For the paultry sum of $7.95 a month it is well worth it for all the TV series I never had time to watch. All in excellent HD, no stuttering. You can't get a decent glass of wine for that price!
I agree, the price is fine; but I won’t do business with them because of this (and other) dishonest practices.
How do you know what their selection is (be it DVD or streaming) without giving them your credit card? You can’t—but that’s not exactly dishonest, just a sneaky way to get your credit card for a free trial they hope you’ll forget to cancel. What’s truly dishonest is they let you THINK you know the selection, and you give them your credit card number based on that. But they’ve misled you.
It’s like telling someone “give me your credit card and take this car to try; if you don’t like it, make sure you tell me before this date or I’ll charge the card anyway.” And you decide that’s OK, because the car is awesome and the price is low. And then they give you a bicycle. A really nice one... but would they have your credit card in hand if they’d been honest? I’d rather make that call based on true information than false advertising.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hittrj01
I completely agree with your statement, but you do have the option of signing up for a free trial, so I don't think Netflix is in any legal trouble for false advertisement. Sign up for the trial, see that they aren't telling the truth, cancel trial membership, no money paid.
I’d expect they still are violating the law, but maybe not since they’ve done it for SO long. Just because there’s a way to stop them charging your card doesn’t mean false advertising isn’t false! It’s all very surprising to me. And laws aside, why can’t they just be honest? Mark the titles as Streaming, DVD, or “not available”—the way they do AFTER you pay! Easy.
Also, I’ve seen many horror stories about problems trying to cancel your Netflix and them charging your card anyway. That “free trial” may be very expensive AND a bait and switch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBell
With that said, I can see how what you describe might upset some people, but does many people really think a movie not released yet is available now? I think what you describe is merely a flaw in how its database works. For instance, as an actual member I can search for any movie, even those not released. It will than let me put said movies in my queue and tell me they are not available yet. Being able to put them in my queue now though is handy for when the movie does come out.
Very few will think Netflix gets a movie before the theaters—but they might not know the movie hasn’t been to theaters if they don’t follow movie releases. But that’s a less important case, I agree.
The more important case is not being able to tell what can be streamed vs. what is on DVD. Because you’re buying one plan or the other, with no reason to think the movies you see (old ones, not new ones) aren’t going to be on your streaming plan. When in reality, very few are. (TV selection is better—but you can’t tell without signing up, and there’s no good reason for that.)
It’s not just a database flaw, because as you say, they ARE honest with members: it says “not available.” They could show that to non-members too, but they don’t. And it’s been that way for ages—no accidental glitch. Likewise they don’t show non-members what can be streamed or not. Give them your card blind... then find out!
What playback device are you using? I get stutter and buffer pauses all the time with the current AppleTV. On my PS3, it almost doesn't happen at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Splash-reverse
This is quite normal though understandably, annoying. Towards the end, it usually drop out in term of quality and smoothness. I have the same problem though not with Netflix but video playback of NFL videos on iPad as well. More like 'command' problem rather than cache. The file tells the player that is is nearing the end so, much like people, it just say bleh! it almost finish. I'm outta here. Now. So the quality drops
I use my 2008 Mac Book to connect to the internet and stream movies. It is connected to a 23" 1920 X 1080 monitor that I love. My DSL speed is 1500 mbps but that rarely is what I get. Usually it is 1190-1300 mbps.
I can see your point, but I still don't think it is that big of a deal. The front page is full of pictures of content. All of it is available via streaming. In very small print at the bottom of the page is the browse content button you mention. If you select that, you come to another page where it shows recently added content, which is also available via streaming. There is also links advertising categories, which if you select also shows available streamed content. If you use the search feature, you can pull up every movie (like is what happens if you are an actual member). I agree this is a bit misleading and could be corrected with an asterisk next to the search field. It just doesn't bug me enough not to do business with Netflix. Perhaps I am jaded having dealt with companies like Blockbuster, Walmart, Comcast, and even AT&T. If I didn't do business with every company that pissed me off, I wouldn't be able to do business with anybody. I'd starve to death. Netscape's offense is minor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nagromme
Very few will think Netflix gets a movie before the theaters—but they might not know the movie hasn’t been to theaters if they don’t follow movie releases. But that’s a less important case, I agree.
The more important case is not being able to tell what can be streamed vs. what is on DVD. Because you’re buying one plan or the other, with no reason to think the movies you see (old ones, not new ones) aren’t going to be on your streaming plan. When in reality, very few are. (TV selection is better—but you can’t tell without signing up, and there’s no good reason for that.)
It’s not just a database flaw, because as you say, they ARE honest with members: it says “not available.” They could show that to non-members too, but they don’t. And it’s been that way for ages—no accidental glitch. Likewise they don’t show non-members what can be streamed or not. Give them your card blind... then find out!
Apple ran into this problem a lot too when they are expanding iTunes to more regions. Sometimes the rights are held by a different subsidiary, sometimes the rights are held by a completely unrelated company. I imagine sometimes the negotiation only covered one territory because other territories weren't in the business plans yet, making a deal for rights in additional territories just weren't covered yet.
I've come across this several times. I'll see a iTunes purchase link for a song or TV episode and when I get to iTunes it says the item is not available in the Canadian iTunes store.
I understand the issue, it's annoying though when you want to buy an item and can't.
It would be nice if the rights holder could think more globally instead of regionally. (Like that will ever happen.)
Battle Star Galactica is very good HD for us, using Apple TV 2 and FiOS 30 Mb/s and Airport Extreme. Never a stutter unless I caused it. I have discovered after I have down loaded something large on my Mac over FTP for example, I get issues with Netflix, rebooting the Airport Extreme always fixes the problem.
I'm trying to think what "state" might be being held by the airport extreme that would require it to be rebooted to regain Netflix functionality. I wonder whether it is actually your ISP (Verizon?) kicking in a limiter until you reset your connection or back off for a while. Is your Extreme the primary connection to your FiOS box (MAC address it sees as a router) by any chance?
I've come across this several times. I'll see a iTunes purchase link for a song or TV episode and when I get to iTunes it says the item is not available in the Canadian iTunes store.
I understand the issue, it's annoying though when you want to buy an item and can't.
It would be nice if the rights holder could think more globally instead of regionally. (Like that will ever happen.)
I agree. I think it's going to take a while for rights holders to change their practices. Keep in mind that they were dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming.
And if someone asks what TV shows you like, do you list individual episodes?
Context has meaning.
Easy to fix by just adding "episodes" to the word TV. Maybe amazon should do that. But he Netflix and amazon metrics are similar enough to my mind. Both could be apt to mislead as to the breadth of content.
Well said. If somebody ask me what TV shows do I like to watch, I don't say House, Season 2, Episodes 5 through 15 excluding Episode 7. I simply say House. In my mind a show means the entire series. If somebody told me a new service has 720 titles, I signed up, and they were all Power Rangers episodes I would be pretty upset if it cost me money.
Amazon is trying to make it seem like it has more content then it really does.
"Choose from thousands of current and classic movies and TV episodes from iTunes — many in stunning 1080p HD."
Taken from the Apple TV page. Though, yes they do clarify the fact that it's TV episodes, it still leads to false concept that there are thousands of movies available, when it's probably less than 2000 just like Amazon and Netflix.
And a person might not list individual episodes, but they might say, "I liked the first few seasons of 24 but then it seemed like I was watching the same thing over and over again." Or, "Season 1 of Heroes was great, but after that they really lost their way."
No question there's a ton of room for improvement with Netflix's selection (which isn't really the issue, but plenty of people have posted about it), particularly with movies (with TV I'd say while there isn't everything, there are quite a lot of good shows available).
So we all wish Netflix had a better selection...but who if anyone is offering a better one? Particularly unlimited streaming for eight bucks a month?
For me, paying $16 for the streaming and discs lets me watch pretty much anything. That's a deal that's hard to beat (even after the price increase) and vastly cheaper than cable.
Comments
For the paultry sum of $7.95 a month it is well worth it for all the TV series I never had time to watch. All in excellent HD, no stuttering. You can't get a decent glass of wine for that price!
I agree, the price is fine; but I won’t do business with them because of this (and other) dishonest practices.
How do you know what their selection is (be it DVD or streaming) without giving them your credit card? You can’t—but that’s not exactly dishonest, just a sneaky way to get your credit card for a free trial they hope you’ll forget to cancel. What’s truly dishonest is they let you THINK you know the selection, and you give them your credit card number based on that. But they’ve misled you.
It’s like telling someone “give me your credit card and take this car to try; if you don’t like it, make sure you tell me before this date or I’ll charge the card anyway.” And you decide that’s OK, because the car is awesome and the price is low. And then they give you a bicycle. A really nice one... but would they have your credit card in hand if they’d been honest? I’d rather make that call based on true information than false advertising.
I completely agree with your statement, but you do have the option of signing up for a free trial, so I don't think Netflix is in any legal trouble for false advertisement. Sign up for the trial, see that they aren't telling the truth, cancel trial membership, no money paid.
I’d expect they still are violating the law, but maybe not since they’ve done it for SO long. Just because there’s a way to stop them charging your card doesn’t mean false advertising isn’t false! It’s all very surprising to me. And laws aside, why can’t they just be honest? Mark the titles as Streaming, DVD, or “not available”—the way they do AFTER you pay! Easy.
Also, I’ve seen many horror stories about problems trying to cancel your Netflix and them charging your card anyway. That “free trial” may be very expensive AND a bait and switch.
With that said, I can see how what you describe might upset some people, but does many people really think a movie not released yet is available now? I think what you describe is merely a flaw in how its database works. For instance, as an actual member I can search for any movie, even those not released. It will than let me put said movies in my queue and tell me they are not available yet. Being able to put them in my queue now though is handy for when the movie does come out.
Very few will think Netflix gets a movie before the theaters—but they might not know the movie hasn’t been to theaters if they don’t follow movie releases. But that’s a less important case, I agree.
The more important case is not being able to tell what can be streamed vs. what is on DVD. Because you’re buying one plan or the other, with no reason to think the movies you see (old ones, not new ones) aren’t going to be on your streaming plan. When in reality, very few are. (TV selection is better—but you can’t tell without signing up, and there’s no good reason for that.)
It’s not just a database flaw, because as you say, they ARE honest with members: it says “not available.” They could show that to non-members too, but they don’t. And it’s been that way for ages—no accidental glitch. Likewise they don’t show non-members what can be streamed or not. Give them your card blind... then find out!
What playback device are you using? I get stutter and buffer pauses all the time with the current AppleTV. On my PS3, it almost doesn't happen at all.
This is quite normal though understandably, annoying. Towards the end, it usually drop out in term of quality and smoothness. I have the same problem though not with Netflix but video playback of NFL videos on iPad as well. More like 'command' problem rather than cache. The file tells the player that is is nearing the end so, much like people, it just say bleh! it almost finish. I'm outta here. Now. So the quality drops
I use my 2008 Mac Book to connect to the internet and stream movies. It is connected to a 23" 1920 X 1080 monitor that I love. My DSL speed is 1500 mbps but that rarely is what I get. Usually it is 1190-1300 mbps.
Very few will think Netflix gets a movie before the theaters—but they might not know the movie hasn’t been to theaters if they don’t follow movie releases. But that’s a less important case, I agree.
The more important case is not being able to tell what can be streamed vs. what is on DVD. Because you’re buying one plan or the other, with no reason to think the movies you see (old ones, not new ones) aren’t going to be on your streaming plan. When in reality, very few are. (TV selection is better—but you can’t tell without signing up, and there’s no good reason for that.)
It’s not just a database flaw, because as you say, they ARE honest with members: it says “not available.” They could show that to non-members too, but they don’t. And it’s been that way for ages—no accidental glitch. Likewise they don’t show non-members what can be streamed or not. Give them your card blind... then find out!
Apple ran into this problem a lot too when they are expanding iTunes to more regions. Sometimes the rights are held by a different subsidiary, sometimes the rights are held by a completely unrelated company. I imagine sometimes the negotiation only covered one territory because other territories weren't in the business plans yet, making a deal for rights in additional territories just weren't covered yet.
I've come across this several times. I'll see a iTunes purchase link for a song or TV episode and when I get to iTunes it says the item is not available in the Canadian iTunes store.
I understand the issue, it's annoying though when you want to buy an item and can't.
It would be nice if the rights holder could think more globally instead of regionally. (Like that will ever happen.)
Battle Star Galactica is very good HD for us, using Apple TV 2 and FiOS 30 Mb/s and Airport Extreme. Never a stutter unless I caused it. I have discovered after I have down loaded something large on my Mac over FTP for example, I get issues with Netflix, rebooting the Airport Extreme always fixes the problem.
I'm trying to think what "state" might be being held by the airport extreme that would require it to be rebooted to regain Netflix functionality. I wonder whether it is actually your ISP (Verizon?) kicking in a limiter until you reset your connection or back off for a while. Is your Extreme the primary connection to your FiOS box (MAC address it sees as a router) by any chance?
I've come across this several times. I'll see a iTunes purchase link for a song or TV episode and when I get to iTunes it says the item is not available in the Canadian iTunes store.
I understand the issue, it's annoying though when you want to buy an item and can't.
It would be nice if the rights holder could think more globally instead of regionally. (Like that will ever happen.)
I agree. I think it's going to take a while for rights holders to change their practices. Keep in mind that they were dragged into the 21st century kicking and screaming.
And if someone asks what TV shows you like, do you list individual episodes?
Context has meaning.
Easy to fix by just adding "episodes" to the word TV. Maybe amazon should do that. But he Netflix and amazon metrics are similar enough to my mind. Both could be apt to mislead as to the breadth of content.
Well said. If somebody ask me what TV shows do I like to watch, I don't say House, Season 2, Episodes 5 through 15 excluding Episode 7. I simply say House. In my mind a show means the entire series. If somebody told me a new service has 720 titles, I signed up, and they were all Power Rangers episodes I would be pretty upset if it cost me money.
Amazon is trying to make it seem like it has more content then it really does.
"Choose from thousands of current and classic movies and TV episodes from iTunes — many in stunning 1080p HD."
Taken from the Apple TV page. Though, yes they do clarify the fact that it's TV episodes, it still leads to false concept that there are thousands of movies available, when it's probably less than 2000 just like Amazon and Netflix.
And a person might not list individual episodes, but they might say, "I liked the first few seasons of 24 but then it seemed like I was watching the same thing over and over again." Or, "Season 1 of Heroes was great, but after that they really lost their way."
So we all wish Netflix had a better selection...but who if anyone is offering a better one? Particularly unlimited streaming for eight bucks a month?
For me, paying $16 for the streaming and discs lets me watch pretty much anything. That's a deal that's hard to beat (even after the price increase) and vastly cheaper than cable.