Learning from Netflix

I’ve always thought Netflix an excellent service. For a modest fee, you get 2-day access to practically any movie ever made. Over the years, as content owners have made it harder for them to get streaming rights for interesting movies, the value of streaming has gone down. With their recent price increase, I decided that Amazon Prime instant video might be good enough on the streaming side and went with the 1-disc-at-a-time plan for $5/month.

So, how’s it going? I don’t really miss the streaming, I have to say. The plastic DVDs arriving in the mail still give access to a wide variety of movies and TV, but I find that less and less satisfying. Our most recent rental, Sherlock Holmes, had more than 10 minutes of unskippable previews on it. I suppose I could just get used to putting the disc in the player 10 minutes before I want to watch it, but really, why should I have to do that?

If content companies don’t want me ripping DVDs, why make it so unpleasant to watch them the “right” way?

The best movie experience out there? iTunes on the AppleTV. Granted, it’s not got anything like the selection I want, but it’s fast, convenient, inexpensive, and has more of what I want to watch than Netflix streaming.

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