in the world. You obviously can't have all of them.

Why do people consider 45 Unlimited and 15 limited?

If you have a family of 25 people with 10 TVs then 45 might be quite limited. Yet people didn't complain when the Post Office was the limiting factor because it was 'reasonable'.

What Nextflix does is quite an impressive feat. It's not easy. They aren't trying to be mean or anything. They are trying to run a business that pays for itself and pulls a respectable profit to pass on to its employees and owners (including stock holders).

They could have raised prices to fix the problem. Would that be more reasonable to you people.

Maybe if you sign up for two or three accounts then you will get the movies you want. Large families and heavy users might have to in the future.

If they didn't change their practices then maybe they would have gone out of business and you would be getting 0 movies per month. Makes 15 per month look quite good. I like a company that tries to stay in business.

It isn't like they didn't tell you:

"Netflix, Inc., reserves the right, from time to time, with or without notice to you, to change these Terms of Use in our sole and absolute discretion."
http://www.netflix.com/TermsOfUse?hnjr=8#changes

I don't see how a class action law-suit could go through. If it does then you might be in the 0 movies per month category again.

Why not vote with your feet and stop buying their service?

It would be a shame if this doesn't get modded-up. I apologize for not joining in this big pirater pity party.

If netflix is having difficulty making profit due to a small percentage of heavy users, perhaps they should tweak their rental plans.
Just as an example:

Current Rates

New Rates
$09.99 1-at-a-time Unlimited
$14.99 2-at-a-time Unlimited
$17.99 3-at-a-time Unlimited (with current throttling algorithm)
$20.99 3-at-a-time Fast Unlimited (no delays for heavy usage)

Flat rates are easier to understand, but netflix is established now, and should give customers more options. If the plan don't fit the customer, change the plan!

With Netflix you can rent as many DVDs as you want from the comfort of your home and have them delivered to your door in about 1 business day! There are no late fees and no due dates, and shipping is free both ways. Plans start at $9.99 plus any applicable tax. With our most popular plan, 3 at-a-time (Unlimited), you can rent as many DVDs as you want for just $17.99 a month plus any applicable tax. You keep a revolving library of up to 3 DVDs at a time and can exchange them for new available DVDs as often as you like. There are no additional charges.

...
Cost
Our most popular plan, 3 at-a-time (Unlimited), is $17.99 plus any applicable tax per month. Click here to learn about other available plans. There are no additional charges. There are no late fees or due dates -- even shipping is free both ways! ...

http://www.netflix.com/HowItWorks

And yet, netflix continues to use "unlimited" in their advertising. Link.
I guess that spyware companies aren't the only ones who hide things in their ToS or EUIA.

The above excerpt can be found Here

You know what's funny? I live 60 miles from thier Global Headquarters, so I don't think that location has much to do with it. You know what's even funnier? If you had bothered to read the rest of this thread, you would have taken notice of how many of the "Heavy-use" Netflix subscribers you mentioned are not only familiar with "Throttling" but they corroborate my claims as well. Instead of spending 10 minutes on your post, spend 10 minutes doing some research on the subject... Heck, the Netflix site is a great place to start, as they now openly admit to the practice.

What fine print? Read their webpage.

Get the Details
With Netflix you can rent as many DVDs as you want from the comfort of your home and have them delivered to your door in about 1 business day! There are no late fees and no due dates, and shipping is free both ways. Plans start at $9.99 plus any applicable tax. With our most popular plan, 3 at-a-time (Unlimited), you can rent as many DVDs as you want for just $17.99 a month plus any applicable tax. You keep a revolving library of up to 3 DVDs at a time and can exchange them for new available DVDs as often as you like. There are no additional charges. Click here to learn about other available plans.

You're right about litigation being the American way. At its best, it provides a mechanism for people to rectify fraudulent business practices when the government chooses to ignore them. At its worse, it's a get-rich-quick scheme.

For two months I got DVD shipped the same day they were returned. The third month, it took an extra day for every movie. EVERY movie.

You can track your netflix history here: http://www.netflix.com/RentalActivity?lnkctr=yadb_ viewallshippeddvds>.

Look at the day you returned movies.. then look at the day the next one ships. The next movie should ship the same day they receive a movie. If it ships the next day a lot, you're being throttled.

For two months I got DVD shipped the same day they were returned. The third month, it took an extra day for every movie. EVERY movie.

You can track your netflix history here: http://www.netflix.com/RentalActivity?lnkctr=yadb_ viewallshippeddvds>.

Look at the day you returned movies.. then look at the day the next one ships. The next movie should ship the same day they receive a movie. If it ships the next day a lot, you're being throttled.

I haven't seen mention of the sort, but I quit NetFlix when they patented their business model — http://ir.netflix.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID= 112258. At that point, any dissatisfaction with their service was moot for (as far as I was concerned) competition was illegal.

Netflix has James Burke's Connections (II & III), Blockbuster does not.

'nuff said.

Not to bring the whole "throttling" thing into this, but it really seems that the war now is between Netflix and themselves. If they can keep from shooting themselves in the foot again, i.e., lawsuits, etc... Then theoretically, They shouldn't have anything to worry about(considering their market share). I can say from personal experience that they are trying to protect and keep their existing user base, and are quite apologetic when called on it now. I am currently enjoying a a free month + two months at half price after calling them on it. Bottom line is this, they both obviously have deeper personal issues to deal with... I'd say the war is on temporary hold until they can both get their crap together

Check out this documentary, in which Al-Jazeera compares favorably as less biased than Foxnews. Interesting interviews with our military spokespeople, too.

Control Room

If only you had a misspent youth you'd remember the purpose from CannonBall Run - you go by a Cop at 240MPH and he takes off after the Red Lamborghini. The girls driving it pull off into a car wash, washing off the Red paint, revealing the blue Lamborghini. The cops aren't surprised to see another Lamborghini so close (it must have been near Carmel, CA) and obviously don't make the connection.

Here, the car changes color from the cold water and you don't have a mess of other-colored paint.

Now somebody will correct me about the actual paint color, the actual speed, and which sequel this actually occurred in.

1. I, Robot
2. Paycheck
3. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
4. Minority Report
5. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
6. The Matrix: Reloaded
7. Signs
8. The Matrix: Revolutions
9. Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones
10. Men in Black II

Mind you it would be limited by things like Star Wars ANH being released waaayyyy before Netfilx ever existed, but the list is interesting.

http://www.netflix.com/Search?v1=Dunyayi+Kurtaran+ Adam&search_submit.x=0&search_submit.y=0

On Netflix's website they proclaim that "Netflix Ranks #1 in Customer Satisfaction", while at the bottom they carry a link to "Settlement".

Their marketing people must have completely detatched themselves from reality.

They must be taking some wicked drugs.

It's called Netflix -- look into it :-)

We use it here at Netflix. We traded in a Remedy application for it, and we're very glad we did. In order to meet our requirements for Sarbanes-Oxley, we were able to patch up bugzilla in pretty short order. It kept our process minimal while still satisfying requirements for the auditors, and more importantly not burying the developers in a heavyweight process. I don't expect we could have done it with a commercial product because we would have had to fit their previously conceived notion of what passes SOX.

I don't have much of a problem downloading movies, but if there was a legitimate alternative, I'd take it. But having to compete with a free service should hopefully make them eventually provide an alterative that isn't too pricey or restrictive.

Netflix is such an alternative. They have many memberships from which to choose, as cheap as $10/month for "unlimited" DVD rentals. You don't even have to leave your house to fetch or return your DVDs. If you don't consider that to be a legitimate, price-competive alternative to downloading free movies, then what would be a fair alternative?

Its from office space. It's funny movie. http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=203583 51&trkid=181026

The Corporation (2004) http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=600348 10&trkid=90529

You can rent it from Netflix.

I rented it myself, and it's safe in my history, and there is a page for it on the site.
http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=329815
I will say that it was a "Netflix copy". The grey discs that come every once in a while that are made for Netflix. Perhaps they canned those copies in order to get an upcoming real release? If I had known, I would have held onto the disc!!!
As for movies that drop in and out of availibility, that happens a lot for stuff that is about to be rereleased as a Special Edition, and for really rare stuff.