This “forcing you to watch previews” just means that the skip chapter button doesn’t work, right? I’ve never seen any previews that you couldn’t fast forward through.
Last one I watched, the skip button and the menu button were disabled. I could fast forward, but each new preview dropped it back to normal speed. 5 previews.
Maybe this will inspire some to buy more DVDs. It has exactly the opposite effect on me. I want to support Netflix more against the studios because Netflix is trying to offer an affordable service and the studios are trying to bend me over the table and have their way with me.
I don’t think you understand - Netflix isn’t going to have that option open to it, because the studios won’t be selling Netflix ANY of the “special features enabled” DVDs. They want to try to pressure people into buying DVDs rather than renting them (from Netflix or anyone else), because they figure they’ll make more money that way, and they think that withholding the special features from all rental disks will accomplish that goal. (The studios are wrong, of course. People simply don’t want to pay full DVD prices for movies they’ll most likely only watch once.)
But yes, I would pay a bit more to rent DVDs with special features, if those were made available. But I wouldn’t pay $20 per movie for them, which is what the studios want to charge, so I doubt I’ll be viewing as many special features in the future as I do now. Too bad; I rather like them.
Add me to the list of people who hate forced previews. Hey, if the movies studios want to restrict special features to purchased disks, could they also limit the forced previews to rental disks and remove that “feature” from purchased ones? It’s bad enough having to watch a half-dozen unskippable previews the first time you watch a film; it’s absolutely maddening to have to deal with them over and over each time you re-watch that expensive DVD you bought.
I’m not going to start a poll (because I don’t know how and I’ll be blasted if I’m going to learn), but how many of us have purchased movies or TV shows after watching them on Netflix? I’ve bought the series of Deadwood, Firefly (and Serenity, sight unseen), and Jeeves and Wooster, all after watching them first via Netflix. However, Mrs. Urquhart and I are on our second viewing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this time on streaming instead of via DVDs; I’ve given much thought to purchasing the series on DVD, moreso for the commentary available.
Thinking back about what I’ve watched via DVD and streaming on Netflix, I’ve purchased maybe 1 percent of DVD content that I watched on the service previously. There’s absolutely no doubt that Netflix wants to move to an exclusively streaming basis; my guess is that most Netflix users (whether they watch DVDs or streaming content) have absolutely very little to no interest in watching special features.
Here’s a follow-up question: since the advent of Netflix, especially the streaming aspect of the service that acts like a virtual jukebox of visual material, have you purchased fewer, the same amount of, or more DVDs?
The worst worst WORST thing about the Despicable Me blu-ray that I bought was on the title menu screen there were fucking advertisements on the screen for other movie releases. Not previews but more like popup ads.
Pissed me off, it did.
Before we became Netflix members, we might buy some DVDs because I loved them (like 2001) and for those the special features were a plus. Some we bought because we wanted a TV series (like Police Squad) and video stores usually didn’t carry them. After Netflix, I only buy the movies I love. Not having to clutter the house with DVDs is a big plus. We go for throughput, not in depth examination, though we’ll look at whatever special features are on TV disks, seldom movies.
Therefore, fewer. We don’t stream much because the two DVDs we get use up plenty of our time, along with the few TV shows we record. I’ve done it when I’ve been home alone and had some time on my hands. I need to hook up the computer to the TV, so it is a slight pain.
I rarely buy DVDs. I have many that I haven’t yet watched. For the vast majority of movies, it is one and done - maybe I’ll have it on in the background when it hits cable. My daughter likes to watch shows over and over, so she is more apt to buy DVDs.
Netflix lost me as a customer when they tried to pull the “charge a $1 surcharge for every Bluray you rent” and I haven’t been back. But those Rental DVDs are nothing new. One interesting thing about those special feature disabled Blurays is that they’re often still on the disc, and just disabled from the menu. The Crazy Heart Bluray is an example of this. Just use the search button to access them directly.
It’s not $1 for every blu-ray you rent, it’s $1 a month total, no matter how many blu-rays you get. Unless you were offered a different deal than I have.
My solution to forced previews is to put the movie in the DVD player at least fifteen minutes before I want to watch it. So I’ll put it in before I start dinner or whatever and by the time I am ready to watch, the previews are over.
I’ve been a Netflix user since 2005. 3 discs a week for the most part. I haven’t yet noticed the forced previews lately, any more than all along. It hasn’t seemed like that many to me, anyway, and my solution has always been 16x fast forward and they’re gone in a couple seconds.
What I have noticed, just in the last couple of months, has been damaged or unplayable DVD’s. I’ve had to send 2 back, and one was lost. That’s as much as has happened in the last 5 years. I get the idea that they’re trying to steer people more toward streaming, but since I do both, and pay for 3-at-a-time service, I’m paying a premium compared to stream-only clients, and the DVD mailing service needs to shape up quick. Seriously, it’s a $15 difference I’m paying compared to the stream-only clients, and most of that is profit for them! I like getting my 3 DVD’s a week, I’m getting those because they aren’t available for streaming, and I like some special features and commentaries now and then. But if the send-backs keep up at this rate, I may reconsider.
I have a two at a time plan and usually manage to send the disk back the next day and I haven’t had any problems like that and I know they are losing money on me. If it isn’t a coincidence, then I would suspect your local post office. I don’t think Netflix is damaging their own disks.
YMMV, but I don’t seem to have a with forced trailers when I watch the movie on my PC with Windows Mover Maker.
My WAG is that phenomenon is more likely happening to newer movies. A lot of my DVD diet consists of older or foreign titles. My last two DVDs from Netflix were from 2010. I think I might have had the forced previews in Toy Story 3. I know I had forced previews in something Disney. I haven’t come across the no special features. The only special feature I’m interested in is director commentary and only if I really love the movie, which is rare.
It’s definitely been newer movies for me. They all say rental disk on them. Older shows appear to be standard retail disks.
I just checked. The option (on my account, YMMV, etc.) for Blu-ray and HD streaming where available is an additional $5/month. The may be because I am grandfathered into a 4 disk at a time plan that costs the same as the 3 disk at a time plan. But I’ve been a member since I bought my first DVD player many many moons ago.
There’s actually nothing stopping Netflix from purchasing retail versions of the disc and renting those. Aside from the fact that it would be a hugely expensive outlay just to satisfy a few vocal critics.
Yes there is. If Netflix wants streaming (which they do), they have to acquiesce to rental DVDs and whatever else the studio wants. Netflix knows its future is in streaming media and it is facing more competition in this space than it ever did as a DVD rental-by-mail company. It certainly isn’t worth it for Netflix to piss off studios like Disney (with whom they already have a streaming deal) by running an end-around to get its disks from retail sources. If Netflix can then get their DVDs at a discount to retail, that is a bonus to Netflix.
Also, consider the volume Netflix needs. It would be pretty easy to figure out from where Netflix is purchasing its DVDs if it went retail, and for the studios to put the screws to whomever was selling to Netflix. At least that’s one of the theory on the Movie Fans message board.
I didn’t say it was a good idea for Netflix, I’m saying that unless there’s something in the contract specifically forbidding it, there’s nothing stopping Netflix from offering both types of discs.
I can’t find detailed contract terms (not surprising), but I doubt that, given the choice, Netflix would choose the rental-only DVDs. The choice may just be price (discounts for rental-only), but I don’t think that there is a large enough demand to warrant a tier-charge for ‘full DVD’ versus ‘rental DVD’.
I don’t think that you can just buy a DVD and start renting it out to people. You have to buy rental only copies so in effect there is something that expressly forbids it.