netflix, video’s sleeping giant.
Posted by jonathan - 15/01/08 at 06:01:56 am
My wife sent me a link about how netflix is getting into the set-top game with partner LG. I watched the first season of Heroes using the service and was pleasantly surprised by the show and the service. I hooked up my company issued lenovo thinkpad t60 to my newish lamsung 40 inch lcd. As if giving a presentation I flipped ctrl+f7 popped the video onto the tv, clicked on the full-screen button, plugged a headphone to rca cord (i knew that box of wires my wife wants to throw out was useful for something) into a spare college dorm panasonic mini-stereo and was good to go. I drafted this post a few weeks back and went back to the service last night to continue through season II. That is where the fun stopped.
Since my original draft and JW’s posting, netflix has:
In an attempt to counteract whatever announcements Apple will make at Macworld this week, Netflix has decided to let subscribers stream unlimited movies and TV shows, with almost every basic plan, the Associated Press is reporting.
My assumption is that netflix might be in danger of some growing pains, as evidence by the pixelated quality of the stream last night. I saw a similar drop in service in skype since its inception as call quality has dropped with popularity. As of this post skype has, 10,010,818 people online. It would be cool if netflix started showing you some usage stats as well.
Netflix has grown up as a category killer, besting blockbuster in the transition from getting your lazy ass up off the couch to rent a movie to having them delivered to your home. Now it is set to take over delivery through the wires, one because of its ron peil, “set it and forget it” subscription model and two because of its history of technical innovation. As evidence read this article about the evolution of the ubiquitous red envelope.
Just like Jason mentions in his homage to netflix, I have never spent a cent on itunes and never will. I have bought a couple cd’s since 2000, mostly live shows, but have purchased items on amazon, and mostly through allofmp3/mp3sparks. While only dropping a couple hundred dollars on pressed music from 2000-2007, my “pirate” russian friends at mp3sparks, plus npr’s all songs considered, seattle’s kexp, and bbc’s radio one have all increased my spending on live music for acts I would have never found on the radio. Will I see more live performances because I view movies I never would have scene in the theatre? Probably not. How do you think the transition will shake out for the movie and tv industries?
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