Inspired by this thread, where everybody agrees Netflix’s DVD business is the only service in the world with “watch virtually EVERY MOVIE EVER MADE for one low monthly fee”, there is no (legal) streaming service that comes close, and it seems unlikely there ever will be.
So why is Netflix so eager to de-emphasize its DVD business when it’s the only option to serve a need that lots of people are clearly willing to pay for? So they want to invest in a streaming business too, ok that’s smart. But I tried to sign up for the DVD business without a streaming plan and their webpage wouldn’t even let me do it until I called customer service. Why are they clearing trying to kill the DVD business?
Their DVD business is what started the company and made lots of money for them then, so I have to assume it still makes money now. If they have to raise rates, fine. But isn’t it a viable cash cow business that could still be milked for lots of money? So why are they clearly trying to kill it?
I’ll take your word for it that it’s hard to sign up for. I’ll also take Netflix’s word for it that what is allowed to be streamed (as opposed to rented via disc) it up to the studio. Maybe they’re trying to put more pressure on the studio to allow more movies to be streamed. Maybe they’re hoping to be able to go back to the studio and show them how many less DVD’s are being rented and how many more movies are being streamed in an effort to force them to allow more of their movies onto the streaming side.
It should probably also be noted that recently Amazon Streaming has picked up a ton of new stuff and it should probably be looked at as a viable option (especially if you already have Prime). They now have Sopranos, The Wire, Orphan Black (and many more, that’s just off the top of my head) all of which Netflix only has available on DVD. Those specific examples probably have more to do with exclusivity than anything else though.
My guess is they’ve long wanted to get away from the DVD business because (a) it’s costly and error-prone - I had wrong DVDs sent to me as well as a few stolen in route, and (b) they wanted to push their users to all streaming, which I assume would be cheaper to run/more profitable for them. I quit Netflix several years ago upon their first big rate hike. It was clear their DVD only customer base was growing less important to them so it was just no longer worth it. To this day I do NOT like to watch movies sitting in front of a computer, and I don’t have/don’t want cable and/or satellite. So my options are severely limited but I’m not paying through the nose for what I don’t really want, either.
Well that shows you how outta touch I am - I didn’t know about that service. Problem is, I’ve got one of the last big old tube TVs ever made. It is not at all ‘smart’ as far as I know. Don’t know if that’d matter.
If you don’t want it, that’s fine, but if you ever do go back, you don’t have to watch it in front of your computer. Most people that stream movies still watch them on their TV. My TiVo streams them, which is how I watch them. Before I got my current TiVo I streamed them into my Blu-Ray DVD player. If I didn’t have that, my Smart TV can stream right from Netflix. If your TV has an HDMI input you can get a ChromeCast and stream from your computer to the TV. Also, when I bought that I got three free months of Netflix. Even already being a member I still got that which made the cost of the ChromeCast something like $5 (but I have no idea if that special is still running).
If you don’t have any of those options available to you, the cheapest thing to do would probably be to either pick up a Blu-Ray player (that can stream netflix) or a Roku. The Roku is nice because it can make a ton of other free content available to you, the Blu-Ray is good because then you can play BRDVDs…if that’s something you want. Just make sure whatever you get has the right connections, if you don’t have HDMI inputs, it’s something you need to take into consideration.
ETA, apparently it took me 9 minutes to type this post.
The obvious entertainment trend is towards less disk and more streaming. Run that trend line to a conclusion, and at some point, offering disks for rental or sale becomes highly unprofitable. They may not be produced anymore at some point.
Compare other technologies in the last 60 years. In audio, cylinders gave way to 78rpm records, which gave way to 45s and 33s; records gave way to cassettes, then CDs, then MP3 files. Sure, you can still buy 78s & LPs, cassettes and CDs, but they are either a used or niche market, not the huge moneymaker that they once were.
Netflix is planning ahead. I’ll bet they even have a (confidential) projected date that they will discontinue the disk rental option. Probably DVDs first, then Blu-Ray. My best guess is sometime between 2020 and 2025, DVDs will be gone from Netflix, and before that, the biggest customers will be in rural areas where cable is sparse and satellite is expensive.
As mentioned, DVDs get lost or stolen. Even bigger, they wear out through mishandling, getting scratched, dropped, etc., and have to be replaced. Streaming has no replacement costs to speak of, no payments to people to process them for shipping, receiving and reshelving, etc.
I’m pretty sure you can hook up a Roku to most any TV, including tube TVs. The very basic connection, from what I see on their website, is composite RCA with a video jack and an audio jack.
You’re right, but that doesn’t mean streaming is a perfect solution. There have been times when the Netflix streaming service or Internet provider was down or working poorly when I wished I had a disk instead.
I have a ChromeCast, and I stream from the Netflix app on my Android phone. The app just starts the streaming, ChromeCast itself does it. I seldom have the computer in my living room, I always have my phone.
Like others I order DVDs because half the odd stuff we watch is not available on streaming yet. Plus the dvd envelope sits there saying “watch me” while a streaming queue on Netflix does not.
Why do you assume that the DVD business is still doing so well for Netflix? It’s a moneymaker, but from what I understand, it was the falling numbers of subscribers that drove the company to start moving away from DVDs, not the other way around.
I’ve never been a Netflix subscriber, but my personal experience is that there was a time when I shopped regularly at DVD stores (those have all gone too), and purchased any T.V. series that I wanted to own. I think I decided to stop purchasing DVDs four years ago – eventually anything I want to see will be available online. The entire DVD business is slowly dying – eventually DVDs will be as rare as VHS tapes. Netflix would rather move on than be a dinosaur holding on to obsolete technology.
Why on earth would Netflix want to maintain 60 warehouses in the US alone, what with many thousands of little things that they have to pay to send through the mail each way, that requires many people touching, moving, replacing, and fussing over those things, as well as making sure all those warehouses have enough electricity and parking for all the people who work there; as compared to hooking up some computers to the Internet and having a few IT guys make sure it doesn’t crash?
I am obviously simplifying, but it’s just so obvious that a business that moves content without a physical manifestation is going to have an advantage over a business moving the same content with a physical manifestation.
Yep. We hook ours up with HDMI cables (not included) but they come with the same old red-yellow-white A/V connectors your VCR was using in 1985, so it’ll work for an old TV too.
I believe Roku-2 and -2 offer the old-school RCA jacks in addition to HDMI. Roku-3 is closer to Chromecast and is a little HDMI-only stick. Just be careful when ordering to confirm you get the right one!
