Apparently Netflix subscribers unhappy with Wal Mart's decision to promote Netflix' DVD rental service in return for Netflix pitching Wal Mart's DVD sales business filed a class-action suit alleging this collusion helpted Netflix dominate the mail order DVD rental business.
A California judge agreed and a settlement fund has been created by Wal Mart. If you had a Netflix DVD rental plan between May 19, 2005 through September 2, 2011 you need to file a claim. You can elect to receive cash or Wal Mart gift card for yet to be calculated amount.
Showing posts with label netflix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label netflix. Show all posts
Friday, November 18, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Gaining Perspective
I spent the day with my mom and sister discussing general family matters and discovering that each of us has made adjustments in our finances. I evaluated mine and realized that I had made significant changes. Changes that I can't say I have missed or will miss in the near future.
Another change I am implementing this Wednesday is cancellation of the Netflix DVD service. At a separate cost of $7.99 monthly for one DVD rental at a time we've decided we do not need it. Since Netflix has deemed the rate increase a necessity of doing business, we've deemed their increase unnecessary and inconvenient to our budget.
We will keep Netflix Streaming but if this becomes too costly, flaky or unreliable we will easily and quickly move on to Amazon's Prime Service which I have heard great things about. Since I patronize Amazon receiving two day shipping for all orders would be a great incentive to join!
I don't know anyone who isn't trying to divest of services or products that are not necessary. Everyone is experiencing challenges in this economy and the more ways that I can cut cost, the better. I am focused on convincing Boo to cut the cord. This is proving more challenging than I thought but I'm determined. Our cable bill, like yours, is outrageous!
I wish my city would encourage competition by allowing two cable providers along with DirecTV to offer service in my area. As it stands I have one cable provider and DirecTV. Why most communities operate like mine I don't know. Why can't I have more than one cable company serving my area? Why do I need to feel like a cornered duck out of water? As consumers we should have options.
Another change I am implementing this Wednesday is cancellation of the Netflix DVD service. At a separate cost of $7.99 monthly for one DVD rental at a time we've decided we do not need it. Since Netflix has deemed the rate increase a necessity of doing business, we've deemed their increase unnecessary and inconvenient to our budget.
We will keep Netflix Streaming but if this becomes too costly, flaky or unreliable we will easily and quickly move on to Amazon's Prime Service which I have heard great things about. Since I patronize Amazon receiving two day shipping for all orders would be a great incentive to join!
I don't know anyone who isn't trying to divest of services or products that are not necessary. Everyone is experiencing challenges in this economy and the more ways that I can cut cost, the better. I am focused on convincing Boo to cut the cord. This is proving more challenging than I thought but I'm determined. Our cable bill, like yours, is outrageous!
I wish my city would encourage competition by allowing two cable providers along with DirecTV to offer service in my area. As it stands I have one cable provider and DirecTV. Why most communities operate like mine I don't know. Why can't I have more than one cable company serving my area? Why do I need to feel like a cornered duck out of water? As consumers we should have options.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
The Streaming Battle
NetFlix chart shows Charter Cable as the #1 ISP with great speed when streaming flicks yet, I've had dropped connections when streaming a movie. At times I've had to stop watching and try again later.
If you're thinking I'm exhausting the bandwidth by streaming a movie and surfing the Net, I'm not good at multitasking like that. I do one or the other and no one else in the household is surfing.
My coworker has Time Warner Cable and her son's experiencing major problems streaming Netflix mid-day when most folks are at work. Her adult son works nights and likes to stream content during the day and can't because the stream dies or becomes pixelated with dialog out of sync. Of course, calls to TWC customer support resulted in her being told it's not their problem but Netflix.
This comes at a time when Netflix is under siege by major telcos who say “Show us the money!” The telcos / broadband providers allege that streaming movies taxes their networks costing them more money to deliver gigabytes of movies / tv shows to our homes. They want Netflix to pay for this, as well as you and I.
I'm reminded of the old days when I was sucker punched into paying $17.99 plus for a compact disc of music. Sometimes the CD had only 10 songs with less than 45 minutes of music, but there I was dishing the $$$.
Consumers are much savvier now and we understand that costs are minimal once the infrastructure is in place. The telcos alone have been subsidized by you and I in creating and stabilizing their networks. The greedy telcos still want more.
We are not users of the eighties.
We are unwilling to pay a 150% mark up.
We want to enjoy the media when and how we want.
The barn doors are open and the cows are in the field grazing.
Wake up telcos / broadband providers we're not going to be cheated!
If you're thinking I'm exhausting the bandwidth by streaming a movie and surfing the Net, I'm not good at multitasking like that. I do one or the other and no one else in the household is surfing.
My coworker has Time Warner Cable and her son's experiencing major problems streaming Netflix mid-day when most folks are at work. Her adult son works nights and likes to stream content during the day and can't because the stream dies or becomes pixelated with dialog out of sync. Of course, calls to TWC customer support resulted in her being told it's not their problem but Netflix.
This comes at a time when Netflix is under siege by major telcos who say “Show us the money!” The telcos / broadband providers allege that streaming movies taxes their networks costing them more money to deliver gigabytes of movies / tv shows to our homes. They want Netflix to pay for this, as well as you and I.
I'm reminded of the old days when I was sucker punched into paying $17.99 plus for a compact disc of music. Sometimes the CD had only 10 songs with less than 45 minutes of music, but there I was dishing the $$$.
Consumers are much savvier now and we understand that costs are minimal once the infrastructure is in place. The telcos alone have been subsidized by you and I in creating and stabilizing their networks. The greedy telcos still want more.
We are not users of the eighties.
We are unwilling to pay a 150% mark up.
We want to enjoy the media when and how we want.
The barn doors are open and the cows are in the field grazing.
Wake up telcos / broadband providers we're not going to be cheated!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Internet Connection Hell & Over the Top TV
I have been in Cable Internet Hell for about three weeks. The cable company diagnosed the problem as a dead router (symptoms dropped connection, unable to connect, this page unavailable errors, online for 45 minutes with no problem, other times only online for 20 minutes and then unable to reconnect. Using the Repair Connection feature in Windows XP & Vista was unsuccessful as the OS was unable to diagnose and repair the connection problem). Router's light indicators were lit as normal. Cable tech said problem not cable modem but router.
When he connected the computer directly to the cable modem the internet connection was solid and working - no dropped connection. Once the router was integrated into the system connectivity was sporadic at best. My router's been around for awhile and received heavy use it simply never occurred to me that it could go bad. I bought a Linksys e2000 router and shortly thereafter a Western Digital Live TV Plus.
Here are my observations:
- Linksys e2000 (improved wifi range) No external antenna which I believe would provide extended and improved range. The netbooks in the living room (which are 3 good sized rooms away from the router) always connect with a low signal indicator but no noticeable lag in loading sites. The connection is reliable and steady.
- One annoyance is that Cisco Linksys provides guest account access which is on by default. The default should be off. The guest account is password protected with a default password programmed. Anyone owning a Linksys will know the guest password unless the user is savvy and changes it.
- WD Live TV Plus (natively streams NetFlix & YouTube videos and displays Full 1080p HD quality). It natively connects with the MediaFly service.
- Only one TV in our household has a HDMI connector so we set it up via HDMI and the quality is very good near HD. The HDMI cable must be purchased separately and I was amazed at how expensive they are! Average price for one cable is $29.95 for a generic brand.
- WD Live TV Plus also can connect via composite video and after enjoying the HDMI connection we tried the composite connection on the living room TV. The quality is equivalent to VHS when connected via composite, but is still acceptable when you consider you're streaming NetFlix movies. When reading film credits the smaller print is barely legible but tolerable. Of course, HDMI provides the best viewing experience.
- Ethernet connection is wired as the WD Live TV Plus doesn't have built-in wifi. You can purchase an optional USB wifi device, but streaming video is very processor intensive and I wouldn't expect wifi streaming to be a pleasant experience.
- Two USB ports for connecting hard drives. Of course, if you buy the optional USB wifi device then you're left with one USB port for connecting an external drive. It's a great way for me to view the multitude of video podcasts I download. If the podcast is 1080p it's a spectacular viewing experience!
- It automatically connects to the MediaFly service, which is a free site that provides access to a number of video and audio podcasts. Of course, Leo Laporte's Twit network, as well as Revision 3 shows GeekBeat and Tekzilla are featured on MediaFly for easy viewing.
I've been downloading these programs in iTunes for years but really haven't viewed them on the iPod because it's easier for me to listen to an audio podcast then stop what I'm doing and view them.
I can't tell you how great it is to sit in my bed all comfy and cozy and watch video podcasts on a big screen TV. It's beyond convenient, it makes perfect sense. I mean, who wants to sit propped in an office chair and view a couple hours of web content on a computer screen?
I've been downloading video podcasts forever and simply archived them to an external drive so that I didn't fill up the drive iTunes is on. I can stop downloading selected shows in iTunes and simply view them via MediaFly.
For the older shows I've archived, I've simply connected the external drive to the Live TV Plus, easily navigated to the drive via the onscreen menu and begun viewing the content. I have many shows that go as far back as 2006!
I've been archiving shows precisely because I didn't want to sit in front of the computer and watch them. Of course, the shows look good on a monitor, but they look even better on my TV as I sit in a comfy sofa with my legs propped up or lie in bed.
The video podcasts I'm enjoying are Alaska HD, London Landscape, American RVer and Beautiful Places to name a few so viewing 2006 episodes in 2010 isn't an issue as they're travel related and timeless.
So to summarize the WD Live TV Plus automatically connects to YouTube, NetFlix (provided you're a member), MediaFly and displays many audio / video formats that may exist on your external USB drive.
I can search YouTube content based on subject or username via an onscreen keyboard I navigate via remote. The remote does not have a keyboard but I don't have a problem pointing and clicking on an individual letter to spell out a username / site. I can also view channels I'm subscribed to.
Once I locate a user I want to view, all videos by that user are listed and I simply scroll to the end of the list to continue listing what's available. Once I view a user's video, Live TV Plus will present a list of like videos based on the tags used in the previous video. I can view videos from other users with like tags or navigate back to the original user to continue viewing their videos.
I now view YouTube videos, which I didn't do before. You can't believe the difference when viewing web content on a computer screen vs a TV screen. It's a completely different experience that is beyond enjoyable, it's fun! It's fun because you can share the content with as many people as can comfortably fit in the room and adequately see the screen. Try doing that on a computer monitor!
The Roku 720p with built-in G wireless support wasn't a consideration for me because I knew I wanted my connection hard wired for best results and wanted 1080p capability. The Roku maxes at 720p which is what NetFlix streams at.
I always read Amazon.com reviews, I try to read as many as 50 to get a solid feel and average for users' experiences. One reviewer shared about preferring a wired LAN connection to Roku's wifi option but not wanting to snake CAT 5 cable through the house.
He opted to purchase PowerLine Ethernet, which uses the electrical current in your home to transmit network traffic. Now I haven't employed this solution simply because my house so old it lacks enough electrical outlets and the PowerLine Ethernet needs to connect to the electrical outlet to work - not into a surge suppressor.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Netflix has not been a match made in heaven
I know they have distribution centers in most metropolitan cities and have an arrangement with all the U.S. Post Offices to place their red envelopes in special bins for expedited pick up by Netflix.
So why am I waiting four days for my next movie to arrive? This has been the most annoying aspect of this union.
I return my movies and Netflix received it in two days tops. Once they received it the next day, I know how long it took because Netflix sends an email detailing the process. All is great on my end but as for receiving the next flick.....ah, that's when I wait, and wait, and wait.
Some my think I had requested the new releases, nope. I was waiting for foreign films or out of date flicks. This delay isn't good and is precisely why I canceled them. I could have gone to Hollywood Video twice during the four days I'm left waiting and I am in a major city.
For me, Netflix was a dud!
I know they have distribution centers in most metropolitan cities and have an arrangement with all the U.S. Post Offices to place their red envelopes in special bins for expedited pick up by Netflix.
So why am I waiting four days for my next movie to arrive? This has been the most annoying aspect of this union.
I return my movies and Netflix received it in two days tops. Once they received it the next day, I know how long it took because Netflix sends an email detailing the process. All is great on my end but as for receiving the next flick.....ah, that's when I wait, and wait, and wait.
Some my think I had requested the new releases, nope. I was waiting for foreign films or out of date flicks. This delay isn't good and is precisely why I canceled them. I could have gone to Hollywood Video twice during the four days I'm left waiting and I am in a major city.
For me, Netflix was a dud!
Netflix has not been a match made in heaven
I know they have distribution centers in most metropolitan cities and have an arrangement with all the U.S. Post Offices to place their red envelopes in special bins for expedited pick up by Netflix.
So why am I waiting four days for my next movie to arrive? This has been the most annoying aspect of this union.
I return my movies and Netflix received it in two days tops. Once they received it the next day, I know how long it took because Netflix sends an email detailing the process. All is great on my end but as for receiving the next flick.....ah, that's when I wait, and wait, and wait.
Some my think I had requested the new releases, nope. I was waiting for foreign films or out of date flicks. This delay isn't good and is precisely why I canceled them. I could have gone to Hollywood Video twice during the four days I'm left waiting and I am in a major city.
For me, Netflix was a dud!
I know they have distribution centers in most metropolitan cities and have an arrangement with all the U.S. Post Offices to place their red envelopes in special bins for expedited pick up by Netflix.
So why am I waiting four days for my next movie to arrive? This has been the most annoying aspect of this union.
I return my movies and Netflix received it in two days tops. Once they received it the next day, I know how long it took because Netflix sends an email detailing the process. All is great on my end but as for receiving the next flick.....ah, that's when I wait, and wait, and wait.
Some my think I had requested the new releases, nope. I was waiting for foreign films or out of date flicks. This delay isn't good and is precisely why I canceled them. I could have gone to Hollywood Video twice during the four days I'm left waiting and I am in a major city.
For me, Netflix was a dud!
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