Netflix Movie Streaming vs Blu-ray Discs: Where do you stand?
Filed under: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3, Xbox 360
With Netflix set to offer streaming videos on the Xbox 360 as part of the new ‘live experience’, how will this effect Sony’s Blu-ray disc? Will this turn out to be another battle between Microsoft and Sony?
Once the update goes live, Xbox 360 owners will be able to have access to unlimited rentals providing they have a Gold membership and Netflix subscription. This means that while Sony have a format in their own in Blu-ray discs, Xbox owners now once again have movie options in Netflix. After the failures of HD-DVD this is surely a path forward for Microsoft.
What do you think is the best format for movies? While Blu-Ray discs will give you amazing quality guaranteed, Netflix will offer a very convenient service, with fast access to movies in all genres. We will keep you updated once we hear how Netflix performs on the 360 after its release. Drop us a comment with your opinions.
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Dear Sony Executives,
I pledge, starting today (thanks Microsoft/Netflix) to never, *ever* purchase or rent a physical media disk again, nor will I ever purchase any Sony hardware (which, is already too expensive). I am 100% committed to my future foward media library being 100% digital (and eventually, DRM free).
I will also be avoiding all Sony productions in the theatres (who the heck needs another crappy “Spiderman” movie anyway?).
Best Regards,
A former customer
BLU RAY’s for me.
I may still use netflix as well but not through Microsoft, why would I want to pay them a premium to rent movies. I can wait a day for it to come in the mail.
Also this X-Box/Microsoft streaming can’t stream Blu Ray Quality Video/Audio anyways.. didn’t mention that in the article did you. I use netflix for BLU RAY QUALITY Rentals, not junk quality streaming rentals from microsoft.
Oh yeah, lets not forget that the internet providers are soon going to be taking a bite out of your wallet too with restrictions on how much you can transfer in a month (stream) and when you go over the limit your charged per gigabyte. So then you will be paying netflix, microsoft, and your internet provider (3 times) to rent those movies and all with poor quality video/audio.
Paying more for less doesn’t sound like a great plan to me.
Very simple:
I will never buy digital content unless it is much cheaper than the physical medium. I am OK with renting digital content with a flat fee like Netflix. So if I want to watch something I will use Netflix, if I want to own I will order a BluRay.
Downloads will probably replace a substantial portion of the rental market, but it will never significantly replace physical distribution for purchases.
Downloads and any sort of internet service won’t work for me because
- I don’t have a suitable connection.
- I used to have a DVR with my satellite TV, but one of the ‘updates’ caused it to stop working; therefore, I will not use any internet capabilities with a Blu-ray player–I don’t believe that firmware updates will not destroy my player.
- I know people who’ve lost software due to a crash, power outage, etc. Anything I pay for, I am going to have a physical copy.
- Internet connections allow media companies to track and monitor viewing habits. I am not interested in giving them that info for free, so I won’t use it.
That being said, while I prefer physical media, I’m not going to buy BD this year because:
- Not enough improvement over DVD
- I have no interest in waiting a couple minutes for a disc to load
- To benefit from the better audio tracks, I need a new receiver, and I haven’t found one that is reasonably priced that meets my needs.
- I am not interested in firmware updates–finalize it already.
Blu-Rays look much better than digital downloads or DVDs, so I will be using them. If digital download rentals actually start looking anything close to Blu-Ray, then I would consider that, but only for rentals. If I pay for something I want the physical disk. And the pretty transparent blue case, for that matter
A note: don’t be fooled into thinking the low-resolution, compressed HD demo videos shown on the cheap HDTVs at stores are representative of Blu-Ray. Make sure you take a look at a real 1080P display showing an actual blu-ray or sony demo video (made of clips for movies).
Is it worth upgrading to Blu-Ray ever? Yes, unless you are badly in need of vision correction. If you think DVDs look OK, then maybe you should consult an optometrist. The world isn’t really that blurry.
Is it worth upgrading right now? That depends: do you purchase movies? Every movie you continue to buy on a blurry YouTube-quality format (OK, DVD isn’t quite that bad but compared the Blu-Ray it seems like it) is money you lost on 1/6th the resolution, and money you can’t get back when you wish you had a version of the movie that looked decent in a couple years when you have a blu-ray player. So if you buy movies, stop wasting money on blurry ones and make the switch to Blu-Ray now. Unless you are in debt and should be getting out of it instead of buying consumer products like this. Live within your means, especially in the current economic situation.
Streaming for me! All I ever did was rent movies anyway. I think blu-ray is better if you’re one of those movie-collectors that has hundreds of DVDs (never made any sense to me) or you live in the middle of nowhere and can’t get a high-speed internet connection. Maybe the PS3 will team up with blockbuster online and get streaming content too. That competition will be great because we’ll get all kinds of great movies streaming to us. Right now netflix gives us crappy movies for streaming, but with the 360 you can still pay your $6 and get the movie you want in HD through their video store. I think physical media is just clutter, and for $30 a disc you can rent the movie 5 times (though I’ve never watched a physical DVD I have that many times).
P.S.
The HD-DVD wasn’t a failure for the xbox 360. It was an add-on that Toshiba pushed to combat Sony. Microsoft didn’t want to include it in their system because they are betting on streaming media conquering physical media in a short amount of time. They think that HD-DVD and blu-ray were doomed from the onset.
lets see. i prefer Netflix. subscription based goodness at 10 bucks a month. i get streaming hd content. tvshows. movies. and if i want a dvd i can get it in the mail. movie watching has never been more fun for me. especially the streaming movies. i hate messing with disks. and streaming has fixed this for me. plus it suggests other movies i might like.
when sony came out with the ps3 it was too expensive, now it’s not too expensive, i simply don’t care about it. theres very few games that i want on it. and i don’t care about blueray. i just care about netflix. forget blueray, streaming is the future.