Is it really worth a service like Netflix ?

I don’t rate them much my self, I rather pay 8 bucks for an MMORPG game and get movies “some other place”.

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I’m with LoveFilm and have been for 5 or 6 years, they do DVD’s by post as well as streaming movies online, I like that I just get movies through the post and as I leave all the movies on my rental list at medium priority I never know what’s coming next.

@RareDenver – is that service only in the UK? I’ve never heard of it before. We’re in the US, an Amazon (which runs the service you have) allows online direct streaming “rental”, but I’m unsure of what DVD by mail they do.

We have the Netflix streaming program, and their selection is a bit limited. My son and his gf use it more than we do. If something isn’t on there, we’ll ‘rent’ it from iTunes or Amazon.

I am very happy with my Netflix acct. Plenty of good movies to choose from and tons of documentaries. The newer releases show up pretty quickly, the same as anywhere else.
I have the $12.95 plan and get 2 discs together twice a week.
I guess it depends on what your interests are, I am all over the map from old movies to documentaries, new releases, classics. I’m a satisfied customer.

I have had two discs arrive broken in the last 8 months and they are always great about accepting them and sending a bonus movie on top of a copy of the broken one again.

Haha…last broken movie was ” Unbreakable” I had fun calling that one in. lol

It depends on what you want. If that is “I want the latest movies”, then probably not. I personally couldn’t care less about movies. I probably watch less than a dozen movies in a year: DVD + theatres combined.

However, I’ll occasionally knock out a full season of some TV series on a weekend. I like it much better than watching a single episode, once a week. They have a lot of shows for kids available, which I actually care about more than if I have something to watch.

In general I find people with a good opinion and people with a negative, but when it comes to online streaming, how good are they ? I think the same applies you have to wait a little before the release of the movie and probably not all movies are going to be there.

If you’re talking about streaming alone, then yes, Netflix is no better or worse than the rest of the pack right now. Streaming is still relatively in infancy, and the industry recognizes this is the future for film distribution. Because of this, everyone wants their share of the pie. Look for studios, distribution companies, media conglomerates, etc. to develop their own streaming platforms or enter long negotiations over rights, fees, profit-sharing, and so on. You’ve already seen some of this happening with Starz and Netflix. It’s very possible Netflix will be supplanted by something more superior (and they know it).

Now, if you’re talking about DVD rentals, I’d say Netflix is still king of the hill, for now. Their recent messy handling of raising fees, splitting services, and the like really gave them a black eye. They’ve retreated, but as I noted above, they know streaming is where the gold is going to be, and they’re running scared, trying to preserve their king-sized piece of the pie before someone swipes it out from under them.

For the money it is. We canceled the grossly overpriced for the movies offered on a premium cable channel for the Netflix option which is actually cheaper AND you get movies you want to watch.

@hearkat LoveFilm started in the UK then expanded to a few other European countries, Amazon bought them last year. Netflix has just arrived in the UK (to much hype and fanfair) this year. Lovefilm started as just a DVD rental firm and started limited streaming about 4 years ago. Since Netflix turned up in the UK market Lovefilm have really upped their game in the streaming department, great movies and TV shows on demand. Lovefilms customer service is excellent too, they send me extra discs around my birthday and each year on the anniversary I opened my account, they also upped my membership package at no extra cost as a thanks for being with them so long, nice little touches like that can mean so much in customer relationship management. Hopefully as Amazon have bought them they will start up in the USA! We all love to complain about shit companies but I think praise should be given when it is deserved and from my experience LoveFilm are awesome.

I’ve found Netflix to be a great money saver. No, the content isn’t always top notch.. but I got into watching entire seasons of shows I probably wouldn’t have ever been able to watch. To compliment Netflix I would go to the occasional movie in the theater or a RedBox. Sadly, Netflix doesn’t have service in Germany.. nor have I seen a redbox. So instead, I’ve been watching at Hulu . Hulu has very similar content to Netflix’s paid version in its free version. They sorta suck for movies.. but I’ve been watching a lot of tv shows there instead.

More to the point, Netflix and Hulu.. and probably LoveFilm too.. are all cheaper than cable or satelite service. I’ve been able to use the money saved to do some pretty cool stuff.

Whether it’s worth it depends entirely how much you use it.

The Netflix DVD service will have most recent movies about the time they are available on DVD. The online service depends a Lot on the movie studio and what kind of deals they make with Netflix, some stuff is available quickly on instant (though not as fast as the DVD) and some stuff is never available on instant or takes a couple years to make it to instant because of the agreements.

That said, if you don’t need to see the latest movies, there is a Lot of great stuff on Netflix instant, and it’s cheap. I watch tons of documentary-type stuff from Discovery and National Geographic and BBC that I would never bother with getting a DVD for… Years and years of Dr. Who are available for example, most of the earlier Star Trek series are available, Discovery’s “How It’s Made” series, The classic surreal “Prisoner” series….
Netflix instant can be at least as big a time sink as Fluther… :-)

Netflix does not have a great selection of movies, but it’s worth it to me because most of my favorite shows do happen to be available instantly on netflix and thats all I have is instant streaming. X Files, Office, Parks and Rec, Trailor Park Boys, TED Talks, not to mention there’s a lot of good science shows and whatnot. So since that’s all I’d watch anyhow, I am pretty happy with it. I only wish they had Seinfeld instantly!

No, just torrent what you need or watch it free online.

@XOIIO if no one ever pays for any content how will content continue to be produced?

@RareDenver Hollywood is laoded and they make shitloads from theatres, and people will always want to go to a big screen, I do if the movie I torrented is good, and I’ll rent or buy it to support it, but they don’t lose any money from torrenting or the like.

@XOIIO I know it works for now but take it to its final conclusion and the millions of dollars it takes to set up all those amazing movie scenes just won’t be there. I for example could torrent a movie and watch it on my 6 foot screen with surround sound and pause it when I need to piss so why should I go to the cinema? I thought 3D might save the movie business but already we can reproduce that in our homes. Sadly I think the only thing that will really pay for movie production in the end will be advertising and product placement, and then god help us movie lovers.

Yep, I don’t have my satellite hooked up because I refuse pay for TV and tuned out of all prime time, news and media in 2001 anyway. Netflix feeds my need for entertainment I want. lol..I sound like a PBS spokesperson
I actually might drop mine back down to the base level for the rest of the summer as I watch more movies in winter and lately I have been keeping them around for extra days before watching.

@RareDenver There’s something about the theatre experience we wont be able o fully replicate, and that is where the appeal lies.

@XOIIO I hate going to the cinema, it has to be a really good movie for me to forget I’m there

Luckily, my small rural library is part of a large interlibrary loan system.

I have been able to borrow DVDs of terrific movies and TV shows for free with very little effort.

I love it. For the past year or so, I have not had access to tv but can hide in my room watching movies. I think netflix has a great selection- documentaries and foreign films!! it’s a good deal too.