British Inside : Blockbuster

Amazon Unbox on TiVo

James — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT

When ScottW left a comment on The Blockbuster Netflix war continues saying that it'll all change when we start downloading movies I figured, yeah, won't that be cool.

But I didn't really believe it would happen any time soon.

I haven't seen my internet connection get faster for 5 years. What was cutting edge back then - 5mb - still seems good enough, but it's nowhere near what Rich says he gets - was it 30mb? I don't remember but it was one of those holy sh*t moments when he told me.

But coincidentally this morning I get an email from the TiVo folks (I have an old series 2) telling me that this weekend is a cheap weekend for buying movies from Amazon Unbox - a video download service. It's here already? I don't peek out from my hole very often, but I didn't realize it was this easy, this soon.

I just visited Amazon, signed into my TiVo account, clicked on a TV show I wanted to see (1Click was already setup) and apparently the show is downloading right now into my TiVo. It's pretty cool and very easy to do.

BUT..before you rush over, bear in mind that they are taking a lot of heat over other parts of the service (which I'm not using) such as the PC software license agreement and the Unbox Player. I'm using a TiVo, so I figure I'm pretty safe from all this, but YMMV.

Can't wait to see if the download is waiting for me tonight.

The Blockbuster Netflix war continues

James — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 09:22:00 GMT

I've posted about the ups and downs of Blockbuster before. This morning Mike points us to the latest pundit who says that Blockbuster will die within 2 years.

I can't refute his findings, and if true it's pretty sad. Everyone needs competition, and I'm sure it's done something to keep Netflix honest. Remember throttling?

From my point of view Blockbuster continues to make some good and some bad decisions. Since I last commented on them..

(-) They have increased the charges
(-) They have reduced the number of times I could visit the store, down to 5
(-) They cancelled the freebie coupon
(+) But they have improved their service, no more bad dvd's
(+) They remove instore-rented DVD's from your online queue
(+) They seem much faster to send DVD's. Regularly they turn up 2 days before they are due.

Unfortunately, overall I have to say that they are slipping into the red with me again. The ONE BIG advantage they had was that I could drive a couple of miles and grab a DVD when I wanted one. In fact I had got into the habit of returning most DVD's this way, for the instant gratification.

Getting people into the store had to be a good thing for business - I'm not a candy-buyer, but surely they make money from the impulse candy/soda purchases. (I heard once from a gas station owner that unbelievably they made more money from the groceries than gas).

Now, I know I was the one to choose to move to the 5 in-store DVD's a month plan, not the unlimited plan even though I wanted unlimited. But charging me more money for the same product is NOT the way it's supposed to work guys.

So, I baled to the 5/month plan. And as it turns out that stopped me going to the store at all. Not sure why, but I got out of the habit because I had no way of counting how many times I had left. I'm not naive enough to trust my memory - I forget anything not business-related - so in one fell swoop they lost my store visits.

I don't understand what they gained. They annoyed me, got me to visit the store less, and charged me less money. That doesn't sound like a great plan.

I still want to root for them though - if only to stop Netflix becoming a monopoly. Monopolies suck.

I still like Blockbuster, but they suck today

James — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 23:25:00 GMT

I'm just going to get this over quickly cos I'm pissed off.

Last week I rented a movie and it wouldn't play - my DVD player wouldn't even recognize there was a DVD. So I took it back to my local store, and reported online that the DVD was unplayable. Cool, normally they send me a replacement ASAP, and this time was no different - I got the replacement 2 days later.

They sent me the same *&^%^#%$^% DVD, didn't they. @#*&@#$*#@^$@#*&^$

That'll teach me to take it back to the store. I suspect that they don't take their customers word for it when a DVD is reported unplayable. I bet that they keep sending it out until they've annoyed 3 or 4 people and then they bin it. After all, one person's DVD player could be at fault, right?

Yeah, I understand the business logic here, but it looks bloody stupid when you send the same broken DVD back to the guy reporting it.

This time I'm keeping the movie until I get the replacement.

Oh, I didn't tell you the best part - when I went to rant at their customer service dept their contact form crashed. Perhaps I used too many expletives.

Die Netlfix

James — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 12:19:00 GMT

I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out - most people I've read seems to say that Netflix rules, Blockbuster drools.

I disagree (and I'm not alone)

Blockbuster's recent (and well overdue) improvement to their service should kill Netflix, all things being equal. The interesting part is always that it's not the best service that wins. Still, my money is on blockbuster (well, my $20/month at least)

Netflix simply cannot compete can they? Unless they quickly do a deal with some other nationwide store - but that won't get them the ability to give free movie rentals while you wait for the mail. No, they're screwed.

If you're a Netflix subscriber - why?

Johnny released!

James — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:46:00 GMT

Community Server 2.1 was released yesterday, but I didn't have the energy to blog about it.

A night in front of the telly usually sounds better than it is in practice though, and the latest movie from Blockbuster Online, "Ultraviolet" was seriously bad. Still, the eye candy and lack of energy made me watch almost 45 minutes before seeing what Tivo had to offer. Overhaulin', especially a Mopar, wins every time.

The latest release was made worse for me (the builder of the MSI's) because every day recently we've been having a daily severe thunderstorm at 3-4pm. On Tuesday we got about a dozen blackouts during that time but the UPS held up the PC throughout. I lost one of my three LCD's though (or the graphics card, I'm not sure which yet).

Then yesterday, release day, final build day the storms hit again just as we're given the go-ahead. This time the power goes out and the PC loses power. The UPS is shot. (I don't mean I actually shot it - although I was tempted. It just doesn't work anymore)

So everything isn't very happy with me when i reboot since nothing was properly shutdown. Outlook is crying like a little schoolgirl about my PST's, yeah, yeah, just get on with it.

And the power goes out again.

At that point I stole my wife's UPS (she's out), Which of course cost me dearly an hour later when I'm just finishing up and she returns home to find a cannibalized computer with no hope of doing any shopping online, enrolling softball, checking emails, etc.

So, maybe not today, but soon I need to start pulling stuff out from under my desk and seeing what's going on down there.

Farewell, fair cruelty

James — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 09:30:00 GMT

Farewell, fair cruelty.
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

I couldn't have said it better myself William.

I was throttled big-time by Netflix. I had a dozen movies in my queue for 6 months that never arrived. I don't care about their reasons or the fairness of throttling. I signed up for movies and wasn't getting them.

Now Blockbuster Online has my money. So far their service is just as good, their throttling (if any) hasn't kicked in yet and I love their one-movie-a-week coupon that I can use at the local store.