I believe Redbox focuses on current releases, and I guess it isn't available everywhere (I have no idea where I would go for Redbox around where I live).

Netflix's catalog is pretty deep on the DVD side, their streaming is great for tv releases, but if I want to say, watch "The Sound of Music", I pretty much can't do that streaming.

I can't watch "The Wire" streaming.

Oh, and streaming does not have the full coverage of subtitle options either.

Or special content, depending.

I'm keeping both accounts. It was nice having them in the same place, and being able to decide right there between hard copy and streaming, but I use both sides, and don't see why I'd stop.

Netflix just made it out to Jamaica, and my sister was very excited. And then she saw the reduced catalog, and now she's all bitter.

When I saw that thing from Netflix, it was on my iphone, and I seriously thought it was a hoax. So, your apology is to announce a change in service that in no way is better for your consumers (two websites that DON'T TALK TO ONE ANOTHER), and makes things harder in order to make things easier for Netflix? Smooth move, ex-lax.

Yeah, the spit and changing the name is so weird and random I was like "wait, it's not April Fool's...WTF?"

My only other immediate thought was "does this make it somehow easier to close the DVD rental part without freaking out investors and subscribers, in the future?"

The speculation is that Hollywood wants to charge Netflix for streaming on a per-customer basis, regardless of whether or not the customer was actually using streaming. Netflix needed to split the DVD-only business to get those customers off of the books.

Smooth move, ex-lax.

Lol.

Netflix needed to split the DVD-only business to get those customers off of the books.

Interesting. Well, I think I'll dump the streaming, then (although I think the name Qwikster is ridiculous). The catalog isn't anywhere near large enough to compete with the dvd rentals.

Whereas I'll keep the streaming. I have had a Netflix envelop sitting on my tv stand for two months unopened. I have box sets of DVDs to still watch, and I find that purchasing (streaming) recent movies from Amazon (or buying older more obscure DVDs) is cheaper than monthly DVD fee at Amazon.

And Charlie uses my Netflix streaming account too (legally), so it works well.

But that isn't to say that Netflix hasn't made a complete mess of all of this. I started with heavy annoyance when they stopped allowing me to add movies to my DVD queue using the iPhone app. There is no way I will manage DVDs/streaming on two different websites. That is asking their customers to do way too much of their work for them.

Yeah, I am mixed about all this. On the one hand, the only way I consume media through netflix is via streaming. But that is a personal choice and how I have limited my media interests to that which I can get RIGHT NOW.

Beau on the other hand, is almost exclusively using physical media through netflix. As you might imagine he is the opposite of happy right now.

Overall, Netflix has handled all this quite badly since the beginning of the year, worsening the situation with every announcement.

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, which it most certainly will do before Thanksgiving.