Netflix continues to adapt, grow and create a better experience for the customer. Today we learn that they are lifting all restrictions on online viewing. We get the scoop this morning from the fabled caves of yahoo:
Video rental company Netflix Inc said on Monday it was offering subscribers unlimited access to movies and television shows to watch via the Web on their personal computers. The feature will be open to all subscribers already on one of their unlimited monthly video rental plans, with no extra charge. Until now, Netflix had limited the number of hours of video accessed via the Web that it made available to subscribers under a regular subscription plan. Netflix said it offers about 6,000 movie and television titles to watch over the Web.
This rules! A catalog of 6000 movies is a lot of entertainment for your monthly subscription. The downside is that you have to watch the films on your computer, but with a few cables you can send the good stuff to your television screen. Last week Netflix announced that they were developing an On Demand TV top box with LG, and now they take the chains off of on line viewing for their customers – I like where this is going.
They said there would be 800 rotating films for the On Demand service, and in addition to that you will have a massive library of 6000 movies and TV shows to watch on your computer. This is like living in a distribution center. It is getting harder and harder to find some old gems that I used to enjoy as a kid on VHS, my hope is that technology like this will make hard to find films available to us at the touch of a button. I am not sure if Netflix will ever ditch their mail order service, but it sure looks like they are positioning themselves to be an On Demand powerhouse.
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I’m not sure you can fully blame Netflix for only having 6000 titles online available to view instantly. Even though 6000 titles are a lot there is still some agreement in the fact that there are a lot of crap titles on the list, some good but a lot of ones I’ve already seen and have no desire to watch again.
Until you see studios allowing companies like Netflix to give their customers the movies they desire for instant viewing it will stay this way. I’m sure Netflix would love to make their entire catalogue of movies available to the customer for instant downloading but i’m sure the studios put a restriction on that sort of thing.
Give it some time, I have a feeling they will catch on and see it’s the future of how consumers get their media. I know I enjoy watching instantly, even some old titles are good for my nights at work on my laptop :)
“WITHOUT” (actually having….etc etc etc….)
Sorry for the Typo.
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Lisa: ((Reading invitaion)) “Come to Homer’s BBBQ… The extra ‘B’ is for BYOBB!”
Bart: “What’s THAT extra ‘B’ for?”
Homer: “That’s a typo…”
I would like to whole heartedly agree to what Luchito said above. Most of the “watch now” movies BLOW. I have about 120 movies in my queue and 2 (THATS RIGHT 2!!!!) are actually available to “watch now”. And both are 15+ year old movies. (Its almost like Netflix wants to put up as many movies as possible with actually having anyone watch them in order to keep their own bandwith costs at a minimum. “Hey! We have over 5 billion films! Number of views last month… THREE!)
I have YET to see a new release be put right on there. Instead i sometimes have to wait for WEEKS in order to see certain films.
In general i do like Netflix. The 24 Bux a month saves me from the 100-200 i used to spend buying mediocre films that i never got a chance to see in theaters. BUT, there is still MUCH they could improve.
If any MB regulars want to add or be added to a friends list at the Netflix, let me know! I always enjoy a good recommendation!
Boo hoo linux/Mac users. :P
Anyways, most of the movies that are on their service are either old junk movies or old junk TV shows. There are a few gems in there, but it is hard to find much. I do love the fact that when you go full screen, it is actually full screen, unlike many of the TV websites out there. The quality is still being worked on, but even on a 52″ tv, it is watchable. For every good title on their service, there are 5 if not horrible, obscure for a (good) reason titles.
Let’s hold the phones there Doug. While it is amazing that they have unchained the amount you can watch it is still painfully locked. The service still requires you to use Windows. So this locks out any Mac and Linux users that have their service. I would know I am one of them. So while great that I can watch 800 movies, I would have to torture myself to do it by using Windows.