Streaming movies question

[Monkeyleg]

For several years I've subscribed to Blockbuster's movies by mail program. I order a movie, they send me the DVD, I watch it, then send it back. They had probably hundreds of thousands of movies, and usually got all of the latest releases.

Blockbuster has now gone bankrupt. Dish Network has bought their assets, and is offering Blockbuster At Home. At first I thought they'd have the whole movie inventory available for download, but it looks to me like there's just a few titles.

Does anyone have Dish or Netflix? If so, how's the selection? What hardware is needed?

I really liked having that service. Damn.

[Boomhauer]

I had netflix for a while. The selection was mixed...lots of junk but plenty of good too. Didnt have a lot of more recent movies worth watching. I felt there tv show selection was better. Best thing I can advise is doing the one month free trial. It is super easy to cancel...just a couple of mouse clicks.

Amazon supposedly has a better selection. Might want to check them out.

[AJ Dual]

It's just like recent movies on Showtime/HBO, no one service has them all. They're always jockeying to get exclusivity/contracts or whatever. And then the movies go up and down in availability.

Netflix between the mailed disks and streaming is probably the largest selection out there if I had to take a guess.

[Ben]

I've gone back and forth on Netflix over the past couple of years because of their "service splitting" deal (though I guess I should have bought stock back when I was complaining about them).

I currently do both DVD and streaming on Netflix, because I just can't find everything on one or the other. Streaming seems to be good for some newer movies, but others you can only get on DVD, at least for some months after their release. DVD is better for older classic movies. As mentioned, streaming seems to have a lot of TV. I just a couple of months ago finished doing the DVD mail game with all the seasons of "Chuck", and two weeks after I finished, it moved to streaming.

Also as AJ mentioned, you won't find everything on one service. I have Amazon as well, including a bunch of free stuff with my Prime membership. Sometimes I end up paying for a streaming new release movie on Amazon that I could get for free (i.e., included in my monthly fee) on the DVD side of Netflix, except it has "very long wait" next to it in my DVD queue, and I don't want to wait a very long time.

If I could get everything I wanted via streaming, that would generally be my primary choice. In fact when I buy stuff nowadays that I really like, I buy it as Amazon streaming versus DVD.

[Monkeyleg]

Thanks for the replies. I looked over Amazon and Netflix, and was disappointed with the selection. Blockbuster had pretty much every new movie that comes out on DVD, and they have just about all the classics, too. Maybe that's why they went bankrupt.

It might almost be better to buy the movies I like used on Ebay. I was buying movies I liked from Blockbuster, and have 300+ now.

[geronimotwo]

i just signed up for the free trial of amazon prime last night,  i'm curious how it will work, and it got me free shipping on my bf order.   

Sometimes I end up paying for a streaming new release movie on Amazon that I could get for free (i.e., included in my monthly fee) on the DVD side of Netflix, except it has "very long wait" next to it in my DVD queue, and I don't want to wait a very long time.

what do they consider a "long wait"?  2 minutes, or 2 weeks?  it seems odd that streaming video would have a wait at all.  if there is a high demand, wouldn't you just dedicate another server or 20 to it.   

[Ben]

i just signed up for the free trial of amazon prime last night,  i'm curious how it will work, and it got me free shipping on my bf order.  

what do they consider a "long wait"?  2 minutes, or 2 weeks?  it seems odd that streaming video would have a wait at all.  if there is a high demand, wouldn't you just dedicate another server or 20 to it.  

Sorry for the confusion - the wait is for DVDs. Never a wait for streaming. I'm told Netflix has a policy where if they see you going through a lot of DVDs per month, they "throttle" you, sort of like you ISP does if you use a lot of bandwidth, so that your wait for popular DVDs is longer than someone's who say, gets only a couple of DVDs a month. Anecdotally, I think this is true. I seem to always have more and longer waits for new release movies when I'm ripping through TV shows, where I'm sending DVDs back and forth a couple of times a week to get through all the seasons. I seem to have fewer, and shorter, waits when I'm just going through a movie every week or two.

As a "very long wait" example, I've had Iron Man 3 in the top of my queue since its release date. I just got it last week.

[Chester32141]

I get any new releases at many different RedBox Kiosks in my area ... HD is $1.50 per night and they have most interesting new releases ... you can set up an account and view area kiosks online to check their inventory from your computer and reserve it ... but you have to go pick it up and return it.  The latest Roku is #3 and it's faster and easier than the prior versions.  Currently $80 on sale and goes on sale weekly.  There are a lot of free channels w/ old movies available ... free generally means they stick in commercials, but you don't have to pay the $8 monthly to Netflix if you don't want to.  There is a huge opportunity for someone to open a pay channel that has everything.  95% free, similar to Netflix, but the obscure movies and new releases $1.50 / same price as RedBox.  If RedBox can make a profit at that price then it has to be more profitable to stream it ...
  

[AJ Dual]

Thanks for the replies. I looked over Amazon and Netflix, and was disappointed with the selection. Blockbuster had pretty much every new movie that comes out on DVD, and they have just about all the classics, too. Maybe that's why they went bankrupt.

It might almost be better to buy the movies I like used on Ebay. I was buying movies I liked from Blockbuster, and have 300+ now.

You're just going to get fakes. Torrents burned to lightscribe DVD's and a bad color laser print stuffed into the clear jacket cover.

[GigaBuist]

Netflix's business was mailing DVDs for about a decade before they got into the streaming business.  I'm surprised to see people say that they've got gaps in that area.  I never really noticed one back when I used that service, but that was a good 3-4 years ago that I stopped using it.

And my taste in movies is probably pretty mainstream, so maybe I wouldn't notice.

I do see gaps in their online offerings. Same as with every other service.  We subscribe to Netflix, HuluPlus, and Amazon Prime.  I also have an account with Vudu (WalMart's streaming rental service) which we use here and there.

One thing I like about the latest Roku release is you can search globally across all their "channels."  Makes it very easy to see if something is on Netflix (which makes it included in my subscription) or on Amazon (maybe included) or Vudu (which means I have to rent/buy it).

[Monkeyleg]

You're just going to get fakes. Torrents burned to lightscribe DVD's and a bad color laser print stuffed into the clear jacket cover.

If the seller is reputable, there shouldn't be a problem. I can't subscribe to ten different services to get the selection I want.

With Blockbuster, the only movies they didn't have were the really obscure ones, like "Keith Richards: The Human Riff". I had to buy that one on Ebay.

[Waitone]

There is a reason streaming video offering seems to be limited to second tier or worse videos.  It is limited by content providers.  For reasons known only to them they are reluctant to supply current or popular movies to streaming providers.  Best I can figure is content providers think they have have more control over the use of their product when distribution is limited to DVD's.  How long this will continue depends upon content providers and license holders.

[TechMan]

IIRC Netflix signed a deal with one or two of the major Hollywierd studios that said they would get the content 30 days after the release of the DVD.  It seems that something like 80% of all DVD sales are within the first 30 days of the release of a DVD.

According to the article it is 28 days and 75%.
ETA: http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2010/01/netflix-signs-deal-with-warner-to-wait-28-days-for-new-releases.html

[mgdavis]

I started off with Netflix, back before the split. Moved to just the streaming service, which I thought was so so. The selection seemed to get pretty thin when I was looking for current big-name films. They have had The Walking Dead, which kept me going until this month.

I started using the Amazon service a couple years ago, after I realized my Bluray player could do cool things when I hooked it into the internet. I've been using it much more in the past few months, enough so that I actually purchased a Prime membership (also got Prime for the better shipping). It seems to me that Amazon has a better selection than Netflix did when I am looking for those mainstream movies. With Prime a lot of the things I want to watch are no extra charge, the latest releases are still a $3-$4 rental. A rental gives you the movie for 24 hours.

Picture quality between the two streaming services seems to be comparable; Amazon gives you the option to view in HD for an extra buck if you are into that.

Amazon is a better fit for me. If I didn't have the Prime membership it might not make as much sense, especially if I was watching multiple movies a week.