6 ms·

We switched to the streaming-only plan before our billing cycle and have been happy ... We weren't good at quickly watching the DVDs and returning them anyway p

by smoyer 15y ago

We switched to the streaming-only plan before our billing cycle and have been happy ... We weren't good at quickly watching the DVDs and returning them anyway plus we saved a buck a month. How did other HNers respond to the price hike? I would expect this group to be dominated by streamers anyway.

ctdonath 15y ago
Having a couple discs rotting on the shelf for a month or so before watching seemed a good indicator to cancel, but having gone thru the trouble of setting up two queues with 300+ titles I wasn't keen on losing that list and the eternal hope of someday getting to those movies. For a couple bucks more a month I'd retain the lists and, someday, watch the movies. Then the split came. Quadrupling the price of "someday..." wasn't worth it. Copied the lists to a text file, and cancelled. Insofar as Netflix streaming doesn't have everything, iTunes (yay AppleTV!) has most everything else available on a whim for a mere $2-5/rental. With kids streaming their shows on demand (no scratches! no fingerprints! no oatmeal in the DVD player!) from a vast instant library, and me not watching much at all (but when I do, a few bucks for "this, now" works fine), one slick box fusing a few streaming video services (yay AppleTV!) works well. I'm not sure how Netflix intends to attract back the million or so who cancelled. We've adapted; why return?
matwood 15y ago
We weren't good at quickly watching the DVDs and returning them anyway plus we saved a buck a month. We were not either, so I would usually rip the DVDs when I got them and then watch it when we had time (also my only dvd player is a 360 and it's so loud...much better to stream over the ATV). After watching I would delete them...honest, I rarely watch a movie twice. Recently that became harder though because of increased copy protections. How did other HNers respond to the price hike? Canceled the DVD service the day the price hike was announced.
- dpark 15y ago
  How do you do your DVD ripping? I like to rip DVDs for my iPad, but was disappointed to learn that HandBrake won't do deCSS on Windows. I'm not keen on paying $50 for a 3rd-party decryptor just so I can watch movies I own on the bus.
  - matwood 15y ago
    Handbrake on OS X. The latest SVN version usually worked with most movies.
    - dpark 15y ago
      Thanks. I was hoping since you had an Xbox, you were ripping on Windows. I've used HandBrake on OSX before, and it worked great. I just wish the Windows version would handle DVDs the same.
      - matwood 15y ago
        I have an ATV2 for streaming movies from the mac and netflix streaming. The xbox360 only plays games and occasionally plays DVDs - I think I rented a movie a few times from xbox marketplace and it worked fine. I thought about getting a ps3 for the BRD functionality and games, but at this point I don't want to deal with any physical media. Even if the 1080p is better, I've never looked at the movies streaming through the ATV2 to my 46" LCD and thought the 720p picture took away from the movie. Then again, I'm old enough to remember being the human remote control for my dad and I still have an old tube TV in the bedroom :)
        dpark 15y ago
        I've got a PS3, specifically for Blu-Ray, but I rarely use it for that any more. I use it for Netflix, and at this point any number of devices could handle that. If I were buying a Blu-Ray player again, I'd probably buy something else. I got a first-gen, when the PS3 was still the cheapest. But now it's not, and I don't game, and having to use a dedicated Bluetooth remote is annoying. Also there's no Amazon Prime app. You're probably right about 720 vs 1080. You've go to be pretty close to see the difference on a 46" screen. I believe I read that someone with 20/20 vision has to be closer than 8 feet to see the difference on a 50" screen.
mhb 15y ago
I canceled the streaming and kept the DVD plan since I could never find anything worthwhile streaming. Then I signed up for Amazon Prime which is cheaper, has roughly equivalent streaming content and the nice shipping. I don't see how Netflix streaming is a good deal unless there is a significant increase in the quality of available content and that doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon.
- pragmatic 15y ago
  Kids. If you have them, it's worth it. If not, it's harder to justify.
  - dpcan 15y ago
    I have kids who watched the streaming service every now and then, but still canceled it and went Blu-Ray/DVD only because, in my opinion, 99% of the streaming content is awful. It's like the old cheap-rentals section at Hastings. The selection for kids was just a bunch of the same cartoons the networks re-run all day long every day on cable that we don't like them watching, so it didn't seem to make sense to pay extra so they could re-watch more of the same junk more often.
- derekprior 15y ago
  I always seem to find some television series that's available via streaming that my wife and I want to see. Each time I say, "We should cancel streaming when we're done with this" and each time we find something else that fits the bill. Firefly. Battlestar Galactica. Sports Night. Better of Ted... We cut the cable cord over a year ago, relying on Netflix Streaming for older content and iTunes for newer stuff. Even paying for the iTunes stuff, we're WAY, WAY, WAY ahead. I should do that math someday...
wanorris 15y ago
We almost never used the DVD service, but the streaming service is our primary way of watching TV -- the kids watch it frequently, we use it to watch with varying frequency, but either way, we rarely watch something on actual cable. For things that aren't on Netflix, we sometimes use Redbox or Amazon's On Demand rentals, but mostly it doesn't exist for us.
Retreads 15y ago
We had (and used) both services, but the price hike caused us to reevaluate all of our media expenses. Cancelled all Netflix and our cable. Retained Xbox Live (and internets, of course). We were more annoyed by the Netflix change than enraged by it, and it was a convenient reason to examine the value vs. expense ratio of what we were buying every month. So while we used both the streaming and DVD services, we didn't use them enough to justify the expense. Same with cable. Now we just watch less TV and play the same amount of video games. Library card and internet usage have increased.
- w33ble 15y ago
  That's interesting to hear. Netflix forced you to re-evaluate the value proposition and it makes sense to consider all forms of entertainment while you're at it. I wonder if there are a significant number of people like yourself that also took this opportunity to cut the cord on cable (and satellite).
  - smoyer 15y ago
    I would have loved to cut off the cable and rearranged our streaming choices, but my wife is a rabid college football fan and I'd be in the dog house ;)
DavidAdams 15y ago
I cancelled Netflix outright, after being a member for 11 years.
kbutler 15y ago
We looked at the value: not-deep-enough streaming catalog plus deep DVD catalog was a great service and a good value. Either one alone? Incomplete service. Both? Not enough value at the 2X price. We kept our subscription open until the day the price hike would hit us (How does Netflix get away with "the moment you cancel, your subscription ends, no refunds for partial months"?!?), then canceled completely. I tried to send them feedback explaining our decision, but I could not locate a "contact us" via internet vs phone, and I didn't care enough to call them.
- gallamine 15y ago
  Isn't "Not enough value at the 2X price." a bit hyperbolic? Most people would say a 60% cut is "around 50%". I'm not trying to criticize you, but there seems to be a systemic overreaction that I can't quite figure out.
  - kbutler 15y ago
    It's not hyperbole, it's historical prices & rounding. I was on a $4.99 1-DVD at a time plan. Then I was on an $8.99/month unlimited streaming plus 1 DVD (yeah, unlimited streaming is worth the extra $4). Nov 2010 it up $1/month. Then this year it underwent mitosis , becoming two $8/month plans. Yes, $16 is less than 2 * $9, but the process feels like a 2X increase in under a year.
- bshep 15y ago
  I did the same, first switched to DVD only before the price hike ( couldn't find anything on streaming I liked... ), then just today cancelled the DVD service, probably wont be back as a customer...
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- alttag 15y ago
  I cancelled with the same logic you used. I too tried to let them know, but there wasn't a good option in their exit survey, which was actually biased to mask my actual opinion. Instead, I posted to my blog. [1] So far as no partial refunds, I know their agreement says that, but I saw a partial refund to my credit card within a week of canceling. 1: http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2011/09/dear-netflix/ http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2011/09/dear-netflix/
morrow 15y ago
I went DVD-only. I had worked up a list a mile long of movies I wanted to watch, and most of them were only available on disc, so I ended up going with that, figuring when I was done I could switch to streaming (and by then they'd probably have more content). I had some trouble following this plan, however, after the 3rd or 4th disc in a short while stopped playing on me or skipped around half-way through. Every time it had happened, I cleaned the disc carefully, and then reported the problem (if it persisted) through their site. The only recompense they offer for this is to either send out a replacement disc or to send the next movie out, and as I'm midway through the film, and don't exactly want to wait 3 days to finish it, I ended up always just skipping to the next movie, or suffering through the skips. After the most recent bad disc, I did what the OP mentioned, and honestly looked at what value I was getting out of the service, and I ended up cancelling. I understand that discs get scratched in transit or handling, and I understand that I'm living in the past as far as digital vs. physical media goes, I just think what it boiled down to for me is that when you separate the DVD and streaming services out, neither of them really stand up on their own as worth their cost. I'd probably re-subscribe to the streaming if they improved their selection or lowered the cost failing that, but I don't think I'd bother with discs again.
uptown 15y ago
I canceled DVD delivery after the price-change ... then streaming after the Qwikster was announced. I did the math, and determined that Amazon and Apple offered everything I needed in a pay-as-you-go structure that made more fiscal sense to the way I watch movies with a much better streaming selection.
robert_nsu 15y ago
I'm streaming only. It boils down to me not watching enough TV to justify the two. I might spend 3 hours in one evening consuming some form of media, but I have to decide whether I want to play a game or watch TV.
nooneelse 15y ago
We did the reevaluation, but it still came out in favor of keeping both dvds and streaming. The combo of streaming and dvds is still less than we were spending (in $ and hassle) on dvd rentals from the local big-selection store most months. (And comparing any of this to the entertainment option of cable is a big win, obviously.) Redbox seldom to never has anything to interest me, and the lack of depth to the Netflix streaming catalog precludes me wanting streaming alone. I'm somewhat bad about holding a disc for a while (b/c I often get documentaries and educational stuff, so I have to be in the right mood), but my wife watches what she gets very quick, so that common complaint doesn't bite us much. She regularly gets dvds that are rare enough that they have to ship the disc from across the country, and I really like that Netflix will send us the next disc from the queue to "make up for the delay" which has never been much of a delay at all. So, many times we have had one more disc on hand than the plan we pay for. Good customer service like that is still something Netflix does. The two-websites and queues plan made me worry they had lost their senses, but this reversal and having had three discs this week when I pay for two has me still in the loyal customer column.
jamesbritt 15y ago
I went to DVD-only. Partly it was the occasionally crappy streaming experience for my own viewing (most of my machines run Ubuntu; I've a dedicated Win7 laptop that is perhaps underpowered for Netflix streaming). Too much pausing and image freezing while sound continued. The biggest streaming issue was that I often watch movies with subtitles because a friend is hard of hearing. Subtitles were a grossly unreliable feature; they would appear at odd times, often in a big rush, making them useless. (This when watching a movie via the Wii.)
lukev 15y ago
The price hike wasn't a big deal for us. It's still well worth it with our viewing patterns. DVD service is still valuable because there's literally no other way of watching movies that aren't available for streaming anywhere, Netflix or otherwise (which add up to a depressingly large amount). However, I am looking into Redbox as an alternative (which I wouldn't have done had Netflix not segregated their service...) Streaming, despite the recent poor selection, pays for itself easily in the few TV series that we watch and are available. Spending $20 to buy a series on DVD or Amazon streaming vs a Netflix streaming subscription is a no-brainer. If it ever happened that none of the series we wanted to watch were available on Netflix, we'd probably cancel (and renew if we found one we did want to watch.)
sbov 15y ago
Cancelled streaming due to the split, not price hike. Since 90% of what I actually want to watch is only available via dvd, streaming was more of a convenient addon than the core product. That I was going to lose the integration between streaming & dvd made streaming pointless.
sixtofour 15y ago
Canceled both. I was on the streaming plus one DVD plan. I was probably buying a different service than Netflix thought they were selling: All the streaming movies I can stand for about $10/month, with DVDs as backup if they aren't streamed. As others have noted, neither service on its own is worth the price to me. Streaming quality is OK. DVDs are usually playable but not always. Once I start the DVD and settle in with my popcorn, a refund or the next movie can't make up for the disappointment and wasted time of a half watched movie. I'm price sensitive these days, as are a lot of people. I'm going with the library, and the occasional PPV on Amazon or Youtube. I don't have to watch every new movie, and most of my viewing was classics, indie and foreign anyway.
lukifer 15y ago
I've been a hardcore user for many years, and I didn't mind the price hike. I go through maybe ten discs per month, and use streaming frequently, all for much less than cable. If the raised rate had always been the normal price, I would have paid happily and not thought twice about it. However, the split made me livid, especially with the implicit message that Netflix doesn't want its original customers anymore. While that motivation probably hasn't changed, I'm placated for now that they're at least keeping the service under one roof.

by smoyer 15y ago

ctdonath 15y ago

Having a couple discs rotting on the shelf for a month or so before watching seemed a good indicator to cancel, but having gone thru the trouble of setting up two queues with 300+ titles I wasn't keen on losing that list and the eternal hope of someday getting to those movies. For a couple bucks more a month I'd retain the lists and, someday, watch the movies. Then the split came. Quadrupling the price of "someday..." wasn't worth it. Copied the lists to a text file, and cancelled. Insofar as Netflix streaming doesn't have everything, iTunes (yay AppleTV!) has most everything else available on a whim for a mere $2-5/rental. With kids streaming their shows on demand (no scratches! no fingerprints! no oatmeal in the DVD player!) from a vast instant library, and me not watching much at all (but when I do, a few bucks for "this, now" works fine), one slick box fusing a few streaming video services (yay AppleTV!) works well. I'm not sure how Netflix intends to attract back the million or so who cancelled. We've adapted; why return?

matwood 15y ago

We weren't good at quickly watching the DVDs and returning them anyway plus we saved a buck a month. We were not either, so I would usually rip the DVDs when I got them and then watch it when we had time (also my only dvd player is a 360 and it's so loud...much better to stream over the ATV). After watching I would delete them...honest, I rarely watch a movie twice. Recently that became harder though because of increased copy protections. How did other HNers respond to the price hike? Canceled the DVD service the day the price hike was announced.

dpark 15y ago
How do you do your DVD ripping? I like to rip DVDs for my iPad, but was disappointed to learn that HandBrake won't do deCSS on Windows. I'm not keen on paying $50 for a 3rd-party decryptor just so I can watch movies I own on the bus.
- matwood 15y ago
  Handbrake on OS X. The latest SVN version usually worked with most movies.
  - dpark 15y ago
    Thanks. I was hoping since you had an Xbox, you were ripping on Windows. I've used HandBrake on OSX before, and it worked great. I just wish the Windows version would handle DVDs the same.
    - matwood 15y ago
      I have an ATV2 for streaming movies from the mac and netflix streaming. The xbox360 only plays games and occasionally plays DVDs - I think I rented a movie a few times from xbox marketplace and it worked fine. I thought about getting a ps3 for the BRD functionality and games, but at this point I don't want to deal with any physical media. Even if the 1080p is better, I've never looked at the movies streaming through the ATV2 to my 46" LCD and thought the 720p picture took away from the movie. Then again, I'm old enough to remember being the human remote control for my dad and I still have an old tube TV in the bedroom :)
      - dpark 15y ago
        I've got a PS3, specifically for Blu-Ray, but I rarely use it for that any more. I use it for Netflix, and at this point any number of devices could handle that. If I were buying a Blu-Ray player again, I'd probably buy something else. I got a first-gen, when the PS3 was still the cheapest. But now it's not, and I don't game, and having to use a dedicated Bluetooth remote is annoying. Also there's no Amazon Prime app. You're probably right about 720 vs 1080. You've go to be pretty close to see the difference on a 46" screen. I believe I read that someone with 20/20 vision has to be closer than 8 feet to see the difference on a 50" screen.

mhb 15y ago

I canceled the streaming and kept the DVD plan since I could never find anything worthwhile streaming. Then I signed up for Amazon Prime which is cheaper, has roughly equivalent streaming content and the nice shipping. I don't see how Netflix streaming is a good deal unless there is a significant increase in the quality of available content and that doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon.

pragmatic 15y ago
Kids. If you have them, it's worth it. If not, it's harder to justify.
- dpcan 15y ago
  I have kids who watched the streaming service every now and then, but still canceled it and went Blu-Ray/DVD only because, in my opinion, 99% of the streaming content is awful. It's like the old cheap-rentals section at Hastings. The selection for kids was just a bunch of the same cartoons the networks re-run all day long every day on cable that we don't like them watching, so it didn't seem to make sense to pay extra so they could re-watch more of the same junk more often.
derekprior 15y ago
I always seem to find some television series that's available via streaming that my wife and I want to see. Each time I say, "We should cancel streaming when we're done with this" and each time we find something else that fits the bill. Firefly. Battlestar Galactica. Sports Night. Better of Ted... We cut the cable cord over a year ago, relying on Netflix Streaming for older content and iTunes for newer stuff. Even paying for the iTunes stuff, we're WAY, WAY, WAY ahead. I should do that math someday...

wanorris 15y ago

We almost never used the DVD service, but the streaming service is our primary way of watching TV -- the kids watch it frequently, we use it to watch with varying frequency, but either way, we rarely watch something on actual cable. For things that aren't on Netflix, we sometimes use Redbox or Amazon's On Demand rentals, but mostly it doesn't exist for us.

Retreads 15y ago

We had (and used) both services, but the price hike caused us to reevaluate all of our media expenses. Cancelled all Netflix and our cable. Retained Xbox Live (and internets, of course). We were more annoyed by the Netflix change than enraged by it, and it was a convenient reason to examine the value vs. expense ratio of what we were buying every month. So while we used both the streaming and DVD services, we didn't use them enough to justify the expense. Same with cable. Now we just watch less TV and play the same amount of video games. Library card and internet usage have increased.

w33ble 15y ago
That's interesting to hear. Netflix forced you to re-evaluate the value proposition and it makes sense to consider all forms of entertainment while you're at it. I wonder if there are a significant number of people like yourself that also took this opportunity to cut the cord on cable (and satellite).
- smoyer 15y ago
  I would have loved to cut off the cable and rearranged our streaming choices, but my wife is a rabid college football fan and I'd be in the dog house ;)

DavidAdams 15y ago

I cancelled Netflix outright, after being a member for 11 years.

kbutler 15y ago

We looked at the value: not-deep-enough streaming catalog plus deep DVD catalog was a great service and a good value. Either one alone? Incomplete service. Both? Not enough value at the 2X price. We kept our subscription open until the day the price hike would hit us (How does Netflix get away with "the moment you cancel, your subscription ends, no refunds for partial months"?!?), then canceled completely. I tried to send them feedback explaining our decision, but I could not locate a "contact us" via internet vs phone, and I didn't care enough to call them.

gallamine 15y ago
Isn't "Not enough value at the 2X price." a bit hyperbolic? Most people would say a 60% cut is "around 50%". I'm not trying to criticize you, but there seems to be a systemic overreaction that I can't quite figure out.
- kbutler 15y ago
  It's not hyperbole, it's historical prices & rounding. I was on a $4.99 1-DVD at a time plan. Then I was on an $8.99/month unlimited streaming plus 1 DVD (yeah, unlimited streaming is worth the extra $4). Nov 2010 it up $1/month. Then this year it underwent mitosis , becoming two $8/month plans. Yes, $16 is less than 2 * $9, but the process feels like a 2X increase in under a year.
bshep 15y ago
I did the same, first switched to DVD only before the price hike ( couldn't find anything on streaming I liked... ), then just today cancelled the DVD service, probably wont be back as a customer...
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
alttag 15y ago
I cancelled with the same logic you used. I too tried to let them know, but there wasn't a good option in their exit survey, which was actually biased to mask my actual opinion. Instead, I posted to my blog. [1] So far as no partial refunds, I know their agreement says that, but I saw a partial refund to my credit card within a week of canceling. 1: http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2011/09/dear-netflix/ http://alt-tag.com/blog/archives/2011/09/dear-netflix/

morrow 15y ago

I went DVD-only. I had worked up a list a mile long of movies I wanted to watch, and most of them were only available on disc, so I ended up going with that, figuring when I was done I could switch to streaming (and by then they'd probably have more content). I had some trouble following this plan, however, after the 3rd or 4th disc in a short while stopped playing on me or skipped around half-way through. Every time it had happened, I cleaned the disc carefully, and then reported the problem (if it persisted) through their site. The only recompense they offer for this is to either send out a replacement disc or to send the next movie out, and as I'm midway through the film, and don't exactly want to wait 3 days to finish it, I ended up always just skipping to the next movie, or suffering through the skips. After the most recent bad disc, I did what the OP mentioned, and honestly looked at what value I was getting out of the service, and I ended up cancelling. I understand that discs get scratched in transit or handling, and I understand that I'm living in the past as far as digital vs. physical media goes, I just think what it boiled down to for me is that when you separate the DVD and streaming services out, neither of them really stand up on their own as worth their cost. I'd probably re-subscribe to the streaming if they improved their selection or lowered the cost failing that, but I don't think I'd bother with discs again.

uptown 15y ago

I canceled DVD delivery after the price-change ... then streaming after the Qwikster was announced. I did the math, and determined that Amazon and Apple offered everything I needed in a pay-as-you-go structure that made more fiscal sense to the way I watch movies with a much better streaming selection.

robert_nsu 15y ago

I'm streaming only. It boils down to me not watching enough TV to justify the two. I might spend 3 hours in one evening consuming some form of media, but I have to decide whether I want to play a game or watch TV.

nooneelse 15y ago

We did the reevaluation, but it still came out in favor of keeping both dvds and streaming. The combo of streaming and dvds is still less than we were spending (in $ and hassle) on dvd rentals from the local big-selection store most months. (And comparing any of this to the entertainment option of cable is a big win, obviously.) Redbox seldom to never has anything to interest me, and the lack of depth to the Netflix streaming catalog precludes me wanting streaming alone. I'm somewhat bad about holding a disc for a while (b/c I often get documentaries and educational stuff, so I have to be in the right mood), but my wife watches what she gets very quick, so that common complaint doesn't bite us much. She regularly gets dvds that are rare enough that they have to ship the disc from across the country, and I really like that Netflix will send us the next disc from the queue to "make up for the delay" which has never been much of a delay at all. So, many times we have had one more disc on hand than the plan we pay for. Good customer service like that is still something Netflix does. The two-websites and queues plan made me worry they had lost their senses, but this reversal and having had three discs this week when I pay for two has me still in the loyal customer column.

jamesbritt 15y ago

I went to DVD-only. Partly it was the occasionally crappy streaming experience for my own viewing (most of my machines run Ubuntu; I've a dedicated Win7 laptop that is perhaps underpowered for Netflix streaming). Too much pausing and image freezing while sound continued. The biggest streaming issue was that I often watch movies with subtitles because a friend is hard of hearing. Subtitles were a grossly unreliable feature; they would appear at odd times, often in a big rush, making them useless. (This when watching a movie via the Wii.)

lukev 15y ago

The price hike wasn't a big deal for us. It's still well worth it with our viewing patterns. DVD service is still valuable because there's literally no other way of watching movies that aren't available for streaming anywhere, Netflix or otherwise (which add up to a depressingly large amount). However, I am looking into Redbox as an alternative (which I wouldn't have done had Netflix not segregated their service...) Streaming, despite the recent poor selection, pays for itself easily in the few TV series that we watch and are available. Spending $20 to buy a series on DVD or Amazon streaming vs a Netflix streaming subscription is a no-brainer. If it ever happened that none of the series we wanted to watch were available on Netflix, we'd probably cancel (and renew if we found one we did want to watch.)

sbov 15y ago

Cancelled streaming due to the split, not price hike. Since 90% of what I actually want to watch is only available via dvd, streaming was more of a convenient addon than the core product. That I was going to lose the integration between streaming & dvd made streaming pointless.

sixtofour 15y ago

Canceled both. I was on the streaming plus one DVD plan. I was probably buying a different service than Netflix thought they were selling: All the streaming movies I can stand for about $10/month, with DVDs as backup if they aren't streamed. As others have noted, neither service on its own is worth the price to me. Streaming quality is OK. DVDs are usually playable but not always. Once I start the DVD and settle in with my popcorn, a refund or the next movie can't make up for the disappointment and wasted time of a half watched movie. I'm price sensitive these days, as are a lot of people. I'm going with the library, and the occasional PPV on Amazon or Youtube. I don't have to watch every new movie, and most of my viewing was classics, indie and foreign anyway.

lukifer 15y ago

I've been a hardcore user for many years, and I didn't mind the price hike. I go through maybe ten discs per month, and use streaming frequently, all for much less than cable. If the raised rate had always been the normal price, I would have paid happily and not thought twice about it. However, the split made me livid, especially with the implicit message that Netflix doesn't want its original customers anymore. While that motivation probably hasn't changed, I'm placated for now that they're at least keeping the service under one roof.