What DVD's are we Watching?

[glatt]

Thinking of cancelling Netflix. We only watch about two DVDs a month, and stream maybe two movies a month. Now that they are splitting the services out and charging separately for each, it's not really worth it. We're probably going to put it on hold for a few months and maybe turn it back on in the Fall if we miss it. There's always Redbox at the corner grocery.

Problem is that the kids are getting older and getting later bedtimes, and there isn't time to watch a movie between when they go to bed and we need to.

Anyone else a little bummed at the change in Netflix pricing?

[Pete Zicato]

Not really, Glatt. Sooner or later the piper has to be paid. It's been an incredibly cheap deal for a long time. With the movie and tv corps bearing down on them, I expected something along this line.

But if you don't use it, why pay for it?

[Beest]

Originally Posted by glatt

Thinking of cancelling Netflix. We only watch about two DVDs a month, and stream maybe two movies a month. Now that they are splitting the services out and charging separately for each, it's not really worth it. We're probably going to put it on hold for a few months and maybe turn it back on in the Fall if we miss it. There's always Redbox at the corner grocery.

Problem is that the kids are getting older and getting later bedtimes, and there isn't time to watch a movie between when they go to bed and we need to.

Not bummed, it is what it is, I like that there is no contract term, if you don't like it just drop it, if you miss, just pick it up again.

The kids bed time thing cut down my movie watching a lot too.

Kinda torn on what to do, there's lot's of cool stuff online, TV series, all of Mythbusters, all of Monty Python etc., but a lot of cool older movies are disk only.

It's still less than the 3 at a time programn I started with.

There was some discussion on the radio the other day "Q: Why are Netflix doing this, A: because they can, there is no competition to the service they offer"

[glatt]

I was talking to my brother recently. Somehow he snagged a spot on a closed tour of a Netflix distribution facility.

Turns out Netflix's goal is to never store a DVD. If they store a disk, they lose money. So they have these robotic machines that open the return envelopes, pull out the DVDs in their sleeves, scan the bar code on that sleeve, remove the DVD from that sleeve, clean the DVD and check it for damage. The machine also checks to make sure the correct DVD is in the sleeve. If you accidentally put your own personal DVD in the sleeve, the machine keeps track of which envelope that DVD came from and who sent it in, so it will return your DVD to you.
If the returned DVD is in fine shape, it's put back into the inner sleeve, and a new envelope is addressed to the next recipient and the DVD is stuck in there to go off to the next person. The machine sorts these stuffed envelopes by zipcode as it is filling the orders so that Netflix can get the lower pre-sorted postage rate.

Netflix has apparently gotten so good at the shipping part of the business that they know which post offices lose mail, and they know which post offices are good. They probably have a better handle on the post office quality than the post office does. They apparently go into the bad post offices and show them how to do a better job and they have been getting in trouble for it because other mass marketers want to be able to train the post office to deliver their mail the way they want it to be delivered too.