Netflix BD disc rental discussion thread - Page 270

I was ONLY applying it to Netflix and the issue at hand, as in if your RENTING Blu-ray and RETAIL IS OF DIFFERENT QUALITY THEN WHATS EXPECTED. Obviously, retail can be of different quality then what's expected but at least its the only version available on Blu-ray so you get what you get (if you REALLY want it). In this case you do not get that. Totally different thing that is.
Edited by northreign - 8/21/12 at 7:14am

You can also argue that all apples should be the same price no matter the type or where its bought but that doesn't happen now does it? At least Netflix makes it cheaper by giving you a cheaper "apple".

At least BB has them on release date (retail date) and gives you better product at the "same price", so you are actually getting a better deal for the "same price" if your looking for quality, which if your looking for Blu-ray then your looking for quality. Therefore your getting ripped off by Netflix since its a cheaper product for the "same price". So my original statement still stands.

Obviously too, Netflix has only recently started with dishing out these "half baked" discs. The more it happens then the more they take away value of what your actually paying for.

You want an inferior product when there clearly is a better version and that's the version you expected to have then be happy and enjoy

Of course you could rent dvd's. The issue is on Blu-rays.
Edited by northreign - 8/21/12 at 7:20am

All you can eat services are, by their very nature, "lower quality" services. While I still have Netflix for streaming, I do have BB@Home with Dish for my disc rentals. And BB has plenty of rental versions of bd's and dvd's. And while BBV does get many movies earlier than Netflix, try getting them upon release on a consistant basis (mail order, the stores near me have been pretty good). Redbox has been buying retail discs too. Does that also make them a higher quality service?

If you don't know the difference between lossy and lossless audio then it doesn't really matter to you. The extra 2 channels is not the main difference.

Blockbuster has many of the same rental only discs. Typically when Netflix has a rental only disc but Blockbuster has the regular one, those are discs that Blockbuster went out and purchased at retail(Redbox has rental only discs as well and also purchases some at retail like Blockbuster). But no matter what Blockbuster does, if they can't ship you a disc they are worthless. ANd I've had Blockbuster off and on for several years along with Netflix. Netflix has always been extremely reliable, while Blockbuster has always been extremely unreliable. Except when you are in your free month of service. Then Blockbuster is magically a different service. But as soon as you go to your second month and you start paying for the service, it goes downhill quick. And there is a night a day difference between the service during the first month and the service the months after.

Only discovered this site today.

5.1 versus 7.1 is not a major issue. DTS-MA versus DD5.1 is huge. As far as I am concerned, Netflix should not be able to label an "audio-neutered" BluRay as a BluRay. By definition, a BluRay includes HD sound as well. I've fought with them on this for some time now - to no avail. Perhaps a class action suit would get their attention. And yes - this is the studio's doing, not Netflix.

Also - in my case [member since they started the company], the Saturday solution does not work. Every other day of the week that I return a movie to Netflix, it is received the next day. NOT ON Saturday however; it shows up on Tuesday. This started happening last year and has been a serious source of concern to me. They claim it is the local post office fault [suddenly?], but I've tried from different postal regions and the same thing occurs.

Now the only way for me to receive new releases, is to set up a "courtesy" disk which prompts your top choice irrespective of the demand [unless the supply is extremely small - in which case you get the dreaded "Houston we have a problem" email when they discover that they really don't have one to ship].

Perhaps Blockbuster is a better choice for new releases of BluRays. Does anyone have definitive evidence that BB provides Hunger Games with the HD audio?

KWS

If you admit that this is the studios doing, then why would you sue Netflix? Sue the studios who are insisting on supplying "non-BD" BD's.

Because Netflix accepts these versions as complying to BluRay standards. More importantly, if Netflix did not buy this "version", they would soon not be made available by the studios. Netflix is the customer - they dictate what the studios can do. 100,000 copies of a BluRay is not a small order.

KWS

Plenty of non rental BDs have been released without HD audio. There is no requirement that a BD have HD audio.

Either way Netflix has no choice. They either use what the studios give them or go buy the discs at retail and either piss off the studios or void the contract they made with them.

You obviously haven't kept up with what the studios have been doing in regard to rental companies. They dictate what they sell to you when you get it. They own the product and if you want to contract with them, you have to go by their policies. Now you could pull a Redbox and buy them through retail. But then you'll probably get an even worse deal with the studios next time around.

Unless you are running reference grade equipment, I seriously doubt in a blindfold listening test, most could tell the difference on DTS-MA versus DD5.1 .. in fact, depending on the mix, some prefer DD .. it's just another nit to pick for some on rental disks ..

Oh, the humanity .. the outrage ..

Netflix is a premium service as you are paying extra for Blu Ray. It should be the same disc as you see in retail every time! Not a dumbed down version for the paying masses.

Yes, granted that a minority really get the full benefits of a lossless 7.1 soundtrack but for those of us that can easily hear the increased dynamics, etc though a reference grade rig (like myself), this is a huge deal.

So much so that even though I had the Netflix BD at home, I went out to Best Buy and purchased the better copy.... and was very pleased with the lossless soundtrack. DD5.1 is simply thinner sounding and takes away from a robust dialog in my opinion. It's an antiquated, lossy technology that should have died with DVD.

I hope this doesn't become a habit with Netflix or my account is gone - and I'll have to go back to the old Laser Disc days of purchasing most everything I wanted to watch... (but at least Blu rays are 1/2 the price of the typical LDs - which ranged from $29..99 to $59.99).

I have a reference grade system as well .. and the sonic differences even when noticable are dependent on the mix .. in fact, there are DD soundtracks that can trump DTS-MA .. as well, this particular film that we are talking about is not exactly an audio masterpiece ..

I'm sure if NF were able to negotiate a deal that would allow them to maintain pricing structure at the status quo, they would .. otherwise, in order to actually get some films on the real release date, rather than some "window" in the future that seems to want to be constantly extended, they give up a tiny piece of the retail disc .. thus, giving retailers and full price rental outlets a slight edge over NF .. at least a slight edge on the "ears" of some ..

I would rather trade what I consider to be a small trade off for the on time availability of the disc ..

We each have our opinions .. but the fact of the matter is, to the vast majority of NF members, it's a non-issue .. in fact, I would venture to guess most don't even know ..

And, if you want a more robust sound, turn it up ..

Didn't Dolby labs do a sort of blind taste test a few years back and found that people can't reliably pick the loss less track vs. the lossy. Rhetorical question!! YES they did. Why do people still claim these golden ears. You cannot compare two tracks by listening to one and then putting the other in and listening to that one. I was in the industry a while back (early 70s) and the only way to compare is have them switched while listening and have all the levels matched. We used to do this with Dynaco and McIntosh equipment. We only found one person that could pick out the amp with any accuracy. (out of maybe 50) Most of the McIntosh fans were sure they would be able to tell the difference. Perception is reality!

The post I quoted was expressing that Netflix's ability to deliver the title in a timely manner would be a big test for them - with no mention of it pertaining to the odd day. I was making the point that this was no more a test than any other big title that people have teed up in their queues for release day.

The fact that this title was a Saturday release actually makes it less of a test, honestly. How many Netflix customers outside of forums like these even knew it wasn't coming out on a Tuesday? I know people who have the service that had no idea Tuesday is normally new release day until I happened to mention it to them.

I'd be willing to bet just as many customers have THG on "Very Long Wait" status at this point as any other title. It really doesn't matter what day the movie comes out - if you don't get a disc back by the day before a new release comes out, you're going to be waiting for at least a month.

In my case, BB never, ever actually shipped my a new release by mail in a timely manner - even when I had a disc back in time for release day. I always had to do an in store exchange. After my local store closed, new releases would take at least 6 weeks to get to me. Since I always get new releases from Netflix on the day they have them available, that means BB took two more weeks than Netflix with the delay - or 6 more weeks for titles that weren't being delayed.

That made it a very bad deal.

While I'd agree that it's gone "Very Long Wait" at this point, I'd strongly disagree with your assessment of how few know Tuesday is new release day .. it's been new release day I believe since the first Beta or VHS tape was rented .. so, unless you're living in a cave, you know .. in addition, every TV ad on any release I've ever seen on TV states the release date .. NF shows the release date as does any other place you aquire a rental of purchase from .. to state otherwise is silly ..

I've been a Netflix customer for eons, early adopter. First I knew of "new release" date being a particular day of the week was recently in this thread. I don't think most people look that hard...or jones about newest releases like some here.

I'm guessing if you never rented a movie at a B&M, and never paid attention to the dates NF puts on your Q titles as far as release goes, then I suppose it's possible to not know about Tuesday being the main day .. new books are released on Tuesday generally .. Microsoft releases patches on the second Tuesday of the month .. Tuesday is the usual election day .. new CD's are released on Tuesday .. new software generally comes out on Tuesday .. why .. ?? Don't ask me, and of course, there are exceptions ..

None of this has much of anything to do with anything, I'll admit that .. my point is simply most know that Tuesday is new release day for DVD/BD media .. one of the reasons we all get into this whole timing issue in order to maximize the chance of getting a new release in the mailbox on, you guessed it, Tuesday .. (or in the case of THG, Saturday) ..

It probably stems back to those that like to see a film the first day it comes out at the theater as well ..

I rented Hunger Games from Redbox today and indeed it was DD 5.1 English (and Spanish) only. I was definitely underwhelmed by the audio...whether it was due to encoding or just a poor master, who knows.

Well looked to see tonight if Netflix had put the Get the Gringo back into my queue, but no. When I tried to add it, it said not available. Guess their deal changed and that yanking and calling it "returned" was how Netflix saw fit as far as an explanation went. Gotta love management sometimes....

Is it possible to get on Netflix's bad side? I have had Dexter 6, Curb 8, True Blood 4 and Entourage 8 in my queue on "very long wait" for around two months. This seems unreasonable. Anything I can do about this? Did Netflix only buy one copy of each show for cryin' out loud?

Yeah, but how many people going to a brick and mortar rental store go on Tuesday? Friday and Saturday nights are prime rental nights. You and I might go, but most people aren't you and me.

I think you severely overestimate the number of people in the general public that have any kind of clue about this stuff. There are plenty of people that stand in front of the shelves at the video store (or the Red Box display) to see what is new that week. They really honestly don't know otherwise.

It's like the above discussions about rental discs with lossless audio. 90% of the renting public doesn't realize and wouldn't care even if they did. These same people thing MP3s are the best way to listen to music because it's cheap and sounds fine through ear buds. Quality is way down on the list behind price, showing off for their friends, hype and ease of use.

Did use a B&M in SF for a while when I lived there that was somewhat convenient, a really cool one that had old stuff as well as new and no frickin' stupid moronic censorship like the fundamentalist outfit from Florida called Ballsbuster, but we're talking VHS days, lots of great choice whereas the big newest and greatest stores usually only had a very limited selection of mostly mainstream dreck. It was usually not convenient to return stuff without penalty. Netflix was my kind of deal, that's why I signed up and they had dvds which I had been converting to at that time. Didn't try to read my own desires into their business model too much, usually that doesn't work out too well. I just don't care when something becomes available, I value that notion of time is on my side, all I need do is wait a bit. There are few movies I need to see right away at a decent theater (which takes some planning with all the mini mcdonald mall crap theaters that are the norm these days run by folk who could care less about the movie as buying as much overpriced junk food as possible).....thus why I'm here in the forums having set up something at home that is much superior to any but the best of movie theaters IMHO...

Nope. Old wives tale debunked years ago..

The audio difference of lossless over compressed formats are well documented.

Time for you to get a better audio set up.

At the two B&M's I pass on the way to my shop on Tuesday, 5 minutes before opening time, there is a pretty long line .. since I am sure there is no actual survey on who knows what on Tuesday releases, we'll just have to call this debate a draw .. I believe the majority of the renting and buying public know ..

Except that example means nothing without noting what the crowds are like on Friday and Saturday. Just because the people that know about Tuesday releases show up on Tuesday, doesn't mean a whole lot more clueless people aren't trying to pick up those movies on other days.

Come on now, I said the majority .. I did not say every person in the USA .. I'm fully aware that not ALL renters / buyers know Tuesday is New Release day .. but I believe the majority of renters / buyers do know ..

That's what I'm disputing. I don't think it's even the majority. In my local store, I used to see boatloads of people looking at the new releases and grumbling about all the copies being gone when it's "only Friday afternoon".

The problem with these boards is, we start falling into the trap of thinking everyone else has the same knowledge of this stuff. Most people don't know, don't care and usually repsond with disgust when things don't go their way for lack of research or simply paying attention.

While I hate to generalize, I think you're giving people too much credit. Honestly, most people don't pay attention to stuff like that. Even if it's front of their face. Just look at the Sunday ads. Best Buy or Target or Wal-Mart will advertise a new release and under it, it happens to say not available until day XXX. And that day happens to be that Tuesday. I bet most people don't even get the pattern. Books and video games also are released on Tuesdays. I bet most people don't get that either.

I believe people are not being given enough credit .. just because we frequent a forum dedicated to this type of stuff, that does not automatically make us more in tune with what's happening .. so, until I see some actual facts, you have your opinion and I have mine ..