Netflix close to offering online movie downloads
posted Jul 27th 2005 6:00AM
It's no secret that Netflix wants to offer online movie downloads — they've been talking about it for months and
mention of a "Netflix Player" turned up the other day —
which is why it's hardly surprising that the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Netflix is finally getting very,
very, very close to launching its on-demand rental service (can you feel it?). The service is described as being
similar to MovieLink and CinemaNow, two not-particularly-loved online movie download services which have been kicking
around for a little while now, but really got us going was mention that they're going to be offering a set top box,
presumably with an internet connection for downloading movies and a hard drive for storing 'em
(Akimbo, anyone?). It's no longer clear
how TiVo is still mixed up with all
this, but if they're not hooking up with TiVo anymore then Netflix has few options but to offer some other way for
people to watch the movies they've downloaded on their TV rather than their computer, and a set top box more or less
fits the bill (yeah, we're aware of the existence of media PCs and digital media adapter, but most people don't want to
deal with any of that stuff).
[Via PVRBlog]
before the gadget fan club chimes in, let me just say that yes, those of us who want a simple, integrated netflix set-top box for our tv do exist. i definitely don't want to bother with a media center pc, or whatever.
just give it wifi so i can put it on the tvs in my home that don't get cable, and suddenly the whole household is happier.
linksys will soon come up with a "netflix enabled" dma (something like the d-link dsm-320 but with hdd)
i wished they would team up with replay tv... there device is second to none to me. i demoed a tivo and did not like the restrictions set on the machine.
i wonder how they will work the subscription though. will it be a per movie charge or unlimited viewing of any movie per month? i'd pay $24.99 if i can watch whatever i want whenever i want. the only thing would be moving my modem and wireless router downstairs but that's not a big deal.
this would be nice if it was integrated with my tivo somehow.
i really, really don't want to add another stb to my tv area.
all of the conference calls stated that movie downloading will be the same price as the regular subscription. for one price (say the popular $17.99 plan) subscribers can have 3 movies out anytime with unlimited movies per month. this price will cover either downloading or regular mail service so your 1 subscription covers it all. content in the beginning will be very limited though due to the dvd release window for new titles.
it makes sense for them to offer this in a seperate box. most of us don't use tivo and there is no way that the cable companies will play along with this.
they should work with micro$oft to enable this with the xbox360
i would almost prefer to have a set top box with wifi. i mean, i guess i could just run a video-out to my tv, but not everyone has that option... plus who wants to watch movies on a 19" screen when they have a tv twice that size in the other room?
i wonder how fast the on-demand will be. i have broadband, and i guess that with just a few seconds of buffering i could have enough of the movie to stream from there, but if netflix has a heavy customer load on this service, how long will we have to wait for our 'instant' movies?
as a side note, last time i wrote a post on a netflix article, i mentioned my queue manager program, flixqueue. it had a couple serious bugs in it in that version, which we fixed up immediately after posting. any earlier problems shouldn't exist. we're not spyware, no trojans or viruses. and now it's freeware. come check it out at http://www.5hyphen.com/flixqueue/index.htm.
whatever box would be used, it would have to support sufficient digital rights management (drm) for netflix to trust it. that eliminates the media mvp box i use. drats.
i don't want to have a separate drm-enabled box for every downloading service out there. is windows media center the only answer? i would hope there would be something "thinner".
i don't want a freakin' separate box. just give me a freeware app or even a web site to download this stuff and let me play them in windows media player (or whatever). drm it to hell if you want, i don't care, as long as i can still rent dvd's should i choose to. i can imagine myself still renting dvd's most of the time, but downloading movies on those odd weekends when i find myself caught in a return cycle and i have nothing waiting for me at home. (of course, that would probably mean i wouldn't be allowed to download anything either, if you're only allowed to have three movies out at a time, including on the download service.)
i really think if this requires a separate stb, it's a doa service. there will probably be a few people that will sign up for it, but not many people are going to want yet another box to hook up just for watching movies that they could get on dvd anyway.
now, if there are *options* available for how you want to use the service, that could work. an stb if you need one, a windows app if you'd prefer, a tivo if you've already got one, and different tiers of pricing. so, for example, the standard $18 a month plan now includes one extra download at a time plus your three dvd's, *or* you can pay $12 for four downloads a month, *or* you can have a reduced rate dvd-only option, or whatever.
but i'm not going to stop renting dvd's - they're portable, they're rippable, they have extras - and i'm not going to get a separate stb just for this. i'm sure i'm not alone in that.
presumably this is a dry-run for next year's launch of high-def. wonder if the device will require hdcp-compliant display device?
replaytv is dead. get over it. its a short step away from being liquidated in pieces for its ip value by d&m holdings. just as d&m holdings just did to their rio properties.
hmm, this doens't really appeal to me a whole lot. but their do media center pcs. i'd be interested to see how this whole thing pans out though, seems like there could be lots of room for error.
my biggest feature request for netflix is for them to start offering video games as well as movies. i would love to have a gamefly and a netflix account but i can't afford both and i am a bigger fan of interactive entertainment than i am of passive entertainment.
poster #15, best buy has a large investment in both netflix and gamefly. perhaps that's why netflix has not sued gamefly over their envelopes and business model. you might write to the ceo of best buy and ask him to put pressure on the two companies merging.
I like Cinemanow.com and Movielink.com. What's wrong with them-and why did the writer of this blog say derogatory things about them? I've never had a problem with either one-and their downloads are fast. I would trust them over Netflix. They have much more experience in this field. Netflix is basically a mailorder company. I never thought renting DVDs through the mail was ever a bright idea. As a matter of fact I thought it was actually stupid.
Who wants to wait to have movies delivered-and then hassle with sending them back. Why not just go up to your local Hollywood video and rent one. Let's just see how well Netflix will do with this downloading movie thing. I don't think they're going to succeed. They do not have enough experience.
Cinemanow will come out # 1 I predict