I bet you are pretty sure in your heart of hearts how unhip that is.
My last VCR just crapped the bed a month ago. I was the last holdout in my family with VHS so I just threw it and my remaining VHS tapes out.
A lot of people can’t afford to upgrade to new technology until whatever they are using breaks down. I used a Windows 98 computer and dial-up internet until the spring of 2011. i had that computer since 1999. It was actually still working when I get rid out, but I had an opportunity for a new computer so I took it. The new computer is a Windows 7 computer and I finally upgraded to cable internet. (I have no desire to go back to dial-up. I’m not sure it’s still even available.)
I’m still using a flip cell phone I bought in 2009. As long as it still works, I have no intention replacing(especially considering what a pain in the ass time I had porting my old cell number to it).
I do own a DVD and Blu-Ray player. I was actually surprised myself that the home video rental market collapsed. I still liked going to my local video store right up until it shut down. I prefer phsyical media myself. However, I must say, a monthly subscription to Netflix and Hulu is a lot cheaper than buying 5 or 6 DVDs a month. It’s particularly cheaper if you want to watch old TV series because series DVDs can be $30 and up for one season. So I mostly use streaming services now to watch movies and tv shows.
Some people have no choice other than optical media, and Netflix discs by mail or Redbox are their only real choice to watch new movies on their own schedule. The biggest and best home theater I was ever involved in building is in a rural area outside Ames, Iowa. 15 seats, a projector that, when new, cost $35,000 - seriously nice stuff. But the only media sources are DirecTV, over-the-air antenna or DVD/Blu-Ray. They are too far for both cable and DSL. Their Internet is via 4G, and one streaming HD film at a quality high enough to look good on the 120" screen is going to suck up a gigabyte or two of data.
Anyone else remember this dream from 1999?
Ah, Bored Gen-X Desk Clerk, you didn’t think of licensing agreements, did ya?
LOL, yes. But it does sound like a good deal.
Wow, great find! Sigh.
I suppose fans of torrenting would say they have fulfilled that promise. But I would still like to see things done above board and for people to get paid for their content (old-fashioned of me, I know). At the same time, I get frustrated with how, as you note, licensing agreements tie things up—to the point that some content is not available on any streaming service, nor on DVD. That frustration inspired this thread I started a couple years ago: Creative works should be *available*, even if not *free* - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
I may be repeating myself from there (I didn’t reread the thread), but I’d like to see some kind of system where the licensing is all done as it is now for the first couple years, but after that any streaming service could offer any content (movie or TV show), and would simply pay a standardized license fee for doing so. Basically the same as the way it is now for music: you don’t need to seek the permission of individual artists/songwriters to play their song on the radio or in your business, but you pay a licensing fee to compensate them.
Netflix is now explicitly making the case some of us have, that “content is king” and that this makes their disc service the ring to rule them all. Here’s a blog post introducing their latest video, on this very topic: http://blog.dvd.netflix.com/new-dvd-releases/what-will-you-watch-next
Having all 90 Best Picture winners and every Star Wars movie is a strong argument. They are a little disingenuous though in saying:
Given that as people have noted here, their catalogue was once stronger on classic films that were critically acclaimed but not big hits or even that well known outside of cinephile circles. That catalogue was probably built by film lovers working at the company, before they had massive piles of data to help them determine which of those were really necessary to keep replacing and which could be profitably cut loose.
Although maybe they are course correcting a bit on that front? I was struck by the fact that the video shows “Pather Panchali” front and center to illustrate the reach of their classic catalogue. That was in the “Saved” section of my queue forever! Could be that when stuff is released on Criterion, that spurs them to get a copy. (I finally saw it and was underwhelmed, BTW.)
Hilarious that they called out the “Fifty Shades of Grey” customers for having blown away their projections because they wanted to “get it on the down-low”.
Last night, Cox, my wide-band, went down for about three hours. Verizon, my phone provider was still up so I contacted Cox’s customer service via SMS to verify it was on their end and not my modem or router; it was. As luck would have it both Netflix disks were in transit. I complained to the CSR, “It’s awful! I am forced to play my own disks!”
Oof, nightmare. I’ve been there!
Last time my (cable) internet went down, I just connected my TV to my phone and continued watching my shows until the situation was resolved.
(I’m not trying to one up you or anything. Just say’n. :))
Pfft. You should read what these young punks say when I mention my cassette collection.
And there are still some die-hards who insist that vacuum tubes give better sound than printed circuits.
:eek: That would blow through my monthly data allotment pretty quickly. Probably within an hour or two unless the month had just reset.
Cassettes actually ARE an outmoded technology of inferior quality. :p. My entire point is that it doesn’t make sense to treat a Netflix disc subscription as analogous to this kind of thing.
FWIW I will continue to buy physical media of some movies and shows for as long as they will sell it to me because as convenient as streaming is it will always bow to the whims of who signs with what service and sometimes I want to watch what I want to watch.
I would do the same if I could afford it.
I don’t understand why more people don’t just use services like I use like flixify.com. It’s a free trial for 30 days, then under ten dollars a month, and the movie selection is WAY more extensive than Netflix streaming (which I also have, piggybacking off my parent’s account…which is another issue altogether…why don’t more people share their streaming accounts? I think up to two or three IP’s can be streaming simultaneously) and their new movie selections are far better and newer than anything Netflix DVD service can offer.
There’s a chance those movies are pirated, but in this day and age, I just don’t care. It feels like arguing with Lars Ulrich about Napster or something.
One reason more people don’t share their streaming accounts is because not all plans allow multiple devices to stream simultaneously. You can get a Netflix account that only allows streaming to one device at a time.
Yeah but in SD, do people who actually know better subscribe to that one? The standard 1080p plan has 2 simultaneous streams.
Which is fine if you live alone and have one trusted person to share it with. If you’re in a household, it can shut you out if someone else outside the household is also using a stream.
Then get the 4k + 4 streams plan. My objection is not with number of streams, it’s that Netflix ties together simultaneous stream tiers alongside picture quality.
With the “basic” plan: I can’t think of a situation where someone has a TV or monitor not capable of at least 1080p, but they are capable of actually streaming content on their decades old TV. Maybe the original Roku had component out? But evidently enough people don’t want to pay the extra dollar and subscribe for that plan so they continue offering it.
I do care if stuff is pirated, and it’s pretty clear there’s much more than a “chance” this is how Flixify gets their amazing selection:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/7rn2ev/flixifycom_and_other_streaming_sites/#ampf=undefined
I facepalmed at so many comments in this Reddit thread that said “it’s definitely not a scam” but acknowledged later in the comment that they are obviously pirating content and will eventually get shut down. What is their definition of a scam?!? Just when they don’t get what they paid for, I guess. :smack: