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Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 2:33 pm
by Leisher
Set top box.
You wonder if some Hollywood executives are slapping their foreheads over this idea?
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 2:42 pm
by GORDON
Hmmm.
Interesting, but there's a ton of "Yeah but what abouts..."
Internet connection? I assume they aren't talking about a phone line. Leeching my broadband bandwidth? What will my ISP think about that?
What is the cost of these things, and how many mailings would it have to displace in order to be worth it to the company?
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:04 pm
by Malcolm
If they can do this for the current subscription fees (& maybe a small one-time installation fee for the box), I will abuse this thoroughly.
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:18 pm
by TPRJones
If it's the same price, I'm in. Well, as long as you have the option to switch back later if you don't like it.
No extra fees, though, either they've figured out how to make it profitable or it's too soon to switch.
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:26 pm
by TheCatt
I don't want any more damned boxes in my living room.
Of course, I also don't have Netflix.
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:40 pm
by TPRJones
I have Netflix, Blockbuster Home, and Gamerang. I tried Intelliflix, but the extent to which they sucked cannot be expressed in mere words.
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:43 pm
by Malcolm
I've yet to forgive Ballbuster for the years of shitty standard vid rentals.
Just cos a flick is popular doesn't mean you get to keep it in the new release section for two years just so you can charge $4 for it instead of a non-asshole price.
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:03 pm
by TPRJones
Heh. Now they leave it on the shelf for years and charge $4 for everything in the store, even the crap in the middle. Not exactly an improvement.
I don't rent from the store, ever, except the free rental coupons the online guys give me. If I want to rent from a physical distribution center I go to Redbox at McDonald's.
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:10 pm
by WSGrundy
So those of you with netflixs and blockbuster which one do you like better?
I am thinking of going with netflixs because it doesn't look like there split up there TV series into seperate rentals.
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:49 pm
by GORDON
Go netflix because they were first.
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:00 pm
by TPRJones
Of the two, it's a bit of a tossup. Netflix has a much better website and a slightly wider range of obscure titles, but they only have one version of each movie. Blockbuster gives you free in-store rentals, they receive and ship on Saturdays, and they have multiple versions of popular titles (as in do you want the first release of that movie to DVD or the Special Edition or the Remastered Directors Cut, etc etc), but I've had them ship me four times as many bad disks in the last year as Netflix.
But the real deciding issue for online DVD rental places is probably shipping locations. If one has a shipping center close to you and the other doesn't, there's your answer. I tried Intelliflix for a month and they only ship from California so I saw a 12-day turnaround in rentals, as opposed to 2 days with Netflix and Blockbuster who have centers right here in Houston.
If I had to pick just one, I'd go with Netflix because of the website. Their que management really is much much better than Blockbuster's. But then I have two ques to manage with over 900 movies total in 'em, so I'm a bit of an extreme case.
Edited By TPRJones on 1150927411
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:13 pm
by WSGrundy
I looked up shipping centers for each and it looks like both netflix and blockbuster both have one in the same city/state as me.
So I think I will try netflix.
While looking at the netflix website I get the impression that TV series with multiple discs come together, not disc 1 of season 2. Then I came across a website and it showed TV shows being broke up by discs in each season. Is it different for each series or do them come all as one or seperate?
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:19 pm
by TPRJones
Each disk counts as a slot on your rentals. Netflix has a thing where you can add them all to your que at once and it'll make sure you get each disk of the season in order (if one has a wait, it will skip the whole season to get your next rental to send instead of sending the next disk in that season). Blockbuster has something similar, but it doesn't work right all the time.
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:25 pm
by WSGrundy
Cool, thanks for the info.
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:27 pm
by Malcolm
The only annoying things I've ever'd Netflix do to me were send me some DVDs that couldn't be played (replaced w\o question) & they seemed at one point to pick randomly from my top ten queued flicks & just sent me three of them.
Some fucker was either not returning my sealed DVDs to them or was simply swiping them. It happened twice. Both times I just reported to Netflix that the DVD was lost in the mail & life continued.
Only thing that sucks is the 3-4 day turnaround time for flicks.
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:39 pm
by GORDON
There was a thing a while ago about postal employees swiping netflix dvd containers.
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:43 pm
by Malcolm
There was a thing a while ago about postal employees swiping netflix dvd containers.
It's hard to say. One movie sucked & there's no reason anyone would want it. The other was good & a reasonable individual might take it.
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:50 pm
by TheCatt
IIRC, Blockbuster doesnt carry NC-17, and has most foreign movies dubbed.
if that matters at all to anyone
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:12 pm
by WSGrundy
Does netflix have any kind of recommendations based on what you rent or like?
Edited By WSGrundy on 1151007178
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:59 pm
by TPRJones
Yeah, once you've got a few dozen ratings in the system they start to suggest stuff. The more ratings you get in there the better it gets at picking stuff for you.
They also do those "if you liked this, you might also like" suggestions on every movie, based on how people have rated it.
EDIT: There's also a whole "friends" system in place, where you can see your friends ratings on various movies, as well as the top of their que and what they have at home. And you can send them recommendations and do little private reviews as well. I've not really used it much as I have no friends.
Edited By TPRJones on 1151010079