Flutterby™! : Netflix 2003-01-31 18:11:01+00

Netflix

2003-01-31 18:11:01+00 by TC 8 comments

OK if you haven't signed up for Netflix then please come out from under the rock and log on. I wanted to post this suggestion about 6 months ago as a late comer, but have had my life fulminate on the political & industrial fronts and forgot. Two years ago I tried to think of a delivery system where people could watch movies about the same time in different locations and then talk about them. This involved a lot of bandwidth and some grey areas of the law. Netflix is a much better delivery system till broadband becomes as ubiquitous and cheap as power.

I tried Netflix for several months and loved it. I would still be a subscriber if I hadn't had to go on an austerity plan with my budget. If a couple of proposals I've got out are accepted I'll restart the subscription.

One thing that sold me on it was looking through some Quicken reports and realizing that I had spent up to $75 a month at Blockbuster with the average being around $30. $22 a month total for Netflix with fairly fast turnaround through the mail was a no-brainer.

My pause on Netflix is the cost. It seems like they've taken care of the selection issue I had last time, in fact a quick look at a few titles makes me think they're better than my local video store now, but we don't watch the 5 movies a month it'd take to break even.

Yeah I can totally understand if your in the <5/month group. I've become a bit of a cinephile lately and with their selection and 2 day turnaround. I'm probably up 12-15 movies (doubt I'll maintain this voracious rate) a month.

And with 2 teenagers who haven't seen all the great classic movies they need to see yet (in addition to current hits), we go through more than 10 a month. (We're on The Godfather series now, and one of us is going through the Cowboy Bebop anime set. Bourne Identity ought to be arriving shortly.) It's been great for us. And for my elderly father in FL who's chosen to keep my invalid mother at home while he cares for her: when he discovered Netflix it was like a miracle, the outside world was once again arriving at his mailbox (since he never went anywhere himself). He loves to ask for new ideas for films to put on his queue, and once NetFlix added the shipping depot in GA, he got faster turn-around. Great idea, well executed. Two thumbs up! (urk, did I say that?)

That shipping depot in Georgia is about ten miles from my house. I was shocked at how fast I received my first DVDs until I noticed the return address. I've seen two day turnarounds in sending back and receiving. Of course there was a couple that took over a week to receive.

Kelly and I signed up for Netflix about a month ago and love it. There's a distribution center in Tacoma, so we usually get new DVDs one or two days after they receive the old ones. It's a great form of cheap entertainment; we have no TV, and money's been tight since Kelly went back to school, so it gives us something to do in the evenings besides sit around and try to waste time on the Web.

I was debating - being on the austerity plan myself - but I do spend quite a bit on movies ($20 at BlockBuster in that last two weeks and $8 at the theater). While I still like the theater-going experience, movies at home are pretty much my #1 choice of laid-back entertainment... So NetFlix it is!

I'm not usually big on making New Year's resolutions, but I saw a proposal a while ago that caught my eye:

Every time you do something that puts money into the hands of the RIAA or MPAA, make an equal donation to the EFF.

Go to a movie, that's an $8 to the donation. By a CD, add $15. Buy a DVD, add $20. I've thought about it, and I think I should value my freedom at least as much as my entertainment. And show it.