During times of economic uncertainty people
dramatically rework their lives. They do less driving, less dinning, less traveling.
In fact, simply said, people tend to leave the house less. In turn, other activities go up, such as videogames which some have heralded as recession proof though recent
layoffs at major developers suggest otherwise. Another upswing is in the amount of
television and movies consumed. It’s far cheaper to sit at home and watch the
boobtube then it is to go out for dinner and a movie. But what do you do if
you’re a cinema junkie? Let’s face it, pay-per-view ain’t all it’s cracked up
to be and firing up the car in the middle of winter to rent the latest Saw
movie sounds a little excessive. So it’s interesting to note the upswing in
Netflix subscriptions, a service that provides not only by-mail movie delivery
but a surprisingly robust ‘Watch Now’ service that offers 12,000 movie to watch
at the touch of a button. All for $9 a month. Now if that doesn’t appeal to the
penny-pinching movie-maniac I don’t know what will. So, how do you get this
magical service?
There are three, soon to be four, ways of
getting Netflix to stream to your television. The first is simply through your
TiVo where Netflix is listed under Video on Demand. Assuming you’re already a
Netflix subscriber it’s all just a matter of select from the thousands of films
and pressing play. And the movie starts.
The second method is a little more
exclusive and expensive. If you own an Xbox 360 and updated your system with November’s
NXE upgrade then you already have the functionality for Netflix. Trick is, in
addition to paying the $9/month Netflix fee, Microsoft wants you to have a Gold
Membership with them, bumping things up an additional $50 per year. That being
said, many avid gamers are already ‘gold members’ and the Netflix integration
offers a sleek visual interface accessible under the Video Marketplace tab.
A third method is even more exclusive, but
could be a strong indication of things to come. The LGBD300 Blu-ray DVD player
has Netflix capabilities built right into the standard interface. If you’re
Netflix subscriber and you’re in the market for Blu-ray player this unit might
fill the niche at $330.
The fourth method is forthcoming this
spring as LG and Vizio are set to launch TV sets with the technology built-in. This certainly bodes well for Netflix and its longevity. There is also the option to stream the ‘Watch Now’ service to your PC, which is where you will be queuing movies anyhow from Netflix.com.
There’s no doubt the multiple implementations of
Netflix have contributed to the subscription base growing by a healthy 26% over
2008, a growth that may actually have resulted from a slumping economy.
Some of the Pros and Cons:
- Pro: Across all platforms, movies remember
where you left off
- Pro: Cost-effective: for $9/month, that’s
little over 2 Blockbuster rentals
- Pro: ‘Watch Now’ is gratis with
mail-delivery rentals, meaning you can watch unlimited streaming movies while
enjoying new-releases delivered to your door at no extra cost
- Con: That said, ‘Watch Now’ isn’t exactly
on the forefront of newly released rentals. While there are 12,000 flicks and many of
them recent, you won’t be finding new releases here
- Con: The ‘Watch Now’ service is conducted
over the ‘net so if you want to enjoy high-quality films, you’ll need a fast
internet connection to your home theater setup (Netflix automatically adjusts
quality to your connection speed)
- Con: The streaming service does not provide
surround sound or subtitles or any extras commonly found on DVDs.
All in all, if you’re an avid movie renter
Netflix makes a very compelling pitch for your $9.
