I don’t know about the rest of you, but I hardly get any dvds from Netflix anymore. Maybe one or two a month, and that’s it- the rest of the dozens of films I watch come from watching their ever-impressive Instant selection. Netflix realizes this and wants us to keep it up- after all, shooting movies directly into your home is cheaper than spending money on discs and postage.
Now there’s going to be even less of a reason to wait on discs, as Netflix has just reached a five-year deal to stream movies from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM.
Many of their films (including new releases) will premiere on Netflix 90 days after on-demand services, through Paramount’s new Epix pay TV channel. Netflix said that previously these rights to distribute films are pre-sold to pay TV for up to nine years after a movie’s theatrical release. The deal means it can add many more popular movies from major studios.
This is similar to what Netflix already has with Starz, although hopefully the quality of the films will be superior, as those Starz films are pretty muddy-looking (and where’s our 5.1 surround sound, damn it?)
Check Yahoo for more details, and prepare to never leave your couch.
12 comments
I agree that there is a significant drop in quality of the Starz-provided content from Netflix's other content. Last night, I watched Kurosawa's DREAMS in HD and was almost brought to tears by the beauty of the photography. On the other hand, watching UP from Starz looks little better than a downloaded DVD rip. As for 5.1 sound, I'm not sure what the issue is. I know it would take higher bandwidth than what they currently use, but I can't imagine it being a deal-breaker in an age where 20Mbps connections are becoming more available to the average household.
As for DVD's, I still like the fact that I can get a lot of obscure things on DVD that aren't available for streaming. Streaming is amazing, but it doesn't have everything and films regularly become unavailable.
I don't mind watching some stuff on streaming video, but there is very noticeable image quality loss. It is regularly seen on walls or other uniform surfaces.
I like the conveniance, but I didn't blow the cash on a BluRay to watch low quality video
"those Starz films are pretty muddy-looking"… until the quality is equal to the DVD, I'm still going to be getting the DVD's. I only watch streaming movies that I don't really care about quality… like Super High Me.
I found myself NOT watching movies on Instant Watch because they were in 4:3 aspect ratio. They need to make the widescreen the standard format via netflix. Just like all their dvds
coupla things:
yes @ chinaski – i've noticed the fucked up aspect ratio too – and it seems to be mostly on those goddamned Starz channel films.
Netflix needs to DUMP Starz…. I've been complaining about this for a year.
Hopefully, the Epix thing will be vastly superior to the Starz crap.
The compression varies with the speed of your connection. Everything I've watched has looked quite clear and crisp, but I'm on a fast connection.
They do need to make more of the library available in HD though.
With surround.
And stop rotating titles out.
That's bullshit.
Epix crops scope movies to 16:9 on their cable channel so I'm not particularly optimistic about what they'll be bringing to Netflix. I guess it'll be better than what Starz is offering, but that's a mighty low bar to clear.
I still prefer a standard DVD to streaming. You don't get the artifacting, you don't get the reloading (which always happens with Starz for some reason), you don't have the shitty rewind function, you get an endless selection, you can choose subtitles over dub, and typically dvd's come in the original aspect ratio.
What I love about Netflix streaming is the television sets. I'm finally getting to watch Pushing Daises and the rest of Veronica Mars without dropping forty to fifty bucks on each set.
Ditto to most of the complaints here. However, I'm really loving streaming, so I hope the quality problems decrease significantly over time (sooner rather than later, too).
So they're going to have more streaming movies available. Whoopee. How about they get rid of the extra charge for Blu Ray, or at least make their Blu Ray movies available at the same time as everyone else, and get rid of the shit "Rental" versions of the Blu Rays that have fucking zip in terms of bonus features.
I'd like to continue to have the choice between streaming and DVDs. If I could only choose one, I'd definitely go with actual DVDs sent to me. In other words, I echo this earlier comment: "those Starz films are pretty muddy-looking… until the quality is equal to the DVD, I'm still going to be getting the DVD's. I only watch streaming movies that I don't really care about quality… like Super High Me."
Al lI can tolerate on the NF instant is old BBC Nazi Documentaries from the 1970's and Corporate Pablum for the 8 year old. No 5.1 surround, is the main reason I ignore it.
But I am used to crappy quality on DVD and BluRay (yes, I have seen many crappy BluRay transfers) many remind me of my treasured Super Betamax evenings…. (I get my TV via air, thank you – I don't appreciate that satellite TV artifacting, also.)
And to think, there are people who watch movies on computers and mobile telephones – no wonder why it's all muddy, fuxzzy and tinny – all these kids are used to VHS!
We have met the enemy, and it is us; digitized, stamped, mutilated and reconstituted, for a small fee, and never to be live again.
Klaatu Barada Nikto!
Duty Now for the Future!
Zip, Zam, Zowie and Swoosh!
Well, Whatever, Nevermind…
so the deal has gone through now, and i was ready to watch my streaming catalogue bloat ridiculously. not so. they've added maybe 20 movies. is that really what a billion dollars got them, or am i missing something?
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