OT: Streaming Netflix

[rbowman]

A couple of things lately have made me wonder if they're subtly pushing people off DVDs. First, they moved their distribution center to Salt lake. From where I live, that's two days for mail delivery. They do not appear to work on Saturdays either, so for the most part no matter when I mail a DVD, I'm not going to see a replacement until the Wednesday of next week. This is close to the throttling that got them into trouble before.

More troubling, I've got about 50 titles on my queue currently with about

50% being short, long, or very long waits. One is 'unknown' and has been in that status literally for years. Several of the long waits have been there for months. Actually, the newer TV series seem to do better than the older theatrical movies. What I really liked about Netflix was the ability to get classic, foreign, and obscure DVDs. If they drop those in favor of new releases, RedBox beckons.

[Mayayana]

| | > +1 on that. Also, I've read that the streaming movie selection is | > pathetic compared to the DVD selection. I assuming that NetFlix is | > pushing streaming so it can get away from postage; but I would rather | > pay more and keep the DVDs. | | A couple of things lately have made me wonder if they're subtly pushing | people off DVDs. First, they moved their distribution center to Salt lake. | From where I live, that's two days for mail delivery. They do not appear to | work on Saturdays either, so for the most part no matter when I mail a DVD, | I'm not going to see a replacement until the Wednesday of next week. This is | close to the throttling that got them into trouble before. | I imagine they'd like the simplicity of switching to all online, but they simply can't get the rights for that. I'm in Boston and have no trouble with delivery in most cases. I often get a DVD 2 days after mailing one back. I figure we're paying well under $2 each for movies, but we could pay less if we really tried to watch them all the same day they arrive.

Actually, I get a lot of the movies I watch from the local library. And I don't have cable TV. I just have a small antenna next to the TV, which provides me about 20 local stations. I actually get 5 PBS stations -- more than the cable TV offers!

| More troubling, I've got about 50 titles on my queue currently with about | 50% being short, long, or very long waits. One is 'unknown' and has been in | that status literally for years. Several of the long waits have been there | for months.

That has nothing to do with them. The movie studios have a system of release. They won't release to DVD before they've milked the higher paying venues. The time for that depends on how long a movie stays in the theaters.

Another aspect that I'm concerned about, which I don't think has been mentioned, is the longterm situation with streaming. Netflix recently paid Comcast to get faster speeds. They're complaining about it, but they paid nevertheless. As more people stream more through online something has to give. Maybe ISPs will start charging for extra traffic. Maybe the Internet will turn into one giant cable TV and cable Internet prices will skyrocket to pay fees charged by media companies, just as most people with cable TV now pay a fee for numerous cable stations whether they watch them or not. Maybe cable TV will even merge with Internet, with people being forced to buy everything for $200/month or get no Internet at all. However it works out, it's clear that it can't go on the way it's going, because that would overtax the Internet while putting the cable TV companies out of business. For that reason, in addition to the paucity of streaming offerings -- I haven't put much effort into looking into streaming options. I figure I'll wait for the dust to settle.

[gfretwell]

I think the days of any entertainment on little bits of plastic are limited. DVDs will go the way of 8 tracks, hard copy books and photos on film.

[Pavel314]

rious about streaming instead. Anybody use that? Satisfied? Prefer to re d envelopes?

My wife used to do several red envelopes a week for several years then relu ctantly tries the streaming, which she now loves. They've expanded the stre aming library considerably so now I only take a red envelope to the mail bo x every month or so, when we get some obscure historical or literary movie that hasn't been converted yet. We have WiFi in the house and a BluRay gizm o; Netflix streams through the BlueRay so we didn't need a special Netflix gizmo.

The BluRay also connects to Amazon streaming, YouTube, Hulu, Vudu, a whole bunch of options.

Paul

[Moe DeLoughan]

Especially since Amazon and HBO just announced a new deal:

HBO Is Bringing a Ton of Its Shows to Amazon Prime

Amazon just announced an agreement that makes Prime Instant Video the only place you can watch HBO originals online without an HBO subscription. Starting May 21st, Prime members will get exclusive, unlimited streaming access to pretty much every HBO original you're interested in except Game of Thrones...

[gfretwell]

[Higgs Boson]

Have left your msg in despite the hatchet-job folks, so I can respond by item.

My local mailing address is still local and is fast turnaround. Only time it's more is on weekend/holiday.

Roger your comment about "classic, foreign and obscure DVDs". That's basically what I want from Netflix, as I am NOT NOT NOT into contemporary pop films, few of which appeal outside the 13-24 year male action bang-bang no-story genres.

Can't speak to the po$tage factor, but might well BE a negative for Netflix.

ATC, Mayayana reflects my view: I am def "So I think it depends on what you watch. If you're happy watching any old thing but like to see a lot of TV, it will probably seem a very good deal. If you like to see "art house" movies, good foreign movies, recent

*good* movies, movies that have won awards at Sundance, etc, then I'm guessing you'd be very frustrated with the streaming offerings. I find that I can get nearly anything on the DVDs, but it seems that the way they afford to give you an all-you-can-eat streaming menu is because Hollywood only approves the dregs, which are no longer making money elsewhere, to be streamed."

So I think conservative moi will stay with the red envelopes. After all, if it's that unbearable being w/o a DVD during a turnaround evg, I can always get a DVD from the Library.

Thanks again to all for input.

HB

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Of course "ad nauseum" has nothing to do with being right.

Don't use IE. Other browsers ARE being supported.

Right. AV software is at best your SECOND line of defense. The first is your wetware, that is, pay attention to what you're doing.

That is usually someone who clicks everything.

3 years was an estimate based on my experience with Windows 2000.

Most such attacks depend on the users' cooperation. Try not to do that.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

That's what I was saying. Controlling what you download and open is better security than any A/V software.

And if you do need a browser, IE is the worst choice.

[CRNG]

On Wed, 23 Apr 2014 08:13:37 -0600, rbowman wrote in

There no subtly about it. They would love all their customers to go "digital". The problem is the digital selection sucks and a lot of people in the U.S. still can't get anything more than dial up.

If I was required to go digital, I would just cancel my account.

[rbowman]

I'm not talking about current releases. I'm content to be a year behind the world theatrical releases or cable TV series like 'Game of Thrones' or 'Justified'. However 'Heart Like a Wheel' is a 1983 biopic about the drag racer Shirley Muldowney and probably hasn't seen a big screen in this century. It's not on my saved queue, it's on the real queue which presumably is DVDs they actually have in hand, but it's been a very long wait for months. And for the real goody:

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters Foreign Unknown DVD

That's been #1 literaly for three or four years. They either have it or they don't. That one was released in 1985 so ut's not like they're waiting for it to be made. Others, like 'Wild Angels' was on my saved queue until I said the hell with it and bought it from Amazon.

[rbowman]

You're lucky. It used to be in Spokane, which wasn't too bad, then it moved to Butte which was really good. The next move was to Salt lake City, which really sucks. If I wanted to fly from here to hell I'd have to change planes in SLC but I think the USPS still uses mules to get up here.

I did get a chuckle out of a couple of DVD's. They were the ones where Netflix says 'your next item on the queue will take a while to get there so we're sending another one in the meantime. About 5 days later the red envelope trickled in from Honolulu, still slightly damp from being dragged behind a Malaysian container ship.

[rbowman]

I expect high speed, unlimited bandwidth to reach me about the 12th of never so I'll stick to little bits of plastic. Un this most advanced of all nations I live about 10 miles from the center of what passes for a large cuty (50,000 or so) and consider myself damn lucky to get 4G wireless with a

5GB limit per month. It's not bad, but it's not up to streaming video.

[rbowman]

Same here. 4G wireless is a lot better that dialup but it's still not up to streaming much more than youtube videos most of the time. I've got Amazon Prime for the shipping and other perks but their streaming service is as useful as t*ts on a bull to me unless I want to stay late at work.

[CRNG]

On Wed, 23 Apr 2014 20:15:28 -0600, rbowman wrote in

I live in a rural area and around here we consider a dial-tone to be a miracle. In this state the utilities own the Public Utilities Commission.

[Robert Green]

It's that way in almost every state. Here in the DC area Verizon is actively working to convert all their dial tone/copper wire customers to FIOS. I've told them repeatedly I don't want a phone line that can't support a dial up modem, that isn't regulated by the public service commission, that runs out of battery power in an emergency and that depends on the stability of the Verizon computer network.

I'm with you - the sound of a dial tone is a miracle. When all the cellphones went out in the DC area on 9/11, the landlines kept on truckin'. I assume that the VOIP service will crash pretty much the same way when everyone gets on their phone in an emergency all at the same time. It's really a public safety issue but since the PSC has been "captured" by the companies they regulate they don't care. They're hastening the destruction of the copper phone network that has demonstrated far greater overall reliability than any of its replacement technologies. That's progress, I guess. )-:

One good thing about being one of the last of the dinosaur dial-up guys is that with the exodus of subscribers from copper phone lines, there's hardly

*ever* any crosstalk on the lines these says. The tech told me I had the only dial tone on a 50 pair trunk cable. It's lonely at the top (and bottom).

FWIW, the Feds probably want everyone to switch to VOIP so they can more easily monitor everyone's phone conversations.

Give me that old time religion, give me that old time religion, give me that old time religion, it's good enough for me!

[bob haller]

rs-Say-They-Felt-

verizon FIOS ROTTEN SERVICE was by far the worst customer service of my lif e!!

TV hadnt rolled out in my area yet.....

The fios internet actually worked pretty good. But the phone was terrible, echoes, noise every 12 calls, I couldnt hear the caller. long difficult to manuver thru auto attendant, then the killer message. were sorry all reps a re busy now please try your call again later, goodbye system hangs up, unfr iendly reps who all blamed my interior wiring even though the first road te ch remarked my accout, problem reproduced with house totally disconnected. while this mess was going on every few nights at dinner time reps would rin g my doorbell trying to sell me tv, after sending them a registered letter to stop I had police escort them off my property. because I had 6 phone lin es at one time I was getting multiple solicitation calls daily:( I was unde r contract for phone and internet, they said even though the phone didnt wo rk reliably it was against company policy to let me out of contract.....

I still had one line on copper, my business line. One day I realized I NEVE R called out on that line, so I called and cancelled the outgoing call pack age... saving 35 bucks a month, they cancelled my business service, They fi xed it in a hour but the system burped and did it again a few days later, M y line was out of service for 4 days, callers got the number you called is no longer in service, no futher info is available:( this cost me customers: ( they thought I went out of business.

I canceled ALL verizon land service and ordered them to remove the copper a nd fibre drop and all equiptement! they finally agreed when I threatened th em with a FIOS SUCKS BANNER on my home.

fios sucked for me......

oh the noise wasnt my home it was a bad card in the central office that eff ected everyone in my prefix

oh the backup battery failed at 6 months and verizon wanted to charge me 50 bucks for a new one. my fios box beeped alarm 24 / 7 for nearly a month. t he phone reps didnt know how to turn off the alarm, I found the ilence alar m button when replacing the battery

[Robert Green]

I knew I didn't want FIOS VOIP but now I know I *really* don't want it. Thanks for sharing. Verizon hired kids to canvass the area and really work on the holdouts like me. They were SO insistent I had to hit them with a few seconds of the VERY loud alarm bell on the porch to make them go away. (-:

[CRNG]

On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 00:11:01 -0400, "Robert Green" wrote in

Don't take it personally. It's just part of Amerika's race to the bottom.

[trader_4]

The big problem is the cost of maintaining that whole separate POTS infrastructure, the hundreds of millions of miles of wire cable strung along poles being the major portion of it. IDK what the experiences have been of the vast majority of consumers who have switched over to VOIP services. And there are a whole host of those services, ranging from Telcos and cable companies, which are at the top of the heap, charging the most and having the best quality and reliability, down to $25 a year services, like MajicJack, which are at the bottom. But I think the problem is that on that cost curve there are VOIP solutions that provide acceptable service at rates at a small fraction of what it will cost to maintain copper to the homes out there. When that was the only way to do voice, it made a lot of sense. Today when that's pretty much all it can do and for 95% of the people there are other more cost effective solutions, it's on it's way out.