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Netflix Now Offers Instant Online Movie Streaming
An anonymous reader writes "If you're the owner of a video rental store, it may be time to start thinking about getting into a different business, according to ZDNet. Netflix, the online movie rental service, is offering a new feature that allows its subscribers to instantly view movies and TV shows on their PC. From the article: 'Following a one-time, under-60-second installation of a simple browser applet, most subscribers' movie selections will begin playing in their Web browser in as little as 10 to 15 seconds. Movies can be paused and a position bar gives viewers the ability to immediately jump to any point in the movie. In all, the instant watching feature requires only Internet connectivity with a minimum of one megabit per second of bandwidth.' These movies are in addition to the standard DVDs you can have at home, it should be pointed out. You can see a demonstration of the service at the Hacking Netflix blog." Only a small percentage of customers have it available at the moment, but they hope to roll it out to everyone within six months.
the tubes are really gonna get filled up now...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Isn't this called YouTube? jk
I wonder if the streaming videos will have virtual scratches that cause them to skip like the real netflix dvd's do......
Beer! It's what's for breakfast!
This is the kind of thing that is going to strain the Internet's fabric at the seams. Up until now, your typical 1337 torrent freak was pretty uncommon among the general public, so the Internet has coped for the most part. But when the general public starts downloading several gigabytes of video every night, the whole equation will change.
I strongly suspect you will see bit capacities on all ISPs very shortly if they don't have them already. I know Sympatico in Canada was "unlimited" right up until last month when all their DSL circuits went to 5Mbps, and they claimed they would grandfather existing customers with unlimited service - which they turned on within the month.
So... I don't know whether this is a positive or a negative change, but I'm guessing for a lot of peering points and a lot of overloaded switch fabrics, this is a deal breaker.
...Steve
This has definitely been a long time coming, but finally legal movie downloads are going the way of digital music, UP!
Don't think this is the end of Blockbuster and friends yet. They still have one -major- advantage over streaming.
The TV.
Until there's some way to put these videos on your TV without offending the MPAA (Not everyone has a HTPC), DVDs will always have the advantage. Not to mention the low amount of people I know that have the necessary bandwith for this service.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
Somehow, I don't think that the brick and mortar video rental services are doomed just yet. There's a bit of a difference in picking up a movie with your groceries to watch it with the family on the big-screen in the living room, and downloading it so you can wait to buffer up enough to play it inside a web browser window with heavy compression on the small screen of the bill-paying appliance.
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I read an article in the paper this morning claiming that this will be available for windows only. How disappointing.
-mkb
(1) I use Linux/Mac. (2) I've got DSL, 50-80 Kbyte/s max. (3) How do I stream it to my 27" Sony tube TV? (4) Why do I want lower than DVD quality? (5) Why do I want a smaller window to actually find time/watch the movie?
From Netflix:
System Requirements:
Windows XP with Service Pack 2
or Windows Vista
Internet Explorer version 6
or higher
I will not watch a full movie on my PC. That's what I have a home theater setup for. I already have Netflix and I'm excited because I will be able to evaluate a movie before I put it in my queue. I'll watch the first 20 minutes of the movie and decide if it is worth investing more time.
Only a small percentage of customers have it available at the moment
ONLY one megabit per second of bandwidth? I live in a well populated area and my ONLY option is 768Kbps DSL or a 6Mbps cable connection that is saturated with other users in the neighborhood. Verizon's FIOS is still a few years away from being installed in my neighborhood, so this service is useless to me.
Hopefully this service will get people to see the benefit of higher speed connections and spark a bigger demand for more speed.
I like the way Netflix is doing this. Rolling it out as an additional, no extra fee, feature of their service shows that they are ready to start the next generation of film viewing, and that they realize that this service is not presently ready to fully replace their current model.
Good job Netflix!
The main reason that I use Netflix (as opposed to downloading movies over Bittorrent) is that I have a nice TV, surround sound system, etc. and prefer DVD quality as opposed to anything you can get over the internet. Until Netflix can offer a similar service over the internet (at least 480p, 5.1 surround), I'm not that interested.
This is really close to what I've been waiting for. If the app will allow me to go "full screen" with the proper overlay setting, it'll be perfect.
Of course, I wonder about the "1Mb/s" requirement. XVID files are usually around 400MB/hour. That's what, 128kbps. What is their service doing that requires 8* the bandwidth of a torrent download?
And before you say that the BT download is low quality, I watch these things via S-Video out of my laptop right onto a 50" 1080i HDTV.
PS, I just pulled up the properties for a show. It says the video is encoded at 139kbps and the audio is 113kbps. The file size is 358MB and it runs 42m41s. That's 139kbps.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
- Closed captioning.
- Big ass TVs that aren't connected to the 'net.
- Being able to take it to a friend's house.
The sweet spot for me for a service such as this will be when Apple releases a Mac mini with an HDTV tuner for convenient way to get a movie from my PC to my television where I can watch movies from the comfort of my couch with my decent stereo cranked up enough to make the bass notes of the soundtrack rumble through the floor. Not to mention, it makes it hard to rent a flick to take on the road to a friend's house or for the kid's watch on a long trip in the car. Consequently, I think the bricks and mortar rental places have plenty of time to keep making a substantial profit.I don't think I'll use the service all the time, but I wouldn't mind using it if the quality is somewhat decent.. I don't know whether or not Netflix will do this, but I'd like to pay for the movies as I watch them.. Optionally.. I'd gladly pop in my CC#, and pay like $1-$3 bucks for a one time stream that would let me watch it for up to 3 days.. I don't watch movies enough to pay someone a monthly fee.. but if i'm feeling lazy, and want something quick, then this might be the way to go.. I guess it also will depend on whether or not we can actually Full Screen the stream..
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
It happens to XM all the time, songs ripped directly from the stream. How long before amazon and netflix and whoever else face the same problem? I can see these streaming movies cancelled once the RIAA and MPAA get wind of the number of streamgrabbers out there. How easy would it be, really? Now we burn netflix DVD's in about 2 hours, imagine how many people would signup for netflix if they could burn (or save to ISO) the movie AS THEY WATCH IT? This has 'Netflix, meet shark' written all over it. 12 months tops before prices skyrocket due to theft or it's cancelled completely. Just saying.
Free childcare classifieds: www.carebrite.com
As the telephone companies love to tell us, IPTV over the internet as we know it is impossible. Without QOS, this service will not work - at all. Why is Netflix lying like this? It makes me cry.
Also, as I mentioned in a different post, there is the closed captioning issue. I suspect, but I'm not positive, that Netflick's player app is not CC aware. Heck, Apple's Quicktime isn't going to be CC aware until the next release.
And then there is the issue of being able to stuff a physical disk into your bag and take it to work, school, a friend's house ...
I think virtually all rhetoric about device B being a "device-A-killer," or one technology quickly displacing other, is dumb... and in many cases is promotion by supporters of the new device or technology, hoping to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In 2000, when dedicated eBook devices were introduced, one could have imagined people saying "If you're the owner of a bookstore, it may be time to start thinking about getting into a different business."
In 1950, and early adopters were inviting their friends to come over and watch Milton Berle, one could have imagined people saying "If you're the owner of a movie theatre, it may be time to start thinking about getting into a different business."
All businessmen need to be watching their back, and video rental store owners are well advised to be vigilant... the times, they certainly are a' changin'. Going out to the movies and buying overpriced boxes of Nonpareils is a different product and a different experience from watching "The Wizard of Oz" on a television set. The latter model may ultimately displace the former, but it's not at all obvious just how it will happen or at what speed or when
Similarly, downloading a movie and watching it on your PC is going to feel very different from renting a DVD. And speaking of Milton Berle on a 5" diameter round Dumont picture tube... a) who wants to watch movies "on their PCs?" b) Do you have your PC in the living room connected to a big screen? Does anybody you know? Yesyesyes I know all about the technology and Steve Job's "Apple TV" and "convergence," the big buzzword since 1990. I just don't see it actually happening yet. All these companies are selling a solution to something my son-in-law doesn't see as a big problem.
If Netflix would let you burn that movie to a DVD and carry it over to the big-screen TV set that a lot of people I know do have, then, yes, the video stores should worry a bit more. But at the moment the movie industry seems to be adamantly opposed to concepts like "permanent" and "own" and "bought it."
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Well, the name says it "Netflix". Reminds me of now famous quote of Bill Gates that Blu-ray and HD-DVD are the last of removable disk media formats.
For those who don't want to actually read the article I will summarize the key parts. 1) The bandwidth is 1 -3 Mbps, so depending on what you have it will be from ok quality to DVD quality. 2) Its included with the monthly subscription, but restricted to 18 hours/ month to start 3) They are working on making it available to people with less bandwidth so it might soon support less then 1 Mbps My personal take on this, this is so far the best of any offering out there, compared to the strict movie download sites that are charging almost $4/ movie to RENT for the quality you get above (hope this will force those sites to drop the price to less then $1), this is a very nice add on service and if you want higher quality you can order the DVD, you can preview a TV show and see if you really want to get the whole season on DVD. The question of when it will be available on the TV is quite simple. I think in about 5 years we will have flash drives or disks that are capable of storing 30 gig or more, when that is done there will be a special player format that can be copied to this drive with DRM and time limits (ie the movie will be there for 24 - 48 hours) but most people will not care because it will be a RENTAL you will be paying $1 a movie to rent or a subscription like netflix with 2 - 7 movies "out" at a time, you will download the movie with the computer place it on the flash drive and then pop the drive into your HD-Flash player to watch on the TV. The current format of read only disks is too expensive and time consuming over all it would take hours to make a DVD (5 hours to download and an additional 2 hours to burn 15 gig and thats being very liberal with bandwidth and speeds). This just doesn't scale well when the disks costs $2 each or more, and all you want to do is rent.
now we just need a module to make this work from within MythTV.
Don't Tread on Me
1 Mbit per sec [note bit not byte] works out to 430 Megabytes per hour. Full DVD quality video stream is 2.2 Gigabytes pers hour. So there is some compression. But still the quality would be much better than VHS or VCD or even S-VCD. BTW getting the picture on to the big screen in the living room is no big deal. Almost all the HDTVs have VGA input, PC input. Even if they dont have, S-Video out is common in many laptops. Or you can buy a 50$ adapter to convert VGA to NTSC.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I hear what you're saying, I really do. I use a notebook, which is easy for me. Before I used my notebook, I used my PC and a long video lead - no problems there. The PC is in another room, so there's even less clutter than a DVD :)
For those who don't have a computer to stream to, there are a host of STBs that allow streaming across your network. If these feeds are RTSP, then they can most likely be brought directly to those boxes.
And as for taking your media with you, I take ALL my media wherever I go, as I have an RTSP streaming server set up at home, which can broadcast or stream selected media across my internet connection, transcoding to whatever video/audio codecs and bitrates required. That's a LOT easier than carrying around 200 DVDs, containing the only copies of my actual movies.
Optical media is sooo last century it's not even funny. The answer is staring us all in the face - networks. Having a movie on a physical disc makes the movie less useful. We get pissed off with DRM, but then there are even more techincal barriers imposed on our fair use by the actual media. The network alleviates those problems in an instant - it does require a wee bit of flexibility on the up-taker's part, but then every single technology did too.
18 hours is about 9-12 movies per month, which is about how many movies you can get per month on the 3 at a time plan (maybe a bit better if you've been throttled). So this isn't going to substantially increase the problem over what people can do now by ripping the DVDs they get in the mail.
Sympatico is still unlimited if you have a contract. For new customers without a contract you get a rediculously low cap. I still have unlimited, granted I've had Sympatico for many years.
I think this may be Netflixs anti-blockbuster service. Somewhere online you can get Blockbusters version of netflix for 1 month free, but the thing is you can take the DVD's that got sent to you back to the store and pickup any movie rental for free, always giving you basically 3 movies in your posession at one time. It's really awesome and I love it. Netflix is trying to find to tide people over while you are waiting for DVD's in the mail. I don't think this is it, because it does appeal to your average movie watcher, i.e. can't watch it on TV. But at least they are trying.....
and what RTSP streaming server are you using?
You can stream up to 1080p H264 with 7.1 surround over the internet. That has been possible for a while now. And, fyi, that's better than DVD quality.
This really illustrates the argument over net neutrality: Netflix's service (almost) directly competes with your cable company's video-on-demand service. But, what has to be even more galling to the cable companies, the Netflix service does it by sending video over cable company's own network! (Assuming you get your internet through a cable modem.) No wonder they want to treat different providers differently.
The problem, of course, is that since most "high-speed" residential internet services still don't provide truly high-speed service, the quality of this Netflix service is probably nowhere near as good as the cable company's video-on-demand service. And, that gives the cable company a big disincentive to upgrade their data network -- as soon as they do, somebody will use that upgraded network to "steal" customers from their other services.
Because most phone companies also want to provide video over their high-speed networks, the probable end result of this will be that so-called "high-speed" providers will slow their deployment of faster Internet connections. Competition is the only real cure for this.
I predict the movie store goer (generation) still has 15 years left. These are the people my parents age who have no desire to work a DVD player, can check their hotmail, and are at retirement age. Once this very large market dwindles, then this doomsday scenario might have some legs.
Duh, of course you're right. I did some quick math and figured you could get over 800 megabytes in two hours, and thought, "That should fit a DVD perfectly." I'm still living in the stone age of the CD.
The salient point being that these solutions are not wide spread and there are large obstacles to widespread adoption. Consequently, the video rental store has quite a bit of life left.
Does it have an optical drive to play existing DVD libraries, a tuner and enough disk space to use for a DVR in addition to being able to play streaming media?
VideoLan as the source, with Darwin Streaming Server as the actual server (it has better network support - VideoLan, while phenomenal, has some really REALLY peculiar quirks when being talked to over the internet, especially with RTP and RTSP. VideoLan does snappy transcoding on the fly, so I can turn any movies I have in whatever format into, say, mpeg4 audio/video at under 300kb/s, or even flash at 150kb/s, all resized to common dimensions. I wrote a script to generate a VLM config file, writing in all the sources and transcoding instructions, so I can make all my media externally-visible immediately. Obviously if I'm on the same network I can just use a network share - RTSP is only for remote viewing :)
I've been using them for years! :) I hear what you're saying, and now I think these barriers are rapidly falling away. Everyone I know can download at 130KB/s, and everyone I know has the ability to plug a STB into their network and TV and stream movies directly from wheverthey fancy. The weakness of bricks'n'mortar rental stores are being highlighted more and more each day, and services like this really emphasize the shortcomings we all took for granted.
it's a social thing, something to talk about, a reason to get out of the house. Something to do in public (sort of) with someone of the opposite sex.
Actually if they are using MPEG4 then it's not too bad. Typical MPEG4 movie rips from DVD are around 700MB for 90 minute movies, so they are shortchanging the bitrate a tad, but not so much as to make the film unwatchable. My guess is they are dropping the audio quality to get to that lower bitrate. This sucks for me because I just bought a nice surround sound system and this is probably low quality stereo sound, guess I'll have to wait for the next version =)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
If the movies are transferred to the user via a good old fashioned protocol like http or ftp, then that means ISPs can cache it. 10000 Comcast users buy the movie, and those gigabytes get transferred from Netflix to Comcast once, and then 10000 times from Comcast's hard drive to the users (assuming those users aren't sharing any "more local" caches).
If they are using some stupid streaming protocol, then it gets transferred once for each sale. That is really, really stupid. It doesn't just harm Comcast (who, let's face it, is going to pass the cost on to their customers) but it also costs Netflix (oh wait, they will just pass the cost on, too). It also costs everyone in between, pisses off ISPs since they don't like to pass extra costs to the customers ("if we're going to charge customers more, then that extra charge should go into our pocket, dammit!") and that means we get more lobbyist in Washington to get rid of "net neutrality" which not only sucks, but will probably have numerous other distasteful riders attached.
That means it is you guys -- the customers -- who need to make sure this is done right. If Netflix's approach doesn't work with caches (e.g. Squid) then BOYCOTT IT. Anything that is a technological step backwards from the web, is a disgrace.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Worthless
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
Sound like you need a couple of these bad boys and a spool of Cat-5e. I have a pair that connects my computer in the den to our big, shiny TV in the living room. It's great. We can watch iTMS videos (like Lost) on our TV. We can watch streaming video on our TV. And when our DVD player broke, we used the computer to play the DVDs, too. For me, this also functions as an easy way to plug iTunes into my stereo system. In all, it was totally worth the investment. And no ugly, fire-breathing computer (9 fans, anyone?) in the living room.
I used to belong to a private TV streaming website (Crafty TV) that had these same problems. Said problems were soon marginalized however, by properly writing the page with PHP, using uniquely generated hashes to access the video databases. It becomes much more cumbersome to use a stream ripper when you can't get at the url for the video stream.
It's poetry with a beat behind it! And guns! They're like beatniks with automatic weapons.
This is a good next step for Netflix. Here is a partial list of what they have done so far:
Before there was widespread broadband we had a "last mile" problem that everyone was talking about. Now, many here are complaining about the "last room" problem of being able to watch this on their TV. I, for one, am glad that Netflix is not yet trying to solve this problem. It leaves it open to be solved in a non-restrictive way.
With the fast forward features from Netflix, all I need to stop watching in one room and start in another is a Internet connected browser. How soon before I can play this on my PS3, XBox360, Wii, SlingCatcher, or what ever other device that has the right connection to a TV. For my living room I would want something like the new Apple TV with HDMI connector. For other rooms, maybe I'll try to find some cheap unit with RCA output.
If Netflix continues to expand the number of movies offered by VOD like they have with DVD then I look forward to my multitude of choices. For action movies and long playing TV series I will continue to get the DVDs in the mail. For romantic movies and cartoons that the wife wants to watch, the downloaded quality would be fine.
What do you use to control the computer from that far away? I've looked into solutions like that, but it seemed like RF remotes or IR-RF-IR converters would be a real PITA and add a lot of complexity.
I'm in the process of putting together an HTPC system right now, and the remote control issue is the last one that I have to tackle. I'm really not looking forward to it; everything I've read suggests that LIRC is a huge pain.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Pandora saves unencrypted MP3s in a temporary folder when you use their service.
The only hurdles to using them are:
1) the files are deleted as soon as you close Pandora (so copy them while Pandora is still playing)
2) the files must be renamed to "blah.mp3" instead of "blah"
They've been playing music from major record labels for a long time now. (I've heard REM and Rufus Wainwright at least)
You can also put in an artist's name and the first track it plays will be some song by the artist.
Unless I'm missing something, we've had this service in the UK for the last year or so. It's available via Blueyonder (a cable TV provider who actually laid their own fibre backbone years ago I believe).
The service is called Teleport, and in a lot of ways it seems better than this offering because it streams instantly (like really, instantly) to the TV. There is no lag, the picture quality is normal broadcast quality, and the price competes with DVD rental (with the obvious bonus of not having to move off your couch).
As part of the normal cable tv subscription Blueyonder also offer the ability to stream a variety of TV programmes that you may have missed earlier in the week. Streaming TV shows is free. Its almost like having a PVR, but without the need to remember to record stuff. Its a great service that I sorely miss since I moved 6 months ago into a street which isnt wired for cable.
The last time I priced internet service I couldn't afford enough bandwidth to upload a stream. What kind of service do you have? What do you pay?
Man, you really need that seminar!
All that NetFlix need do is release a version of the player for the PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, or Wii. All of these consoles can access the network, are attached to a suitable display unit, can supply suitable subtitles, and have decent controls. The last generation of consoles are probably the best bet as their price will fall soon. Of course, this would probably make Sony, MS, or Nintendo shit a brick, not to mention the RIAA.
I assure that it does not seem that easy to the common user. Whenever I plug my laptop into a TV with a S-video cable and a headphones --> stereo RCA adapter everyone watching is either amazed that it is possible or surprised that anyone would ever do such a thing.
Why would anyone rip the Netflix stream which will probably be significantly lower quality than what is already available on various p2p networks?
Centralization breaks the internet.
cheaper cards have lousy tvout. Also, it's a PITA to find an Nvidia card with good tvout, I finally gave up and bought an ATI card (I'm speaking of last gen's cards, I'm too cheap to buy a current gen card :) ).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
isnt this just "On Demand", but for a PC instead of TV?
the history of the world
If this service will work with Apple's almost released $299 AppleTV box
http://www.apple.com/appletv/
Both Netflix and Apple should do well.
AppleTV is a wireless/ethernet device that lets you play media that's on your computer (Mac or Windows) on your TV set at the other end of the house. The negative is that it works through iTunes, so the two will have to work together to make it work with Netflix.
Will they work together?
And this is why Blockbuster Online is so much better. I can return my 3 movies in-store, and pick out 3 new ones on the spot, as well as knowing that the distribution center ships my next 3 queued movies as soon as I return them in-store, rather than waiting for them to come back to the distribution center. So turn around time for the in-the-mail-movies is half that of Netflix, as well as allowing me to get the 3 extra movies in store every time I go in to return the mail movies. I've gotten 12 DVDs in a week from Blockbuster Online and usually get 9 a week if I'm doing alot of movie watching.
How many fulltime jobs can one man have?
Thats interesting....last time I looked, blockbuster was only giving you coupons for 2 in store rentals a month. None the less, I canceled Netflix over a year ago because I didn't even have time to keep up with my 1 movie at a time plan. I started ripping to my mythbox, but before I knew it I had 8 or 10 movies waiting for me. Now I just rent 1 or 2 movies a month from the local Family Video for $2.60 each.
You still get those coupons, but it's only one a month now, on top of each in-mail movie counting as a coupon too.
How many fulltime jobs can one man have?
... we need that fiber to the home and/or DOCSIS 2.0/3.0 soon before we're unable to view even simple web pages.
'A lie if repeated often enough, becomes the truth.' - Goebbels
I'd love to know what your using to do this with, If its a commercial product or something you've built yourself.
You mention RTSP, Does that mean your using Darwin Streaming server or Quicktime Streaming server?
I've used Quicktime Broadcaster with Quicktime Streaming Server at work to stream TV to desktops with some success however it sounds like your live re-encoding your media for streaming?
...is too slow to even consider this as a viable option. Maybe it'll be cool when broadband is actually mainstream (It's not, BTW).
t-man
Amen. A PC is the best "thing" I added to my HDTV home theater - by far. Hell, aside from my cable co, its the only other way to (inexpensively) see more HDTV content.
I'm a single guy living in a small apartment, so I usually have my computer setup in the same room as the TV, but even so, I considered buying something like this HTPC case for my next PC. I opted for a mini-tower instead for this build, but I still wouldn't be that ashamed to have it in my living room. Ugly? Not even close. My DVR is my computer. It is handy for watching on TV or while I'm surfing the web, only showing the TV window when it is interesting.
I could build a Core 2 Duo PC with that HTPC case for $800 or so, matching the price of the tower I just built. But if I were to make it silent, I would go with an Energy Efficient AMD chip for much less, and could probably get closer to the $500 mark, complete with remote and PVR software. Why would you want a locked-down DVR?
So where are the screams about evil DRM and user lock in? Apple is being (frivolously) sued because of the iPod-iTunes-iTunes Store connection, despite the fact that CDs and MP3 files can be imported into iTunes and onto the iPod. The Fairplay DRM is legally stripped from iTunes Store purchases by burning them to CDs. Finally, Apple provides software for Windows users. So along comes Netflix with a MS DRM distribution scheme and no Mac user option, but no outraged reaction to noxious MS DRM and no rants about user lock in. I guess it is OK to be locked in by MS technology.
Half Word - Will Double, Wire Palindrome, San Francisco
But also, please note that I was replying to a post specifying that an old and beat up laptop would solve the problem. It isn't that I don't believe a solution isn't workable so much as I think it will take ten to twenty years for that solution to permeate living rooms in the US to the point where bricks and mortar rental stores are in peril.
I work for Quickflix - the Australian equivalent of Netflix. We have over 10,000 compared to about a zillion Netflix members. Our Competitor (Bigpond) announced that they are now offering Video on Demand.
br> In Australia, we've only just cottoned on to the concept of DVD rentals arriving in your letterbox, so it's at least another few years away until it becomes viable for us to sell and make a profit.
Our market is generally at the 30-40 something's who have a few bucks. The market for VOD (generalisation) is the 20something - 30something Tech Savvy. The cross section of those two market areas - are potential users of this product, and it's quite small.
The problem is that we're competing with millions of pirated movies online that are completely free, and you can own. Who wants to pay for a movie when you can get it for free anyway?
I think in America, you have a larger population, and VOD is more than likely sustainable. But In Australia? It's years away before it becomes a popular alternative to online DVD libraries, and the local Blockbuster.
Jesus Saves
I wonder if they pay for every copy streamed, or every part thereof.
Or do they "Set Aside" a video for everyone currently viewing, and if you want to view and they run out of videos, you have to wait?
Or did they just not bother to check with the MPAA at all?
I'm hoping the second one. I have a BUNCH of CDs and I'd love to make them available for streaming to a protected player as long as I have "Purchased copies" sitting in reserve. In fact, the concept of a "Music/Movie Co-op" where people donate music or movies in order to stream others isn't far behind.
What did NetFlix do? What do I have to do to be able to stream movies to people willing to pay for the privilege just like NetFlix??
The audio does not take as much disk space as you would think. Typically, on a DVD, full 5.1 takes about 50 megs (after rip) while video takes the other 650. They may be decreasing the video quality or reducing the FPS. Is this Alex from Boston? If so, I tried to get in contact you for a while since you moved to CA.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...