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Here's why they can get away with itThe HD selection right now is very limited, and I believe it's that way on purpose. So people will not be streaming that many HD movies. SD has a wider selection, but I've watched a few movies in SD and they border on unwatchable. I would rather just wait for the Blu-Ray in the mail.
Most people also have caps so they're not going to be streaming 24x7.
This whole streaming thing is simply a way for Netflix to boost subscriber numbers for its regular DVD service. Some people don't even put DVDs in their queue making it even more profitable for netflix.
I was a netflix sub from 2001-2004. I stopped it because I didn't have that much time to watch movies and 3 movies was just too much. I resubscribed when TiVo got it and even got blu-ray access. Without the streaming option I would have probably not gone back to Netflix in such a hurry. |
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 Rob
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL |
Rob
Premium Member
2009-Mar-23 8:56 am
Not too happy..I have the Roku.
When I first got it, it was great. There were so many movies I wanted to watch and didn't want to wait for the DVD.
Now, it's boring. They keep releasing old movies. It'd be nice if they released more newer movies. I check at least 3 times a week to see what new movies were released for instant viewing and it's all stuff that I've already seen, or has been out for 10+ years. |
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What does it cost for the Direct TV VOD downloads in data coWhat does it cost for the Direct TV VOD downloads in data cost?
do they get any real good deals as they are teamed up with ATT now? |
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 Matt3All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC |
to fifty nine
Re: Here's why they can get away with itsaid by fifty nine:SD has a wider selection, but I've watched a few movies in SD and they border on unwatchable. I would rather just wait for the Blu-Ray in the mail. Your experience with SD is not the norm. SD quality is very good, DVD like for me and most reviewers. The quality will auto-adjust itself down to horrible based on your connection however ... Regardless, what the article illustrates is that as bandwidth consumption goes up, the cost per bit goes down. Not the other way around as most people would have you believe. |
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| Matt3 |
Matt3 to Rob
Premium Member
2009-Mar-23 9:05 am
to Rob
Re: Not too happy..Rob, that's the stuff that is easy to license. This whole "streaming" thing is new for a lot of content producers, so they have to warm up to the idea. That's why there isn't any recent HD content. |
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to Matt3
Re: Here's why they can get away with itI agree all the non HD content we've watched has been DVD quality. We've actually been very pleased with the service, if only the selection were a bit better.
But, considering it's free on my TIVO and the Netflix service costs about the same as a premium channel like HBO, I call it a win. |
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Rob
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL |
Rob to Matt3
Premium Member
2009-Mar-23 9:12 am
to Matt3
Re: Not too happy..said by Matt3:Rob, that's the stuff that is easy to license. This whole "streaming" thing is new for a lot of content producers, so they have to warm up to the idea. That's why there isn't any recent HD content. I know. I'm not even concerned about HD. But I'm just not happy much anymore. |
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to Rob
We bring the DVDs in that are newer releases. Two day turn around is pretty good IMO.
We use the streaming for 'filler' and it's great for kids stuff. |
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RatesStill cheaper than US Postal Rate |
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 FLengineerCCNA, CEH, MCSA
Premium Member
join:2007-06-26
Deltona, FL |
I want Level 3 as an ISPLevel 3 is charging $0.03 per GB while Comcast and Time Warner feels $1 per GB overage charges is acceptable.
NetFlix ------ Level 3 ------- Comcast ------- Me
Send 2GB ----- $0.06 ------- $2.00 ------- Recieve 2GB |
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88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness |
to fifty nine
Re: Here's why they can get away with itsaid by fifty nine:The HD selection right now is very limited, and I believe it's that way on purpose. So people will not be streaming that many HD movies. SD has a wider selection, but I've watched a few movies in SD and they border on unwatchable. I would rather just wait for the Blu-Ray in the mail. Most people also have caps so they're not going to be streaming 24x7. This whole streaming thing is simply a way for Netflix to boost subscriber numbers for its regular DVD service. Some people don't even put DVDs in their queue making it even more profitable for netflix. I was a netflix sub from 2001-2004. I stopped it because I didn't have that much time to watch movies and 3 movies was just too much. I resubscribed when TiVo got it and even got blu-ray access. Without the streaming option I would have probably not gone back to Netflix in such a hurry. Get away with what? The streaming is an ADDED feature. It's not like you pay for it separately. Also as the OP said this doesn't include licensing fees. The bigger question is that if netflix only pays 3¢ per GB how come ISPs want to charge $1 or more per GB overage? And the 250 GB cap that Charter and Comcast have only costs them $7.50 are they telling me it's cost them nearly $60 to provide everything else associated with an internet connection? Hardly. One also has to wonder how mobile companies can get away with $256 and $503 per GB overage fees. |
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Matt3All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC |
to Uncle Paul
said by Uncle Paul:I agree all the non HD content we've watched has been DVD quality. We've actually been very pleased with the service, if only the selection were a bit better. But, considering it's free on my TIVO and the Netflix service costs about the same as a premium channel like HBO, I call it a win. You sound like me. I still have all the newest stuff come in on DVD/Blu-Ray, but love firing it up to watch older content. I read a review one time that said something along the lines of it being perfect for "Curling up on the couch for a rainy weekend of movie watching." I'd agree that is a great use for it. Especially since it's free! |
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Why do these stories make the front page?It's nothing but assumptions. There are no facts in this story. Just the ramblings of another self appointed expert. |
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me1212
join:2008-11-20
Pleasant Hill, MO |
to FLengineer
Re: I want Level 3 as an ISPI agree! I would like them too. But I am happy with what I got. |
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Matt3All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC |
to battleop
Re: Why do these stories make the front page?said by battleop:It's nothing but assumptions. There are no facts in this story. Just the ramblings of another self appointed expert. There is a difference in an assumption from a knowledgeable industry insider who writes about online video delivery for a living and say, a guy posting in the DSLR forums. He's even written articles about the difference in Akamai's pricing structure so I'd say he has a bit of inside information. Regardless, it's not hard to find out pricing. Call up Akamai or Limelight, tell them how much you want to transfer per month, and they'll tell you how much it will cost. From my past discussions with them (they weren't the right fit for us however) his pricing is right on. |
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 cdruGo Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN |
to FLengineer
Re: I want Level 3 as an ISPsaid by FLengineer:Level 3 is charging $0.03 per GB while Comcast and Time Warner feels $1 per GB overage charges is acceptable. I was going to make a comment regarding sending several GB only costs a few cents but sending a 140-character text message costs $.25. However you also have to factor in what exactly they are providing. Level 3 has their own backbones, but if you just look at the total number of feet in their cable plant, cable and telcos have several orders of magnitude more cabling that they have to maintain. That translates into more infrastructure costs, more labor costs (both wages and benefits), more administrative costs to maintain that infrastructure and labor force, etc. While in the end both provide essentially the same thing, it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison of costs. |
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 DataDocMy avatar looks like me, if I was 2D.
Premium Member
join:2000-05-14
Martinsburg, WV |
to 88615298
Re: Here's why they can get away with itsaid by 88615298:...The bigger question is that if netflix only pays 3¢ per GB how come ISPs want to charge $1 or more per GB overage? And the 250 GB cap that Charter and Comcast have only costs them $7.50 are they telling me it's cost them nearly $60 to provide everything else associated with an internet connection? Hardly. ... Maybe they'd like to pay their employees, rent and other "overhead", and maybe even show a profit for their stockholders. |
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to Matt3
said by Matt3:said by fifty nine:SD has a wider selection, but I've watched a few movies in SD and they border on unwatchable. I would rather just wait for the Blu-Ray in the mail. Your experience with SD is not the norm. SD quality is very good, DVD like for me and most reviewers. The quality will auto-adjust itself down to horrible based on your connection however ... Regardless, what the article illustrates is that as bandwidth consumption goes up, the cost per bit goes down. Not the other way around as most people would have you believe. Just out of curiousity, what kind of TV are you viewing it on? I'm using a 56" DLP. DVDs are noticeably better. It's not bandwidth related because I get all of the SD quality bars and I have a 30 meg connection. It could be that: I'm using a 56" HDTV I'm using an upconverting DVD player for DVDs (Sony) Or it could be that I haven't watched a SD movie in a while. I know they've had some really bad encodes in the past. |
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88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness |
to battleop
Re: Why do these stories make the front page?said by battleop:It's nothing but assumptions. There are no facts in this story. Just the ramblings of another self appointed expert. And YOU have proof of this? Or are YOU making ASSumptions YOURSELF? |
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Matt3All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC |
to DataDoc
Re: Here's why they can get away with itsaid by DataDoc:said by 88615298:...The bigger question is that if netflix only pays 3¢ per GB how come ISPs want to charge $1 or more per GB overage? And the 250 GB cap that Charter and Comcast have only costs them $7.50 are they telling me it's cost them nearly $60 to provide everything else associated with an internet connection? Hardly. ... Maybe they'd like to pay their employees, rent and other "overhead", and maybe even show a profit for their stockholders. Have you seen the price of NFLX lately?  |
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to Matt3
Agreed...the value to me as a Netflix customer is great. I love watching movies from their streaming site. Works fine for me and looks decent enough. The added value it offers me for the Netflix monthly charge is so very well worth the $16 or whatever it is. |
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Matt3All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC |
to fifty nine
said by fifty nine:said by Matt3:said by fifty nine:SD has a wider selection, but I've watched a few movies in SD and they border on unwatchable. I would rather just wait for the Blu-Ray in the mail. Your experience with SD is not the norm. SD quality is very good, DVD like for me and most reviewers. The quality will auto-adjust itself down to horrible based on your connection however ... Regardless, what the article illustrates is that as bandwidth consumption goes up, the cost per bit goes down. Not the other way around as most people would have you believe. Just out of curiousity, what kind of TV are you viewing it on? I'm using a 56" DLP. DVDs are noticeably better. It's not bandwidth related because I get all of the SD quality bars and I have a 30 meg connection. It could be that: I'm using a 56" HDTV I'm using an upconverting DVD player for DVDs (Sony) Or it could be that I haven't watched a SD movie in a while. I know they've had some really bad encodes in the past. I watch on a 42" plasma mainly. I also have an upconvert DVD player as well as a Blu-Ray player. The quality really is very good, but I have noticed that some movies just suck. Deep Blue Sea is a great example ... but I think it's because the source material is crap. I even had them send me the DVD because the stream quality was pretty bad, but the DVD was actually WORSE. It seems the newer stuff that is added is great quality, but once you start getting into some of the first online offerings the quality goes downhill. I wonder if at some point they started encoding with higher quality or a better codec? |
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to 88615298
said by 88615298:Get away with what?
Get away with offering the streaming as an added free feature. quote:
The bigger question is that if netflix only pays 3¢ per GB how come ISPs want to charge $1 or more per GB overage? And the 250 GB cap that Charter and Comcast have only costs them $7.50 are they telling me it's cost them nearly $60 to provide everything else associated with an internet connection? Hardly. One also has to wonder how mobile companies can get away with $256 and $503 per GB overage fees.
Firstly, LLNW is a caching service. It's not an ISP. You either upload content to them or they fetch it once from an "origin" server (i.e. your webserver) and serve it to multiple users. As for the L3 bandwidth, the bandwidth charge isn't the whole cost. You have to pay for the circuit as well which isn't cheap. It's much more than the $40-$150 you pay for a residential connection. The last time I ordered a T1 (which is only 1.5Mbps) we paid around $500/month and that's with a 2 year contract. Besides, ISP cappage is for one reason and one reason only - to discourage you from using your connection beyond a certain amount. The "overage" charges are punitive. |
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88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness |
to DataDoc
said by DataDoc:said by 88615298:...The bigger question is that if netflix only pays 3¢ per GB how come ISPs want to charge $1 or more per GB overage? And the 250 GB cap that Charter and Comcast have only costs them $7.50 are they telling me it's cost them nearly $60 to provide everything else associated with an internet connection? Hardly. ... Maybe they'd like to pay their employees, rent and other "overhead", and maybe even show a profit for their stockholders. and they can do all that just fine and offer a higher cap. Also doesn't justfiy $1 overages. If each GB cost $3 then charging 10¢ per GB pays for that overage AND makes them a nice profit. let's have fun with math. Charter 10 Mbps tier is $45 a month with 100 GB cap. Now I'm assuming they are selling this for at least break-even. But I'm sure they don't LOSE money on this tier. Charter 20 Mbps tier $65 with 250 GB cap. So that extra 150 GB cost Charter $4.50 Yet they charge $20 extra. Or for that extra $20 they could offer an extra 666 GB and not lose money. In other words they can pay costs make money for stockholders and themselves and still offer higher caps. Especially since as they claim only 1% go over the current caps anyways. So really they wouldn't be losing hardly anything. |
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to Matt3
Could be just the older encodes then. I remember Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's chest was simply unwatchable. Realplayer back in 1999 would have been better. |
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to Matt3
Re: Why do these stories make the front page?That's just one piece of the puzzle. It's written in a way that make it sound like it only costs $.05 per movie streamed to deliver. |
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88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness |
to fifty nine
Re: Here's why they can get away with itsaid by fifty nine:As for the L3 bandwidth, the bandwidth charge isn't the whole cost. You have to pay for the circuit as well which isn't cheap. And my ISP already PAID for that circut. It's not like offering a higher cap means the circut that they ALREADY paid for costs more. It's much more than the $40-$150 you pay for a residential connection. The last time I ordered a T1 (which is only 1.5Mbps) we paid around $500/month and that's with a 2 year contract. That's YOU as an individual. Companies get volume discounts. Do you think that when you pay $1000 for a TV at Wal-Mart that THEY paid $1000 for it? I know for a FACT that on many items they pay 1,5 or even 1/10 what they charge the customers. So to think that Comcast or Charter is paying the same rate as YOU is rediculous. And ever think you are geting butt raped on that? You probably think it actually costs the cell phone companies 20¢ to send text messages Besides, ISP cappage is for one reason and one reason only - to discourage you from using your connection beyond a certain amount. The "overage" charges are punitive Yes discourage using thing like Netflix, Amzon etc and use thing like their overpriced PPV option. Yes now the REAL reason emerges. |
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| 88615298 |
to battleop
Re: Why do these stories make the front page?said by battleop:That's just one piece of the puzzle. It's written in a way that make it sound like it only costs $.05 per movie streamed to deliver. Well technically to DELIVER the stream that may be correct. The licensing fees are something they have to pay anyways they pay regardless. So no the cost to them is more than 5 cetns per movie but the deilvery cost perhaps is 5 cents. |
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 funchordsHello
MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA |
to fifty nine
Re: Here's why they can get away with itsaid by fifty nine:Could be just the older encodes then. I remember Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's chest was simply unwatchable. Realplayer back in 1999 would have been better. I wish these streaming video outfits would actually try their products on different connections. They might work in the lab, but on a very latent 3G or satellite connection, they often suck rocks. |
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to 88615298
Re: Why do these stories make the front page?Well he does say in his article that he is assuming. |
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