Netflix Suggestion: Ship DVD OR Blu-Ray Option

Bill writes, "I subscribed to get Blue Ray disks thinking I may get more new releases that way. I think you should have an option that says ship whatever is available Blue Ray or DVD. Now you can only pick either DVD or Blue Ray. Why not be able to ship whichever one is available. I really don’t care which I get. What is more important to me is getting the next DVD I have in my queue."

 

What do you think? Should Netflix offer the ability to ship the first available format?

Comments

[Eddie]

we can always dream!

[jjfromnyc]

this came up in a post a few months ago - i am a non-blu-ray disc needer/user - i don't honestly think this option would work because if the blu-ray is not available, and you had this option and chose to have dvd shipped if blu-ray not available, you would then be placed at the end of the customer queue waiting for the dvd only - which is currently still filled with us non-blu-ray divas - so chances are you wouldn't get it on dvd just because it is not available on blu-ray - am i right? or am i right?

[Michael H.]

That sounds great to me. Blu-ray is nice to have, but it's not always necessary -- sometimes I just want to see a particular movie, and don't want to micromanage the format lists.

@jjfromnyc: I don't think it works that way. Sometimes a BD version of a movie can't be found but the regular DVD is available, in my experience. Remember, not all movies are in equal demand.

[EvilDave]

Most definitely!
The options should be:
1) BluRay
2) DVD
3) Fastest

[Daniel]

You know what I'd rather see? If you have a queue top-loaded with discs that have a wait, I'd like to be able to suspend disc shipments until a wait title is available. There are tons of streaming movies I could watch, but I keeping getting, watching and returning discs just on the off chance one of my wait titles will ship.

[photoTristan]

Brilliant idea! I'd really rather get the movie no matter the format if i can get it quicker.

[Seth]

I suggested this a few months ago and Mike posted it. I still think this is a good idea. Particularly since Blu-ray and DVD no longer appear to have the same wait times.

[doug]

good idea - thumbs up on EvilDave's choices

[Jacob Neff]

The option is fine, but I would never use it. If a Blu-Ray exists, I will wait as long as it takes to see the Blu-Ray instead.

[Sock Puppet]

It was too much work for them to maintain existing Friend features, and now you want then to develop something new?

I'd really not hold my breath on their adding any new customer features.

[CJ]

Since Netflix charges an additional monthly fee for just for the right to possibly get Blu-ray rentals with no guarantee, I opted out. I use BB on-line rentals to rent just those Blu-ray titles that are worth viewing in that format. When BB goes bankrupt (probably in next 6 months), I plan to restructure my Netflix single plan into two separate smaller plans, one with standard and one with Blu-ray, which will give me the flexibility I want.

[Toni Robinson]

Yes, have 3 choices: DVD only, Blu-ray only, and Ship whatever is available

[dAVe]

Like others here, I get my Blu-ray's from BBonline or BBstore (the on-shelf availability at my store is consistently great) but if/when BB goes under then I'll probably game the NF Account Profiles to create a Blu-ray Only sub-account.

[Kevin M]

You can't have this because you could have someone paying for a blu ray premium account and they end up getting all dvds.

[Brian]

Love, love, love this idea!

[Seth]

You can't have this because you could have someone paying for a blu ray premium account and they end up getting all dvds.

It is optional. If they're not happy they can go back to selecting "Blu-ray."

[Hank]

It's a nice feature, but I wonder whether many would use it (I would always wait for blu-ray). If I'm wrong and there is a great demand for this feature then Netflix would definitely consider implementing it. The cost of developing the feature would be paid for by getting high demand discs to their customers faster (which means they could buy fewer to begin with).

Another and possibly simpler option would for them to add a simple comment in your queue "DVD available now!" whenever the blu-ray had a wait.

@Daniel, you could accomplish what you want by creating a separate profile to hold only your high demand discs. It's a little cumbersome, but accomplishes the task.

[Easy Home Theaters]

Netflix are working with what will soon (we hope) be old technology and then it wont matter how they decide to ship.
Easy Home Theaters means justthat the installation, setup and understanding of the control process shouldn't be like learning black magic.

[Easy Home Theaters]

Netflix are working with what will soon (we hope) be old technology and then it wont matter how they decide to ship.
Easy Home Theaters means justthat the installation, setup and understanding of the control process shouldn't be like learning black magic.

[Darren]

I really like this idea also! I have a strong preference for Blu-Ray, however don't like the ever - expanding 'long wait' list and am therefore looking at reverting back to the cheaper DVD only package from Netflix. I end up going to the local movie 'box' rentals and getting the movie "when I want it" and removing it from my Netflix que. At the moment, I'm weighing up my options and currently the extra subscription charge from Netflix for the Blu-Ray option is going to be the losing vote.

[John Smithies]

Good idea. I have some movies I'm going to watch in my cinema room with 1080p projector and 140 inch screen. Those look SO much better in Bluray. Some - like kids movies which we'll probably watch on the 42 inch 1080 in the family room don't look that much better in Bluray than DVD, so getting them faster would be a nice option.

Either way I'm kind of ticked off that of the 12 movies in my queue at the moment - all are either long wait, or very long wait.

If I fill up the queue with some older movies it feels like those always come rather than the new releases.

I first signed up for Netflix in 2003 - and feel like the service levels are WAY down from those days.

[Anigav]

I pay for blu-ray. send me a blu-ray. and get some more copies of them while you're at it. don't jack up the price, push back release dates, and still make people wait ridiculous times for a disc. 3+ months for inglorious bastards and it's still very long wait.

[Dane Vogel]

I vote for the 3 option for each movie in my queue, as stated by @EvilDave -
(1) choose a movie to come only in blu-ray,
(2) Only in DVD or
(3) blu-ray if available otherwise DVD.

[Dave Schulz]

O.K. as long as you can specify "ship only blu-ray" I want blu-ray.

[Chris]

I have been proposing this idea for ever

[Dan]

If you have blu-ray, why in the world would you want to watch it in anything other than that? Even if it means waiting a week or two. That's just crazy talk to me...

[Steven]

great idea...i'm all for it!!

[Seth]

@Dan

Well one reason is some movies in Blu-ray aren't any different than the DVDs. The studios haven't been remastering a lot of the older movies - they just upconvert them. Which your Blu-ray player already does to DVDs.

Also I personally don't need to see certain movies in Blu-ray. Really do you need to see a documentary in Blu-ray? I don't.

[WSBN]

Why not the option. Not all movie releases are BluRay but all are on the regular DVD format. There needs to be one charge for either format and the choice of which the customer wishes to view when the disk arrives. Some movies it makes no difference to me if they are not BluRay. However, there are some events that I prefer to see the video and hear the audio via BluRay. Choice is never complicated and it sure is great costumer PR.

[laptop deal]

I subscribed to get Blue Ray disks thinking I may get more new releases that way. I think you should have an option that says ship whatever is available Blue Ray or DVD.

[RowdyReptile]

I had actually stopped in at Blockbuster when I came up with a very easy solution to this problem. None of the complicated choices.. just make each version of the movie it's own entry. So then you can add the blu-ray version to your queue and add the dvd version below it if you so choose. You could see the wait times for each, and adjust your queue accordingly. Just a little extra programming would be needed to make sure you didn't end up with both DVD and BD versions.

[health]

O.K. as long as you can specify "ship only blu-ray" I want blu-ray.

[web]

I subscribed to get Blue Ray disks thinking I may get more new releases that way

[hair]

Why not the option. Not all movie releases are BluRay but all are on the regular DVD format

[house]

O.K. as long as you can specify "ship only blu-ray" I want blu-ray.

[designs]

If you have blu-ray, why in the world would you want to watch it in anything other than that? Even if it means waiting a week or two. That's just crazy talk to me...

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