I know that there is a lot of hate on the intertrons for Netflix (and if I remember correctly- I’m Cole +3 double scotches, Mistermix is one of the haters), but I guess I just never understood the hate. I pay five bucks a month, and I stream a shitload of HD product through my Mac Mini- how is this a bad deal or shitty service? Sure, you don’t get movies the day they were released on DVD, but who fucking cares? I already waited 3-5 months since I didn’t see it in the theatre, wtf is another month or so?
But the other thing I really like about Netflix is all the foreign movies I get to watch but otherwise would not be exposed to. For example, I am currently watching the Man from Beijing. Where is that on HBO or Showtime?
karl
Yeah! With you 1000% GBJC — what’s with those whiners?
Fluke bucket
I watched Zeitgeist: Going Forward on Netflix Sunday morning and that was worth the cost of a months service to me.
Boots Day
I didn’t even realize there was so much hate for Netflix. It’s a really good deal, as long as you don’t expect it to have everything you ever want to see, or even most of the stuff you want to see. But if you want to have a library of thousands of movies and TV shows at your disposal whenever you want, it works out fine.
Moonbatting Average
My main beef is the menu structure. It’s godawful, and they never seem to have what I want to watch on a whim. I’m not a big TV person either, and that really seems to be their strength. Good on ya for finding value in it tho, whatever works!
General Stuck
Shit, I grew up where the only teevee reception could be gleaned from an cheap antenna nailed to the top of a Hickory tree on the nearest mountain. And then, when all the stars lined up, we could get maybe one network, just fuzzy enough to watch until you got a migraine. Or, the shortwave was working and we could listen to some theater of the mind.
Sitting at a computer, and typing and entering some letters on a keyboard that makes a moving picture appear, is a real breakthrough on the planet of the apes. I got no complaints.
Yutsano
Netflix has a lot of good obscure stuff. It’s worth my $8 a month whenever I want to marathon something.
Djur
There’s certain types of content that Netflix doesn’t have as much of as it used to, and there’s a lot of trash, but it is still very much worth the low cost of entry. I have a Roku 2 box and I use it just about every day.
It’s not as good of an experience if you’re more invested in seeing recent releases, and sometimes stuff disappears. But if there’s a solid chunk of stuff you like on there, it’s worth it.
Hell, I’d pay the subscription just for having Deep Space Nine, 30 Rock, Black Adder, and Archer at hand whenever I want.
Mr Stagger Lee
Hear Hear!!! I am watching Outrageous Fortune a great series from New Zealand, while completeing my 2nd helping of Underbelly season 3 (The Golden Mile) I about to start on a TV series from Denmark called The Protectors, which looks promising. I do get bummed out that some shows I can no longer stream and have to get the DVD’s(I suspect that the studios now want to jump in on streaming, please TCM consider this). I have cable now, but soon as Breaking Bad is completed I will drop them and go with Netflix and Hulu as well as other services.
The Red Pen
I also like Hulu+
Patricia Kayden
Wonder if Netflix has Character. I believe it’s Danish. Great movie. Now that Blockbuster is closing down in my neck of the woods, I may think about joining Netflix.
http://www.amazon.com/Character-Pavlik-Jansen-op-Haar/dp/B00007KK52/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1361325104&sr=1-1&keywords=character
Misterpuff
STELLA!
STELLA!
Can’t you hear me yella?!
You’re puttin me through hella.
STELLA!
STELLA!
(sung by Tunch in a wife-beater)
Keith G
Hey Cole, before you get to +5, what ISP are you using? I want to choose one by March.
MobiusKlein
So why do anti-Obama folks insist so strongly he is Muslim?
I got into a Facebook scrum about it (see bengazi video, and why didn’t Obama ‘go after’ folks making a SNL skit mocking Christianity), and still fail to understand why they are so convinced.
I tried to rile them up: Asked if they were so sure, tell me is Sunni, Sufi, Shia, or Nation of Islam.
Birthmarker
I love it for the documentaries, most of which I would have never heard of, much less have had access to. Currently I am watching West Wing and House of Cards while on the treadmill. Luther
and Prime Suspect are both good. (I get discs and stream.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Patricia Kayden: that is a good movie. Haven’t seen it in years. I watched shortly before coming home for the holidays one year and, shortly after I got home, my dad suggested watching it. I wonder what was going through our heads.
Yutsano
@MobiusKlein: Muslim middle name. Muslim father. That’s all they need.
MobiusKlein
@Yutsano: But why is it so important? They hate his policies just fine without it.
beltane
Netflix has a great selection of children’s shows which makes it very worthwhile in my home. Just a week before the pope announced he was stepping down I also happened to watch a gently subversive Italian movie on Netflix called “We Have a Pope” about a newly elected pope who refuses the position.
Mr Stagger Lee
@MobiusKlein: Because Islam is to these nuts today, that communism was to their parents, the Catholic Church and immigrants to their know nothing fore bearers, something that is EEEVILLLL in their minds and enemy of their “good”, plus there was no way a Ni-Clang was to achieve this level of power, “this is a WHITE MAN’S country” is the Kool-aid they were raised on
jibeaux
I am driving myself bonkers trying to do a relatively simple task on my PC. I want to burn PART of a song, which I purchased from iTunes, onto a CD. The middle part, for an elementary school variety show, so that I don’t have to make some poor teacher fade it in and out at the right times. This is harder than I thought. I tried to use MovieMaker with some random photos on it, and I swear it cut the song all wrong. Tried to use something called Audacity which does way, way more than I need it to but the DRM is interfering, I guess it’s in .mp4 format. Your thoughts are welcome.
BruceFromOhio
Got Netflix through the LG blu-ray player after I stumbled on the wireless menu. Love it. We seriously discussed dumping cable and upping the internet service, but there’s too much love of food networks.
donnah
I’m a huge Netflix fan. I’ve watched TV series that I would never have seen, like Luther, Top Gear, and a ton more. We also get one HD DVD after another, and that’s great. We were miffed when they tried to split the services but we would have probably have kept it anyway.
My sons, who were too young to appreciate shows like Cheers and West Wing are now loving them, and can catch an entire series. I really love Netflix.
Zam
Most of what I’ve seen that might be considered the hate is actually just mockery of the management troubles they had a few years back when they were talking of splitting into two separate companies.
Elizabelle
PBS has a show on tonight re America’s history of the gun, followed by Frontline on Adam Lanza and the Newtown murders.
ETA: as in, right now, on the East Coast
MikeBoyScout
John,
1) Forget about ‘hate’ on Netflix, you use Amazon as a sponsor. Seems you could benefit from using it and pumping it.
2) With Amazon Prime, I get most (if not all) the functionality and benefits of Netflix without their BS management. Bottom line, when they fked around last year I got tired of Netflix and found it just as easy and good to use Amazon, which I’m already paying for.
In any event, I blame the ‘hate’ on Netflix on Obama. That bastage!
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl)
I just heard that two major weapons dealers (Shooters World and Cabelas) in the Phoenix area don’t have any 9 mm, 45 auto and 32 auto ammo at all….zero, zilch, nada, because and I quote, “the ATF bought it all”.
If this is true, why would they do something like that? That’s not how the Feds purchase guns and ammo! I was told this not by some conservative wing nut but by a moderate to liberal person that I completely trust. Then I checked cheaperthandirt.com and they don’t have any either. So why would the Feds buy up all the ammo like that? You know what this does to the nutso gun lovers in AZ? They’re all up in their homes hugging their guns tonight. Seriously.
So either the Feds did purchase everything or the dealers are lying. Why would the feds do that? Why would the dealers lie? Obviously the dealers would lie to create a perceived scarcity, then up the price and release ammo at the new price on the market and voila profit. But as to the Feds, I honestly can’t think of a good reason why they would do that unless they anticipated some kind of either a rush on the market or an uprising. If the Feds did do this, it is feeding right into the gun fetishists paranoia.
Does anybody out there have a clue as to what’s going on?
Mike in NC
Recently bought the Apple TV box, which looks like a square hockey puck. Interfaces with the iPad. Was easy to install Hulu and Netflix to access foreign movies and TV shows, and we’re watching House of Cards, Damages, Weeds, Luther, and a ton of other stuff.
sb
@General Stuck: I was going to type something similar but, fuck it, not as good as you just did.
I try telling my students the difference in TV from today and yesteryear. They can’t believe I had to get up to change the channels or to turn down the volume.
RSA
@jibeaux:
I don’t know whether it handles DRM, but have you tried Any Video Converter? I’ve used it for video and audio conversion, and though I haven’t tested it for cropping, it looks straightforward.
RSA
I’m okay with Netflix. They have some interesting finds, although some stuff seems to come and go. (Some BBC TV series, for example, used to have the entire run online but then got cut back without notice; similarly, a good number of MST3K episodes used to stream but no longer.)
Better than a second-run movie theater in some ways.
aimai
@Moonbatting Average:
I agree with you about the menu structure. Its weird and its hard to find things. However, we are loving Netflix, not least of all because we no longer pay late fees for things when it gets hard to return them to the library or our (wonderful) alternative video store. I’m sorry because I’d like to keep the video store in business but netflix suits our lives and our tendency to catch up with series tv shows a year or two after they have happened better. I mean–why wouldn’t I rather watch all 25 episodes of something for a low monthly fee than buy or rent them for 4 dollars a pop from my local video store? We’ve saved a lot of money watching Lost Girls, Switched at Birth and a bunch of other stuff via netflix.
The Red Pen
@MobiusKlein:
s/Muslim/black/g
(For non-nerds, that “global replace ‘Muslim’ with ‘black'”)
sb
Netflix rec: The Castle, now streaming.
patrick II
l am watching Wallander with Kenneth Branaugh.. a great detective series’
Gravie
I love Netflix. It gives me the freedom to try foreign films and documentaries I’d never otherwise sample, as well as lesser-known Hollywood films that deserve greater visibility. A few dogs, too, but I never mind too much since I’ve invested so little in them.
Original Lee
@BruceFromOhio: We were there until we got the January cable bill. Back to basic cable, plus Netflix and Hulu Plus, and we have everything except the food shows for less than half the cost. We are still trying to figure out how to get the food shows but are willing to take a temporary hiatus in the interest of fiscal responsibility. Allegedly full episodes are available on iTunes, but we haven’t gotten a chance to check those out yet.
lojasmo
We utilize netflix and hulu+ almost exclusively.
No cable or satelite bills.
Occasionally we get a redbox video.
We love it.
salsify
Have a millennial son who refuses to pay the exorbitant comcast cable service prices in DC and netflix gives him options and (glory be) opened him to his mom’s silly love for the recent reintroductions of Dr Who. When we visit he and I roll through favorite DS9 episodes with wings and beer. And, back at our house, the H trolls through the many beloved PBS mystery series we he can’t find anything to watch. Eight bucks a month is an easy fix for those who refuse to pay ridiculous enhanced package cable prices.
lojasmo
@jibeaux:
Edit the song on itunes first, and save it, then burn the edit.
Concerned Citizen
Netflix is badass. Go to rottentomatoes to find the best stuff. Just watched a movie called “Last Ride” that was just whacked (check out “Kill em All” too).
It’s nice to be able to watch programming that isn’t American. Our shit is getting weaker.
Here’s the linky:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/dvd/netflix/#endyear=2012&exclude_rated=true&genres=1%3B2%3B4%3B5%3B6%3B8%3B9%3B10%3B11%3B12%3B18%3B14&maxtomato=100&mintomato=0&mpaa_max=6&mpaa_min=1&startyear=1920&wts_only=false
Raven
I saw today that Burke and Wills is on Netflix. They were the Australian Lewis and Clark and, if I recall it was a fine movie. The bad thing is that I ordered a used VHS of it and THEN looked and saw itc was on NFC!
Malraux
@jibeaux: been a while, but I believe apple-i on the song in iTunes then one of the options should be start and stop points of the song in question (ie start 1:16 in and stop :30 before the end.
Cacti
@MobiusKlein:
Because it’s more socially acceptable to hate him for being Muslim, than just hating him for being blackity black.
Alex
Today in terrible movies that not even Netflix will touch is the libertarian dream fantasy of a silver-backed currency created by rebel fighters finally taking down the Fed.
http://www.silvercirclemovie.com/
The “official” trailer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkQQ4MLasgs
It’s officially released in one month!
jibeaux
@RSA: You’re very kind, I finally figured it out. Did you know that Windows Movie Maker and Windows Movie Maker Live are two different things, and Movie Maker Live sucks? Now I do!
I knew it shouldn’t be hard to do, dammit.
jibeaux
Also, thanks for the suggestions re: editing in iTunes, I did not know you could do that and I haven’t tried it. iTunes and I have….issues.
jl
OK, fine. Cole gets drunk in front of the new cat. Wants her to turn out like Rosie and Tunch?
Yeesh!
Joy
Add me to the list of those who love Netflix. I stream the movies and series I like (House of Cards, West Wing, etc.) in one room, my husband streams horror films (ick) that he likes in another, and my two daughters who are away at college can stream to their computers, all on a single account. The menu may not be the easiest to navigate, but it is loads of fun to log on and try to guess who watched what of the “recently viewed.”
? Martin
People want a single-stop place to stream tv and movies and cut their cable. Netflix was on that path and then discovered that either:
1) They would need to raise prices to pay for all of that goodness
2) They would need to deliver less goodness for $5 a month
They tried both. Users hated both. People hate Netflix for promising some kind of video nirvana and then failing to deliver (even if they might remain the best streaming service out there). Netflix’s failing was neglecting to acknowledge up-front that full-service video streaming will cost $50 per household per month. Users failing has been to refuse to accept that truth.
rikyrah
Peanut is 4.
Peanut loves Netflix.
She can watch My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, My Big Big Friend,Bo on the Go, Horseland and the Leapfrog videos whenever she wants.
She thinks Netflix is wonderful.
it’s worth the $8 bucks for that.
if Disney would get with the program and put their shows on Netflix, I’d be good to go – she’d never need to watch my tv.
ranchandsyrup
A moronic FB open letter. Looks like kerners are a go. Lots of strapping bucks with t bone steaks in the comments. As the kids say, SMH.
Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive Shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
While glancing over her Patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as “Medicaid”! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman’s health care?
I contend that our nation’s “health care crisis” is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a “crisis of culture”, a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.
It is a culture based on the irresponsible credo that “I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me”. Once you fix this “culture crisis” that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you’ll be amazed at how quickly our nation’s health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD
? Martin
Great, excerpts from ‘Teatard Penthouse Forum’
PsiFighter37
@ranchandsyrup: This is pretty old, seen this floating around FB for a while now.
As for me, I decided that I need to start paying more attention to the personal brokerage account and investing a little more smartly. Going to sit down after I get my tax refund and figure out a smart way to go about investing without blowing through too much in the way of trading fees in the next couple weeks.
That said, my sinus headache is finally almost gone thanks to Aleve-D, and my knees are not feeling as crummy as they were last week. Woohoo!
PF37 +1 protein shake
mclaren
100% agree, Cole. I love Netflix. Tons of obscure old films and foreign movies and great flicks that died after a couple of weeks in the theaters — flicks like John Carter and Primer.
What’s not to love about Netflix?
Steeplejack
@sb:
Excellent movie. From the director and writers of The Dish (also recommended).
“How much does he want for it? . . . Tell him he’s dreaming.”
Concerned Citizen
@? Martin: This is because the media companies will not embrace a new business model. $50 a month from 200 million (or so) citizens in the US is what it would cost to rent movies? Seems high.
Users fail to accept that truth because the shitheads that run the media companies are overcharging for their content.
Comrade Jake
I like it a lot so far. I’ve been watching Louie (via FX) – it’s pretty good. Wife and I have been watching House of Cards.
I can imagine at some point we’ll tire of it though. It is annoying that there’s not a lot more stuff on there. I’d love to be able to watch Band of Brothers, for instance, but I’m guessing all the original HBO programming stuff is never going to end up on Netflix.
Maude
@rikyrah:
I love the name peanut. How great to watch those shows. Why, when I was a child, we had to…
James E. Powell
I was not aware of Netflix hate. I pay $7.99 a month for the streaming and that is less than I pay for almost anything else. I think I spend twice or three times that on coffee alone.
So, for the price, how good does it have to be?
I do agree that the changes in availability are annoying. If they are only going to have something available for a short time, they ought to mark “Available for streaming till . . .”
Raven
@Steeplejack: I was in Sydney on R&R during the time the Dish is set.
Raven
@Steeplejack: I was in Sydney on R&R during the time the Dish is set.
ranchandsyrup
@PsiFighter37: my bad. my gob got smacked by it. the comments are special.
hits all of the high notes on stereotypes and has a purse made out of a couch.
RSA
@jibeaux:
Excellent. No, I did not know that, and I will make no effort to remember it in the future. :-)
Julia Grey
I have Netflix and Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime. Just finished House of Cards on Netflix and a cool Korean medieval time travel romance miniseries (Faith) on Hulu. I agree that the main reason to have these services is to access exclusive/previously unknown content, not necessarily to see things that I could have seen broadcast as first run in the US. If I wasn’t interested enough previously to tune in, why am I going to be interested now?
And good as some movies and TV were Back Then, as far as *I’m* concerned there are very, very few things worth watching twice (well, maybe To Kill a Mockingbird and the like, with about 15-20 years in between viewings). Life is too short for old episodes of West Wing, as fun and cockle-warming as they might be, and — more important — there’s too much new content yet to see.
My daughter uses Amazon Prime’s video content far more than I do…she’s watching Supernatural (such pretty boys….). I really just got it for the free shipping and marginally lower prices. The book borrowing and video stuff is gravy.
P.S. Count me as another fan of Luther.
Maude
@PsiFighter37:
Use the practice portfolio on bloomberg.com. You can lose every dime easily if you don’t know the equities you put money into. You are gambling your money.
One of my bus drivers and I do this. He has Apple stock and I laugh at him.
FF is doing an update to 19.0
gelfling545
I’ve had Netflix since I ditched cable about a year ago. I have an antenna to get local channels & stream Netflix & it has satisfied my occasional TV craving. The menu does seemed designed to conceal more than it reveals but I’ve managed. I even found some things I didn’t know existed like the Albert Campion stories (I love Marjorie Allingham) extremely well done & faithful to the spirit (and even the letter in many cases) of the stories. That was a real treat for me while I was sick with strep throat a couple of weeks ago.
On FB yesterday my nephew posted that he was going to start watching Downton Abbey & my daughter said she was planning to watch it over Easter break. Then she commented on how great it is to be able to say yes, I’d like to see that make the program fit your schedule instead of the “old” way of watch when it’s on or forget it.
Steeplejack
@ranchandsyrup:
That is a real letter, but it’s 3½ years old.
Get some new material, teatards!
ranchandsyrup
@Steeplejack: Damn you humanity!
Someone registered Guy Fieri’s crap Times Square restaurant’s URL and posted this menu parody. http://guysamericankitchenandbar.com/
scottinnj
@sb:
Ah, the serenity of it. I actually made it out to Bonnie Doon during a visit to Melbourne for business on year.
Also check out The Dish by the same group…not sure if it is on streaming though.
amk
It’s that damned stella, isn’t it? You sound like tunch.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@patrick II: I’ve watched both Wallenders – the Branagh version is good, despite his tendency to chew up the scenery, but the original really is much better.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Moonbatting Average: The TV shows seem to be a lot more willing to put their stuff on Netflix than the movie studios. I think that has a lot to do with how they make their money on reruns anyway. Netflix probably just feels like another channel.
The Fat Kate Middleton
BTW – I, too, love Netflix AND Amazon Prime, and have Roku upstairs, AppleTV downstairs. No cable, and happy about it. Who needs it, with this combo?
RSA
@ranchandsyrup:
Right–because responsible and independent people never get expensive diseases.
jake the snake
I dropped the streaming and went with the DVDs. I can get the weird movies that I like to watch on DVD, but mostly not
on streaming.
I watched Michaelangelo Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point” this week. Mike must have scored some “brown acid” before he shot it, and dropped two tabs before he shot the ending.
? Martin
@Concerned Citizen: US studio revenues (just films) run about $50B per year. With 100 million households, that’s $500 per household or about $40 a month. Television revenues are even higher.
Now, that doesn’t mean we all need to pony up $40, but it does mean that the studios won’t sign up for any plan that doesn’t deliver them $40. Keep in mind that TV advertising is a $150B market. If you want to know where your TV and movies are largely paid for – that’s where – and it’s a lot more money than we’re paying out of pocket.
‘Overcharging’ implies some objective value baseline. It’s not overcharging relative to the aggregate cost of production or what the current revenue model provides. Now, if you want to argue that Honey Boo Boo shouldn’t be considered part of the revenue model because it’s shit, well, I won’t argue with you, but telling studios that the stuff that’s making them money should be discontinued is a losing proposition.
Any new content distribution model is at a minimum going to have to replace, dollar for dollar, what the content producers earn. We can lower the overall cost of the distribution system by telling the resellers (cable, etc.) to go eat a bag of dicks, but at most that’s just eliminating the ad revenue. We will either need to pay the same out of pocket, or agree to Netflix running ads for our $5. There is no model for cheaper content access.
magurakurin
@PsiFighter37:
Dollar cost averaging into an index fund.
It’s boring and simple. And that is good for stocks and bonds I think. I’m no genius, but I weathered the crash fairly well. I’ve gotten everything back and have made money in the last couple of years now.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@magurakurin: What you said re index fund. I’m amazed at how well our investments have recovered – just in time for husband’s 70.5 birthday.
Paddy
Jeff watches the poop outta Netflix on the weekends, whereas I watch most of my teevee online and occasionally watch a movie or plow thru something like “House of Cards”. Well worth the money.
I asked my optho today how often he got teased about looking like Corey Stoll and he was oblivious. He knew about Netflix but had no clue. I tried to joke with the appt maker afterwards about it and she blinked with that “Huh, wha?” face.
sb
The wife and I are considering dropping Verizon because family, friends and neighbors along with all of their mothers are telling us we’re insane to not drop Verizon and take advantage of Amazon Prime, etc.
Our concern is internet service. We *love* FIOS and the internet speed but, again, family/friends/etc. are telling us there’s a better, cheaper way. So say we drop Verizon. What are our options for hi-speed internet service (hi-speed meaning the family can watch Netflix without it catching every other second and pages load at great speed).
Any and all advice welcome.
cckids
@rikyrah:
As of this month, lots of Disney stuff is on Netflix. Not sure about their current shows, but many of their animated movies are, as well as shows like High School Musical, Hannah Montana & that ilk. Not judging, just saying. I’ve noticed that the volume of children’s content has dramatically increased.
We even found a show my son loved when he was 3 or 4, called “The Brave Little Toaster”. The toaster & his buddy appliances overcome abandonment at the family cabin to get back to their “master” in the city. I shit you not.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@ranchandsyrup: Haha, that’s pretty funny. Fieri’s such a clown he actually has something called “Donkey sauce”. How lame is it, ripping off a name from fucking Arby’s?
Another Halocene Human
@Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl): This has happened in the recent past. It’s not the ATF. Just rumors upon rumors, plus the game of telephone.
The last time the US ran out of bullets was, er, late 2007? There was a huge runup in base metals, which is what bullets are made up, and bullets could not be had for the standing retail price.
This dislocation brought to you by commodities markets deregulation.
Eventually suppliers passed on price increases to retailers and the market normalized.
I suspect it’s supply chain issues again. Gun nuts went NUTSO after Sandy Hook. My gun humping barometer at work was warning us weeks ago to “buy ammo now… everyone’s buying in advance of federal regs limiting ammo purchases”.
Market panic. No ATF except the fear of same involved.
Edit: dislocation. yo soy drunkenado, Kamaraden.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
They’re working on it. Disney recently signed a deal to have Netflix as their exclusive online streaming provider, and Netflix will have access to all their stuff. The only drawback is that Disney has some kind of existing contract that has to run out first, so the Netflix deal on kicks in IIRC in 2014.
FlipYrWhig
@ranchandsyrup: Before Obama entirely corrects contemporary American culture, maybe he should take a whack at solving the existence of dipwads with stupid ideas based on stereotypes and lies. Work that out, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly the country’s problems just fade away as if by magic.
FlipYrWhig
@The prophet Nostradumbass: he really should have rethought the drink with a similar flavor profile: donkey punch.
eric
one of the BIG pluses for those of that travel is that we are not stuck with hotel TV….i can watch my netflix on my laptop and in the airport i can watch on my daughters Nook while she watches on my laptop….
Steeplejack
@ranchandsyrup:
The edit window closed before I could add in my previous comment that that doctor said in a follow-up letter that he attended the University of the South (Suwanee), which is the apotheosis of Whitey über von Whitington-ness in Dixie.
Roger Moore
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I think it’s because TV has moved to having more long-term continuity, so you can’t count on watching episodes in random order. Putting older seasons on streaming video let’s fans catch up on previous seasons so they aren’t lost. They’d have a much harder time picking up new viewers if that weren’t possible.
General Stuck
I’d sell, while the sellin’s good
Yutsano
@General Stuck: We have a higher percentage of Indian viewers over Canuckistani? That seems a bit skewed.
ranchandsyrup
@The prophet Nostradumbass: I especially enjoyed the Reno!!! entree. I spent entirely too much time in that hellhole and the dish captures the essence of that burgh.
@FlipYrWhig: how do we make this happen?
General Stuck
@Yutsano:
agree
ranchandsyrup
@Steeplejack: I guessed as much. Thanks for the info.
Steeplejack
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
I agree that the Swedish version is better.
And I just had occasion to learn recently that there are two Swedish versions: one with Krister Henriksson (very good), the other with Rolf Lassgård (bad).
The Lassgård series is earlier, and I don’t know if it has made it to DVD. I have seen some episodes on MHz, the obscure “foreign” channel that is local to D.C. and is carried on some cable systems elsewhere.
The only thing wrong with the Lassgård series is that Kurt Wallander, either as written or as played by Lassgård, is a complete asshole. It’s hard to enjoy a series when you constantly want to kick the main character in the junk. The Krister Henriksson series is much better (and is available on DVD).
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Link to Firewall, Part 1 of the Rolf Lassgård series.
Regnad Kcin
House of Cards is changing the game. Mainlined the whole season in under 7 days. Now jonesing.
Cole, mix in some fandor.com or mubi.com and you’re set.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Steeplejack: Thanks! Didn’t know this … I’m watching the Henriksson series right now. Will check the Lassgard version. I figure as much as I liked House of Cards (both versions), I can deal with a complete asshole on my screen.
Steeplejack
@sb:
It depends on which Internet service providers (ISPs) are available in your area. Usually the choice is between two, maybe three, tops.
Also, be aware that if you cut the cable TV cord you are basically saying goodbye to live sports. Keep that in mind if you’ve got a sports nut in the family.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Regnad Kcin: Three days for me (but I’m retired, after all.) And yeah, jonesing.
Steeplejack
@General Stuck:
Yeah, but we’re down from $2.1 million last March. That ain’t good.
Steeplejack
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Punchy
Giant explosion and fire in downtown KC tonite. Gas leak, natch. BFD cuz peeps are missing, traffic flow fubared, and snow/icestorm in 24 hrs gunna hose the investy.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Punchy: I have relatives I love live just a few blocks away from there – we’ve been in contact with them and watching the live feed from the local TV station. Better go check it again – last I heard, 14 people hospitalized, but no dead confirmed.
General Stuck
@Steeplejack:
That’s why I said sell while the sellin’ is good.
Mark S.
Missouri Bill Makes It A Felony For Lawmakers To Propose Gun Safety Legislation
Conservatives just want to return to an original understanding of the Constitution.
? Martin
@Mark S.: I’m waiting for the followup legislation that makes it a felony to vote against the legislation that makes it a felony to introduce gun legislation.
KXB
I’m a booster. I can stream to my Google TV with ease, iPad, desktop, and phone. Going through House of Cards right now on streaming, and getting Curb Your Enthusiasm in the mail. All this for less than 2 movie tickets? Less than my cellphone? Less than a fill-up at the gas station? I am in no position to complain.
Mike E
Letterman goes there: Selecting Sarah Palin for his running mate should preclude John McCain from EVER questioning anyone’s judgement!
Steeplejack
@General Stuck:
I’m waiting for the dead-cat bounce.
KXB
@Comrade Jake:
HBO shows are available on Netflix, but only on DVD.
Argo
@Steeplejack: ALL wrong, it’s all on the toobz for free.
Even…..OMG, live sports.
“Just got to know how to grab it, I know how to grab it.”
Michael Mann/”Heat”.
PeakVT
@Mark S.: The Misery Consty sez:
So in a rational court, that law wouldn’t hold up. But who knows what will happen in one of our Dr. Frankenstein’s Laboratories of Democracy?
Steeplejack
@Argo:
I’m sorry, I should have specified “legal and/or doable by non-nerds.”
PeakVT
@Steeplejack: Please don’t try to bounce Tunch. The buildings on the East Coast aren’t built for that amount of shaking.
am
My ambivalence to Netflix is trumped by my burning hatred for my local cable company. The enemy of my enemy blah, blah blah.
A la carte video service can’t come soon enough.
Citizen_X
@ranchandsyrup:
Ooh, nice racisty touch. Gotta love that one.
How ’bout the culture of making shit up to serve one’s political purposes? The culture of wasting my time with utter lies pulled out of one’s ass? Because that one’s really starting to get on my nerves, and it’s achieving nothing but poisoning our country.
Same with the “Feds are buying up all the ammo!” horseshit. Sheesh.
(Not complaining at you, ranchandsyrup. Just commiserating.)
Argo
@Steeplejack: Your typing on this here thingy, so I reckon you must be able to punch in numeros to other sites.
Illegal? I didn’t see the “WARNING” label.
That’s what the info is free legacy is about.
And, why so many want to collect dues, each and every time a keystroke is made.
Not trying to be argumentative, just say’n.
Joseph Nobles
I’m Internet only here at the house. I do Netflix (Blu-Ray and streaming) and Hulu+. I do a TV night at a friend’s house once or twice and buy him dinner to catch some first run HBO/Showtime stuff.
I’m working through Buffy TVS on Netflix and House of Cards as well. Hulu+ streams all the current Criterion films being sold, plus a few network shows and Daily Show/Colbert. I got content.
Current Netflix find/rec: “The Story of Film: An Odyssey,” a 15-episode history of film. The narrator has a weird cadence you have to learn to ignore, but after that, just wonderful stuff.
Another Halocene Human
@? Martin: Oh please, really? Advertising revenues (the tv side) have been in freefall for a decade now, and “revenues” includes lots of licensing tie-ins (the so-called “real money” over and above butts in seats)… not to mention a business model where the suits can make money even if the picture fails by putting the risk on the movie theaters. There’s been some pushback on that last part recently, which is why you might see the movie theaters stabilizing after a lot of shut-downs. And they’ve diversified into stuff they can presell with little risk. AND THEY SHOW ADS.
There is some big money at the top reaping enormous profits due to a fucked distribution system that gives them an outsized amount of power. On the bottom of the totem pole you have indies throwing stuff online trying to flog tshirts and barely pulling in enough ad views and clicks to keep the server fed.
I like that Netflix is running its own series. It’s like what we always wanted from cable in a perfect world–to only get the content we wanted, instead of paying $89.73/mo for one goddamn channel.
You know, some countries have this thing called a public financing system that is funded through taxes on media or media devices and pays when people watch/listen. No elite-blue-blood-screened froufrou-analia like the US grant system, no paying for the best grant writers only to get duds nobody cares about, just paying for what people actually want to consume. Wouldn’t that be nice? And you don’t have to send people to prison for downloading, either.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl): Utter horseshit. The “Feds” don’t even shoot .32 auto or .45 auto. They shoot mostly 9mm Luger or 40 cal, and very rarely 10mm.
I’ve seen gun dealers pull this crap before. They did it in 2008 and they did it right after the Second Gulf War started. They’ll say it’s all gone, keep the shelves clear for a week, put out four boxes at a time, double the price of the ammo and sell ten times the amount. You’d figure the rubes would figure it out sooner or later but that day seems far, far off.
PS: there’s actually a huge surplus, we wound down in Iraq and are on schedule to do the same in Afghanistan, and the Army’s just not going through the stuff like they used to.
Another Halocene Human
@Steeplejack: Since they banned smokes in bars I prefer to watch sports at the sports bar.
Who wants to watch Da Game alone? Meh.
tBone
Netflix is an amazing bargain for the amount of content you get access to (unless your only interest is recent mainstream Hollywood fare). Add Hulu+ and Amazon Prime and you’re still only looking at around $20 a month total. Suck it, Time Warner. And then choke on it and die.
Another Halocene Human
@ranchandsyrup: During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive Shiny gold tooth,
Only store of value … it will be sold and she will go gap-toothed if she runs into some real money trouble. Watched it happen.
whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos,
tattoos are only expensive if you’re a teenager… and you haven’t had your shots (uh, bit o’ dark humor there)
who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes
*cough* bootleg/boosted *cough*
and who chatted on a new cellular telephone
$10 at walmart, $30 prepaid plan, cuts off when the minutes run out
equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
These cost all of $5.99! Unless you are savvy with “them thar computers” and can get the mp3 for free!
While glancing over her Patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as “Medicaid”!
Either under 18–or has a condition. Until Obamacare kicks in, a healthy adult with a job is not going to qualify.
During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day
BLLSH#T
and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
Natty lite case on payday is still cheaper than milk. Pretzels?! Like, one of the cheaper dry foods in the market?!
You know what poor people can’t afford? Rent. Nothing about the living situation. Either trading a mattress for sex or living with relatives, and who knows how that is working out. (There’s also not paying until you get evicted… again.)
And EBT. Guess what, min wage you might qualify, huh. Have a friend in this situation, although right now she does fetish videos on the intertoobs to get food money, is that better? Like so what and all, but the fetish is not good for her long-term health. EBT at least lets you get healthy food, or prepared food for those without kitchens to go home to, or emergency food when the money runs out before the month…
Damn. Now my blood pressure is up.
You might as well rant about grills and rims–the grills are not real gold, silver, diamonds and the rims were bought on credit and will get repoed with the car. ENVY–YER DOIN IT RONG.
Tripod
@Joseph Nobles:
That’s a fine series – the accent is Ulster.
SatanicPanic
@ranchandsyrup: Just like that Ben Carson asshat they’re all going on about right now, the right seems to think that being a doctor makes one qualified to comment on the entire healthcare industry. This only applies to doctors however- they’re not about to ask people like teachers, farm workers or janitors how their respective industries could be improved.
Another Halocene Human
@Forum Transmitted Disease: See my post earlier, it’s a supply chain dislocation. Some dealers may certainly be fueling it, but Walmart sells whatever they can source.
In 2008 demand outstripped supply at the retail price because manufacturers input costs exceeded to going output marginal revenues. Once all the prices up the supply chain were sorted out the bullets showed up in the Walmarts again. Then the base metals market crashed (obviously, not to previous lows, but enough to wipe out some right goobers, mind you).
The funny part about the 2008 run on bullets was that it started with people who watched the commodities markets telling their friends to buy b/c the price was running up, then supplies got short as they drew down supply on hand, then dealers telling the goobers that they were running out of bullets drove a panic purchasing wave, then everyone REALLY ran out, then there was a second wave of bullet buying after Obama was elected, complete market irrationality, using the shortage of bullets as fuel on the fire to BUY MOAR NAO!ELEVENTY
I laughed and laughed.
? Martin
@Another Halocene Human: I’m not arguing any of those points – but a new distribution model will not displace an old distribution model which denies revenue to the producers. Period. There’s a lot of money to be made cutting out the resellers, and that’s the more appropriate place for public financing anyway. Why dump money into content when we should dump it into fiber which will enable that content to be consumed and therefore monetized.
But Netflix cannot succeed at delivering what their customers demand at the prices they charge. Netflix’s revenue is a bit over $3B per year, with 27 million streaming customers. Disney alone brings in $5.2B in revenue for their cable networks, another $800M from broadcast, and their studio business is larger than both of them combined. Assuming Netflix grabs all 100 million US households, they’re still not bringing in enough revenue just to cover Disney, let alone everyone else. Disney isn’t going to sign up for this unless Netflix can match cable’s payouts. ESPN alone gets $11 per cable subscriber each month, plus ad revenue, which is probably another $5 or so per sub as ESPN commands relatively high ad rates. Netflix has nothing to offer them. They might get a bit of Disney’s business either content that cable doesn’t have the bandwidth to offer or as some kind of loss-leader, but any ideas that the major studios are going to sign onto Netflix is delusional. Economically, it’d be suicide. Either Netflix users need to learn to pay WAY more, or accept their current pricing with cable-scale ad runs, or accept that Netflix will be at best hit-or-miss on content.
I think its a really good move for them to go with their own content – the only way the studios will accept less revenue is if they’re forced to accept less revenue – and one way to do that is to offer better alternatives on a lower budget. Basically, economically push Honey Boo Boo out of the market. Not easy, but Netflix is like the GOP – they’re trapped between competing interests and their customers refuse to let them out. It’s too bad – they really got his dialed in pretty well, except they completely fucked the ability to ramp sub revenues as content improved – mainly because their mail-in business had a natural throttle – it was dependent on how many inventory turns the USPS could produce so their was a guaranteed minimum revenue for each DVD users checked out. Streaming has no such throttle and no such minimum, and they got their customers accustomed to a cost/content that is unsustainable in the current market as a reseller of premium content.
Radio One
I also love Netflix. But I would pay double, maybe even triple, the amount I pay now if Netflix could offer at least DVD discs for HBO or Showtime or BBC series seasons that originally aired more than a year or two or even four years ago. I’m on the side of Netflix, in that they obviously want to provide more content for their viewers, but when the BBC show Misfits has gone on for four seasons now, and Netflix viewers are only offered Season 1 on DVD, there is a problem.
Cain
Yeah, netflix is a great deal. I saw some cool French crime drama series that I would never have been exposed to if I didn’t have it. Some cool korean gangster movies. Overall, it’s wonderful to be able to watch all this entertainment regardless of what country.
All for 8 bucks a month. That’s just fabulous.
tBone
@? Martin:
You probably won’t see ESPN on Netflix any time soon, but first-run rights for films from Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, etc. seems like a pretty clear signal that the times, they are a’changin.
@Radio One:
I’m confused – Netflix has both HBO and Showtime content available for DVD subscribers. Or are you not in the US?
Argo
@Raven: You gotta be full of it.
Unless you’re CIA.
Maeve
My beef with Netflix is that they don’t accomodate low bandwidth situations – I live in semi-rural Alaska and the best bandwidth I can buy is still sub-optimal.
For a while when the switched to silverlight streaming it just wouldn’t work for me (would only stream a few minutes but then pause). But now they’ve switched to another technology and it works (although I sometimes have to pause half way through to to catch up)
The main interface now totally sucks though – loading all those screenshots (black spaces for half of them) and usually I want to get some info, not just a covershot and that won’t load til the rest of it does!!!
My parents (in Arizona have Roku and that rocks – but where I live my bandwidth is half what they suggest of the techical requirements for Roku.
I turn off the DVD delivery on and off because it takes 3-4 days for turn around on a DVD here – but there are movies you can’t get on streaming that you can get on DVD so I turn it on occasiinally to catch up.
I alsoe have Amsazon prime but now that more and more thingws are HD it doesn’t work for streaming for me – got it originally because I watched “Life on Mars” (US version) on amazon and wanted to watch the UK version (which was better)
Also had hulu plus for a while but don’t watch it now
All these things add to $24 dollars a month – less than cable ( I have “basic” cable for another $23 dollars a month) which gets me the formally knowb as broadcast channels (can’t actually get broadcast where I live due to these things known as mountains) but don’t have any of the “cable” channels)
So I have a designer set of channels – just wish they could do it better.
Just a diatribe to let you know all of us don’t live in your high bandwidth everything digitally available network.
Another Halocene Human
@Maeve: Have you tried using Opera? You can turn images off or on as you wish. Makes browsing faster.
JoyfulA
@PsiFighter37: Start with not getting an income tax refund. You’ve lent out that money free! Adjust your withholdings so you’re getting back $11, some nominal amount.
Then open an account with an online broker. I use Scottrade, which charges $7 a trade. I like that it has a local office. No doubt other online brokerages are similar.
You’ll want to set it up as an IRA because of the tax advantages if you can.
I’m at the point of looking for stocks with solid dividends for my old age instead of stocks that I think will rise.
If you happen onto a stock that booms, when it doubles, sell half. If it doubles again, sell half. That’s my best stock tip.
Maeve
@Another Halocene Human:
Yeah – on this computer I have IE, Firefox, Safari (for windows), Chrome and Opera.
When I started using the internet I had Mosaic and Lynx for browsers. :) And gopher! I fondly remember gopher!
I actually work in the field of online education and explore different browsers.
But bandwidth is still bandwidth and those delivering crummy solutions still make it hard – the world is convinced that everyone has high bandwidth!
Still I’ll see if browsing on Netflix works better in Opera – hadn’t thought of that.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Maeve:
Ouch! Must be like trying to eat your dinner through a chicken wire fence.
Another Halocene Human
@? Martin: Well, and that was their big booboo, thinking they could let dvd go to shit and go all streaming when they had content producers wanting to turn the screws and jack the price like they were accustomed to doing with cable and simultaneously not seeming to realize that streaming burns server time like you wouldn’t believe. It was idiotic business moves.
There is very likely a market for premium streaming channels, either run by HBO/whatever themselves or run by a partner like hulu or netflix who has the software figured out.
There was a long time when the only cable channel I wanted was SciFi but when they dropped mst3k the only channel I wanted was Comedy Central. And then Comedy Central started streaming all their stuff (with ads). Works for me, mate. I don’t want to pay for the rest of the package.
The one piece the greedheads haven’t figured out is that while they could hold people up for “the package” the truth is that the mass market genuinely does not want to pay what they think they’re owed–and Netflix in the case of video and Steve Jobs in the cause of music realized this. (And don’t forget Redbox, with new releases for a dollar. Yeah. I’ve done it when the content providers decided it was too new to be streamed on Netflix and I had guests who wanted to see it now.)
They especially aren’t going to pay with bootleggers selling dvds for a dollar out the back of a hatchback and mp3s being traded on burned CDs at school.
The American public has NO FUCKING MONEY HELLO SUNSHINE. Netflix told some of their content overlords to fuck off rather than pay and guess what, users like me are still around.
tatateeta
I like Netflix, too. I don’t have cable TV and won’t until they offer a plan that includes FoKKKs out. How come you pay 5 bucks and I pay 15 bucks for Netflix?
tatateeta
Who is there to care about in “House of Cards”? They all seem to be assholes. I only watched 6 episodes so maybe the good guys appeared later?
Death Panel Truck
Haven’t caught up to Netflix. I’m stuck in the seventies tonight. I just replaced the pinch rollers in my 1977 Akai GXC-570 D tape deck. Had to order them from Deutchland and wait forever for them to get here. Almost dropped the damned thing on my foot taking it out of the closet. Friggin’ thing weights thirty pounds. Still sounds awesome, though, for the seventies. I’m happy.
? Martin
@Another Halocene Human:
Absolutely. But as Steve Jobs noted, the go-to-market strategy isn’t there. Cable won because they handed you the hardware. Netflix actually got too successful when the pushed their player out to all of the consoles – people started cutting the cord because the implementation was good enough, and that’s when content started getting yanked from Netflix. The producers (who despise the cable operators) had hoped that Netflix would have been cable+streaming, which they could then use as leverage against cable, but as soon as people started cutting the cord, the producers lost too much money and had to pull back.
How does HBO push their service out while preserving revenues against cord cutters? They have no retail model. Consumers aren’t going to put up with 20 different subscriptions. They’re still going to need a retail aggregator – just one that won’t get too greedy and constantly screw them over. It’s going to be Apple whether they like it or not for the simple reason that Apple has one of the best retail models out there (plus full control of the hardware) and because Apple isn’t going to put their content revenue ahead of their hardware revenue. Basically, Apple isn’t going to dick around with everyone, simply because they have bigger things to deal with. Cable doesn’t. Dicking around with the networks is their only job. I know that’s not going to be popular, but Apple is the only outfit that can, at the moment, deliver all of the pieces without threatening the networks and studios. Apple is the last company that’s going to start producing competing content. They’ll want their flat cut, and get the fuck out of the way.
Are you shitting me? ⅔ of households in the US have cable or satellite. We burn money on the stupidest shit on earth. Of course we have money for it. We pay monumentally more for this kind of stuff than anyone else.
bago
Wait wait wait. People watch tv offline?
mouse tolliver
@salsify: You can watch DS9 and every other Star Trek series, plus the new Dr. Who and some of the old for free with Amazon Prime, which only costs $6.60 a month. Plus you get free two day shipping on most items and free books from their Kindle library.
I hate Netflix because I got tired of waiting three or four months to get new releases. The Fighter was at the top of my queue for eight months before I was able to see it. And I was only able to watch it when they made it available for streaming. But then I could only watch it in ten minute chunks because the video kept freezing. Which is what happened every time I tried to stream a Netflix movie in HD.
I canceled when they raised the price because of crap service like that. And because their streaming selection was mostly straight to video crap like Zombie Strippers or hit movies from the 1980s that you can watch for free on Crackle.
max
@sb: The wife and I are considering dropping Verizon because family, friends and neighbors along with all of their mothers are telling us we’re insane to not drop Verizon and take advantage of Amazon Prime, etc.
What internet providers do they use?
Our concern is internet service. We *love* FIOS and the internet speed but, again, family/friends/etc. are telling us there’s a better, cheaper way. So say we drop Verizon. What are our options for hi-speed internet service (hi-speed meaning the family can watch Netflix without it catching every other second and pages load at great speed). Any and all advice welcome.
Basically, for any service (Amazon, BJ, Twitter, Netflix, what have you, but also including cell voice, landline voice (really!), cable tv service and what have you), you need a pipe. (‘The internet is a series of tubes…’) A pipe either means a wire or a wireless (radio) provider. (When you talk on a landline, most of the distance to the person you are talking to is covered by traveling over some form of internet, same with cell voice, cable TV, FIOS TV, etc.)
The distance from your house to local providers’ main box is covered by wire/fibre/cell/wifi/something.
So what matters for internet speed, and as a consequence all services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, what have you, is… what kind of wire is hooked up to the side of your house. That’s it.
Generally, most people in the US have a telephone wire, a cable TV wire, are within connection distance of a cell tower, and they might also be able to connect to some WiFi somewhere actually wired to the internet, and in some places FIOS. (I have totally left satellite out of this, because that’s very limited for internet purposes. That is, it sucks, even if DishTV is better than your local cable.)
So in your neighborhood each house should have wireless service, but that’s really slow for doing more than one thing at a time. They should also have a phone line, a cable TV line and FIOS.
The phone lines tend to be old and slow and they’re not being replaced, cable TV lines are better wires and generally pretty fast, and fibre is fastest of all.
So you have the fastest internet service, and if you have a lot of simultaneous usage of the internet in your house, downgrading to say, cable TV might not be tolerable. Downgrading to DSL (telephone) probably wouldn’t be tolerable (DSL is too slow for TV/Netflix/Amazon), and cell and WiFi service is almost certainly worse than everything but DSL (and maybe then too).
So what your neighbors are talking about is basically crazy, equivalent to saying ‘you should replace your car with an office building! Then it would be way cheaper to get to work!’
If your local cable TV service is good and much cheaper than FIOS, then it would make fiscal sense, but the internet service won’t be as good. Same with DSL but worse. Same with cell/wifi but possibly worse than DSL. (Very basically, you can do one thing at a time with cell service, and sometimes get TV. WiFi tends to be overloaded.) If you’re just ditching the TV service from Verizon and keeping the FIOS internet, go for it. If Google has pulled fibre to your neighborhood, you’re in luck!
max
[‘Sorry to take it down to the basics, but what your neighbors are saying doesn’t make any sense.’]
TriassicSands
Thank goodness the WaPo editorial page has its daily dose of both sides are just the same. And, of course, Fred & Co. have already accepted the latest Simpson-Bowles debt reduction plan as a fine idea. Yep, thank goodness Freddy is still playing the very serious person role; we’d be at a real loss if he ever changed his tune.
About the Republicans and the sequester the editorial says this:
Yep, that is the party Fred wants the Democrats to meet half way (well, not really half way, more like 90% of the way). No matter how demented and harmful Republican proposals are, the Democrats have to be ready to go to the middle and then compromise some more to get an agreement.
God, I’m sick of this shit.
Gex
Just need to vent here. It is kind of not cool to offer to give some sort of keepsake type of item to a widow, THEN FUCKING NOT DO IT! A couple videos and a pile of pictures of Kate people promised me and I’m sick of nagging them for them. I give up.
But it’s a shit move to do that to someone in my situation. If you don’t want to give it, or you don’t want to put any effort into it, DON’T FUCKING OFFER IT.
So pissed off.
Amir Khalid
I know it’s the small hours over there, but I can’t resist sharing this amusing tale from Blighty. The Crown Prosecution Service asked the West Midland Police for a witness statement from one PC Peach. the West Midland Police explained repeatedly that PD Peach, not PC, was in fact a police dog. The CPS persisted anyway. So …
Console
Netflix pissed me off the second they started trying to hide the fact they were losing content. Used to be, you could search for damn near any movie and save it to your queue, even if Netflix didn’t have it. And when Netflix acquired the movie, it would be right there. Netflix would even tell you how long they’d have the rights to the movie, so you wouldn’t be surprised when it was no longer available.
But at around the same time Netflix tried to split it’s DVD and streaming side, all of that stopped. The search function was nerfed (hell, you used to be able to look up movies by the awards they won) and titles that Netflix didn’t have couldn’t be searched. This included titles that were available for DVD that weren’t for streaming. They also hid the movies that weren’t currently available for streaming from your queue. So not only was it a pain in the ass to look for movies, your queue would randomly grow and shrink without warning. Hell, to this day I still see random movies show up that I saved back in 2008.
All of that is sort of fixed now and it’s kind of back to the way it was. But it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The price increase that pushed me into streaming only was bad enough, but screwing with the way I used netflix was what really got to me.
Of course, I say all that, but I’m still a subscriber.
Anne Laurie
@sb: We love FIOS because their service has been excellent for us. We’ve had problems just twice in the last four? five? years — first time, after troubleshooting on the phone with us, they overnighted a new router & talked me through the installation when it arrived. Second time, the system failed around 3am, they sent a tech out at 9am, and a crew to repair the outside wiring glitch that afternoon. We use a different phone service, and don’t use cable (Netflix/Hulu, since we don’t watch sports) so FIOS is around $60 a month for us — about $10 more than the crappy local DSL we used before they finally wired our neighborhood for The Good Stuff!
Death Panel Truck
@bago:
Wait wait wait. People waste precious time on earth WATCHING TV?
raven
wake up
raven
This will start a new thread:
OSLO — The TV program, on the topic of firewood, consisted mostly of people in parkas chatting and chopping in the woods and then eight hours of a fire burning in a fireplace. Yet no sooner had it begun, on prime time on Friday night, than the angry responses came pouring in.
raven
“Fifty percent complained that the bark was facing up, and the rest complained that the bark was facing down.”
Suffern ACE
@raven: bark up, or shit is about to get real really quick around here.
Schlemizel
WTH? A dozen and a half FP’ers & nobody has put up a new post in nearly 11 hours?!? Presidents Day was Monday – GET BACK TO WORK YOU GUYS!
B-{D
Even JC can’t whine about his post getting stepped on after that long.
raven
Post Office clothing line!
“The cash-strapped Postal Service announced Tuesday that it has inked a licensing deal with an Ohio-based clothing company to produce a line of apparel dubbed “Rain Heat & Snow.”
Anne Laurie
@Schlemizel: New post up top, timestamped two minutes before your complaint according to my machine.
Odds on Cole whining I didn’t bump him down soon enough, this time?
raven
yes!
Schlemizel
@Anne Laurie:
I type reallll slow. THANKS!
I was worried for a bit that the old problem was back.
raven
@Anne Laurie: See, as soon as I post really important stuff. . .
Anne Laurie
@raven: I can’t snark on Norwegians, the Spousal Unit still has relatives there.
And I can’t snark on the Post Office, because they deliver approximately 80% of my retail shopping (not just all my clothes, but even a lot of drugstore/housewares stuff).
raven
@Anne Laurie: My peeps were from Stevanger. My granny, Ol’ Ingeborg made a mean kumla!
magurakurin
@Death Panel Truck:
says a man posting on a dead thread on a C-list blog.
Our time on Earth isn’t as precious as it’s made out to be. Do what makes you happy. If that’s watching tv, so be it. If it’s slagging people who watch tv, have at her. We’ll all meet in the graveyard soon enough, regardless of how we “wasted” our time.
AnonPhenom
@tatateeta:
I got to 6 episodes also, then I called it quits.
I understand that watching these things require a suspending or reality, so i swallowed the whole 11 times elected Democrat from South Carolina bullshit (getting elected at the end of The Reagan Era, surviving the Contract with America and TeaParty elections …. sure) and I know from Blue Dogs who promote Republican policies, so “education reform” that includes standardized testing, vouchers and merit pay for teachers …. er, OK. But Fuck Me Gently With a Chain Saw, a Democratic Party Leader who wants to take away collective bargaining rights? What next a Republican who wants a carbon tax? Spacey’s character gets to refuse a direct order from the leader of his party, the fuckin’ President, to end the strike by giving the union what it want? And leaves the Oval Office with his head still attached to his body? And then the writers insult the viewers by positing a one on one meeting between the 2 advesaries, Spacey and the Union’s lobbyist (who Spacey has already fucked over once by lying to his face. So yeah, he’s going into this meeting without a witness or at least a recording device … right) where Spacey’s character admits to pulling all these Nixonian dirty tricks but still comes out the winner of the conflict because … wait for it … He manages to piss off a seasoned political lobbyist to the point of violence BY TELLING HIM THAT HIS BREATH SMELLS LIKE HE SUCK COCK.
No really, that really would work ouside the grammar school yard. Yeah.
Fuck, House of Cards.
scuffletuffle
Love Netflix…am rewatching The Book Group right now. Rory McCann…mmmmmmmm.
{wipes drool}
HeartlandLiberal
I now have to Roku units, and a Netflix and an Amazon Prime account.
My wife and I are having a ball watching movies and TV series. Right now we are almost finished with the mid-1980’s Miss Marple series with Joan Hickson.
John is also right about the foreign movies. Once you discover that the French make great mysteries and thrillers, with characters, acting, and not all dependent on CGI and car chases, you once again are reinforced in your loathing for the crap that Hollywood turns out now.
It is also amazing how many BAD movies get made and are out there, I will have to point that out. The deeper you dig, the more you sometimes have to ask, ‘Who paid for this dreck, and who watches it?’
But there is plenty of good stuff. We are almost the point we are ready to turn of the TV cable subscription. There is literally almost NOTHING worth watching in terms of shows. The only reason right now are sports events live and weather. But I am sort of sick when I think of how I am paying about $1,000 a year for 99% dreck that I am not ever going to watch. And maybe it is time to work around Comcast cable and cut that tie. I have a high speed business class Internet account in the home, and it may be that that is the way to go with everything.
John
If you are watching man from Man from Beijing , you would also like Wallander (the Swedish version), The Eagle and Annika Bengztom.
Feel free to email for more recommendations:-)
nemesis
Just purchased a 60 inch Smart Vizio and added Google TV, so I can surf, check email, etc. My experience with the free Netflix trial has been okay. It loads quickly. Navagating through their offerings is pretty bad and the content is limited. Regardless, its prly the best option out there for the short term.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
@Another Halocene Human: Thank you! I figured it had to be a market thing or some manipulation because it just didn’t make sense.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
@Forum Transmitted Disease: Okay, I figured it had to be something like that but couldn’t formulate a good response for the gun loving glibertarians that surround me.
Sentient Puddle
@AnonPhenom: There’s a good bit in the series that strains belief (and if you quit six episodes in, you don’t know how right you are), but this:
The previous House Majority Whip might disagree with your assessment on how realistic this might be.
Another Halocene Human
@HeartlandLiberal: You can get the weather news from the source at weather.gov (formerly nws.noaa.gov). That’s where they all get their forecasts from.
(Remember how Rick Santorum tried to ban free distribution of government weather info so Accuweather, which syndicates it, could make bigger profits?)
Another Halocene Human
@Amir Khalid: Upps.
Another Halocene Human
@Gex: *hugs*
That is totally shitty. I mean, I kind of get why people do that, but I kind of don’t. Unless they’re the sort who’s always on a v e r y extended timeline.
Another Halocene Human
@? Martin: Once upon a time I paid $12/mo for cable access to broadcast channels. Right now I live in an apt that “includes cable in the rent” (which I don’t use). So that’s twice I was counted as cable or satellite without paying the $$$ you accuse me of. And satellite’s main selling point these days is undercutting the going cable rate.
Basic cable looks like an undercapitalized trashheap to me, lots of reality shows and reruns with low-rent ads playing incessantly. The broadcast networks still have better content. Of course, I watch broadcast network shows on my computer because fuck yeah, it’s on my schedule. And they can serve me all the ads I want but my patience grows thin when they serve ads that bork my computer or player. It’s not my fault the advertiser got ripped off by their agency who lied about being able to make their ads web-ready. Tick off those 30 seconds and move on. abc.go.com has a nasty habit of running player/browser b0rking ads. I don’t get it. It’s good there’s hulu or I would have found … alternatives.
ETA: I pay a reduced internet rate, too. Long story, but the cable company offers a lower speed, lower rate plan you have to know to ask for. It’s half the cost of their top plan. I don’t have time to watch anime raws any more, so I don’t flipping care. So Youtube HD freezes, I just drop down in quality (and Netflix the stuff I really want). Netflix player actually works really well. Low picture quality but little freezing.
Another Halocene Human
Martin, you’re right about one thing: people will pay up if they think it’s the swanky thing to do, really desirable.
Basic cable hasn’t been that way in a long time.
Some sports fans can still be coaxed into paying top dollar for service and equipment, and HBO, which has been churning out quality content, has its subscriber base. And you do have a crowd who will pay for new releases although they seem outnumbered by the crowd who wants new releases but doesn’t want to pay for them.
Apple products have that magic sauce. Reason flees. Must own iphone.
Young people with spending money (hardly a majority of young people these days) spend it on a game console and games or game service. TV has lost their eyeballs.
The free, unregulated cable market is an abject failure.
stormhit
\@? Martin: Just because you say Apple is the only company that can possibly do this doesn’t make it the least bit true.
Ash
I’ve never heard anyone complain about Netflix. Who are these people? I must shun them all.
xian
@Yutsano: also because there is something “different” about him and they are having cognitive dissonance about what it is and what they’re allowed to say out loud about how they judge other people
xian
@ranchandsyrup: this is from 2009 per snopes, fwiw
Pinacacci
5 bucks a month? I really need to re-look at my streaming plan.