Ray,

I love my VUDU--it's the coolest gadget!

Matt,

You can take the VUDU with you, which is cool.

heath

Since I needed money to buy a new laptop I had to put my Netlix account on hold so its been months. Anyway, it has a Blu-Ray burner and a 1920x1080 16.4” LED Backlit LCD screen. I’m tempted to possibly take it off hold this month even though I haven’t paid off the laptop yet.

They may loose some customers because of this increase but they will continue to gain a lot more customers at the same time because of how convenient it is. They have a box just like Apple and VUDO but their also on some Blu-Ray players and the XBOX360. In the future they plan on bringing their service to the Wii and hopefully the PS3. HD-DVD was already dying but Netflix made sure they die quicker by announcing they will favor Blu-Ray. The least Sony can do is not prevent Netflix from providing that service even though Sony would rather be the only one offering online movies on the PS3. They claim people would rather own the movies but it’s really all about protecting their business interests. Still, I think things will work out between them if it haven’t already. The more things the PS3 can do the more it becomes enticing for the buyer. For crying out loud, Sony already offers DivX playback. I mean seriously, adding Netflix wont hurt, I promise.

Anyway, I do believe that the increase has to do with them buying a lot more Blu-Ray discs. Theirs already over 1 million Netflix customers with the Blu-Ray option enabled. Blu-Ray adoption is growing at a rapid pace.

Having NetFlix enabled on EITHER a WII or a PS3 would be awesome!! I have both! :D I just don't have room for an Xbox...

Don't know about you guys but download movie and sound quality is not good, I'm a busy man and if I'm going to burn 2 hrs. watching a movie, I want the best I can get and that is uncompressed wave or DTS master audio with top notch encoding from AVC or VC1 and those only come on Blu-ray disc and not download or streaming.

Khoi,

Have you used the VUDU? The sound and video quality are terrific. I try to watch at least two a month (I don't watch as much movies as I'd like to).

heath

No but a while back when I was looking into it, they only have 65 HDX movies, and it takes about 4 hrs. to download, so not for me, I like to have a disc anyway, I have a short memory, after about 3 years, I forget what the movie is about so that is why I like to collect disc so I can watch them again. (-:, I'm sure the instant HD will be fine for 40" or smaller but I have a 65 inch and I know it is not going to look good, maybe the HDX version would but again, I don't want to wait 4 hours to download, I just want to pop a disc in and watch.

HD is nice, HDX is better. Start the download earlier in the day and watch at night. I don't think the studios allow VUDU, Apple, etc. to sell HD movies yet. I'd love to see movies-over-IP have these features:

1. HDX quality.

2. Purchase or rent HDX quality movies.

3. Day and date releases with DVD, etc. (Twilight is the rare movie that offered it everywhere day and date).

4. Special features! Wouldn't it be cool to have everything in a DVD-style setup? You could watch the movie, listen to commentary, etc., with little loading time. Blu-ray players are slower than my generation 1 DVD player I got for Christmas in 1998.

heath

No pay raise for Netflix execs in 2009
 

I wonder why no pay raises--they were one of the very few companies making a ton of money.

heath

Blockbuster is facing an uncertain future: Blockbuster gets going concern notice: SEC filing | Reuters

My feeling is that they wanted good PR. They can sense which way the wind is blowing.

Also, they have an opportunity to gain market share - but not if they harvest in the spring.

Jon,

Very good point and I thought about it, too.

heath

Heath, Thanks for mentioning the Vudu solution here.... I ordered one from Vudu (the XL version ) and received it Friday afternoon... hooked it up this weekend and I'm very much
pleased with the unit... the hardware is top notch and the quality of the media is great.

They released two Apple Iphone apps for it... one app is setup to allow you to see movies
that you might want to rent or purchase so you can view a list of what is available and rent or purchase say from your office and when you get home that evening the movie is ready to
watch... thats pretty cool.

The second app turns the Iphone into a remote controller to the Vudu box... works great.

I think its a good buy as there are no monthly fees and even if you don't get any movies there is so much there for free to watch and listen to...

Very cool! I love the VUDU and I think it's still one of the best tech gadgets out there. I'm trying out the wireless and it's great, too. Don't need to stretch a 50 foot ethernet cable across my apartment!

I'll have to check out the iPhone/VUDU remote app!

heath

What can I say.
Netflix Coming Soon to PlayStation 3 – PlayStation.Blog