NetFlix is shutting down their DVD business

[Car-Guy]

We have been a subscriber for 15+ years. Great service. Hate to see it go. Hopefully they will add a lot more movies to their streaming service before they shutdown the DVD shipments on September 29th.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/netflix-is-shutting-down-its-dvd-business/ar-AA1a1iMJ

 

[disneysteve]

I’m honestly surprised it lasted this long. It’s been years since we last watched a DVD. We watch Netflix every day though.

 

[Kork13]

I’m honestly surprised it lasted this long. It’s been years since we last watched a DVD. We watch Netflix every day though.

Same here -- I didn't realize that Netflix still offered DVDs as an option. Until recently, we didn't even own a DVD player! Many new computers don't have disk drives either.

 

[MichaelB]

Thread moved to the technology and media forum.

 

[Car-Guy]

It was great movie service for us, especially until we finally got higher speed Internet a few years ago. About 3 years ago our ISP finally bumped up our Internet service to ~12meg (from 3 meg) so now streaming is an option. A lot of folks in the rural areas of the US only have lower speed Internet access or no access.


The other thing is, the NetFlix DVD service offers a lot more older/obscure movies that we just can't find anywhere else. (Especially on streaming services)

 

[Chuckanut]

Not so good. Now the wait for free DVDs from the public library will be even longer.

 

[captain3d]

Yeah sad to see it go. So many movies on dvd are not licensed for streaming. At least the library has blu ray

 

[COcheesehead]

I still see the Red Box machines at the grocery store so I figured somebody still uses DVDs.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I’m honestly surprised it lasted this long. It’s been years since we last watched a DVD. We watch Netflix every day though.

I have DVDs across the room that I am too lazy to put in a device.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

This is a blast from the past for me. I also didn’t know they still did dvds. I had the 3 dvd at a time plan and just kept them in motion all the time. Now I can’t focus long enough to watch a movie. Ah, memories.

 

[disneysteve]

I did buy my daughter a blu ray player last year. There was an old show she wanted to watch that was only available on disc. I found a blu ray player at a yard sale for $5 and had to order a remote for it on eBay for $8 so grand total of $13 so she could watch the show.

 

[Chuckanut]

Hey, I have the complete Rocky and Bullwinkle on DVD. That also includes Mr. Peabody, Fractured Fairy Tails, Dudley Do-Right, and Mr. Know-It-All. Ain't giving that up for no dumb streamin' service.

 

[Calico]

Not so good. Now the wait for free DVDs from the public library will be even longer.

I wonder if it is possible for Netflix to donate all their DVDs to local libraries. It would be a great PR move, and would be beneficial to those who still watch DVDs.

I haven't watched a DVD in years, but that's because my six streaming services give me everything I want.

I realize that some folks lack sufficient internet capacity for streaming.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I have DVDs across the room that I am too lazy to put in a device.

Quoting myself because I just remembered something (related to finance and FI accomplished through investing). Sometime in the mid/mid-to-late 90's I became a Datek customer (after they started their Internet trading - I can't remember the year without scrounging through very old tax records). Anyway, I started putting more funds there, and in 1998 or 1999 (I think) they GAVE me a DVD player...and a subscription to this new company that would send me DVD's to play (Netflix).

(I wasn't quite so happy when I later got a 1099 for the value of the gifts.)

After Netflix went public, I bought some of the stock...and managed to lose money on it and sold it for the tax loss. (Yes, not the best thing to do given it has gone up many many times since then). On another side note, I was in the Facebook IPO and again managed to lose money on it. [In defense of my investment problems, I also bought AAPL in late 2001 and still own some of those shares, and even with selling quite a bit it remains my largest single stock holding.]

 

[captain3d]

Search for any Oscar winning movie from the last 10 years. All available on Netflix disk almost none available Netflix streaming.

Last time I checked. Is it still the same?

 

[Andre1969]

The thing I hate about streaming services, is that their offerings tend to come and go. I can remember, years ago, watching old Twilight Zone episodes on one of them. And the cool thing, is that they were the original 25-26 minute broadcasts, not the ones we've seen in endless reruns that have been cut down to around 20-21 minutes, to allow for more commercials.

I actually have the complete Twilight Zone set on DVD, but it was so much easier to just pull it up online and watch it, rather than find the DVD, and pop it in. AND, at this point, remember how to select "DVD" from the tv menu, and then run the DVD player. It's been so long since I've used it, it's not that fresh in my memory!

And more annoyingly, there's no rhyme or reason to how this DVD set ordered the episodes. The Twilight Zone was 5 seasons, and the DVD set is 5 boxes, but they're not separated by season, but jumbled together at random. So, if you wanted to watch a particular episode from the 3rd season, it's not as simple as just opening the third box and finding it.

Anyway, I seem to recall that whatever streaming service it was, took the Twilight Zone down. I don't know if it's offered anywhere else; haven't bothered to look. The Sci Fi channel shows it, and so does MeTV. Even if they are the trimmed down versions, so they can stuff in more commercials. And they tend to skip the 4th season, the one with the hour long episodes. But, as I recall, whatever streaming service I had been watching them on, didn't have the 4th season either. Actually, I think it was even missing the 5th.

My house mate has a Netflix account. I remember him getting it around the time Blockbuster Video pissed him off one time too many. At one point, he was on the 3 disc at a time plan, but I think he cut back to one.

 

[DayDreaming]

I’m honestly surprised it lasted this long. It’s been years since we last watched a DVD. We watch Netflix every day though.

I've been using the DVD service for over 20 years (I think). I'm a big Netflix Streaming user, but I still watch a Netflix DVD every week - I can get things on DVD that are not available on Netflix Streaming, and I will miss their DVD service.

 

[disneysteve]

Regarding shows coming and going from the service, that is a contractual issue usually. And with the explosion of streaming services, studios are clawing back their content to feature it on their own service. For example, Netflix used to have a lot of Disney content. Now it’s all on Disney+.

 

[dixonge]

I think I ripped all my DVD's (not that many really) to my computer over a decade ago. I very reluctantly purchased a CD/DVD external unit so I can rip any new CD's to my Mac but it's just *so rare* now. Like most of the responses here, I am rather shocked that Netflix didn't end their DVD program at least five years ago...

 

[rk911]

...Many new computers don't have disk drives either.

I never buy stock desktop computers. I always have them "built" to my specs. The shop was a bit surprised when I specified not one but two dual-layer optical drives. Our laptop has one built-in optical and a second external optical drive. i use them for software installation and they play a part in my backup scheme.

 

[Midpack]

I’m honestly surprised it lasted this long. It’s been years since we last watched a DVD. We watch Netflix every day though.

I had assumed they quit DVDs and snail mail a long time ago, like when Blockbuster went belly up (2010?).

 

[Sojourner]

Search for any Oscar winning movie from the last 10 years. All available on Netflix disk almost none available Netflix streaming.

Last time I checked. Is it still the same?

Some recent Oscar winners are currently on Netflix, but in general, your observation is correct. And that's the case with pretty much every streaming service. It is, IME, quite rare to think of a specific movie you might want to watch one evening and find that it actually is available for streaming on a service you subscribe to. Services like Netflix succeed by offering an enormous amount of "good enough" content to satisfy the 97% of people who just want to watch something entertaining on any given day. Those with very specific tastes in particular movies or shows are not going to be happy NF streamers.

 

[captain3d]

Some recent Oscar winners are currently on Netflix, but in general, your observation is correct. And that's the case with pretty much every streaming service. It is, IME, quite rare to think of a specific movie you might want to watch one evening and find that it actually is available for streaming on a service you subscribe to. Services like Netflix succeed by offering an enormous amount of "good enough" content to satisfy the 97% of people who just want to watch something entertaining on any given day. Those with very specific tastes in particular movies or shows are not going to be happy NF streamers.

Thanks. It is because the old contracts have everything going to disk and available but new streaming contracts are negotiated service by service and for specific dates etc so no service has a full library of movies.

 

[DuluthGA]

Watched a program about netflix a few years ago. It showed how their distribution centers worked. Very interesting. Each day they loaded every single disk into the scanners which read the bar codes and kicked out any that were ordered. They were then sent down the line to be stuffed in envelopes for shipping. The million not ordered went back on the shelf until tomorrow to be scanned again.
On return they had to be handled by staff more before being loaded back into trays for scanning the next day.

 

[Car-Guy]

In all the years we used the NetFlix DVD service, IIRC we only had one disk "lost" (in the mail?) and probably only one or two disks that wouldn't play correctly. A simple message to NetFlix and they resent a new disk. When we would return a disk, we had our next selection that was in queue within two days. They must have had a real special deal with the Post Office.

Overall, excellent service.