24 ms·

2.7M Americans Still Get Netflix DVDs in the Mail

446 points by prostoalex 8y ago

alexrtan 8y ago
I just went back to Netflix Blu-Rays after being frustrated with seeing tons of imperfections in streaming quality. The artifacts are so annoying to me in 4K streaming that I mostly prefer just watching 1080p blu-rays.
- jetrink 8y ago
  Their web player has also started to have stuttering and frame dropping issues for me. It only works smoothly on Microsoft Edge, so hopefully they get it figured out before Microsoft swaps out the rendering engine for Chromium.
  - pureliquidhw 8y ago
    I've noticed Netflix stuttering on Edge too. I think there is a combination of web player and compression issues happening. The quality is really good on some titles, like the latest F1 docu-series. Others have terrible quality, like the original planet earth. Lots of stuttering and compression artifacts. Like another commenter somewhere, I'd be happy with smooth, artifact free 1080p over 4k any day.
  - frozenport 8y ago
    Edge is better at enabling hardware accelerated video processing. Check if it's enabled in Chrome.
  - mrob 8y ago
    Most people use 60Hz monitors, which means you'll always get uneven frame-timing with 24fps content (3:2 pulldown). Modern TVs support 24Hz for 24fps Blurays so the motion looks better.
    - fireattack 8y ago
      > you'll always get uneven frame-timing with 24fps content (3:2 pulldown) Uneven frame-timing, fo sure, but does it really use 3:2 pulldown? IIRC the monitor, at least when using most of players on PC to playback, will just display/repeat each video frame uneven times, but no 3:2 pulldown, i.e. interlacing two frames together to generate 1 more frame every 4 frames, is involved. I'm definitely not an expert on this topic though so please feel free to correct me!
      - mrob 8y ago
        It does not use interlacing. It seems my understanding of the term was wrong, and interlacing is required for it to count as real 3:2 pulldown.
  - josteink 8y ago
    > Their web player has also started to have stuttering and frame dropping issues for me. I never understood the appeal of watching Netflix in a browser? Why let DRM infect your browser? Why not use closed media services in dedicated, closed-source apps for such things and keep your browser clean? To date I’ve honestly never seen anyone access Netflix through a browser. It’s all native apps. What’s the appeal?
    - chinathrow 8y ago
      Not everyone has a TV. I used to watch Netflix on my laptop only - on Ubuntu.
- jseliger 8y ago
  I can't speak to everyone else, but I also still have a Netflix subscription because I use it as a place to dump movies or TV shows I'm interested in but don't have the time (movies in theater) or inclination (lack of TV cable) to see right away. A couple months later they show up without any extra work or hassle on my part.
- paavoova 8y ago
  Assuming the title is even provided in 4k/HD. For example, I checked right now and Bram Stoker's Dracula is 540p at a reported 838 kb/s, and picture quality is worse than the DVD, with horrible aliasing indicating poor encoding, so it's even below that of SD. This film has a true 4K Blu-ray remaster, so you'd be doing yourself a huge disservice streaming it in the quality Netflix serves. To really put this in perspective, the picture quality that Netflix provides is worse than pre-digital analog film projection. Dracula originally screened in cinemas in 1992 looked (far) better than what you stream on Netflix right now in 2019. Now I know the consumer has always traded convenience for picture quality, hence the popularity of early home media such as VHS, but that was bound by the limitation of the technology back then. Right now, there's zero technical reason for why quality can't be better, ignoring bandwidth. It's a digression and the fact it's so tolerated makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I'm not even a film buff, it's just that it's apparent like night and day, like a re-compressed jpg is.
- Rapzid 8y ago
  I really should get a Blu-Ray drive and start getting doing Redbox or Netflix delivery for movies.. I'm pretty unsatisfied with the quality of almost every streaming service. They are basically optimizing the bitrate and encoding for the worst they can while keeping people from screaming about it. I'm frequently shocked how terrible the quality of Youtube movie trailers are.. Used VUDU when it first came out and recall being super impressed with its quality though. They have an HDX subscription that uses double+ the bitrate as their HD apparently..
jameane 8y ago
Someone in my building does. I see the return envelope in the mailroom!
dawnerd 8y ago
I'd sign back up if they started offering UHDs. Seems like a great way to get people to give them another 10+ dollars a month IMO.
nsnick 8y ago
It is the only way to get mainstream films on netflix any more.
- aBioGuy 8y ago
  Yeah, that's why we subscribe. Digitally renting a movie is crazy stupid for busy parents of young children. It takes us 2-3 days to watch a movie (in the ~40 minute chunks we have each night). Digital rentals force you to finish watching a movie within 24-48 hours...
- Finnucane 8y ago
  Or even non-mainstream films. Or anything more than a few years old. Or a fair number of cable TV series. Basically, if it is available on disk, Netlfix can mail it to you. And their mailing service is pretty efficient. It's rare to have to wait long to get something. The only annoyance is that occasionally you get a 'rental only' disk that doesn't have the extras.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    >Basically, if it is available on disk, Netflix can mail it to you. Unfortunately, they're really letting their back catalog rot. An awful lot of things I saved in my DVD queue at some point are no longer available. In many cases, they're still available to buy but Netflix doesn't have them.
    - __david__ 8y ago
      Yeah, I've noticed this, too. It's quite sad—they used to have practically everything ever printed on disc. Now my "Saved" list is bigger than my Queue. I just noticed a couple things on it I ended up finding the discs on Amazon, so it's not like they're out of print. Just not worth stocking I guess.
      - ghaff 8y ago
        They basically drove most of the local rental places out of business and now are slowly dismantling their own operation for physical media. Torrents aren't really an option for most obscure stuff. So you pretty much now have to just buy media for a lot of things out of the mainstream.
kalleboo 8y ago
I thought Redbox took over the market of watching mainstream movies
- saalweachter 8y ago
  Redbox is convenient for newly released mainstream movies plus an odd assortment of older movies that is usually related to upcoming releases (eg, if there is a sequel coming out soon). It doesn't help as much for older and longer-tail movies and TV shows.
oppositelock 8y ago
I still pay for Netflix DVD's, have since around 2000. The reason that I still do is that a bunch of older TV series that my wife watches aren't available on streaming anywhere, and the dvd's are out of print, so the only way to watch these things is via archive DVD's, like at Netflix.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  Check out your local library! They won’t have as extensive of a catalog, but they usually have quite a bit of DVDs available.
  - saalweachter 8y ago
    They will also usually be able to inter-library-loan materials not available locally.
  - stevenwoo 8y ago
    My library (Santa Clara County) actually has more than Netflix, this led to me cancelling Netflix DVD's. The main downside is new releases take much longer to become available with the library if one does not sign up as soon as possible for rental. One thing is that out of print DVD's disappear from Netflix quicker than the library - I think people just steal them or they get lost in mail and there's no charge up to a certain point for this loss.
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      This is fantastic news. Very happy to hear your library is serving its local citizens well. Protect your local library folks!
  - oppositelock 8y ago
    Oh, I do check out my local library as well. It's no Netflix, though.
lgregg 8y ago
I actually thought they closed shop on this. I might subscribe.
- nategri 8y ago
  Same! I've been wanting to work through the catalog of Miyazaki films but the stuff is streaming unobtainium. Quite a wait at the library too. This seems like the only way to go haha.
antjanus 8y ago
The selection is huge for me. I don't sub to netflix dvds but I'm really thinking I might. A few years back, they used to have a button to check for DVDs and I did, and a lot of stuff that isn't up for streaming is not an issue for DVDs.
larrywright 8y ago
I'm not shocked. I'm surprised its not higher. I still see Redbox kiosks all over, so there's clearly a market.
- aantix 8y ago
  Agree. The Redbox line at Walgreens still remains long on a Friday night.
- topspin 8y ago
  > I'm surprised its not higher. Likewise. There are many titles available through Netflix DVD that are not available through Netflix streaming. Just off the top of my head you have Game of Thrones (seasons 1-7), The Wire, True Detective, Fargo and The Expanse.
- koala_man 8y ago
  I always thought Redbox was a market segmentation strategy more than a Netflix competitor.
barneygumble742 8y ago
I like it for the DVD extras.
atomicUpdate 8y ago
Blu-Ray audio and video quality is significantly better than streaming which is why I still subscribe. Streaming is certainly more convenient for stuff that doesn't really need very high quality though.
legitster 8y ago
Remember when Netflix tried to be proactive by splitting off the DVD business from the streaming service, and the entire internet flipped out? In hindsight, this would have been an excellent move. Each org could have focused better on their respective service. But now the media-by-mail half is just crashing in the space of the streaming service. They have no incentive to market it, and will pull the plug the moment it is unprofitable.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
larrik 8y ago
I signed up in 2004 and never stopped. I bumped up to Blu-Ray too (and get pretty annoyed when a DVD shows up instead of a Blu-Ray...) I love streaming TV shows, but for movies I just don't like it. I don't even know why.
epberry 8y ago
http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
tyfon 8y ago
I'm almost surprised that this isn't higher. I can't really say from experience since I live in Europe but I've seen people from the US complain about data caps on regular internet for a while and I guess netflix will eat up that quite fast especially if you watch 4k movies. How large is the average cap on US ISPs?
- ashelmire 8y ago
  > I've seen people from the US complain about data caps on regular internet for a while This isn't a thing in the US. You've seen Canadians complain.
  - tyfon 8y ago
    Ah, yeah as I said I've not had experience with this myself. The complaining has mostly been on various games forums in relation to physical vs digital games discussions and day 1 patches. It seems to be primarily comcast customers though which is why I thought it was in the US.
  - chrisdhal 8y ago
    Yes it is. Comcast has a 1TB a month soft limit. You get 2 months of free overages within a certain period of time (12-18 months IIRC), after that they charge you extra. You can argue that 1TB is a lot and not really a limit, but it does exist.
    - kevingrahl 8y ago
      1TB a month is considered a lot? That’s only around 34GB per day..
      - skinnymuch 8y ago
        What would be considered enough? I don’t know how I’d use 3TB a month. 2 TB is a lot too to me and everyone I know. I’m sure it’s not a lot to some people especially people on here. But I would guess for the vast majority of people, at least 95%, 1 TB is sufficient. And 2 TB is sufficient for 99%+ of people.
jordanpg 8y ago
The user experience associated with using DVDs, while having improved ever-so-slightly with Blu-Ray, is still comically bad. It's slow, and there's all kinds of shit that has to be skipped, if it can be skipped. And then there's the high likelihood of scratches given enough time. That the manufacturers of DVDs have not made it possible to play the main content immediately, as it is (usually) with streaming, is a signal to me that they are not taking the future of the medium seriously. Yes, it's possible to work around with VLC player, etc. but that is not helpful for most commercial hardware and for most people. Ironically, we see some streaming platforms, like Amazon Fire for example, adding shit at the beginning that's un-skippable. That and commercials are dealbreakers for me. Makes it easy to choose my streaming platforms.
- esaym 8y ago
  I came to say just this. Back in 1999 I was so excited when tech magazines were giving out the specs of the up and coming new video format. I never got a true DVD player back then, but used a Playstation 2. The first time I rented a DVD from the store (blockbuster?) wasn't a grand experience either. You had to pay extra for the DVD vs the VCR. Yea the picture was slightly better on the fuzzy CRT, but what was immediately apparent was the screwy dynamic audio range. Every time we watched a DVD someone had to always have the TV remote in hand, constantly turning up the volume in the quite spots and quickly turning it down before some super loud stuff happened. That's still an issue today for me. I've been told that using a true 5.1 surround system will fix that, but I've never been a fan of the extra speakers. Plus most of the people I know that actually have a surround receiver have all 5 speakers just sitting right next to the TV anyway. Then there's the screwy menu navigation and forced commercials. My mom struggles to get through those, slowly hen pecking buttons or staring at the remote wondering if you hit the "Ok/Enter" button or the play button. My grandparents never have figured it out, I have to do it for them every time. I'm not a movie buff at all. I only recently started buying movies now that I have kids but the DVD format natively is just too painful. I tried initially to rip DVDs to an mp4 but that just takes too long. What I do now just so I can be somewhat "legit" is buy some $3 "as is" used DVD off of ebay. Right when I get it in the mail, I throw it into a junk drawer and then grab a torrent of it. 10 minutes later I've got it on my hard drive and if I'm feeling fancy I'll ffmpeg it to wav format and normalize the audio then copy it back. From there I shoot it over to my media box in the living room for the kids to enjoy their new "freshly ripped" DVD. I don't even tell my wife the truth.
bitxbit 8y ago
A lot of people still do not have access to high speed internet in the US.
bluthru 8y ago
$10/mo for bluray rentals + MakeMKV for caching the disc is the best value in video.
ergothus 8y ago
I read the comments here before reading the article...and I was pleasantly surprised by the article. It wasn't a "haha, look at how unsophisticated some people are", it was a pretty on-target list of reasons why online subscriptions services aren't currently meeting all needs. I'm actually surprised it's "only" 2.7M Americans - the DVD service didn't match the convenience of online services, but was still a great experience. I myself am lucky enough to have great broadband, but I've been getting annoyed with how series will move on/off the service (I see monthly "What's leaving Netflix this month" articles in some places), I'm annoyed with how Netflix has made their system "pushier" (such as constantly looping ads), how they gave me an ability to build a personal want-to-watch list and then hide that away making it hard to benefit from, and in particular, how I now have to balance multiple subscription services if I want to see the shows I want to see. Side Note: As annoyed as I am with Netflix from time to time, they beat the pants off of Hulu when it comes to interface, and remain nicer than Amazon.
- dmitriid 8y ago
  The greatest con that copyright holders pulled is to convince the public that service providers are to blame. (Netflix, Hulu, Apple for movies; Spotify, Pandora, Apple, Deezer for music; ebooks, audiobooks etc.) Meanwhile dipshits like Warner, Sony, Disney hold everyone hostage.
  - mindslight 8y ago
    I'm pretty sure the greatest con copyright holders pulled is getting copyright to last longer than 5 years.
    - pwinnski 8y ago
      Back when the USA was established, it was 14 years, or 28 if renewed. That seems reasonable to me.
      - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
        I think 7 years, or 14 if renewed would be better. The early copyright systems came into being in the 1700s; present-day distribution chains are much faster.
randogogogo 8y ago
Been a customer of this for years now. It's great for getting old things not available from streaming, or more commonly way over priced on streaming.
threatofrain 8y ago
The DVD catalogue isn't the same as their streaming.
Symmetry 8y ago
For a while I did this because I wanted movies to watch while donating platelets at the local Red Cross and they had DVD players in the donation room with a small library but eventually I watched all the movies they had that I wanted to see. Eventually they upgraded to having Netflix streaming and I stopped.
bluedevil2k 8y ago
In the US, lots of people have 55" TV's and bigger and at that size the streaming artifacts are really noticeable. A Netflix streaming 4k video looks terrible when the screen has a lot of black/gray gradients. It makes people wonder why they even bothered with a 4k. But, throw a blu-ray on there and you see how great the TV looks. Even better, throw a 4k Ultra Blu-Ray on and you see the brilliance of the TV and the amazing picture. This was my case - I got a 4k UHD from Redbox and now will never watch a blockbuster movie any other way.
- asark 8y ago
  Their 4k's also almost exclusively for their own content. So it's low quality and you can pretty much only use it for content that doesn't much benefit from it, assuming it's worth watching at all.
- z3t4 8y ago
  People are using the low bandwidth used for streaming as an argument to not invest in a fiber connection. 100 mbit is not even enough to stream 1080p with surround hd audio. And they're like but you only need 2 mbit to watch Netflix.
  - phamilton 8y ago
    > 100 mbit is not even enough to stream 1080p with surround hd audio This doesn't seem right. A 50GB blu-ray that is 2 hours long can have a maximum bitrate of 55mbit. So if your claim is correct, you'd need a 100GB blu-ray (which exists) for a 2 hour movie, which doesn't match my experience, especially for 1080p.
    - zepearl 8y ago
      I agree. I bought a lot of Blu-rays (obsessed with "owning" the good movies which I then rip - I extract the original streams without reencoding and then I put the files on my mediaserver) and the biggest 1080p-file I have is the one of "Interstellar" being 39GB (original video and original 3 audio tracks and some subtitles), followed by "the dark knight rises" of 35GBs and otherwise all the rest is between 10-30GBs depending on the movie. Usually when I play a movie in the living room I see spikes of 2.5MB/s transferred data on the mediaservers, and this is original content ripped 1:1.
smacktoward 8y ago
I would actually like to go back to subscribing to discs-by-mail, but have been put off from doing so via Netflix for two reasons: first, because they reputedly haven't been keeping up their inventory, leading to lots of titles being more or less permanently unavailable; and second, because it's clear that Netflix views this line of business as an embarrassing burden they'll be thrilled to dump the second they feel they can do so without going through another "Qwikster" debacle. Are there any alternative discs-by-mail services out there that actually care about and want to be providing such a service?
- dontbenebby 8y ago
  >Are there any alternative discs-by-mail services out there that actually care about and want to be providing such a service? It's not by mail, but most libraries have DVDs and Blurays. They often have countywide agreements so you can get a title shipped from across the city to your local library for free.
  - zerocrates 8y ago
    There are several library systems in my area and to my knowledge none of them carry Blu-rays. I think the added expense and likelihood of patrons mistakenly borrowing a Blu-ray when they have a DVD player is enough to keep many libraries on DVD.
ubermonkey 8y ago
I'm surprised it's not higher. The implicit promise -- actually, occasionally made EXPLICITLY in marketing -- of high-speed broadband was that everything would be available, but the reverse has proven true. A person living in an urban area had a larger selection of movies available for rent in 1999 than they do today because the first sale doctrine protected the video rental business, but streaming is governed by different agreements -- which leads to ridiculous "availability windows." We mostly use Apple's movie rental system, because the quality is better than Netflix, but you still get the availability shifts. Sometimes something won't be available for rental anymore, but remains in the list as a purchasable (ha) item. This is just straight-up rent-seeking bullshit, and it didn't (and couldn't) happen when movies were tied to a physical object. If you want a deep library of rentals, DVD/BR by mail is still better. If you want better quality, DVD/BR by mail is the best option. And obviously if you live somewhere with shitty connectivity (basically the entire rural US), then by-mail might be your ONLY real option.
- dontbenebby 8y ago
  I'm mostly surprised because for free you can request the same titles (including Blu ray) from the local library. In my county you can search for a title and have it shipped from any library to the one closest to you (and conversely return it at any county library location). Why pay 10ish a month for something that has the same selection and speed as Netflix?
  - Stunting 8y ago
    I wish that were so for all over. My library does indeed offer dvds, but the selection is no where as robust as Netflix.
    - Scoundreller 8y ago
      I can hope that one day libraries will stop siloing themselves from each other and implement an efficient inter-library loan system that sends direct to customer. It’s like they see themselves as competitors.
justboxing 8y ago
> "People assume that our customers must either be super seniors or folks that live in the boonies with no internet access," she says. "Actually, our biggest hot spots are the coasts, like the Bay Area and New York." Not surprising. Netflix, Comcast, Amazon Prime and other video streaming service charge you the same as the DVD rental, but force you to watch the entire video within 48 hours from 1st starting it. Personally I find this very annoying (why do the do this? What does it cost them to let me watch it within a week or so and not 48 hours?). Esp long movies like "Wolf of Wall Street" are not practical to watch in a single sitting. I have a Samsung DVD player that I got for 40$ and depending on the movie, I find it's cheaper or same price to actually BUY the DVD from Amazon.com (with prime). Ex: Wolf of Wall Street was $4.99 to stream and view within 48 hours, or keep paying $4.99 until you finish it. The same DVD ( NEW ) was selling for $5.49 on Amazon, Free shipping so I ended up buying the DVD.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- praneshp 8y ago
  > Esp long movies like "Wolf of Wall Street" are not practical to watch in a single sitting. Ha ha, some moviebuffs will skewer you for saying that (about any movie). I feel your pain on the 48h limit though.
  - darkpuma 8y ago
    Meh, Lawrence of Arabia had an intermission and I doubt many film buffs would say that ruined the art of it.
    - praneshp 8y ago
      Oh, I took OPs comments to mean several sittings per movie. While Lawrence of Arabia is an outlier imo, most Indian movies have an intermission (and make up the majority of what I watch)
      - 8y ago
nickjj 8y ago
I still subscribe to the 1 DVD at a time plan because the selection is so much wider than instant watch (in the US at least). After 10 years of subscribing to Netflix I can only think of a handful of movies that weren't available on DVD. I don't have any hard numbers in front of me but it feels like there's maybe 20% of Netflix's catalog on instant watch vs what they have on DVD -- at least in popular genres like sci-fi, comedy, action and adventure.
kop316 8y ago
I feel this is worth reposting in this thread: For those in the US, something I have found pleasantly surprising is that the local library (this is a "small" library with only two branches) feels this niche quite well. I have been able to get recent releases as well as it having a pretty healthy supply of general interest and some specialize interest movies. They have an online catalog so I can search and set a hold on a movie, book, or other physical media so I can go in, grab it, and go. Many of them allow you to rent an obscene amount of movies at once (the limit at mine is 20 movies check out at a time), and it's free! On top of that, they partner with a digital service that also allows you to "rent" a set amount of movies/shows/ebooks per month (for free!). Something I have not tried is to see what happens if they don't have a movie/book/show that I want. I imagine they have a process to request them buying it if there's enough interest.
spork12 8y ago
I mean, I just get the blurays from netflix so I can upload them to torrent sites.
Fins 8y ago
Not surprising at all.. A few times I tried to find something to watch on Netflix' streaming service (which we have for free from wife's T-Mobile, but I don't think they have a different selection for those) I could not find anything worth watching.
ProAm 8y ago
I still do because the Netflix streaming catalog is so extremely thin and often not good content. If I really want to watch what I want then I have to get the DVDs. Blu-Ray tends have have better quality then the streaming (obviously depends on a multitude of factors). And I don't have to deal with the horrendous UI or recommendation engine. I do have both, but I'll watch the DVDs way more often than I'll stream anything.
- fetus8 8y ago
  Blu-Ray will almost always have better quality than streaming, mostly due to bitrate. It's shocking how much better a properly scanned transfer in 1080p on a bluray looks compared to a 4K stream. It's night and day.
WalterBright 8y ago
The reason is simple. Whenever I type in a movie I want to see in Netflix search, it's available on DVD but not on streaming.
swamy_g 8y ago
I'm an avid film buff, Netflix DVD has so many different movies across genres and languages. I find Netflix streaming so boring and mainstream.
satahoarder 8y ago
I subscribe to it because I feel that my Linux ISO collecting thus becomes more substantial. What a great source man. Physical over WEBRIP any day!
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  Does Netflix have a catalog of Linux DVDs? It would be useful for their remaining customers that are OSS enthusiasts without bandwidth to spare.
  - soylentcola 8y ago
    Forgive me if you already got the joke but I assume the poster was referring to the old cliche about torrents being used for Linux ISOs. Just in this case, it's DVD/BD rips from discs delivered by mail.
    - Scoundreller 8y ago
      I was a little unsure, and then started to ask why doesn’t Netflix include “free” media in its distribution network.
- sergiotapia 8y ago
  These days I just stream my Linux ISO collection using tools like cyberflix or zion.
irrational 8y ago
We don't have any streaming subscriptions. We would probably use Netflix DVDs by mail, but honestly we only watch maybe 1 (2 at the outside) movies a month, so it's just cheaper and more convenient to run to Redbox. We can be to Redbox and back in less than 5 minutes. And we usually have some sort of promo code so we usually spend about $1-2/month on movies.
- ghaff 8y ago
  It depends on what you watch. Redbox is good for recent releases, not so much for other things. Also, I find there's a lot to be said for a disk just sitting next to my TV rather than having to jump in the car. (I admittedly might feel differently if I could just walk out my door to a Redbox.)
elagost 8y ago
I don't use the Netflix (Qwikster?) DVD service, but I do still buy lots of DVDs/Blu-Rays. The visual fidelity on a good DVD/Blu-Ray player is much better than a little streaming box that has to buffer every five minutes anyway, and I love having discs that I can watch offline and not have to worry about ownership changing or the content going away. My box sets are always going to be on my shelf, my .mp4 rips are always going to be on my hard drives, no company tracks my viewing habits, and I don't have to pay anyone a monthly fee for the privilege of them sitting on my shelf. I bet a lot of people use the DVD service to rip all the movies and have them on a hard drive. I've thought about it.
VectorLock 8y ago
Can you create new Netflix DVD Delivery accounts? I was under the impression they stopped accepting new customers for that service.
- __david__ 8y ago
  Yep: https://dvd.netflix.com/ https://dvd.netflix.com/
hanklazard 8y ago
I still use this. The movie selection is so much better than streaming version, massive back catalog. And it's cheap.
adam12 8y ago
I wonder how many of these subscribers use handbrake.
- russdill 8y ago
  That's the reason no one wants to say, but I'm sure the percentage is pretty high among yc users that also subscribe to netflix DVD.
reaperducer 8y ago
I'm one of them. Netflix's DVD selection more closely matches what I want to watch than Netflix's streaming offerings. Plus, I can watch stuff when I'm offline, which is a bonus.
- senorsmile 8y ago
  Ditto. The only way I would ever switch away, is if an online service actually allowed me to stream ANYTHING that I would normally be able to get via Netflix DVD. Right now, most of the things I find I want to watch, whether new (to me) or old things I want to watch again, I have to add it to my long DVD queue.
sfbay 8y ago
Why would anyone want to watch the same movie or same series again and again? To me this is a waste of plastic to manufacture the DVDs.
kkylin 8y ago
I got rid of Netflix DVD by mail only because I'm lucky (I think) to still have a locally owned and operated video rental store on my way to and from work.
bliblah 8y ago
My father (72 Years old) started Netflix waaaay back in the day thanks to the DVD service and you would be surprised by just how much better the selection is than their online catalog. He used it primarily for foreign films or artsy films that didn't have big theatrical releases. It's very funny because i would say at least 60% of the times I am looking for a movie on Netflix I am referred to their DVD catalog and end up having to use another service.
- skinnymuch 8y ago
  What service[s] do you use? A lot of the time a movie isn’t available on any streaming service.
gideon_b 8y ago
My mom is a professor, all of her DVDs are low-distribution educational and historical documentaries that she can use in her classroom. Most are not available anywhere else.
lqet 8y ago
I signed up for membership at the local library a long time ago, for a small anual fee (around 10 EUR). They have tons of Blurays and old DVDs (TV series, blockbusters, international classics and art house movies). Once a month, I go there after work and take home interesting stuff (you can only rent 5 DVD + Blurays at once). I installed a Bluray/DVD drive in an old desktop PC and installed the Automatic Ripping Machine [0] on it. So at home, I just boot the machine, insert the rented DVD / Bluray, and ~12 hours later, the movie is copied to my local RAID and I receive an email that the ripping has finished. I can then watch the movie anytime I want via kodi in the living room. If I really want to watch some movie / series that is not owned by the library, I fill out an online form with a suggestion that the library buys the movie / series. It takes some time, of course, but they usually follow the suggestions. [0] https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-ripping-machine https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-rippi...
- themodelplumber 8y ago
  > you can only rent 5 DVD + Blurays at once My local library does the same, but they will let you check out 5 more as soon as you check in the last set. So you can watch a lot of films every month, in addition to the 20 or so that you can stream via apps like Kanopy and Hoopla. The nice thing is, if there are multiple card holders in your home you can at least double all these numbers. It's raining movies! :-)
KorematsuFred 8y ago
Always wondered who bought DVDs these days and then quickly learned about one group. Truckers. These people are on the move and have a portable DVD player. After the whole days driving they want to sleep watching some movie.
hikelemmon 8y ago
Local 'Video' store for the win here in Tucson, AZ - Casa Video - http://www.casavideo.com/ http://www.casavideo.com/ - on my way home from work and has an amazing selection of titles for rent - so happy to still have a place to rent locally!
post_break 8y ago
Poor internet service, fast internet service with data caps, not much selection on the streaming. I wish netflix had a thing like redbox that was flat rate.
pmoriarty 8y ago
Netflix's selection on its streaming service is utter garbage compared to its selection on its DVD service. That's why I still subscribe to its DVD service, but not its streaming service.
MagicPropmaker 8y ago
Not that I want to accuse these customers of wrong-doing, but I also suspect the ease of copying a DVD is also a factor.
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sparky_ 8y ago
Streaming content selection is garbage, except for their original programming, and getting Blu-Rays by mail, which are easily ripped, is less risky and higher quality than piracy. Not hard to see the appeal.
- jumelles 8y ago
  > higher quality than piracy You're pirating wrong then ;)
chiph 8y ago
The article pretty much lists all the reasons I still get discs by mail. No compression artifacts, no drop-outs at peak times, significantly deeper catalog, no need to hop between (and pay) multiple streaming services. And it forces me to curate & plan, instead of taking whatever became available this week. I'd like it if they offered more discs from The Criterion Collection.
blacksqr 8y ago
Netflix streaming service has ironically replicated the Blockbuster experience, a few big new releases in front, along with aisles and aisles of stuff I've never heard of and have no interest in watching.
russellbeattie 8y ago
This reminds me of an amusing thing that happened to me years ago: The volunteer coach of my son's little kid soccer team worked at Netflix. I only really knew this because she was really nice and invited us all to the HQ for the kids to watch a movie in a little theater they have. We had a practice a day or so after the Qwikster plan was announced and then abandoned. So of course I mention it to her, with a dumb-ass grin, sort of like, "Wow, interesting times at work, hey?" And she responds with something along the lines of, "Well, Reed thought it was a good idea, and we tried to do the best we could to make it work." It was said in a way that I immediately thought, "We?? Uh-oh." I looked her up that night and found out she was a VP and most likely deeply involved in the whole process. It took me weeks to get the foot taste out of my mouth, I had wedged it in there so badly. Lesson: In Silicon Valley, you never know if your kid's soccer coach is actually the VP of a multi-million dollar corporation making headlines that day, so keep it to yourself.
throwawaymanbot 8y ago
I love these obstinate fools!! Good on them.
taeric 8y ago
There are so many segments of customers for video that it is truly hard to fathom why someone thinks they have one answer. For me, a large part of the appeal of Netflix/Amazon for video is that I don't have any physical media. I'm barely good at taking care of disks. My kids? It isn't really fair to get upset if they destroy them. Yes, everyone thinks they remember how well they took care of their parents crap. No. You didn't actually do so. (Statistically, I'm sure there are folks that did. But by and large you don't exist in the statistical sense.) Now, this primarily just means that you need the major shows my kids want to watch. Nowadays, that is Octonauts and Pokemon. The How to Train a Dragon series is also getting a lot of play. Luckily, all available for streaming easily enough. Zero effort on my part, too. Just a relatively small bill. Especially compared to the cable I don't pay anymore.
wybiral 8y ago
Here in Austin, Texas we still have a local movie rental chain, I <3 Video [1], that has free beer nights and an incredible selection. [1] https://www.iluvvideo.com/ https://www.iluvvideo.com/
speby 8y ago
Reminds me of how many people still use AOL dial-up: https://money.cnn.com/2015/05/08/technology/aol-dial-up/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2015/05/08/technology/aol-dial-up/inde...
bkraz 8y ago
Before Netflix, there was a big difference between flipping on the TV, and going out to rent a movie. Netflix started as a replacement for rental stores, but has steadily been shifting towards a TV replacement. The title selection between their streaming and DVD services is almost completely non-overlapping at this point. I dumped the streaming service, and went back to DVD, which I find to be a better fit for me only because of selection.
erkose 8y ago
The licensing of DVDs versus Streams seems to be out of wack. How is it that Netflix can license so many more movies to distribute through their DVD service than they are able to license to distribute through their Stream service?
- extra88 8y ago
  Because discs aren’t licensed, they’re bought and you can do what the fuck you want with your property. There have already been multiple comments referencing this, the First Sale Doctrine.
fegu 8y ago
DVDs in 2019 is nothing compared to actual floppy disks in health care in 2015 (https://gundersen.net/functional-floppy-disks-in-2015/ https://gundersen.net/functional-floppy-disks-in-2015/) Proven tech often has a really long tail.
g051051 8y ago
A lot of what I wanted to watch got removed from Netflix streaming, and now the streaming ecosystem is so fragmented that I just gave up on it. It's turning into the same "bundling" nonsense that's been making cable so expensive for so long.
dragthor 8y ago
So what if people still use DVD players. I bet the monthly cost of broadband and Netflix streaming is way more expensive than a plain-old DVD player and Netflix by mail. I guess people are missing out on wasting their time binge watching garbage television shows. And yes, in theory you can binge watch an entire season on DVD(s).
padseeker 8y ago
For the record I had a DVD from netflix sitting untouched for more than a year. I finally cancelled the plan and returned the DVD a few months ago. Some people are just lazy and never returned the DVD or cancelled.
nswest23 8y ago
DVD's in the mail frequently backfired for me b/c when I would pick out the movie I'd be in the mood to watch some documentary about suffering in some corner of the world but by the time I had a chance to watch it, it would be on the weekend when I was so burned out from work all I wanted to watch was something mindless that I could space out on so I'd just end up sending it back unwatched.
deanalevitt 8y ago
I'm most amazed that Netflix has retained this aspect of their business. My guess would have been it was more effort than benefit, considering the focus of Netflix and their direction.
m-p-3 8y ago
I wish that was an option in Canada. My native language is French (I'm functional in English) and the availability of French audio track with non-Netflix content is abysmal, while DVD copies here does have it most of the time. I'm still renting mostly because of that, and I don't understand why Netflix is not offering more contents in both official languages here. I guess the government is not pressuring them enough even though they're giving them a ton of money to produce local stuff.
iheartpotatoes 8y ago
That's me! Why? So many more titles are on DVD than streaming. Many many more. Try watching anything by Rainer Fassbinder on streaming: does not exist, but are on DVD. But that number is dropping due to licensing issues, just like streaming. My DVD queue has movies saved in "unknown" that I've actually SEEN from Netflix back in 2002 when I first subscribed. Examples of DVDs from Netflix ca. 2002-2005 that I watched which no longer exist: Lumiere and Company The Third Man The House that Dripped Blood Lies Crimes of Passion Sadly my "unknown availability" list is growing.

446 points by prostoalex 8y ago

I just went back to Netflix Blu-Rays after being frustrated with seeing tons of imperfections in streaming quality. The artifacts are so annoying to me in 4K streaming that I mostly prefer just watching 1080p blu-rays.

jetrink 8y ago
Their web player has also started to have stuttering and frame dropping issues for me. It only works smoothly on Microsoft Edge, so hopefully they get it figured out before Microsoft swaps out the rendering engine for Chromium.
- pureliquidhw 8y ago
  I've noticed Netflix stuttering on Edge too. I think there is a combination of web player and compression issues happening. The quality is really good on some titles, like the latest F1 docu-series. Others have terrible quality, like the original planet earth. Lots of stuttering and compression artifacts. Like another commenter somewhere, I'd be happy with smooth, artifact free 1080p over 4k any day.
- frozenport 8y ago
  Edge is better at enabling hardware accelerated video processing. Check if it's enabled in Chrome.
- mrob 8y ago
  Most people use 60Hz monitors, which means you'll always get uneven frame-timing with 24fps content (3:2 pulldown). Modern TVs support 24Hz for 24fps Blurays so the motion looks better.
  - fireattack 8y ago
    > you'll always get uneven frame-timing with 24fps content (3:2 pulldown) Uneven frame-timing, fo sure, but does it really use 3:2 pulldown? IIRC the monitor, at least when using most of players on PC to playback, will just display/repeat each video frame uneven times, but no 3:2 pulldown, i.e. interlacing two frames together to generate 1 more frame every 4 frames, is involved. I'm definitely not an expert on this topic though so please feel free to correct me!
    - mrob 8y ago
      It does not use interlacing. It seems my understanding of the term was wrong, and interlacing is required for it to count as real 3:2 pulldown.
- josteink 8y ago
  > Their web player has also started to have stuttering and frame dropping issues for me. I never understood the appeal of watching Netflix in a browser? Why let DRM infect your browser? Why not use closed media services in dedicated, closed-source apps for such things and keep your browser clean? To date I’ve honestly never seen anyone access Netflix through a browser. It’s all native apps. What’s the appeal?
  - chinathrow 8y ago
    Not everyone has a TV. I used to watch Netflix on my laptop only - on Ubuntu.
jseliger 8y ago
I can't speak to everyone else, but I also still have a Netflix subscription because I use it as a place to dump movies or TV shows I'm interested in but don't have the time (movies in theater) or inclination (lack of TV cable) to see right away. A couple months later they show up without any extra work or hassle on my part.
paavoova 8y ago
Assuming the title is even provided in 4k/HD. For example, I checked right now and Bram Stoker's Dracula is 540p at a reported 838 kb/s, and picture quality is worse than the DVD, with horrible aliasing indicating poor encoding, so it's even below that of SD. This film has a true 4K Blu-ray remaster, so you'd be doing yourself a huge disservice streaming it in the quality Netflix serves. To really put this in perspective, the picture quality that Netflix provides is worse than pre-digital analog film projection. Dracula originally screened in cinemas in 1992 looked (far) better than what you stream on Netflix right now in 2019. Now I know the consumer has always traded convenience for picture quality, hence the popularity of early home media such as VHS, but that was bound by the limitation of the technology back then. Right now, there's zero technical reason for why quality can't be better, ignoring bandwidth. It's a digression and the fact it's so tolerated makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I'm not even a film buff, it's just that it's apparent like night and day, like a re-compressed jpg is.
Rapzid 8y ago
I really should get a Blu-Ray drive and start getting doing Redbox or Netflix delivery for movies.. I'm pretty unsatisfied with the quality of almost every streaming service. They are basically optimizing the bitrate and encoding for the worst they can while keeping people from screaming about it. I'm frequently shocked how terrible the quality of Youtube movie trailers are.. Used VUDU when it first came out and recall being super impressed with its quality though. They have an HDX subscription that uses double+ the bitrate as their HD apparently..

jameane 8y ago

Someone in my building does. I see the return envelope in the mailroom!

dawnerd 8y ago

I'd sign back up if they started offering UHDs. Seems like a great way to get people to give them another 10+ dollars a month IMO.

nsnick 8y ago

It is the only way to get mainstream films on netflix any more.

aBioGuy 8y ago
Yeah, that's why we subscribe. Digitally renting a movie is crazy stupid for busy parents of young children. It takes us 2-3 days to watch a movie (in the ~40 minute chunks we have each night). Digital rentals force you to finish watching a movie within 24-48 hours...
Finnucane 8y ago
Or even non-mainstream films. Or anything more than a few years old. Or a fair number of cable TV series. Basically, if it is available on disk, Netlfix can mail it to you. And their mailing service is pretty efficient. It's rare to have to wait long to get something. The only annoyance is that occasionally you get a 'rental only' disk that doesn't have the extras.
- ghaff 8y ago
  >Basically, if it is available on disk, Netflix can mail it to you. Unfortunately, they're really letting their back catalog rot. An awful lot of things I saved in my DVD queue at some point are no longer available. In many cases, they're still available to buy but Netflix doesn't have them.
  - __david__ 8y ago
    Yeah, I've noticed this, too. It's quite sad—they used to have practically everything ever printed on disc. Now my "Saved" list is bigger than my Queue. I just noticed a couple things on it I ended up finding the discs on Amazon, so it's not like they're out of print. Just not worth stocking I guess.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      They basically drove most of the local rental places out of business and now are slowly dismantling their own operation for physical media. Torrents aren't really an option for most obscure stuff. So you pretty much now have to just buy media for a lot of things out of the mainstream.

kalleboo 8y ago

I thought Redbox took over the market of watching mainstream movies

saalweachter 8y ago
Redbox is convenient for newly released mainstream movies plus an odd assortment of older movies that is usually related to upcoming releases (eg, if there is a sequel coming out soon). It doesn't help as much for older and longer-tail movies and TV shows.

oppositelock 8y ago

I still pay for Netflix DVD's, have since around 2000. The reason that I still do is that a bunch of older TV series that my wife watches aren't available on streaming anywhere, and the dvd's are out of print, so the only way to watch these things is via archive DVD's, like at Netflix.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
Check out your local library! They won’t have as extensive of a catalog, but they usually have quite a bit of DVDs available.
- saalweachter 8y ago
  They will also usually be able to inter-library-loan materials not available locally.
- stevenwoo 8y ago
  My library (Santa Clara County) actually has more than Netflix, this led to me cancelling Netflix DVD's. The main downside is new releases take much longer to become available with the library if one does not sign up as soon as possible for rental. One thing is that out of print DVD's disappear from Netflix quicker than the library - I think people just steal them or they get lost in mail and there's no charge up to a certain point for this loss.
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    This is fantastic news. Very happy to hear your library is serving its local citizens well. Protect your local library folks!
- oppositelock 8y ago
  Oh, I do check out my local library as well. It's no Netflix, though.

lgregg 8y ago

I actually thought they closed shop on this. I might subscribe.

nategri 8y ago
Same! I've been wanting to work through the catalog of Miyazaki films but the stuff is streaming unobtainium. Quite a wait at the library too. This seems like the only way to go haha.

antjanus 8y ago

The selection is huge for me. I don't sub to netflix dvds but I'm really thinking I might. A few years back, they used to have a button to check for DVDs and I did, and a lot of stuff that isn't up for streaming is not an issue for DVDs.

larrywright 8y ago

I'm not shocked. I'm surprised its not higher. I still see Redbox kiosks all over, so there's clearly a market.

aantix 8y ago
Agree. The Redbox line at Walgreens still remains long on a Friday night.
topspin 8y ago
> I'm surprised its not higher. Likewise. There are many titles available through Netflix DVD that are not available through Netflix streaming. Just off the top of my head you have Game of Thrones (seasons 1-7), The Wire, True Detective, Fargo and The Expanse.
koala_man 8y ago
I always thought Redbox was a market segmentation strategy more than a Netflix competitor.

barneygumble742 8y ago

I like it for the DVD extras.

atomicUpdate 8y ago

Blu-Ray audio and video quality is significantly better than streaming which is why I still subscribe. Streaming is certainly more convenient for stuff that doesn't really need very high quality though.

legitster 8y ago

Remember when Netflix tried to be proactive by splitting off the DVD business from the streaming service, and the entire internet flipped out? In hindsight, this would have been an excellent move. Each org could have focused better on their respective service. But now the media-by-mail half is just crashing in the space of the streaming service. They have no incentive to market it, and will pull the plug the moment it is unprofitable.

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larrik 8y ago

I signed up in 2004 and never stopped. I bumped up to Blu-Ray too (and get pretty annoyed when a DVD shows up instead of a Blu-Ray...) I love streaming TV shows, but for movies I just don't like it. I don't even know why.

epberry 8y ago

http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

tyfon 8y ago

I'm almost surprised that this isn't higher. I can't really say from experience since I live in Europe but I've seen people from the US complain about data caps on regular internet for a while and I guess netflix will eat up that quite fast especially if you watch 4k movies. How large is the average cap on US ISPs?

ashelmire 8y ago
> I've seen people from the US complain about data caps on regular internet for a while This isn't a thing in the US. You've seen Canadians complain.
- tyfon 8y ago
  Ah, yeah as I said I've not had experience with this myself. The complaining has mostly been on various games forums in relation to physical vs digital games discussions and day 1 patches. It seems to be primarily comcast customers though which is why I thought it was in the US.
- chrisdhal 8y ago
  Yes it is. Comcast has a 1TB a month soft limit. You get 2 months of free overages within a certain period of time (12-18 months IIRC), after that they charge you extra. You can argue that 1TB is a lot and not really a limit, but it does exist.
  - kevingrahl 8y ago
    1TB a month is considered a lot? That’s only around 34GB per day..
    - skinnymuch 8y ago
      What would be considered enough? I don’t know how I’d use 3TB a month. 2 TB is a lot too to me and everyone I know. I’m sure it’s not a lot to some people especially people on here. But I would guess for the vast majority of people, at least 95%, 1 TB is sufficient. And 2 TB is sufficient for 99%+ of people.

jordanpg 8y ago

The user experience associated with using DVDs, while having improved ever-so-slightly with Blu-Ray, is still comically bad. It's slow, and there's all kinds of shit that has to be skipped, if it can be skipped. And then there's the high likelihood of scratches given enough time. That the manufacturers of DVDs have not made it possible to play the main content immediately, as it is (usually) with streaming, is a signal to me that they are not taking the future of the medium seriously. Yes, it's possible to work around with VLC player, etc. but that is not helpful for most commercial hardware and for most people. Ironically, we see some streaming platforms, like Amazon Fire for example, adding shit at the beginning that's un-skippable. That and commercials are dealbreakers for me. Makes it easy to choose my streaming platforms.

esaym 8y ago
I came to say just this. Back in 1999 I was so excited when tech magazines were giving out the specs of the up and coming new video format. I never got a true DVD player back then, but used a Playstation 2. The first time I rented a DVD from the store (blockbuster?) wasn't a grand experience either. You had to pay extra for the DVD vs the VCR. Yea the picture was slightly better on the fuzzy CRT, but what was immediately apparent was the screwy dynamic audio range. Every time we watched a DVD someone had to always have the TV remote in hand, constantly turning up the volume in the quite spots and quickly turning it down before some super loud stuff happened. That's still an issue today for me. I've been told that using a true 5.1 surround system will fix that, but I've never been a fan of the extra speakers. Plus most of the people I know that actually have a surround receiver have all 5 speakers just sitting right next to the TV anyway. Then there's the screwy menu navigation and forced commercials. My mom struggles to get through those, slowly hen pecking buttons or staring at the remote wondering if you hit the "Ok/Enter" button or the play button. My grandparents never have figured it out, I have to do it for them every time. I'm not a movie buff at all. I only recently started buying movies now that I have kids but the DVD format natively is just too painful. I tried initially to rip DVDs to an mp4 but that just takes too long. What I do now just so I can be somewhat "legit" is buy some $3 "as is" used DVD off of ebay. Right when I get it in the mail, I throw it into a junk drawer and then grab a torrent of it. 10 minutes later I've got it on my hard drive and if I'm feeling fancy I'll ffmpeg it to wav format and normalize the audio then copy it back. From there I shoot it over to my media box in the living room for the kids to enjoy their new "freshly ripped" DVD. I don't even tell my wife the truth.

bitxbit 8y ago

A lot of people still do not have access to high speed internet in the US.

bluthru 8y ago

$10/mo for bluray rentals + MakeMKV for caching the disc is the best value in video.

ergothus 8y ago

I read the comments here before reading the article...and I was pleasantly surprised by the article. It wasn't a "haha, look at how unsophisticated some people are", it was a pretty on-target list of reasons why online subscriptions services aren't currently meeting all needs. I'm actually surprised it's "only" 2.7M Americans - the DVD service didn't match the convenience of online services, but was still a great experience. I myself am lucky enough to have great broadband, but I've been getting annoyed with how series will move on/off the service (I see monthly "What's leaving Netflix this month" articles in some places), I'm annoyed with how Netflix has made their system "pushier" (such as constantly looping ads), how they gave me an ability to build a personal want-to-watch list and then hide that away making it hard to benefit from, and in particular, how I now have to balance multiple subscription services if I want to see the shows I want to see. Side Note: As annoyed as I am with Netflix from time to time, they beat the pants off of Hulu when it comes to interface, and remain nicer than Amazon.

dmitriid 8y ago
The greatest con that copyright holders pulled is to convince the public that service providers are to blame. (Netflix, Hulu, Apple for movies; Spotify, Pandora, Apple, Deezer for music; ebooks, audiobooks etc.) Meanwhile dipshits like Warner, Sony, Disney hold everyone hostage.
- mindslight 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure the greatest con copyright holders pulled is getting copyright to last longer than 5 years.
  - pwinnski 8y ago
    Back when the USA was established, it was 14 years, or 28 if renewed. That seems reasonable to me.
    - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
      I think 7 years, or 14 if renewed would be better. The early copyright systems came into being in the 1700s; present-day distribution chains are much faster.

randogogogo 8y ago

Been a customer of this for years now. It's great for getting old things not available from streaming, or more commonly way over priced on streaming.

threatofrain 8y ago

The DVD catalogue isn't the same as their streaming.

Symmetry 8y ago

For a while I did this because I wanted movies to watch while donating platelets at the local Red Cross and they had DVD players in the donation room with a small library but eventually I watched all the movies they had that I wanted to see. Eventually they upgraded to having Netflix streaming and I stopped.

bluedevil2k 8y ago

In the US, lots of people have 55" TV's and bigger and at that size the streaming artifacts are really noticeable. A Netflix streaming 4k video looks terrible when the screen has a lot of black/gray gradients. It makes people wonder why they even bothered with a 4k. But, throw a blu-ray on there and you see how great the TV looks. Even better, throw a 4k Ultra Blu-Ray on and you see the brilliance of the TV and the amazing picture. This was my case - I got a 4k UHD from Redbox and now will never watch a blockbuster movie any other way.

asark 8y ago
Their 4k's also almost exclusively for their own content. So it's low quality and you can pretty much only use it for content that doesn't much benefit from it, assuming it's worth watching at all.
z3t4 8y ago
People are using the low bandwidth used for streaming as an argument to not invest in a fiber connection. 100 mbit is not even enough to stream 1080p with surround hd audio. And they're like but you only need 2 mbit to watch Netflix.
- phamilton 8y ago
  > 100 mbit is not even enough to stream 1080p with surround hd audio This doesn't seem right. A 50GB blu-ray that is 2 hours long can have a maximum bitrate of 55mbit. So if your claim is correct, you'd need a 100GB blu-ray (which exists) for a 2 hour movie, which doesn't match my experience, especially for 1080p.
  - zepearl 8y ago
    I agree. I bought a lot of Blu-rays (obsessed with "owning" the good movies which I then rip - I extract the original streams without reencoding and then I put the files on my mediaserver) and the biggest 1080p-file I have is the one of "Interstellar" being 39GB (original video and original 3 audio tracks and some subtitles), followed by "the dark knight rises" of 35GBs and otherwise all the rest is between 10-30GBs depending on the movie. Usually when I play a movie in the living room I see spikes of 2.5MB/s transferred data on the mediaservers, and this is original content ripped 1:1.

smacktoward 8y ago

I would actually like to go back to subscribing to discs-by-mail, but have been put off from doing so via Netflix for two reasons: first, because they reputedly haven't been keeping up their inventory, leading to lots of titles being more or less permanently unavailable; and second, because it's clear that Netflix views this line of business as an embarrassing burden they'll be thrilled to dump the second they feel they can do so without going through another "Qwikster" debacle. Are there any alternative discs-by-mail services out there that actually care about and want to be providing such a service?

dontbenebby 8y ago
>Are there any alternative discs-by-mail services out there that actually care about and want to be providing such a service? It's not by mail, but most libraries have DVDs and Blurays. They often have countywide agreements so you can get a title shipped from across the city to your local library for free.
- zerocrates 8y ago
  There are several library systems in my area and to my knowledge none of them carry Blu-rays. I think the added expense and likelihood of patrons mistakenly borrowing a Blu-ray when they have a DVD player is enough to keep many libraries on DVD.

ubermonkey 8y ago

I'm surprised it's not higher. The implicit promise -- actually, occasionally made EXPLICITLY in marketing -- of high-speed broadband was that everything would be available, but the reverse has proven true. A person living in an urban area had a larger selection of movies available for rent in 1999 than they do today because the first sale doctrine protected the video rental business, but streaming is governed by different agreements -- which leads to ridiculous "availability windows." We mostly use Apple's movie rental system, because the quality is better than Netflix, but you still get the availability shifts. Sometimes something won't be available for rental anymore, but remains in the list as a purchasable (ha) item. This is just straight-up rent-seeking bullshit, and it didn't (and couldn't) happen when movies were tied to a physical object. If you want a deep library of rentals, DVD/BR by mail is still better. If you want better quality, DVD/BR by mail is the best option. And obviously if you live somewhere with shitty connectivity (basically the entire rural US), then by-mail might be your ONLY real option.

dontbenebby 8y ago
I'm mostly surprised because for free you can request the same titles (including Blu ray) from the local library. In my county you can search for a title and have it shipped from any library to the one closest to you (and conversely return it at any county library location). Why pay 10ish a month for something that has the same selection and speed as Netflix?
- Stunting 8y ago
  I wish that were so for all over. My library does indeed offer dvds, but the selection is no where as robust as Netflix.
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    I can hope that one day libraries will stop siloing themselves from each other and implement an efficient inter-library loan system that sends direct to customer. It’s like they see themselves as competitors.

justboxing 8y ago

> "People assume that our customers must either be super seniors or folks that live in the boonies with no internet access," she says. "Actually, our biggest hot spots are the coasts, like the Bay Area and New York." Not surprising. Netflix, Comcast, Amazon Prime and other video streaming service charge you the same as the DVD rental, but force you to watch the entire video within 48 hours from 1st starting it. Personally I find this very annoying (why do the do this? What does it cost them to let me watch it within a week or so and not 48 hours?). Esp long movies like "Wolf of Wall Street" are not practical to watch in a single sitting. I have a Samsung DVD player that I got for 40$ and depending on the movie, I find it's cheaper or same price to actually BUY the DVD from Amazon.com (with prime). Ex: Wolf of Wall Street was $4.99 to stream and view within 48 hours, or keep paying $4.99 until you finish it. The same DVD ( NEW ) was selling for $5.49 on Amazon, Free shipping so I ended up buying the DVD.

deleted 8y ago
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praneshp 8y ago
> Esp long movies like "Wolf of Wall Street" are not practical to watch in a single sitting. Ha ha, some moviebuffs will skewer you for saying that (about any movie). I feel your pain on the 48h limit though.
- darkpuma 8y ago
  Meh, Lawrence of Arabia had an intermission and I doubt many film buffs would say that ruined the art of it.
  - praneshp 8y ago
    Oh, I took OPs comments to mean several sittings per movie. While Lawrence of Arabia is an outlier imo, most Indian movies have an intermission (and make up the majority of what I watch)
    - 8y ago

nickjj 8y ago

I still subscribe to the 1 DVD at a time plan because the selection is so much wider than instant watch (in the US at least). After 10 years of subscribing to Netflix I can only think of a handful of movies that weren't available on DVD. I don't have any hard numbers in front of me but it feels like there's maybe 20% of Netflix's catalog on instant watch vs what they have on DVD -- at least in popular genres like sci-fi, comedy, action and adventure.

kop316 8y ago

I feel this is worth reposting in this thread: For those in the US, something I have found pleasantly surprising is that the local library (this is a "small" library with only two branches) feels this niche quite well. I have been able to get recent releases as well as it having a pretty healthy supply of general interest and some specialize interest movies. They have an online catalog so I can search and set a hold on a movie, book, or other physical media so I can go in, grab it, and go. Many of them allow you to rent an obscene amount of movies at once (the limit at mine is 20 movies check out at a time), and it's free! On top of that, they partner with a digital service that also allows you to "rent" a set amount of movies/shows/ebooks per month (for free!). Something I have not tried is to see what happens if they don't have a movie/book/show that I want. I imagine they have a process to request them buying it if there's enough interest.

spork12 8y ago

I mean, I just get the blurays from netflix so I can upload them to torrent sites.

Fins 8y ago

Not surprising at all.. A few times I tried to find something to watch on Netflix' streaming service (which we have for free from wife's T-Mobile, but I don't think they have a different selection for those) I could not find anything worth watching.

ProAm 8y ago

I still do because the Netflix streaming catalog is so extremely thin and often not good content. If I really want to watch what I want then I have to get the DVDs. Blu-Ray tends have have better quality then the streaming (obviously depends on a multitude of factors). And I don't have to deal with the horrendous UI or recommendation engine. I do have both, but I'll watch the DVDs way more often than I'll stream anything.

fetus8 8y ago
Blu-Ray will almost always have better quality than streaming, mostly due to bitrate. It's shocking how much better a properly scanned transfer in 1080p on a bluray looks compared to a 4K stream. It's night and day.

WalterBright 8y ago

The reason is simple. Whenever I type in a movie I want to see in Netflix search, it's available on DVD but not on streaming.

swamy_g 8y ago

I'm an avid film buff, Netflix DVD has so many different movies across genres and languages. I find Netflix streaming so boring and mainstream.

satahoarder 8y ago

I subscribe to it because I feel that my Linux ISO collecting thus becomes more substantial. What a great source man. Physical over WEBRIP any day!

Scoundreller 8y ago
Does Netflix have a catalog of Linux DVDs? It would be useful for their remaining customers that are OSS enthusiasts without bandwidth to spare.
- soylentcola 8y ago
  Forgive me if you already got the joke but I assume the poster was referring to the old cliche about torrents being used for Linux ISOs. Just in this case, it's DVD/BD rips from discs delivered by mail.
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    I was a little unsure, and then started to ask why doesn’t Netflix include “free” media in its distribution network.
sergiotapia 8y ago
These days I just stream my Linux ISO collection using tools like cyberflix or zion.

irrational 8y ago

We don't have any streaming subscriptions. We would probably use Netflix DVDs by mail, but honestly we only watch maybe 1 (2 at the outside) movies a month, so it's just cheaper and more convenient to run to Redbox. We can be to Redbox and back in less than 5 minutes. And we usually have some sort of promo code so we usually spend about $1-2/month on movies.

ghaff 8y ago
It depends on what you watch. Redbox is good for recent releases, not so much for other things. Also, I find there's a lot to be said for a disk just sitting next to my TV rather than having to jump in the car. (I admittedly might feel differently if I could just walk out my door to a Redbox.)

elagost 8y ago

I don't use the Netflix (Qwikster?) DVD service, but I do still buy lots of DVDs/Blu-Rays. The visual fidelity on a good DVD/Blu-Ray player is much better than a little streaming box that has to buffer every five minutes anyway, and I love having discs that I can watch offline and not have to worry about ownership changing or the content going away. My box sets are always going to be on my shelf, my .mp4 rips are always going to be on my hard drives, no company tracks my viewing habits, and I don't have to pay anyone a monthly fee for the privilege of them sitting on my shelf. I bet a lot of people use the DVD service to rip all the movies and have them on a hard drive. I've thought about it.

VectorLock 8y ago

Can you create new Netflix DVD Delivery accounts? I was under the impression they stopped accepting new customers for that service.

__david__ 8y ago
Yep: https://dvd.netflix.com/ https://dvd.netflix.com/

hanklazard 8y ago

I still use this. The movie selection is so much better than streaming version, massive back catalog. And it's cheap.

adam12 8y ago

I wonder how many of these subscribers use handbrake.

russdill 8y ago
That's the reason no one wants to say, but I'm sure the percentage is pretty high among yc users that also subscribe to netflix DVD.

reaperducer 8y ago

I'm one of them. Netflix's DVD selection more closely matches what I want to watch than Netflix's streaming offerings. Plus, I can watch stuff when I'm offline, which is a bonus.

senorsmile 8y ago
Ditto. The only way I would ever switch away, is if an online service actually allowed me to stream ANYTHING that I would normally be able to get via Netflix DVD. Right now, most of the things I find I want to watch, whether new (to me) or old things I want to watch again, I have to add it to my long DVD queue.

sfbay 8y ago

Why would anyone want to watch the same movie or same series again and again? To me this is a waste of plastic to manufacture the DVDs.

kkylin 8y ago

I got rid of Netflix DVD by mail only because I'm lucky (I think) to still have a locally owned and operated video rental store on my way to and from work.

bliblah 8y ago

My father (72 Years old) started Netflix waaaay back in the day thanks to the DVD service and you would be surprised by just how much better the selection is than their online catalog. He used it primarily for foreign films or artsy films that didn't have big theatrical releases. It's very funny because i would say at least 60% of the times I am looking for a movie on Netflix I am referred to their DVD catalog and end up having to use another service.

skinnymuch 8y ago
What service[s] do you use? A lot of the time a movie isn’t available on any streaming service.

gideon_b 8y ago

My mom is a professor, all of her DVDs are low-distribution educational and historical documentaries that she can use in her classroom. Most are not available anywhere else.

lqet 8y ago

I signed up for membership at the local library a long time ago, for a small anual fee (around 10 EUR). They have tons of Blurays and old DVDs (TV series, blockbusters, international classics and art house movies). Once a month, I go there after work and take home interesting stuff (you can only rent 5 DVD + Blurays at once). I installed a Bluray/DVD drive in an old desktop PC and installed the Automatic Ripping Machine [0] on it. So at home, I just boot the machine, insert the rented DVD / Bluray, and ~12 hours later, the movie is copied to my local RAID and I receive an email that the ripping has finished. I can then watch the movie anytime I want via kodi in the living room. If I really want to watch some movie / series that is not owned by the library, I fill out an online form with a suggestion that the library buys the movie / series. It takes some time, of course, but they usually follow the suggestions. [0] https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-ripping-machine https://github.com/automatic-ripping-machine/automatic-rippi...

themodelplumber 8y ago
> you can only rent 5 DVD + Blurays at once My local library does the same, but they will let you check out 5 more as soon as you check in the last set. So you can watch a lot of films every month, in addition to the 20 or so that you can stream via apps like Kanopy and Hoopla. The nice thing is, if there are multiple card holders in your home you can at least double all these numbers. It's raining movies! :-)

KorematsuFred 8y ago

Always wondered who bought DVDs these days and then quickly learned about one group. Truckers. These people are on the move and have a portable DVD player. After the whole days driving they want to sleep watching some movie.

hikelemmon 8y ago

Local 'Video' store for the win here in Tucson, AZ - Casa Video - http://www.casavideo.com/ http://www.casavideo.com/ - on my way home from work and has an amazing selection of titles for rent - so happy to still have a place to rent locally!

post_break 8y ago

Poor internet service, fast internet service with data caps, not much selection on the streaming. I wish netflix had a thing like redbox that was flat rate.

pmoriarty 8y ago

Netflix's selection on its streaming service is utter garbage compared to its selection on its DVD service. That's why I still subscribe to its DVD service, but not its streaming service.

MagicPropmaker 8y ago

Not that I want to accuse these customers of wrong-doing, but I also suspect the ease of copying a DVD is also a factor.

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sparky_ 8y ago

Streaming content selection is garbage, except for their original programming, and getting Blu-Rays by mail, which are easily ripped, is less risky and higher quality than piracy. Not hard to see the appeal.

jumelles 8y ago
> higher quality than piracy You're pirating wrong then ;)

chiph 8y ago

The article pretty much lists all the reasons I still get discs by mail. No compression artifacts, no drop-outs at peak times, significantly deeper catalog, no need to hop between (and pay) multiple streaming services. And it forces me to curate & plan, instead of taking whatever became available this week. I'd like it if they offered more discs from The Criterion Collection.

blacksqr 8y ago

Netflix streaming service has ironically replicated the Blockbuster experience, a few big new releases in front, along with aisles and aisles of stuff I've never heard of and have no interest in watching.

russellbeattie 8y ago

This reminds me of an amusing thing that happened to me years ago: The volunteer coach of my son's little kid soccer team worked at Netflix. I only really knew this because she was really nice and invited us all to the HQ for the kids to watch a movie in a little theater they have. We had a practice a day or so after the Qwikster plan was announced and then abandoned. So of course I mention it to her, with a dumb-ass grin, sort of like, "Wow, interesting times at work, hey?" And she responds with something along the lines of, "Well, Reed thought it was a good idea, and we tried to do the best we could to make it work." It was said in a way that I immediately thought, "We?? Uh-oh." I looked her up that night and found out she was a VP and most likely deeply involved in the whole process. It took me weeks to get the foot taste out of my mouth, I had wedged it in there so badly. Lesson: In Silicon Valley, you never know if your kid's soccer coach is actually the VP of a multi-million dollar corporation making headlines that day, so keep it to yourself.

throwawaymanbot 8y ago

I love these obstinate fools!! Good on them.

taeric 8y ago

There are so many segments of customers for video that it is truly hard to fathom why someone thinks they have one answer. For me, a large part of the appeal of Netflix/Amazon for video is that I don't have any physical media. I'm barely good at taking care of disks. My kids? It isn't really fair to get upset if they destroy them. Yes, everyone thinks they remember how well they took care of their parents crap. No. You didn't actually do so. (Statistically, I'm sure there are folks that did. But by and large you don't exist in the statistical sense.) Now, this primarily just means that you need the major shows my kids want to watch. Nowadays, that is Octonauts and Pokemon. The How to Train a Dragon series is also getting a lot of play. Luckily, all available for streaming easily enough. Zero effort on my part, too. Just a relatively small bill. Especially compared to the cable I don't pay anymore.

wybiral 8y ago

Here in Austin, Texas we still have a local movie rental chain, I <3 Video [1], that has free beer nights and an incredible selection. [1] https://www.iluvvideo.com/ https://www.iluvvideo.com/

speby 8y ago

Reminds me of how many people still use AOL dial-up: https://money.cnn.com/2015/05/08/technology/aol-dial-up/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2015/05/08/technology/aol-dial-up/inde...

bkraz 8y ago

Before Netflix, there was a big difference between flipping on the TV, and going out to rent a movie. Netflix started as a replacement for rental stores, but has steadily been shifting towards a TV replacement. The title selection between their streaming and DVD services is almost completely non-overlapping at this point. I dumped the streaming service, and went back to DVD, which I find to be a better fit for me only because of selection.

erkose 8y ago

The licensing of DVDs versus Streams seems to be out of wack. How is it that Netflix can license so many more movies to distribute through their DVD service than they are able to license to distribute through their Stream service?

extra88 8y ago
Because discs aren’t licensed, they’re bought and you can do what the fuck you want with your property. There have already been multiple comments referencing this, the First Sale Doctrine.

fegu 8y ago

DVDs in 2019 is nothing compared to actual floppy disks in health care in 2015 (https://gundersen.net/functional-floppy-disks-in-2015/ https://gundersen.net/functional-floppy-disks-in-2015/) Proven tech often has a really long tail.

g051051 8y ago

A lot of what I wanted to watch got removed from Netflix streaming, and now the streaming ecosystem is so fragmented that I just gave up on it. It's turning into the same "bundling" nonsense that's been making cable so expensive for so long.

dragthor 8y ago

So what if people still use DVD players. I bet the monthly cost of broadband and Netflix streaming is way more expensive than a plain-old DVD player and Netflix by mail. I guess people are missing out on wasting their time binge watching garbage television shows. And yes, in theory you can binge watch an entire season on DVD(s).

padseeker 8y ago

For the record I had a DVD from netflix sitting untouched for more than a year. I finally cancelled the plan and returned the DVD a few months ago. Some people are just lazy and never returned the DVD or cancelled.

nswest23 8y ago

DVD's in the mail frequently backfired for me b/c when I would pick out the movie I'd be in the mood to watch some documentary about suffering in some corner of the world but by the time I had a chance to watch it, it would be on the weekend when I was so burned out from work all I wanted to watch was something mindless that I could space out on so I'd just end up sending it back unwatched.

deanalevitt 8y ago

I'm most amazed that Netflix has retained this aspect of their business. My guess would have been it was more effort than benefit, considering the focus of Netflix and their direction.

m-p-3 8y ago

I wish that was an option in Canada. My native language is French (I'm functional in English) and the availability of French audio track with non-Netflix content is abysmal, while DVD copies here does have it most of the time. I'm still renting mostly because of that, and I don't understand why Netflix is not offering more contents in both official languages here. I guess the government is not pressuring them enough even though they're giving them a ton of money to produce local stuff.

iheartpotatoes 8y ago

That's me! Why? So many more titles are on DVD than streaming. Many many more. Try watching anything by Rainer Fassbinder on streaming: does not exist, but are on DVD. But that number is dropping due to licensing issues, just like streaming. My DVD queue has movies saved in "unknown" that I've actually SEEN from Netflix back in 2002 when I first subscribed. Examples of DVDs from Netflix ca. 2002-2005 that I watched which no longer exist: Lumiere and Company The Third Man The House that Dripped Blood Lies Crimes of Passion Sadly my "unknown availability" list is growing.