Netflix sees subscribers opting for streaming over mailing, global surplus in red envelopes predicted
By Tim Stevens 
posted Jan 28th 2009 9:39AM
posted Jan 28th 2009 9:39AM
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I use my XBOX360 for Netflix streaming, and the experience would be nearly ideal if the damn machine didn't sound like a jet taking off. It gets so hot during playback that the fans go into high gear. This is without a disk in the tray. I am considering getting a Netflix enabled BD player.
That said, the streaming video is what brought me nack to Netflix after 3 years away.
I love the Xbox streaming and streaming to my HTPC. All we need is more movies available. BTW, the newer XBoxes seem to be fine with noise (except the disc tray). I have one of the newer systems and it kicks the fan in, but it has been great.
My wife and I have cut satellite service, because everything we want is either available by mail or streaming...Those companies need to be worried by this as well. I can stream everything I want without paying for stations i dont use.
I tried streaming with xbox 360 not a big fan of it. I would rather buy blu rays on eBay or amazon for a decent price.
I stream from my Tivo HD whenever I have the option. Works flawless. The HD is almost on par with cable HD quality wise. If a Blu-Ray version is available, I will always choose that first, then streaming. I refuse to watch DVDs at this point, even if its something that is unavailable in their format.
My 360 used to be noisy too.
Then it did the red ring dance.
It came back quiet. I don't know what they did but I am glad they did it.
I just use a quiet PC with a remote. Video quality isn't amazing but the convenience makes up for that in most cases. For really visual movies I just rent the discs. There are a couple of plugins that integrate Netflix streaming into Windows Media Center and that was the tipping point for me using the streaming service. That integration makes it more like a cable on-demand service (but without giving any of my money to Comcast).
I look forward to the day when bandwidth is good enough for higher quality streaming of more programming. I would pay up to $30-40 per month for an "anything on demand" package. It would beat paying more for a cable package where I only watch about 10% of the channels and I can get nice HD network programming off the air.
Great headline. Netflix isn't global.
obviously neither is sarcasm.
@Ray: booyeah.
Ray wins.
What are they preferring to stream? All the online content on Netflix is crap.
You've seen them all? Impressive! Your crapconnoisseurship!
I kind of agree. I'm in Canada so they obviously won't send me the DVDs. We are watching a lot of documentaries and some classics, but I would like them to increase their selection of new releases.
Jury Duty hardly cuts it.
Netflix has lots of great movies/TV shows for streaming.
Just check out the top 50 list: http://www.netflix.com/WiTopPicks?lnkctr=mhWNTP
I wonder what costs more for them, envelopes+printing+shipping costs both ways or the bandwidth?
"envelopes+printing+shipping costs both ways"
The Engadget comment system strikes again...here was the rest of my post:
And don't forget the expense of purchasing physical media (they buy disks and licenses/royalties or whatever are separate), maintaining warehouses, and the equipment inside, and the employees to keep all that running.
Streaming is a hell of a lot cheaper.
The comment system made you hit enter by accident?
I just spilled my coffee - Damn it, the Engadget comment system sucks! :P
I tried making an arrow with dashes and a less than sign. Apparently it read it as a HTML comment.
What's with defending the crappy comment system all of a sudden?
@joe23521
Your spilled coffee is the direct result of not using engadget comment system as your coffee straw. as it sucks, big time!
And dont forget all netflix dvd's are inspected by hand when returned which has got to cost a pretty penny.
My only beef now with the new comment system is taking away the Highest Ranked status. And Lowest, for that matter.
I don't know what is the deal about streaming with netflix. I gave it a try and all the damn movies were old crappy movies....tried to see if there were any of the recent movies to stream and watch a little bit and nope...so most of the streaming catalog are all old movies.
They have plenty of documentaries and TV shows... not everyone is pining for the latest blockbuster.
I want my documentaries in HD too. Those cinematographer dragged those huge arse 35mm film equipments for days just to get some 2 minute shot, I'm not gonna watch those YouTube quality.
Unless the movie/documentary/short is shot with a consumer camcorder or webcam, I'm not streaming in today's technology.
I couldn't agree more.
Last Saturday I was planning to watch a Blu-Ray disc from Netflix. I popped the disc into my player, and after 60 seconds...nothing. The disc could not be read. I'm sure I'm not the only one starting to have these issues with Blu-Ray discs. At first, I had no problems whatsoever with the discs, but now I'm encountering it more often. My theory is that Blu-Ray is slowing beginning to get past the early adopters, i.e. people who don't put their damn mitts all over the disc, and now is being rented by casual viewers, i.e. care for a drink coaster?
Anyway, without a movie to watch I decided to check out the streaming service. Surely I could find a decent flick to watch. I spent over 30 minutes trying to find something that had at least 3 stars. Nada. Sure, they have lots of TV series, but I wasn't interested in watching TV. The foreign releases were mostly junk, and the mainstream Hollywood offerings were either uninteresting, or something I had watched in the distant past. So, I would up watching PBS. :-(
I guess I can't complain too much. Since I was already a long time Netflix subscriber, the streaming services doesn't cost anything extra, as I'm paying for the discs anyway. However, with a newly purchased home theater w/ Blu-Ray (1080p/24) and DolbyHD, I just don't see how the service is going to attract my attention. I'm not going to give up the resolution (video and sound) of the discs, not to mention all the bonus features, for a mediocre quality download.
Let the average user keep streaming while those of us who know the art of DVD-rip and BD-rip continue to get our physical copy so we have a digital copy forever.
*waves hand and performs Jedi Mind Trick* You read nothing here, you will continue to stream your movies.
These aren't the droids we're looking for. Move along. Move along.
While I completely agree with you, 3 at a time=less than $1 a movie and you get to keep it forever, sandlot style....this is the practice that I think will eventually push them to move to streaming only once the technology and their library catches up to HD.
Proper authorities have been notified.
Why would you notify the Jedi council?
Does this mean they will finally add Linux support?
ROFLMAO
That's because current subscribers aren't on HD yet.
I like my Blu-rays with bonus features in red envelopes. Unless I can get cheap and crazy-speed ISP to stream 720p with no audio loss, I'm not streaming.
netflix can stream in 720p, i do it all the time.
Audio loss & 720p Netflix Streaming!?!?!? yea right.......maybe in another year or so......ya know when they have GOOD movies for HD streaming that is....
Seriously, Netflix won't keep customers as blu-ray catches on. It's nearly impossible to get a new release if you're an established subscriber. Heck, any Blu-Ray even; I've had Shawshank Redemption on my list for over 2 months.
I think it's generally accepted that Netflix plays games with the long term subscribers, but I haven't had too much difficulty getting the discs. Sure, I have a handful in my queue with long waits, but others arrive within a reasonable amount of time. I received Kung Fu Panada a few days after its release, as well as Dark Knight.
I have to image that they purchase more current releases than older releases, which may explain why Shawshank is taking so long. It's a fantastic movie, but probably not anywhere near the top of their popular titles.
You should talk to Red, I hear he's a man that can get things.
@Jay Voorhees
"You should talk to Red, I hear he's a man that can get things."
Haha, nice!
Shawshank is one of the best movies of all time.
Two months? Stop bitching. I have 5 movies in my queue that have been there 4 months or longer. And they are STILL "long wait".
I am having the same problem, and keep in mind we pay more for having the BluRay option selected, they should put that money to purchasing more copies of Bulray disks.
Blu-ray movie @ 1080p with Dolby TrueHD audio or DTS HD doesn't compare to anything they can offer via the "Watch it now" streaming....today.
Totally agreed. *petting white, fluffy cat*, but soon my friend, SOON.
It may look better but it is not as convenient. Give me Convenience or Give me Death! It's the american way. Who cares about quality? Really though.............................................................................................................................................................................
DTV just announced 1080p PPV movies coming soon. That convenience will stop me from bothering to drop my loot on a BR player + $30 a disk.
I canceled Netflix last year because the movies would just sit there unwatched for 3 months. I have an xbox but their netflix streaming service doesn't have what I'm looking for. DTV's on demand is doing a very good job for just being released last year. Add 1080p content and it's a done deal.
@scwinn8
I care about quality.
Wow, maybe this will encourage them to put the good stuff up for streaming. I'm sure that they can get some big provider to give them relatively cheap bandwidth at the volumes that they would see.
This is what I'm hoping as well. There seems to be such a huge, untapped market for streaming like this. If they would offer some more contemporary -- not necessarily 'new' -- releases, it would be a much better service.
That said, I'm still enjoying both the physical and streaming aspects of Netflix, though I'm relatively new to the service.
Well one thing that holds true... A lot of people who got the Netflix Gift cards that should be expiring or have expired, a lot of them may stay on with the 1 at a time plan with free streaming... Or at least the people I know ended up doing that... So thres still money coming in...
Netflix is actually the reason i never picked up cable TV... They stream a lot of good TV shows starting from Season 1... And honestly, i;d rather pay the $1 surchargee for Watch Instant vs the stupid $1 surcharge for blurays...
Streaming keeps getting more and more popular then you will be paying MORE than $1 to stream those movies.......TRUST
What $1 streaming fee? I have been watching the instant watch feature for free.
Sorry, but the "coming apocalypse" line is bs. If I'm RENTING a movie I don't really give a crap how it's done - cheap and at least average quality (though preferably excellent). If I'm looking to watch it at *my* convenience and own it forever there's no way in hell I'm not going for physical media. Huge difference, engadget.
I sure wish I could participate in this streaming stuff, but I can't sign up because I'm in Canada.
I understand that maybe they don't want to ship here, but why does the border between us mean that I can't stream, either?
Very simple, because the big bosses don't want you to. It is the same stupid regionalisation logic, that prohibits pandora.com to delivery their stuff worldwide and it is the reason why I personally will not ever(!) buy any DVDs, Blurays and the like with a region code built in (after having moved between different DVD regions for a while I'm more than fed-up with the studios on that one!)
Globalisation in in the music and film industry is for the companies only. So how dare you - the simple customer - ask for it, too?
I really wish that the financial crisis cleans up with the music and film industry now.
Considering MOST of their subscribers came from the addition to streaming on 360 I'm not in the least bit surprised.....but hell its not much Streaming that I actually care to watch......chances are if its streaming I already own it or can readily watch it on Hulu(TV Shows)
We use both, I use the Watch now(Thru HTPC onto TV) for movies where I don't need Full HD and surround sound (read my wife's romance movies) and I get everything else via Bluray or DVD.
This has worked out really well and we get more movies for hte money!
Raptor
I think your right.. streaming just isnt there for hi-def quite yet... BUT from Netflix perspective, if they can use streaming for all their older DVD content then they can potentially save by not having to store or mail those DVDs.... so new HD stuff you get delivered and older stuff is on-demand only. Then they can just keep the new hi-def content in disc format and not mess around with keeping inventory of the older junk.
I love mine!
Blu-ray, schmu-ray. Sony's at the wheel...future uncertain.
(And that is 'with' the market cornered...sad.)
This is probably because they are getting a lot of new streaming-only customers (like me) who signed up to extend Xbox 360 functionality. Since they don't offer a streaming-only subscription, I've got a single DVD sitting on my kitchen counter unopened that they insisted on sending me. All I wanted to do was stream some Quantum Leap!
They didn't insist. You put it in your queue.
If you add nothing to your DVD queue, they don't send you any DVDs.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for two years now. I haven't streamed until recently because the service wasn't made available for OS X until December thanks to M$.
Besides TV shows, there isn't much worth streaming. I don't subscribe to cable so having 30 Rock, Law and Order SVU, and other shows I enjoy is a huge plus. My Mac Pro has turned into an expensive HTPC. But I will never give up the mailings. The selection is far superior.
This is temporary. In a few months, everybody will have watched all seven good titles in the streaming selection and they'll go back to DVDs.
hahaha, So true! The selection has gotten better, but it is still pretty pathetic. The best things I saw on there were the first two seasons of Heroes (watched for the first time on netflix) and the first season of 30 Rock!
"customers are substituting mailed movies for streamed ones" - I think that's backwards as it has the opposite meaning of what the headline is saying.
I am betting Microsoft is pretty happy from this news. They are loving the number of Silverlight users this is giving them to quote download numbers with.
When I rent, I still mainly stick to physical media because the selection available for streaming sucks, and selection was why I got into Netflix in the first place.
Still, their online viewer has come in handy a couple times for watching old movies or TV shows that are out of print on DVD. I don't know that I would ever pay for it on its own, though. And the quality doesn't even match up to DVD, much less Blu-Ray.
And as far as convenience goes, if you already have a pile of discs at home waiting to be watched, that's more convenient than having to start up the computer and fire up IE just to watch the downloads.
I do Netflix streaming through the Roku box. Much of the material available through streaming is BBC produced, or B-Movies or really bad independant films. I did she Cool Hand Luke on Roku streaming, and the whole Heroes series. But, for the most part, the material available for streaming is really limited compared to what is available in the rest of the Netflix hard media library. On the other hand, it has been fun to explore indie flix and bad B-Horror movies. In fact, I have not sent in the hard DVDs in abotu a month, since despite the limited programming, it is convenient and easy. Also, when my cable provider goes out, I still can view movies. The Roku box has an HDMI connection to my TV.
Wow, proves that most Netflix subscribers are idiots. The is almost NOTHING worth watching available to stream. It's ridiculous.
I'll admit I was interested in Netflix streaming on my Xbox in the first place, but when I initially saw the available movies, I wasn't as impressed.
Now though, I find myself adding movie after movie to my queue and really enjoying the quality of the service. It trumps Hulu's quality 9 times out of 10, and the catolog is growing daily. Now when I look at what's available, I actually get excited.
Last night my friends and I wanted to watch A League of Their Own and I realized I didn't own the DVD. It was on Hulu and so we started watching it there. When it "lost connection to the computer" and then wouldn't fast forward to where we were, we checked out Netflix and it was there! Fast forwarded, and watched the movie with no errors, and at a higher quality than on Hulu.
A few nights ago I discovered a friend had never seen Short Circuit! Can you believe that? So we went to my DVD folders and again, I didn't have it! So I checked Netflix, and sure enough, it was there! So we got to watch it that night!
I really do love the streaming service.
Although I do still use Netflix to rent my Blu-rays.
Oh, and I'm one of the people who downgraded their service to the lowest discs at a time to mostly just enjoy the streaming service. (I was getting 6 discs at a time, now just 1.)
Did no one else catch this key sentence? "The company is reporting that many of its customers are substituting mailed movies for streamed ones ..." which means of course that people are NOT streaming and instead using the mailed movies. Either poor grammar or completely wrong interpretation of the company statement in the rest of the article ...
To substitute your mashed potatoes for french fires means that you want the french fries instead of the mashed potatoes... You should eat out more often :P
Netflix must have some inside knowledge about changing contracts. Because right now streaming can't replace mailing because of the crummy selection on streaming.
My cable company graciously allows me 12gb of data at their mid tier.... I'll just wait patiently for the mail
"Why aren't all the movies and TV episodes I can get on DVD available to stream to my TV?
While movie studios and television networks have great flexibility in what they offer on DVD, there are many limits to what they can make available to watch instantly due to long standing contractual obligations.
Our library of choices available to watch instantly is growing every month, but there will be much greater selection available on DVD for a long time to come."
-Netflix
I hate corporate contracts...
I love Netflix streaming. I use it on both my Tivo HD's and is the main reason I re-enlisted for my Netflix subscription after a year long hiatus. I agree there aren't the latest releases on there, but I'm an avid movie watcher anyways so I see most new movies via DVD or Movie theater, but alas those run out quickly. So streaming is a great way to catch up on old movies I haven't seen or heard of. Plus I watch things I normally wouldn't since its so easy to setup(like anime and some tv shows).
The only things I feel could improve the service are:
1. Give us the ability to browse the catalog from our couch with Tivo's
2. Give us a way on the website to report audio/video sync issues without having to call into customer service
3. Give us a way to vote on movies we really would like to see on the Streaming catalog and maybe pick a few a month from the customer voting to add.
Okay so I've read about 20 comments where people are saying there are no good movies available for streaming. Broaden your horizons a little people, there's some amazing films on there:
-Once Upon A Time in America
-Network
-Adventures of Robin Hood
-Goodfellas
-Maltese Falcon
-Paths of Glory
-Bridge on River Kwai
-Strangers on a Train
-Barry Lyndon
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-Psycho
-Professional
-Breathless
-Cool Hand Luke
-Gandhi
-2001: A Space Odyssey
-A Clockwork Orange
-Full Metal Jacket
-THX 1138
-Silence of the Lambs
-Manhattan
-No Country for Old Men
-Ratatouille
And many more. If you are a fan of cinema, there is a lot to like on Netflix's streaming service. Of course it could be better, but I'd say it's very good now, and will only get better in the future.
I could not agree more. I read these comments with a bit of incredulity that we were talking about the same service. Sure, there's lot of 2 star crap on the stream, but there's many many classic and less mainstream movies. Because we don't have cable, I've had the Roku box for streaming the service for 6 months now and we use it nearly every day. It's even let us discover some gems that we might otherwise have overlooked, like David Attenborough's various nature docs, which are exquisite.
I dunno about the rest of you, but Im just not that interested in watching Superbad for the 10th time (that's on there, that's new, right?). Im much more interested in the wealth of British comedy that is offered, or catching up on John Ford movies. Drums Along the Mohawk is on there, and I probably would never have seen it but for Netflix.
As most that weren't early adopters or fans are trying it out on the Xbox, please use this opportunity to look at what the service offers with a bit of a close reading. Don't just write off the content as crap, but perhaps as an opportunity to catch up on some classics or out of the way titles you may have missed.
well put, friend. there's tons of good shit on watch instantly. i just watched the professional the other night.
Greg: I agree completely. Yes, I wish the video/audio quality was better but it is acceptable...for now. However there are some great titles on there. I love the flexibility.
Robyn: Not sure if you've seen it, but I just finished watching the first 3 seasons of The Good Life. (British Comedy called Good Neigbors in the US.) Great to revisit that comedy from my youth. Fantastic writing and acting.
I think it's mainly because most of those people checked out the streaming selection a while ago. Netflix has a really great selection of top movies to stream now, but the majority of those were only added in the last few months.
A quick look at the top 50 list now reveals how great the selection is now:
http://www.netflix.com/WiTopPicks?lnkctr=mhWNTP
If you're a real movie fan you've already seen these movies multiple times.
I probably wouldn't bother much with streaming but since switching to the blue ray option (at a dollar more a month) my queue is chock full of blue ray titles on a "wait" status. I'm not sure if Netflix is trying to force people into streaming or if they just found a great way to increase revenue by charging more and delivering less.
They have a bunch of anime that my wife watches, but most of what I want to watch isn't available.
I wouldn't mind the streaming so much but the fact is that Comcast has that nice little GB limit per month and since the movies probably top out at a gig a piece, Comcast would be on me in a heart beat.
It will be great when they add more newer movies. But to say they have CRAP and only crap there BS in my opinion:
Ratatouliie, March of the Penguins, Pan's Labyrinth, Young Frankenstein, Ghostbusters, The Thing, The Abyss, Resident Evil, Extinction, The Shining, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 (Alien films are from the Collector's Edition).
These are not NEW, but they are great films.
Newer XBOX 360 is a lot quieter than older ones. It's really only noisy when I'm playing a game and the disc is spinning.
It's not HD, but it plays at 1080p on my TV and looks quite good.
It's the future and I only see Netflix growing this feature to have more and more new films.
I love streaming movies and TV shows from Netflix.
Since it launched almost two years ago I've streamed almost 100 movies and TV shows.
Plus, the selection of quality movies has grown dramatically over the past few months. The selection used to contain mostly obscure and old movies, with occasional gems or classics in the mix. Now the selection includes tons of top and recent movies (like the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy for example).
The service has really grown in popularity and quality. I can easily imagine a time in the not-too-distant future where I for the most part stop renting DVD's and rely exclusively on streaming.
Please. The quality of streaming is mediocre at best. I didn't buy an HDTV to watch movies in fuzy Youtube quality.
If you're getting YouTube quality, then something is wrong. I stream movies from Netflix and watch them on my HDTV all the time. The majority of them look really sharp. None are close to YouTube quality.
Maybe you need faster internet.
My picture quality is great. It looks nothing like YouTube.
More likely, you are just a whiner that is never satisfied.
All my machines run Xubuntu... C'mon Netflix, where's the love?! :-(
I don't understand why everyone is saying that digital downloads are the way to go in the future. I keep reading that ISP's are talking about bandwith caps and higher rates for more usage. pretty soon you will be paying more for internet then you would if you were to buy a few movies. What about caps on down loading? will you have to tell the wife and kids we can't use the email or interneet this month because we watched 4 net flix hd movies this month and used all our MBs? I think i will stick with physical media thank you very much.
I love streaming movies to my PS3 via PlayOn but I also love the quality of Blu Ray discs and Netflix doesn't offer HD streaming yet.
Also, how is this bad for Sony? You do know that they offer digital downloads on the PS3, right?
I was thrilled when NetFlix offered me free streaming after a couple of years of subscribing to their basic 3-disc plan, but although there are some good things on the instant-watch feature, the choice and quality is generally poor in streaming. I really love cinematography, and the art of movies, so I just regard the streaming feature as a bonus. Who could complain? - it's a freebie! Recently, Netflix changed their streaming movie viewer to Silverlight - and this changed the format, but not the quality discernably. Also, one needs a bit more RAM on the old computer, doesn't one? I would be very disappointed if N/F replaced the red envelopes and discs with online streaming only, but I can see how it would increase their profits enormously, and I'm anticipating a deterioration of my choices. Quality counts with this viewer, and I love NetFlix.
Global surplus of red envelopes?
Sorry guys, you JUST missed Chinese New Year.
best comment on this article by far.
We're streaming daily with our Roku. We barely use the DVD player now.