Netflix Will End Its DVD-By-Mail Service After 25 Years (netflix.com) 77
Slashdot reader mpercy shares an email they received from Netflix announcing the shut down of its original business of delivering DVDs by mail: Just received an email from Netflix: "For 25 years, it's been our extraordinary privilege to mail movie nights to our members all across America. On September 29th, 2023, we will ship our final iconic red envelope. While times have changed since our first shipment in March 1998, our goal has remained the same: to provide you with access to the broadest collection of movies and shows possible, delivered directly to your door, with no due dates or late fees. As the DVD business continues to shrink, it's going to become increasingly difficult to achieve that goal. In our final season, we'll continue providing you the best service possible, all the way to the very last shipment." Here's an infographic the company shared in its post:
I'll miss it.. or not. I don't miss it right now. (Score:1)
I haven't gotten a dvd / blu-ray in forever.. in fact, I quit because while DVDs are a hardy thing that tolerates the abuse of countless careless renters, blu-ray isn't. It's very delicate, and nearly every blu-ray I got from Netflix would pause, skip or be outright unplayable.. on both a Sony mid-range blu-ray player, on an Oppo BD-103.
As for Netflix the streamer, I barely partake anymore. I might just drop it. I spend most of my time in crunchyroll and hidive or watching from physical media.
When a movi
Re:I'll miss it.. or not. I don't miss it right no (Score:4, Insightful)
When a movie comes out that I really do like, I buy it in blu-ray. That way I see when I want, not when the streamer happens to have the license.
And you don't have to worry about the streamer editing or otherwise censoring the media as well. We've seen plenty of that in the last few years. I buy any show I like and rip it to a harddrive plugged into the TV. Streaming is fine for something you watch once, or a few times over a short period of time, but not for things you want to go back to in the future. All the classic TV shows I ever watched on Netflix are now gone. As to the physical media, it was good at the time, but honestly I thought they stopped that years ago.
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And you don't have to worry about the streamer editing or otherwise censoring the media as well.
Also why I have dead-tree editions of what I like. Some of it in 1st-edition hardbacks.
Already found a difference in the AppleTV (Itunes) purchased version in Band of Brothers vs. the version which aired on TV / Netflix - the Apple version has British-style text on the cards. Certain words are spelled the Brit way instead of the original.
Similarly, the version of "The Challenge" I have from Apple is missing the scene where Toshiro Mifune's character literally guts two security guards coming out of an elev
No more DVDs? (Score:2)
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Who wants to bet that those that still have a DVD/BR disc in hand on September 29th, 2023 will be told "Thank you for renting from Netflix. Don't bother returning the DVD as we will no longer be renting these discs. Enjoy!"
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My public library has a lot of DVDs.
Re:Now where to find titles not on streaming? (Score:5, Informative)
Our public library (Los Angeles area) has a substantial selection, and will even deliver them for free from other LAPL libraries that are too far to drive.
I've seen a surprising number of good movies at the Salvation Army and Goodwill for sale for a buck or two... sometimes $4.
My friends and family hardly watch their DVD/Bluray collection, so I borrow theirs.
I've also seen good collections at street fairs and swap meets, though the prices tend to be higher than Goodill and SA etc.
Hope that helps,
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Seems like all the more reason for us to be attracted to the wider DVD selection that isn't victim to balkanization.
In fact, I wonder if the superior breadth is an uncomfortable truth that Netflix would rather not be measured against.
Or, looking at it from another angle, it's the "let's find ways to force more people into OUR streaming service" consumer-suffers song of the last decade, except with a slight "it's internal" twist.
Re: Now where to find titles not on streaming? (Score:1)
Re:Now where to find titles not on streaming? (Score:5, Insightful)
Many movies and programs aren't available on streaming services, sometimes because they're less popular, sometimes just due to time.
Where can one still rent or buy less popular or older titles?
I find DVDs annoying and obsolescent, but I have been clinging to Netflix DVD exactly because the Hollywood licensing system privileges DVD rental services to carry all the old movies and TV shows. I also subscribe to two popular streaming services, but find that a large percentage of the good TV shows are on a streamer I don't have. No problem so far, because they have been appearing on Netflix DVD after each season closes.
Where can I go for this content now? I suppose I will have to torrent like everybody else.
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I also subscribe to two popular streaming services, but find that a large percentage of the good TV shows are on a streamer I don't have. [...] Where can I go for this content now?
You answered your own question: at the other streaming service you don't have.
The way you're describing your situation is how I used to view ours as well. We felt like we were getting a lot of use out of the 1-2 services we had, so we viewed them as a utility and "saved money" by going with annual plans. To cut to the chase, we eventually took an objective look at our view history and realized perception != reality: we watched any given service in bursts that had months-long interruptions (e.g. watching oth
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I still get DVDs (Score:4, Interesting)
I live way out in the boonies with connectivity that sometimes doesn't meet the USG definition of broadband, with a microwave tower on part of our property bouncing a signal off a water tower in town 11 miles away.
So streaming is not always a useful thing to me. The DVD subscription catalog was many times larger than the streams and was not loaded up with Netflix originals instead of licensed movies and TV shows.
I will be one source of entertainment down once this takes effect. Or sooner if I just go ahead and cut it now...probably won't get through the backlog in my queue anyway before the cutoff date.
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As usual, The Pirate Bay is the best user experience. Download at whatever rate you can, even from another location. Enjoy perfect local playback.
Only 40 million? (Score:2, Interesting)
How is it possible that there were only ever 40 million unique subscribers (to the DVD service, presumably)? By the time they started doing streaming, Blockbuster was already on the ropes and failing financially, in no small part due to Netflix. Was there really only roughly 40% of the households in the country with a subscription (at some point)?
I'd be interested in seeing their highest concurrent subscription count. I'd not be surprised if it's close to that 40 million figure.
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Blockbuster only wished they had those numbers.
It was great for movies (Score:2)
Useless anyway (Score:1)
It was practically useless anyway. DVDs over time get lost, never returned, broken, and they never replaced them. I have a few disks on my waiting list for over a decade at this point
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I haven't had that trouble at all. A disc arrives broken about twice a year, true, but they have always been replaced promptly.
The bigger problem is like the Expanse. Seasons 1-4 are available, 5 and 6 are not. So how did it end?
Looks like I'm going to have to figure out BitTorrent. Sigh.
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1. Sign up for free trial
2. Binge all content since last free trial
3. Quit
4. Wait for content to accumulate for next free trial (or pay the $10 fee or whatever for a month longer)
5. No profit because you just melted your brain watching lots of TV
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I have thought of that, but will they actually let you quit?
I have bad memories of the battle to cancel Dish, and a similar one to cancel the landline.
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Get a single use credit card, block the recurring payment if they don't make it easy to cancel.
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I've never had to make a phone call to quit a streaming service. Its a few clicks to start/stop service. Can't say I've used all of them though, YMMV. I feel like someone has done the numbers on how frequently people often actually do quit when signing up and figured out the right price point to make it happen. Most people probably let the subscription sit once signing up even if they don't use it. That's the "beauty" of it for them.
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That's a problem with the rise of streaming - a lot of TV shows stopped being put on discs. It was bad enough that TV shows stopped being put on Blu-Ray and the last few seasons were DVD only. Now a lot of shows simply stopped coming on disc.
I think Season 5 is on DVDs through Amazon, but I'm not sure if Season 6 is.
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There are still plenty of people in the world for whom streaming services are not practical. Slow connectivity, low data caps or metering, or just geographic discrimination which causes the streaming services to either not work at all, or refuse to provide the content you want to watch.
If paid DVDs from the original studio are not available, some enterprising folks will probably burn their own DVDs from a torrented source and sell them.
Advertise content heavily to make people want it, then prevent people fr
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The only physically broken DVD I've ever received from Netflix was, believe it or not, the Bruce Willis/Samuel L. Jackson movie "Unbreakable". I kid you not!
Still subscribing to DVDs... (Score:5, Insightful)
...Because I hate how every production studio now has their own streaming service, and nobody shares anything with Netflix anymore.
All I can stream on Netflix is Netflix content. But I can still get the DVDs for new releases or shows streaming on other platforms. Lately been watching Handmaid's Tale, because I don't subscribe to Hulu.
I wish the studios would do a better job licensing their content with competitors. I hate our vertically-integrated world now. Four of the Big Five Studios has their own damn streaming channel. Universal has Hulu, Paramount has Paramount+, Disney has Disney+, and Warner Brothers (will have) WBTV. Only Columbia/Sony still licenses their content to Netflix & Disney rather than start their own platform.
Guess I'll have to get my DVDs from the local library now.
Re:Still subscribing to DVDs... (Score:4, Insightful)
The studios don't want you to access their material unless you are paying them exclusively for it. They look at what Netflix was 5-10 years ago and want that, even though it doesn't exist any more, and never will again. They look at the streaming landscape and think, "How can we turn this into cable?"
It is still more efficient (Score:2)
People decry the streaming age, and think we are going back to cable. But let's pause for a moment...
The way things used to work:
Warner Bros Produces Friends
Warner Bros sells Friends to NBC, who adds commercials
NBC sells cable rights to Time-Warner, who charges more money
The consumer is paying *TWO* middle-entities here who are providing zero value to the consumer.
Nowadays, you buy the shows direct from Warner Bros, have no commercials, and no intermediary cable company. It is far more efficient for the con
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I would argue strongly that all 3 of those are vastly improved.
Availability - I can now consume my entertainment at any time on any device I want.
Format - No commercials
Price per hour of entertainment - Inflation-adjusted, overall price *as* gone down, despite much ballyhooing otherwise by some. Sure, if you want content *FROM EVERY SINGLE PRODUCER* you might be up to your past cable bill, but you would never have had access to even close to that much content with cable.
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But very expensive compared to even Cable. When Netflix had rights and was paying a fair share back to Warner Bros, it was a very good deal for consumers. Today's streaming is a terrible model for consumers.
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And there's no standards...
With TV standards, you could be sure that any NTSC TV could receive any NTSC TV broadcasts, irrespective of who was broadcasting it.
Same with DVD, hundreds of vendors providing DVD players and any movie would play on any player.
Now you need a device that can run the streaming service's proprietary app, some will work on certain brands and models of TV or set top boxes, some will not. Some will work on older versions of android or ios, some will only work on the latest version. It'
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Except you're now likely still paying all of those middlemen, and also need to separately pay for yet another streaming service on top of that.
The cable company hasn't gone away. They often provide your internet access, and also your TV service for all the things that haven't yet made the jump to streaming services (or are easier said than done to actually get via streaming).
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There is a lot more on Netflix than Netflix content. Unfortunately it's not nearly as large as when they had streaming rights to Starz and other big owners. That died when the content owners realized there was money to be made and preferred to have their own half baked service than to just license and get paid indirectly. Personally I like the idea of separating content creation from content delivery, but many streaming companies want to own it all vertically instead of partnering with someone.
I'll miss it (Score:2)
I've been a subscriber since 2004, back when we lived in Columbus, OH. The service went with us from there to WA and now to PA where we live now. I've watched a lot of movies that aren't available on streaming. I'll definitely miss the red envelopes but it makes sense that it would end at some point.
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Agreed on all counts. The issue with all the streaming services has been mentioned multiple times but it bears repeating: We have interest in maybe one movie every other month from any given studio, we are mostly into "indies", and cannot justify paying every damn streaming service monthly for such infrequently used content.
We are still in Columbus.
Sad to see it go (Score:2)
Not all DVD content was/is streamable... (Score:2)
bluray? (Score:2)
Looks like they're still pretending blurays are a type of dvd.
never had 4k bluray (Score:2)
It's shame they never offered any 4k blurays.
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>"It's shame they never offered any 4k blurays."
Was it?
Unless sitting under 5 feet from a 80+" TV, it is likely that 98+% of people would not notice any difference between that and an upscaled 1080p bluray. Even on a "normal" sized TV (50"ish) at regular distance viewing (12 feet), I bet 80+% of people would not really notice much if any difference between 1080p and upscaled 480p.
There would be no real interest by Netflix in a sub 1% market.
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Its not quite that bad. But you are correct in that for many people with the distance they have in a room to the TV its not worth it. I have a living room setup with probably a "normal" 10-12 ft distance from the TV (55") and I have no clue if a stream is 4k or 1080. But I also have a "movie" room which many people who visit think is ridiculous because it's a 65" TV about 6-7 feet from the couch - mainly to have a better field of view - and there you can for sure tell, esp. with a bluray (4k streams are
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As for the 480p- just remember that we are not "typical" people. Yes, I can certainly tell 480p from 1080p, even on a small TV at distance. Much harder at 720p upscaled to 1080p vs. native 1080p. But I will point out it matters on the comparisons if it is a good master (not grainy, higher bitrate, careful conversion) of a modern movie on 480p. Huge difference. Shockingly so, sometimes. Like you, a poor 480p, to me, is painful to watch.
There is a rapidly diminishing return from 480 to 720 to 1080 to 4k
Sadness (Score:3)
Re: Sadness (Score:2)
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Lots of things ending (Score:2)
And in other news, Amazon will be dcing its newstand service. You will no longer be able to get newspapers and magazines on Kindle
Farewell and thanks (Score:2)
We just cancelled our DVD plan this past January (I'm a CMP - Certified Master Procrastinator). It was a wonderful service for many years... although the writing has been on the wall for probably the past decade. It's true that the DVD plan was still the only way one could (legally) watch certain movies... but, last time I checked, it had become true that more of the movies in my Netflix DVD queue were available for rent from Apple/Amazon/etc. than were immediately shippable from Netflix.
But still, for a nu
Bitcoin will end... (Score:2)
I was there at launch, and I'll stay to the end (Score:5, Informative)
I've been a member of Netflix since their initial promo offer back in 1998(?). They let each member's queue hold 500 films, and mine has been pegged at that number forever; as quickly as we watch a movie, we come up with others we want to watch. The selection on Netflix discs is *much* wider than on any streaming service. With Netflix disc you can decide to watch every Winona Ryder movie, or every Elliott Gould movie, or every episode of a ten-year-old French crime drama. How do you do that with streaming, unless you subscribe to fifteen services?
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Mod Parent Up - My mom has this and has an attachment, maybe even to an unhealthy level. But there is SOOO much available through their disk service that is not even available anywhere else. Much availability will be lost to the masses!
I'll Seriously Miss It (Score:3, Interesting)
Have received a ton of stuff unavailable elsewhere. Just ordered "The Adventures of Superman" broadcast on TV in B&W from 1952 (age 5) to 1958, and always enjoyed. Hope I receive these before they got under. Lots and lots of stuff is just not going to be available at any price now, I think.
OK, I see my example Superman series is indeed available from Amazon, but lots more $$$ than Netflix subscription. But anyway, I'm still going to miss getting those disks in the mail.
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Same here. I've got to order "UFO" so I can rewatch the entire damned series.
Physical disc better quality than streaming (Score:1)
I still prefer to watch movies on Blu Ray or DVD, because the quality is visibly better than streaming. Redbox Blu Ray rentals are my preferred source, the selection is good enough. And those TV shows that are only on streaming get boring and lose their storyline quality too quickly, so they aren't really worth bothering with - sadly even the better shows like The Expanse eventually devolve in a sea of evermore far-fetched ideas (=writing material) and refuse to come to a good conclusion.
So, what happens to all those DVDs? (Score:2)
Should I start searching eBay for "found" lots of 100,000 used DVDs for sale, sans boxes, priced to sell at 49 cents a pound?
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Rip it and ship it (Score:1)
movie rights (Score:1)
Says when they launched, they had almost 1000 dvds, nearly every dvd in existance. How did the founders acquire the rights to every movie, to rent out? I just read about how video rental stores used to work and they'd pay ~$100 for a video cassette intended to be rented, then $20 a year later to be sold.
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How do we protest this? (Score:2)
I still have well over 300 in my DVD Q...
Hey Netflix, I'll pay you $1 to take over the DVD biz!
Gamefly (Score:1)