You know what the solution Netflix came up with? Pretend DVDs dont exist and hope you dont notice.

Starting October 14th, 2011 if you’re using the Netflix API to manage your queue all the responses you will get are for the streaming library. Seriously.

If you want to manage your DVDs you will have to log on to the Netflix website and manage it, completely inconvenient and just the way Netflix wants it to be.

You see, shipping physical discs is expensive. You have to have the disc put in an envelope, the disc needs to be mailed, which involves postage costs, and then once you’re done they also pay for the return postage, at which time somebody in the Netflix distribution center near you needs to open the envelope and make sure the correct disc is inside. Even while automating most of this process it still consumes power and time which Netflix’s streaming catalogue does not.

With all of this said however, its the customer’s fault. People have not seemed to be too bothered by their lack of new titles, and have also seemed to pay happily the $7 for Hulu’s library which contains way less content (although, has many TV shows the day after).

The endgame here is the following:

Feature streaming on the Netflix homepage.
Feature streaming in the packages, push for the streaming-only package.
Have all convenient ways of using Netflix only feature streaming.

The user will slowly, but surely, forget about the “DVDs by Mail” deal and keep on streaming. Which in turn:

Saves Netflix money on running distribution centers.
Saves Netflix money on phone support for scratched discs.
Saves Netflix money on replacement discs.
Saves Netflix money on less API calls for data to their servers.
Allows Netflix to spend more money to better their streaming catalogue.

This is exactly what I want Netflix to do, after most of their catalogue is streamed. It really seems premature and will just inconvenience a lot of developers because of all of the confusion that it will cause to the end users, even if they do the right thing and send out an email letting the end users know beforehand.

I wish they reconsidered, but I’m sure this was a decision they’re banking a lot of green on. It couldn’t have been a easy decision and it shows that they’re trying to be ahead of the curve in the digital revolution as well.

Well, well, look who seems to be waking up fighting. The Sony seems to have gotten tired of being beaten up every which way by the Xbox 360 and decided to come out swinging by adding Netflix to its repertoire.

The PS3 Slim and subsequent price drop increased sales by 300% in September. This was quickly followed by Naughty Dawg’s Uncharted Two which is selling beyond expectations. Now the Playstation Blog announcement that Netflix is coming to the console. This should get s ready for God of War 1 and 2 re-release, Modern Warfare 2 and Ratchet and Clank in November.

Microsoft announced that they had an exclusive partnership with Netflix earlier this year. This, to me, signifies that they have a partnership to be in the firmware since the PS3 implementation is disc based (BD-Live). I would not be surprised if we see a firmware based (or software based like the EYE Toy application and Home) implementation by E3 next year.

The news that make me the most happy however, is that there is no additional cost to using Netflix on the PS3. I’m sure this will change soon, but Microsoft requires a Xbox Live Gold membership ($50/year) in order to use Netflix (Twitter and Facebook as well). I wouldn’t be surprised if they open some functionality to Silver members and keep viewing rooms for Gold members only or something similar.

With the inclusion of Netflix, it seems that Sony really is trying to mark this year as a W. They still have a lot of work to do, but this is not a bad place to start.

Source: Playstation Blog

“When we see the breakage for Blu-ray to be so infinitesimally small of the total ships, it would be cost-prohibitive for us to change the shipping method,” says Swasey. “We do everything to drive costs down.”

Really? Because I could have sworn you were trying to ask me for more money for these Blu-rays… oh, you mean your costs, my bad.

Source: Wired

How about if NetFlix starts charging per shipped blu-ray disk up to $4?  For instance, every time I rent a blu-ray I have to pay $0.50 extra that month and it goes up to $4, after which its unlimited? I’d be perfectly fine with that.

Asking for more money right now only caused me to cancel my blu-ray access. This is working against what they wanted. Kind of dumb if you ask me.

• You have been a Netflix member since July 2007 and have returned 133 titles to date
• You most recently returned a movie on 10/Feb/09 i.e. 8 days ago
• You keep titles at home for an average of 12 days
• You see 4.7 titles by DVD and 9.3 titles by Instant Watch each month
• You’ve indicated that you are on the 3 at-a-time (Unlimited) plan which costs $17.99/month (including the $1/mo Blu-ray fee)
• Your cost/DVD rental is $3.86. Your cost/movie (including Instant Watch) is $1.29
• You’re in the 34th percentile. i.e., 34% of FeedFlixers pay less than you per movie 

Yeah, give me Watch Now on my console and I’d be watching so much more stuff its not even funny. Actually, I guess its best for Netflix that I don’t have access to it or I’d be breaking the $1 mark per movie watched.

If you want to checkout how much you pay for your Netflix rentals go to FeedFlix. It’s fast and easy. Let me know your results!

This last article is exactly what I’m talking about. Sony needs to stop pretending like they know whats best for everyone and start listening to what the people are saying. If we want Netflix streaming… give us Netflix streaming. It is of no cost to you, and I already have a Netflix account. How else do you think I would be watching the Blu-Ray movies you say I should be watching? Buying them at $35 bucks a pop?

RIIIIIIIIIGGGHHTTT….

Why is there no video podcast download function in the PS3? If I could get home and just sit on my couch and watch TekZilla it’d be awesome. This is something the PS3 -can do- right now, yet they are not letting it do it. They are concentrating on selling us movies through the PSN video store that are DRMed to hell and therefore useless unless you plan on only watching them on your PS3 or PSP. Yes, they wont play on your iPhone, so sorry.

If Sony figures out that the future is in open DRM standards and interoperability (or no DRM at all) and on accessibility to all the forms of entertainment that there are available and not just to your walled garden. IF they figure this out before Microsoft does, the PS3 has a fighting chance.

Sony needs to give us everything. Talk to the PlayOn guys and get half those streams on the PS3. Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon Video On Demand. Give us choice by having too many choices, not by ‘selecting between the movies on the video store’. As long as they do not give us all the options that there are out there for video delivery, not because of software/hardware limitations but because it is a business desicion to try and force you to buy videos through their store, they need to The Fuck Shut Up.

They are defending themselves by claiming that the consumer (which already spent more than enough money in their over-priced box) would not want to use the subscriptions he/she has already and would prefer to spend more money in the solutions that Sony deems worthy. This is foolish and I’d rather if they just said nothing, and started talking about all the great exclusive games they are getting to the platform instead of these media choices.

Exclusive games like Tekken, Final Fantasy XIII, Killzone 2.

Basically It combines Shotimes, Movies, iFlix and Amazon. It would let me watch trailers, write reviews and gather reviews from MetaCritic, Netflix, Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes.

The homepage would have featured movies, or top grossing films or whatever you really like, I would personally have the last few reviews from Roger Ebert. Of course, this would all link you to the actual movie’s page where you would have the movie’s poster image, synopsis, reviews from the aforementioned websites, and the ability for you to post a review, to one or all of the review services.

Additionally you could see the trailer for the movie and add it to your queue on Netflix, or even buy it through Amazon.com. If the movie is out in theaters It would use your location to give you showtimes near you like Showtimes does right now. I would personally call it Tinseltown, but since I’m not developing it I guess I have no say.

As an added bonus, I would also add the Endless Movie Quiz from Flixter as a game.

With Netflix finally announcing that a Watch Instantly solution will be out for Mac before the end of the year, this all-inclusive movie app would be the greatest thing since Mel Brook’s History of the World: Part 1.

Yes, it’s good to be the king.

Blockbuster, if you remember, would always get exclusive deals. They had some real pull because most of a movie’s money is actually made in the rental arena and in licensing. Now that Netflix is on top they can’t talk to other companies to maybe get some flexibility on the Watch Now capabilities?

Microsoft is finally adding DRM to Silverlight sometime this summer, how long will it take for Netflix to catch up? More importantly, how much extra will they charge?

Watch Now has been free for two reasons. One, theyre trying out this whole streaming thing. Two, a large portion of their subscribed base can’t access it because they are on Macs or because they refuse to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox while on Windows.

Once they open up Watch Now to that bigger user base I am sure they will start charging a premium for it. Just like they announced the second that Blu-Ray won the format war.

Apple is in the Blu-Ray side, well, they were before the format was over and you could pick a side. At some point soon Apple computers will start coming with built-in Blu-Ray drives. At which point, owning a Mac and having Netflix will turn out to be counterproductive. Unless you do not care about watch now, and do not care about Blu-Rays… In which case I’m sure Netflix will not charge you more.

The problem is, right now they are claiming that it is a feature. Your monthly payments are for movies by mail and movies instantly, as stated by this screenshot of their website. They can talk all they want about how its just something extra and it doesn’t factor into the price. The reality is that Netflix is using Watch Now as a feature to add new customers, while their inability, ( adobe has drm on flash) unwillingness, (they’ve stated theyre working on it) plans are to cut down on their bandwidth costs until they can charge everybody more.

For the record, I am a Netflix customer. I am very happy with the mail-in service but am annoyed that I cannot use my Mac to access these extra features I do feel I am subsidizing for Windows users. I also own a PS3 and -will not- be upgrading to Blu-Ray discs. I won’t subsidize Watch Now for others, while at the same time paying extra for the one ‘nifty’ feature I can get.