Netflix Streaming The Future of Video Rentals

[dolfan16]

In the last few months, Netflix has taken enormous strides to place themselves as the leader in the home video industry. Blockbuster Video was the dominating force in the video rental segment with their brick and mortar stores until Netflix began to offer video disc rentals with no due dates and no late return fees all done by mail. They have recently incorporated digital movie streaming into their list of services which are giving subscribers more ways to receive their film rentals.

Netflix has already been offering digital streaming services to their subscribers directly to their PC's and to owners of the Roku Netflix Player but Netflix has made announcements to partner with electronic giants Samsung, LG, Tivo and Microsoft to deliver HD movie streaming starting as early as this fall. The most recent announcement was made by Roku's VP of consumer products, Tim Twerdahl at Roku Forums that Netflix will also be streaming HD content to their Netflix Players by the end of this year.

There is no doubt, its an exciting time to be a High Defintion nut and a Netflix subscriber. If you happen to own or are planning to own any of the approved Netflix devices and are not a member of Netflix, you may owe it to yourself to check out what all the buzz is regarding movie rentals via digital streaming. I know I am.

[aaronwt]

The bandwidth caps that many of the service providers are implementing will end up limiting the streaming growth and funnel the people to use their providers own VOD/streaming offerings. I'm glad I'm with FIOS since there are no caps. Last month I was easily over 1TB in usage.

[lovekeiiy]

I don't think I have a cap either or it's very high. According to my firewall, my use is:

Current: 0.0 bit/s / 0.0 bit/s (Out / In)
Today: 47.0 MB / 1.4 GB (Out / In)
Month: 2.4 GB / 129.5 GB (Out / In)

But that's how it thus far.

[Wood Ghost]

Comcast has a 250 GB monthly limit. Don't know how much I use but haven't been streaming lots of movies.

[lovekeiiy]

I wasn't aware of a 250GB limit. Right now, I'm at:
Current: 55.9 Kbit/s / 1.5 Mbit/s (Out / In)
Today: 43.4 MB / 1.1 GB (Out / In)
Month: 3.9 GB / 187.5 GB (Out / In)

[aaronwt]

Blockbuster to Introduce Net TV Player

"Washington, D.C. (November 25, 2008) -- Blockbuster says it's rolling out a $99 player that will deliver High-Definition quality movies from the Net to home TVs.

That's according to an article by Reuters.

The video retailer will now compete with Netflix, Apple, TiVo and other companies in the emerging Net TV category. Blockbuster said the MediaPoint player, made by Broadband device manufacturer 2Wire, will allow customers to download high-def movies for $1.99 each.

The set-top itself will cost $99 (and includes advanced rentals for 25 films.)

According to Reuters, consumers will have 30 days to watch a movie after it's been downloaded and they must finish viewing it within 24 hours of hitting the Play button. Blockbuster officials say the menu will highlight newer releases, unlike Netflix's On Demand service which has 12,000 SD and HD titles.

The wire service writes that the service will be called Blockbuster OnDemand and the set-top can be ordered at the company's web site beginning today.

The On Demand service will be available to customers who do not subscribe to Blockbuster Online, the company's online DVD rental service.

Reuters reports that Blockbuster is talking with Blu-ray manufacturers about including the service in their players."

Blockbuster to Introduce Net TV Player


I think they are a little late to the game.

[dolfan16]

Blockbuster has finally woken up....but what's with the must finish viewing it within 24 hours of hitting the Play button thingy. Do Netflix and the other companies limit you on the playabilty of the downloads?

[dmiller68]

but what's with the must finish viewing it within 24 hours of hitting the Play button thingy

Wow the same reason I hate Comcast. I'll pass and stay with my Netflix streaming over the 360 it even remembers where I left off so I can comeback to it..

[aaronwt]

Originally Posted by dolfan16

Blockbuster has finally woken up....but what's with the must finish viewing it within 24 hours of hitting the Play button thingy. Do Netflix and the other companies limit you on the playabilty of the downloads?

Blockbuster will be using a Video On Demand format, and the title will be downloaded to the box. With VOD, once you start viewing, it is usually a 24 hour viewing period.
it's the same with VUDU, but they recently started allowing you to rent the title again, after 24 hours(or after 30 days if you didn't start viewing it) if you didn't finish watching it at a reduced rate. Like for $1 or $2 depending on the title. Not ideal, but it's better than having to pay full price again.

I think Ideally the content providers should allow a 30 hour viewing period. Then you could start one evening and finish the next evening without incurring an additional cost.