Enough about no new content on Netflix - Page 2

As a subscription model there is a thin line. New content versus the ability to offer a subscription minded fee. As long as they remain with one plan (all you can stream) I can't see them pushing new content in any way. They will simply expose themselves as (virtually) not having any. Sure a few lost leaders (via their ad budget) and with their repeated refusal to offer other plans (which is one of the reasons Starz went bye-bye) the only thing I can see emphasizing new content would do is drive the cost up enough to lose a ton of customers. And still not satisfy the new release crowd.

I think they are still very much in the growth stage as far as customers. Most aren't like us where we have used the service for numerous years. As such as long as they don't have their heart set on new releases most customers will find more content than they can watch in a year or more. I know it took me a long time to reduce my queue to the point it wasn't way up in my list of what's to view.

One or more new models will have to come along (at some point). Their current plan is more or less basic cable and a new plan or plans will have to cover new content. Either in a separate subscription plan or a PPV structure.

I read this post in the Entertainment forum a few weeks ago, and it's worth mentioning here..
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post21911315
Netflix has had to tiptoe it's way around all these pre-existing agreements in order to get it's hands on content.

The Amazon title/category search on the PS3 is head and shoulders above what Netflix delivers on the PS3.

What month was that? (I seem to remember that we had this argument in some other thread ).

EDIT: There's been a bumper crop added this month though--783 so far, 253 HD movies, 53 movies w/DD+ 5.1 sound (of course, some of those were things that went away and were brought back, and there's no way to know how many ).

The PS3 Amazon app is incredible and orders of magnitude superior to any other Amazon app that I've seen (very nearly superior to any other streaming app I've ever seen on any platform). Amazon apps on most other platforms are markedly inferior to the PS3's Netflix app, which is present on a ton of other devices now, Netflix seemingly having standardized on it.

The Amazon app is certainly the best on the PS3 but have they fixed the audio issues yet? I haven't looked at it in a few weeks. I know they had one update to the app, but it didn't fix the audio problems at the time. I still use the Roku2 Amazon app for Amazon streaming(or my TiVos for Amazon downloads and 1080P Amazon content because of the audio issues with the PS3 app).

I do from time to time, but to be honest a lot that is mentioned doesn't interest me. I do scroll through the lists that Netflix suggests for me to see if there is anything I want to see, but even then with it using my personal preferences, I still am not finding much. Then again, I'm not so sure setting up your preferences on the Netflix site helps much because I made sure to say that I had no interest in documentaries, anime, or children's material, but when I load it up on my PS3 there are categories for all three. What part of I have no interest in them didn't it understand?

Anyway, here is my main beef with the service. I fully understand them not having new material right away. They would have to charge much more for it if they did. What shocked and upset me when I first signed up was how many older movies I couldn't find.

A quick synopsis, I had back surgery at the end of December, so I was going to be pretty much confined to the house and doing nothing for a while. I decided to compile a list of movies that I either wanted to see again or see for the first time. Since I have DirecTV's On Demand service, I figured I would have no problem finding most, if not all of these movies. No such luck. I did find some, but nowhere near as many as I thought I would. After two months of getting frustrated that I couldn't find much, I decided to go with Netfix because I was sure they'd have to have what I couldn't find on DirecTV. Keep in mind a lot of what I'm looking for is older and there is no real demand for these on DVD so I figured the service wouldn't be losing money on DVD rental/sales and they should be available for streaming. Imagine my surprise when almost every title I typed in came back with no results. That's my main gripe with the service. Not that they don't have the new stuff, but that you can't find things that aren't making anyone any money anymore.

Here is a list of what I'm talking about. Keep in mind this list has changed a little from the first time I compiled it, but for the most part it's pretty much the same.

300 (2006)
Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
Almost Famous (2000)
Anchorman (2004)
Better Off Dead (1985)
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
Blade: Trinity (2004)
Captain America (2011)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Clue (1985)
Desperado (1995)
Hellboy 2 (2008)
Idiocracy (2006)
Sin City (2005)
Smokin' Aces (2006)
Supergirl (1984)
Thor (2011)
Warrior (2011)

Aside from Captain America, Hellboy 2, Thor, and Warrior, all the rest are 6 - 28 yrs. old. Why wouldn't these be available for streaming? It's not like anyone is beating down the door to rent/buy these movies now.

^^Those older movies aren't not available on Netflix for a very simple reason...the studios do not make streaming rights available to everything they've released on dvd. It starts there, at the studio level, if they decide not to put something they own up for sale then Netflix, Amazon and Hulu can't offer it.
They will however make older material available for pay per view streaming. But their attitude towards monthly services will need to change before we see films we want offered.

For several reasons. A couple being old doesn't mean worthless and the more you release the more you devalue everything. Most of the titles you list are A titles which have a certain value in and of themselves regardless of their age. They are only going to license x value based on the amount of the licensing fees and by holding back titles they can get additional income later by packaging them into a separate agreement.

Realistically they are going to license as little as possible for the maximum amount they can charge. Once the market has grown they can obtain higher fees based on the larger market just like you saw them holding off with popular catalog titles when Blu-ray was introduced. Even older titles when introduced on a new format are new titles to a large degree. Their potential sales were x times larger since the market was x times larger... the same logic applies to streaming. And yes even though it's streaming (tied to a viewing period) the sooner you release it the less value it has... presuming the market continues to grow. The streaming services can only pay so much... why give them more than they are willing to settle for.

That was right after Roger Ebert said that Netflix wasn't buying many indie films. You claimed there were many added but I sure didn't see much added as compared to prior months and I keep an eye out on the New Releases section. Are they hiding them elsewhere?

When does the service update their page to show when new content is available? This weekend, I scrolled through both the New Releases and the Recently Added sections and this movie did not appear.
If not for this thread, I wouldn't have known the movie was available.

Here are a few websites to keep tabs on new releases:
http://instantwatcher.com/
www.hackingnetflix.com
http://www.tvandmoviesnow.com/

I didn't realize that Thor was there because I pretty much only watch the stuff in HD and when I check for the latest titles, I filter for HD-only. Thor, sadly, is presented in SD with stereo sound. Not the best way to watch a big-picture, big-sound special effect extravaganza.

BTW, InstantWatcher seems broken lately. When I ask it to list the latest HD titles sorted by instant watch release date the latest entry in the list was added on 12/24/11.
Edited by michaeltscott - 6/11/12 at 2:04pm

Try feedflix.com as well.

I know this isn't exactly related to this thread but has anybody made a feedflix/instantwatcher for HBO yet? Been looking for one so I can see when new movies popup there (the older ones that don't get advertised as their weekly saturday release).

Netflix also says it is HD. However, I cannot get it to go above high HD on my PS3 and the picture quality is not very good. I have no trouble getting a bunch of other titles play in x-high HD with terrific PQ.

Sorry about that--everything that I check says that it's HD now, but I swear that yesterday it wasn't; didn't show up that way either in TVandMoviesNow (which I use to check for new HD titles) or on Netflix's page for the title.

And yes, it appears to be one of the rare 720p-only titles.

Is there any way to check online whether a title is 720 or 1080?

Other than looking at the stream status info on a PS3 or Sony BD player (maybe only the 2012 models) and seeing that it caps out at High/HD while other HD titles go to X-High/HD, no. (Well, I used to confirm it by measuring the consumed bandwidth with my router, but I've given up that hobby ). You can never really prove that there is no 1080p encoding, only observe that you apparently never get it. Netflix does not make a difference between them in their metadata. I'm convinced that there are very, very few 720p-only titles. I recall that Scary Movie was one and that some seasons of some anime series were 720p-only where other seasons of the same series had 1080p encodings. (The excellent Swedish vampire flick, Let the Right One In used to have a 1080p encoding which had screwed up subtitles; they "fixed" the problem by removing it . We used to use it as a mechanism for confirming that a player was receiving 1080p, but it made it very difficult for non-Swedish-speaker with 1080p-capable players to watch the film).

Nice!

I was planning on picking that up at Redbox, but I guess I won't have to now.

seems like captain america is 720p as well....starting to get underwhelmed with these so called HD new releases....

As is Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Iron Man 2, Conan the Barbarian (the new one), Kick Ass, etc: all of the major big theatrical release action films have been HD 720p-only with stereo sound only (with a few exceptions--Killer Elite and Limitless are 1080p/5.1). In the past all of this stuff would have been Starz Play and not HD at all, so things have improved, but this isn't the way that any AV-ophile would choose watch these films.
Edited by michaeltscott - 7/30/12 at 3:05am

I agree...Thor was unwatchable for me...

Thor was a pretty crappy transfer (though it did have digital 5.1 sound); the others are visually better.

Would a true "AV-ophile" even be watching it from a streaming source?

Perhaps not a purist AV-ophile . But we do hear from people telling us how great this streaming source or the other looks on their 100" screen, whom I assume have spent the big bucks to add a real home theater to their home. That assumption may be in error--a 100" screen does not in itself make a home theater. It could be mounted on a rec-room wall with crappy sound equipment .

You don't need to be an AVophile to appreciate good PQ. Blu-ray is so accessible these days and a lot of movies on NF have terrific PQ.

My only problem with Thor is that it is listed as HD but the quality is considerably inferior to a lot of other NF HD titles...