So, as near as I can figure, NetFlix is punishing its members for preferring the streaming service

[Orrex]

What else could justify the incredibly crappy selection that they offer, not to mention the recent "upgrade" that was about ten steps back in terms of interface and functionality.

If I were to name the top 50 movies that I'd really like to see, perhaps three of them are on the streaming service. And I'm not talking about latest releases, either; why the hell isn't Monkey Business on there? There's been no significant release of new material in at least several weeks, and their best new offering is a Norm MacDonald special? WTF?

I recognize that much of this is due to licensing, etc., but couldn't they at least put up actual new releases for, say, three days right when they come out and then take them out of the rotation for a while?

The service went from being "pretty darn good" to "pretty damn crappy" almost overnight, right around the time of their disastrous and ill-conceived launch of "Quixster."

Again I say WTF?

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. Yes, I stared a thread on that as well that has some good responses -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/114336

We've decided that once we are done with the Wonder Years, we are cancelling Netflix streaming and going instead to one disc at a time DVD service - will be similarly priced.

But they do certainly have a plethora of really mediocre to extra crappy streaming choices!

[Orrex]

5. Missed that thread--sorry!

I should admit that we get a lot of mileage out of the streamed tv shows, in particular the programming that our kids like.


But it would be nice to sit down to watch a movie and not have to choose between "almost entirely garbage" and "just barely watchable."

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. no problem at all - it is a topic worth some time and eyeballs!

I agree - we've watched most of the great TV shows they stream also. (we rented literally hundreds and hundreds of netflix discs in the 7 years we were on the 3 at a time plan - averaged 10 discs/month).

[FSogol]

2. Movie companys are limiting what they can offer. Movie companys want you

to watch the movie on pay-per-view, on premium cable channels, and then buy a hard copy. Then. they want to sell the rights to a network. Then, they want to allow Netflix to stream it. I sure Netflix would love to stream their entire catalog.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. yes, that's my suspicion as well. It is really all - and always - about the $$$$.

[Orrex]

4. As I mentioned, I understand that it's a limitation due to licensing & distribution agreements

Still, there's a ton of public domain films that aren't being offered but which I suspect that many people would still love to see, for instance.

[jberryhill]

7. But "zombies" is a whole category now!

[dmosh42]

8. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of British TV movies!

I'm finding myself getting better at understanding some of those British accents, as we seem to be getting plenty of practice with all those shows from PBS and BBC. I also have seen many other language movies, or at least many more than prior to the last year or so. Some have been very good, but you better not look some where else and miss reading the translations. Incidentally, maybe one of the best movies I saw last year was the Swedish(?) movies in the series with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

[Orrex]

9. But Netflix didn't market itself as a vehicle for obscure foreign television productions

They pass it off as if it were a great way to watch the movies that we want, when we want to watch them, with no stipulation that we're only allowed to "want" a certain very narrow category of foreign films.

Again, I understand that there are licensing issues that prevent NetFlix from offering its full catalog, and I'm not even pining for some distant, imaginary past. I'm simply saying that NetFlix was much better even six months ago, and ever since the split it's impressed me less and less.

[dmosh42]

10. Yeah, I agree with your premise...

I wasn't trying to be an apologist for Netflix, just mentioning the way my viewing seems to be at the moment.

[Orrex]

11. I knew it! You're a NetFlix shill!

Fair enough--point taken.




But after a while, it's just fun to say.

Shill shill shill. Shill.

[PatSeg]

12. I understand what you're saying,

but so far I prefer the streaming over the DVDs. The selection of new movies the past year or so has been lame and I'm enjoying streaming TV series and old movies. I've discovered a lot of shows and movies I hadn't heard of before. If I cancelled anything right now, it would be the DVD service.

I guess it is really more about expectations though. Also if I don't care for a DVD I'm watching, I have to mail it back and wait days for the next one. If I don't like a streamed video, I delete it and watch something else.

[Orrex]

13. Before the grand divide, we made use of both services

Sadly, we found that about 1 in 3 discs we received were cracked, scratched, incorrect, or generally unplayable.

And when they separated the streaming and disc services, it seemed that the range of selections on the streaming service were greatly reduced almost at once. Certainly the availability of new releases shrank considerably. Actual new releases, as opposed to those 20-year-old "new to NetFlix" selections.

I would be less irritated if they marketed their service honestly, and disclaimed outright that more than 99% of the available films are obscure also-rans and craptacular SyFy originals. Instead, they foster the clearly false impression that you can stream anything available in the general NetFlix catalog.

[PatSeg]

14. Until this past year,

my experiences with Netflix had been exceptional. Once they started pushing streaming, the DVD service started to suffer as far as speed and efficiency.

My biggest problem with streaming right now is the way they have the website set up. I particularly hate having a video pop up whenever my mouse goes over a video. I still haven't found a good way to find movies and shows I like, though I'm not sure what the answer to that is.

[Orrex]

15. Agree completely

I also wish that there were a more straightforward way to eliminate certain offerings from the selections that NetFlix tries to foist on me. For instance (and with no disrespect to fans of the genre) I have no interest in anime. There are a few titles that I'll watch, but on the whole the genre leaves me cold. Therefore I wish that I had an easy way--from my Wii console--to tell NetFlix to stop suggesting these titles. If I hear about one that sounds good, I'll seek it out, but otherwise I don't want to waste one of my precious few genre-selectors on films that I generally won't watch.

Also, the search function should return more than two pages of results, especially considering that the top 15 results are likely to be recent releases or the films that NetFlix thinks that I should want to watch. Why not five pages of search results? Or twenty? Is there a practical reason to limit it in this way?

Finally, I'd like to be able to delete items from my Recently Watched list. If I watch six minutes of Human Centipede, I don't want to have to explain it to my kids every time they go on NetFlix looking for Spongebob.

[PatSeg]

16. Okay, that's what I'm talking about

Some of their suggestions are quite good, but other times it is annoying. I know there must be an easier way to find the kinds of movies and shows I like. I can usually do it with TIVO. I think having a search that is only for the instant videos would help. I know the kinds of programs I'm usually looking for, but I can't find a way at Netflix to find them that isn't very complicated and time consuming.

I love British TV dramas. So once again I tried to do a genre search, it took me to Miranda Richardson. Then asked if I wanted British TV, clicked on that and it showed me both DVD and streaming on the same page. I finally found one though, but it should have been easier than that.