Is Anyone Curious...

[herlander_refugee]

Now that Netflix is pushing their "streaming only" option as the preferred method, is anyone a bit concerned? I have opted for DVDs only for a couple reasons.

(1) Streaming has been very unreliable here for the last couple months.
(2) Streamable selection kind of sucks.

Also, my only available cable provider for my internet use is Craptastic Comcast/Xfinity.
They are quite pissy about download/upload use. They actually CUT OFF one man here in the state for the next twelve months for going over what they considered "normal" use. He uses his internet for movies, music, online JOB, and accessing the "Cloud" and it adds up.

Presumably, one could watch enough movies to go over Comcast's current limits. Then what?

I know Comcast claims it is a liberal amount, but they parse it in terms of downloaded MUSIC...which takes less than movies. So, while I am terribly unschooled in this particular aspect of online life, it does make me wonder.

Especially since Comcast/Xfinity is a competitor with Netflix, I see trouble ahead.

Comments

[zillah975]

Oh my god. That guy should take them to court, that is NOT ON.

If I decide to keep Netflix at all -- and I'm still undecided -- I'll go for DVDs as well. I don't have problems with streaming, and we do have a choice of ISPs here, thank goodness, but I stream mostly through the PS3, and between them Sony and Netflix make it a huge pain in the ass for me every time I want to stream something.

I definitely think you're right to be concerned about streaming when your ISP is pulling stunts like that, especially if they're also a competitor of Netflix. Argh.

[herlander_refugee]

I don't know if the dude will haul them into court. But the latest bill came with this shitload of legalese obviously aimed at covering Comcast-butt. So I do think they are gearing up to screw customers.

[next_to_normal]

I'll probably switch to the DVDs only plan because of the limited selection on streaming. Plus, there are plenty of other options for streaming (Hulu, Amazon, TV network websites).

But I highly doubt there's any chance of going over Comcast's limit just from using Netflix. The limit's 250GB/month. Netflix movies are around 1GB each per hour. That's 250 hours of movies a month. [Edit: my bad, it's 1GB/hr not per movie. Still a lot of movie-watching time.]

The guy you're talking about got cut off because he had stored an incredible amount of data (multiple terabytes worth, by his own admission) and tried to upload it to the Cloud all at once. Don't do that and you should be fine.

But if you're really worried about it, you can check your usage on Comcast's website, so you can be sure you don't go over. I've never even come close - I use an average of around 10% of the allotted usage, and I stream a lot of what I watch.

[jumpuphigh]

I'm a heavy internet user who uses the internet for all TV/movie watching and I doubt I even hit 50GB/month.

[herlander_refugee]

I think, even as an average family, we could hit close. I have a grown home-from-Army son on the property and using the Comcast account for his own Netflix watching as well as other internet use.

We have other types of downloads as well....all in all, I still think this is going to be a pain!

[next_to_normal]

The 250 GB/month limit has been in place since October 1, 2008, according to Comcast's FAQ. If you haven't had a problem with usage yet, I don't see why you suddenly would now.

The only reason to worry is if you plan to dramatically change your internet habits - like, say, trying to upload a terabyte of data all at once. Unless you go totally crazy with the new streaming-only plan (i.e. watching more than 100 movies a month), it shouldn't be a problem at all.

But like I said, if you don't want to take my word for it, you can go on Comcast's website and look up your usage for the last few months. That will tell you exactly how close you are to the limit.

[herlander_refugee]

We didn't used to stream movies at all. Nor had my son returned from service and joined the family network. Netflix is also not the only streaming service ongoing. And if online gaming is added in, as occasionally happens, it does start adding up.

When I have a flare-up and am downed for prolonged periods, watching a hundred movies a month is not out of the question.
All of this combines to answer why we want the DVD plan instead of streaming; but then I worry, will the titles I desire be available on DVD?

If they push streaming only? They push me right into the arms of Amazon.

[sakurablossom]

So far my biggest complaint about Netflix watch now plan is the lack of title selection. If they beef it up in that department I won't have any problems. I also dislike not having the option of watching anime in Japanese with subtitles. Most of the anime is still in English-only - which I am not fond of. Though lately some of the later anime has been uploaded in Japanese - which I'm happy about. :)

I use Qwest instead of Comcast and haven't had any difficulties streaming as many episodes and movies I want. So far.

[herlander_refugee]

We had Qwest prior to Comcast. It was very slow, and this was before streaming movies even became the big deal that it now is.

::::sigh:::: More and more, technology annoys me more than pleases me.

[majoline]

It irritates me because we use both. We have a DVD out because finding French language movies on streaming isn't happening anytime soon (I have Bon Cop, Bad Cop right now) but we've also been rewatching Top Gear and Star Trek. :(

[donutsweeper]

It irritates me too, due to a combination of the lack of titles available streaming and the inability to listen to the commentary or deleted scenes via streaming (unless there is a way for that and I've just missed it somehow).

I have comcast/xfinity also and sometimes streaming is great, sometimes not so much, but as a family we use netflix in so many different ways we'll probably keep both but downgrade to 1 DVD at a time.

[majoline]

The other thing that irritates me about streaming is the lack of subtitles. RAWR

[herlander_refugee]

I think we have streamed several foreign films and we never had an issue getting subtitles. How very weird.

[majoline]

Really? What do you use to stream?

I can never get subtitles to work on either the Wii or my computer.

[herlander_refugee]

A blue ray player.

[iosonochesono]

I haven't noticed a push for streaming, in fact, with the awful selection and how often I get 'DVD only' I feel like there's a huge attempt to push DVDs on me even though I'm not interested in them. I am not interested in waiting for a movie to come into the mail, especially with my line of work. If I was going to rent a DVD I'd go to the local place.