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Netflix To Lift Streaming Limits

Posted by kdawson on from the oh-my-groaning-pipes dept.

The AP has a story on Netflix's move to head off expected competition from Apple: the company will lift limits on streaming its movies for most subscribers. The story reports on rumors of an Apple movie-download service that may be announced by Steve Jobs on Tuesday. In the past Netflix has imposed limits on how long its subscribers could watch streamed movies; for example, those who paid $16.99/mo. could stream up to 17 hours per month. The limits will end on Monday for most subscribers (except for those paying $4.99 for two DVD rentals a month, said to be a small minority). The company has 6,000 movies available for streaming, compared to 90,000 that you can get delivered in the mail.

9 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Compete with Apple? by Laguerre · · Score: 5, Informative

    Of course, you can't watch streaming movies on Netflix with a Mac...

    1. Re:Compete with Apple? by MBCook · · Score: 2, Informative

      Really? I'd blame Netflix for using a de facto single platform codec. They could have used Theora, which is open. They could have used QuickTime, which has Windows support. They could have used RealPlayer (as horrid as that would be), because it's at least available on both platforms. There is also Flash which is immensely popular and multi-platform. Instead they chose the one that promised all the lock-in of Windows with all fun of Windows.

      Don't blame Apple because their competitor who has been trying to squeeze them out of the market for 20+ years is trying to squeeze them out of the market. What makes you so sure Microsoft would even agree to it with any reasonable terms (you know, under $100 per computer).

      Hell, Microsoft had a WMV codec for OS X. As OS X started getting popular they dropped it and farmed it out to a 3rd party who now sells it.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    2. Re:Compete with Apple? by Sri+Ramkrishna · · Score: 4, Informative

      Dude,

      Netflix is forced to use Windows because the MPAA only allows windows DRM to be used. So they aren't mandating the codec, the MPAA is. They would love to use everything if they could, but the restriction is coming from the movie industry. So complain to the MPAA who seems to be propogating a (former) monopoly.

      sri

    3. Re:Compete with Apple? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Proof?

  2. God those summaries are entertaining by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the past Netflix has imposed limits on how long its subscribers could watch streamed movies; for example, those who paid $16.99/mo. could stream up to 17 hours per month.
    That's an example of how *much* movie-time you can stream, not how *long* you have to watch it.
  3. Re:For more information by beckerist · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wow...a virus?! I have Noscript and Adblock plus in Firefox and it STILL got all the way to my Avast before aborting the connection.

  4. Re:I am Netflix's complete lack of selection. by X0563511 · · Score: 3, Informative
    Too bad.

    Several quotes:

    We don't know exactly how this will all work, and a lot of it really depends on you.

    We're excited about this, and see huge potential for this system. From user feedback on articles, to comment moderation, the system is really limited only by your participation, and our database hardware!

    Other tagging systems let users make up any tags they want, and punt on the issue of objective meaning. So the tag "foo" means for each user whatever they want it to mean, and to the system it means nothing at all, it's just an identifier.

    Yes, that's pretty arbitrary. We'll spell out policy as this evolves. For now, the deal is: tag in good faith, and if there's abuse, we'll deal with it in good faith.
    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  5. Re:Won't work on macs by gabebillings · · Score: 4, Informative

    My media PC is in a nice case that even the wife approves of, and is cooled by one nearly silent 120mm fan. Being able to stream movies directly onto my 52" LCD is very nice.

  6. Re:Won't work on macs by MistrBlank · · Score: 2, Informative

    I wouldn't worry too much, your parent poster was too ignorant to realize there is a whole market for fanless systems as HTPCs.