The Netflix Stream: Week of March 18th, 2012

The stream information from Netflix still seems to be janked up, so we might have to change the day that this regular post goes up, but there are still a few relatively new additions that absolutely need to be pointed out.

  1. ‘TED Talks’: I’m really happy to see these added to Netflix. If you’re not familiar, TED stands for Technology, Education and Design, and the organization attracts some of the biggest speakers around to talk about a variety of important subjects. In the ‘Space Trek‘ series, for example, you can hear from my personal favorite astronomer, Phil Plait. Okay, admittedly not the biggest name around. Well fine, check out the ‘Icons‘ episodes for J.J. Abrams, Bono, Bill Gates, Steven Hawking and Bill Clinton.
  2. ‘Saved by the Bell’: Well hello there, childhood, nice to see you again! ‘Saved by the Bell‘ is one of those shows that really took a hold of a certain age range even if it wasn’t very good. It’s also the show where I first found true love, with Kelly, Jessie and the first in what ended up being a series of real-life Lisas. Seriously, Lisas and I – it just keeps happening. I feel like the show holds up just as well as any kind of crappy show from the early ’90s holds up.

8 comments

  1. Lahrs

    Since Netflix lost Starz, and thus a lot of their good streaming movies, would it be possible to do a feature article on the various options out there and how they stack up against the competition?

    I mostly used Netflix for their streaming TV shows, so the change hasn’t affected me much, but if there are better options, I would not be opposed to changing and I would like to know what is out there.

    • Pretty much, if its available on Netflix and Amazon, and Netflix looses it, its still available on Amazon. Amazon also offers the option to purchase shows that aren’t available for free streaming on either service, so if you REALLY want to see something, Amazon usually has you covered. Its really a tossup – Netflix seems to get better deals, and will tend to get more recent stuff, but you won’t see stuff disappear from Amazon.

      For example, Netflix got Red Dwarf before Amazon did. But Red Dwarf is no longer on Netflix, but I am still watching it on Amazon.

      Netflix got Star Trek like a week or two before Amazon…. EXCEPT for DS9, which somehow Amazon struck a deal to get something like six months before Netflix.

      Now, if the show is not available for free streaming, I have found that Vudu tends to offer better deals on entire seasons over Amazon, and the quality is better.

      I currently use all three services, and its working great for me. If you are only going to go with one service, I will say that is really dependant on what you want to watch. I am finding Netflix to be better for newer stuff, Amazon to be better for older stuff. Of course, your milage may vary.

  2. What good movies did they lose with STARZ, the majority of STARZ content was crappy second rate movies at some of the worst encodes I’ve seen on the web and that includes youtube.

    Most of them weren’t anamorphic or 16X9, even movies that were newer and obviously available in HD and 16×9. Thus they actually created SD crappy rips to send to Netflix. I won’t miss starz one bit.

    • Starz had a lot of family movies – many of the newer Disney films and such. But I agree – the quality was horrible! I even had a Wii in the bedroom hooked up to an SD TV, and even still you could tell the difference between Starz quality and the other stuff on Netflix. It pretty much worked out for me if I was babysitting my friend’s kids, and they wanted to watch “The Princess and the Frog” yet again.

  3. Jon D

    I just had a moment of shame: I watched dozens upon dozens of hours of Saved by the Bell in Junior High, yet I just realized I don’t remember how the theme goes……….

    • I wake up in the morning and the (something) out of water, and I know I will never make it on time. By the time I grab my books and give myself the looks I’m at the corner just in time to see the bus fly by. It’s alright, because I’m saved by the bell!

  4. Arghh! Saved By The Bell!! Gawd… I ended up regularly watching it when I was a teenager… Even then I knew it was terrible, but I couldn’t help watching it… I don’t know why, I’m not sure I want to know lol!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *