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Confessions of a Netflix DVD Dead-Ender
- neonate 3y agohttp://web.archive.org/web/20230903212434/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/netflix-dvds-mail-ending/675204/ http://web.archive.org/web/20230903212434/https://www.theatl... https://archive.ph/Y72sb https://archive.ph/Y72sb
- no_wizard 3y agoAnyone know of a good place one can buy blu rays and DVDs for a good price that has a good selection? I’m talking new if possible but great condition used works too. I like buying complete seasons of shows and I hate having to scour for them Amazon is surprisingly not great alot of the time. I’m trying to build up some physical media collection for shows I enjoy over and over
- bobsmooth 3y agoEbay?
- harrisonjackson 3y agoMovie Trading Company - https://movietradingcompany.com/ https://movietradingcompany.com/ IRL if you can - they're awesome. The one in Dallas is huge. Like a gamestop for dvds but the size of a warehouse. It is pretty close to a Half-priced books, same concept but books, and hitting the two of them back to back is a fun way to spend a day.
- kornork 3y agoI know you said buy - but the public library has a good collection (at least where I live).
- drewcoo 3y agoI miss the Seattle Public Library! I COVID-moved out here to Dogpatch with the DPL's tiny permanent collection and 3 InterLibrary Loan requests at a time. It makes me want to be a hoarder.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- benj111 3y agoI've found charity shops good for DVDs and CDs, if only because every so often someone with the same taste gets rid of their collection so you end up with a little cache of "you may also like" but created by an actual human.
- chiph 3y agoThe local used-media store (2nd & Charles) isn't buying right now because they have cartons of DVDs/Blurays in their back room and no more space for more. So they ought to be willing to discount. I've never gotten a bad disc from them. https://www.2ndandcharles.com/movies-video-games-more-dvd-blu-ray-video https://www.2ndandcharles.com/movies-video-games-more-dvd-bl...
- mcshicks 3y agoI haven't gone in a long time but I used to like buying DVDs at Bookoff. Its a japanese second hand shop but they had a good selection of English language dvds and cds. It looks like they only have locations in Southern California and New York.
- neilv 3y agoI loved how huge Netflix's DVD catalog was. To return closer to that, is any service yet providing a unified interface to all the streaming catalogs? (In which all titles in all services are in a "flat namespace" in the UI, not first selecting a streaming service in the UI and then browsing within that one service.)
- maxweylandt 3y agoFor movies letterboxd does this quite nicely but it's a small part of the service rather than central. But any movie has a 'where to watch' section with links to the movies on berries platforms, if you're subscribed of course. This is powered by a third party service, JustWatch, which might work for you - they do seem to have their own thing, not just an API
- Gamemaster1379 3y agoI think Plex would be the closest to this.
- btgeekboy 3y agoSome streaming boxes will do exactly that; both Apple’s and Amazon’s will, and perhaps others. For example, if you search for a movie or TV show on Fire TV or in the Apple TV app (on that box) it’ll show you the title and what services currently have it available. Searching for Stranger Things and House on Apple TV, for example, return links into Netflix or the Prime Video app (where I’ve been watching the latter).
- ianlevesque 3y agoIs Netflix available in there now? They were famously absent for the first few years of that feature.
- vidarh 3y agoOn which one? On Amazon FireTV devices it does link into the Netflix app. It works well enough that to e.g. continue watching series on Netflix I rarely open the Netflix app because they're visible directly in the FireTV interface.
- SoftTalker 3y agoI haven't even seen a DVD player in years. Surprised to hear that the service still existed.
- galkk 3y agoIf you see Xbox or PlayStation you see dvd/blue ray player too
- ThatPlayer 3y agoUnless you have the models that do not have a disc drive. Even those are going digital only.
- TylerE 3y agoOn the low end. On the highend it's different because you basically need a gaming console's worth of hardware for 4K Blu-Ray - the few standalone players rapidly died because they cost as much as a PS5 anyway.
- Bluecobra 3y agoSony was really smart to include movie playback in their consoles, it's a really good value proposition. I bought my PS2 to play DVDs and play games. I eventually upgraded to the PS3 to upgrade to Blu-Ray and still use it today. I recall reading/hearing somewhere that the PS3 was one of the best quality Blu-Ray players at the time. I would assume the PS5 would still be a good pick for 4K Blu-Ray.
- TylerE 3y agoPat is the 4K player.
- p0w3n3d 3y agoif you have a desktop computer, it's easy to buy a dvd and put it in the case...
- agnosticmantis 3y agoOut of curiosity, are there any spies that read hacker news?
- bagels 3y agoYes, there are a few.
- mattbgates 3y ago$50 million back in the early 2000s. That was how much Netflix was worth when Blockbuster was made an offer to buy it. They rejected it. Could've been a different world if Yahoo and Blockbuster weren't so afraid of change. Sad to see the end of the DVD era... kind of makes you wonder why we put so much faith in the digital cloud, for one day, maybe we will only be able to play DVDs. Then again... can't be afraid of change.
- mongol 3y agoHow different would it really be though? Different name of the conpany, but I think it otherwise would not be that different today.
- actionfromafar 3y agoLikely BlockBuster could have been more stable and financed the stores for longer if they wanted to. As late as pre-corona-pandemic there were lots of little independent rental stores specialising in the one niche still available - blockbuster BluRays (and DVDs!) with what had just left the local theaters, but weren't yet widely available on streaming services. During the pandemic there was a pause in theatrical releases and the little rental chains couldn't weather that, so they disappeared. But yeah, not that different from today.
- nickjj 3y ago> During the pandemic there was a pause in theatrical releases and the little rental chains couldn't weather that, so they disappeared. Funny enough the pandemic was the reason I canceled my Netflix DVD subscription. During the early days there was no information about how it spread. The DVDs are sanitized (wiping finger prints, etc.) but I wasn't sure about the sleeves. I know a number of organic things can survive for over a year without a host (fuck you ringworm) so I wanted to play it safe.
- mopenstein 3y agoAs a mail carrier during the outbreak I was deemed essential and forced to work 6 days a week. The volume increased 3 or 4 fold since everyone was at home. I touched many thousands of packages and much more mail, it took me 3 years to catch the COVID and I got it from my brother's family at Thanksgiving.
- p0w3n3d 3y agoIn my country DVD rental is different set of laws and rules, and when you used to rent DVD, you did not need to go to Disney's DVD rental to rent Marvel movies, and to HBO's rental house to rent DC movies. Life was much simplier backdays. Of course now you don't even need to move a muscle, other than finger, to get new movie in 0 seconds, but also you need to pay monthly huge amount of money for the 3 movies you watch monthly, because you have have kids, work etc.
- midasuni 3y agoRenting 3 movies a month on Amazon has no subscription fee and is at least as cheap as the old days of going to the local video store
- WeylandYutani 3y agoYeah I tire of this annoying nostalgia. I remember how expensive it was to rent things from Videoland. I remember how expensive it was to buy box sets of TV shows at Free Record Shop. Trust me Netflix is still a million times better.
- mopenstein 3y agoI remember my friends and I getting stoned in high school and renting every Disney cartoon feature film. Since they were old releases they cost us $1 each. I think we spent $13 in total. We spent more on the pot and candy.
- rhino369 3y agoWhen were you in high school? Blockbuster cut prices near the end as it was dying to try to compete with Netflix and Redbox.
- mopenstein 3y ago1995ish
- benoliver999 3y agoFor those in the UK still interested, CinemaParadiso is a really good DVD/Blu-Ray rental service https://www.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/ https://www.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/ I feel like a luddite sometimes but I really love movies and hate the limited selection on streaming. Also, logging into different accounts, dealing with different apps etc is a pain in the arse.
- predictsoft 3y agoI use CinemaParadiso. I thought Lovefilm was the only game in town. But I searched Google for 'UK DVD rental' and found CinemaParadiso. I signed up. That was 6 months ago. Now I watch about 3 disks a week and love the variety. Just to clarify: I was a big fan of Lovefilm with 4 disks at once, but Amazon shut it down. Just a note: CinemaParadiso has been a private company since 2003 so basically, it is unlikely to be shut down like Lovefilm. This means it will likely be around another 20 years. Edit: CP changed to CinemaParadiso
- rokkamokka 3y agoYou really shouldn't use that acronym. People might get the wrong idea.
- didntcheck 3y agoOnly if they're being intentionally obtuse. Do those people also object to the Unix copy command? Or HDCP? There's only 676 two letter acronyms so of course there's collisions
- benoliver999 3y agoI think there will always be a market for this. Maybe not a big one, but surely there are enough people out there who just want to stick a disc in the player and press play, rather than sign up to loads of different services.
- bombcar 3y agoYou may also want to check the local library, too. They don’t deliver, but with inter library loan they’ve been able to eventually get almost anything I’ve wanted.
- qznc 3y agoI’m a happy customer of Videobuster (Germany though) for DVD renting. Especially this model of „maintain a wish list“. It is much easier to pick something as a group if the choice is limited by availability.
- eatbitseveryday 3y agoSad. When the option became available, I switched to 8 discs out at a time. Here’s where I also rent from. They have many items. Sadly they limit rentals to a fixed number each month. USA store. https://www.store-3d-blurayrental.com/ https://www.store-3d-blurayrental.com/
- bloomingeek 3y agoIMO, Netflix is making a mistake by not caring that a group of their loyal customers are upset by this move. Sure it costs them money to ship these disks and replace them when broken,but come on, they can more then afford it! And they can always raise the price in the name of satisfying the customers. I've been a streamer and disker for years, but as of September 30th I'm firing Netflix because there are better streaming options, I only stayed because of the DVD's.
- mpsprd 3y agoYou answered your own question at "it costs them money". They cannot afford it, they are an eternal growth company. They will optimize their revenue until they attain total enshittification.
- bombcar 3y agoThey have the DVD rental costs under COGS instead of marketing. I suspect the DVD renters are among Netflix’s best ambassadors; they’re all being fired.
- zo1 3y agoCan they afford to sell it at least, cmon? There is something seriously wrong with what is being taught in finance. It's like you have an asset, it has a revenue stream, it's probably profitable, so why the ^#%#%@ are you getting rid of it.
- wrycoder 3y agoOne of my least favorite activities was wandering through a video store going, “Nope, nope, nope.” I have 400 in my queue. If I forget to move a recent interest to the top when I return a disk, something interesting will show up. And I love the low pressure. I can have an unmatched disk lying on the table for months, and there is no urgency to return it.
- motrm 3y ago> If I have a DVD at home when the site shuts down, do I just get to keep it? The company’s emails haven’t said. Late in August the reporting[0][1] said that Netflix DVD subscribers could keep any DVDs they have at the time of shutdown, as well as applying[2] to receive some extra discs [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-customers-can-keep-dvds-for-free-request-10-more-2023-8?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-customers-can-keep-d... [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-mail-service-sending-last-shipment-10-mystery-dvds-2023-8?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-mail-service-sending... [2] https://twitter.com/dvdnetflix/status/1692240971659108448 https://twitter.com/dvdnetflix/status/1692240971659108448
- JKCalhoun 3y agoI'm a Netflix DVD hold-out. For me it has been the long-tail of Netflix offerings. There is so much new stuff being streamed, and I'm sure Ted Lasso is great, but I want to go to "film school" and see the silent classics, foreign classics, experimental films that pushed the boundaries.... I had no idea Netflix had my entire history. Looks like September 2004 was my first rental, (Tomorrowland: Disc 1, a collection of early Disney TV specials on manned space flight), and I've rented 2355 discs. Wow. I also understand that on September 29, they mail out the last discs ... and subscribers can keep them. That is a cool farewell gesture I guess.
- not_the_fda 3y agoAs a replacement I'd recommend https://www.criterionchannel.com/ https://www.criterionchannel.com/ https://mubi.com/ https://mubi.com/
- ghaff 3y agoEven as something of a film buff, I find Criterion pretty Euro art house heavy for my taste. It's really not something I'd want a steady diet of.
- js2 3y agoIt has a rotating collections of films on top of its base catalog. It groups the films into featured collections for presentation. I've never found it to be heavy toward any particular genre. It's my favorite subscription. It's also my favorite app for discovering new movies. Here's what browsing currently looks like: https://www.criterionchannel.com/browse https://www.criterionchannel.com/browse
- ghaff 3y agoI was basing my opinion on both their historical bread and butter and a quick peek at their all films list. But, yes, looking at the browse page it looks broader.
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- tegmark 3y agothe best alternative to dvd netflix that ive found is dvd-inbox.com. its a guy who sells dvds and blurays on ebay who is starting a netflix clone. you can upload your netflix queue (netflix allows you to download all your data including your queue) to the website currently. https://dvdinbox.com https://dvdinbox.com
- chiph 3y agoNetflix trimmed my queue shortly after announcing their closure, removing the entire "Saved" portion of titles they knew about, but didn't have. I re-prioritized my list as well, removing titles I knew I didn't want badly enough and weren't going to arrive in time. Thanks for the link, looking carefully at subscribing.
- eatbitseveryday 3y agoWow thank you for the link! I couldn’t see on their website anywhere if they also rent 4K UHD discs.
- tegmark 3y agothey are extremely responsive on twitter and email if you wanted to ask. i have ralked with them about offering higher value discs, UHD and rare titles. i am optimistic that they will be offering everything they might sell on ebay including UHD.
- BearhatBeer 3y agoDVD's are like $1-2 each now used, what's the benefit of a subscription service?