There was a semi-analogous situation with the closure of What.cd. What.cd was a private bittorrent tracker for music with a breadth and depth of selection that rivaled only by Oink. You could find...
There was a semi-analogous situation with the closure of What.cd.
What.cd was a private bittorrent tracker for music with a breadth and depth of selection that rivaled only by Oink. You could find lossless rips of really obscure music, and there was an incredibly vibrant, passionate, and knowledgable community on the site, in its forums, and on its IRC that made the whole thing even more magical. (You were never going to hear that perfect-but-crazy-obscure record unless someone in the know pointed you toward it.)
The site shut down after some of its servers were seized in 2016, and a lot of people mourned the loss (un-paywalled link here). But at the same time, the music industry had already radically changed: streaming was so affordable that music fans with even the most voracious appetites could get their fix for a few bucks a month.
The delta between What.cd's catalogue and the Spotify/Apple Music catalog is largely in the very obscure long tail of music tastes—most fans won't notice the difference and now at least the artists make a little money again. (Of course, it was an incredible feat of cultural preservation that I wish could've been preserved even in some highly-restricted and legally compliant way.) But the thing I really miss is that community. Spotify hasn't leaned too heavily into community features, and Last.fm isn't thriving like it once was. Maybe that community is on Reddit now (or tiktok and apps I'm too old to know about) and I just haven't found it.
You've gone and made me sad about what.cd again. Not to be dramatic, but it was a little like the Library of Alexandria burning down. It's made me extremely paranoid about losing my digital...
You've gone and made me sad about what.cd again. Not to be dramatic, but it was a little like the Library of Alexandria burning down.
It's made me extremely paranoid about losing my digital collection. Some of those rips I'd be extremely lucky to find again, let alone the record or anything like that.
Yup, my parents also still use this. Their internet is poor enough that it's much easier for them to just wait a couple of days for a disk to arrive than try and enjoy a movie at 360p.
Yup, my parents also still use this. Their internet is poor enough that it's much easier for them to just wait a couple of days for a disk to arrive than try and enjoy a movie at 360p.
https://dvd.netflix.com/ Lots of people still don't have access to usable internet service (or don't have a smart TV/device) and there are titles that are not available for streaming, but are...
Lots of people still don't have access to usable internet service (or don't have a smart TV/device) and there are titles that are not available for streaming, but are available on DVD.
I use Netflix "classic" because there are tons of movies that are just not available on streaming services, as the article points out. Once you get past the last 30-40 years or the most popular...
I use Netflix "classic" because there are tons of movies that are just not available on streaming services, as the article points out. Once you get past the last 30-40 years or the most popular 10% of movies, the chance something is available on a streaming service dramatically decreases.
I just get them in the mail, copy them to my computer and send them back the next day. That way, I always have a good backlog of movies to watch.
For a DVD, it takes about 15 minutes to rip and then maybe 10 to transcode it to an H.265 file. Blu-rays take maybe 45 minutes to rip and 20 minutes to transcode. I’m not extremely worried about...
A drive that reads a DVD at 1x takes about two hours to read a ~4GB DVD. A 24x drive can take about 5 minutes. That's only if you're creating an image of the DVD you're copying, though....
A drive that reads a DVD at 1x takes about two hours to read a ~4GB DVD. A 24x drive can take about 5 minutes. That's only if you're creating an image of the DVD you're copying, though. Re-encoding the DVD into a video file depends on your quality settings, the codecs you're using, and whether or not you have hardware acceleration for video encoding.
Looks like it. Jumped on a VPN real quick with a European IP and it gave me the same. I'm sure its US only and 404 is the easiest way to keep people outside the US from attempting to sign up.
Looks like it. Jumped on a VPN real quick with a European IP and it gave me the same. I'm sure its US only and 404 is the easiest way to keep people outside the US from attempting to sign up.
I recently signed back up for their dvds after unsubscribing about eight or nine years ago. The article is correct that their library is not what it used to be, but there is still plenty of...
I recently signed back up for their dvds after unsubscribing about eight or nine years ago. The article is correct that their library is not what it used to be, but there is still plenty of content, and so far I haven't had a problem getting what I want. Maybe that will change as I get through their library, but right now I find it compliments their streaming service perfectly so much in fact that I am finally going to ditch Prime.
This whole article seems very overblown and makes it sound like the physical library Netflix once held is gone forever. It's not. You can still sign up for Netflix's DVD service. They're just...
And this, ultimately, is the tragedy of losing that Netflix DVD collection of old—there’s genuinely no alternative for replacing it within the streaming world, no matter how much you’re willing to spend.
This whole article seems very overblown and makes it sound like the physical library Netflix once held is gone forever. It's not. You can still sign up for Netflix's DVD service. They're just claiming that the current streaming selection is smaller than the physical library (which the article pegs at 100,000 titles and makes them all sound unique, but that clearly has to include duplicates - there is no way Netflix has 100,000 unique titles).
It might not happen tomorrow, but DVD.com’s days are surely numbered.
There is absolutely no evidence in the article to support this, other than the author claiming that since Netflix hasn't "updated" the service in years, it will close down soon. What should they do to the service? It works perfectly without any other investment besides buying new titles as are released. I've never had trouble getting a new movie from Netflix. The only thing I can think of is adding 4K Blu-ray support, but that's such a niche that I don't think most people would pay for it.
There has been conjecture on both sides for years. Now that they stopped telling us how many subscribers their DVD service has, all we have is old conjecture....
There is absolutely no evidence in the article to support this, other than the author claiming that since Netflix hasn't "updated" the service in years, it will close down soon
I think the data the DVD service generates has to be more valuable than the profits it still makes. Data on the most popular actors and directors is surely more important to Netflix's success than...
I think the data the DVD service generates has to be more valuable than the profits it still makes.
Data on the most popular actors and directors is surely more important to Netflix's success than anything else.
They pride themselves on making data driven decisions on what shows to fund.
My FIL still has the Netflix mail-in service and I always kind of jab him about it. I suppose even with 100,000 titles I just can't appreciate the hassle of waiting for discs in the mail. That...
My FIL still has the Netflix mail-in service and I always kind of jab him about it. I suppose even with 100,000 titles I just can't appreciate the hassle of waiting for discs in the mail.
That might just be the opinion of someone who's subbed to almost every relevant streaming service, has a sizable hard copy collection, and a Plex server. If I really can't find a title available for streaming, a decent purchase price on Amazon, or physical store availability, then I just sail the seven seas without much care.
This type of long tail content isn't always available via piracy. (Pavee Lackeen)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469691/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0] was released in 2005, but has only been on torrent sites...
This type of long tail content isn't always available via piracy.
(Pavee Lackeen)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469691/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0] was released in 2005, but has only been on torrent sites since 2020.
There was a semi-analogous situation with the closure of What.cd.
What.cd was a private bittorrent tracker for music with a breadth and depth of selection that rivaled only by Oink. You could find lossless rips of really obscure music, and there was an incredibly vibrant, passionate, and knowledgable community on the site, in its forums, and on its IRC that made the whole thing even more magical. (You were never going to hear that perfect-but-crazy-obscure record unless someone in the know pointed you toward it.)
The site shut down after some of its servers were seized in 2016, and a lot of people mourned the loss (un-paywalled link here). But at the same time, the music industry had already radically changed: streaming was so affordable that music fans with even the most voracious appetites could get their fix for a few bucks a month.
The delta between What.cd's catalogue and the Spotify/Apple Music catalog is largely in the very obscure long tail of music tastes—most fans won't notice the difference and now at least the artists make a little money again. (Of course, it was an incredible feat of cultural preservation that I wish could've been preserved even in some highly-restricted and legally compliant way.) But the thing I really miss is that community. Spotify hasn't leaned too heavily into community features, and Last.fm isn't thriving like it once was. Maybe that community is on Reddit now (or tiktok and apps I'm too old to know about) and I just haven't found it.
You've gone and made me sad about what.cd again. Not to be dramatic, but it was a little like the Library of Alexandria burning down.
It's made me extremely paranoid about losing my digital collection. Some of those rips I'd be extremely lucky to find again, let alone the record or anything like that.
Wait, what?
Yup, my parents also still use this. Their internet is poor enough that it's much easier for them to just wait a couple of days for a disk to arrive than try and enjoy a movie at 360p.
https://dvd.netflix.com/
Lots of people still don't have access to usable internet service (or don't have a smart TV/device) and there are titles that are not available for streaming, but are available on DVD.
I use Netflix "classic" because there are tons of movies that are just not available on streaming services, as the article points out. Once you get past the last 30-40 years or the most popular 10% of movies, the chance something is available on a streaming service dramatically decreases.
I just get them in the mail, copy them to my computer and send them back the next day. That way, I always have a good backlog of movies to watch.
How long does the ripping process take?
For a DVD, it takes about 15 minutes to rip and then maybe 10 to transcode it to an H.265 file.
Blu-rays take maybe 45 minutes to rip and 20 minutes to transcode.
I’m not extremely worried about keeping the original quality and Don Melton’s transcoding scripts get me 90% of the quality at 20% of the file size.
thanks
A drive that reads a DVD at 1x takes about two hours to read a ~4GB DVD. A 24x drive can take about 5 minutes. That's only if you're creating an image of the DVD you're copying, though. Re-encoding the DVD into a video file depends on your quality settings, the codecs you're using, and whether or not you have hardware acceleration for video encoding.
thanks
Just a note: I'm getting a "Page Not Found" error on that link. Maybe it's not available in my area?
Looks like it. Jumped on a VPN real quick with a European IP and it gave me the same. I'm sure its US only and 404 is the easiest way to keep people outside the US from attempting to sign up.
I recently signed back up for their dvds after unsubscribing about eight or nine years ago. The article is correct that their library is not what it used to be, but there is still plenty of content, and so far I haven't had a problem getting what I want. Maybe that will change as I get through their library, but right now I find it compliments their streaming service perfectly so much in fact that I am finally going to ditch Prime.
I also get DVD's. There are three of us!
This whole article seems very overblown and makes it sound like the physical library Netflix once held is gone forever. It's not. You can still sign up for Netflix's DVD service. They're just claiming that the current streaming selection is smaller than the physical library (which the article pegs at 100,000 titles and makes them all sound unique, but that clearly has to include duplicates - there is no way Netflix has 100,000 unique titles).
There is absolutely no evidence in the article to support this, other than the author claiming that since Netflix hasn't "updated" the service in years, it will close down soon. What should they do to the service? It works perfectly without any other investment besides buying new titles as are released. I've never had trouble getting a new movie from Netflix. The only thing I can think of is adding 4K Blu-ray support, but that's such a niche that I don't think most people would pay for it.
They're also claiming that the physical library has reduced the numbers of titles available.
That wouldn't surprise me, as they are physical discs that can be worn out or damaged. I'm sure they don't replace every disc that is lost or damaged.
There has been conjecture on both sides for years.
Now that they stopped telling us how many subscribers their DVD service has, all we have is old conjecture....
If the service ever really goes away, never fear, my 80 year old step-dad has burned and cataloged thousands of them.
I think the data the DVD service generates has to be more valuable than the profits it still makes.
Data on the most popular actors and directors is surely more important to Netflix's success than anything else.
They pride themselves on making data driven decisions on what shows to fund.
In theory, they could also use information about popularity of a title on DVD to weigh the potential value of buying the streaming rights.
My FIL still has the Netflix mail-in service and I always kind of jab him about it. I suppose even with 100,000 titles I just can't appreciate the hassle of waiting for discs in the mail.
That might just be the opinion of someone who's subbed to almost every relevant streaming service, has a sizable hard copy collection, and a Plex server. If I really can't find a title available for streaming, a decent purchase price on Amazon, or physical store availability, then I just sail the seven seas without much care.
This type of long tail content isn't always available via piracy.
(Pavee Lackeen)[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469691/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0] was released in 2005, but has only been on torrent sites since 2020.
FYI, you got those brackets and parens swapped around.