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Apparently Netflix…something…?I’m not a Netflix customer, nor am I the owner of a computer that could successfully stream a movie, nor do I have an internet connection at home that would let me do that (and I’m too busy at work), so I have no idea what these people are talking about, but all day long people have been tweeting about the fact that a whole mess of MST3K episodes showed up this morning on some Netflix streaming queue that, according to them, weren’t there before. Nobody at Netflix responded to my attempt to ask them what exactly had been done, so I can’t say exactly what has been done, but apparently, reportedly, a bunch of MST3K eps are now available for streaming at Netflix, when they weren’t before. If this is true, Netflix may have done a great deal of damage to our nation’s productivity level. 27 Replies to “Apparently Netflix…something…?”Commenting at Satellite News
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Fine investigative reporting there Sampo. :wink:
Eight episodes– the four from the 20th Anniversary Collection and the four from Volume XV– are now available for instant viewing. Apparently a deal was struck with Shout!, though I’m not sure why Volume XIV was excluded.
It appears to be the Shout! Factory released episodes, although I didn’t scroll through the entire list. They seem to be doing a nice job with getting the show out there, first itunes and now this.
“Blood Hook” is also on Watch Instantly. :mrgreen:
Here’s the dealio:
In addition to renting DVDs, Netflix allows streaming of a small portion of their movie collection direct to devices capable of receiving the stream (such as TiVO boxes). These streams are free and separate from the normal 3,4,5 or more out at a time DVD. SO in essence you can watch any of the streamable movies you want at any time.
The catch is that only a handful of all the DVDs Netflix has are streamable and while they are trying to get many more 9 times out of 10 the ones you really want to watch you still need to rent the old fashioned way. But apparently they have now digitized a bunch of MST3K episodes (doesn’t look like all that Netflix has to rent, but a good portion of them) so now those of us with Netflix AND the appropriate streaming device can dial up any of these at any time.
I’m not a huge fan of the streaming – it’s still prone to glitches even with my fast cable modem setup, and you can’t easily fast forward or rewind, let alone jump around to where you want to go, but it’s good for those without alternatives (I already have all the MST3K episodes transferred to MP4 files which I can watch on any set in the house instantly).
Yeah, I went on the site and did a search and they have a lot of the episodes. Not all are available for streaming, but they’re all available as DVD.
:grin:
I’m not sure how profitable this move is for either side. Most people who are into MST3K generally either go out and buy the releases once they are available, or have the eps already in some DVD-R format they made themselves or from a site devoted to MST. If the angle is to “attract a wider audience”, it would seem to have a minimal impact.
Wow! I didn’t realize they had that many eps available! Never mind previous post! :roll:
I’m THRILLED they have streaming episodes! I work from home, and it’s great to have them play. It’s like old friends hanging out and keeping you company while you do other stuff.
@Mike “ex-genius” Kelley: We have a super-fast connection too, but not the problems you’ve experienced. Interesting. And the fast-forward/rewind is super-EZ: click-n-hold on the play arrow in the timeline, and when the screen switches to connected scene boxes (for lack of a better term) drag to where you want to go. Never had a problem. :shrug: I suppose it depends on how pin-point you want to be within the film. :D
Maybe it’s just when I’m streaming — I’m retired so it’s mostly during the middle of the day, and I suspect that’s when traffic on the net is busiest (from all those net surfers at work ). Or maybe it’s just the TiVO HD I have — I dunno, sometimes it’s just fine, and other times it hangs up “downloading”.
In any case, it’s nowhere near as convenient as just reaching out on my TiVO movie selection of all the MST3K movies — takes but a few seconds and I can select anything from any season on any TV in the house. But I’m glad it’s available for folks who don’t have my resources.
just looked, and noticed that only vol 13 and 15 were on there. Shout a little more open to doing this kind of stuff so, I expect vol 14 to be posted up soon. As for the rhino volumes. Not good chance.
Netflix has been doing this more recently… try and do like a “preview” for a limited time of upcoming movies and TV shows. They are doing something similar for Dexter.
Host:
Streaming movies is not that difficult, all you really need is a broadband connection and a computer running Win. 98 or higher.
You can do it?
That’s not the only source for streaming stuff from Shout!Factory. They also have a channel on YouTube that includes the trailers/promos for MST3K… and the entire movie(s) for The Film Crew, as well as Elvira’s Movie Macabre! (Which includes The Doomsday Machine, which CT riffed… though this is the ‘clean’ version).
Of course, you can also find Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four movie in its entirety (broken into about 9 parts), as well as a lot of other strange things… e.g. a Justice League movie that AFAIK was never aired.
J/P=?
The instant view uses the silverlight tech and works great on most things (Man vs. Wild being an exception. This has been around for quite awhile and is just a very nice benefit for us netflix users. Good to know that now I have something to combat my wife’s steaming of Miami Vice!
This is great! (although I have all the DVDs already) I watch a lot of Netflix streaming and found it pretty good. For example, they have the entire first season of Star Trek, which has been fun to watch. I have a DSL connection that is average, but the pic and sound are pretty good. Since it’s part of my membership already I can watch streaming stuff when the mood hits.
Very awesome. I already own all the flicks available for instant watch, but hell—why not?
Say guys, (and not Sampo, who it seems may think I’m speaking some sort of strange moon-man language), I’m at work and can’t check this out right now, but does anyone know if those streams are Xbox 360-compatible, or computer-only? Because near as I can tell not everything that streams is Xbox-friendly.
It should come through fine on you Xbox-360 or Roku box (if you have one of those you’ll know what I’m talking about). While I own all of the DVD’s I have all of these eps potted up in my instant watch que too. Nothing easier than simply clicking play!
Oh, you kids with your fax machines and your twitter-pods and your hoolahoops and bookfaces… I’m with Sampo on this one. Until a technology is mindless (like a DVD), I’m not interested in working too hard at it to achieve simple entertainment. Give me an old antique shiny digital disc in the drawer of a magic movie box ANY day!
No good stinkin’ rotten kids…
@Get off my lawn!: lololololl! You made my day! :grin:
Like others here, this does not impact me directly, but I think this is big news for the MISTIE-verse in general. Opens the body of work to a much larger potential viewership.
Keep ‘circulating’ the ‘tapes’ !
I liked renting and buying the “old fasfioned” way. You know… where you have tob actually get out and do something! :roll:
Zombie Nightmare, Werewolf, The Girl in Lovers’ Lane, Laserblast, Racket Girls, First Spaceship on Venus, Future War, & The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy are available for instant viewing on Netflix.
Way back when everyone was moaning about that Godzilla vs. Megalon set getting yanked, I was busy renting all 4 of the discs (including Megalon) from Netflix. It was available long after it was pulled.
Also all of the other pulled sets were available to rent for a good while after their discontinuance.
I prefer to rent the discs because they are more useful.
Thats all I have to say about that.
Now all we need is for people to use the “MST” mode of the Xbox 360 Netflix service while watching an episode of MST. For those who don’t know it is a “party” mode (or whatever they call it) where you connect to some friends and then the streaming video plays on a slightly smaller screen while your Xbox avatars sit in a theater and watch it. And though I’ve never done this I guess you can talk to each other over your headsets while watching the movie (hence the nickname “MST mode”). I predict that the first people to do this to an MST episode will be nerds.
#24–i think if people had just kept renting (or even copying?) them they would have stayed available. if Netflix didn’t yank them then some less scrupulous fellows must have conveniently “lost” them–and then no one has them any more.
I agree totally with that.
Netflix never yanked them. It’s obvious that selfish evil jerks kept the discs and never sent them back, and they paid whatever minimal retail price it costed them, which was way cheaper than what they sell for now on ebay or other places.
That same stuff happened back when Amazing Colossal man got pulled on video with Blockbuster. I rented it long after it was pulled, but as word spread of it’s unavailability, unscrupulous people began keeping it and then you couldn’t get it anymore.
In a case like that, copying it and sending it back for someone else to do the same would have been the more scrupulous act.
Here are some words I’d like to throw out, take them to mean whatever you want. I am advocating nothing.
CloneDVD, AnyDVD.