Netflix (DVD Delivery Discussion Only)

[Hopscotch]

So it sounds like Netflix just doesn't like me, then. Of those of you who have gotten the extra discs, how many use the streaming service?

I prefer not to use the streaming service, but my girlfriend uses it regularly. Like 3-5 movies streamed per week.

[Numero Trois]

So it sounds like Netflix just doesn't like me, then.

I don't know about "long wait" items, but they do send an extra disc from the local distribution center when the other disc is shipping from further away.

Of those of you who have gotten the extra discs, how many use the streaming service?

I do for out of print films. For instance, Louis Malle's "Alamo Bay" was playing until last month. The same with "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation."

It's taken months for me to realize this, but if you have a Mac the streaming image may improve if you fiddle with the display settings. In full screen mode I was experiencing absolutely terrible sub-VHS image quality. By disabling the Status Bar and Navigation and Bookmark toolbars it looked much better. Shrinking the font size used for the Instant Watch video player also helped significantly.

[heredity4me]

Just switched my blu-ray access back on after having it off for a couple months and became morbidly depressed about the state of Netflix. I tried to add Red Shoes (no), Black Narcissus (no), Steamboat Bill Jr. (no), and Happy Together (no). Completely absurd.

[Matt]

And probably no Pandora and the Flying Dutchman Blu-ray either. I'd like to see the film, but I'm not up for a blind buy.

[swo17]

Netflix has started doing this fun thing recently where they get the DVD I sent them and then they just wait an extra day before bothering to send me another one. In their defense though, it's probably hard for them to find anything else for me, since roughly 70% of my queue is on "short wait."

Oh, and I haven't gotten any "extra" discs in recent memory either.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

Netflix has started doing this fun thing recently where they get the DVD I sent them and then they just wait an extra day before bothering to send me another one. In their defense though, it's probably hard for them to find anything else for me, since roughly 70% of my queue is on "short wait."

I've noticed that too with my account. I'd say it happens every third time I return a title (I probably rent three to four titles per week). And it happens when even only one of my two discs are returned, so they can't legitimately say I'm throttling them with returns. But I've also noticed my queue doesn't always reflect actual shipping status. In fact their site has been buggy for me for about, oh, two years now... this week, for example, when I click on "my queue" I'm taken to the bottom of my queue (?!) among other problems.

On another note, Witchfinder General is listed as "save" despite being one of the very few MGM "Midnight Movies" still in print, if I'm not mistaken.

[FerdinandGriffon]

And probably no Pandora and the Flying Dutchman Blu-ray either. I'd like to see the film, but I'm not up for a blind buy.

My god, Kino's released a blu-ray of this? How come nobody told me? Matt, if you have any love at all for Lewin, Cardiff, Mason or Gardner, then run, don't walk, to the waiting arms of this film. It's wonderful.

[Matt]

My god, Kino's released a blu-ray of this?

It's out August 3. Supposedly a beautiful restoration. I might just go ahead and get it once my wallet's recovered from the B&N sale.

[Hopscotch]

Netflix has started doing this fun thing recently where they get the DVD I sent them and then they just wait an extra day before bothering to send me another one.

Shit, so this is happening to other people too. And my queue is approx. %25 "short wait" titles, so that can't have much to do with it.

[Perkins Cobb]

CNet has the smoking gun on Netflix's DVD cutbacks, even though the author doesn't seem to understand the implications.

For the first six months of 2010, Netflix has paid the studios $116 million for streaming content, compared with $31 million for the same period last year. Some analysts expect those payments to keep going up as the company continues to fill out its film library....

As Netflix users have opted to watch more streaming movies and receive fewer DVDs delivered by mail, the company has been able to trim postage and DVD-acquisition costs. For example, Netflix spent $24 million in the June quarter this year on DVDs, compared with $43 million during the same period last year, according to the company's June earnings report.

For the first six months of this year, Netflix spent $61 million on discs, down from $89 million for the same period last year.

Emphasis added. Clueless spin was already there.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

So I check my queue tonight and there's a message at the top which says something like "Piranha has been replaced by a different version." Okay, it's been in my "saved" section for a while now, maybe they've added the new edition and it's ready to rent? No, still in the "saved" section. Thanks for the useless update, Netflix!

[Perkins Cobb]

One other thing worth pointing out is that The Escapist has been lodged in the "Save" section ever since I added it. Why does this matter? Because it came out last year -- which means that Netflix is starting to ignore small new movies as well as catalog titles. Also, I finally got it via the New York Public Library, which may now be, by default, the best video store in the city.

[Matt]

For sheer volume of DVD borrowing/rental transactions, libraries beat Netflix hands down. Now if we only had our own lobbyist...

[Perkins Cobb]

Yep, as I commented on Hacking Netflix, the NY Public Library has gotten its act together in the DVD department over the last few years. Criterions and Eclipses galore littering the shelves. Noticed a couple of the Imamuras that are missing from Netflix last time I dropped by.

However: They're not really filling my cult needs in the Code Red, Scorpion, NoShame, etc. area, and I doubt they'll start any time soon.

[Props55]

FWIW (though probably not much after the dissappointments and frustrations enumerated above) the defective copy of BILLY WILDER SPEAKS was mailed back this past Monday and the replacement arrived Friday. And I doubted they'd ever come up with another disc much less so fast. On the downside my "short wait" for O LUCKY MAN resulted in my buying it at the last DDD sale!

[Perkins Cobb]

Looks like it will be necessary to Save the films from the new Errol Flynn and Kim Novak sets to our queues as well.

[Perkins Cobb]

Just noticed that Henry King's remakes of Way Down East (1935) and Seventh Heaven (1937), never released on DVD in the US, are available for streaming. Image quality is uninspired but probably no worse than a Fox Movie Channel broadcast. Are there any other rare Fox flicks available for streaming?

[swo17]

The BDs of Crumb and Black Orpheus aren't showing up as available on Netflix either. Save them to your queues, people!

[Perkins Cobb]

Done. Note that NF will add the DVD version to your queue and you have to manually switch it to Blu-ray. It will then drop down into your Siberia of OOPs and stuff they won't buy.

Also did this with some of the missing Blus mentioned above (Red Shoes, Narcissus, Steamboat Bill Jr.) but alas the Pandora and the Flying Dutchman Blu isn't even listed.

Other unstocked indie stuff that might benefit from a "Save": Jonas Mekas's Walden; Bill Desloge's Gold; the documentary Rocky Road to Dublin; Jean-Jacques Beineix's Roselyne and the Lions; and most of the new Roger Corman Blus from Shout Factory (Piranha, Forbidden World, Humanoids From the Deep).

[Dadapass]

and Louie Bluie

[MyNameCriterionForum]

Monte Hellman's China 9, Liberty 37 is now available via instant watch, but I don't know if it's the cut or uncut version.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Luchino Visconti's The Stranger comes to streaming the 1st of June. The Duchess of Langeais on June 7.

This is good news. The only commercial version of this I've been able to find previously is a terrible German dubbed VHS.

Edit: Nvm. The boobs at Netflix had Welle's The Stranger confused with Visconti/Camus' and were streaming that instead.

[Perkins Cobb]

Monte Hellman's China 9, Liberty 37 is now available via instant watch, but I don't know if it's the cut or uncut version.

Forget it -- it's just same old cropped (to 4:3 from 'Scope) PD master from the dreaded Starz library. Too bad -- it's a masterpiece. I almost skipped a chance to see it on 35mm and am so glad I didn't, since it seems impossible to liberate from rights or pseudo-PD hell.

[Numero Trois]

This is good news. The only commercial version of this I've been able to find previously is a terrible German dubbed VHS.

Edit: Nvm. The boobs at Netflix had Welle's The Stranger confused with Visconti/Camus' and were streaming that instead.

And it took them about four weeks to take it down. Netflix also made this error with Richard Rush's The Stuntman. They mixed it up with a recent movie called Stuntmen. You can imagine the comments that were made on the review page.

[swo17]

How did they get inside my head?