|
| +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.