Check the email address associated with your account. I was sent a notification.

edit... I should add, they still should show you something when first signing in.

I didn't get an email, either.

I got the email, I may cancel my DVD plan, I'm on the one unlimited, and we usually only get stuff for the kids.

Well shit. We'll have gone from $13 a month with streaming and 2 dvds to $20
since we started the service.

I love seeing the old tv, IE Jack Lord's Hawaii 5-0, Cheers, Mission Impossible etc so I don't want to lose streaming. I like the dvds for things I never got on DISH from HBO or Showtime, IE Sopranos, Dexter.

I'm thinking of just going streaming and cut back to $8 a month and just adding HBO to my DISH package at $15. I get new releases and access to all original HBO programing with their online feature. Hell as I look over my DISH package I can see by playing around a bit (I can turn off a $10 non-premium option) I can add both HBO and Showtime for a total difference of only $14. I'll only be paying $2 a month for current premiums over what I would be paying for the 2 dvd option. Hello Dexter:)

+1

I even did a search in my gmail account and nothing popped up other then the usual "How was your streaming quality?" emails.

+2

I just received my email.

yeah, I didn't get one either and had to go search the site to find it. I'm sure it'll be coming eventually, as it's not taking effect until 9/1

I very well may not receive mine for a few days after thinking about it. Since I am an existing customer, and my hike doesn't go into effect until the 1st of Sept, there may not be a rush to piss me off.

edit: or what DD just said.

Didn't get my email yet either. However within seconds of changing my netflix to stream only I had a confirmation.

Added HBO on Dish and saving a few bucks a month over what I was paying for Dish and Netflix w\2dvd before. The more I think about it a guy really has to keep those dvds going back and forth in the mail to justify the price. At least around here you can get new releases either from the local video store, on buck day, or Redbox cheap.

I have the 3 DVD plan, so my price is going up from $19.99 to $23.99. I expected to be worse after reading all the fire and brimstone responses ont he Netflix blog.

Okay, saw it last night; I felt the need to rinse my brain when it was over.

I wonder how much Netflix would cost a month if they bought the licenses to stream everything in existence. That's the balance here. Anything could be streamed for the right price, but Netflix doesn't want to charge $500/month either, or go to a pay-per-watch plan

I don't think the price increase will affect me that much - not sure though. I have had the instant streaming only for a while, and I think that is staying the same or only increasing a couple of bucks.

I used a little of both - the occasional DVD and the occasional streaming. So I'm rather impacted by this. I'll probably cancel. Your loss, Netflix.

1. It was $7.99 when I started less than a year ago. That's an absurd increase, not to mention I have a Blu-Ray and I don't want to pay another $2 for Blu-Ray disks. This seems even more idiotic given that we have to wait 30 days for most new DVD releases. So they've doubled the price and reduced services in about 8 months...the very principle of the thing makes me want to cancel. I don't feel taken advantage of or anything like that, but if I signed up for a cable modem and then reduced my bandwidth while doubling my price in just a few months, I'd cancel just because I think it sucks...this isn't any different.

2. It's most definitely not worth it for the streaming because their selection is pretty damn mediocre. Streaming on my IPhone was pretty neat when I was stuck somewhere, but other than that it's just not all that useful.

3. It might be worth it for the mail DVDs, but with Redbox so pervasive around here, it makes sense to look at renting from them for a buck or (Blu-Ray) a buck and a half. I hate having to return movies, but that might be the end result.

4. For that price, I can also rent a bunch of movies from Dish and/or get HBO or Showtime. Though I probably won't.

ah, so it's not so much that they are raising the prices. it's that they are splitting the services. $8 for streaming only, $8 for 1 DVD.

not impressed.

I got the email. I haven't decided what I'm doing. Thinking I may keep streaming and Redbox everything else, especially seeing as I've had my latest DVD for quite awhile (well over a month). And there are new releases I want to see. But there are some older movies I can only get on disc that I also want to see....

/tk

That was my decision last year TK after the last service change, when they introduced the streaming only option. My use of the through-the-mail service was tailing off anyway, while I used the streaming service constantly. Any other movies I need I can watch on movie channels or get on Redbox.

The only reason I upgraded from 1 at a time to 2 at a time just a couple of days ago was so that my son & my wife didn't have to coordinate their streaming. "Unlimited" has been tying (and I assume still is, although it isn't clear in the email) the number of simultaneous device connections to how many DVD at a time plan you were on.

If that's changing I'd dump the DVD's after a month or two, til I knocked out a few of the want-to-see older movies that are DVD only. Same token, if they're going to a single device at a time only then I'd almost certainly drop to streaming only as well, or maybe just drop them altogether (pity after they only got me to try them a month ago). The either/or just doesn't seem to amount to the right mix of benefits for my household, exacerbated by the fact that virtually everything we watch is single-viewer.

The percentage jump rankles more than the gross increase, it's just doesn't feel worth 25% more to me 9/1 than it does today, not without dramatic increases in the selection of movies being streamed.

This only works for me if it ends up with them adding to the instant section. They recently lost some newer Showtime shows and I'm worried this could become a trend. The price isn't as important as the selection right now. The price increase isn't that bad and I'm sort of shocked at how many people are "irate" over this on other sites.

I did find their e-mail odd. It was cold and concise. Wouldn't it have been better to write a nice one that explained reasons for the change (companies charging more for rights) and plans for the future?

Also, I'm through Season One of SportsNight. I like the show but I don't know why. I dislike almost every character, think the dialogue is horrible, and it doesn't have many laugh out loud moments. Don't know why I'm into it at all but I am.

I've decided to go streaming only. I can get newer movies from redbox, and older ones from my library.

which is why this seems like an odd move for them. it's like they are giving business away to redbox.

Finally got the email at 12:15 am. I knew that my email was the one associated with the account -- I remember getting an email asking me how the quality of "I am a Sex Addict" was after someone visiting watched it (and presumably didn't know I would get an email about it).

You are missing where they said they'd like to focus on streaming. I think they are fine with giving away physical disc rental to RedBox and focusing on the streaming side of things. I still think the key here is they don't want to pay Starz, Sony, etc for people who aren't actually using the streaming service much if at all, but have it on their account because it was so cheap to add.

Yeah, I have "a friend" who's a sex addict as well. Tell your friend I hope "he" can get some help for "his" problem.

This is exactly what I'm doing as well- our library system is pretty good about what they have, and they'll hold it at whichever one you need. My girlfriend goes at least twice a week, so it's not as nice as them coming to the door, but it'll work. I have a redbox not but a few blocks out of the way on the way home from work so if there is ever a new release we can go grab that. We do watch streaming a few times a week, normally old tv shows, some old movies, documentaries so we'll keep streaming only for now.

I don't get those defending the streaming selection.

It's ok for TV, it's TERRIBLE for movies.

Yes, if they're pushing me away from having DVD + streaming, I expect first-run movies, etc. You know, like HBO is doing with their HBO to go.

Someone said either here or on one of the social networks that maybe they'll cancel and get HBO for the to go. It's not a bad idea.

If you're defending the absolutely awful movie selection on streaming, I don't know what to tell you. It's straight awful. TV is ok - but no CBS shows, no HBO shows, Showtime is all but gone.

I think we are going to go with just streaming.

The double in price for 1 DVD is too steep. We barely watch the DVDs. I have had "Easy A" and "Date Night" sitting on my shelf since January. Last year I had "Hurt Locker" for about 8 months.

I like having the option of grabbing a DVD for a newer movie that I missed out on at the theater, but I can always run to Blockbuster or Red Box for those.

I may cancel my DVDs after the summer..

Our current plan is 2 DVDs + streaming.

We usually use 1 DVD for movies, 1 DVD for TV.

In the fall/winter I really don't use the TV one because we Tivo stuff. The movies I can get from Redbox.

Idano, very frustrated. I've been a big proponent of Netflix over the years, but these sudden price increases without any increase in service are frustrating.

It's limited for sure, but that's why it's so cheap. You talk like they just haven't gotten around to upgrading their servers or something and deserve critisism for it. I'm sure they could buy showtime itself for the right price....but then we'd really see some price hikes.

Easy A is on Instant. Why, people including myself watch something on Instant versus putting in a DVD is beyond me.

Just went to look at blockbuster..

Their pricing is even higher, but you can get games at no extra charge as well.. hrmm..

In all honesty, their cost was cheap, so now it's going more towards what it should be and people are complaining.

Ha, I feel the same way except for the being into it part. I hate those characters and the way they talk. I want to kill them all. I thought I was the only one.

Cheap seems to be what made it attractive. At closer to par, it really becomes more of a decision for people & when people start thinking about an expense, it increases both stress & reluctance.

Do you watch documentaries? That's about 90% of what I use it for it seems. I'm always finding good shit.

You seem to be missing the point.

They are pushing people away from DVD. Yet, at the same time, the content on streaming is not improving. There is a disconnect. They are making it increasingly expensive to use both options so that you can fill in the gaps. It is quite obvious that they would prefer everyone just stream.

Compared to the rest of the market, Netflix streaming isn't all that cheap. And when you combine their services, they are making it increasingly more expensive compared to what they used to offer - WITHOUT INCREASING THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT.



It's not anymore.

Yeah, I saw that a few times. That's when I noticed that I really don't watch the DVDs.

I still haven't watched it, but, for some reason, I did watch "The Dark Crystal" two weeks ago.

This.

If they fix the gaps then stream-only probably isn't a problem. Even split the difference & say something like $12 stream-only if the selection was there and I think this goes over better. Instead, they're basically saying "pay the same for half the options" or "pay more for the same options" and that's leading to the uproar.

Exactly. One of the appeals to Netflix was it's relatively inexpensive cost.

They were "making" money off of me as it was before streaming. With streaming now, I watch streaming a bit for TV shows (often shows I just wouldn't watch if it weren't for streaming fwiw, so not a major deal for me) - so I may be more "breaking even".

But, as they increase the prices, there become much cheaper options. At minimum, it appears that cancelling the DVD service altogether may be the way to go for me. And, it seems that's what they want from me. Sometimes I wonder why they don't just ditch the DVD service then and become a Hulu competitor exclusively.

I watch, for the 9 non-summer months, probably 1 DVD every two months in many cases. When I'm being "good" about it I may watch 3 in a month. That's what.... $2-3 from Red Box? During the summer I'll usually go through 1-2 DVDs a week. So let's say that's 8 of them. That's $8 from Red Box or like $16 if I have to go to BB because Red Box doesn't have the TV Shows I want.

I can do math pretty quickly and see that I'm better off cancelling the DVD selection on cost alone. When it was just a bit more expensive than the alternative, the convenience was worth it.

Now I'm not so sure it is.


No, I do not.

Yup. If this was..

"ok, here's the deal... we're going to double our streaming fee to $16, but now we'll have 50% of the new releases available and almost all movies that have been out for over 12 months" then I'm all in.

Not "ok, here's a price increase, but, sorry - same selection as always!"

WELCOME TO NETFLIX!

not missing it at all. I know that's the way they want to go and that makes sense. I just question whether throwing all your eggs in right now is the way to go, especially as the streaming selection is still so hit or miss (right now I have 35 items in my instant saved queue - all titles that used to be available but have been pulled) and since it could also end up being a substantial boost to a major competitor.

Personally, we use the DVD option more (almost 100% for kids movies) but what got me to sign up a year or so ago was the added bonus of having streaming available for those occasional times we wanted to use it. I'm not sure that either option is attractive enough on their own to keep us.

Right, unlike cable or internet, Netflix still just seems like a negligible cost. I would notice the loss of content a heck of a lot more than the $15. That's like two foot long sandwiches. Or one movie ticket and popcorn. I'd way rather have Netflix. I'd probably pay $35/month for it, or more. I never want to set foot in blockbuster again...red box is a good supplement.

I am not too torn up about this. It's simply business.

They are doing well in the market place and think they can raise prices. If it turns out that enough people dump them over the increases, then they will likely scale it back. If there are actual competitive options out there, then people will turn to them, which should, in turn, give these competitors a cash infusion that they can invest to make them even better.

Yeah, I'm kind of weird in that I'm probably 50/50 at this point. But, again, a LOT of the streaming stuff I watch I just wouldn't care about if it wasn't so easy to get to. It's filler for summertime downtime in TV Shows.

No way I'd pay $35 for the service as-is. Not sure what "plan" you're saying you'd pay $35 for, but there is zero chance of that. I have no idea how you're getting $35 "value" out of it unless you watch a LOT of DVD movies.

I don't have a use for netflix and don't really know much about it at all, but I saw this news today and thought it was interesting timing given the several articles I've seen recently that talk about how netflix is likely going to end up out of business or bought out in the next couple of years given that all of their movie contracts are running out, and since they signed them, streaming has become such a huge thing that they're going to end up paying tenfold for the rights to what they had bought cheap 10 years ago. And that basically, they were either going to go under because of that expense (or have to start charging a premium for their service...), or the bigger players who want in on this are going to outbid them for those rights and put them out of business. I think they have 1 contract coming up for renegotiation now, and that's going to be the precursor to the huge expense increase they are going to see as each contract expires.

I just like having access to everything. I can pretty much see anything that has ever existed, either immediately, or within 1-2 days. Who else offers that? For $15 with 1 dvd out and unlimited streaming. That's one blockbuster movie if I return it two days late. Or 1 month of hbo. Or two movies on demand on Directv. I don't care about new releases, so redbox is maybe a $1/ month thing either way...but it can't touch the Netflix library, not even close.

Clearly it's been awhile since you rented from BB. Their prices for non-new releases have gone down dramatically.

Or you could rent 15 redbox movies.

Or basically the same price as BB mail, which does the same thing, and has new movies earlier (which I don't care that much about).

They're not as exclusive in this game as you are making them out to be. You can stream some old-ass movies and some ok tv shows - which you could do with BB mail + hulu or BB store + hulu. Yes, I'll grant Red Box limits your selection comparitevely, but..

The "convenience" of having a bunch of old stuff that I don't want to watch anyways at my finger tips just isn't worth to me what it is to you I suppose.

You updated since I posted.

I'm trying to find the price online, but I believe it is $2.99 for a non new-release.

And I'd love to go to the movies for a buck but it ain't gonna happen.

If a company could aquire streaming rights to more than half of new movies in existence, and offer unlimited viewing for $16, i'm sure they'd have a ton of customers....

HBO GO. It's HBO. Anywhere.

And beyond that, I may have been exaggerating my point. But, point being, they're just continually increasing the cost, without increasing the service.

Everyone has their breaking point, and I think Netflix is getting dangerously close to that for too many people.

I'm looking at Blockbuster Mail for instance. I can get it fro a similar price to Netflix and be able to do games to, at no additional cost. That's appealing to me. Maybe I just use Netflix for the 3 summer months and call it a day.

We are going to look back in 10 years and wonder why people ever did DVDs by mail. My guess is it's already a dying business.

Netflix is ahead of the curve here by shrugging off their DVD users and just focusing on streaming content. Completely agree with Wade that they need to aggressively improve their content if they are to continue to be successful. Buying Hulu would be a start.

And again, they are pushing me away from DVDs. They are basically saying, "hey, here, use this service with crap selection and get rid of the good selection - k, thx."

And, not surprisingly, I think Subby sums up what I'm trying to say way better than I am.

I think Streaming is the way of the future. However, I don't think Netflix (or whomever) is going to succeed at streaming becoming mainstream until the selection improves.

I can't find numbers or anything, but I believe that it is still a small minority of Netflix customers that use Netflix streaming - and I'd argue mostly for this reason.

:p
They don't have netflix's library and I don't even know where the closest one is to me...I don't think there's one still standing in boise....

I'm watching twin peaks streaming on Netflix now. If it wasn't streaming, I'd be going through the dvds. I just thought randomly one day, "i'm going to watch twin peaks.' Netflix is still the best game in town for that type of viewing habit.

They say that about streaming, but my dvds still show up, faster then they ever did. If the close all the distribution centers and it takes a week to get anything, i'll revisit it.

LOL

"Thank you for calling Netflix. We are currently experiencing higher than normal call volume, please try your call again later"

( I was hoping to specifically clarify the "multiple devices still tied to number of DVD's out?" question)

What is this multiple devices thing you're referring to? I saw you reference it earlier, but didn't really realize what you were talking about.

Is it that you can only stream on one device at a time?

Red Box is great if you watch newer movies, but since I see many of them (the ones I want to see at least) at the theater, I find very little value in that service. I watch lots of older movies and TV shows. For that, Netflix can't be beat since many of the classics are on streaming and the DVD's allow me to plow through a TV show fairly quickly when I need to catch up.

That makes sense larry.

But for someone like me, who I think is closer to the mainstream, it's not particularly useful.

I think I'm close to the mainstream - I watch a few movies a year in theater, then I like to "rent" some movies now and then. When I do rent movies it is generally something made within the last 2 years, sometimes it stretches to the last 5 years. When I want to go back and watch TV, it's generally something that is currently in production or recently finished.

I think that is what most of "America" wants to do. Netflix DVDs is fantastic for this. Netflix streaming is mediocre at best. They have 2nd tier recent shows and old shows. They have 5th tier new movies and old movies, with the occasional good recent movie thrown in that is only available for a few months.

Yeah, pretty much.

The most common scenarios in my house are:
Kid watching on XBox & wife watching on laptop

With the 1 DVD/time plan, only one of those things can happen at a time, so
over the weekend I upgraded to the 2 DVD/time plan so that they didn't have to coordinate/negotiate who was going to watch Netflix. It was doable during the free 1 month trial period but it was kind of hampering the enjoyment for both of them, seemed worth $5 more to eliminate the issue.

I'm just wanting to clarify that the simultaneous connections are still tied to the DVD count, if not then I could drop back to the 1 DVD plan immediately.

Gotcha. Didn't know about that.

This is why I just buy the movies or tv shows I want to watch. No one can take it away from me, no one can raise the price on me, no one can cancel me. I own it and can watch whenever I want to, no need for an internet connection.

No offense to you, but buying movies and tv shows in this day and age makes zero sense to me.

The same goes for me. Streaming movies and tv shows makes no sense to me.

I mean.. I guess you have money to just throw around, but otherwise, especially with TV shows, streaming/renting movies/tv is dramatically cheaper and more accessible.

Not to mention storage issues.

That really depends on how many times he watches them and at what price he purchased them at. Not to mention there is no guarantee that movie or show he is watching via streaming today will be available for streaming tomorrow.

Unless someone breaks into your house beats you and takes your DVDs...

They need to do a special Hoarders episode on people who compulsively buy DVDs. I bet there are some ridiculous libraries out there.

No need to worry about storage issues if you have the DVD. Unless you mean shelf space. Of the 100% of the current tv shows out there, there's only 3 that I can think of that I would buy the season DVDs. But, I just watch them on my DVR. As far as movies go, if the movie strikes enough interest in me to want to watch it, I just buy it. I like having something tangible in my hands when it comes to watching something. You can't hack my DVD. Netflix streaming goes down, I can still watch my DVD. My internet goes down, I can still watch my DVD. My computer breaks, I can still watch my DVD. To me, DVDs are like books and that's why I'll never own something like a Kindle or ever use Netflix (unless they somehow manage to get live sports).

Depending on the tv show, I have no problems paying 30 - 40 dollars for that show when they are released on DVD. If that season has been out for more than a year or so, I'm not willing to pay much more than 20 - 25 dollars for it. Amazon is great for discounts.

Movies...Depending on how much I like the movie, I'm flexible on the price. I refuse to pay more for Blu Ray discs than what it would cost for a DVD. I got Blazing Saddles for 9.99 at Best Buy, on Blu Ray. Good price in my opinion.

So really, I see no need for a service like Netflix or rental boxes, when I have Amazon, Best Buy & my DirecTV with DVR. The only time when I'm not home that I ever have want or need to watch a movie is when I'm at the airport and on a plane. Nothing I can't rip off of a disc and put on my iphone.

I don't begrudge anyone that uses something like Netflix, I just don't think that it's the best way to watch things and serves my viewing needs, absolutely no purpose. Even with the price hike, I think that is super cheap if it's all-you-can-watch, but, I have no need for it.

Ok, Dan has a good point. Someone (and I won't mention any names) could possibly break into my house and steal all my DVDs.

Going to Home Depot now to buy a secured DVD humidor.

My friend who's house our Strat-o-Matic league is played at must have well over 2-3000 DVDs. I mean if I really want to watch a movie I can just borrow from him.

Holy crap! I have maybe 100. I feel very inadequate right now. :(

I'm questioning this as well. I've got the one DVD plan, and I can watch a movie on the Apple TV while the kids watch one on their TV in the "wii room". Both streaming, both simultaneously.

We did that this weekend. I thought they had a five device limit, and that was the only restriction.

I think I have about 100-150, most of them bought before I met my wife, we have only bought about 2-3 in the last year, and one of them was the Blu-Ray version of Walking Dead.

Not according to both the fine print somewhat hidden in their help files and their phone answer to that specific question when I signed up initially ... but maybe it's a policy that doesn't actually work or something (i.e. you aren't really limited, they just claim you are).

Here's the actual wording

I'm torn over the price hike, as I've only been subscribing since November or so. I started about two days before the first price hike of $1 for streaming and dvd delivery.

I use the streaming service all of the time. That accounts for most of what I watch on TV now. I under use the DVD service, but we do use it. I've got "The Sweet Smell of Success" at home right now, and I've had it for a month or so.

I felt the service was undervalued at the $8-$9 price point. However, I'm now questioning if I want to pay double the price for something that we rarely use. I guess we probably will.

Actually, I just realized that there won't even be a price increase for me. I have roommates and they have the same 3 DVD plan as me. Since our plans allow us to have two devices going at the same time for instant watching, only one of us will have to carry it. We can split the cost of one instant account in half and that means I'll be paying exactly the same.

Interesting. I haven't found that to be the case in practice, however I've now done a google search, and seen people running into errors specifying the two device limit.

I think I'll have to perform a test on this.

There's going to be a lot more changes and all this stuff is going to get more expensive. I just read this tidbit:

Overall, Pachter predicts Netflix's streaming content licensing costs will rise from $180 million in 2010 to a whopping $1.98 billion in 2012.

Netflix renews contract for NBCUniversal movies and TV shows - Jul. 13, 2011

I think it's a bit much to expect them to just "stream everything" for the same cost or a slight price increase. (I think that also might shut down the internet). The studios have just gotten a ton more aggressive with this stuff. I would assume we'll see redbox increase prices a bit soon as well (they're already testing $1.15, $1.50, up to $2.00 in some markets).

I just don't even know how to react to this. I feel like I'm listening to like.. someone's grandpa or something.

If netflix being down for an hour or two for an outage is a reason to go out and overpay for the same thing in another fashion, have at it. When Netflix is down you could listen to your cassette tape collection to pass the time.

This is all about the movie studios. They hate that people aren't paying to go to the theater and they hate that people aren't paying to buy DVDs anymore. They tried to make peope wait a month before getting videos once they came out so that people would go buy them. Now they're forcing the streaming hand by trying to charge outrageous amounts. At some point they have to realize they're pricing themselves out of business.

Not to mention most of the movies they're making are movies we've seen before. Either they're remakes or just rehash the same crap over and over and over again.

If their costs really get multiplied by ten, then netflix and this streaming model as we know it will die. End of story.

I hope the studios are prepared for what that means. I'm not going back to buying DVDs.

I think the last tv show I bought was a season of Futurama and that was a couple of years ago. I may get the Walking Dead season though now that you mention it.

My car breaks down, I can still walk! But that doesn't mean I'm not buying a car.

To me, the biggest advantage of streaming, the icloud, and technology in general is the need for less stuff--I can't tell you when I pulled a book off of my bookshelf, but I can give you a list of the books I've read and can easily access on my kindle in the last year. Your mileage varies.

(And I think we will probably go with the streaming only option, FWIW.)

I wouldn't place too much stock in that article. Netflix 2010 fiscal year-end total revenues were $2.1B. They're projected to be around $3B this year and there's no way their business model can support licensing fees being 2/3rds of all gross revenue.

That doesn't mean their licensing fees won't go up dramatically, though.

Fox already beat them to that punch, no?

If I'm not mistaken that's tied to a cable subscription. You can't just sign up for HBO Go. You need to be subscribed to HBO through your cable or satellite provider as well, at which point your HBO Go access is included.

It's being subsidized by what you're already paying for HBO in other words.

Nice to know I can come to FOFC and leave feeling like a piece of shit for having a "Fear of a Black Hat" DVD that I bought for $4.99 in my house.

Not hearing much about Fox as a buyer at this point, more likely to be Google or Amazon, with maybe Microsoft as a long-shot candidate.

But it won't be Netflix regardless, reports of them having no interest in buying Hulu started in earnest on Monday IIRC (shortly before the price hike news).

Correct. An HBO subscription is similarly priced to Netflix.

If you're talking about the super-minority that we've discussed before of people who don't use cable. Well, to be honest, I'm not worried about those people. They're such a severe minority that they don't matter in this discussion in my opinion.

I generally buy DVD's or TV shows for collection purposes. Also, it's usually movies that I really like and would like to have access to them constantly. I don't consider it overpaying, because I like to have the convenience of just picking up the DVD I own and playing it instead of waiting 1-2 days if it isn't available on instant.

Get off my lawn sonny! :)

Like I said, it's like books. I like to have something tangible 'in my hands'. I would be willing to pay/subscribe (depends on the price) to something like Netflix if it did live sporting events and I could watch any team that I wanted. I'm not Netflix bashing, it just provides me no benefit at the moment. I do think it's a bit of hyperbole when someone thinks that paying 16 dollars a month for unlimited viewing is too expensive. I'm actually surprised that Netflix isn't charging 25 to 30 a month or have a tiered pricing service for people who are not heavy viewers.

And I don't think paying 10 dollars for a DVD is over paying. It would be if I was buying 4 or 5 a week, but I don't. So nothing to do with getting with times with all the hip kids and their zoot suits. ;)

This is what I was talking about in my comment on the last page.

I've been a Netflix customer since 2003. I dropped down to 1-DVD-at-a-time with the last price increase... not so much because of the expense but because it made me think about how much I was using it and I realized not as much as before.

At this point I'm not sure what to do. Streaming isn't near comprehensive enough to be a full replacement for DVD-by-mail, but my kids use it for their TV watching (no commercials!) so I have to keep it. I don't think I watch enough physical DVDs to justify paying $9/month to keep the 1-DVD-at-a-time plan. I hate the (relative) inconvenience of Redbox even though I probably drive by 10 on my way home from work.

I guess in the end I'll drop to streaming only and supplement with Redbox and iTunes and watch less movies overall.

The difference is, you need a car, you don't 'need' Netflix or DVDs, but, I do understand what you're saying. Again, I have no need for those kinds of services. I don't really think that having streamed based software, books and movies is going to cut down on the stuff. It's going to create different stuff that needs to access them. Dummy terminals, Kindles, iPhones, etc? If the day comes and all that exists is media/software that can only be streamed, so be it and I'll switch over. Until then, I choose tangible items. No biggie.

Decided to drop from the 2 a time DVD plan (with Blu-ray) to the 1 a time, and drastically just increased my instant queue (I have used it but really only for TV shows like "The Tudors" and "Weeds").