Netflix streaming option worth the switch from Blockbuster Online June 21, 2009
Posted by Kristin Lynch in : technology , trackbackI’ve been a long-time movie service subscriber – all the way back to my subscription with Home Video Exchange in the early 1980s. Ah, VHS…how you sucked in comparison with what we have now, but how lucky we were to have you all those years ago.
- Image via CrunchBase
Fast forward (ha…get it?) to the past 10 years and I’ve moved on to the online movie services. I know there are other services out there, but let’s face it – Netflix and Blockbuster are the only services worth considering.
I became a Netflix subscriber when the service first became available in 1997 and remained with them until Blockbuster Online launched in 2004 with their Total Access package. I had been pleased as punch with Netflix, but couldn’t resist jumping ship with Blockbuster’s in-store trade option.
- Image via Wikipedia
The services were very similar otherwise – pricing, selection, etc. – with the obvious exception that Blockbuster had brick-and-mortar locations and Netflix was strictly online.
Well, I just changed back to Netflix. Again, nothing wrong with Blockbuster. Both are great services, especially if you’re a die-hard movie fan like me. So why did I switch again?
Reverse to 2008 when I bought my 42″ Sharp Aquos LCD TV and got a free Sharp blu-ray player as part of the deal. I began choosing more and more blu-ray movies since I had the option. Between my addiction to movies and Time Warner Cable’s steady addition of more and more HD channels, I could no longer tolerate watching the NON-HD channels on my bedroom TV. I was getting free HD but only able to watch those channels in my living room.
Blockbuster also recently changed their policy on rentals and in-store trades. They previously allowed you to get unlimited in-store trades, but reduced this to 3 in-store trades per month if you were on the 2 movies at a time plan (like me). They also changed how the in-store trades worked. Previously, you could only keep those out for up to 7-days (plus grace period), following their normal in-store policy. When you returned one to the store, Blockbuster would recognize it as having been returned and you’d get your next film regardless of whether or not you chose an in-store trade. This worked fine for me. Recently they changed this to allow you to keep the in-store trade as long as you wanted, but wouldn’t send out your next queued movies until you returned them.
If that sounds confusing it’s because it IS. I had to ask a couple of times I was in the store, and I realized this was two steps backwards for the customer. From a balance sheet perspective, I could understand why they made this change, but it left a bad taste in my mouth since it was confusing, lousy for the customers, and hadn’t at ALL been communicated by the company. And yeah, I do receive their postal and e-mail newsletters.
OK, so back to the TVs. I bought a 37″ Samsung LCD TV and blu-ray player for my bedroom – not because of Blockbuster, but because of my increasing inability to watch anything NOT in HD. The Samsung blu-ray player includes a wireless feature if you buy the $80 USB adapter, and easy setup for connections to Netflix and Pandora.
- Image via CrunchBase
After setting up the blu-ray player to connect to my wireless network, I hopped on my MacBook Pro and activated my Pandora account (to connect to my existing Pandora account), put a 3-month hold on my Blockbuster Online account and re-activated my Netflix account.
Within 2 minutes I was adding movies to my queue and chose several movies plus season one of ‘30 Rock’ to my ‘instant queue’ and saw everything in my instant queue immediately appear on my TV.
OK, so for a few dollars LESS than I was paying Blockbuster, I’m still getting 2 movies at a time via mail, no store trades which I was no longer using anyway, and lots of additional streamed content right to my bedroom TV. Even better, the 2 movies at a time deal doesn’t affect my ability to stream and watch as much as I want. Before my first movie even showed up in the mail (2 days after signing up), I’d already watched 2 movies plus the entire first season of ‘30 Rock’ right through my TV.
By the way, as long as the items remain in your ‘instant queue’ you can watch them again, stop where you left off, pause, rewind, etc.
So, if you’re in the market for a blu-ray player, I’d highly recommend choosing one of the few that have this feature. Even though you’ll need to pay for an adapter (once), you won’t need to rent or buy the separate appliance(s) Netflix and other streaming services require.
I also recommend this if you frequently rent entire seasons of TV shows, because traditionally you’d need to count each disk as a separate rental. Through Netflix, if your title is available streamed, you get all the shows at once and they don’t count towards a physical rental.
Feel free to ask questions. I’ve learned a lot about how this works!
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comments »
You’ve been with Netflix longer than I have. I joined in November 1999, soon after they started offering the monthly rental subscription service they have now.
I’ve got a few beefs here and there, but for the most part, it works.
I did try Blockbuster, but that was over 4 years ago and their selection at the time was pretty dismal.
We use netflux too! Brian streams through his xbox!