Tuesday, July 12, 2011

On Netflix and Inflection Points

So Netflix is upping the cost of unlimited streaming and getting a DVD shipped, by a lot. My first thought was that we’d dump the Netflix DVD option and move to Redbox for DVD’s. After all, at one movie a weekend, which all we do realistically, Redbox is half the price. Pus, with Micah now driving, he’d happily run to Redbox for us just to get to drive his car. Half price movies and a happy teenager, what could be better?

Now I’m thinking that we might dump Netflix altogether. The streaming movie offerings are nice as a fill in but the selection isn’t strong enough to drop the $8 a month on. Frankly, every time we’ve really wanted to stream something right now (like when the kid’s karate instructor scheduled a party at our house to watch the original Karate Kid and then forgot to rent it.) we’ve been bailed out by Amazon Unbox, not by Netflix. I double checked and everything in my Netflix queue is available on Amazon for rent at pretty reasonable prices ($2.99 for the older stuff).

One of my uses for Netflix is streaming movies while I’m working on the road. Except that it rarely works. Too many hotels still have really poor wireless. (I’m look at you Hilton brands, Marriott kicks your butt in this area.) When it takes 3 hours to stream an hour and half movie you can bet the experience is terrible. With Amazon, the rentals are portable so I can rent and download before I leave home taking portable movies with me.

Ok, I think I’ve convinced myself, now to go convince my wife.

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