What's Your Netflix Experience (1 Viewer)

[Felix Martinez]

It's funny because the customer rep today told me that the "reinforcement" hub stickers were being used because of all the damaged Blu-rays they're seeing.

I told her that not only have I never seen a cracked Blu-ray in over a year of renting them, but I've never seen one scratched. They're immaculate. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one renting Blu-rays from Netflix in South Florida...

 

[John Dirk]

I just received a Blu Ray disc today and there was no such sticker, nor have I ever seen one on any disc. I have seen a few scratched Blu Ray discs however. Unlike regular DVD's, it doesn't take much at all to render a Blu Ray disc unplayable.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

FWIW, my suspicion that BDs are actually more brittle and easier to crack than DVDs remains (because of the harder characteristic). So far, I've received 3 cracked BDs from Blockbuster out maybe 50 or so. One was basically cracked in 1/2 while the other 2 had a small crack each (maybe 1/2 inch or so long) on the outer edge -- and of those latter 2, one would not load at all in my PS3 while the other (Burn After Reading, w/ what resembles a small hairline crack) did play just fine.

Haven't had much problem w/ scratched discs OTOH though...

_Man_

 

[Michael Warner]

My NetFlix experience has gone rapidly downhill over the past few months. Now that I only rent Blu-rays all of my picks show up as "very long wait" and new releases usually pop up as "short wait" and then "very long wait" even though they've been in my queue for months. I'm on the 3 at a time plan but I'm lucky if I ever have 1 disc at home at any given time. After this month's billing cycle I'm planning to drop to 2 at a time since I'm not getting my money's worth any more.

 

[Dave H]

One dislike I have of Netflix as of late is they are not carrying many recently released catalog titles on BD....such as JFK and LA Confidential just to name a couple. I wonder if Blockbuster would be better in this case.

 

[Felix Martinez]

Just got another one with a sticker; Mamma Mia. This sucks.

 

[John Dirk]

Wow. That's disturbing. I haven't run into a title that wasn't available on Blu Ray yet. If I did and it persisted, I would have to seriously reevaluate my membership.

 

[John Dirk]

Hmm. Maybe it's a regional thing...

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Just checked for yah, and both JFK and LA Confidential are currently listed as "available" for me w/ Blockbuster. For the most part, I've been finding Blockbuster gradually improving their BD availabilities over the past 1/2 year and have had no trouble getting new/recent releases in short time (and rarely see "long wait" or worse for them).

One correction about my earlier cracked disc comment. Now that I think about it again, I might've gotten one more cracked disc early on (for a total of 4 out 50+ BD rentals), but I"m not too sure -- maybe it was just a scratched disc that skipped or something.

Oh, also, Blockbuster does not (currently) charge extra for renting BDs.

_Man_

 

[Jamie Cole]

This piqued my interest. Are you running Windows on your mac?

 

[Dustin James]

Late last year (I believe), Netflix expanded their "Watch Instantly" service to Intel-chip Macs running OS 10.4.8 or higher. Microsoft's Silverlight 2.0 plug-in is required (and the reason for limiting watch instantly to Intel-chip Macs as version 2 of the Silverlight plug-in is not Universal Binary).

 

[Brian Collins]

I figured I would add to the Netflix knowledge base since I've recently had an unusual number of issues with cracked Blu-Rays. I receive my disks from Columbia, SC. I was on the 3rd disc before I received a The Happening that wasn't cracked at the edge. If the 3rd disc had also been cracked, I would have given up on that movie and just moved on the next one in my queue.

I received Hancock yesterday, a film I've been waiting to see for awhile, and it was cracked at the edge. I received Cloverfield today, and it was cracked at the edge. Hopefully, it won't take as many tries to get playable copies of both of these movies as it took to get an uncracked The Happening.

Doing some research of my history on this, I had 85 Blu-Rays (movies) and DVDs (mostly TV shows) shipped in 2008. I reported 5 of those damaged (2 of which were for the The Happening with the playable one being shipped in 2009). So far in 2009, I've had 8 Blu-Ray discs shipped with 2 reported damaged (and the 2 replacements still in the mail).

 

[Michael Elliott]

Sounds like your shipping facility. I usually get around 40+ movies a month and rarely is one cracked.

 

[John Dirk]

I reluctantly switched to Blockbuster about 45 days ago. It didn't take long for me to receive an unplayable BD [There Will Be Blood] from them. This time I took advantage of my neighborhood store and asked the guy there to load the disc in their PS3. Same results as I experienced at home. While Netflix readily offered a credit when I called, Blockbuster didn't even bother replying to the email I sent to their CS address after receiving my 2nd unplayable BD in less than 30 days. I only wrote to them because the guy in the store recommened it.

On the other hand, wait times do seem to be shorter with Blockbuster, and [on my current plan] I can exchange 2 movies a month in the store. This is a huge advantage for me because, since I live close to the store and work primarily from home, I can be the first in line on Tuesdays when the new titles release.

In summary, I miss Netflix; Mainly because I loved their web site. I had already ammased a growing repository of reviews and friends. I also think their CS is better than that of Blockbuster.

But from a practical standpoint, Blockbuster is the better service for me because of the BM stores, which allow for faster returns [return to store and they are immediately checked into the system as "returned." A new title usually ships next day, so if I return a title to the store on Monday, I'll have another one in my hands by Wednesday. Netflix took an extra day in transit] and also because of the in-store exchange option. My Blockbuster plan costs about $2.00 per month more than a comparable Netflix plan.

John

 

[RobertR]

Sigh...I was considering getting Netflix, but all these stories about damaged BRs have turned me off. Also, I went to their web site, and their BR selection seems paltry.

 

[Todd H]

Been subscribing to Netflix for almost a year and I haven't gotten a single cracked blu-ray. The only disc I've ever received that didn't play was an older DVD and they sent a replacement out the same day.

 

[RobertR]

Originally Posted by Todd H

Been subscribing to Netflix for almost a year and I haven't gotten a single cracked blu-ray. The only disc I've ever received that didn't play was an older DVD and they sent a replacement out the same day.

For every experience like yours, though, there seems to be one with someone having problems. I realize anecdotal information is problematic, but it does seem to be a significant problem.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by RobertR

For every experience like yours, though, there seems to be one with someone having problems. I realize anecdotal information is problematic, but it does seem to be a significant problem.

But people are much more likely to mention problems rather than to say everything is fine.

 

[RobertR]

How many BR titles are available? Is it (mostly) the entire catalog?

 

[Craig Beam]

LOVE Netflix. I've been a member for five or six years now, and I've had very few problems (maybe 1 or 2 cracked discs out of the hundreds that I've rented). I've had no defective blu-ray discs so far. And the streaming (which is built in to my Samsung blu-ray player) is great (I watched Star Trek: First Contact and a few episodes of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations yesterday. They looked great and played flawlessly). It's too bad some people have had problems, but I can honestly say it's more than worth the $21.99/month.