Netflix, are you a subscriber? Tell us your experience

I must be the last person on earth that is not subscribed to this or similar service. But I am tired of going to my local video store, only to find all the good/new movies checked out. I want to support local business but since they can't afford to have a huge number of the new releases, it's sort of not working out.

Also, my theater that I usually go to has pretty much eliminated matinee; well, what they've done is you go at 10am or noon for a discount ticket. too darn early to be cooped up at the movie theater. And the $1.00 cinema is so filthy and unkempt, it's not an option for me.

Pls tell us of you are a netflix (or other) user and how you like it. Thanks.

Vos you are not the only one not using this service or something like it. I'm not either and have been thinking about joining lately.
I have Dish satellite and it's that 1000 channels and nothing on. We had the whole Dish package for quite a long time it included HBO, Cinemax and Showtime + 500 or so channels. Half the time when I went looking for a movie I couldn't find anything much or new that I wanted to watch and we didn't watch 3/4 of the channels. I cut that back to just the HBO package but I find that every time I look for a movie to watch there isn't anything much there so I have been thinking about getting rid of that one, too. I also find that I'm still not watching 3/4 of the channels.
They have some payperview movies but have upped the price on those and I use to be able to record them and just let them sit on the DVR until I was done watching them. They changed that I can record it on the DVR but some of them can only be viewed for a short time period I actually downloaded a couple and never got to watch them.
So I started to go over to the Rental store but I tend not to get around to watching them and keep having to pay extra for late returns.
Which brings me recently to thinking about Netflix. I'm just not sure that I would watch enough movies to make it worthwhile.

We used Netflix and Blockbuster's service for several years. It's was the only time my DH looked forward to the mailman arriving. We stopped using the service because it became a pain keeping our movie Queue full so we would have a constant flow of DVD's coming. We're on dial up, and the sites for both are sooooo slow, I would get frustrated. Sometimes the lastest releases are already spoken for and you have to wait your turn. There used to be a feature on one of the sites that announced future releases and you could request it in your Queue so you're not put on a waiting list. I think Blockbuster has more movies available than Netflix, at least it used to. One nice thing is you can find all sorts of old movies that you can't find in the video store. I'm thinking about signing up again instead of driving in the snow to the store. They are both very reliable services. Only a couple times we received cracked/broken DVD's, but all in all, it's a good thing.

I'm a Netflix member. I think it's a great service for those who plan to watch a lot of movies. When I 1st signed up I was watching more, but lately I'm just too busy, so I'll probably cancel for that reason. I have DSL and have never noticed any speed issues with their website - and trust me I get annoyed in a hurry if I have to wait for a page to load, no time for that sort of thing.

My queue is huge, and I keep rearranging things to suit my current needs. For me, turn around time has been blindingly fast. I put the disk in the mail one day, and have the replacement 2 days later. I can go online the day after I mailed the disk and see that they have received it and are planning to ship my next movie ASAP. I can also see which movie is shipping. They have never failed (in a year or so) to ship the next movie or movies in my queue (as apposed to skipping down lower in the queue because something isn't available), so I have total control over which movies I will receive when - even when I swap them around the day before they ship.

Two things they did were particularly impressive to me. First, when I started slowing down on my movie viewing and failed to return a few movies for a week or so, they emailed me to ask if I had received my movies in a timely manner, saying they shipped movie x on this date and asking if I received it by this date. As I continued to slow down on my end, they emailed me a few more times to check to see if I was receiving my movies on time. Finally, upon seeing that I was not watching enough movies fast enough to get the full value of the package I had signed up for - but that was my choice and my decision - they actually reduced the price. Now how incredible is that? (I'm talking like after a while I wouldn't even send a movie back all month because i just wasn't watching them.)

From my experience, as long as you take the time to keep your queue filled so they know what you want and keep putting those movies back in the mail ASAP, they will keep sending them at an incredible pace, and you won't be disappointed. Also, if you rate the movies you've seen, whether from them or otherwise, then the computer makes suggestions for other movies you might like based on your likes and dislikes as compared to others with similar taste.

thank you so much everybody. HollyAnn, we're like you. we used to have all those premium channels and were constantly complaining about nothing to see. We now have basic Directv package.

As to movie watching, I guess it comes in spurts. sometimes we want to watch a lot, sometimes weeks and weeks can go by. From your comments it seems this is a must have w/a young family. There is always somebody ready to watch something. As an empty nester that disqualifies us, at least for now.

If I decide to try the cheap netflix plan I will post here. One thing pay per view and netflix and such services have done is reduce my trips to the movie. I can sit in my fave chair, with my fave snack, in my fave ratty clothes and watch without somebody in back giving the play by play, lol.

Voss, We are empty nesters, too. It's nice to have something on hand when my Grandson comes to visit just in case. Although we are more likely to build with legos, play games or do some other activity than sit and watch movies. I think it's more that I like to have something on hand to watch when I'm tired or just want to veg.

I have been on netflix for a year or so. We don't have tv hooked up, so in the winter it is nice to have a movie once a week or so.

I have dial up and the site is slow, but I just load it when I am on Daves and it is not bad.

The movies come like clockwork. Even in the sticks where I live. Send one day, they receive the next and ship the same day, and then the next day you get the movie.

Plus side. Lots of movies, easy to find, lots of information, easy to change what is going to be next. You can put your membership on hold for 3 months and customer service is the BEST ever I have had. ( called once about a charge after putting my membership on hold, seems I was 2 days off of my monthy charge and they automaticly charge for a whole month. I called and before I could explain, the gentleman saw the charge and reversed it and said that it was not right so I would not have to pay.)

Neg side, you have to keep your movies updated and wait a day to get them. Some kids type or very popular movies are sometimes scratched, but they will replace them (but you have to wait for the replacement) Only had that problem twice.

I think it is a pretty good way to go.

We have been on it for about a year and really enjoy it. We started to realize that we either weren't watching or didn't like what was on the pay movie channels. So we stopped taking them, and for less than we were paying we joined Netflix. the turn around is really fast and I have a DVD player in my sewing room--so I watch twice as many movies as my DH. I enjoy that I can see older movies that I never saw back when they came out--with no commercials and being all edited. I had looked for some oldies at our Hastings and Blockbuster and they never had them. My queue is always very full at Netflix. I do have to remind DH to log on and add to his though.

Oh, cactuspatch, I'm so glad you mentioned the oldies. One thing I really like a lot about NetFlix is that I can find virtually any title in existence including many rare flicks not likely to show up in my local rental stores - where the focus was always on more recent releases with only a handful of older movies and less well known flicks on hand. If it is on DVD, chances are that NetFlix has access to it.

It is also much easier to find things at NetFlix where all you have to do is a quick search vs a store where you have to walk around hoping to see the title amidst shelves full of boxes all designed to catch your attention.

Another thing I forgot to mention earlier is that they also offer an option to 'watch instantly'. This is only available via broadband (hi speed). Only certain movies are available this way. If any of the ones in your queue are available for instant viewing it will be noted on the 'watch instantly' page. You can watch such movies on a PC/laptop or on you TV if you have any one of a number of devices (listed on website) including blueray player, tivo, xbox 360 and others. This option is only available if you have one of the 'unlimited' Netflix packages (including one DVD at a time plan for around $8.99/mo or so) You can watch as many of the instant movies as you like with no effect on you DVD shipments.

we're gonna do it.

It's wonderful, and they have the best inventory of films. It's particularly nice if you happen to live near one of their many distribution centers. I can send something back and get a new film the next day if the postman comes early.

I think I will give it a try, too. I've been checking what's available on my HBO package quite a bit in the last couple of months and find very little that I'm interested in or haven't already seen so often that I'm beyond watching. After the holidays I think I'll discontinue that and pick up a Netflix package.

hmmm.. I wonder how you find out whether you live near a distribution center. Not important, just curious.

I'm not a member of any kind of service like that. Shoot, our DVD player is still up in the closet from our move here a year ago LOL! I'm glad you posted this thread, I've always wondered what other people thought of it.

I am in my mid 30's and DH is in his mid 40's and we don't have children. We have Dish Basic and we love it, but we like the shows on the local channels, Food Network, Spike TV, and about 4 more that I can't think of right now. We miss TMC, AMC and a few others that come with one upgrade, but are trying to decide if we want HDTV or an upgrade to get those, they're both the same price and we don't want to pay for both.

The theaters here still have matinee movies until way late, like 7pm or something, but DH won't even pay that amount. Modesto, CA used to have a $1.75 theater that was a complete mess. It had been a nice regular theater back in the 70's and 80's that my parent's took me to when I was a kid. But instead of re-vamping it to modernize it, they just turned it into that. It was alright at first, but it didn't last. They eventually tore the building down and put a Chili's Restaurant in it's place. It's much more attractive now.

A little off topic, but do you guys have the eat-in theater in your community? We have a couple and they have pizzas, nachos, beer and current movies. Supposed to remind you of your living room, I guess. I haven't been, mainly because I have visions of sticky cheese in the seats and smell of stale beer, lol.

We have had Netflix for 5 years or more and are really happy with it. We started on the cheapest plan, one at a time, and it was $8.00 a month. We tried Blockbuster too but they kept messing up our queue. I watch TV series, like the Sopranos and if the next in the series (eg season 1 disc 2) wasn't available right away, they would send the one after that (eg season 1 disc 3), instead of paying attention and sending me a movie instead.

We are now on the Netflix 2 at a time plan. Sometimes we watch the DVD's right away sometimes it takes us a week but for $14.00 per month, I think it's a good deal. We live about 30 miles from the nearest video store so our time and gas costs were a big factor in the decision. We usually end up watching 6-8 movies per month so at $4.99 each (video store cost), I figure we come out ahead.

It isn't perfect; there have been problems like broken or scratched discs but because we can record a TV show while we are watching the rented DVD, we have plenty of other things ot watch, and then we always have books, magazines, newspapers and the computer for entertainment. Both services are great about replacing the problem discs as quickly as possible.

And the best part of all? You can skip through the commercials if there are any!

Voss, I'm in Houston and it's the first place I've seen a dinner AND a movie combo in one. I've not yet gone but heard great compliments of the place, order dinner at your table and then see the showing....slightly different and better than your eat-in-theater.

Netflix could be nice shared with a friend or neighbor?

Vossner -

I know where the distribution center is because it's on the return envelope that I send the films back in. I don't know how to figure it out without an existing membership. I suppose if you emailed them they would tell you. Texas probably has more than one.

It's also great for TV series, because I'm not one to really want to re-watch those enough to buy them.

Yeah, we have those. A second-run level theater that is a full-service restaurant. And a local first-run chain that has a couple of screening rooms that include a full bar. The real advantage to that is that nobody under 21 can enter those screenings. If you want to watch a film without a million people on their cell phones, it's worth the extra couple of dollars.

I don't live near my distribution center and am amazed that I can return a movie on Monday, get a new one on Wednesday. My center is in Albq. which is a 3.5 hour drive from my house. DD lives just a few miles from the center and gets her movies the next day.

We did it, guys! I signed up yesterday. $8.99 for one movie at time unlimited and unlimited downloads.

Question: We hav 2 laptops at home. Does anybody know if you can download 2 movies simultaneously? I'm also considering sharing my password w/ my stepson so he can access my account from his laptop. Anybody done that? Is that stealing? don't want to do that!

Sorry I've never tried downloading movies. We're on Hughesnet which limits you to 200 MB of downloads per day, except between 2am and 6am or they slow you down. Nothing like trying to lsiten to a voiceover that comes through one syllable at a time, LOL!

Have my fingers crossed that the Embarq service I'm supposed to hook into next month will be better

I'm with Andi and Dragonfly, we use netflix to watch our favorite tv shows. It's cheaper than cable and we don't have to watch it at any particular time. There are usually no commercials and we can watch the series in the right order. We usually try to alternate shows with a movie so we have plenty of different things to watch.

I haven't tried to download movies yet, even though we have plenty of bandwidth for it. The computer desk just isn't comfortable enough to sit and watch a whole movie.

Watching a movie on a monitor, even a flat screen monitor, would tire my eyes out way too much. We live out in the sticks too, closest video store is about 20 minutes away. I like Hughesnet, it's better than the dial up alternative.

You can watch the instant movies and tv shoes at netflix on your TV if you have one of the devices that allows that. Check netflix site for a complete list. Devices that allow you to download instant movies to your tv include: xbox 360 and (i think it was) blueray.

When I watch them on my computer I use my 19in Macbook pro laptop. It has a very high res LCD display, and I don't have to watch the movie while sitting at a desk. I can watch it pretty much anywhere.

I use DSL. I'm in the city of Chas and close to several video stores, but I still like Netflix better because of all the reasons mentioned above along with the fact that when I used to go to the video stores I often found empty boxes instead of the videos I wanted and I'm pretty bad about getting the videos back on time. It is much easier to drop the disk in the mail than to get dressed, fight traffic, find a parking spot...

In 1999 I gave up my satellite TV and went to watching only DVDs and VHS's which I purchased at thrift shops. I got my news and weather off the Internet.

I joined Netflix on November 1, 2007. I have watched a combined total of 536 Disk movies mailed to my house and movies streamed to my PC. It has cost $266 for the 14 months (19/mo for 3 movies unlimited) that I have had it. That figures out to $.50 per movie. Can't go to a movie for that price and you can't buy DVDs or VHS's for that price.

I receive about 17 - 20 DVDs thru the mail & about 24 streamed movies per month. With three unlimited (my plan) it takes work and timing to get fast turn around on the DVDs in the mail. DVDs are not mailed out from Netflix on Sat or Sun nor are they recorded as being received in.

About once every month there is a period of a couple days where Netflix claims DVDs were delayed due to USPS. It happens with such regularity that I have my doubts. I see the regularity because I log all the movies I watch in a spread sheet. I show whether it is a DVD or PC streamed, date rec'd by me, date returned to Netflix, and date Netflix rec'd it back.

Sometimes when there is a delay it is due to the distribution centers nearest me not having the movie available so then the movie gets shipped from a point that is usually across the US. When this happens sometimes I lose seven calendar days on turn around for that DVD. If I see this happening, I usually report that DVD as "Not Received". One option to this report is do I want them to resend the DVD. I answer no so that the next DVD in my Que will be shipped. But, these are little tricks you learn as you get into it.

Recently they got a 1000 Starz movies for streaming to our PCs plus you can watch live movies on a Starz channel on your PC. There is not a Starz program guide on Netflix, but you can get this off the Internet on Starz website. I have watched this several times, but it defeats the whole purpose of Netflix....that is being able to pick the movie you want to watch and getting to watch it when you want to watch it. Programing schedules is one of the reasons I got rid of satellite, that and the fact that everything was a repeat.

This is probably way more information than you every wanted to know about Netflix, but as you can tell it serves my purposes very well and I love it.

Good Luck,

Jerry

Jerry I like the way you think. Figuring average cost per movie makes for a strong argument in favor, at least for me. I got our first movie, There Will Be Blood, and it was damaged. Not so much that I couldn't watch it but damaged. I sent then an email to that effect.

Thank you for this thread as I have wondered about Netflix also..our local video store went out of business & I dislike Blockbuster for the reasons you all mentioned. The only problem is that we may not watch the movies in a timely manner. hmmm..will have to think about it, but thanks to your input here it's going to be much easier.

but see, that's the beauty of it. You return movie at YOUR convenience and w/o penalty. Only thing is, you don't get the next movie til you return the previous one.

true....& I like the idea that I don't have to go out..thanks, I will certainly consider this.

Well, I cancelled my HBO package today. Haven't signed up for Netflix yet. But I really am not watching much of anything on the paid movie channel so it's gone.

We have Netflix which my D.H. mostly uses. He says he would like it better if he watched more movies. However, he likes the selection pretty well and the service is very good. We had cable at one time and there was Never anything On! Amazing. Netflix is a much better option.

Vossner-

I don't see why there would be a problem with giving him your password. Does he live in the same household? He might not be able to have discs sent to him, since as far as I know you can only have one mailing address. But he could watch online instant viewing. I primarily use that when I am traveling to watch films on my laptop, since hotels have such bad cable selections.

$8.99? That sounds high for one at a time. I will check, but I think we had two at a time for like $4.99. One other thing to know is that if you cancel, they offer you a better package to keep you. I will have to check our bill.

When I first joined they had fewer selections, such that I had trouble keeping up a queue of stuff that I wanted to see, and I ended my membership. Now they have practically everything.

andi, my stepson lives in Ft Polk, LA. I was wondering about sharing my netflix password so he could download pics only, not have any mailed to him. But never mind, he already told me he has a way to download movies to his laptop if he wants to but usually too busy and too tired to watch movies.

I will make a note about renegotiating a better deal in the future. You are right about hotels having lousy selections. This is gonna be handy during those occasions.

We have had Netflix for a couple of years and really like it. They have some really great foreign films. Fast turn around, and we bounce back and forth between one at a time and two at a time...depending on the season.

I put the watched movie in the mail on Monday, and have a new one on Wednesday. So with that fast of a turn around, we can easily view two movies a week on the one at a time plan.

We keep our queue full and hubby and I take turns deciding which movie to rent...that way we both get to watch what we want, and the other one actually enjoys watching something they didn't think they wanted to watch.

I also like to support my local stores, but the variety is not there in our small town of 10,000 people, and I for sure would not have gotten to see the foreign films that we have seen.

We are loving it too. Have only ordered 3 so far but the convenience can't be beat. Hubby updates list but I managed to sneak in some foreign movies. I think the next movie should be a foreign one and he's not too thrilled about that, ha ha.

I did too, we are still on our two week free trial and have watched maybe 5 movies. Last week we watched a documentary my Aunt had told us about a year ago. Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill it's a bit odd but we really liked it. We are having friends over tomorrow to watch a movie and my parents gave me a small list that they would like to watch. They don't have movie channels and since the change from VCR to DVD they no longer rent movies. I don't know how long we will keep it as come April we will be pretty busy and hardly watch any TV in the summer.

We've used Netflix for several years and love it, especially
during summer when nothing is on except reruns. There
were one or two problems with scratched DVDs but Netflix
promptly sent replacements. Fortunately they have a center
right in Albuquerque so we get very prompt service.

we love using netflix to rent a lot of the series that are on paid stations we don't have
sopranos
six feet under
ugly betty (we can watch it but like to rent it too)
big love
and sometimes we just get to watch hours at a time--with sopranos we would get to where we could just sit there and watch 4 shows at one sitting! sure beats having to wait for the next weeks show!

One of my lifelong joys has been the UK mysteries. For these alone Netflix is worth the price.. The UK mysteries seem to always have excellent story lines, good acting , and void of all the blood & gut gore shoot'em up American stuff, if you know what I mean.

Jerry