‘For Cinephiles, Netflix Is Less and Less an Option’

[marmar]

via truthdig:



Netflix users seeking rare or less commercially valued titles are finding the company’s streaming and DVD mailer service unequal to their desires, a development that prompts the question of whether technology and free enterprise have led audiences down a dark road to a narrower cultural selection.

At the website of the San Francisco Bay Area’s KQED Arts, a public media associate of NPR and PBS, editor and contributor Jon Brooks tells of his discovery that a movie he rented from the company years ago had become unavailable. Amazon streaming and iTunes didn’t have it either. He would have gone to a local video store, but those had all closed down. The local library was a dead end too. Only after a week of searching, when his wife found the title in another city’s library, was he able to see the movie.

Brooks continues:

The episode was disconcerting. I had started using Netflix around the millennium because it seemed like a great idea with no downside (the eventual disappearance of video stores notwithstanding). I was paying a fortune in late fees at my local disc-o-mat, and Netflix’s so-called “long tail” strategy of amassing a vast array of niche content in addition to popular titles appealed to me, as did having the ability to get what looked to be every single movie ever released on DVD delivered straight to my door. And rarely did Netflix disappoint when there was something I wanted to watch, no matter how esoteric.

… And now it seems, while still nowhere as haphazard as the streaming selection, the company’s once reliably complete DVD selection is becoming less so all the time. After my Sweet Sweetback dilemma, I began to note that some DVDs that used to sit patiently awaiting their turn in my queue had dropped down to the “saved” section, where the time of their availability is listed as “unknown.” I think it is safe to say, you can translate that as “never.” Earlier this year, I mentioned this incredibly shrinking DVD phenomenon to John Taylor, the buyer at San Francisco’s Le Video, and he told me Netflix’s DVD collection was now absent a growing number of significant titles, including a passel of Woody Allen films.

Brooks cites a Netflix PR video indicating that the company “should no longer be looked upon as a massive movie library,” as he writes, but rather, in the company’s language, the “Internet’s largest television network” ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/for_cinephiles_netflix_is_less_and_less_an_option_20140914

[djean111]

1. I have found that snagfilms.com has a LOT of obscure films. Free.

It does have Sweet Sweetbacks badass Song.

This site has a lot of alternatives, too:
http://alternativeto.net/software/snagfilms/

[WinkyDink]

9. Wow! Snagfilms is awesome! THANKS!

[lpbk2713]

19. Thanks for the link.

I'm going to look into this.

[KoKo]

21. Roku Box has added "Snag Films."

If anyone wants to add it in the Roku Channel search.

[Populist_Prole]

2. Ahh. Then it's not just me then

The two quoted paragraphs in the middle of the OP is pretty much my same exact observation. All too often I'm seeing "Long wait" or "very long wait" appearing next to movies in my queue. Not off the wall or rare or even all that esoteric titles. It's like they have it in for anything other than the "new release" kind of schlock you see philistines renting at Red Box machines.

[PeaceNikki]

3. I, for one, think they've made up for it with their original programming.

[Cha]

16. I still love my netflix!

[daredtowork]

4. That is really, really disturbing

Netflix should take some responsibility for the role it played in driving the local video stores out of business. People did originally turn to Netflix because it seemed like it was building a universal DVD repository. It's turn to the streaming/TV model (while raising prices on the customers who only wanted to retain the original DVD service) already alienated people on a massive scale.

This is roughly equivalent to Amazon running all other publishers and local bookstores out of business, and then saying they have "decided" to only offer schlock because the business model they were competing on wasn't working out for them.

Or Wal-Mart running all the local grocery stores out of business, and then electing to get out of the grocery business because it's no longer profitable when no one has any place to turn to for food.

Or Google News running all the local newspapers out of business and then putting all the news behind a pay wall.

Wait...all that's looking like the actual story.

American Capitalism: compete with an untenable price to drive the other guy out of business and then force consumers to buy whatever you want to sell them when there is no longer any other options available.

[mythology]

8. Because Blockbuster itself didn't drive all of the independent video rental stores out of business?

Change is inevitable. It's not capitalism, it's the nature of life. Netflix isn't a monopoly or even close. Netflix, Amazon streaming, Hulu Plus, iTunes, YouTube and there are other smaller options all exist.

If Netflix, or Amazon streaming or Hulu Plus doesn't have the movie you want, send them an email or organize a group to get the movie hosted. If it's something that's a very small budget documentary, contact the filmmaker to see if they know why it isn't available or it's available elsewhere.

[JI7]

17. blockbuster never even attempted to change their business strategy

to fit with new technology . they deserved to go out of business

[NV Whino]

5. Things drop in and out of my queue all the time.

I'm not sure what determines what is dropped or when it is dropped and many times returned. I suspect popularity has a lot to do with it. But Netflix still has enough to keep me satisfied, and most of their original stuff is top notch.

And, I too, will add a plug for Snag Films. Lots of good stuff on there.

[shenmue]

6. Not for me

I like it.

[Cha]

18. Me too, shenmue, me too~

[Earth_First]

7. It's gotten pretty bad...

They used to keep my interest in the Documentaries category, however I've found that I'm no longer finding much there any longer.

I do not watch a lot of television, so the series options that Netflix seems to have loaded up on is not of particular interest to me.

We keep it mostly because my wife does enjoy a lot of the television series features Netflix offers.

Quite disappointed, personally.

[justiceischeap]

11. I wish there was a documentary streaming service (outside YouTube because that's not reliable)

I prefer to watch documentaries to any other genre and I've yet to find a good streaming solution for documentaries (unless you want to watch stuff about aliens...they seem to take up the most space on Amazon Streaming, Netflix and Hulu Plus).

[djean111]

22. If you Google 100 documentaries (that was the title of a series on Al Gore's channel, I seem to

remember) - there looks to be some nice sites that stream good documentaries. Looks like most stream from Youtube, but lots of great non-alien stuff!

I used to have a lovely job adding data to a huge database, and I learned that it is fairly easy to find almost anything on the internet as long as your search was not too granular or not granular enough. Generally, three words do it!

[ZombieHorde]

10. They don't have half the horror movies I like, but I still love Netflix.

If you want something different, then you should visit ebay.

[SomethingFishy]

12. Netflix is best for TV shows...

I don't watch many movies on Netflix but I catch up on TV shows I have missed. I cannot stand to watch commercials so I don't see too much TV..

[RobinA]

13. This is News?

I had Blockbuster mailing service since my video store turned into a Pep Boys, and although I'd rather go to the store, the mail service selection was pretty good. Blockbuster goes out and I switch to Netflix. I will say they are fast, but the selection is awful.

To me we are going back in time. It's not exactly pre-Betamax, but movie viewing options are getting much more limited than they used to be.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. Netflix streaming is a total disappointment

I preferred the DVD library when I had that service five years ago. Streaming, you are lucky to find more than and handful of good films by the same actor or actress, and they are usually the bad ones. And I assume the DVD selection will get worse as the discs get old, scratched, break and are not replaced. I go back and look at 75% of the reviews I did on Netflix and those films are no longer available.

And Redbox is okay for what it is, but not all of us are obsessed with only watching new movies!!!!

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. Netflix is great for cartoon shit for my kids...other than that, and maybe a few TV shows, garbage

[Prophet 451]

20. I have Nteflix and Amazon Prime

Over here, Amazon's streaming service is called Amazon Prime (as is their preferred customer mailing scheme, it's confusing).

I find that they're really good on tv shows, mediocre on older films (anything older than a couple years) and awful on the docus that I like to watch.

[marions ghost]

23. I no longer watch movies

--that's what putting the indy video stores out of business has done to me. Not happy about it.

I saw at the beginning of this shift the potential for limiting access to only the most popular fodder--whatever the industry wants us to consume. You're confirming that we are there, and I didn't even bother to participate. Vindicated, but a hollow feeling since I used to like movies.

Now I just do other things-- read, exercise, surf the net.