5 ms·

It's not an exaggeration - back when Netflix sent out DVD's by mail it WAS like having a Blockbuster in your living room (since Blockbuster didn't do streaming)

cercatrova 5y ago
Netflix still offers their DVD service.
- throwawayboise 5y ago
  Does anyone use it? I am thinking that people are so accustomed to immediate online gratification that waiting a day or three for a DVD in the mail is just not something a lot of people will do anymore. That means you are going to have to think ahead about what you want to watch, and plan a time to do it, rather than just flopping down on the couch and surfing to find whatever catches your eye. And many people don't even have DVD players anymore. I don't.
  - cercatrova 5y ago
    I don't personally as I don't even have a disc drive in my house but when looking online, people in rural areas use it apparently.
    - jcadam 5y ago
      Makes sense considering the state of rural internet in many places.
  - scottlamb 5y ago
    > Does anyone use it? I think film students and the like. It's become a niche product, not a mass-market one.
    - shaneprrlt 5y ago
      Back in the day, people had these things called "lives" with irl friends and loved ones. Back then, watching a movie was a special thing you did that brought people together, they didn't need to binge 10 hours of content every night. A few movies a week was plenty.
      - cercatrova 5y ago
        But you can do the same thing with your friends with streaming services? How would that relate to whether or not DVDs are niche?
    - bcrosby95 5y ago
      Part of why it's niche is they basically abandoned that line of business. Remember that they even tried to spin it off into its own separate company, and only changed their minds after a huge backlash. Many companies fail to adapt and stick with old business models. Netflix did the exact opposite and took their dvd business behind the barn and shot it in the head.
  - dhosek 5y ago
    I do. There are a bunch of movies I have on my list that fall into the one day I want to watch this category. I do have the cheapest plan because they closed the Chicago-area distribution center and it was hard to get enough DVDs per month with shipping times for anything more generous to be cost-effective.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    RedBox provides all the new DVDs nearly instantly, and for anything older it's often pretty cheap to buy them used on Amazon.
  - drusepth 5y ago
    >And many people don't even have DVD players anymore. I don't. The only reason I do is because gaming consoles double as DVD players now. I assume that's a leading force in why others might have DVD players, too.
CountDrewku 5y ago
They still mail dvd's. I have a coworker who still uses their mail plan. I kinda considered it silly at first by now I'm thinking this is the way to go. It's relatively cheap compared to renting movies via amazon etc. He gets them fast. Blu-ray quality is better than streaming in some cases.
- greedo 5y ago
  Blu-ray quality is almost always higher quality than streaming due to the compression used (even for 4K).
- Youden 5y ago
  > Blu-ray quality is better than streaming in some cases. The wording here sounded a bit off to me here; I read it as "usually Blu-ray quality is worse or the same as streaming quality but sometimes it's better" while I think what you probably meant (and would make a lot more sense) was "usually streaming is just as good as Blu-ray but sometimes the streaming quality is bad and a Blu-ray is better". Is the latter what you meant? Though there is also the possibility that there's a 4K version of a movie available to stream but not released on Blu-ray. Maybe that's what you referred to?
  - mastazi 5y ago
    Blu Ray quality is always better than streaming, by an order of magnitude. Blu Ray 4k has a bitrate of between 92 and 144Mb/s[1], Netflix bitrate at 4K is around 16Mb/s[2] - the resolution is the same but online streaming platforms will need to use loads of compression or most of their user base would not have a fast enough connection to watch video in 4K. Full HD 1080p bitrates are a similar story, Blu Ray is much higher than streaming (36Mb/s vs around 6Mb/s, respectively)[3][4]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_HD_Blu-ray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_HD_Blu-ray [2] https://big-photography.com/guides/what-is-netflix-4k-bitrate/ https://big-photography.com/guides/what-is-netflix-4k-bitrat... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Bit_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Bit_rate [4] https://www.howtogeek.com/338983/how-much-data-does-netflix-use/ https://www.howtogeek.com/338983/how-much-data-does-netflix-...
PopAlongKid 5y ago
I only have Netflix disc rental (blu-ray, one disc out at a time, costs about $10/month). The library is huge and goes back decades. There are usually good user reviews at the Netflix web site for guidance. I suspect there are thousands of theatrically released movies that Netflix only offers on disc, not streaming. In the last ten years, I've rented almost 900 movies (including a few TV shows like Breaking Bad) on disc, so that's well below $2/rental. I live about 50 miles from the nearest distribution center, so turnaround is almost always just two days, because the post office scans the returned disk when I post it, so Netflix sends out the new one the next day, even before they receive my return. They did pull a fast one a few years back by silently stopping outgoing shipments on Saturdays, but I live with it. Discs have great resolution, often have bonus features, and almost always have closed captioning, which I appreciate more and more as I age. And the credits don't get reduced to a thumbnail on screen so the next show can be promoted. And I don't have to log in, or enable wi-fi on my TV. I use an old PS3 as my blu ray player, works great with a Logitech remote control, supports HDMI output. I also have a blu-ray external disk drive for my laptop if I'm on the road (only about $100 as I recall). Since Netflix is primarily responsible for putting Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and various local video stores out of business, I'd be really pissed if they ended the disc rental service.
- the_af 5y ago
  > Discs have great resolution, often have bonus features, and almost always have closed captioning, which I appreciate more and more as I age. Don't they get scratched these days? I remember the DVD days of Blockbuster, and also thinking "DVD as a technology is just not ready for rental" every time I got a disc that was scratched and/or had sticky stuff glued to it.
  - PopAlongKid 5y ago
    Nope. Out of those 900 discs I rented, I've only had to return maybe 2 or 3 as unplayable, and Netflix will immediately send out a replacement or the next disc in your queue, without waiting to receive the return.
  - squeaky-clean 5y ago

cercatrova 5y ago

Netflix still offers their DVD service.

throwawayboise 5y ago
Does anyone use it? I am thinking that people are so accustomed to immediate online gratification that waiting a day or three for a DVD in the mail is just not something a lot of people will do anymore. That means you are going to have to think ahead about what you want to watch, and plan a time to do it, rather than just flopping down on the couch and surfing to find whatever catches your eye. And many people don't even have DVD players anymore. I don't.
- cercatrova 5y ago
  I don't personally as I don't even have a disc drive in my house but when looking online, people in rural areas use it apparently.
  - jcadam 5y ago
    Makes sense considering the state of rural internet in many places.
- scottlamb 5y ago
  > Does anyone use it? I think film students and the like. It's become a niche product, not a mass-market one.
  - shaneprrlt 5y ago
    Back in the day, people had these things called "lives" with irl friends and loved ones. Back then, watching a movie was a special thing you did that brought people together, they didn't need to binge 10 hours of content every night. A few movies a week was plenty.
    - cercatrova 5y ago
      But you can do the same thing with your friends with streaming services? How would that relate to whether or not DVDs are niche?
  - bcrosby95 5y ago
    Part of why it's niche is they basically abandoned that line of business. Remember that they even tried to spin it off into its own separate company, and only changed their minds after a huge backlash. Many companies fail to adapt and stick with old business models. Netflix did the exact opposite and took their dvd business behind the barn and shot it in the head.
- dhosek 5y ago
  I do. There are a bunch of movies I have on my list that fall into the one day I want to watch this category. I do have the cheapest plan because they closed the Chicago-area distribution center and it was hard to get enough DVDs per month with shipping times for anything more generous to be cost-effective.
- bombcar 5y ago
  RedBox provides all the new DVDs nearly instantly, and for anything older it's often pretty cheap to buy them used on Amazon.
- drusepth 5y ago
  >And many people don't even have DVD players anymore. I don't. The only reason I do is because gaming consoles double as DVD players now. I assume that's a leading force in why others might have DVD players, too.

CountDrewku 5y ago

They still mail dvd's. I have a coworker who still uses their mail plan. I kinda considered it silly at first by now I'm thinking this is the way to go. It's relatively cheap compared to renting movies via amazon etc. He gets them fast. Blu-ray quality is better than streaming in some cases.

greedo 5y ago
Blu-ray quality is almost always higher quality than streaming due to the compression used (even for 4K).
Youden 5y ago
> Blu-ray quality is better than streaming in some cases. The wording here sounded a bit off to me here; I read it as "usually Blu-ray quality is worse or the same as streaming quality but sometimes it's better" while I think what you probably meant (and would make a lot more sense) was "usually streaming is just as good as Blu-ray but sometimes the streaming quality is bad and a Blu-ray is better". Is the latter what you meant? Though there is also the possibility that there's a 4K version of a movie available to stream but not released on Blu-ray. Maybe that's what you referred to?
- mastazi 5y ago
  Blu Ray quality is always better than streaming, by an order of magnitude. Blu Ray 4k has a bitrate of between 92 and 144Mb/s[1], Netflix bitrate at 4K is around 16Mb/s[2] - the resolution is the same but online streaming platforms will need to use loads of compression or most of their user base would not have a fast enough connection to watch video in 4K. Full HD 1080p bitrates are a similar story, Blu Ray is much higher than streaming (36Mb/s vs around 6Mb/s, respectively)[3][4]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_HD_Blu-ray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_HD_Blu-ray [2] https://big-photography.com/guides/what-is-netflix-4k-bitrate/ https://big-photography.com/guides/what-is-netflix-4k-bitrat... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Bit_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray#Bit_rate [4] https://www.howtogeek.com/338983/how-much-data-does-netflix-use/ https://www.howtogeek.com/338983/how-much-data-does-netflix-...

PopAlongKid 5y ago

I only have Netflix disc rental (blu-ray, one disc out at a time, costs about $10/month). The library is huge and goes back decades. There are usually good user reviews at the Netflix web site for guidance. I suspect there are thousands of theatrically released movies that Netflix only offers on disc, not streaming. In the last ten years, I've rented almost 900 movies (including a few TV shows like Breaking Bad) on disc, so that's well below $2/rental. I live about 50 miles from the nearest distribution center, so turnaround is almost always just two days, because the post office scans the returned disk when I post it, so Netflix sends out the new one the next day, even before they receive my return. They did pull a fast one a few years back by silently stopping outgoing shipments on Saturdays, but I live with it. Discs have great resolution, often have bonus features, and almost always have closed captioning, which I appreciate more and more as I age. And the credits don't get reduced to a thumbnail on screen so the next show can be promoted. And I don't have to log in, or enable wi-fi on my TV. I use an old PS3 as my blu ray player, works great with a Logitech remote control, supports HDMI output. I also have a blu-ray external disk drive for my laptop if I'm on the road (only about $100 as I recall). Since Netflix is primarily responsible for putting Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and various local video stores out of business, I'd be really pissed if they ended the disc rental service.

the_af 5y ago
> Discs have great resolution, often have bonus features, and almost always have closed captioning, which I appreciate more and more as I age. Don't they get scratched these days? I remember the DVD days of Blockbuster, and also thinking "DVD as a technology is just not ready for rental" every time I got a disc that was scratched and/or had sticky stuff glued to it.
- PopAlongKid 5y ago
  Nope. Out of those 900 discs I rented, I've only had to return maybe 2 or 3 as unplayable, and Netflix will immediately send out a replacement or the next disc in your queue, without waiting to receive the return.
- squeaky-clean 5y ago