Blue about Blurays.

July 13, 2011 3:31 AM

Assuming Netflix refuses to yield to customer pressure and persists with its plan to raise prices across the board, what are our alternatives?

Like many, I'm flummoxed by Netflix decision to raise its prices by as much as 60% come September 1st. The streaming selection, IMO, still leaves much to be desired, but convenience and the availability of a smattering of HD selections means that I'll probably fork over the $7.99 per month and continue with this plan.

I'd probably be a semi-happy camper with streaming-only, were it not for an occasional desire to see a Blu-ray movie (or occasional DVD), especially on weekends. Ideally, I'd like a plan that allows for four Blu-ray movies mailed per month. Netflix offered a four-per-month plan several years back, but it's been discontinued.

Are there any other companies offering either a four-per-month plan for Blu-rays and DVDs, or a "rent-as-you-go" plan for renting a single DVD? (I realize that Redbox is an option for some people, but I'm in a remote area so mailing is my only choice.) My best bet would be a company with a wide selection of product, only a small markup (or none) for Blu-rays, and a price that would be competitive if I continued with Netflix streaming and used the new company for my four-Blu-ray-per-month "fix."

What are my options, and what are other Mefites planning to do now that Netflix seems committed to its new pricing scheme?

posted by Gordion Knott to media & arts (53 answers total)

I think Blockbuster is still doing their program.

I'm going to drop down to 1-at-a-time (from 3,) myself. Possibly with a cathartic letter of complaint attached.
posted by SMPA at 4:11 AM on July 13, 2011

We will probably switch to streaming only, and use Rebox to supplement the occasional DVD-on-the-weekend urge.
posted by heyheylanagirl at 4:25 AM on July 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

There's always good old fashioned piracy.
posted by dortmunder at 4:50 AM on July 13, 2011 [19 favorites]

This time last year, I was paying them $14/month. (2 DVD disc at a time).
I went to $17/month when I moved to Blu-Ray ($14 + $3 for blu-ray)
Then, somehow, I went to $18/month in February. Not sure where the other $1 came from.
In Sep, it will go to $23.


I think I'm going to switch to 1 Blu-Ray at a time, which would be "only" another $1/month increase. We end up keeping a movie at home for _months_, so it might actually force us to watch them rather than sit on them.

But, yeah, this is quite an increase. I'm quite surprised with Netflix-- they could have just upped the price $1 a year for the next 5 years and I doubt most people would notice... this will cause a lot of people to take action.
posted by gregvr at 5:00 AM on July 13, 2011

I'm stumped as well - I'm on the unlimited streaming + one-disc-at-a-time plan. The main reason I rent physical dvds is for the bonus features, and it's my understanding that the Redbox kiosk discs are often bonus-free rental versions. I just suspended my account until October (the latest date in the dropdown menu) as my own pitiful protest, not sure if I'll reactivate it then or just cancel altogether. I hate the thought of trying to rebuild/maintain my queue elsewhere, but if I'm honest with myself I know there was never a chance that I'd ever actually make it through the entire queue.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:40 AM on July 13, 2011

I dropped to streaming only and plan to supplement with discs from the library (that probably doesn't help for Blu-Ray). I'm not as upset as a lot of people seem to be - I was only doing 1-at-a-time and I'd had the same disc since April (though I've checked out lots from the library during that same period - I like the relatively-instant gratification!).
posted by mskyle at 5:49 AM on July 13, 2011

I am on the unlimited streaming + one-disc-at-a-time plan, and my plan goes from $10 to $16. My options are basically to cut this plan in half - either I get streaming or I get 1 DVD.

I want to go DVD (the selection of movies is better). My partner wants to go streaming (instant access... if they have it). This disagreement likely means that we will just save our queue and cancel our service, going back to what we did before Netflix - the occasional rented DVD.
posted by muddgirl at 5:51 AM on July 13, 2011

What are my options, and what are other Mefites planning to do now that Netflix seems committed to its new pricing scheme?

It's hard to see them backing down from their decision, considering what shareholders have at stake. It's one of the main reasons I'll often trust non-publicly traded companies over ones driven by the greed of wall street. At least companies not publicly traded aren't controlled by the mob mentality of increasing profit margins at any cost.

I might end up dropping the single Blu-ray/DVD plan I currently have and continue to stay on streaming only. Without having cable, and limiting my time for entertainment, I think that'll be fine. There's also the following services that can help fill the gaps for shows/series:

- Amazon Prime (worth the price for the streaming and free shipping)
- Hulu (might not be as open as it is now forever..can see this service upsetting fans shortly as well)
- Crackle (another start-up hulu clone...decent selection)
- Youtube (with some digging)
- Justin.tv (also with some digging)
- Shoutcast TV

For rentals...Blockbuster and Redbox seem like decent alternatives depending on the number of rentals per month you're used to.
posted by samsara at 5:52 AM on July 13, 2011 [11 favorites]

You can get 2 TB drives for $75 these days. Know how many movies will fit on a 2 TB drive? A shit-ton, that's how many.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:00 AM on July 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

It remains to be seen of course, but probably Netflix is never going to be as good as it was. It will only continue to get a little worse every day. Netflix stole thunder from the gods with the Starz online streaming deal back when the studios didn't think online streaming was a thing. Now that the beast has been awakened, the studios, through newly negotiated license deals, will never again let Netflix be what it was a few years ago without jacking prices up to movie studio standards. Sidenote: With its stock price almost $300 per share it's screaming SHORT to me.
posted by BeerFilter at 6:14 AM on July 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

I, for one, terminated my Netflix account. I thought the price increase was excessive.
posted by JohnE at 6:16 AM on July 13, 2011

seconding amazon prime. it completely changed how i use amazon and as an added bonus i get free streaming video, albeit a limited selection. clicker is a great search engine for streaming media.

somewhat tangential but i figured i would toss it out there. netflix is not increasing their price in order to take advantage of customers, they are trying to keep afloat as the studios raise licensing fees. Pachter predicts Netflix's streaming content licensing costs will rise from $180 million in 2010 to a whopping $1.98 billion in 2012
posted by phil at 6:16 AM on July 13, 2011 [10 favorites]

Since Netflix is desperately trying to get rid of its core business in favor of streaming, I think a good way to show your displeasure would be to cancel streaming and keep just the DVD plan.

Personally I think Netflix now sees their only real competition as your cable company and figures a) cable is still so much more expensive than they are and b) you despise your cable company so much that they can get away with damn near anything. And I think for the most part they're right and, after some grumbling, the customer base will suck this up and carry on.

But if enough people actually did ditch streaming and make them keep on mailing discs back and forth, it would send a message, IMO.
posted by Naberius at 6:26 AM on July 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Echoing Civil_Disobedient's comment above, even if you had nothing but 720p rips of movies at roughly 5 GB each (and that's an overestimate), we're still talking 400 movies to 1 drive. If each of those movies is about 90 minutes, that is still 25 full days (600 hours) of movie watching for $75. This is 12.5 cents per hour of entertainment. I think that is much more reasonable than a Netflix plan.

However, piracy is illegal, so I'm not actually suggesting you do that. I'm just putting some numbers out there.
posted by King Bee at 6:26 AM on July 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

We're going to probably keep the DVD plan, since I'm not terribly impressed with their streaming selection and I want to be able to see some of the newer releases in all of their Blu Ray glory. I gotta say, though - a mom-and-pop rental store (Family Video) opened up a year or so ago down the street and we've taken to ducking in there for impulse rentals and new releases that are in the queue but that we want to watch right now. Business seems to be pretty good, which sort of surprises me.
posted by jquinby at 6:48 AM on July 13, 2011

jquinby, I have a similar independent movie rental place near my apartment, and I'm always impressed by how much business they seem to do.

Considering that and the price hike, my boyfriend just bumped his Netflix account down to streaming only, and we'll use the video store for those occasional things we want on disc. We didn't really use them that much as it is, and he'd already bumped down down recently (from Blu-ray to DVD only). Gordion Knott, that probably doesn't help you much, but if you do have a local independent video store, you might want to check it out. The prices at ours are actually quite reasonable, and considering how little we used the discs anyway, it'll be cheaper most of the time anyway.
posted by divisjm at 6:57 AM on July 13, 2011

If the Netflix streaming worked 100% of the time, I'd be more willing to keep it, but since it only works 95%(which is pretty high, admittedly, but that 5% is goddamn annoying), I think I'd stay with DVD only, if I wasn't personally cancelling the account entirely.)
posted by Grither at 6:58 AM on July 13, 2011

Huh...I have never EVER had a problem with netflix streaming. Their DVDs however....'skipping unreadable data' is now a feature of nearly every viewing experience. Nevertheless, fuck you Netflix I'll be giving my money to the local video store.
posted by spicynuts at 7:00 AM on July 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah, and when it happens, it doesn't work on the PS3, the Tivo, or the Wii. I suppose it might have worked on the PC, but fuck that, I want to watch on the big screen with the stereo system in the living room, not the (relatively) tiny computer monitor with the tiny speakers in the bedroom!
posted by Grither at 7:06 AM on July 13, 2011

I actually switched to a DVD only plan, and I managed to save $2/month in the process (I never used the streaming anyway).
posted by eas98 at 7:08 AM on July 13, 2011

I am solely on streaming but supplement with my personal files and yes, 2TB hard drives hold a lot when using an Apple TV to speed things along.

The thing is that Amazon does not do the Wii thing which is how I am getting entertainment for the kids in parts of the house that I don't want to run cable. And to be honest, there are network constraints with as many machines as my household runs.

Netflix enabled viewing to happen using cable, sneakernet, computer while Amazon is good for the computer so I keep rolling with Netflix even if the selection is not great but hey, my kids won't let me watch things except for freaking Thomas videos so selection demands seem moot.
posted by jadepearl at 7:14 AM on July 13, 2011

I used streaming once in a blue moon, and mostly used Netflix to catch up on HBO shows. In-between, I tended to just put the account on hold for long stretches of time. I just changed over to the two DVDS at a time plan, which actually saves me a little money.
posted by PussKillian at 7:49 AM on July 13, 2011

I have the 2 DVD + streaming; honestly I'm having a hard time finding the ire that seems to be coming from a lot of people about the price increase. It seems like the streaming started slowly and perhaps they didn't realize so many people would use it as much as they do, but now it's leading to a necessary increase? Regardless, I still feel it's a good value for the money, but my husband and I find a lot of things that we like to stream (we watch mostly older indie movies, documentaries, and British tv series). We also ditched all but our very basic cable, so our overall entertainment expenses are still lower. We might switch to just the streaming, but I do kind of like having the option for the DVD.
posted by bizzyb at 7:55 AM on July 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

honestly I'm having a hard time finding the ire that seems to be coming from a lot of people about the price increase.

It's an issue of decreasing choices and decreasing perceived value. I used to be able to get the perfect plan: 2 DVDs a month, 1 at a time, plus like 5 hours of streaming for $5. Then that plan was discontinued so I had to go to unlimited DVDs unlimited streaming for $10. Now they're saying "Well, for about the same price, you can have one or the other... but not both" when really I just want a little DVD and a little streaming.

I'm not angry, I'm just sad that this useful service isn't as valuable as it used to be.
posted by muddgirl at 8:08 AM on July 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I found that a TV series I'd gotten into was yanked off of streaming recently, which helped to embiggen my ire. Now, if the price is going to increase... well I just don't know what I'll do, I might throw a fit! Things I knew nothing of back in the nineteen hundreds when I was wee, now integral and indispensable in my life.

So I'd agree with muddgirl, decreasing choices and decreasing perceived value. Sadness and ire, both.
posted by XMLicious at 8:23 AM on July 13, 2011

I'll be using a new service that I'm pretty happy with - Zediva for actual DVDs, and sticking with Netflix for streaming.

Think of Zediva as Redbox, but with streaming or mail options. They mostly have the "bigger" movies, but those are the movies that tend to not be available (for a while at least) on Netflix instant.
posted by nokry56 at 8:39 AM on July 13, 2011

Cancel your account. The streaming offerings are going to get worse and worse as more cable/content providers try to get a cut with thier own fee-driven streaming services. Netflix is on a slow slide to becoming worthless.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:43 AM on July 13, 2011

"Instead of paying Netflix an extra $6 a month, go back to paying your cable company an extra $60 a month. That'll show 'em."
posted by growabrain at 8:47 AM on July 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

We're talking about dropping streaming. We just don't watch enough TV to make it worth it. Given how often we look for something on impulse, we wouldn't spend any more money by renting movies from Apple TV--and if we do that we'll get the newer things when they come out instead of waiting for the month-later DVDs on Netflix. (The month-later thing is another studio deal that was supposed to get them more streaming but doesn't seem to have worked).

I expect a phone call from my mother any day now to ask for advice on the price changes. We gave her our Roku, which we may get back when she ditches streaming, which I expect her to do. Or we may not because we're happy with our current setup and may just not care about streaming stuff.

Also we'll hit the library for DVDs more often, and I may start looking for a local independent video store for indie rentals, that stuff Netflix used to carry and doesn't so much any more.
posted by immlass at 8:54 AM on July 13, 2011

Netflix streaming is not a good substitute for DVD rental at this time as it has very limited options: almost no new movie releases, no DVD extras, movies often reformatted for television broadcast (the Starz stuff is rarely shown in movie aspect), and stuff is randomly removed from streaming availability all the time. On the other hand, the streaming offers stuff that's a pain to get in your Netflix queue, e.g., entire runs of series. It also allows for impulse-watching of stupid old movies without clogging up your rental queue. The streaming is really convenient, and worth paying for, but it is very much decreased value from the original Netflix model.

Now we have to pay a significant price increase to avoid a downgrade in the Netflix service. That's what makes me irritated. I don't mind all those free internet services not quite managing to keep up quality in their offerings: they're free; I can't expect quality service and excellent options. I pay for Netflix, which seems hellbent on limiting my options or reducing the quality of their offerings all while increasing my cost.
posted by crush-onastick at 9:02 AM on July 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

All helpful comments here. Keep 'em coming. :-)

crush-onastick, I agree with your comment about streaming and "stupid old movies." Looking over my streaming queue, most are flicks that trigger my curiosity or nostalgia button, but are too mediocre, quirky or downright stupid (or embarrassing) to add to the DVD/Blu-ray queue. In essence, streaming is a ghetto for movies which don't rate the effort of opening and re-mailing a DVD. Food for thought.
posted by Gordion Knott at 9:08 AM on July 13, 2011

In essence, streaming is a ghetto for movies which don't rate the effort of opening and re-mailing a DVD.

I think of streaming as more for the nerds and lovers of spontaneity. It's more about what do I feel like watching just this very moment, as opposed to wanting to watch the newest releases. Or, about setting out to watch everything you can that one actor has done, or to watch the entire back catalog of a series. There's no reason I'd want to keep all seasons of, say, Married with Children, available to me forever, but I'm crazy enough to spend the better part of a week watching all of them when I realize they're there. (Yes, I definitely should get out of the house more).
posted by bizzyb at 9:23 AM on July 13, 2011

If you have any old DVDs or Blu-Rays that you no longer want, you should try Swap a DVD. You pay the price of postage to send your discs to others, and in turn get a credit to request anything that's available.

Caveat: Most of the titles that are available now for ordering are a little dated, but it's still worth looking into to see if it could work for you. I'm actually going to be ordering a few titles that have been on my Netflix queue for a while; I plan to go streaming only by the September cutoff.
posted by phatkitten at 9:25 AM on July 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

At this point, I am not sure what I'll end up doing. If I were still single, I'd probably switch to Amazon Prime for streaming to my computer because their catalog seems to greatly overlap with Netflix's streaming catalog. Since my wife enjoys Netflix's streaming to the PS3 & TV and we currently don't have a method of streaming Amazon to the TV, that's ruled out.

Unless Netflix's streaming catalog VASTLY improves, I'll need a physical media and streaming solution, and I've been increasingly disgruntled with Netflix even before this price gouging. (See: HD surcharges, lousy changes to website, lousy changes to streaming interface, etc.)
posted by entropicamericana at 9:28 AM on July 13, 2011

It's more about what do I feel like watching just this very moment, as opposed to wanting to watch the newest releases.

Here are the movies on my DVD queue that aren't available for streaming:

Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
Army of Darkness
Rachel Getting Married
Revanche
Quick Change
The Fighter
Black Swan
Biutiful
Princess Mononoke
True Grit

By my count only 4 of those are close to being new releases. Streaming has a serious deficiency in foreign and niche movies. The foreign titles it does carry are often dubbed, not subtitled.
posted by muddgirl at 9:33 AM on July 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Before you start accusing Netflix of being greedy, you need to understand the squeeze they are getting from the studios

"When streaming video was new, Netflix was able to secure contracts with the likes of Warner Bros. Studios and MTV to license big TV and film catalogues for about $5 million to $10 million per year. This time around, Pachter says, those costs could increase more than tenfold. "The content owners realize they can't give Netflix all the leverage," he says. "Netflix had the power when they were the only bidder. But you don't have as much leverage when you suddenly have competition."
posted by jasondigitized at 9:59 AM on July 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

My old plan was 3 DVDs/unlimited streaming for $19.99 (no longer offered). I just switched to 2 DVDs/unlimited streaming for $19.98. Is one DVD per month really that much to forgo, given the increase in streamed offerings?
posted by amber_dale at 10:20 AM on July 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I dumped Netflix discs long ago because discs are inconvenient. I use the Netflix streaming on the Roku for things that are on there, and Amazon on demand for other stuff. Amazon has HD but I don't know if it compares to Bluray.
posted by massysett at 10:27 AM on July 13, 2011

Everything the MPAA does makes sense when you understand that they want to encourage piracy whenever possible. Too many people are using netflix streaming and seeders are getting thin, so next year they're going to put a boot in the throat of netflix streaming with their $2 billion licensing fee.

2TB hard drives and sneakernet are a compelling alternative.
posted by mullingitover at 10:41 AM on July 13, 2011

Only if you don't care about supporting the shows you like, of course.
posted by Justinian at 10:49 AM on July 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

amber dale, not eeryone has your plan, though. I, being broke, was on the minimum 1 dvd, free streaming plan, which has now doubled in price.
posted by Tarumba at 10:58 AM on July 13, 2011

I was on the 1-DVD, unlimited-streaming plan which is doubling in price. Half the movies in my queue are unavailable for streaming. I am dumping netflix and will cobble together a mix of the suggestions above (amazon, library, redbox, hulu, etc.) A price increase is one thing, but doubling? No thank you.
posted by headnsouth at 11:19 AM on July 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

I think of streaming as more for the nerds and lovers of spontaneity.

Parents. They've hit the parent-with-preschool-child market perfectly. Netflix streaming offering for kids' TV are terrific, and if you have a kid that wants to watch the same thing over and over and over and over it's just the perfect thing. Yo Gabba Gabba, Blue's Clues, Sesame Street, Thomas, Bob the Builder, Wonderpets. We have over 150 items of kids' shows alone in our queue, which means we get to pick what he's watching and there is enough variety for everyone. In my house (we have streaming only) it's still going to be worth the price (especially if that means I can stop buying DVDs of TV shows, which I can).
posted by anastasiav at 11:23 AM on July 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

Just a data point for those advising switching to Blockbuster: I was on a Blockbuster plan for a couple of years (I started it when there didn't seem to be much of a difference between Blockbuster and Netflix) but I quit and switched to Netflix when it became blindingly clear that the Blockbuster system was run by howler monkeys.

To whit, in my last year with them, dvds were sent to me totally at random from my queue. It didn't matter if the top 4 entries were marked "available," or if I had prioritized accuracy over speed in my queue, I would still get number 7 sent to me, and when I sent that in, I would get number 4 back, or maybe number 9. And dvds in a series were totally disconnected from each other, so that trying to watch a tv series from the beginning was an exercise in frustration: they'd send the first two discs of Season 2 first, and when those were mailed back in, they'd send the first disc from Season 1 and the 3rd disc of Season 2, or maybe the first disc of Season 3.

Anyway, I don't have any advice for what you should do, but I would advise that you shouldn't think about switching to Blockbuster as an option.
posted by colfax at 11:25 AM on July 13, 2011

We currently have the netflix streaming + 3 at a time. We have this plan through the end of August. Then I will cancel our streaming and switch to hulu+ and amazon prime for our streaming; there's an awful lot of overlap there anyway. We stream on our xbox, ps3, and our tv has it built in. We don't have cable, so we're still coming out ahead!

I am curious if the increase in streaming only customers will put more pressure on all shows to make their show available for streaming.
posted by Kronur at 12:40 PM on July 13, 2011

Chez Cestmoi was already displeased with Netflix's streaming options and isn't very good at remembering to go to the mailbox anyway, so we're canceling and giving HBO a try (it comes with HBOGo - which is an on demand streaming option and we can use it on our phones, computers and iPads too, via our DirectTV account).

We're not the only ones.
posted by cestmoi15 at 5:09 PM on July 13, 2011

So I get to thinking about this movie I'd like to watch, pull it up -- nope, it's not streaming. Okay, so let's see -- Ah, let's watch that one -- nope, it's not streaming either. It's as though Netflix is intent on not streaming arthouse and/or foreign movies, or, actually, *any* movies I'm interested in. It really is annoying.

I'd pay twice what I'm paying and drop the DVD shipping if they'd just make more available for streaming, I'd pay twice for it gladly. But I didn't see anything in their tacky little email suggesting that they were going to build up the number and/or quality of movies for streaming.

But there is another problem, I think that muddgirl pointed it out -- foreign movies dubbed rather than titles, and cut to tv size rather than giving an option to actually watch the movie that the director made. So their streaming, it's just not ready for prime-time...

I don't yet know what I'm going to do. I also have a great video store a very short distance from my home, knowledgeable staff, people I believe in and believe in supporting. maybe I'll just totally pull out of netflix, have to see..

(btw, these are, quite frankly, very, very high-class problems)
posted by dancestoblue at 5:44 PM on July 13, 2011

Yeah, I subscribed to HBO the other month purely for Game of Thrones related reasons, but I was pleasantly surprised by the movie selection. They don't have too many movies at once (right now they have 215) but they are all available via streaming and in general much better movies than the Netflix streaming selections (movies currently available on HBO Go include Inception, 500 Days of Summer, How to Train your Dragon, ET, Regarding Henry, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Princess Bride, and WarGames); they also rotate pretty frequently. I kind of like the limited but high quality selection aspect in a way, it introduces me to movies I might not have watched otherwise.
posted by phoenixy at 8:29 PM on July 13, 2011

Vuze?
posted by Paris Elk at 3:09 AM on July 14, 2011

Based on this thread, I just went and looked at the Zediva website. It looks interesting. You "rent" DVDs for up to 14 days, but you can watch it streaming over your computer or phone. And it includes director's commentaries, which I really have missed, since I've been mostly watching Netflix streaming. It doesn't have a big selection, but they are mostly pretty new.
posted by Ellemeno at 9:13 AM on July 14, 2011

I am in the same boat as many people here - we stream Netflix movies from our PS3 fairly often, but sometimes we end up searching through the queue for half an hour for something - anything - that looks good. The selection isn't horrible, but it certainly needs improvement. Unfortunate as it is, though, Netflix is integrated in more devices than any other streaming service out there. So promising options such as Amazon Prime and Crackle don't necessarily work for most people at the moment.

On the DVD side, the only reason to keep the DVD option has nothing to do new movies at all, since we have both Redbox and Blockbuster Express kiosks near us. It's the older movies that I want to have access to. Unfortunately, all those family video stores I had when I was a kid seem to have disappeared, so there aren't many options, at least, not in my neighborhood.

One option I tested out just the other day (before this announcement, actually) that seems to scratch both itches is VUDU. They were offering a free $5.99 credit just to try it out, which is enough for a new 1080p movie, which I hear is very close to Bluray in quality. However, our PS3 is on wireless, so I just went with the SD option ($3.99), and kept the $2 left over for later. They appear to have a decent selection of older movies (some only have buy options, though). The movie quality was pretty good, and it seemed to have some features that Netflix doesn't have, like chapters. Actually, the interface seemed much smarter in general than the dumbed down interface they now have on the PS3. VUDU seems to have a lot of traction, which is probably because it is now owned by Walmart, so you may be able to find something that has it integrated in, such as the PS3 or newer HDTVs.
posted by mysterpigg at 2:25 PM on July 14, 2011

"Instead of paying Netflix an extra $6 a month, go back to paying your cable company an extra $60 a month. That'll show 'em."

That's a fallacy though. It isn't one or the other for some people. We had Netflix streaming plus the 1 DVD a month unlimited plan for $9.99/mo and that was a great balance because I've never felt that the streaming catalog is strong enough on its own. We pay for cable because you can't get sporting events, new shows, etc on Netflix. This is just Netflix forcing us to pay an extra $6, which I won't do.

They may get a few more signups, but I bet they have a lot of people that are deciding to give Netflix less of their money each month.
posted by thewalledcity at 8:43 AM on July 15, 2011

http://lifehacker.com/285489/a-beginners-guide-to-bittorrent

Bittorrent. All you need is an internet connection. You can get everything the day after it comes out.

Just make sure you check the files actually int a torrent, never enter a password to "unlock" a file, and eventually you'll develop a sense of who releases good torrents in the genre you're looking for.
posted by cupcake1337 at 12:27 AM on July 16, 2011