Screenhead

I’m a big fan of Netflix. Not to pimp them too much, but they’e reasonably(ish) priced and the selection is good. But their demise is constantly predivedt, either through competitors (first Walmart, now Blockbuster) or through DVD being made obsolete.

Well, Walmart’s rival service has failed and now Netfilx are tentatively moving beyond DVDs. Their new service will allow subscribers to watch movies on their PC, which is undoubtedly where the industry is heading.

Netflix aren’t offering films via download, but via streaming, which should reduce the risk of piracy and avoid long download times. The amount of streaming time you get is directly linked to your existing DVD subscription package, so there’ll be no extra cost to current customers. You’ll be able to sample movies, and hit “stop” if you don’t like what you see in the first few minutes, thereby not wasting any more of your streaming time on Michael Bay’s latest (for example).
The downside is that there’s not a big selection right now, and it seems they’re still ironing out a few browser compatibility problems, but assuming these get fixed, I like this move.

The next big step is to seamlessly transfer films from PC to TV, and free viewers from their computer screen. The recently announced Apple TV may have the answer, but I don’t see them sharing with Netflix, do you?

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