Netflix announcement

[REWahoo]

Netflix announces new "Drone to Home" same day DVD delivery service.

Netflix Drone To Home - YouTube

 

[W2R]

Priceless!

 

[powerplay]

I'm almost tempted, but then I'd have to get a smart phone so the darn drone can find me.

 

[Chuckanut]

Am I the only person who still gets a disk from Netflix? There are so many movies, shows, documentaries etc. available on disk that are not licensee for streaming.

 

[gardenfun]

Am I the only person who still gets a disk from Netflix? There are so many movies, shows, documentaries etc. available on disk that are not licensee for streaming.

I'm with you, Chuckanut. Went back to disks last year so that I could watch all the Inspector Morse episodes, which weren't available on streaming (now they have seasons 1-4). I tried watching them on Hulu, but it keeps freezing and starting over.

There are a lot of things I've wanted to watch for which Netflix doesn't have streaming rights. Presently I'm getting the "Chef!" series on disk.

Sometimes Amazon Prime has things available that Netflix streaming doesn't. But they come and go. I have some series in my Amazon watchlist where there's a little message "Expiry 17 days".

so all these media stories about disks going away are a bit premature, IMHO.

 

[spncity]

Started with disks, added streaming once we got a hotspot, now finding ourselves too busy to deal with the disks, so dropping that for now. Maybe when we RE we can add the disks back. By then they should have the drones perfected as well as knowing what I'm going to pick before I pick it. Ha.

Kindest regards.

 

[Chuckanut]

so all these media stories about disks going away are a bit premature, IMHO.

Yes. IIRC, Disney pulled some movies from Amazon for a while. People who had bought the streaming rights to some Disney movies suddenly found the movie they thought they had purchased was no longer available. I guess the lesson is if your purchase the rights to a movie, download it to your own disk drive, ASAP.

Amazon takes away access to purchased Christmas movie during Christmas - Boing Boing

 

[Lsbcal]

Most of our Netflix viewing is disc too.

Occasionally some streaming.

 

[ERD50]

Maybe a really powerful robotic arm could accurately 'frisbee' the discs to your home? Could be faster/cheaper than drones?

-ERD50

 

[Chuckanut]

Maybe a really powerful robotic arm could accurately 'frisbee' the discs to your home? Could be faster/cheaper than drones?

That's quite a novel idea, right up there with the HyperLoop. ERD50 is becoming the Elon Musk of this group.

 

[Arifriekinel]

I have never actually used a DVD from Netflix, but I stream at least a season of a show per day on there. Guess I differ from some people here!

 

[clifp]

Am I the only person who still gets a disk from Netflix? There are so many movies, shows, documentaries etc. available on disk that are not licensee for streaming.

No you aren't I periodically switch between streaming and disc. Right now I've canceled them all together and trying Amazon Prime. But I'll probably subscribe to Netflix as soon as Game of Throne is available.

I know it is is joke, but honestly I'd subscribe to Drone2Home disc service, or the robot pitching arm.

 

[redduck]

Am I the only person who still gets a disk from Netflix? There are so many movies, shows, documentaries etc. available on disk that are not licensee for streaming.

Nope, for sure not the only one. We get five out at a time. We love it-- kind of like a gift delivered almost everyday. We used to get six out at a time, but after a few years of that, I began to think it was a bit excessive.

 

[Arifriekinel]

We love it-- kind of like a gift delivered almost everyday.

I don't do DVDs, but I totally understand this. That's why I love subscription boxes like Graze Box for us and Bark Box for our dog. They send you different little things every week or months, and it's so exciting to open them and see what you get! I never thought of DVds that way, but it makes sense. I get a similar feeling when we get our games from GameFly.

 

[growing_older]

I love the logistics of this. Since it looks like the drones can only carry a single disk at a time, there must either be mothership nearby with disks to dispense to drones, or perhaps large fleets of drones carrying a representative sample of choices is in the air at all times. When you order a DVD, the nearest drone carrying that DVD is dispatched from it's holding pattern to your location and a new drone with that DVD is sent from central warehouse with anther copy to replace the standby drone that has now dropped it's disc. Then the empty drone can go get a new load, possibly based on current video title demand calculations. Plenty of room to mathematically optimize based on locations, demand for certain titles and flying time.

This seems to be the current process, based on the brief view of large numbers of drones seen emerging from the central warehouse in the video. Advances in jukebox mothership capacity, or even on demand 3d printing of drones, however could change the economics to favor another delivery model. They'll do well to stay flexible based on possible future technology developments.

 

[clifp]

So I posted this on FB and one of my friends and great comment I thought.

And for their next innovation, they can eliminate the need for drones entirely. All they'd need to do is send the movies over the airwaves, maybe once per week at a pre-published time. You could arrange to be home, or perhaps could even use some kind of recording device to enable later playback. Yup, yup. Innovation indeed.3 hours ago · Unlike · 2

 

[photoguy]

I think netflix should go the way of aereo and physically play the disk on their end. I don't see any other way to get around the content monopoly that studios have. Making their own content, while a nice start, isn't fundamentally going to change the fact that the best stuff is owned by someone else.

 

[calmloki]

I think ....... that the best stuff is owned by someone else.

Isn't that just true of almost everything. Greener grass IIII self

 

[davemartin88]

Disks only for us from Netflix, our DSL is pretty much useless for streaming content. We are lucky with a distribution center nearby and delivery is usually in only 1 day so we really get a quick turnaround. We watch a lot of movies and think Netflix is a great value.

Sometimes if we have a disk at the top of our queue that isn't available at the local center, we'll get a message that says your disk is available at a more distant center so is going to take a bit longer to get to us. Because of this, Netflix sends the next disk in the queue from our local center as a way to say sorry about that- pretty good customer service.

Don't think the drone service would add much for us.

 

[gardenfun]

Just finished the Sunday New York Times crossword, which is based on previous Oscar best picture nominees/winners. Found a website that listed all the winners over the years (yes, I cheated!).

Anyway, I saw lots of movies in the list from the 70's thru 2000's I would like to see again. I checked on Netflix--99% of them are only available on DVD's, not streaming. So again, until they can get streaming rights to the things I want to see, I'll still need to complement my streaming subscription with DVD's.

I guess I could rent some of those movies from Amazon for $1.99 or $2.99, the ones that aren't available on Prime free streaming. hmmmm, I'll have to figure out the economics of that....

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Don't forget to check the library.

 

[Hermit]

Disks only for us from Netflix, our DSL is pretty much useless for streaming content. We are lucky with a distribution center nearby and delivery is usually in only 1 day so we really get a quick turnaround. We watch a lot of movies and think Netflix is a great value.

Sometimes if we have a disk at the top of our queue that isn't available at the local center, we'll get a message that says your disk is available at a more distant center so is going to take a bit longer to get to us. Because of this, Netflix sends the next disk in the queue from our local center as a way to say sorry about that- pretty good customer service.

Don't think the drone service would add much for us.

I think I will be in the same boat when I get moved to the mountains. I'll have satellite for internet and the bandwidth usage is limited so streaming video will be very limited. I'll have to do DVDs. The only problem is the 75 minutes to the post office and back.