The availability of the streaming catalog is entirely dependent on the deals Netflix has with the owners of the respective film rights. Recently Sony (who is evidently on a quest to be the most dickish company ever) pulled all the streaming rights to their stuff because the number of people subscribed to Netflix's streaming service grew past a preset number in their contract.

Streaming would be more tempting if the same things that are avaible on DVD are also available through streaming. I realize that Netflix can't control studios becoming jerks and yanking streaming rights, but it doesn't change the fact that I want to same selection, no matter which option I choose. And yeah...Netflix could have handled the price increase better.

Well, hell. I'm probably going to end up staying with Netflix and paying the increase, dammit.

Mr. Webby is such an audio freak that he will not watch anything streamed over the internet. He doesn't even like pay-per-view on cable. So whatever I might have decided on as a replacement, I'd still be having to rent DVDs whenever there would be something we'd both want to see. Since Redbox almost never has anything we want to see, I'd end up going to Blockbuster and if I did that even once a month I'll have almost spent the amount Netflix wants to charge per month.

I wanted to be all righteously indignant and quit Netflix in a huff over their surprise new pricing. Now it looks like I'll just be going sheepishly along with it.

I notice that if I search for a movie a lot it becomes available shortly thereafter. Might just be coincidence.

Tony, there ARE no coincidences! Has Paul taught you nothing?

This happens because a multi-national secret consumer organization has decided that you are the ultimate arbiter of taste (i.e. If Tony wants it, it must be good), and accordingly makes movies available as you search for them.

We don't watch too many movies, but do watch a lot of cable tv. Since we watch our pennies and don't pay credit card interest, ATM fees, etc I don't feel bad about watching an occasional movie rental through our cable on demand service. If I watch 2 a year i'd be surprised. Usually by the time I remember to watch a movie I thought was just in theaters recently it's already on cable (this is where the smilie would go, got to relearn how to do that). Gonna stick with streaming only on Netflix for now, but if they get rid of X-files before I finish rewatching them, or Dr. Who before I can get to those seasons i'll be ticked off enough to forget the whole deal.

Thought this article would be of interest to some people. I'm a notorious procrastinator, so i'm looking forward to hearing how everyone that changes likes their new services.

http://www.macworld.com/article/161119/2...tives.html

Very interesting - thanks for that link!

The article mentioned at least one service I didn't know about but overall, I'd pretty much been arriving at the same conclusion. Nothing really compares with Netflix.

Thought this article would be of interest to some people. I'm a notorious procrastinator, so i'm looking forward to hearing how everyone that changes likes their new services.

http://www.macworld.com/article/161119/2...tives.html

Very interesting - thanks for that link!

The article mentioned at least one service I didn't know about but overall, I'd pretty much been arriving at the same conclusion. Nothing really compares with Netflix.

Dang it all if I am not coming to the same conclusion. I wanted to be all upset and righteous but I am finding the more research I do into options the more I am coming back to probably sticking with Netflix. I so wanted to be mad about this and to be honest, if it had been handled even a tiny bit different I would not have hesitated to just suck up the price change and stick with Netflix, instead of the meandering research driven lead me back to the same place. Netflix.

One cool thing about the Roku is that it has a netflix browser that costs $3 once. It searches all netflix streaming titles and shows upcoming and expiring. Yesterday they added the last airbender (which I hadn't seen and wasn't on the main browser. it was predictable). You can't play movies from that browser, but it adds to the queue and redirects to the regular netflix browser.

And I can watch Al Jazira TV.

I also purchased the Instant Watcher browser last week. As Karithna says, it's independent of Netflix, so you can't launch the movies directly from the channel, just add them to your instant queue. But, it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay 1000x better than the default Netflix browser. I highly recommend it if you have a Roku.