Netflix Download Service Postponed

By Ed Oswald | Published October 20, 2005, 3:15 PM

Netflix on Wednesday said that its planned movie download service is on hold indefinitely due to licensing problems with Hollywood studios. Word of a possible download service first leaked out in July when a glitch in the Netflix system revealed that the company was planning to offer online movies.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made the announcement during a conference call with analysts. "When the content climate begins to thaw," the service will be launched, Hastings said. Work is continuing on the necessary infrastructure in order to make a launch possible, but Hastings did not specify how movies would be delivered.

Comments

Downloading movies is very convenient. Unfortunately, all those greedy studios, producers and actors will want a piece of the pie. Hey those poor people need to have a second private jet!!

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If a movie download service doesn't offer 5.1 channel surround sound there is absolutely no point in paying for it. Most movie download services require Windows Media Player 9 or later which do fully support Microsoft's 5.1 channel surround format in Windows Media videos.

So far the music download services I've tried have excellent video for a downloaded movie but the audio stinks because it's 2 channel stereo and very heavily compressed using lossy compression.

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Been a member of netflix twice. Both times I cancelled because I received too many broken disks. Probably not netflix's fault, but there are better distribution methods for media.

I'll try this out when it's live. The day of media going bye bye is soon approaching.

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I find it funny that you've had so much trouble with broken media mjm01010101. I've been a member since early 2000 and have had only one cracked DVD out of hundreds sent. I am guessing that no matter what distribution method they used you would somehow get the broken media. I am glad to have the service and will not be dropping it anytime soon. Being able to download movies legally would be icing on the cake. I can't wait.

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I'm a recent Netflicks subscriber and think they have a great thing going.. downlaods would have been that much cooler. perhaps that endevour Morgan Freman is working on will help clear the way...

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Darn it!

I have been a member of Netflix for over 5 years now. I love the service and would have moved to downloadable movies instead. (as long as the quality didn't suffer) I knew it was a long shot, but a man can dream.

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