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Netflix Pioneers Industry To Get Left in the Dust?
prostoalex writes "The New York Times profiles Netflix, the company that pioneered subscription-based DVD plans where a disc is sent via postal service and no late fee is charged. It describes the company from May 1998, when it originally launched the Web site as a DVD-by-mail rental service (with late fees). Interesting factoids: Netflix operates 30 centers around the country and 11% of San Francisco residents subscribe to the service. Turns out, the company is not really afraid of Blockbuster, Wal-mart and Amazon moving into their markets, but they do consider on-demand Internet-download services to be a threat to their business model."
Who is the third?! Deaths always come in threes.
But Zonk apparently does, since he decided to put "to get left in the dust?" in the title. Odd.
Check out this site
I have been a netflix subscriber for about 6 months now. They advertise unlimited accounts, but hold your shippments even when they are in stock to slow you down if you start getting too many. This is my last month. Can anyone recomend another?
I hope they do get tossed out on there butts. They deserve it.
"but they do consider on-demand Internet-download services to be a threat to their business model."
In the US? Please. With current broadband conditions I'd probably have to wait longer than snailmail to get a DVD.
Just wait until you have kids, if you don't feel this truth now.
When I can walk by the bargain rack at Circuit City and pick up something I might like to see (again) like Zardoz for $6.99 it hardly makes sense not to own it. Or some deals at Costco.
If I pick up a few of these deals, here and there, I start to have a backlog of stuff to watch, and never feel the need to commit to subscriptions or pay full-fare for something "new" and "hot".
But that's just me. I am a cheap bastard saving for retirement and helping my kids thru college, but still trying to have a few toys...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Zip.ca is basically a Canadian version of Netflix. I'm really enjoying my subscription.
So the question then becomes, what will the MPAA do? Netflix is probably right, as long as they run a open ended service w/out late fees, they're set. Blockbuster is still tied to a brick and morter establishment that prevents them from really running Netflix into the ground, Amazon and Walmart while in possession of huge amounts of $$$ aren't first to market on this.
Fundamentaly, when someone thinks of mail delivered DVDs they think netflix.
They're right, download on demand movies are the only real threat they face, and that decision remains up to the MPAA. A legal download option stands to one-up netflix simply because it removes the need for postage.
Of course, there is still the bandwidth/time/storage problem to contend with, but time should solve those for any theoretical on demand download site.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
I work as a mail carrier and I see a lot more netflix dvds than blockbuster or walmart dvd rentals. In fact I didn't even know walmart had dvd rentals until I delivered some to a house.
Something I've noticed about netflix is that they always send dvds in groups of 3, where blockbuster and walmart might send one.
"the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached to it." - Grandpa Simpson
While Netflix may feel that on-demand Internet-download services are a threat to their business model, it is truly signifigant that Blockbuster viewed Netflix as a threat to their physical-store business model.
I believe the rise of Netflix was instrumental in their adopting their 'no-late-fees' policy (I know some exceptions apply), and this was mentioned by many pundits around the time of Blockbuster's move.
Blockbuster's move and the related coverage for Netflix/zip.ca introduced a lot of people to the whole industry - the people that wondered why Blockbuster would do such a move. Great P.R. for Netflix and zip.ca.
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
Amazon is joining the game? Maybe we'll FINALLY get a company doing this that's willing to rent out porn! Woohoo! They'll leave the others in the dust in no time.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
If they are afraid of the online download distribution system (and they should be), why not pioneer it?
I used to be a member of BMG but left after i discovered allofmp3.
"Netflix Pioneers Industry To Get Left in the Dust?"
W... w... what? I can't even parse the grammar there. What does that mean? Who's getting left in the dust... Netflix? Industry? Pioneers? Typos in stories are one thing, but at least try to have the story titles make sense, okay?
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
At the very least, they have suicided.
but they do consider on-demand Internet-download services to be a threat to their business model."
All kinds of companies always talk about things being threats to their business model. Its funny because these are the same companies that are Yay Capitalism! Guess what, if someone is a threat to your business model its called competition, the underlying principle of capitalism. Your choices are to change your business model or get out. And don't even think about becoming one of those companies that tries to change laws and use the government to enforce your business model.
is GreenCine. It has an enormous selection and actual customer support. It's not one of the huge corporations like Blockbuster or Amazon, but rather like your friendly local rental shop.
I've found that Netflix "throttles" my rentals after a period when I rent too many movies for them to make a profit. They will delay shipments and change the wait status on your queue to absurd amounts of time. I'm led to believe that this practice will become even more common with the new price drop. This is, of course, against their terms of service, but it's extremely difficult to prove - the USPS bears much of the blame. Couple this with the nonexistant customer service, and the frequent movie renter is definitely at a disadvantage.
Of course, if you only rent two or three movies a month, then Netflix is fine. But for those who really like film, I'd highly recommend supporting GreenCine.
...and settlers get the land.
I use blockbuster's online DVD rental service. Originally I was attracted by the cheaper price and the ability to rent a couple new releases in the stores every month. Recently though, I've found I prefer to use my two coupons a month to rent games. The game rentals are more expensive (but free with the coupon) and with Blockbusters new almost No Late Fees policy, I can basically have two two-week game rentals. It's cool to have almost a month to tackle a longish RPG for free with my online DVDs.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Actually, Netflix did rent Adult DVDs in their early years, then quietly dropped it around the time they began to get more press. They never had anything hard core, just stuff along the lines of Girls Gone Wild. I guess you'd call it blue. Some of the Japanese idol stuff was rather interesting, they even had some hentai...or so I heard...;-)
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Has anyone tried http://www.gameznflix.com/? They rent movies and games.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for almost 2 years, blockbuster for maybe about 3 months now and I am probably the most hated customer at Netflix.com and blockbuster.com
If I send out a movie on say Monday, I get that movies replacement by at least Friday. Everytime.
You see, I have a movie addiction and watch about 6+ movies a week ( never watch television or play video games otherwise though, so this translates to well under 10hrs/week of tube-time ).
I watch and return movies to netflix and blockbuster.com as fast as they send them usually. Overall I get to watch about the same amount of movies from each. That is 3-4 movies per week.
Netflix has always been honest, and blockbuster reasonalbly so as well. Blockbuster has a gimmick price though ( $15.99 is introductory, it's actually $25/mn ), but they give 2 instore rentals per month ( which I need for quick fixes ).
The difference is the web interface. Blockbuster's is clumsy. You don't get your recommendations on the first page like Netflix does. Netflix gives me, personally better movie recommendations but that maybe because have rated almost 700 movies with them. Netflix also gives links of critic links and customer reviews on every movie page. You can even see how many customers have rated a movie. Blockbuster's killer feature to me is that you can search movies by writer. Netflix needs this badly.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
Piss commacomma moan
So long as they have n copies of a popular title and m > n people who want that title, someone has to wait in line.
They have made the decision (and not entirely unreasonable) that the people who use the service the least get to be further in front of the line than the people who use it the most.
If this offends you so much, you can buy a few million DVDs, set up a customer service and distribution organization and run your own competing service, and deal with people who whine that your arbitrary decision for who gets first dibs is somehow unfair.
TANSTAAFL
(In interest of full disclosure, I have never used Netflix, nor do I work for them. I am a new (and happy) customer of Blockbusters' competing product.)
How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
Netflix does not always send in groups of three. Your information is doubtful, are you a mailman?
Of course, no /. discussion of Netflix could be complete without revisiting how Netflix discriminates against regular users by retarding delivery of their discs in favour of immediate availability for new members...
Da Blog
a dangrous combination. But you can pretty much get all your movies, make an ISO to the hard disk and get 'em back to Netflix. This is awesome if you want to convert the movie (using MPEG4 Direct Maker) later to run on a handheld device like an Archos AV. Yeah I know,..totally not related but useful to know anyway.
Depending on how they deal with this, Netflix could be THE de facto standard of DVD rentals...or they could be the ones that started the industry and then died out as others perfect their idea. The part that concerns me is how " the company is not really afraid of Blockbuster, Wal-mart and Amazon moving into their markets...". That almost sounds like the Apple of old...thinking you have a superior product and not fearing your competition can kill. If they take their competition seriously and strive to maintain their market share while improving their service before the competitors have a chance to catch up...that's when being the pioneer can pay off.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
I decided not to do business with Netflix a while back, because they send spam. (That's not my page, but the guy who posted it apparently got the same spam messages I did.) I encourage everybody to avoid doing business with them until they stop abusing our inboxes.
Be who you are...and be it in style!
but yea, there's this huge conspiracy that they hold on to my rentals ... right
vodka, straight up, thank you!
factoid means a piece of information that is repeated so often by so many that it is believed to be true, not a cute, interesting baby fact.
From dictionary.com: The -oid suffix normally imparts the meaning "resembling, having the appearance of" to the words it attaches to. Thus the anthropoid apes are the apes that are most like humans (from Greek anthropos, "human being"). In some words -oid has a slightly extended meaning"having characteristics of, but not the same as," as in humanoid, a being that has human characteristics but is not really human.
It's pretty ironic that the very definition of factoid has become a factoid itself.
...still trying to parse that headline? Maybe a comma and the word "Only" could help? In which case... this is news? Pioneers rarely survive, let alone thrive. It takes someone outlandish to show that a new market exists somewhere, but they ususally aren't *that* great at business, so the giants swivel their heads and say "oh yeah, there *is* a market there" and attack with with economies of scale, experienced marketers, etc.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Plus the search system on their site sucks. But that, unlike a patronizingly moralistic corporate attitude, can be remedied, I presume.
Seriously: Netflix ships movies for a flat monthly fee. So does Blockbuster and companies X, Y, and Z. What makes it better? Nothing? Well, then we compete on price and margins go out the window.
It's basic business 101: if you have a strong differentiator (my product is better and no one else can sell it), you can charge more and make money. If you can't, you wind up in a commodity market and you make a lot less...or get trampled by a larger competitor, go through a consolidation wave, etc.
A good example is Tivo. First to market. Good product. Not really anything unique or hard to copy. Now facing stiff competition.
Yes, good customer service should matter, but honestly in these kinds of businesses it's really a self-service kind of deal. Sure if they ship you Patch Adams III when you were waiting for Back Door Housewives Vol 14 you will call up and complain but you're not building a real relationship here.
Advice: on VPS providers
And you should have stated you have a significant financial interest in the company doing well. We talk about Slashvertisements, we see a lot of self-promoting /. posters too.
Not to be a troll, but that title has nothing to do with the article summary...
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Just because you have time to watch Il Postino the same day il postino delivers it doesn't mean you unlawfully copy them. Likewise, just because you own a DVD-RW doesn't mean you unlawfully copy movies. Heck, just because you own a DVD-RW doesn't even mean you have the ability to bit-copy movies, as most titles nowadays are dual-layer, and to my knowledge, only DVD+RW has dual layer recordable media.
Who gives a crap? Did you read the ToS? You agreed to it when you signed up for Netflix....So lets see what it says here......
Delivery and Return of Rented DVDs
We reserve the right to allocate and ship DVDs to you in any manner that we, in our sole and absolute discretion, determine. In addition, we will, in our sole and absolute discretion, determine the quantity of DVDs we purchase for any particular title and the level of staffing and number of shipments to be processed at each distribution center. As a result, we may not always send you the first choice from your queue, and we may not ship out your next DVD on the same day that we receive one from you. Our goal is to ship you the DVDs listed highest in your queue.
QED, bitches....I dont see what the big fucking deal is. You agreed to it, did you not?
As a netflix customer who gets a lot of DVDs, and whose DVDs have sometimes been slow in coming, this seems extremely reasonable.
Just my $0.02.
You're a miserable moron. You probably thought this was humorous, how about posting your personal phone numbers and those of all your friends and family? You're pathetic. Identify theft isn't bad enough, you have to promote it in the disguise of "good fun." You're an ass.
BSD is already dead
Apple, duh!
...is responsible for quite a few pop-under ads. That's why I'll never give them my money.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/
I noticed a significant decline in shipping speed in the 3rd month and have filed a complaint with my states attorney general.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
..I run a mail-order business and the variability of shipments between two static addresses is huge. I'm seeing a lot of complaints about Netflix "holding" movies, and though I've been a mostly happy member for 2 years, I don't think they're doing this.
More importantly, I think they need to increase manageability and sorting features on their website. The fact that you can't more easily manage new releases, sort by release date, etc., frustrates me.
Back in the early days of netflix (4 or so years ago) you could go into your send queue and click on I already sent this movie back and they would bump another up and send it out. So with a 4disc subscription you could have 8 out at any given time.
the reason i have netflix besides anybody is they have a very large collection of documentaries. Seriously, that is a very real advantage (atleast for me)....
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."--Howard Zinn
I don't know how Netflix could fear on-demand movie downloads. First off, they're already competing with bittorrent based download sites. Secondly, I would much rather pay $20 and get movies delivered to me through the mail than pay $20 (+Cost of bandwidth usage). Besides, there's still a big part of the market that does not have fast internet connections and would rather not watch/figure out how to watch movies on their (slow/adware/spyware filled) computers.
I watch movies for free by using our local library (Washington, King County library system). One less monthly bill, yaw!
Is anyone else finding Vonage ads particularly annoying. I just found their pop under ad, a first one in years. This was only a few minutes after hearing their sound ad on slashdot. Seriously, its some chick's voice suddenly coming out of nowhere urging me to buy something. Yes, I use Firefox.
Yeah, I bet you're doing really honest things with them.
It's like, what, 17 bucks a month for 5 movies? What if you can't watch 5 movies that month? 17 bucks anyway i guess. why not netflix do pay-per-rental?
there may be other factors that impact the commercial success of netflix, but video on demand is not likely to be one of them. many vod tests, in this country and england, have failed for lack of consumer support. the vod model of searching titles is totally unsatisfactory to the consumer pattern of search and shop. the vod model is a tree structure, a binary search across categories and sub categories. netflix has done an interesting job of pioneering a non hierarchical recommendation process now available through Macromedia. the other albatross that vod has to bear is the complete inability of cable system operators to market anything .. but that's another story.
I have been with NetFlix for about a year. I have enjoyed the service and find the website easy to use. I am a tab browsing addict and open a ton of pages at once. Browsing one page at a time is too slow, even over broadband. So, the Netflix site rules for ease of navigation.
I return movies the day after I receive them, most of the time. A few months ago, I decided to try BlockBuster. The net service is a little cheaper and I can also get two instore rentals a month. The big advantage is the games.
So, I am finally catching up on movies and I need to decide which service to keep. Here's the kicker: Both places have service centers in Denver. So, my movies go to Denver no matter what. However, BlockBuster's service is constantly faster. They claim the post office notifies them of which movies are sent for return and cross ship. This gives me a couple more rental periods each month.
For example, after Christmas, I sent 6 movies back to NFLX and BB on the same day. All three BB movies arrived before the first two from NFLX. What gives?
So, for me, after I receive my last two movies in my queue, I am cancelling the NFLX account. However, I do wish BlockBuster.com was easier to navigate...
I root for the underdog, but I am also a capitalist. Therefore, I go with the cheaper service that gets the movies to me fastest. And on both accounts, it is currently BlockBuster.
just my two cents.
Amazon doesn't have quite the same idea as netflix, they have a few limits installed (6 per month etc) and so netflix does seem to have the customer happy approach. I have been itching to sign up for netflix or amazon for AAAAAAAAGES but where I recently moved to I cannot. Which sucks.
:-) no i don't I want to get a physical DVD (sans marketting shit that I cannot FF) and watch it with friends.
Now, remember what you bought a couple years/months ago? yep, a DVD player. Complete with menus, extras, frame advance, remote control, sofa, favourite cushion.
Do I want to watch movies on my office chair? )I am getting an RF connection for my TV out to tv though...
This is the reason why online delivery of films won't work, until everyone has a ubiquitous (and upgradable, and STANDARDS complaint (read not M$) computer in thier living room with a silent operation, 2 second start up time and can use a 10mbit/sec connection to stream in films. (local content hubs?).
Tada.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
The link below is an interview with Reed Hastings on financial site htp:wwwfoolcom. If your a netflix fan it is a good read. They tend to be a bit softball, but Reed comes across very well. I think that Netflix will be first out with a good video on demand service. http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2005/commentar y05020204.htm/
San Francisco Photographers
Yeah, but the King County Library is unusually good. Most people don't have that sort of resource available to them.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Mr. Hastings anticipates that it will be 2010, if not 2015, before a lot of the movie-watching public is downloading films over the Internet. Mr. Hastings is convinced that the same features that draw people to his DVD rental service will induce them to use his service to download digitally delivered movies. Netflix has devoted millions of dollars to building an easily navigated Web site while it refines a complex software system that recommends movies based on customer ratings.
So in 10 years yes I can see video on demand in a living room. So netflix is saying that they are having an advantage of having a better website in 10 years.
Last time I checked, Amazon had bought a little site called imdb... seems popular. But imdb != netflix site, it is really encyclopedic, are we going to see imdb overhauled to give online rental and finally downloads of the movies?
"If we differentiate the Web site well enough, with rating histories and other features consumers want, that's our strategic leverage" once people start receiving movies via the Internet, Mr. Hastings said.
In addition, blockbuster says its bricks and mortar free pass with the cheaper delivery rental (thier business plan really was 'start posting dvd's' - you can really ridicule them for not doing it sooner... I mean, they had localised DVD distribution sorted...)
Blockbuster has the brand, and ties with some large networks. Blockbuster will agressively open digital content streams ASAP, but bleed from its cash cow as the painful switch takes over... or profit highly from basically letting computers do the work?
Close all stores.. charge same prices... intarwebnet... jobs a goodun.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I had a subscription to them in college. The third DVD I rented never showed up, and they had no contact information on their website whatsoever. I eventually had to call my credit card company and tell them to cancel the billing.
What a goddamn crock. Most expensive DVD I ever rented.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
This is the biggest news since simulatedlucidity.com
While paying for DVDs takes some cash, Netflix's largest expenditure is shipping costs, IIRC.
A mail carrier further up mentioned that Netflix DVDs tend to be delivered in sets of three. There's a pretty easy explanation for this: Netflix processes on Monday through Friday. The mail service ships Monday through Saturday. There are probably more people watching on the weekend then the week, so the likelihood of a collection of DVDs being mailed back on Monday is probably higher. Additionally, assuming you mail out to them and your DVD arrives on a Friday or Saturday, your chances of that DVD being processed on a Monday are fairly high, which increases the chances of that being grouped with another movie that made it to their center on Monday.
The point in all of this is to simply explain why the discs arrive in triplicate so frequently. Given this, why doesn't Netflix have some sort of slightly larger envelope that they stuff with return envelopes and discs? It would seem to me that sending that bigger envelope (it only needs to be a little bigger, so no postage increase) with two or three DVDs for the same postage would cut costs tremendously.
...if it didn't take six fucking minutes for their web page to load, they wouldn't be staring death in the face.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Perhaps a work around for Netflix would be to offer a lower quality downloadable version of any DVD that is on it's way to you.
So if you decide that you must see 'Legally Blonde' tonight, you download a 350M DivX version to your computer and the DVD copy gets locked at the top of your queue and sent out the next day. It's the same as a regular movie rental except that you get to watch the film a day or two early. Perhaps Netflix would charge a $1 premium to your account for each use to cover bandwidth costs.
What does Roland Piquepaille think about this?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Lots of posts here focus on the "internet" side of downloadable movies. Even with my 10 Mbps cable modem, downloading movies this way sucks.
My cable company, cablevision, has an on-demand service that works very well. They also have a high-def on-demand service that works equally as well. Since getting both of these services, my wife and I have stopped going to the video store (and canceled our netflix subscription).
Granted, the selection isn't great, but that will change with time. Once all cable companies roll these services out to every customer and provide the same selection as the "rental" guys - the days of rental will be over.
Who in their right mind wants to either drive to the store, or pre-select the movies they want to watch? When my wife and I get in the mood to watch a movie, we just scroll through the list and pick one. No hassle.
When we see a movie we think is worth adding to the collection, we buy it (that doesn't happen very often these days).
The next bastion of entertainment to fall will be movie theaters. It's only a matter of time until first run movies will be shown via on-demand services. Imagine....no more $20 box of popcorn, no more sticky seats, and no more loud, obnoxious viewers.
Sure, there will always be teen-agers that want to get out of the house to support theaters....but think of all the people that want to go see movies that can't or won't (the disabled, parents with young kids, the elderly, those that can't drive...etc). Their money is just as green as everyone else's.
-ted
I just cancelled my Netflix account after just a little over a month, not including the free trial period. I love the idea, and the convienence was great, but the turn around was too slow. Admittedly, where I live in Northern Oklahoma is a good ways away from the shipping point in Coppell, TX. If I watched a movie on Saturday night, and then got it in the mail on Monday, I wouldn't get a replacement for it in time for the next weekend. Also, on the second batch of movies they sent me "Elf" instead of requested "Napoleon Dynamite". NOT a fair trade.
Never argue with a man carrying a water buffalo
I get my movies three ways.
.torrent. Most "pay" news-servers have 45 days of retention in binary groups now, and DVD-5's (and 9's!) are posted regularly. A great place to get things like the From-Laserdisk Star Wars movies (or maybe a Magnolia Fan edit), cult classics, party movies (Bumfights comes to mind), etc. Probably 50 more here.
:)
:)
1) I buy them. Every other Tuesday or so, on release day, I go to Best Buy, or Walmart, or whomever has today's hot DVD at a fair price with the "only at this retailer" extra feature. These represent about 300 of my 600 DVDs.
2) I rent them from Netflix. All those foreign films from a director that made ONE good film and 5 stinkers - I rent his stinkers. Didn't watch the last season of Voyager but want to see the finale? Netflix. If I'm only going to watch it once, it comes from Netflix. These are probably 200 of my 600 movies.
3) I download them from Usenet, and rarely from a
The rest of my movies are gifts, or from "other"
Ok, sure, maybe it's wrong to copy Netflix movies and watch them later, but I'm *mostly* providing myself with a time-delay system; slowly watching my Netflix subscription at my own pace - not at the pace of the USPS -- and if it's a movie worth buying, I make it one of my silver retail discs and throw away the copy. If it's crap, I shove it back in its case, put it on the shelf, and forget about it.
Yes, and I know downloading them is wrong, but, hey, where else are you going to get Dark Side of Oz, and Star Wars Laserdiscs
Move to Seattle.
I have rented ~150 movies from Netflix. They always send a new movie the afternoon after I mail them an old movie (unless I mailed on a Friday or Saturday)--except in *one* case, which took two business days. Shipping has ALWAYS taken one day (plus Sundays or postal holidays), either way.
There is a local distribution center in Tacoma, Washington.
My only complaint is they don't process movies on Saturdays. Oh, and now others are cheaper.
I wonder if the open source community has considered donating CDs and DVDs to companies like Netflix. What a way to make excellent software available.
Is your relative's Windows installation trashed? Tell him to add Knoppix to his Netflix queue!
Is someone complaining about the cost of Microsoft Office? Add TheOpenCD!
I'm sure others can come up with the types of CDs and DVDs people might find useful. Thoughts?
Excuse me please.
I'm new here.
Is that what they call a "troll"?
In Austin, TX, we've got several independent video rental stores. Perhaps they thrive here because our consumers are more discriminating and will seek out alternatives to Starbucks and the like. Two of the video rental stores have multiple storefronts across town. They're a nice alternative to Blockbuster because they have a deeper selection of obscure titles and the employees have frequently added their own reviews to the front of the boxes. On top of that, they also carry XXX porn, which surely helps prevent Blockbuster from cutting off their air supply.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Yep... Netflix 20 - 30 movies a month..... my stack of DVDRs grows similarly.
I cannot believe nobody has mentoned this, but my wife has never once returned a movie on time. The late fee savings alone are worth it. That and the efficiency make it irresistible. The shipping time seems t obe a key factor as well. I am one day from a distribution center.
BillG is paying for it. Or more precisely The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They have free internet access and LCD screens in every library, too.
Actually the NJ Attorney General is going after blockbuster for their claim that there is no late fee when actually they call it now a restocking fee. Actually it is much worse than that. Instead of making it cheaper to rent movies, Blockbuster is robbing consummers by misinforming them that there is NO LATE FEES when in fact if you are more than 8 days you are AUTOMATICALLY CHARGED FOR THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE DVD! You rent out 3 new dvds you are going to find out that after 8 days you just got charged $100+ on your credit card.
I've been with Netflix for a couple months and just cancelled Blockbuster after the couple week free trial. I cancelled BB because NF shipped the movies to me faster and more movies were in stock, ready to ship. I'm in Bellevue, WA and it would only take one day for the movies to be shipped here with NF, 2-3 days for BB. The envelopes don't indicate where they were shipped from, but BB's return envelopes were going to a shipping center in nearby Seattle while NF had one 30 miles from here in Tacoma. I suspect all my NF movies were coming from there while BB's Seattle center never had the movies I wanted and they were coming from elsewhere. I actually did have a "problem" with one Netflix dvd. It played fine in my player, but I couldn't copy it so I could burn a copy :) I reported it as scratched, they sent another copy, and that one copied fine. I did this mostly to test how they responded to this, since it was during the 2 week trial.
For the record, I'm an employee of Time Warner.
Though I admit, I get discounts on all movies, nothing is quite as simple as iControl. If you live in Austin TX and subscibe to digital cable, tune to channel 1001. Just pick a movie, click to purchase (will be added to your next months bill) and watch. It's simple and you don't have to return anything. Oh and, it's enviromentally friendly too.
The only downside to this is the movie selection. It's rather limited to say the least. But as storage becomes cheaper I'm sure that will change. Lets not forget that the telecos will also be offering VOD if they arn't already. If Blockbuster isn't already, they should be crapping in their pants. I'm not sure how they can compete in the rental industry 5 years from now.
Life is not for the lazy.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for about a year now, and I've been consistently pleased with the service I receive. I signed up after a frustrating attempt to find an older movie on DVD at the local brick & morter rental stores. They mainly deal in new releases, and typically limit their offerings to pan & scan.
It really doesn't matter to me if Blockbuster's Netflix-ripoff is cheaper. I've had enough bad experiences using Blockbuster in the past that I'll never subscribe to their service. Never.
And...something tells me that once B.B. builds a customer base, they will suddenly become must less forgiving of DVDs lost in the mail or damaged in shipping (Things Netflix has never given me a hard time about, BTW). Blockbuster isn't on the same level of evil as... say Walmart, but they are a shitty company, regardless. I'd rather give my money to the new kids on the block, until they shit on me.
Quick, the Internet is destroying our business model--let's lobby Congress to make this illegal.
I hope the Netflix pioneers are going to be more reasonable. Netflix has had a good run, but it was obvious from the start that their current business, sending little shiny discs around, was only going to be short lived.
"Factoid" means a "false fact," just like "Humanoid" means a "false human." The writer, of course, means to say "fact" but feels the need to dress up the word to make himself sound more intelligent. Better get Strunk & White.
I had a Blockbuster Movie pass from the local store for a few months (when I had time to watch movies). You can have 2 out at a time, and you can rent and return all you want in a day. One Saturday I watched 4 movies and still had 2 more that night waiting. Most of the time I just had the movie(s) I watched the night before in the car and I stopped in the store on the way home from work. I only cancelled because fall TV started and I really watch too much TV to be watching movies too.
I used Netflix to get movies, rip them, and send them back. With their 8 movies at a time deal, I was able to get between 14 to 16 movies per week. Basically, they'd send the movie and I'd get it the next day. I'd rip it that day and send it back the next day. They'd get it the next day after that. It's basically a three day turn around.
I decided to try Blockbuster's service. Like I said it sucked. It would take days, several days (7-9) to get my movies. And, of course, it would take several days for them to get the movies I sent back.
While Netflix used a local facility (a few counties over), Blockbuster sent and received all movies to Maryland, several states away.
Here's a great example of how crappy Blockbuster is: OVER two months after quitting Blockbuster's service I got an email saying that they received one of the movies I sent them. OVER TWO FUCKING MONTHS TO GET A FUCKING MOVIE?!?!?!
I seriously believe that the intent of Blockbuster's service is to make all internet/mail DVD delivery services look bad. I used to live in Baltimore so I mail stuff to friends all the time. They usually get stuff in three days. Thus, it's quite clear to me that it's not the Post Office's fault. But it is Blockbuster intentionally being slow. Blockbuster obviously wants to destroy the whole internet/mail DVD deliver model. When someone signs up for their service, it's SO incredibly bad that the person would never bother trying it again. They'll simply go back to their local Blockbuster to get their movies.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
your choice of adverb is fundamentally incorrect
My choice of words was fundamentally deliberate, thanks very much. If you advertise a service as "unlimitged" then it should be so. Any caveats or restrictions should be announced clearly and categorically. Netflix's built-in mode of silent discrimination is not not announced and, as such, is therefore discriminatory and practised haphazardly. I know this because, if you whine to the CSRs, they can enter a code, bump you on the list, and your movies arrive post-haste. This kind of arbitrariness is just bad business, and bad ethics.
Da Blog
I have no fear of internet movie providers to be a real threat to Netflix, Blockbuster or the like. I don't really mind watching a flick on my computer, but it's definently not my first choice. I'd much rather be able to pop the DVD into a set top player and enjoy it that way. But there is still the possibility that download services will become more popular, if Media Centers finally become popular. Now that is something I'd go for.
>why don't you just go to Best Buy and shoplift the entire DVD rack?
Okay, when do this thing called "ripping" you're using the computer box to make a copy. A copy is a identical bunch of bits, but entirely separate from the original. The original could still be sold or rented because it hasn't been touched or altered.
When you steal a DVD, you're taking the original. That original could no longer be sold or rented for money, which is used for commerce and fuels the economy.
Next, we'll explain the difference between "electronic bits" and a "disc of plastic."
Uh, you'll notice Apple is still around and doing better than ever.
It's one thing to recognize competition, it's another to react to it badly out of fear.
Fear is the Mind Killer.
Anything is possible given time and money.
- Blockbuster: sorry guys, you screwed me on late fees once too often. Did I return anything late? No. Did you let my ex-wife rent with a card I told you to cancel, and then she returned them late, and I had to pay the fees? Yup. Twice! Screw you.
- Wal-Mart: do I even have to say anything? I'll never give Wal-Mart another dime. IKEA, Target, sometimes, but mostly I go to Ace Hardware, M&P music stores (like the lovely Zia Records in the Phoenix area), and generally give my money to companies that are better community players. Scottsdale told you to stuff it. They're right. Screw you, too.
- Amazon: well, I have nothing critical to say against you from a consumer stand point. You've got a lot of good stuff, and never screwed me over as a customer. But I'm still ticked about the one-click patent, and in this market, you're a me-too-ist, so given the choice, I'm sticking with the original.
Notice that price isn't really a factor for me, so maybe I'm not typical, as I said. NetFlix has a massive collection, with a good selection of esoteric stuff that Blockbuster didn't have when they came along. They do what they say they do, and do it well.Do not touch -Willie
Given how cheap it is to rent DVDs these days, I'm not inclined to give up 5.1 surround sound, which I find adds significantly to my enjoyment. Even a cheap 5.1 system makes a huge improvement to TV sound.
I understand my case is anecdotal evidence; I understand I'm not a high-bandwidth user (3 a week. I only have time to watch stuff on weekends).
I also understand that the netflix service center is a stones throw from my house (I hand it to the guy or lady at the post office and they turn around and put it in the netflix bin.)
But I haven't really noticed any issues at all. Seeing the results of the testing and thinking about it logically, it seems egalitarian to give those who use the resources less a better chance at in-demand titles. Additionally, I have soooo many old and foreign movies in my queue I rarely notice any hold-ups in my queue.
The only thing I've noticed is that sometimes they will ship two movies first, wait a day, and then ship the second one. Again, I assume that was to give other users a chance at commonly desired movies.
It seems like their policies are a nice way around the Tragedy of the Commons.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
They only allow you an "extra day or two".
To quote their difficult to link to FAQ: "If you still have a movie or game seven (7) days after the due date shown on your receipt, we will convert your rental to a sale. The movie or game will be sold to you at the selling price in effect at the time of rental, which is either the retail price, or, when available, at the previously-rented selling price, less the initial rental fee you paid."
I'll stick with NetFlix, Thank you.
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." --Old German Proverb
"Uh, you'll notice Apple is still around and doing better than ever."
Yes, Apple IS still around, and they're damn lucky they are. The first Apple, the Apple of the mid-80s era, had that "we have the rockinest computer and OS in the world. Nobody can beat us. Windows? Psssh, who cares." They went from having one of the most popular computer systems in the world to almost dying out, being described as "that beleagured company" almost daily.
The second Apple, the one we know today, is the Apple that doesn't scoff at all competition. The iPod for example...while not THE first mp3 player out there, it was still one of the first. Apple quickly gained 70% of the mp3 player market. Did they sit on their laurels and say "Psh, who cares about Zen and everyone else?" Hell no. They continued to improve on the iPod. They looked at what everyone else was doing. They acted and they reacted to the competition. Same with iTMS...
I agree...fear can be a killer. Don't let fear paralyze you, but don't get that "nobody can beat me" attitude and let a little bit of fear get inside you to pump up that adrenaline and give you that extra boost to win the race when you've got someone catching up to you.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
You don't have to give up surround sound to watch DivX/XVid with AC3. Enough channels can be encoded with AC3 to give you surround sound. The point was do you need surround sound in French and Spanish? Most DVDs have 5.1 sound tracks in 3 languages and 2 channel sound tracks in three languages, as well as subtitles in all the languages. Each 5.1 track can take about 300 MB and subtitles take a couple megabytes.
http://www.peerflix.com/
peerflix is an interesting way to get movies in the mail. Basically, you are sharing out your own DVD collection with other peerflix members. I've been using it for a few months now, and while it still has a few bugs to work out, it seems promising.
That's true, Blockbuster's "no late fees" thing is false advertising. That's why the Attorney General of New Jersey is suing blockbuster.
Hard to find items like The World at War series, or the short lived Firefly, or the films of Akira Kurosawa (Ran, Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress) These are not hard to find online but impossible to find at a brick and mortar store and the 5 listed above would cost me between $160-250 at Amazon depending on new or used condition.
Netflix is the preferred way to watch TV, nothing better than no commercials and being able to knock out a season quickly, if you want to.
BB and Netflix are both doomed eventually, how soon will be most dependent on broadband penetration.
Webvan was supposed to be the revolutionary internet based grocery delivery business. However the start-up infrastructure costs were staggering and killed the company. It was far more economical for the corner grocery store to acquire an internet delivery capability because they already had the physical infrastructure.
Ditto banks. They seem to be building them like mad, whether on street corners or inside grocery stores. Ditto side down bookstores. Amazon will never wipe out all bookstores, because some are social spaces.
there was a time a while back, when the articles about this appeared, where this did happen. if you watched too many movies your queue would pretty much turn to all "long wait", but they fixed that a long time ago. i'm an avid and obsessive user, and right now in my 498 movie long q only 3 movies are listed as "short wait". i do hear good things about greencine though, if netflix ever does go south im all on that.
tasty electronic music vittles
Given that article title, which BTW was not reflected in anyway in the article text, one might get the impression that maybe you would be sympathetic to them having a BUISNESS PROCESS PATENT. Since they "invented" the process according to you and also according to you, that somehow means that they deserve some kind of protection from "getting left in the dust".
/. philosophy now.
Next time you go and post an inflamitory article title, just make sure it doesn't fly in the face of the
Yeah well there's a distro center an hour away from me and when I first joined I had 2 day turnaround time, but now they are intentionally delaying sending my next movies. I can get 12 movies a month, period. See, people who actually get their money's worth are not the sort of customers they want. If there were another service in my area with a large anime selection, I would be gone.
But don't take my word for it. There's a whole site devoted to exactly this issue. Check out the customer opinions part and see for yourself.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
My mom works in a public library in a DC suburb. According to her, they have extremely high damage rates (mostly scratches) on CDs and DVDs that are much higher than for cassettes and videotapes and the discs are quickly destroyed. Apparently, people are more careless with discs from the library than they are with video rentals or their own collection or the people who use the library as opposed to paying for video rentals or purchases are more inept in their handling of disks.
Most libraries have very small collections of movies. The main branch of the Charlottesville, VA public library has 240 video titles (all formats) and the entire system has only 396. Video rental stores have much larger selections (about 5000 titles) and online services like Netflix (aprox 30000 titles), GreenCine (25000), BB online (approx 30,000), etc. have much larger collections, still. The local university has a much larger collection than the public library but it is still far less complete than netflix.
I am using netflix very actively... It usually takes 1 day to send and receive. I usually have about 15 movies in my queue and they have always send me a new movie when they received one. You can easily rent 6 movies a week.
I've always wondered this, but how do they stock new titles? Like on Tuesdays, do they just get in a few thousand copies of each release?
I don't think the other poster is arguing that your DVDs should be delayed so that he can cycle three DVDs every two days. He is arguing that he should be able to cycle his 1.5 discs per day while you still get yours perfectly on time.
I think you are putting words in my mouth. I am not offering an opinion in this forum concerning the rights and wrongs of the supply management strategy. I am offering an opinion on the practice of arbitrary execution and deployment of unpublished discriminatory categorisations for different customers, and the idiosyncratic way these regulations are enforced by Netflix CSRs. This turns an underhanded practice into an unfair practice.
Da Blog
No matter how much you want to grumble, paying the cost of one dvd a month to rent maybe, what?...6? MINIMUM? and particularly if you're ripping them all to your own private collection, that is a steal...
I think you are putting words in my mouth. I am not offering an opinion in this forum concerning the rights and wrongs of the supply management strategy. I am offering an opinion on the practice of arbitrary execution and deployment of unpublished discriminatory categorisations for different customers, and the idiosyncratic way these regulations are enforced by Netflix CSRs. This turns an underhanded practice into an unfair practice.
I was a member of Netflix since 1999 but stopped a few years ago because, frankly, I no longer have time to watch so many movies. Your accusation that I am involved in patently illegal copyright violations is an unusually bold move for someone who doesn't really know where I am coming from. Have you considered putting a delay factor between the keyboard and your brain?
Da Blog
The other post on this was moderated troll by the netflix loving mods.
Ways to burn Karma:
Write anything not 100% adulatory concerning either Apple, the iPod, or OSX.
Diss Nerdflix, sorry, Netflix.
More later...
Da Blog
You are, in fact, offering an opinion regarding the rights and wrongs of the supply management strategy of netflix, as you are accusing them of "arbitrary execution and deployment of unpublished discriminatory categorisations for different customers, and the idiosyncratic way these regulations are enforced."
It is neither underhand nor unfair, as it promises that the people who dont rent many movies get the one movie they do want when they want it.
You seem to have some kind of complex going on in your last paragraph... I was in no way accusing you personally of renting movies to rip them to disk, that was simply something that many other people who were high-volume renters had mentioned. It was tossed in as a hypothetical afterthought and if you had enough grasp of the english language to understand the meaning of the word "if" then you would have realized that. Also, the word "you" can be used both in the specific sense, as in refering to you, meehawl, or in the general sense, synonymous with "one" to mean, in the case in question, "particularly if ONE is ripping them all to disc...."
and, of course, you dont need any further delay factor between the keyboard and your brain, so I will bid you have a good evening
Come read my stupid blagablog. Rants and Giggles
It is neither underhand nor unfair, as it promises that the people who dont rent many movies get the one movie they do want when they want it.
There is no promise, that is the point, except of equality of treatment. An implicit promise that is undercut by the perferential queueing and arbitrary CSR actions.
Da Blog