134 replies to this topic

[sebberry]

Of course. Why wouldnt it?

I don't know, just thought they were more about the older movies and not so much the Hollywood stuff for some reason.


We just watched A Dangerous Man/Steven Seagal on Netflix. Quality was awful. Worse than DVD quality, and the audio was terrible.

I can't believe people place this high a priority on convenience.

[spanky123]

Here's a little secret about the interwebs. Newzgroupz is where you get movies now, not torrents. You can download a bluray in less than an hour no problem on newsgroups. Sometimes it's possible to get shows in HD before they air on the west coast.

Bang on. The media crap about Netflix killing off the video stores is just that .... crap. The media doesn't want to refer to their readers as thieves so they conveniently ignore the real culprit.

Bottom line is that you can download a new release long before it ever hits video and in most cases before it even gets to PPV. With streaming and smart TVs, you don't even need to burn a DVD to watch it. Interweb - computer - TV faster than you can make yourself the popcorn. The video stores didn't have a chance.

Now if the vdeo industry got its head out of its ass they could have built a model that worked.

[sebberry]

Now if the vdeo industry got its head out of its ass they could have built a model that worked.

Well they did, it's called Netflix. Far from perfect, but show me a streaming service that gives you blu-ray video and sound quality?

[Jason-L]

There's a Rogers at Quadra and Hillside, still doing rentals (but for how long?)

And I've got no complaints with the quality of the Netflix streaming. It's not blu-ray, it's true... but the films I want to watch on blu-ray I buy. I know, shocking. The stuff I watch on Netflix is stuff I wouldn't want to buy (like bad Steven Seagal movies), but in olden days would have rented.

[sebberry]

There's a Rogers at Quadra and Hillside, still doing rentals (but for how long?)

And I've got no complaints with the quality of the Netflix streaming. It's not blu-ray, it's true... but the films I want to watch on blu-ray I buy. I know, shocking. The stuff I watch on Netflix is stuff I wouldn't want to buy (like bad Steven Seagal movies), but in olden days would have rented.

Even if the movie is bad content-wise (sometimes I just want to watch a silly movie like that for the entertainment value) I still want it to look and sound good.

I didn't upgrade my A/V setup so I can look at and listen to awful compression artifacts.

I almost never buy movies. I rarely watch movies more than once. I can't be alone in that. Just because I'm renting a movie doesn't mean I want reduced quality.

It's like buying a fuel efficient car - you want one that is cheap to run, but you don't want the door handles falling off. You still want quality.

[jklymak]

^ While I have some complaints, namely w/ their queuing system, I use zip.ca. I'm not sure how good their blu-ray selection is.

[sebberry]

^ While I have some complaints, namely w/ their queuing system, I use zip.ca. I'm not sure how good their blu-ray selection is.

I suppose I could sign up for their free trial, any idea what their online streaming quality is like?

[jklymak]

I wasn't aware they did streaming.

[sebberry]

Looks like they do.

Besides, how are movies by snail-mail a modern way to watch movies?

Hey Jim, come on over for a movie.
Sure, be right over...

So, what are we renting?
Oh I don't know, let's order one online. Come back in a few days once it shows up in the mail...

[jklymak]

Looks like they do.

Besides, how are movies by snail-mail a modern way to watch movies?

Hey Jim, come on over for a movie.
Sure, be right over...

So, what are we renting?
Oh I don't know, let's order one online. Come back in a few days once it shows up in the mail...

Oh, well, when I was single and in my early 20s I suppose that was how we watched movies. However, now that I'm older, when w/ friends I prefer to chat w/ them. For video watching, we have a queue at Zip.ca, and they send 4 DVDs and we choose from those.

I don't know that we'd have done it if we hadn't started w/ Netflix in the States, where the service was superb - two to three-day turn around from dropping our old DVD in the mail box to getting the next one, usually 1 or 2 on our queue.

Zip by contrast takes longer (though its not terrible), but worse, they really have a crappy queue manager and not many copies of everything, so we often get #40 of our queue. Not very impressive.

I'll check out their streaming. Odd that they didn't let us know about it, as long time customers.

EDIT: I checked - they don't have streaming yet - its coming soon: http://www.zip.ca/Streaming/Index.aspx

[sebberry]

Picking out a movie should be spontaneous, not something that has to be planned 4 days in advance.

Hopefully when all but two movie stores have gone out of business, people will realize how inefficient it is to drive across town to rent a movie and new movie stores will pop up.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

[jklymak]

^ I dunno, I always found wafting through the video store searching for something (anything!) to watch pretty annoying. On Zip or similar, you can read reviews, get recommendations based on your previous ratings etc etc. You can get lots of obscure stuff, because they only need one copy for the whole country. Spontaneity aside, I don't think there are many drawbacks to the demise of retail video outlets. I don't think people will miss them anymore than they miss lining up to talk to the bank teller, or paying extra to have your gassed pumped.

I would lament the job losses, but video store clerk doesn't seem much better than the myriad of other unskilled service jobs that the loss of the vocation is worth mourning.

[Sparky]

^ I just spent a dinner evening with some well educated people (myself excluded) and we discussed at length the changes in our lives that have come about due to emerging technologies.

We have all seen the disappearance of the corner grocery store, the local service station where we bought gas and had our muffler replaced, and now the demise of our local video stores.

Why?

Technology, coupled with an overwhelming requirement for efficiency, cost reductions, and consumer based competitiveness is changing the world that we live in......in rapid time.

One of the topics that we discussed was the printed book industry. Even though we did not like discussing the eventual outcome, it became evident after sharing our usage patterns that this industry is going to face the same challenges that the video industry is undergoing today.

One of the ladies at the dinner table is an avid reader. She used to purchase countless books every month from her favourite book store.

Then she bought a Kindle.

She can now carry 3,000 books in her purse at half the price that she used to pay for the paper variety......and she does not have to leave her home to buy them.

Although we were not in favour of the outcome of our discussion.....the book store is doomed......and then we discussed the usefulness of the local library.

Whether we like it or not, our world is changing by the hour.

[Jason-L]

I didn't upgrade my A/V setup so I can look at and listen to awful compression artifacts.

Have you set your video quality setting (under your account) to Best Quality? I know when Shaw and the others threatened to bring in caps, Netflix rejigged their stream to use less bandwidth.

I have a decent A/V set up, and rarely see compression effects unless my network is being funny.

[Phil McAvity]

^I find it very hard to believe that Netflix would alter their bandwidth based on one Canadian internet service provider.

I still can't believe how much money you guys waste on movies. The only time I pay anything for movies is when I go to them.

[spanky123]

^ I just logged into my netflix account per Jason and there is a quality setting and a message stating that due to bandwidth restrictions by some carriers you will want to review the setting.

[sebberry]

I took a risk and signed up again with Netflix and saw the quality setting.

Better, but not best. And sound is still in 2ch stereo


.

[sebberry]

I still can't believe how much money you guys waste on movies. The only time I pay anything for movies is when I go to them.

http://torrentfreak....t-users-110909/

After targeting tens of thousands of U.S. Internet users alleged to have downloaded and shared the Oscar-winning movie The Hurt Locker, the movie’s makers have expanded their settlement business into new territory. Three Canadian ISPs have now been ordered by a court to hand over the personal details of their subscribers to Voltage Pictures.

[...]

[Jason-L]

^I find it very hard to believe that Netflix would alter their bandwidth based on one Canadian internet service provider.

I still can't believe how much money you guys waste on movies. The only time I pay anything for movies is when I go to them.

It wasn't just one provider. Pretty sure it was a move to pre-empt the US providers as well.

And if no one was paying for them, then you wouldn't have anything to pirate.

[jklymak]

^ Hmmm, well if no one wastes money on them, they won't get made anymore...

EDIT: Sorry, I meant to quote

I still can't believe how much money you guys waste on movies. The only time I pay anything for movies is when I go to them.