Hacking NetFlix

Netflix & TiVo Announce Video-on-Demand Partnership

The rumored partnership is finally official. The very brief press release stated:

LOS GATOS, Calif. - September 30, 2004 - Netflix and TiVo have signed an agreement to work together to develop a joint entertainment offering. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will develop technology and will work with Hollywood studios to secure content for digital distribution.

As a result of the new agreement and in an effort to avoid any potential conflicts of interest that might develop, Mike Ramsay, chief executive officer of TiVo, submitted his resignation from the Netflix Board of Directors, effective September 29, 2004.

News.com expands on the story:

Rumors have swirled for months that the two companies would strike a deal. Building new services is crucial for both TiVo and Netflix as they confront growing competition from deep-pocketed rivals. Netflix's business is being threatened by larger rivals, including Blockbuster and Wal-Mart Stores. TiVo, which provides both DVR (digital video recorder) hardware and services, faces similar challenges from cable companies and a potential loosening of its partnership with DirecTV.

News.com also gives us more insight into the copy protection that they are testing for the service:

Even if the studios are receptive to a Netflix deal, widespread cooperation won't be forthcoming until the DVD rental service can offer a viable content security system to protect the downloadable films in transit from being pirated--an area where TiVo has clashed with Hollywood in the past.

Aiming to tackle that problem, TiVo said recently that it will support a new version of anticopying software from Macrovision that would make recordings of pay-per-view or on-demand movies inaccessible after a set time period. Macrovision's technology also would disallow attempts to copy digital films to analog devices so that they could then be recopied into digital form for wide distribution, a workaround known as the "analog hole."

Engadget explores a name for the new product and the potential of a Netflix - TiVo merger:

They wouldn’t discuss a date about when they might introduce the service, what it might be called (TiVoFlix? NetVo? NetfliVo?), or any other specifics, but TiVo CEO Mike Ramsay says that the two companies are absolutely, definitely not merging.

Thanks to Brian & Lisa for alerting me to this story.

Are You "Ripping" Netflix Movies?

I'm wondering how many people are using Netflix to build their personal movie collections. It's not hard to find software to software to "rip" or decrypt a DVD-based movie and then burn it onto CD or DVD (no, I'm not going to tell you how to do this). I've seen samples of this and some of the results are very impressive.

I'm not interested in copying movies since the street price is typically under $20. If I really want to own a movie I'll buy a real copy, but I typically watch a movie once and want to watch something else next. I have about 24,712 movies in the Netflix collection to go...

How many people are doing this and what you think about this?

Just for the record: I have never copied a movie rented from Netflix (I went to Catholic school and feel much better now that I said that).

Netflix Shipping Centers

This is the complete list of the 29 Netflix shipping centers, as of September 29, 2004. I have done my best to verify that this list is complete.

Baton Rouge, LA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Columbia, SC
Coppell, TX
Denver, CO
Duluth, GA
Flushing, NY
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Gaithersburg, MD
Greensboro, NC
Houston, TX
Kansas City, MO
Lakeland, FL
Lansing, MI
Las Vegas, NV
Louisville, KY
Minneapolis, MN
New Brunswick, NJ
Phoenix, AZ
Pittsburgh, PA
Rochester, NY
Salem, OR
San Jose, CA
Santa Ana, CA
Southeastern, PA
St. Louis, MO
Tacoma, WA
Worcester, MA

Wooba.com Shares "Netflix Secrets"

Dan at Wooba.com posted an interesting story entitled "Secrets of Netflix - How to maximize your Netflix Rentals."

Overall, the story is an excellent series of tips for optimizing your Netflix experience, with lots of great tidbits of information about Netflix. I do have some comments:

1. Dan suggests The Digital Review for a list of new movie releases. Dan -- Hacking Netflix!!! I even link to the movie on Netflix for one-click renting.

2. I have been using Dan's trick for getting the new releases for a long time. Most new releases are available on Tuesday, but Netflix ships many of them on Monday so you have it on Tuesday. Time your returns so they get the movie back on Monday and make sure the new movie is at the top of your queue.

3. Very few movies are hard to get on Netflix now. I have more 5 movies that are "short" or "long wait" out of more than 350 movies in my queue.

4. Dan links to the seriously outdated Netflix Allocation Study, which was done more than a year ago and has not been updated to reflect the major improvements to the service.

5. He lists the Netflix distribution centers, and they have added 3 more since the story was published (Pittsburgh, PA, Baton Rouge, LA, and Columbia, SC).

6. He explains how to get 24 movies in a month. Has anyone ever achieved this? Or more than 50 movies on the 8-out plan?

7. I agree with his review of Blockbuster and Walmart. So far, both of these services are cheaper than Netflix but are having serious problems.

8. Dan talks about quitting to get a better rate. I've heard about this, but haven't tried it. I've also heard that people have complained about the price increase in an attempt to get a lower rate.

9. I also want more movie trailers. When I was using the DVD Station rental kiosk, it was great to be able to watch a trailer before renting the movie. Linking to the movie site is another great idea.

10. Estimate wait time. Excellent. There are some movies that I absolutely have to see ASAP, and I'd like to know if the movie is not going to be available for a long time.

11. Netflix is now offering a free one-month trial (send me an e-mail if you're interested and I'll send you the info).

I don't know how I missed this story, but Becky at Netflix Fan beat me to it. :-)

Blockbuster Shipping Centers

Here's the "official" list of Blockbuster shipping centers, compiled with help from a lot of people:

Charlotte, NC
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Flushing, NY
Lansing, MI
Miami, FL
Minneapolis, MN
New Brunswick, NJ
Santa Ana, CA
Seattle, WA

The list of Netflix shipping centers will be done shortly (seems to be some duplicates or facilities that have moved). Thanks to everyone that helped!

Yet Another Reason To Join Netflix

This robbery of a Blockbuster store is yet another reason to join Netflix. It's not the only one -- look at the results of a Google search for "Blockbuster Robbery." Safer to stay home...

New Releases for September 28, 2004

Here are the new releases for this week:

Best of the Best (1989) Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones
Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2004) Greg Palast, George W. Bush
Crank Yankers: Season 1: Uncensored (2-Disc Series) (2002) Tony Barbieri, Adam Carolla
Dark Shadows: Vol. 14 (4-Disc Series) (1969) Jonathan Frid, Joan Bennett
Degrassi: The Next Generation: Season 1 (3-Disc Series) (2001) Miriam McDonald, Aubrey Graham
Ellen: Season 1 (2-Disc Series) (1994) Ellen DeGeneres, Joely Fisher
Envy (2004) Ben Stiller, Jack Black
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet
Footloose: Special Collector's Edition (1984) Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer
George Carlin: Complaints and Grievances (2001) George Carlin
Homicide: Life on the Street: Season 5 (6-Disc Series) (1996) Andre Braugher, Yaphet Kotto
In Living Color: Season 2 (4-Disc Series) (1990) Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans
Lost Reality (2004) Ron Jeremy, Rip Taylor
My New Gun (1992) Diane Lane, James LeGros
National Geographic: Forces of Nature (2004) Kevin Bacon
National Geographic's Most Amazing Moments (2004)
Nothing But a Man (1964) Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln
Ramones: Raw (2004) The Ramones
Rivers and Tides (2003) Andy Goldsworthy
Silk Stalkings: Season 1 (6-Disc Series) (1991) Rob Estes, Mitzi Kapture
Spinning Boris (2003) Jeff Goldblum, Anthony LaPaglia
Star Trek: Voyager: Season 4 (7-Disc Series) (1997) Kate Mulgrew, Ethan Phillips
Strangers with Candy: Season 3 (2-Disc Series) (2000) Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert
Super Size Me (2004) Morgan Spurlock, Bridget Bennett
Tales of the Unexpected (4-Disc Series) (1978) Roald Dahl
Tess (Warning: Directed by Roman Polanski) (1980) John Collin, Nastassja Kinski
The Alamo (2004) Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric
The Big One (1998) Michael Moore, Rick Nielsen
The Hunting of the President (2004) Morgan Freeman, Bill Clinton
Track Down (2000) Skeet Ulrich, Russell Wong
Walking Tall (2004) Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Neal McDonough
Wild Roomies (2004) A. J. Buckley, Holly Fields

Netflix vs. Blockbuster: The Queue Battle

Now that Blockbuster has had some time to get their act together, I wanted to compare the movie availability of both services. Netflix has dramatically improved their movie inventory in the past year -- I have two "waits" out of more than 250 movies (would whoever has the Shawshank Redemption out please return it?). Blockbuster Online has less than half of my selections available for rental.

I decided to use a popular list of movies to compare the services (rather than my rather bizarre taste in movies), so I add the American Film Institute's excellent "100 Years... 100 Films" list to my Netflix and Blockbuster queues.

Here are the results:

Netflix:

90 movies available now

6 movies awaiting release

4 movies are not carried by Netflix

Blockbuster Online

67 movies available now

9 movies on short wait

4 movies on long wait

7 movies on very long wait

5 movies are coming soon

8 movies are not carried by Blockbuster

While the results of this test are clearly in Netflix's favor, I expect Blockbuster to rapidly increase the number of distribution centers and available movies in the next few months.

Based on movie availability and service problems that I'm hearing about from my readers, I wonder if Blockbuster launched the service prematurely.

Netflix Penalizing Frequent Renters?

Hacking Netflix reader Darrin sent me this e-mail:

I know there is a slowdown in NetFlix’s shipping due to holidays; the last being Labor Day.  There was a delay last week of almost five or six days due to the holiday.  I mailed back two DVD’s on Monday September 20, they go to the San Jose, CA distribution center.  For some reason I did not get a confirmation until Thursday the 23rd and one of my queued films on Friday the 24th.  Is there some type of slowdown for those of us who watch and immediately return our DVD’s?  I am disabled and these DVD’s are my in-home entertainment. 

This question has dogged Netflix for a long time. I don't think they're doing it on purpose -- in this case a majority of the 2 million (and growing) members are all trying to have fresh flicks for the long weekend. If you remember the lines at video stores on holidays, think of what Netflix is going through (all of those movies being are being handled by only 30 distribution centers).

Then there is the Web site from last summer that did this in-depth research (complete with impressive-looking charts) into how they allocate new releases at http://dvd-rent-test.dreamhost.com/. I think it's finally time that they update the site or take it down. I have 264 movies in my queue and only two are on long or short wait. That's a huge difference when compared to last summer.

I have been reassured by sources at Netflix that they are NOT penalizing frequent (I think of myself as obsessive) renters, and with the exception of holiday weekends or the opening of a new distribution center, I'm a lot happier with Netflix now.

What is your Netflix experience?

Netflix Q3 Subscriber Count & Investor Webcast Dates

Netflix issued a press release stating that the third quarter subscriber count will be announced at approx. 1:10pm (PST) on October 4th. The Q3 investor webcast will be held on Thursday, October 14th at 2:00pm (PST). You can listen in or hear a replay of the call at http://ir.netflix.com/.

This should be an interesting call. Topics of interest include the debate over the churn numbers, a rumored partnership with TiVo to provide video-on-demand, and the emergence of Blockbuster as the first real competitor.