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[Drolefille]

^^ Honestly I don't see this as a move away from DVDs but more making it easier to find streaming when you're looking for streaming. Now, that said adding a checkbox to show/hide DVD only titles would have been smarter. While moving from DVDs may be their goal, I don't see this as relevant to that.

You also need to get off of yahoo blogs >.>

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

^^ Honestly I don't see this as a move away from DVDs but more making it easier to find streaming when you're looking for streaming. Now, that said adding a checkbox to show/hide DVD only titles would have been smarter. While moving from DVDs may be their goal, I don't see this as relevant to that.

You also need to get off of yahoo blogs >.>

@drole...I read this in three other sites and I still think that eventually netflix will try harder to push people away from disks. I mean, they already pushed people away from Blockbuster and the streaming option has grown tremendously within ONE year. They have brokered deals with Starz, ABC and Disney and almost had one with HBO, which would have been a coup, so I would really keep an eye on Netflix this year especially since their price went up.

Hulu needs to start looking over its shoulder.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

@drole...I read this in three other sites and I still think that eventually netflix will try harder to push people away from disks. I mean, they already pushed people away from Blockbuster and the streaming option has grown tremendously within ONE year. They have brokered deals with Starz, ABC and Disney and almost had one with HBO, which would have been a coup, so I would really keep an eye on Netflix this year especially since their price went up.

Hulu needs to start looking over its shoulder.

Well, it depends. Right now there are some problems with the streaming. Mainly, Netflix contracts out to a server/push company (I don't remember what the correct term is), and companies like Comcast (FUCK THEM, but they own part of Hulu and are also running their Xfinity streaming which they actually don't have license to do), is putting an additional fee on Netflix's contractor because instant streaming is "taking up" so much bandwidth (plus, Netflix competing with Hulu is bad for the cable companies). Additional fee - I remember hearing it was a whopper - is then passed on to Netflix, which ultimately will endanger the low low prices of streaming only or any other plan, really.

So, DVD's and BluRays might be cheaper right now (because they worked out a sweet deal with the Post Office) since many people have plans that limit their DVD renting but not their streaming. Also, lots of dumbasses like live-in and I pay for the unlimited DVD/BluRay to mail but end up using the streaming so much that we never watch the physical disks or send them back (seriously - we had two movies sitting on our coffee table at our old place since May and we didn't watch them until after moving to our new place - in August.

[Animate]

Originally Posted by agzg

we had two movies sitting on our coffee table at our old place since May and we didn't watch them until after moving to our new place - in August.

Which reminds me...I need to return Shutter Island lol. Fiance added it to the DVD queue the week before it was available for streaming...silly rabbit.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by agzg

Well, it depends. Right now there are some problems with the streaming. Mainly, Netflix contracts out to a server/push company (I don't remember what the correct term is), and companies like Comcast (FUCK THEM, but they own part of Hulu and are also running their Xfinity streaming which they actually don't have license to do), is putting an additional fee on Netflix's contractor because instant streaming is "taking up" so much bandwidth (plus, Netflix competing with Hulu is bad for the cable companies). Additional fee - I remember hearing it was a whopper - is then passed on to Netflix, which ultimately will endanger the low low prices of streaming only or any other plan, really.

So, DVD's and BluRays might be cheaper right now (because they worked out a sweet deal with the Post Office) since many people have plans that limit their DVD renting but not their streaming. Also, lots of dumbasses like live-in and I pay for the unlimited DVD/BluRay to mail but end up using the streaming so much that we never watch the physical disks or send them back (seriously - we had two movies sitting on our coffee table at our old place since May and we didn't watch them until after moving to our new place - in August.

Right...I am actually slowly backing down on how many DVDs I get per month for the same reason...and ever since Netflix capable blu ray players and game systems are out with some newer movies (Thanks Starz!) available, it's almost a why bother stance for me.

The decision to stream movies still depends on deals from movie houses because I realisitically believe that within 3 to 5 years we will have rendered physical movie disks obsolete. The problem is of course the whole piracy issue and also I believe how to track revenue of a non physical product. Most people would tell you that music is one thing but controlling video is a bit more difficult. I think that's why we haven't seen the type of leap that we saw when iTunes came around that a lot of us did for music.

And yes, you are right that cable companies are afraid now. They lost an estimated 1 million customers last year due to recession and the fact that there are cheaper alternatives (the streaming option we just menetioned) to having cable. And as streaming sites continues to grow and as prices stay inexpensive, people will find reasons to get rid of those ghastly 100+ dollar a month bills for hardly anything on TV.

I was just having this discussion the other day with a friend who wants to use her PC as a media device to get rid of cable so she can use streaming as her only option because her bill is too expensive.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Right...I am actually slowly backing down on how many DVDs I get per month for the same reason...and ever since Netflix capable blu ray players and game systems are out with some newer movies (Thanks Starz!) available, it's almost a why bother stance for me.

The decision to stream movies still depends on deals from movie houses because I realisitically believe that within 3 to 5 years we will have rendered physical movie disks obsolete. The problem is of course the whole piracy issue and also I believe how to track revenue of a non physical product. Most people would tell you that music is one thing but controlling video is a bit more difficult. I think that's why we haven't seen the type of leap that we saw when iTunes came around that a lot of us did for music.

And yes, you are right that cable companies are afraid now. They lost an estimated 1 million customers last year due to recession and the fact that there are cheaper alternatives (the streaming option we just menetioned) to having cable. And as streaming sites continues to grow and as prices stay inexpensive, people will find reasons to get rid of those ghastly 100+ dollar a month bills for hardly anything on TV.

I was just having this discussion the other day with a friend who wants to use her PC as a media device to get rid of cable so she can use streaming as her only option because her bill is too expensive.

The problem right now with streaming only is that there are still shows out there you can't get. Live-in used to download but his friend got NAILED for piracy so he pulled the plug on that. We do still use a media center PC, but now that netflix works and is reliable on the PS3 we might do away with that (or only watch stuff that we already have downloaded).

We don't use Hulu much.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by agzg

The problem right now with streaming only is that there are still shows out there you can't get. Live-in used to download but his friend got NAILED for piracy so he pulled the plug on that. We do still use a media center PC, but now that netflix works and is reliable on the PS3 we might do away with that (or only watch stuff that we already have downloaded).

We don't use Hulu much.

@cheerful nah...not without a plane...heheh!

@agzg yeah....the problem right now is getting everyone on board and trying to get it all into one platform which is ultimately what we all want but we know that the networks still want that dollar not to mention that they want to regulate content, formetting, etc. and putting it all in one basket in their minds doesn't work for them.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

@cheerful nah...not without a plane...heheh!

I guess at first I thought you were kidding, because human beings will never be able to fly (on our own). It's just that we already have other sources besides airplanes. Plus, astronauts have jet packs they use when they have to leave the space shuttle.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

@drole...I read this in three other sites and I still think that eventually netflix will try harder to push people away from disks. I mean, they already pushed people away from Blockbuster and the streaming option has grown tremendously within ONE year. They have brokered deals with Starz, ABC and Disney and almost had one with HBO, which would have been a coup, so I would really keep an eye on Netflix this year especially since their price went up.

Hulu needs to start looking over its shoulder.

Hulu will do fine I think as long as it focuses on the current shows, Netflix is better for back catalogs. That said, there are a LOT of people without access to broadband internet in this country due to location or income. Even if we don't see heavy metering/usage caps from the current companies, discs aren't going away soon, and only Netflix is really in a position to serve that population. The studios aren't too interested in making streaming available so quickly that people want to stop buying DVDs and BluRays. Streaming BluRay/HD quality is even more bandwidth draining so that's a whole other issue. Having a physical backup of the movies we buy still makes people more likely to buy a disc than just a digital copy. There are just all sorts of issues involved.

So while that may be the eventual direction I don't think that we're going to shift away in the next five years. Netflix itself might, but I think someone else will jump in that gap if so.