I pay around $20/month for two DVDs at a time and unlimited streaming. I think that that’s a ridiculously good deal. I can’t believe that people manage to find fault with that. I love Netflix.
In addition to what other people said, the facts of your lifestyle make a difference in whether Netflix is worth it or not.
For many years I was a subscriber. I used it heavily. Watched a couple of movies every week, on average. It was well worth it.
But things changed. Now I generally don’t have time to watch TV at all. When I realized that I hadnt watched any movies from Netflix in about six months, yet was still paying subscription fees, I realized it was time to cancel.
Sure, use the 30 day trial. I have streaming, and have mixed emotions about it. While there’s more interesting stuff to watch than I’ll ever be able to, if I suddenly think of some particular film I want to watch it seems most of the time they don’t have it.
How big is the selection of kids cartoons in Netflix streaming? You basic Disney, Nickelodean, ad nauseum? It doesn’t have to be current but enough to keep the rug rats in Dora and the like.
They’ve got a pretty solid collection, though there’s not much Disney stuff. Grab yourself a 30-day trial and look through it.
They do have full runs of some great Nick shows like Angry Beavers and Rocko’s Modern Life.
Yes, a hassle, really, especially when compared to streaming, which is instantaneous, with no need to return anything.
I’m not an avid TV watcher, so streaming is perfect for me. Unlike others in this thread, I don’t think the streaming selection sucks. There are hundreds of movies and documentaries, and hundreds of TV shows, so for the once a week or so that I want to watch anything, Netflix streaming is perfect.
I found that when I got my Netflix subscription I started watching more TV - whether that’s good or bad depends. While it’s true that not all movies, especially new releases, are available, nor are all old TV shows, there are still a LOT of movies and shows I either wanted to watch, or found interesting. Their “suggestions for you” algorithm works pretty good for us, despite having to cope with the divergent interests of my spouse and me.
Since my local library has a great video collection, I can almost always find something there if it’s not on Netflix, so between the two I’m very happy.
We find it well worth the money.
I agree. I’m constantly finding gems on Netflix. Just yesterday I fond a foreign movie about Nicola Tesla. Decent movie.
My sister decided it was worth it because she watches a lot of stuff. We decided it was worth it when she was the one paying for it. Though, if she’d have waited, we’d have been able to also get a free computer game out of the deal, too, like the OP is getting in-game cash.
I personally think you should go with the streaming service, BTW, since you watch on your laptop and so you can see a lot more content quickly to see if you like it. You can always switch to DVD only later, or just add DVDs if you think it’s worth the money.
We used to have Netflix before they started streaming shows.
Back then, delivery was iffy - I would get a film on Tuesday, watch on Wednesday, send back on Thursday, and not get the next DVD until Tuesday. So basically getting four films a month if I were lucky. (I have heard they are faster now, so that is probably a moot point today.)
My other problem is that SO and I go to see a LOT of movies when they first come out in theaters. Just the other day I was scanning our On Demand from cable to see if maybe there was a film worth paying for - and we had already seen all of the new releases that we cared to see.
So, I suppose there might be some TV series that could be fun to watch from the beginning, or the occasional off-beat film we might have missed, but I haven’t been tempted to get Netflix again. Maybe someday…
I use the DVD-only service. I mostly use Netflix for foreign films, cult films, many of which are fairly esoteric. Netflix has an extensive DVD library. Back when they tried to trick me into streaming and raise my fee, I looked at my queue of about 140 films. I think maybe 6 were available on streaming.
I also use it to plow through TV series that catch my eye. I might have been able to stream those, but I much prefer physical discs.
The speed of the turn-around may vary depending on where you live. For me. it is very quick. A DVD picked-up by the mailman on Monday shows up as returned on Tuesday and the next DVD is shipped and arrives on Wednesday.
You say you keep up with new films by seeing them in theaters, but what about the vast catalog of old movies Netflix offers. Seen all of those?
I pretty much never go to the theater. I’m kind of grumpy about it and don’t like the experience nearly as much as watching at home on my huge flat screen. I don’t mind waiting two or three months for the DVD.
Netflix got progressively faster and faster as they opened processing centers in mail hubs - at the peak pre-streaming I could get approximately 36 movies/month on DVD by getting them every Monday/Wednesday/Friday and ripping them to my HD or burning to DVD and sending them back the same day. IE I would get the mail at like 10am on Monday, rip 3 discs, walk to the post office before 5pm and they would get the disc back on Tuesday, and I’d receive my next set of movies on Wednesday, rinse, repeat (they do, or did receive, process & send on saturdays). Note that they throttle you after like 2 months of that though down to maybe 18-24 DVDs/month by delaying resending your movies.
Edit to add, I don’t even subscribe to the DVD side anymore - I was going through catalog of old TV shows at the time mostly (and it was split over my movies, wife’s movies, and kids movies).
So you were violating the terms of your contract with Netflix as well as violating copyright law.
Yeah, like I said - I think the delivery has gotten better over the years since I had my subscription.
Regarding other films - my older brother had Netflix and knows my SO and I go to movies weekly and asked me to be his “chooser” for films. So basically, for about a year (he then dropped it), I went onto his account and browsed films I though he would like. There was very little I had not seen over the past 20 years that I would have wanted to see - and many of the even older films I had seen on TV at some point (or grabbed during the heydays of Blockbuster/Hollywood Video rentals).
I am not saying I have seen every good film in the history of filmmaking, but looking at his account, there were very few films I would have chosen to see that I had not already seen - and certainly not enough to warrant getting an account again.
But the TV series might be another matter, so like I said - maybe someday I will give the 30 day free trial a go and see what I think.
You were ripping like 30 movies a month? Why on earth would you do that? To watch them “later”? But that’s the beauty of Netflix. There is no need to save for “later.”
“Oh, I want to watch Fletch but won’t have time until next week.” Well, just queue it up or stream it next week!
Maybe you just like stealing?
No, I think we watched all 30 every month - watched basically no TV and spread out over more than one person. Ripped to the computer because if you wait till when you watch them you couldn’t get so many per month. I haven’t watched live tv much since, 2002 or 2003 ? I’ve variously used netflix dvd, tivo, mythTV, cable dvrs, roku boxes with hulu/amazon/netflix streaming for TV.
I like finding older TV series that I didn’t know were out there or that I missed episodes of or that I just plain didn’t have time to watch. They must be out on DVD, since they’re available on Netflix, but I’d never think to go look for them and probably wouldn’t pay the price they’d cost.
So Netflix is definitely worth it for me. In fact being able to watch a season at a time, in order, has kind of spoiled me. If I hear of a good current show, I’ll wait the year or two for it to be available there.