End of Netflix?

I'm not interested in streaming movies because they don't have closed captions or subtitles. I guess it's the end of Netflix for me. (I'm not currently a subscriber.)

Looking over the Netflix site they barely even mention DVDs by mail other than you can have unlimited one-at-a-time for another $7.99 a month. Perhaps they have additional DVD plans but I wasn't able to find any rates. Both Blockbuster and Netflix always annoyed me that both made it difficult to find their plans and prices, instead encouraging you to just sign up for a free month.

Qwikster hasn't rolled out yet. I'll be willing to consider their plans when they're available.

I see Blockbuster charges $15 for 2-at-a-time, $20 for 3-at-a-time, more expensive than when I subscribed. Benefit: in store exchange makes for quicker turn-arounds, if you can find a store (they closed a lot of locations). I didn't see any mention of streaming, which would be a negative for me if included in the DVD-by-mail plans, since I won't use it.

Redbox is okay except for its inherent limitations, that each rental machine is a DVD store in a box but they can carry only a limited selection (whatever will fit), compared to the huge selection available at Netflix and Blockbuster if you're willing to wait for delivery. My credit card statement looks like a mess when I've been renting from Redbox, a bunch of $1.08 transactions with no detail. Another liability at Redbox is that there's really no audit trail although they'll mail you notices if you provide an email address. You can get an online summary at Netflix and Blockbuster.

I'll probably just watch fewer movies and get them mainly from Redbox. At least you can keep up with the major new DVD releases that way. Maybe I'll consider Blockbuster, and Qwikster when they launch, depending on price and details.

Here's a funny twist to Netflix launching Qwikster:

With all the controversy about Netflix increasing prices I can only wonder what the heck they are doing. The Twitter is just embarrassing for them, but no trademark? When I hear the name Qwikster it reminds me of Napster and illegal file sharing. IMO very poor choice of names, and I even wonder at the wisdom splitting the DVD and streaming business. Netflix already has good name recognition. Why not just sell either (1) DVDs by mail, (2) streaming movies, or (3) both? They could give $1-$2 per month incentive to customers who take both.

Look at the bright side, I forsee Jason having no problems with cash to get some weed.

Same here! I just wait until they're on Encore, or I get them from the library.

Comic strip: Why Netflix is Splitting Itself in Two

I opened a Netflix account as an experiment. I have maybe 20 days left to cancel free of charge.
I haven't watched anything yet. The selection is disappointing but most of all we're in the habit of watching re-runs on broadcast TV.
I had hoped Netflix would be like an instant DVR that had recorded everything. I was very wrong.
When it says "Watch TV shows instantly" it means, "Watch some old TV shows that have been released as seasons on DVD instantly".
Ok, I can go with that, I think, but GF doesn't want to pay for such when we can sleep through the broadcast versions of the same sort of things.
We probably need our sleep more anyway.
I want to watch a couple of somewhat recent movies but that takes 2 hours each, too.
Maybe I should opt out or switch to the DVD service.
Anybody have experience with the "one at a time" service when our postal equipment minces your one allotted disk? (not that there's anything wrong with that)
Seems like it would effectively halt the service even while charges accumulate.

Kluge, actually I was happy with the Netflix service streaming as far as selection of movies. Yeah not the complete library that Netflix (or Blockbuster) offers, but still pretty good. I would have been reasonably happy with the service except like Allene I have a few hearing problems and the lack of caption support was a major deal killer for me (and evidently Allene too). It's the same reason I don't go to the movies, because I get only 80% of the dialogue, and that missing 20% is a problem. Perhaps one day streaming will offer closed captions--in fact I don't understand why the FCC rule that mandates CC in most broadcast TV does not apply. But nevertheless I don't expect Congress to mandate the nation's entertainment system just to please Allene and I.

Gregg (TKE) I've had perhaps 3-5% rejects via both Netflix and Blockbuster DVD services. I like to think that after I complained that the DVDs were retired, or at least tested. I've rented a hell of a lot of DVDs from both, and I think both have done a reasonable job weeding out bad DVDs. So far (hundreds of rentals) I've never had a DVD lost, or at least the rental services have seen my loss rate as not chargeable. Yes I had a few lost on return but was never been charged for a single DVD from either service. I'm pretty sure they factor that into their rentals, that for a frequent renter they will factor in a few losses per year in either direction.

Yeah you get a bad DVD and send it back, they send you a new one, a hit on your personal turn around. Both services have served me adequately, and so far I have not had an unplayable Redbox DVD (about two dozen in the last couple months.)

Yes! I haven't bothered with streaming, so I'm not up-to-date on what the ADA has to say about it, if anything. It wasn't around when they passed that law. There's still problems with enforcing some of the original portions of that law. Take the motel in Montana a couple of weeks ago. Their TVs were certainly manufactured after July 1993 (when all TVs with a screen larger than 13 inches were required to have CC capabilities), but the remote had no way of turning on the captions (often you have to go into setup to turn the CC capacity on before you can even toggle the CC on and off), but this remote was blocking anyone from going to Setup and didn't have a Menu option, and the TV itself didn't have a CC button. So my husband called the desk, where a clueless employee gave him the sheet with the codes for various TVs (!). Then he called back to tell her we needed a remote that would let us get into set-up and turn them on. She told us she'd bring it up, so we waited and waited and gave up. Next morning we got it from a somewhat brighter employee, but when we went down to get it before we left so we could turn off the captions (which annoy some people who don't need them), nobody could find the remote. The entire motel had only one such remote. Talk about gluttons for punishment. They could save a lot of stress by providing every room with the capacity to perform this simple operation on their own. GRRRRRRRRRRR! There's a law that says places that serve so many of the public need to comply, but I can't remember how many beds the motel would need. It looked plenty big enough.

I've been in plenty of motels that were certainly large enough, and they made the CCs so difficult to access that one of them even sent an ENGINEER up to our room to figure it out. No kidding!

To get back on topic, I have never bothered with Netflix. These days we just watch movies on TV (Encore, TCM, etc.) and supplement them with DVDs from the library.

Easy access to turn on/off CC with only 1-2 button presses on the remote has been an important feature when I shop for TV sets. I generally use CC only for movies or other situations where music or special effects may be louder than dialog.

I doubt streaming will ever have closed captions.

I have watched several streaming movies and TV shows on Netflix that offer closed captioning. They're still few and far between, but they are starting to offer it.

Well I would certainly welcome CC on streaming. I never even saw any option to turn CC on and off, unless it's just your normal TV set function. I would reconsider subscribing to streaming if they had good captioning.

From back in February:
30% of Netflix Streaming Content Has Subtitles; 80% By End of 2011

We do most of our television viewing using Netflix streaming any more. I have been rediscovering a lot of old series lately and really enjoying it. We tried Hulu for a bit when it was added to the Xbox but even as a paid subscriber we had to sit through numerous commercial breaks and constant surveys so that was cancled within a month.

Recently Starz and Netflix announced they were parting ways and Starz will be joining Blockbuster online. Blockbuster, which has been PPV and on-demand will be offering a streaming service to go head to head with Netflx by the end of the year.

Interesting times ahead for Netflix.

Is there anybody who will be trying to offer something equivalent to DVR or the good old VCR ?

I just don't see them in the store. My computer had Windows Media Center but it has refused to connect to whatever it thinks it needs to get a channel guide, and once TV went digital it wouldn't find any digital channels. I bought a TV card with a familiar logo but it must have been sold to red china because it has WalMart quality software and performance. Basically it will only record if I leave my computer logged on. I suppose I could create a 'recorder' user and it should work...

I tried the CBS streaming player for CSI but it hanged when I logged in to GA or recieved an e-mail, then I had to watch from the beginning again, with the same commercials and/or different ones again, and the 4th time or so I gave up.
I thought Netflix would give me access to last night's broadcast TV but alas, I didn't read everything in the fine print.

Several cable companies looked into hosted DVR service a couple years ago. Hollywood slapped them around in court over it. Which may make this sort of service hard to implement in the future.

DirecTV's DVR will let you download episodes on demand over your internet connection. This is great when the channels can make their content available which many do for like the three most recent episodes of a series. Some make movies available but Hollywood often is standing there with their hand out. They allow it to be made available but often for PPV prices, every once in a while an older movie will be made available free. If you have premium movie channels many more current movies are available free.