But seriously, I wish the media companies would get their heads out of their asses, and get everything out digitally.

Like Universal Healthcare, it's inevitable.

Read this comic...

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

Every public domain film should be available IMO, as should films already legally viewable online for free. James Burle's Connections has been on YouTube for years, but not on Netflix.

Dammit!

I watched five minutes yesterday just to remind myself why i do not watch Troma. Lemmy from Motorhead as the narrator was amusing but not enough reason to watch.

I was 14 and I taped the song off of the radio and just listened to it over and over again at high volume. That earned me the first of many "Turn that shit off!" exclamations form my step-dad.

I devolved into a lifestyle of sin and debauchery after that and proceeded to have a really good time.

the rock and roll musics will send you down that path!

Period.

Starz will no longer license to them, because they refused to accept the giant price increase. HBO and Showtime will not license to Netflix because they want to start their own streaming services that are open to subscribers only. AMC will not license any seasons of its series to Netflix until the next season starts being broadcast. (e.g. No new seasons of Mad Men go up until the next season starts broadcasting.) The movie studios and mainstream networks will not license any movie or TV show as long as the DVDs are selling well.

YouTube is open to anyone who can get hold of a digital copy of a movie or TV show, but content usually stays up only until the copyright holder gets wind of its presence on YouTube. I've lost several Favorite musical performances that way.

Netflix's Facebook page is full of teenagers whining because the latest Brainless Movie Made Up Entirely of Car Chases and Explosions That Is Still in Theaters isn't available for streaming. They write stuff like, "You suck fucking ass, Netflix. Get some good movies, assholes!"

Those idiotic twerps wouldn't know a good movie if they saw one. They probably think that Netflix will respond to their temper tantrums the same way their "I just want my child to be happy" parents do.

Netflix should tout its service as yet another way to get thousands upon thousands of readily available and generally terrible old films, a few dozen good films that aren't quite as old, and a handful of really good films that actually hit theaters within the past five years. I mean, let's have a little honesty in their advertising.

Someone invariably steps forth at this point to praise Netflix for offering obscure British or Australian tv shows, which is lovely but not enough to make up for the crappy selection of films.

I'd happily spend $3 or $5 or $7 more per month if it meant that Netflix actually offered movies that I wanted to see, rather than movies that make me say "yeah, I guess I could watch that."

And still no Maximum Overdrive.

including a ton of foreign films, classic and foreign TV, and documentaries. It's a bargain at $7.99 a month. It's more content than I have time to watch.

I watch Instantwatcher.com to figure out which titles are about to expire and move them to the top of my queue. Six titles are set to expire this week, so I'll be prioritizing them.

The very fact that you need to go to a third-party service like instantwatcher only demonstrates how deficient Netflix truly is. There's no reason, for instance, that the online search feature can't search by actor, director, etc., nor is there any reason why it should stop at just two screens.

I've had this discussion enough times to know that there will always be apologists for Netflix no matter how far short of its potential it falls, and I guess that's fine.

It would be nice, however, if they implemented a minimum of functionality and brought the user interface into the 21st century. After that, maybe we can start working on correcting the deficiencies in the catalog of films offered.

the picture and soundtrack don't go out of synch or freeze.

but it doesn't change the fact that Netflix falls far short of what it might easily be.

The only possible reason why they would fail to offer these basic standards of user friendliness is because someone along the way made the conscious decision not to offer them.