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Posted on 07/13/2011 6:55:27 AM PDT by Dacula
Edited on 07/13/2011 8:26:55 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
SAN FRANCISCO
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
“Netflix isn’t changing the $8 monthly price for an Internet streaming-only option, which the company began offering late last year. But instead of charging $2 more for a plan that also offers one DVD at a time by mail, the company will charge $8 for a comparable DVD-only plan. That brings the total to $16.”
That is still way cheaper than Direct TV. I use to have Direct TV (8 years) and ditched it for Netflix at $8 a month. I was prepared to go back, but honestly I do not miss it at all.
Just last night I watched the movie “Contact” on Netflix. Glad all I have is a Netflix account. I also can go to Apple, Hulu, Youtube and Amazon if Netflix does not have it to watch it. Apple tends to have most of the movies streamed at the moment, but you have to pay per watch vs. Netflix.
It was just a matter of time before the GREED took over.
That will be my approach as well.
I think Nefflix is screwing the pooch on this one.
Don't protest Netflix. They've been squeezed big time by the movie studios. They had no choice but to raise their rates. It was either that or go out of business. The studios have not only forced much higher prices on Netflix, but they've forced Netflix to wait longer before releasing movies. Do a Google search on this--it makes for interesting reading. The movie studios are stuck in the past. They know Netflix is the wave of the future, and they don't like it.
The price of mail keeps going up, the price of DVDs keeps going up, and the price of employing people keeps going up. Exactly what is a company that employs people to mail DVDs supposed to do?
Because currently the stream isn’t guaranteed to always be there. Recently netflix was arguing with Sony so all the Sony stuff left the stream, meanwhile the Sony movies I own are always available. If the streaming situation gets to the point where the movies really are always there whenever you want without having to be signed up to 4 or 5 different services then it will become a legitimate replacement. But it’s not there yet.
Talk to your spouse and children.
Go fishing.
Serve in your community.
Get to know your neighbors (and see if they will invite you over to watch their rented movies).
Hope this helps.
Oh Thanks. Now everyone will know about VEETLE.
I just cancelled the DVDs. They charge more, I pay less. That is a good illustration of elasticity of demand.
I wish Hulu was also available via my PS3.
Did I say Veetle? I REALLY meant Beetle, yeah that’s it BEETLE :)
I really enjoyed Ivi.com, before they got shut down.
Oh Thanks. Now everyone will know about VEETLE.
Some numbers:
The cost of streaming and 1 DVD at a time is $10.
The cost of streaming and 2 DVD at a time is $16.
So we can assume that only $4 of the fee is for streaming, the part of the business they want to grow. If they remained on the old price structure, they would never have enough money to grow the streaming business. If they raised the $10 combo price to $14 they would lose too many of the streaming only customers (the people they want to keep).
By splitting it out, it gives them the added $4 a month they need to increase the size of their streaming catalog and keep their streaming customers.
They will probably lose some of their DVD customers, but they were planning on losing them anyway when they eventually discontinue physical DVDs anyway.
Physical DVDs are a low margin item for Netflix, and with the studios jacking up their fees to Netflix because they worry about DVD rentals hurting DVD sales they were probably looking at losing money on physical DVDs unless they changed their plans.
Compared to the cost of cable, netflix is still dirt cheap. Less than $200 a year for both the streaming and DVD rental vs cables cost of what: $500-$1,000 a year?
Competition will take care of this.
“I ask fellow FReepers - what are alternatives to Netflix? I am going to cancel in protest. “
As a long-term Netflix customer, I don’t know what the big deal is. I’ve been on the one disc at a time plan for years. Last year, Netflix raised the price of this plan one dollar and added unlimited streaming views to it. If There’s something I want to watch and my wife doesn’t, I stream it on my computer; if we both want to watch it, I order the disc. We order discs for items we like that are not streamable, which is most of Netflix’s content.
Now they are ending the experiment with unlimited streaming. I now have the option of saving $2/month by going to streaming only, saving the same by disc only.
My decision: because only a fraction of Netflix content is available on streaming but all of it on disc, I’m opting for disc only.
Veetle, as you must know, is online streaming, so viewing is limited to the broadcaster’s choice and times.
If one wants to choose WHAT to watch and when there is OVGUIDE. Since OVGUIDE uses the DIVX player, after you view a movie (actually, as soon as it completes loading the entire file, shown by the status bar at the bottom), the files (audio/video/and index) are combined into a FLV file in the DIVX TEMP folder, and can be copied to another location, and watched over and over. You DOWNLOADED it without any special software because the files have to be downloaded to your hard drive to be read from to view the movie, even while online.
So, the trick is to start up the movie, then pause it. Wait until it fully loads, then close your browser. The ?????whatever.FLV file will be in the DIVX TEMP DOWNLOAD folder. You must move it (and you should rename the ‘filename’ part to something recognizable(name of movie), or DIVX will delete it when it starts up the next movie you watch.
You can then watch it with the DIVX player, or the VLC player, whenever you want.
I am intrigued. Still trying to figure out the saving the file thing (it has only been a few minutes and I have to get through the commercials)
But I like it. Thank you!
If you are watching a ‘static’ file (vs. streaming) from OVGUIDE, then just wait until it fully ‘buffers’ (completes downloading the entire movie, shown by the PROGRESS bar). Close your browser, and go to
C: /documents and settings/(username you log onto PC with)/My documents/DIVX movies/temporary downloaded files.
If you find THREE files there, you didn’t allow the movie to fully download.
There should be just one file there, probably with the MOVIE NAME and some other special characters and a FLV extention or DIVX extension. Doesn’t matter. It will play with DIVX, or VLC.
My 3 at a time plan is going up less than $4 a month. Since I cancelled cable tv in favor of Neflix, I’m not going to burst a blood vessel over the increase. :)
I’d be willing to play another $4.
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