Home Theater

Friday, January 01, 2010

Streaming dominance?

I got a call from my father today who told me that he's using his PC to send movies to his plasma TV over a VGA cable and is quite satisfied.

I have been excited by Pandora, and Brian had predicted that streaming would take over the world and to start selling off my DVD collection.

But, though the future looks bright for streaming, there are some issues.  We'll start off with the good:

  • Blockbuster has unlimited Streaming with any plan but their basic plan
  • The Samsung player has the best quality streaming
  • Netflix offers streaming and the Samsung plays it.
And now the bad:
  • Blockbuster streaming is only 2.1.  No surround sound!
  • Blockbuster charges extra for Blu-ray movies
  • Netflix charges extra for streaming a movie ($3)?
Initially, I was thinking that I'd just drop Blockbuster and go to Netflix, but it looks like the corporate bean counters made sure one was about as good as the other.  Here's a chart:

Both Netflix and Blockbuster have Blu-Ray.  Netflix charges extra.  Winner: Blockbuster
Both have streaming.  Netflix has unlimited viewing.  Winner: Netflix

Here's the conundrum:  if I want high quality- I need to watch Blu-ray movies.  But the only service that offers it at a reasonable price is Blockbuster.   If I want to watch movies instantly (the promise of streaming), the Netflix is the only real choice.

So, right now, neither is superior, and I'm not going to sign up for both, so I'll stick with Blockbuster for now and have already changed my queue to include BR movies as first preference.