Netflix First presents five films from Magnolia Pictures

I received the following in an email from Netflix:

As part of the Netflix First program -- which gives you early access to unique independent movies, documentaries and more -- we're excited to tell you about these five films from Magnolia Pictures, now available exclusively on DVD for Netflix subscribers:

Bollywood/Hollywood (add to top of your queue) This sly send-up of Indian movie musical conventions follows a handsome young hero (Rahul Khanna) at odds with his traditionalist family over his plans to marry a Canadian pop star (Jessica Pare). Will he give in and choose a mate more suitable to his family's high standards?

Oliver Stone Presents:
Bang Rajan (add to top of your queue) Oliver Stone helped bring this oft-forgotten story -- about a small band of 18th century Thai villagers who stood their ground against the invading Burmese army -- to U.S. theaters. Armed with only machetes, the brave few were up against an army of 100,000.


On the Run: Trilogy 1(add to top of your queue)The first film in director Lucas Belvaux’s award-winning trilogy traces the path of prison escapee Bruno (Belvaux), who sets out to exact revenge on those responsible for landing him in jail. But as he hunts down his enemies, he must also avoid capture by troubled cop Pascal (Gilbert Melki).


An Amazing Couple: Trilogy 2 (add to top of your queue)Belvaux's second film finds successful businessman Alain (François Morel) spiraling into an unknown abyss, sure that he’s gravely ill. When his behavior becomes more bizarre with each passing day, his wife (Ornella Muti) hires Pascal to look into his comings and goings -- which only makes matters worse.

After the Life: Trilogy 3 (add to top of your queue)This final installment of Belvaux’s dramatic trilogy tells Pascal’s story from his own perspective as he struggles to relate to his morphine-addicted wife (Dominique Blanc) and to capture a prisoner on the loose.

A list of all TV shows available on DVD

Here's another handy Web site to help you fill your Netflix queue. The futon critic, which claims to be "the web's best primetime television resource", has a list of all TV shows available on DVD.

Aleratec DVD/CD Disc Repair Plus

Discs that won't play because of fingerprint smudges or even peanut butter can be cleaned with simple soap and water. What about badly scratched discs that skip, freeze, or stutter, and still won't play after you've tried cleaning them?



I wonder if Netflix would mind us using a device like this Aleratec DVD/CD Disc Repair Plus, instead of waiting for a replacement to arrive in the mail?

Hacking Netflix has a story on scratched discs from Netflix today.

Netflix now makes full rental history available

Used to be that you could get only the last 3 months of your rental activity by email from Netflix. They've since changed it, but I discovered the change only today.

From the Netflix FAQ:

Q: Can I see a list of all the movies I've rented?
A: You can view all movies rented within the past 3 months on the DVD Rental Activity page.
To see a list of all the movies you've ever rented, click on the Send Full Rental Activity button at the bottom of the DVD Rental Activity page. We'll send your entire movie rental return activity to the email address we have on file for you.

Despite its Recent Declines, Renting a Video is still America's Favorite Way to Watch a Movie

According to this report by Research and Markets, titled The Future of Video Rental: A Strategic Analysis of the US Market:

Traditional video rentals in the US plunged more than 20% from their 2001 peak to 2004 and retailers are scrambling to adapt. Can stores get revenue growing again with subscription plans, games sales, rentals and expansion of their share of the robust DVD sales market?

With this report find out:

- How big can the subscription rental business become?

- What will be the impact of online rentals, VOD and movie downloads?

- Can used DVD sales carve out a significant chunk of the business?

- Can video stores capture a significant piece of sell-through in the years ahead?

- How big a factor will games be in the future of video stores?

- What would be the impact on the business of Hollywood's sales to Blockbuster? To Movie Gallery?

Despite its recent declines, renting a video is still America's favorite way to watch a movie, as evidenced by the comparison of annual rental turns vs. box admissions, video sales and VOD/PPV rentals below. By building on existing strategies and undertaking new ones, video rental stores can reinvent themselves yet again.

Topics covered include:

- History

- The Subscription Revolution

- The Rental Store of the Future

- The Changing Retail Marketplace

- New Technology: Threats & Opportunities for Retailers

- Video Rental's Impact on Studio Economics

- Findings from the AMR Video Model

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c22516

Research and Markets
Laura Wood
Senior Manager
press@researchandmarkets.com
Fax: +353 1 4100 980

Exclusive pics of TiVo Download

Engadget has "Exclusive pics of TiVo Download." Where's the Netflix?!

It looks like they're letting you download the same stuff that Netflix offered Mike to rent on a "sneak preview DVD."

Update: Now that the Associated Press has picked up the story, it's no longer gossip and has crossed over into news:

"TiVo has struck a deal with the Independent Film Channel to transmit several of the cable channel's shows through a broadband connection as part of a trial program. A group of customers were asked to take part in the test and those who chose to participate will begin receiving the IFC shows next week, said TiVo spokesman Elliot Sloane.

Content on demand has long been a holy grail for Internet and cable companies as they try to create the next generation of television. No one yet has found a way to overcome key technological hurdles, such as finding a speedy way to pump two-hour movies through broadband, or convince Hollywood that it can profit from Internet broadcasts."

Via the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer

Netflix Addict 0.5 is now available for download

Netflix Addict 0.5 is now available for download. This version includes access to Netflix RSS feeds and several bug fixes and performance improvements. Be sure to upgrade from any older versions.

Netflix Addict is an open-source application released under the GPL. It is a platform independent application written in Java. Netflix Addict is a client that allows users to access and manage their Netflix account. It provides capabilities similar to Netflix Freak which is currently only available to Mac OS X users.

Features
Ways to reorder your rental queue: Drag and Drop, Shuffle, Reverse, Move Title to Top/Bottom
Add multiple titles to rental queue at once.
Delete multiple titles to rental queue at once.
Fast search of titles available from Netflix.
Access to Netflix RSS feeds including, Recommendations and Top 100.
Single window access to all queues.
Import and view entire rental history.

More Praise for Netflix

Bil Herron writes:

By now it seems everyone has raved about Netflix, but I just had a surprisingly excellent experience with them so I thought I'd share.

As you can imagine, having the the US Postal Service as the major link in your logistics chain can lead to some lost packages and missed deliveries, and a potential source of a lot of customer dissatisfaction. And in fact, this past week I had one such lost dvd problem.

So what happens when Spiderman 2 never arrives at your domicile? Within two clicks I had another copy on its way and that was that. Two questions (no typing!) and that was that. Very easy. Good Netflix.

Via A Cry for Help

Walletbuster Video

Walletbuster Video
Originally uploaded by  Smaragd.

"Welcome to Walletbuster Video. See this $18 DVD? We'll let you borrow it for a few nights for slightly less than it would cost to purchase it for yourself. And have we told you about our great new program which will make your rentals negligably cheaper, so long as you rent at least twelve movies every week, without exception? Oh, and if you're one of those people who returns movies on time, now you get to pay the late fees for the people who don't! That's right, we're raising prices on the responsible people in order to accommodate the irresponsible ones!"

Too true!!

King Kong news

After a very long wait, Netflix has the original King Kong (1933) available to save to your queue for release on DVD on November 22.

Netflix also has the 2005 remake of King Kong which will be in theatres December 14. Of course, all you can do at this point is save it to your queue, as the release date for DVD is still unknown.

Here it is, August, and already people are posting Netflix Member Reviews for the new King Kong, even though no one, not even director Peter Jackson, has seen the completed film. Some are using their Member Review as a type of message board, voicing support for the movie, claiming to have seen it already(?!), or condemning it without having seen it at all!

New Netflix Shipping Center in Dayton, OH

Hacking NetFlix reader Zach is reporting that there's a new Netflix distribution center in Dayton, Ohio. If you live in Southern Ohio, Kentucky, or Southern Indiana, this should speed up shipping times for you.

This may mean they re-opened a shipping center that was previously closed, because Listology's Netflix Tracker already had Dayton on the list as being combined with Indianapolis, IN/Bowling Green, KY/Louisville, KY. Are there still centers in those cities?

What happens to your queue if you cancel Netflix?

I emailed Netflix customer service with this question, since I couldn't find the answer using online help. This is the reply I received today:

Dear Becky,

Thank you for contacting Netflix.com customer support!

If you rejoin within 2 years of cancellation your rental queue will be restored automatically.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,
Jo-Lynn,
Netflix Customer Service.

Tivo fixin' to offer downloadable content?

Looks like Tivo is preparing to offer downloadable content, according to changes to their privacy policy. This could be related to the deal they made with Netflix last year. Perhaps Netflix will be providing some of the content to be downloaded?

Via PVRblog.

Get a free DiscHub for signing up with Netflix!

Sign up at the DiscHub site.

I usually stack my Netflix DVDs on the TV, where they often fall off and then are in danger of being stepped on, or eaten by my dog. I should probably use DiscHub, a scratch-free storage option for Games/DVDs/CDs.

Notice: I haven't received any promotional incentive for this post.

Blockbuster to raise online rental prices

Via Yahoo! News

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI - news) on Tuesday said it was raising subscription prices for its online service as it expands the business that competes with Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq:NFLX - news)

The monthly price for a plan that lets customers have three movies out will increase to $17.99 from $14.99 as of Aug, 19.

Delicious irony.

The best way to cancel

You should use this method to cancel any online DVD rental subscription service, not just Netflix. I know that Netflix gives you seven days to return your outstanding rentals, but sometimes they do not receive all your returns. I suggest cancelling in three steps, to be sure you do not get charged for failing to return something after you've cancelled.

1. Empty your queue.* This stops them from shipping anything else.
2. Return everything you have out. This shouldn't take more than a week.
3. Check the Netflix site to make sure they've received them. Save the confirmation emails.
4. Cancel!

That's the only way I know of to prevent this sort of thing from happening.

All cancellations are effective immediately, and there are no refunds for unused portions of your billing cycle.

* Netflix saves your queue if you cancel, but not if you empty it first. If you really, really love your queue and want to keep it, upload it to Listology.com first. You'll need to add it in manually if you ever re-subscribe.

Netflix fixin' to move to new, bigger headquarters

MercuryNews.com | 08/02/2005 | What's Up with That?

Where it is: 14300 Winchester Blvd., Los Gatos

What it is: New Netflix headquarters

What's going on: Construction is on track for Netflix to ring in 2006 in its new 80,000-square-foot building, the first phase of a project that eventually will have a second building the same size. Sobrato Development Companies also is building 290 apartments on the site; they'll be done in about a year and half.

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the three-story building is designed with the movie-rental company's open corporate culture in mind. In other words, don't bother looking for the lavish executive offices -- the big cheeses will be in cubicles just like everybody else.

``We are a Silicon Valley company that's very creative and innovative and collegial, and we don't want to lose that as we grow,'' Swasey said. ``The way you keep that is to tear away all the superfluous stuff.''

The cube-dwellers will have plenty of room to collaborate in 44 conference rooms. For private phone calls, there will be ``touchdown rooms'' with a phone and a desk.

``It's like a nice, spacious, sit-down, luxurious phone booth,'' Swasey said.

The current headquarters on University Avenue in Los Gatos has about 200 employees. The new building will have room for about 320.

Via Hacking Netflix.

Netflix on her cat!

Mickey hearts Netflix
Originally uploaded by SueBanks.

See Stuff On My Cat for the inspiration behind this photo.

Video-game rental sites put to the test

The Orange County Register reviews online video-game rental sites GPlay, Gamelender, RentZero, GameFly, and Intelliflix regarding selection, customer service, and delivery. Read it.. I didn't see a clear winner. If you've tried any of these, which would you recommend?

Don't panic...I'm back

It's just a coincidence that Mike at Hacking Netflix and I had back-to-back vacations from blogging AND that we both spent our time off camping, he at the beach, and I at the Grand Canyon.

I'll be posting more fresh gossip and news about Netflix as soon as I unpack!