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The irony(maybe?) here is that DVD-by-mail is the ONLY way I can watch 99% of the movies out there. Streaming services are shit in comparison. They win in conve

The irony(maybe?) here is that DVD-by-mail is the ONLY way I can watch 99% of the movies out there. Streaming services are shit in comparison. They win in convenience, but barely.

paggle 7y ago
The high quality unpopular movies don’t make it on anyone’s radar to negotiate streaming rights. The high quality popular movies are too valuable to offer to Netflix for a price they would be willing to pay. I like Amazon’s pay-per-watch system much better.
- overcast 7y ago
  But even that doesn't have EVERYTHING. It's very rare, that I don't find even the most obscure stuff available on Netflix DVD service. I'm a huge film fanatic, and $20 for roughly 3 movies a week is a steal. Streaming service video/audio quality just isn't on par with a Blu-Ray disk. The audio is often horrendous, which I understand most don't care about as long as they can see the picture on their $175 4K TV from Costco. Also, I wish their old distributions points would open back up, used to be next day turn around and Saturday :( I honestly don't know what I would turn to if the service went away.
  - paggle 7y ago
    Yeah, I’m not as much of a film buff as you. Pay to rent on Amazon does the job for me except about once a year when I order a disc.
- technofiend 7y ago
  I wonder if the answer to this is adopting the mechanical royalty model from the music industry. Anyone can stream the movie but a royalty must be paid.
ghaff 7y ago
However, the Netflix DVD back catalog is effectively falling out of availability. Disks for low-volume movies are obviously not being replenished as they get lost, scratched, etc. I'm seriously thinking of just dropping my Netflix DVD-by-mail subscription at this point and "putting" the money into my disk purchase budget.
- overcast 7y ago
  I'm mostly doing the same, but letting the DVD mail ride until it's not economical. Right now, it's still rocking.
- nitwit005 7y ago
  I'm not sure they can replace all of them. They are dependent on someone selling the DVDs.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    That's doubtless true in some cases, but lots of the permanently no date available disks in my Netflix queue are readily available for sale new. Netflix just doesn't really care about the DVD rental business at this point.
xnyan 7y ago
Well. the only legal way. Piracy has by far the best selection and (with modern automated piracy tools) the best convenience. Price? A Saturday afternoon to setup the Piracy Trinity (sonarr, radarr, plex) and maybe 1 hour a month for maintenance and a $5 VPN subscription.

The irony(maybe?) here is that DVD-by-mail is the ONLY way I can watch 99% of the movies out there. Streaming services are shit in comparison. They win in convenience, but barely.

paggle 7y ago

The high quality unpopular movies don’t make it on anyone’s radar to negotiate streaming rights. The high quality popular movies are too valuable to offer to Netflix for a price they would be willing to pay. I like Amazon’s pay-per-watch system much better.

overcast 7y ago
But even that doesn't have EVERYTHING. It's very rare, that I don't find even the most obscure stuff available on Netflix DVD service. I'm a huge film fanatic, and $20 for roughly 3 movies a week is a steal. Streaming service video/audio quality just isn't on par with a Blu-Ray disk. The audio is often horrendous, which I understand most don't care about as long as they can see the picture on their $175 4K TV from Costco. Also, I wish their old distributions points would open back up, used to be next day turn around and Saturday :( I honestly don't know what I would turn to if the service went away.
- paggle 7y ago
  Yeah, I’m not as much of a film buff as you. Pay to rent on Amazon does the job for me except about once a year when I order a disc.
technofiend 7y ago
I wonder if the answer to this is adopting the mechanical royalty model from the music industry. Anyone can stream the movie but a royalty must be paid.

ghaff 7y ago

However, the Netflix DVD back catalog is effectively falling out of availability. Disks for low-volume movies are obviously not being replenished as they get lost, scratched, etc. I'm seriously thinking of just dropping my Netflix DVD-by-mail subscription at this point and "putting" the money into my disk purchase budget.

overcast 7y ago
I'm mostly doing the same, but letting the DVD mail ride until it's not economical. Right now, it's still rocking.
nitwit005 7y ago
I'm not sure they can replace all of them. They are dependent on someone selling the DVDs.
- ghaff 7y ago
  That's doubtless true in some cases, but lots of the permanently no date available disks in my Netflix queue are readily available for sale new. Netflix just doesn't really care about the DVD rental business at this point.

xnyan 7y ago

Well. the only legal way. Piracy has by far the best selection and (with modern automated piracy tools) the best convenience. Price? A Saturday afternoon to setup the Piracy Trinity (sonarr, radarr, plex) and maybe 1 hour a month for maintenance and a $5 VPN subscription.