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Nearly 4 Million People In US Still Subscribe To Netflix DVDs By Mail (recode.net)
The biggest Netflix-related news today is that the company is raising its streaming videos prices, from $9.99 a month to $10.99. But there is another interesting nugget of information to consider: Netflix still has 3.7 million DVD subscribers in the U.S. who get their discs delivered through the mail for the same $7.99 a month it had previously cost. Recode reports: That's down 17 percent from a year ago, and is much smaller than Netflix's nearly 52 million domestic streaming subscribers, but it's still sizable. Netflix first separated out its DVD and streaming subscription services in July 2011, charging $7.99 each ($15.98 for both). Streaming was originally an added bonus for DVD subscribers at no extra cost. Are you one of the 3.7 million Netflix users who still get DVDs sent in the mail? If so, what's keeping you from embracing the digital age and streaming movies via the internet?
Are you one of the 3.7 million Netflix users who still get DVDs sent in the mail? If so, what's keeping you from embracing the digital age and streaming movies via the internet?
DVDs are digital - hell it's right in the acronym Digital versatile disc. Just because someone wants a physical copy for some reason doesn't mean it magically was transformed into analog by the postal service.
That said if we wanted to really entertain the question of why someone would want DVDs by mail - ignoring the stupidity of the way the question was posed in this summary - there is still at least one good reason for it on Netflix. Their DVD library is much larger than their streaming library. If you want to see something that is 2-7 years old, there is a really good chance it is available for streaming. Outside that range, your chances are not very good. There are a lot of really good titles available that you simply can't stream. One great example that is relevant right now is Blade Runner. If you don't own it and you want to see the original version before going to the theatre to see the new one, you can't stream it on Netflix, they don't stream it. You can't buy it today brand new at Best Buy, Target, or Walmart as it was pulled off the shelves by the studio. Some of the retailers claim they could ship it to you next week if you buy it today but there's no guarantee. Netflix will tell you when you'll have it.
Beyond that, the single disc service is only $8 per month. Most Netflix subscribers have a card on file with them that automatically gets billed; I suspect a majority of these people wouldn't notice another $8 from their card every month one way or the other. I know I have weeks where my gas consumption fluctuates by a lot more than $8 and I don't spend much time worrying about it.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I personally know a number of people who subscribe to the DVD service, and they do so for a very simple reason: the catalog of available movies and TV shows is much, much larger than in the streaming service.
We still have DVD rental stores and RedBoxes everywhere.
Turns out you can't stream much on 0.9 Mbps DSL.
Crappy rural broadband that services the 90% of the continental U.S. where the least-crowded 50% of the population lives just doesn't cut it for streaming services.
Two reasons: lots of movies are not available for streaming and it is very convenient to put a current movie into the DVD queue and six months later it just shows up. For example, I didn't make it to the theater to see either King Kong or Aliens but I saw both about a month ago.
This is also why Alaska is among the few places there are still Blockbuster stores. RedBox is also popular here.
So I can rip them of course
Hey! That's Trump country. They don't need no broadband. Ajit Pai said so last week.
I live in rural Oregon where the only wireline internet is DSL that promises a maximum speed of 1.5 Mbs. And is well below 1 Mbs in the evening.
I subscribe to the DVD service for three reasons: the video quality is better than streaming, the audio quality is better coming out of my home theatre surround sound system, and to have access to a larger catalog of movies which includes new releases. End of story.
The streaming selection is like the 99 cent section of Blockbuster. You've probably seen the movie before, but it's what's available. The Blue Ray / DVD selection is like the "New Releases" section - newer movies that aren't streaming yet.
Streaming services can't match the quality and bandwidth of a Blu-Ray. If i'm not going to bother seeing it in the theater, i want the best quality picture at home.
We subscribe to the DVD only service because we just don't watch enough TV to make the streaming service worth it. I think we maybe watch one or two movies a month (if that) so the DVD service works for us just fine. Not to mention the selection is far better than the streaming service as we tend to like a mixture of brand new stuff and older movies. We also don't follow TV shows so there's no need for a streaming service to binge watch things (which would be tough with the DVD service).
I prefer to watch my movies in 5.1 sound instead of stereo, and DVDs offer that to me. Also many, if not all, of the movies I want to catch up on are available on DVD but not in streaming.
Really, except for their original Marvel content, they have nothing on streaming I want to see. There are still a long list of movies I want to see and get them on DVD. I have lots of old classic movies to watch still, a few series, and then new stuff as it comes out. I can see which ones I could watch streaming and it is a grand total of one series (which I decided not to finish anyway). On the flip side, I've been bored and went looking on steaming side of things for interesting new things to watch. I've yet to comes across anything that was worth finishing. Every now and then somebody suggests something on streaming and I'll watch it, but those are few and far between and usually documentaries. I really don't see much value except for their original content to their streaming, and am getting upset as DVDs they did have sometimes drop off to the Saved list while still for sale, meaning they are not replacing lost, stolen, damaged DVDs still in production.
It's simple really. If you like movies, you will find the best selection on DVD. If you like the miniseries, especially the new ones that Netflix are developing, then streaming service is the way to go.
For some people, Netflix DVDs + Amazon Prime hits the sweet spot for streaming versus movies. A lot of the cooking shows my wife likes are on Prime without additional charge. but Netflix doesn't stream much that she wants. For me I mostly watch movies, and I have been soured on the dwindling selection of Netflix's streaming catalog.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I just like getting things in the mail.
It's so fun for me. It's like Christmas, in whatever month it is.
I think it's incredibly misleading to ask why DVD/BluRay subscribers have "not embraced streaming yet".
Guess what - we have. I have not had a tuner for many years, ONLY watching shows and most other things via streaming. I have subscribed to Netflix stream since they first offered it, but was streaming TV shows long before that... I also at times use the HBO and Stars apps to watch movies through. Heck, I even subscribe to the Comic Con app to watch movies and shows....
I subscribe to the DVD service for the same reason Willy Sutton robbed banks - that's where the money (movies) is (are).
Yes HBO has a lot of movies, so does Stars. But between them there are still a lot of newer released movies you are not going to see for a long time. If I want to see Wonder Woman for example, I'm either going to pay a lot to rent it online for $6 - half of a monthly subscription for DVDs + Streaming. With the disc I can take as long as I like to watch it, then send it back in...
Basically, physical disc rental is useful for (A) very popular content or (b) very niche content that no-one online is going to offer via streaming. There's still enough of that I end up getting 4-5 discs every month, making it worthwhile to keep the DVD part of my Netflix subscription.
So next time don't look down on DVD subscribers, perhaps they are simply more avid media consumers than you are and need that channel of content still.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I still use my DVD subscription because with their focus oo much on original content now, a lot of recent releases never make it to Netflix streaming. I'm not paying $6 per movie to rent a recent release when I can get it on Blu Ray if I wait an extra 30-60 days. There is also a much more substantial back catalog of older content and movies that might have once been available via streaming but since dropped out of the library. Also watching the disc doesn't eat up my bandwidth. My disc queue is down to 1/5 of what it was at one point so I may drop down to 1 disc at a time instead of 3 but as long as it remains the fastest and most reliable way to get new releases I'll probably keep it.
To misquote Churchill, never has an operating system (FreeBSD) used by so many been administered by so few. - NetCraft
I wonder, do they burn a particular title onto DVD that is not currently in stock and mail it to you if they think demand will increase?
The DVDs that I've received from Netflix in recent years look very generic with only a thin black band around the center to identify the contents. No silk screened artwork any more.
slashdot: A failed experiment.
wow netflix isnt 5.1? is that like the YIFY model of streaming: crap for the masses.
I guess people really dont care about audio, which explains the popularity of both yify and netflix...
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
He has a point: who needs high speeds for streaming when DVDs are cheaper and have a wider selection?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
But I pay $4.99 per month. I used to use the $7.99 per month DVD service, but Netflix had too much trouble getting the DVDs to me on time. So I dropped to the $4.99 per month service. I still use the DVD service instead of streaming because much more content is available via the DVD service, and navigation within a show is far easier. Plus, I don't want to use up my precious ISP data bits and run afoul of Comcast's monthly data cap.
I get DVDs from Netflix, and I stream. The list of DVDs is much larger than the list of streamables. If I want old classics, like Criterion series, then DVDs is what I have to get.
because Redbox keeps updating their piracy protection, and my pirated ripper software doesn't get updates.
Doubtful. Most are probably making _legal_ copies and are simply time-shifting.
MOST of the movies I want to watch are not available on streaming. Not "some", MOST.
Because Hollywood managed to pull the wool over regulators' eyes, and convince them that digital bits comprising a movie transmitted over a wire are somehow different from digital bits stored on a disc and transmitted via the postal service.
If you buy a license to view a digital movie, the means by which you get that digital copy should be irrelevant - streaming, disc, OTA TV broadcast, etc. Likewise if a rental company has rights to rent those digital bits to people, the means by which they deliver it (streaming or disc) should be irrelevant.
Can you get the Netflix original series through the DVD service? That's not something that ever occurred to me before, but it seems like an obvious thing now. No reason why they couldn't print those out and add them to their DVD collection.
As everyone else here has mentioned, the selection on the streaming service is far inferior to the DVD and Blu Ray selection. Also, BRD quality is much higher (25mbits/sec 1080P) and there are extras, which I like. There really is no direct comparison between the two services.
I subscribe to both, because my wife and step-daughter like all the original content streaming shows, and I like sometimes more obscure or older movies. There are a large amount of A-list movies that are not on the streaming service as well, depending on who they have deals with at the time.
I have a 100-title queue on the DVD service, of which almost none are available on the streaming service. (to Netflix' credit, when they are available on streaming, they add a 'play' button next to the queue item.)
The whole situation is honestly ridiculous, and in a world absent of crazy complicated licensing schemes and deals, all the DVD titles should also be made available for streaming. The two should be equivalent as far as who gets paid. But they are not, and we continue to have a very fractious market where you have to pay a dozen different streaming services to get access to everything. Netflix' DVD-by-mail is the closest thing to a single source where you can get titles from all the major (and minor) production companies for one low price.
I'm one of the 3.7 million. Here's why I prefer mailed DVDs, in no particular order:
* I don't want to deal with Flash, Silverlight, or HTML 5. Originally with Netflix, they gave you both discs and the streaming option, so I have some (legacy?) experience with this. At the time, Netflix used Flash as their delivery medium, and the visual results were pretty good -- but the overall user experience (volume control, pausing, resume playback from where you left off, rewind/fast-forward, subtitles, and audio quality) was abysmal. Then they moved to Silverlight, which improved a couple of those things (volume control, pausing, and subtitles), but the visual quality worsened (lots of blocking, colours looked worse/washed out -- almost all certainly codec-related things). Audio-wise I only care about stereo, but a lot of the streamed videos did very strange things with 5.1 downmixed to 2.0 (more often than not, the centre channel (for speech) would be muffled). But the real kicker was English subtitles. If they were available (most of the time they weren't, yet on DVDs they usually are), were also awful -- bad synchronisation, bad formatting/layout, too large of a font, etc.. I imagine they now use HTML 5, but given the past several years of bullshit, why should I care about it with regards to Netflix? With DVDs I deal with none of the above.
* When I get a DVD, I actually rip it to ISO/MDS using DVD Decrypter, and mount the ISO/MDS using Alcohol 120%. I DO NOT PIRATE OR KEEP THE CONTENT! I delete the ISO/MDS when I'm done. I know some /. people aren't going to believe me when I say that, but I really don't -- I don't have that kind of capacity anyway. The reason I do it this way is because I've sensitive hearing and don't like the "whoosh" of an optical drive spinning. Plus, if I pause the film when being played on an optical drive, if you wait too long (say 30 minutes), the drive firmware actually spins everything down and resuming playback often doesn't work (in MPC-HC and VLC both) -- I have to force-exit the app and then hope I can eject the disc from the drive, then start the whole thing over again. Also, I'll add that I use the "Remove PUO" feature of DVD Decrypter, so a lot of the non-interruptable scenes/sequences prior to the film can be skipped or omitted. On rare occasion I'll get a disc that can't be ripped (copy protection features that are newer than DVD Decrypter), in which case I (grudgingly) use my optical drive natively.
Using the above method gets me pretty much everything I want -- I can pause/resume a film for as long as I want, the subtitles are usually good (and if not, I can find ones at opensubtitles or subscene that integrate easily with MPC-HC), and I'm not using any network traffic.
* My ISP has monthly caps on network traffic (either 500GB or 1TB/month, I forget). Currently with my usage, I'm averaging around 400GB/month, and streaming movies would certainly bump that up quite a bit.
* Considering how often I watch a film, I'm perfectly OK with waiting for the arrival of a disc via postal mail. In fact, it's even fun -- going to your mailbox and going "Oh! I forgot I had a Netflix disc coming!". I don't have need for the "I NEED IT RIGHT NOW" aspect of the streaming service. I'm patient.
I haven't run into problems with delivery times of discs, or issues of theft. I think in the past 10 years of having Netflix service, I've had maybe 6 or 7 returns not make it back to Netflix, and I've always attributed those to USPS negligence. I have run into problems with damaged discs (including some which were completely shattered -- how the hell does that even happen?!), but Netflix is incredibly customer-friendly about that and ships you a replacement disc in advance.
I know a few people who don't have any access to broadband, it's a great way to watch movies for them.
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
Many people on here mention the much larger selection available in the physical disc collection than streaming, but there is another good reason to get a physical copy. One does not have to worry whether their browser or operating system is compatible or missing an update.
You get a disc, put it in the player, and you're done. No fooling around with anything else.
Pure simplicity.
You can get good quality shows and films this way without busting your bandwidth caps.
Also there is a wider selection of discs than their online stuff.
Twinstiq, game news
Obligatory Penny Arcade
Also, i'm not sure where the last two disks i received went when i moved. They'll probably want them back before before i can cancel that portion of the account?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
If you want some truly timeless classics, you have to delve into the vault of physical DVDs.
Sneakers: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...
THX 1138: https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...
On the flip side, there are other movies which have come out on DVD which Netflix refuses to release to their loyal customers:
Ghost In The Shell : https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/...
Intrigued to hear what others have to say.
I've noticed over the years the quality of content on netflix streaming has declined. There was a netflix employee that made the comment to the effect "they'll take what we give 'em" a couple of years ago. There's generally a good selection of DVDs so I understand the appeal.
Both physical DVD and streaming
Why? Much larger catalog with physical, and earlier release.
I restarted the physical DVD specifically for The Martian Did not want to wait for streaming, nor pirate it.
Several reasons.
(1) Inertia. For years, it wasn't even possible to stream on Linux (at least without some clumsy Wine shenanigans), and my TV box is a linux box. Now I think the Linux browsers do support it, but, eh.
(2) DRM. Yeah, I know, DVDs have it too, but it's long been cracked, so to my mind that makes it a lesser evil. No, I don't pirate the DVDs or keep copies of the content. But, technically, I have to violated the DMCA to play legally obtained DVDs on my own computer, since I need to download DeCSS. Still, I don't want to support DRM-based models if I can avoid it, and I'm not happy that all streaming is DRM-encumbered.
(3) Watching offline. If I want to go back and rewatch a scene, it doesn't use extra bandwidth. If the Internet glitches while I'm watching, I don't have pauses or glitches in may playback. Yeah, sometimes a disk is damaged, and that's annoying. But, I've got far more control over the disk while I have it than I would over a stream. *IF* we could download streams for later watching offline, I would consider a streaming service.
(4) Streaming service selections are ridiculous. You have to subscribe to a whole bunch of them if you want to be able to get everything; this quickly becomes prohibitively expensive. I'm not going to pay $10/month *JUST* to watch Star Trek Discovery without commercials. Hell, it would be more economical to wait a year or two and buy the DVD boxed set! There really needs to be a massive collapse of the streaming market as people buying it realize that they're paying way much for the few things they watch on any given service. On the other hand, Netflix DVDs have many things, the big gap being recent TV series, particularly series that are tied to streaming services.
I have a DVD Netflix subscription for one simple reason - streaming Netflix is enough to saturate my home internet, resulting in lots and lots of buffering. I'm currently looking to move, but haven't found the right house yet.
If so, what's keeping you from embracing the digital age and streaming movies via the internet?
16% of the movies in my queue are available for streaming. I pay for both services because they have 2 completely different catalogs.
Of the 280 items in my Netflix queue, 47 of them are available for streaming. And really, it is less than 16% since 13 of the items in the queue are a single series that spans 13 DVDs. I'll switch off the DVD service when they offer streaming for the other 233 titles.
Pick a movie from last year. Is available streaming on netflix? probably not. Is available by DVD? yes.
The movie studios can prevent streaming. They can't prevent renting of a physical medium, so everything you can buy at least CAN be available by DVD. Until some sort of compulsory licensing appears for streaming, it will stay that way.
Crappy rural broadband that services the 90% of the continental U.S. where the least-crowded 50% of the population lives just doesn't cut it for streaming services.
This is exactly why I used it for years. You can't stream anything of quality over a rural 3Mbit ADSL connection and you can't afford to stream anything over a higher bandwidth satellite connection. Thankfully, the movie studios have done me a huge favor by only releasing like 1-2 good movies a year so, there is no need for any of that nonsense anymore.
Agree on the "only 1-2 decent movies per year". But still like to see those old movies I missed out, or want to see again. Like mentioned multiple times above, Can't find them on streaming, but they usually have the disk.
But there's a difference between the "urge to watch something" and acting on someone's recommendation to watch a particular movie. Redbox tends to discontinue movies a year or so after DVD release.
Although a bit less convenient, I enjoy riding my bicycle to the local public library and checking out bluray discs. The waiting list can sometimes be long for new releases, but anything released over a year ago are usually readily available. Our library system supports reserving a titled via their web page and then they'll transport it from a remote branch to my local branch for pickup over the course of a couple of days.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Are you one of the 3.7 million Netflix users who still get DVDs sent in the mail? If so, what's keeping you from embracing the digital age and streaming movies via the internet?
A few possible reasons: I'm 75, I enjoy going to the mailbox even more than watching Matlock, I do stream, too, but it ain't easy to hook a Roku to the 13" CRT w/ built-in DVD player in my den. And how are DVDs not "digital age," since the first D is in fact "digital?"
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Because I had streaming. It offered less than half of what I was looking for. I look for great _old_ movies and they don't much do that. I've been seeing some really great old stuff. That's why.
I have to wonder if not having unfettered access to the infosphere isn't part of why they ended up as Trumpers in the first place. Right-wing talk radio rots your brain, but if its all you have to listen to for news...
It's also an indicator for how neglected "rural" America is in other ways.
Rule 35 of the internet: "If it can be hacked, it will be". - Charles Stross
The only thing we ever have the urge to watch are new releases. I never ever watch a movie a second time, so the fact that they eventually leave the redbox system doesn't matter to me.
What about Blu-Ray discs?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Right except that Foley's War has *ZERO* *ZILCH* *NOTHING* to do with the BBC.
It was like Downton Abbey and Victoria to name two others an ITV production (the reason it's called AppleTV and not iTV), as clearly demonstrated if you check the Wikipedia page.
One of the great things about the license fee and the BBC is that it also keeps the commercial broadcasters "honest". That is if you wish to attract a decent audience you better produce some quality TV.
Buffering? Rewind? Internet dropouts? Often at the most dramatic bits.
Also I like to accumulate a list of films of interest and watch them later. I rip the disc, then watch in weeks often months later when I have the time. Time shifting in a way, only for movies. If I liked them enough, I will buy the original. Not been many worth buying for a while.
Also if I fall asleep during the movie, I've got proof and reminder of the movie I've not finished watching in the player.
My question is, why do people feel the need to stream everything?
So when did you watch movies produced before you turned 18?
I collect music. Lots of it. I re-listen over and over. For movies though I am typically a "single watch" person except for my all time favorites. Netflix DVD makes it where I can watch these (within a reasonable release delay) without having to own them. Many of these would take years to find their way into streaming so my choices are buy it or Netflix DVD. That's still the primary use I have of Netflix. I stream their original content but I use DVDs for all else.
-Xen
Seriously?
All I hear every day is that it was the Russians on the internet brainwashing people into voting for Trump.
Now it was because they DON'T have internet and are being brainwashed by the evil "right-wing" talk radio.
You people will literally use ANY excuse to marginalize people who don't agree with you.
There are a few reasons that I still subscribe to the DVD service: 1. You can add a movie to the queue before it's in the theatre - This is nice because when I see a trailer for a movie I can generally add it to my queue right away. Several months later it shows up, sometimes I forgot about it and it's a neat surprise. 2. More selection - There are more movies available on DVD than streaming. 3. Less decision making - When my wife and I finally get a chance to sit down once a week and watch a movie without the kids we don't have to scroll through and decide on something, we just put in the DVD that we have for this week. There is a lot of evidence to show that reducing the number of decisions you need to make leads to less stress and the DVD queue makes that possible.
It seems pretty obvious to me. I can get new-release movies from the Blu-ray system. And the quality is much better than streaming.
Yup, the streaming title selection sucks compared to DVD.
There are two very big reasons why folks would still subscribe to Netflix dvd. 1) The catalog is huge. Outside of buying the movie/show, itâ(TM)s one of the only ways to get lots of things. 2) Folks who want to build a large digital movie library and thus rip them.
Hah! 4 triggered responders suggests you're onto something.
I turned 18 around 1990, so you are asking when did I watch movies produced in the 80s. Well, I watched those movies in the 80s (and the 70s - the first movie I ever saw was Star Wars at a drive-in the second day after it came out). But it's not like I need to watch Back to Future or any other 70s/80s movies today. I've already seen those movies. So far no movie has been good enough that it is worth my time to watch it more than once.
So I take it you don't care to watch pre-1972 classic films at all. Do I understand you correctly?
I get Netflix DVDs because streaming does not provide commentary tracks and the other "extras". Although, an increasing amount of DVDs from Netflix are "Rental Only" versions that don't have the extras, just a "too bad so sad" message.
If I want to stream something, I'm already paying for Amazon Prime shipping so I can just look into the rando video selection they are including
There're (or at least were, when I had it) several times as many titles available on DVD than on streaming.
Yeah, all the mainstream stuff is streamed, but the really weird, offbeat crazy shite is only on DVD. The mail thing is a hassle, but I saw such strange things that I may go back to it as the streaming isn't holding my interest so well anymore.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
Yeah, I'm not really a film buff. I'll watch new releases if they catch me eye, but I don't have any interest in watching old movies.
My internet connection is just barely enough to stream. Crappy rural broadband, but at least I'm not paying any of the obnoxious broadband giants. The local provider is making the best of a difficult situation.
We're sort of film nerds, and anything older or obscure is unavailable for streaming. I notice that more and more titles are disappearing from circulation on netflix. Is this netflix laziness, or the title owners not caring enough to print more dvds?
Looking at slashdot I definitely feel like physical media is disappearing. Is this true, or is it our bubble? Certainly streaming is nowhere near catching up in library coverage.