Netflix-Relativity Deal: Another Nail in Blu-ray's Coffin

pcworld.com ^ | Jul 6, 2010 | Jeff Bertolucci

[Las Vegas Dave]

Tuesday's announcement of a content-streaming deal between Netflix and Relativity Media, the latter a Hollywood production company that makes mainstream flicks such as "Get Him to the Greek," "Grown Ups," and "Robin Hood," is welcome news for subscribers of the movie-rental service. It means that Netflix members will be able to stream Relativity titles to their TVs and computers sooner than before. Rather than waiting (in some cases) years after a movie's DVD release before they can watch the title online, members will only have to wait months.

OK, if you're the instant gratification type, that's still a long wait. But online streaming is moving in the right direction, and the Relativity pact is likely the first of similar deals between Netflix and Hollywood. Previously, recent films (such as the 2010 titles above) might have been entangled in long-term agreements with pay-TV channels such as HBO, Showtime, and Starz. The new agreement shortens the streaming delay considerably, albeit for a select number of titles.

Content Cornucopia

If you're not familiar with Netflix, here's how it works. Subscribers pay $9 per month to stream more than 20,000 movies and TV shows, and they can also rent one DVD at a time. For an extra $2 a month, they can get Blu-ray discs too. (Pricier options let them rent multiple discs at once.) Netflix has more than 13 million subscribers.

Netflix's two-tiered approach to movie distribution--discs and streaming--is appealing to consumers, most of whom probably have a DVD player as well as a streaming device, be it a set-top box, game console, Internet-ready TV, or Blu-ray player, in the living room. And while Netflix got its start by delivering shiny plastic discs via snail mail, it has made it clear that online streaming is the future.

[Las Vegas Dave]

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[Las Vegas Dave]

HDTV pings.

Interested in the HDTV ping list?
Please Freepmail me (freepmail works best) if you would like your name added to the HDTV ping list, ( approximately 375 freepers are currently on the HDTV ping list ).
The pinged subjects can be HDTV technology, satellite, cable, and OTA HD reception (Over The Air with roof top or indoor antennas), Broadcast specials, Sports, Blu-ray/HDDVD, and any and all subjects relating to HDTV.
Note: if you search Freerepublic using the keyword "“HDTV”, you will find most of the past HDTV postings.

[highlander_UW]

I love my netflix account, and if they're going to put more content online that's even better. I probably watch about half my viewing streaming online.

This particular deal doesn't feed into my viewing directly because I don't watch much of the current crap being made, but if Netflix is focusing on streaming they are bound to put stuff I want as well.

[Uncle Miltie]

Netflix downloads, blue-ray and dvds are indistinguishable on my excellent Panasonic G20 50”.

[Las Vegas Dave]

< snip >
“Our continued goal is to expand the breadth and timeliness of films and TV shows available to stream on Netflix,” said Netflix official Ted Sarandos in a statement. “Historically, the rights to distribute these films are pre-sold to pay TV for as long as nine years after their theatrical release. Through our partnership with Relativity, these films will start to become available to our members just months after their DVD release.”

Blu-ray, We Hardly Knew Ye

So where does this leave Blu-ray? The high-def successor to DVD has its proponents certainly, some of whom see the format as a great way to bring 3D entertainment to the home. But the consumer demand for 3D TV remains questionable, and Blu-ray is increasingly looking like an anachronism in today’s online-oriented world. Content deals like today’s Netflix-Relativity pact highlight the growing importance of the Internet as an entertainment-delivery system. It also gives consumers yet another reason to pass on that bargain Blu-ray player at Costco.

The fact that many new Blu-ray players have built-in Internet streaming (with Netflix access) is a good indication of their true value. Soon, I suspect, they’ll be used more as set-top boxes to access online content rather than as disc players.

[Jmouse007]

Headline is totally misleading. Netflix will not kill Blu-ray, it is just another option to receiving content. As for me, I would rather own a high-def Blu-ray HARD copy of a film rather than a DVD or a downloaded compressed file of the movie saved to a hard drive. The last time I checked, hard drives CRASH and there goes all of your "saved" movie content. Also, the quality of video streaming via Net Flix et, al comes no where near the quality of a high-def Blu-ray disk.

"Nail in the coffin"... hardly

[Terpfen]

Netflix is excellent, but the tech press fawns over digital distribution in general far too much. Wake me when Netflix exceeds Blu-Ray’s PQ and bitrate.

[Jmouse007]

That is not the case with our SONY 1080p projector projecting an image onto our 100 inch Stewart screen. There is a massive difference between Netflix downloads and Blu-ray, a good example is Avatar which has outstanding audio and video quality on Blu-ray. The same can not be said of the online streaming version/download when it comes to a 100 inch image.

[03A3]

Agreed.

[RayChuang88]

I agree 100%. People forget that the data rate for H.264 video on a Blu-ray disc is 25-35 megabits per second, and unless you live in South Korea, parts of Japan or a small portion of Europe, there's NO WAY you can stream that high-quality video over an Internet connection. Besides, with download caps imposed by many Internet Service Providers, that could limit the appeal of streamed video viewing, too.

As such, Blu-ray will continue to thrive, especially with the price of players continuing to drop and the price of discs almost the same as their DVD release counterparts.

[bert]

I discovered Thepiratesbay.org and the bitstrem software utorrent.

Thepiratesbay.org has tons of tv shows, movies and music that are downloaded via utorrent.

My first try was for all of the episodes of The Pacific.

unlike netflix, it is with out cost

[krb]

H.264 tops out at 15Mbps for all of the encoders and players I’ve seen.

[LibLieSlayer]

BluRay will be here for a long, long time to come... downloads and streaming cannot compete in bandwidth (quality) for video or the audio codecs of HD and you do not own anything... just a view. Sorry... America will never buy into this microsatan idea... savvy.

LLS

[krb]

H.264 tops out at 15Mbps for all of the encoders and players I’ve seen.

[edge10]

“Get Him to the Greek,” “Grown Ups,” and “Robin Hood,”

If the first two are examples of films they are proud of, I feel sorry for them.

[krb]

The last time I checked, hard drives CRASH and there goes all of your "saved" movie content.

The condition of your hard drive has nothing whatsoever to do with streaming services like Netflix.

I think the point is that while people like you will always prefer nice, durable plastic that will last about 10 years for your movies, the HD-BD battle waged on so long that an alternate approach that is perfectly acceptable to a lot of other people took over. Bluray discs will, sadly, never ever reach the level of success that DVDs achieved.

Perhaps next time a battle like this looms on the horizon, the industry won't decide to kill itself.

[krb]

We’re not talking about stealing (what you did is illegal).

To wit, I could go to Best Buy and steal a bunch of BD movies, and the quality would be much better than the streams you stole (unless you stole un-reencoded stream files taken from BDs themselves).

[krb]

BluRay will be here for a long, long time to come...

Streaming services will slowly get better. BluRay probably won't.

[sbMKE]

Don’t pull down RIAA music or hollywood content.

Torrent broadcast’s your IP and the movie and music folks are itching for a big lawsuit.

HBO also monitors and tracks torrent traffic involving their originals (I’ve seen Curb your Enthusiasm cease and desist letters).

Be careful how you pull your “free” content. It can get real pricey, real quick.