End of an Era: Netflix Ending Disc Rentals

[bmoney]

Oops

[bmoney]

I’m gonna go get the papers get the papers

[David Vaughn]

I’m gonna go get the papers get the papers

LOL

[Paul Heroy]

Continuing with a parallel bit of news, Netflix yesterday officially threw its hat into the gaming arena.

I didn't realize this but noticed in a review in this month's S&V of a Samsung gaming PC monitor, a line that the gaming industry generates 2-3x the revenue of the movie & music industries combined. I had not realized that. I've done some PC gaming off and on over the years but not console gaming so hadn't paid as much attention to that realm. With Netflix and streaming services recently having revenue issues, it obviously makes sense to branch out to get a piece of that larger pie.

[David Vaughn]

Continuing with a parallel bit of news, Netflix yesterday officially threw its hat into the gaming arena.

I didn't realize this but noticed in a review in this month's S&V of a Samsung gaming PC monitor, a line that the gaming industry generates 2-3x the revenue of the movie & music industries combined. I had not realized that. I've done some PC gaming off and on over the years but not console gaming so hadn't paid as much attention to that realm. With Netflix and streaming services recently having revenue issues, it obviously makes sense to branch out to get a piece of that larger pie.

My son, who is 24, is a big gamer. If asked if he'd like to watch a movie or play League of Legends, he doesn't hesitate to play the game. I gamed a lot in the 90s and was actually ranked in the Top 10 players on Age of Empires. Back then you couldn't win money with tournaments and such, but today I'd be a millionaire. Such is my lot in life...I had to earn my money the "hard" way. 

[SRW1000]

Gaming is one of the reasons I upgraded to a JVC laser projector.  I don't have to feel guilty wasting bulb life anymore, and gaming on a big screen is so much more enveloping than on a TV or monitor.

Games have become a huge part of the entertainment business, and I think it's part of the reason why we're seeing a decline in movie ticket sales, disc sales, and the rental market.

[SRW1000]

Well, tonight was the night to officially end my Netflix account, with an even total of 500 rented movies.  I think there's a period of movies missing there from When I switched over to Blockbuster by Mail (I have a great track record of picking losers!).

Sad to see the service come to an end, but the library has turned out to be a great resource, especially for smaller titles that Netflix never carried on Blu-ray.

It's worth checking out for anyone looking for a free alternative.

Scott

[David Vaughn]

Well, tonight was the night to officially end my Netflix account, with an even total of 500 rented movies.  I think there's a period of movies missing there from When I switched over to Blockbuster by Mail (I have a great track record of picking losers!).

Sad to see the service come to an end, but the library has turned out to be a great resource, especially for smaller titles that Netflix never carried on Blu-ray.

It's worth checking out for anyone looking for a free alternative.

Scott

My local library is about to get a massive stack of movies (over 100) in the coming days. I'm having to purge my collection to make space and I don't ever see myself watching these movies. Ben Franklin would be so proud of me

[AVSCraig]

My local library is about to get a massive stack of movies (over 100) in the coming days. I'm having to purge my collection to make space and I don't ever see myself watching these movies. Ben Franklin would be so proud of me

Glad I got Crash and The Limey - thanks David! 

[bmoney]

I have to check out our library for movies 

[Paul Heroy]

Scott & others, in case you haven't seen it:

Netflix will let you keep your rental DVDs forever after September 29 | Ars Technica

Netflix announced a lottery of sorts where you have a chance to get 10 extra movies shipped to you on the final day of service - and keep them.

[SRW1000]

Scott & others, in case you haven't seen it:

Netflix will let you keep your rental DVDs forever after September 29 | Ars Technica

Netflix announced a lottery of sorts where you have a chance to get 10 extra movies shipped to you on the final day of service - and keep them.

Yes, I did see that, but I've moved on.  They weren't getting any new releases anymore, so their value had diminished. And I'm not a huge fan of used rental discs, so it wouldn't have mattered to me.

I'm glad they're not just dumping all of them in a landfill, though.

[SRW1000]

Thought I'd post an update to for anyone interested in renting.

After canceling our Netflix membership, I signed up for Gamefly's membership plan.  Normally $15 per month for one-at-a-time Blu-ray and 4K rentals, they had a three-month special for just $9.99.

The service was spotty.  While there were a couple of titles that reached us in three or four days, most took at least a week, with one taking just a day short of two weeks.  Customer service was helpful, and on a few occasions they sent out a title quickly when they hadn't received my return in a week.  We're only about 600 miles from their closest shipping location, so it was odd that it took longer to get movies from them than it did from Netflix, which was further away.  Like Netflix, they work off of post office scans of returned titles to send out new movies.  Unlike Netflix, this only seemed to work for less than half of our rentals.  And we've sent back two movies they never received.

Their shipping envelope was actually more protective than Netflix's, with each movie sent in a cardboard slipcase.  We never had a problem with scratches or smudges.  Selection was minimal in comparison to Netflix, with most films being recent releases.  They're probably more on par with Redbox, with few catalog titles.

They have about 150 4K titles available (including those coming soon), which Netflix never offered, and the Redboxes in this area have almost zero.  On the Blu-ray side, they have about 242 movies listed.  Still, some titles were delayed even longer than the typical 30-day Netflix exclusion period, which varied from studio to studio. 

I decided to cancel our Gamefly plan last month but was offered a free month during the process.  That extension expires tomorrow, so I canceled for good this time.

While they have the potential to fill the gap left behind by Netflix, the service is too spotty to be of value.  At $15 per month for just three movies, the roughly $5 per rental isn't worth it.  Then there's the frustration of having to contact them about titles they haven't received yet due to shipping or receiving delays.  They do have an option to self-report the movies you've returned that kicks in after six months of membership in good standing, but I don't have a lot of confidence that it would improve the value by that much.

So, we're going to end up using the library more and more.  They seem to get new titles in a reasonable amount of time.  The key is to keep checking for new titles to show up and add them to our reserve list as soon as we see them.  As a result, we're usually within the first one to four people to get upcoming movies.  We're already paying for the service, and they have over four thousand titles available on Blu-ray, so the selection is solid.  The only drawback is that they have an extremely limited number of 4K films.

I can't recommend Gamefly, but you may want to give it a try with their introductory offer to see if you can get better service.  On the other hand, I can highly recommend the library, if you don't mind the hassle of driving there instead of just dropping a return envelope in the mail.

Scott