Netflix Ships Its Last DVD (netflix.com) 44
It's official: Netflix has shipped its last DVD. "For 25 years, we redefined how people watched films and series at home, and shared the excitement as they opened their mailboxes to our iconic red envelopes," says Netflix in a blog post. "It's the end of an era, but the DVD business built our foundation for the years to come -- giving members unprecedented choice and control, a wide variety of titles to choose from and the freedom to watch as much as they want."
Netflix announced the shut down of its DVD business in April. Here's an infographic the company shared in its post:
Netflix announced the shut down of its DVD business in April. Here's an infographic the company shared in its post:
Re: it died years ago (Score:2)
Ewwww. They got pictures on a Slashdot post! (lol)
Does anybody else remember how crazy it seemed? (Score:2, Funny)
Seriously? People are going to wait for something to arrive in the mail when they can just drive over to Blockbuster?
Boy were we ever wrong. It still baffles me how this happened, but it did.
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Gotta love the culture warriors, remembering years old shit the rest of us completely forgot about while pretending it's highly relevant to anything important.
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Please, the child pageant industry in this country is far worse than this movie could ever be and I rarely if ever hear a bit of concern over those kids from conservative culture warriors. One would think these "pageants" (or pervert conventions) would be a lot less popular in red states than they currently are if conservative culture warriors actually cared about kids and not just scoring points.
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You're literally arguing to not pursue them because you perceive a political bias in the person you are arguing with. You are evil.
Hey, thanks for putting words in my mouth as I never once said that Netflix shouldnt be legally pursued for what they aired.
What I am actually saying is that your outrage is likely media based rather than morality based. Conservative news channels tell you to be outraged at Netflix over this meanwhile they do not tell you to be outraged over the incredibly creepy and popular in red states child pageant industry which is an infinity bigger problem than Netflix airing one movie they shouldnt have.
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Aaaaand you're still doing it. Notice when I say "What I am actually saying..." and then I go on to say something different than what you're trying to attribute to me.
Your initial point is still quite laughable "And then they destroyed their empire in the eyes of half the population with pedo shit like "Cuties." True mavericks, not just doing random bullshit to see if anything sticks, nope, not them." As if a massive streaming company like Netflix releasing a single title that had children gyrating inapprop
Willing to forget after 95 years (Score:2)
years old shit
Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association (formerly MPAA). Under MPA logic, "years old shit" is relevant for 95 years after it happens. Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003).
This is a... (Score:3)
...Blockbuster announcement!
"Progress" (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep.
So now if you want to rent something- good luck. Probably 3/4 of what Netflix Disc had is not available on ANY streaming platform. And what is available, if you can find it, will be scattered among many different streaming platforms, each with their own pricing and terms and logins and interface and quality and frustrating search. And instead of always seeing a pristine HD picture (assuming Blu-ray, which I was), you might have some pixelated crap, often without even 5.1 surround sound. And none of the extras that are on the disc will be viewable. Or you start working on a series and "poof" it is now no longer carried, right in the middle.
And sometimes it doesn't matter how good your Internet is- I have excellent Internet and, for example, my watching was interrupted dozens and dozens of times by server issues, or reduced to 240P res or whatnot with my recent 30 day experience on Prime Video (it was free, not gonna pay for that). Verified it wasn't me. And no, it wasn't using WiFi, either- Roku Ultra with Gb feed.
Library will have 1/1000th of the selection.
RedBox will have 1/100th and a lot of hassle.
Such progress. :(
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own nothing, and not be happy apparently.
similar boat though, we moved pretty far out into the boonies back in 2019, and the only "ISP" available (at the time) was viasat. which made streaming anything over prime/netflix impossible -- either due to bandwidth caps, or absolute shit latency. So we made frequent use of redbox kiosks. But it was a pain having to drive the 20 miles or so to rent/return, and then the dogshit selection on anything but new releases (there's only so much girlboss marvel schlock i'
Diversity ratio for the /. crowd Re:"Progress" (Score:1)
and the netflix originals being a carefully curated diversity ratio on every. fucking. series.
I like sci-fi. Give me a good diversity ratio of bipedal mammal-looking creatures, intelligent rocks, artificial life forms, sentient lizard creatures, amorphous blobs, and whatever other intelligence you can think of and I'll be happy.
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That's actually why sci-fi exists, actually. Sci-fi is not just about science, it's about the human condition.
Unfortunately, if you try to write about the human condition, even back in the 19th century you get people who are so offended by wokeness they'd cancel you.
So creati
Re: Diversity ratio for the /. crowd Re:"Progress" (Score:2)
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That's actually why sci-fi exists, actually. Sci-fi is not just about science, it's about the human condition.
It was about the human condition for some authors but that is absolutely not "why sci fi exists". Social critiquing material is a subset of Sci-fi, there has been plenty of Sci-fi written going all the way back to its early days that was pure escapism.
Re:"Progress" (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah. The first-sale doctrine [wikipedia.org] meant literally anything ever released on disc could be made available. Now we have a fragmented AF ecosystem where even the people who hold the copyright and don't have to pay royalties might delete the content just to get a tax write-off.
There was also something to be said -- I'll get eye rolls for this -- about the imposed delay from the mail. I went through so many classic TV shows on old school Netflix, two disc at a time plan, so I'd usually get three to five episodes max (usually half that because most of the time I kept the other slot for movies) and then have to wait two USPS days for more. There was no "binging", you had time to reflect on what you just watched, crazy concept, amirite?
I fired them when they doubled their prices -- err, I mean separated out streaming and physical media -- because that move right there told me all I needed to know about where the consumer's fate ultimately laid with New Cable(tm). The only thing that surprises me is that it took them this long to get around to enshittification. Draw people in with a great product, at a great price, with great customer service, then take all of that away and bleed them dry after you destroy all other options. For bonus points, screw labor as hard as you're screwing the consumer, your stock options will appreciate that much higher!
Sigh. At least there's the used DVD market and piracy.
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Well... what did you expect? Subscription services laced in DRM - who could have ever predicted that these would be detrimental to the customer experience?
Oh wait, thousands of people did. Loudly. Including me.
And it's paid off - while everyone on the Netflix-bus is whining about password-sharing being blocked, multiple expensive accounts due to limited selection on each streaming service, geoblocking and all that other crap, we are in a golden age for personal streaming - Plex, Jellyfin etc. work amazingly
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I have to admit (Score:2)
This makes me a little sad - and nostalgic as well. Which seems silly for a company firmly in the dot-com era.
The answer to that question I had (Score:2)
The Blind Side is a 2009 American sports drama film written and directed by John Lee Hancock. Based on the 2006 book of the same name by Michael Lewis, the film tells the story of Michael Oher, a football offensive lineman who overcame an impoverished upbringing to play in the National Football League (NFL) with the help of Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy. It stars Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne, Tim McGraw as Sean, and Quinton Aaron as Oher.
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Which is weird because that is a movie I never hear anybody talk about, whether in real life or even online.
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I think its just that it was a new movie at the peak of the service.
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The subject just came up again actually. It turns out most of the movie was a lie and the situation is pretty fucked up. https://apnews.com/article/mic... [apnews.com]
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Yeah, I know, that's what makes it weird . The fact that it's those things and yet people are more interested in the real life drama rather than the film itself furthers my point.
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I know I certainly had no clue this movie existed and I only made the connection to this modern drama because of the post above that gave the Wikipedia summary of it. When I was reading about said modern drama in the news I had no idea the movie was so widely viewed, it sounded like a B movie that lucked out and got some A list stars just looking to snap up a paycheck.
Then again I've never had any interest in the whole "white savior" thing and I'm not as into sports ball as a lot of folks so I probably just
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Then again I've never had any interest in the whole "white savior" thing and I'm not as into sports ball as a lot of folks so I probably just ignored the movie when it came out as those seem to be its two defining points.
Its third defining point was Sandra Bullock somehow managed to get a best actress Oscar for it.
Most popular dvd (Score:2)
The Blind Side? Seriously? That makes no sense to me at all.
"Recycling" (Score:2)
What are they going to do with all that polycarbonate waste? I think there might be a warehouse fire in the near future...
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Please let it be Beetlejuice.
Please, please, please let it be the same round piece of plastic that was first-out-of-the-chute on March 10, 1998.
Red envelopes were an unboxing present in the mail (Score:2)
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I still have some AOL floppies, with envelopes. I'm still waiting for them to become "collectables." I'm not holding my breath.
I will miss it. (Score:1)
I have used Netflix DVD since the mid 2000's, and I loved being able to queue up months of movies (which my wife and I would watch once a week). Every week would be a surprise which movie we would get, and that was fun. As others have said, the selection on DVD was tremendous compared to any streaming service at this time. I even appreciated the emails they would send out of movie recommendations, that appeared to be written up by real flesh-and-blood people, that would give you lists of movies to watch,
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So will I. Patton is sitting on the stereo cabinet at the moment.
"True Grit" (Score:2)
Not bad. I never rented physical media from them, so I have no attachment to it... but something about the fact that a pretty decent film was the last one out the door makes me happy. If it had been a superhero movie, I would have somehow been saddened.