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Leaked Screenshots Show Netflix Downloads

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.

Mike1024 writes "US DVDs-by-post company Netflix appears to be planning a service that will let users download movies over the internet. Hackingnetflix.com has some accidentally-revealed screenshots, and the Netflix jobs page includes a product manager position, saying "The Electronic Delivery Service (EDS) will augment Netflix's current DVD delivery model with high quality movies delivered to consumers' home TVs through the Internet, on a subscription basis". Apple's iTunes demonstrated many people are willing to live with some DRM and hardware/vendor lock-in."

11 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Goodluck... by Afecks · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as it's better than http://www.cinemanow.com/ Nothing worse than watching bad movies AND having to buffer every 5 minutes.

    1. Re:Goodluck... by aussie_a · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I was under the impression Netflix is quite a bit cheaper then your local rental store. I know it's popular to make out anyone using online products must be avoiding human interaction, but when it's cheaper it's completely unwarranted. Then again this is slashdot so enjoy your +5 Funny mod. I'm content to receive a -1 Troll.

    2. Re:Goodluck... by BackInIraq · · Score: 4, Insightful

      True, because nobody lives in small towns that feature video stores with horrible selections of videos.

      There do still exist people in North America for whom the drive to a decent, well-stocked video store is much, much more than 5 minutes...and many of them do have access to broadband. Entire towns full of such people exist, all across the midwest and mountain west.

      Not everybody lives in metro areas...even small metro areas.

    3. Re:Goodluck... by Aggrazel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Its not about the convenience, its about the selection and the availability.

      Even Blockbuster with its "Guaranteed In-store" policy is occasionally out of a movie I'd like to see. A downloaded version won't have the problem of being "out". Plus your selection on downloaded movies will be much greater.

      At the end of the day, this is about the same thing as pay-per-view on demand, only with a much wider selection, and possibly a more consumer friendly pricing model.

    4. Re:Goodluck... by timster · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I sort of thought we were talking about going to Blockbuster -- getting a beer with the buddies is something rather different, at least in my opinion. But when you started insulting me for completely irrelevant reasons I realized that we are actually talking about how unhappy you are, which is not a very interesting topic.

      --
      I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
  2. Well, yeah. by 'nother+poster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple's iTunes demonstrated many people are willing to live with some DRM and hardware/vendor lock-in.

    People don't mind this as long as the DRM allows the consumer to do what they want with the media. As long as I can listen to my music when and where I want it's no problem. When the DRM is used to limit where and when I use what I purchased, that's when people get upset.

    It will be interesting if netflix learned this. If I pay a fee and can only watch the movies when, where, and on what netflix decides, they won't get my money. We'll see.

    1. Re:Well, yeah. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "What vendor lock-in? People are willing to put up with Itune's DRM because it's simple to "break" (merely convert it to another format, it's something even I would be able to do, and I know very little about computers), therefore there is no vendor lock-in."

      I see these sorts of comments on /. on a daily basis, and yet they still surprise me. Don't you have any non-geek friends? Almost no one cares about Apple's DRM - outside of /. types. Heck, most people don't even seem to realize there is DRM present at all!

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  3. Re:That's a Lot Of Bits by pcidevel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I currently wait two days for my Netflix movies instead of going to the Blockbuster around the corner (1 day to ship to Netflix, 1 day for the movie to come back), so I don't see why waiting a couple of hours would be a big deal.

    And no, I don't use Netflix because I'm lazy (it's really more of a hassle than going to Blockbuster). I use Netflix because they have a HUGE selection of movies. Their buisness model provides for a much larger selection of movies than a brick and morter store. And going to a "movies on demand" format can only help to increase their selection, it sounds great to me (since I don't tend to watch the normal summer blockbuster style movies and instead watch more obscure stuff)..

    --

    I thought someone said there was going to be free beer!

  4. Re:DRM thoughts by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 3, Insightful

    DRM isn't something that a lot of consumers care about too much. Interesting as a lot of slashdotters seem to feel the opposite.

    DRM also isn't something most people understand at all, unlike most slashdotters. When someone tries to put a song they bought from the itunes music store onto their Sony brand mp3 player and can't get it to work, 9 times out of 10 they will blame the sony player. When a song bought from Napster 2 can't be transferred to an ipod, customers often blame the ipod. They don't understand that the behavior is intentional and if you explain to them that it is most people think it should illegal. Once someone understands DRM they dislike it, but very few people ever get to that point because it is a hard concept to grasp and as most americans know... thinking is hard.

  5. Re:That's a Lot Of Bits by LurkerXXX · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I don't think there's a problem with bandwidth. What does your computer do all day with the bandwidth? Nothing. Most everyone has plenty of bandwidth to spare.

    I think your ISP may disagree when half their customers start saturating their pipes 24 hours a day so that they can watch a new movie each night.

  6. very realistic by SethJohnson · · Score: 3, Insightful



    If Netflix and TiVO work this out correctly, this is going to jam a sharp stick in the eye of pay-per-view AND Blockbuster. It may not seem convenient to you at a quick glance, but I'm guessing you haven't re-organized your TV usage through a Tivo or Netflix subscription. I'm not criticizing you, but pointing out that this makes sense to people who have.

    Sure, downloading a movie is annoying to satisfy an immediate whim craving for a film. That's where the local video store cannot be beat. The TiVO-Netflix partnership trounces the local video store in new releases, however. Blockbuster may carry 100 copies of Batman when it's eventually released on DVD and make a big promise about availability. But Blockbuster doesn't do this for the smaller movies that you and every other film nerd in your neighborhood want to see. It'll stock two copies that'll be perpetually checked out.

    Online Netflix means that you'll be able to create wish lists prior to the release of movies on DVD so that you'll be assured of getting them the day of their release. When you turn on your TiVO, you'll be greeted with a list of movies that have already downloaded, so it's not some deal where you have to actively select an online movie and wait for it to be transmitted. Besides, with Fiber-to-the-home looming in the future as well as IP-over-electric lines, our bandwidth future will speed up the download process for that scenario.

    Seth

    --
    $5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!