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Leaked Screenshots Show Netflix Downloads
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."
As long as it's better than http://www.cinemanow.com/ Nothing worse than watching bad movies AND having to buffer every 5 minutes.
It's a screenshot of a login box. Exciting stuff.
This really shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone, since it was announced last fall that Tivo and Netflix had worked out some sort of agreement for downloadable movies...
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The problem with efforts like this is that they tend to be overzealous with the copyright efforts to make sure nothing is copied. Ultimately their efforts sabotage the product and no one buys.
What is interesting is that they are claiming internet downloads to be watched on TV - which is quite different than internet downloads to be watched on a computer.
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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.
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)..
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Funny, Netflix seems to doing just fine with the "be happy waiting a few days" business model. Why do you think a few hours is a worse one?
I use Netflix, and the thing is they send you more than one movie at a time (depending on your subscription). I can set up the list of movies I want to watch, and I almost always have one on hand when I want to watch something. The other great thing is no more wandering around a movie store looking for something to catch my eye. Currently I've got over 100 movies in my queue - I'll probably never see them all.
I imagine any kind of download service will be the same way - I can download multiple movies, so I always have something available. After I delete the last movie I watched the next one in my queue will be downloaded. Probably a lot like their current service, just faster.
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For a full dvd disk image, its 4 gigabytes. They'll most likely use compression, but even if they didn't its still doable.
The average download speed I'm seeing on residential cable is now 6megabit. google says:
(4 gigabytes) / (6 (megabit / second)) = 1.51703704 hours
Or, roughly a little longer than it takes to watch it. Buffer for 30 minutes or so and you could stream the rest.
With FIOS and other closer to true broadband internet connections becoming much more common, it makes even more sense(FIOS's common package is 15/2):
(4 gigabytes) / (15 (megabit / second)) = 36.4088889 minutes
Most good codecs can squeeze a movie down to 1.4 gigs or so, so downloading is entirely an option. Streaming VOD as yous uggest would work just as well, but theres no reason you couldnt keep a copy.
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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.
For a full Dual-Layer disc (and I really can't remember the last time I saw a retail movie come on a single layer) it's 9Gb, not 4, so the numbers are even worse.
Besides, basic broadband packages in the UK usually have monthly download limits in the ~3Gb range. So it's not the 24-hour wait for the download, it's the 30-day wait until your ISP will let you have the next one.
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Using mpeg4 and supply barely broadcast quality (not even DVD quality, nevermind HDTV) means a typical 90 minute movie would run between 1/2 and 2 GB. At today's brodband speeds this will range from 40 minutes (500M @ 3Mbps) to 5 hours(2G @ 768Kbps).
The sweet spot will likely be right around 1.5Mbps broadband and under 1GB movie size. Delivery would take less time than watching the movie, and so you order the movie, let it buffer for 10-15 minutes while you pop popcorn, etc, then start streaming the movie.
Delivery isn't a concern as long as the bit rate of the movie is about half your download rate, and a 300Kbps bit rate is bearable, a 768Kbps stream is about what you expect for ok cable TV.
While they won't be delivering at great quality, they will be getting consumers by the ability to get content on demand, for low cost, with a huge selection. Even home theater buffs will use the service simply because it's more convenient than waiting for the disc in the mail or leaving the house to pick it up - especially if the local video store is out of copies. Further, it'll probably be similar to the current system, but limited somewhat since the mailing delay is not built in. Pay $17.99/mo to get 12 movies per month (about 3/week). You can only have up to three movies on your player at a time, and can watch them at any time until you fill the slot with another movie.
What would be really nice is if one could select the quality and trade off downlaod time for quality, as well as queuing up movies so they are available on the player at the time of release (new movies are released on tuesday - download starts at high quality monday afternoon and unlocks at midnight).
And if they get large enough to push at the movie studios they may even be able to get movies before video store release dates, and possibly simultaneous with theater release. But these are very unlikely, due to the huge video store market.
But the biggest change for NetFlix will be that they can (if they work out licensing correctly) get around the limitation of their current list system. Right now you won't necessarily get the movies you want in the order you prioritized them. With downloads there's no limit - you can get the movie you want, when you want it.
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"That and they'd have 9000 copies of "Adam Sandler Acts Like A Total Fuckhead, And Women Still Spead Their Legs For Him" and one copy [MAYBE] of that obscure independent film I'd been looking for."
:)
I've noticed that different Blockbusters will stock different titles based upon the neighborhood they're in. In my general area, there are three Blockbusters, one in each socioeconomic area: one in the upper class area, one in the middle class area and one in the lower class area. Having been to all three, it was very evident to me that the quality of selections slides downhill as you go down the economic ladder.
The "good" store has tons and tons of indie films, as well as all the popular and standard catalog titles. Large foreign, special interest and anime sections. Virtually all titles are DVD and widescreen-only. Only a small handful of VHS titles for much older and obscure films.
The "middle" store has a smaller selection of indie films. There are some foreign titles intermingled among the catalog stuff by genre (how it really should be, IMO). There is a greater emphasis on new release, pop culture titles and there are both widescreen (16:9) and full screen (4:3) DVDs. Most titles are on DVD only, but there is a visible amount of stuff on VHS still.
The "bottom" store has a significant focus on new release pop titles, with very little in the way of independent films. Good luck finding foreign films, regardless of quality or genre. Most of the older catalog titles are VHS, whereas the same titles are on DVD at the better stores.
The question is, does Blockbuster cater to the demands of the neighborhood they're in, or do they simply follow socioeconomic demographics (ie stereotypes) when they stock a store with videos?
BTW, the "middle" store recently shut its doors for good, which signals to me the widening gap between rich and poor in this country, but that's another discussion
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