Hi, everybody! I'm still around, just been lazy. Unemployed at the moment, waiting for the results of my drug testing and physical, so while I've had plenty of free time, I also haven't been paid to sit in front of a computer for eight hours, so I imagine that's to be blamed for my non-blogging. I've been running regularly (even drove up to San Marcos to check out some of the running trails up there), I've been cleaning out my storage locker (I've meant to do this for about a year, but am now doubly motivated knowing that the owner of A-1 Self-Storage was a leading supporter of Proposition 8) and I've been using the hell out of my Netflix subscription. For two reasons.

First, Netflix is finally dropping HD-DVD on December 15th. Can't blame them, they announced they were going to phase it out in January. But I have about thirty movies in my queue in HD-DVD, so I'm trying to get through as many as possible. Which is difficult, since I spent a week and a half trying to get a copy of The Wild Bunch that works. I got two defective discs in a row, and today I received another replacement disc, which was cracked in half. So I gave up; The Wild Bunch is available on their Watch Instantly service, so I'll watch it that way, high-def be damned. I should say, I don't blame Netflix, I imagine problems with the condition of their remaining HD-DVD stock drove their decision to finally drop the format completely. I can't expect them to last forever.

The second reason Netflix has been dominating my attention is that the new xbox update, with streaming movies from Netflix Watch Instantly, is now live. I'd been watching Netflix movies on the Xbox via unofficial software and Vista Media Center, but that stopped working a few weeks ago (since I knew the official solution would soon be available, I didn't bother trying to fix it). But now I have a simple, smooth means of watching streaming movies on my HDTV. And I've been very happy with the final product, mostly. I know the selection could be better, but I have 500 items on my Watch Instantly queue, so I can't complain. I like the focus on indie film and documentaries, and the addition of Starz content is a nice plus. Picture quality, under ideal conditions, is great. There are even a small number of films available in high-def, including a few films that were already near the top of my list, like the new John Sayles movie Honeydripper. No one would confuse the picture quality with Blu-Ray, but I was impressed. But again, that's under ideal circumstances. Which means before 6 PM or after midnight. During the peak evening movie-viewing window, I go from four-bars quality (the best), to three or two bars. I stopped watching one movie, the quality was so bad. I don't know if this is because my cable internet connection is slowing down on my end or if Netflix's servers are being hammered (I suspect the former), but it's disappointing. But for the most part, even the lower-quality streams are acceptable, and when all goes well, it's DVD quality or better. And it looks like Netflix just renewed it's deal with the BBC, a lot of their stuff that was scheduled to expire at the end of the month no longer is, so that's a plus; it looks like I'll still have time to watch Yes, Prime Minister once I finally finish watching Yes, Minister.

An addendum to yesterday's post about Netflix adding the Starz catalog: The picture quality sucks. A lot of the films are pan-and-scan, which is bad enough, but the poor picture quality is far more serious of an issue. I'm hoping it's a bandwidth issue, that lots of users are trying out the new movies, putting a strain on the server and forcing it to stream lower-quality videos. So we'll see if picutre quality still sucks in a week. I will say that I've looked at a few sample movies, and there is some variation in quality, and newer releases seem to look slightly better than back-catalog films, from my very limited tests. But right now I'm watching The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and not only is it pan-and-scan, but the picture quality reminds me of watching streaming video through RealVideo about five years ago.

I'll give it a week or two and see if it improves, but if not, at least Netflix labels all the Starz movies, so I can avoid them in the future.

Netflix partners with Starz to expand its "Watch Instantly" line-up. Going through the list, I found quite a few movies worth watching (that's right, Netflix finally has films from the Ernest series available--though I must ask, would it have been to much to ask that Ernest Scared Stupid be included, with Halloween right around the corner?). I think the ultimate proof that this addition is a very good thing, for me at least, is that two of the three movies I currently have on DVD from Netflix (Duck, You Sucker and Tremors) were amongst the additions. See the whole list here.

Netflix relents, account profiles to stay. I'm relieved I won't have to follow-through on my threat to go down to the one-out-at-a-time plan.

Netflix eliminating user profiles September 1st. In other news, I will be changing to the one-out-at-a-time plan September 1st. I added my mom to my plan a month or so ago, a sort of Mother's Day present, and she really enjoys getting movies in the mail and picking out stuff on her list (she's making her way through Nero Wolfe right now). And now they forced me to go in the other room and break my invalid elderly mother's heart. For shame. If I wasn't so fond of the "Watch Instantly" service, I would cancel entirely and use the library and BitTorrent for all my movie needs.

So I'll be going to the one-at-a-time plan. And, of course, being on the one-at-a-time plan will make me more conscious of time, and the need to return movies promptly. As things stand, I am rather lax about returning movies; I recently watched Mutiny on the Bounty (on HD DVD), after it had sat in my den for two months. Sundays in the Park With George has been here almost as long, as I haven't been in a musical mood, I suppose. But now, it'll be all about the turnover. I'm confident I'll cost them more money, but my monthly fee will be halved. Great business plan, Netflix.

And to add insult to injury, I was just informed Mom's Nero Wolfe DVD is defective. My goodwill towards Netflix has evaporated overnight; if that was their goal, congratulations, mission accomplished..

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I bought the HD DVD add-on to the Xbox 360, about six months or so ago. Even at the time, it was clear that Blu-Ray was winning the format war, but the add-on was reasonably priced, having just received a price cut, I had a coupon on top of that, the add-on came with King Kong, and a mail-in rebate offered five free movies. Not the best HD DVD movies available, but either movies I liked, but doubted would benefit from the HD treatment (Casablanca, Blazing Saddles), or movies that should look good, but that I didn't really care about (The Perfect Storm). But the free movies were just enough to make the drive look like a good deal. Especially after taking a look at Netflix, and seeing that they had plenty of HD DVDs for rent.

Overall, I've been happy with the drive. The first HD DVD I watched, other than sampling a bit of King Kong, was the BBC documentary Planet Earth, which was absolutely incredible, and which I almost immediately purchased. So far, that is one of only two HD DVDs I have purchased. The other, Batman Begins, I already owned on DVD, and overall it left me a bit underwhelmed. Standard DVDs look good enough on an HDTV with an upscaling player, for my tastes. So I don't think I'd rebuy DVDs I own in HD DVD (even if the format were not in its death throes).

So, owning the HD DVD add-on, you might imagine I have not been happy to see the recent developments in the format wars. For those not paying attention, HD DVD is getting its clock cleaned pretty well. But I took comfort in one thing: There are still plenty of HD DVDs I want to see available from Netflix. Now it appears that Netflix is abandoning me, too. Now, details are vague, so I don't know if this means Netflix is dropping HD DVD from their inventory, or simply forgoing the purchase of any more HD DVDs. If it's the latter, I'll cope. But if they remove HD DVD from their back catalog, I think I may become an ex-Netflix subscriber. I've been wondering if the public library could handle my DVD needs, and while their selection lags Netflix considerably, I could probably get by, supplementing their offerings with digital vendors (Xbox Live Marketplace, iTunes), piracy, and maybe even the good old-fashioned video store (I miss Kensington Video, and I'm sure they miss me). Or, you know, I could watch the hundreds of unwatched DVDs I've hoarded over the years. In any case, the availability of HD DVD is the main factor that has led me to overlook the fact that I haven't been getting a great value out of Netflix lately (only going through 3-4 films a month or so), and if they're no longer available, I'll probably get my fix elsewhere.

The seeming failure of HD DVD leads one to wonder if I'll purchase a Blu-Ray player. Doubtful. I'd rather watch HD than SD programming, and HD media looks better than standard DVDs, but standard DVDs still look pretty good on an HDTV. So, having spent time with an HD DVD player, while it looks good (especially for nature documentaries), it's not worth a substantial capital investment, in my opinion. Though I have a relatively small HDTV; if you're plunking down a chunk of change on a home theater, a few hundred dollars more for Blu-Ray might be worth it. But for me, I'll wait for digital distribution of HD content to go mainstream.

I'll close with one bit of good news for me on the HD DVD front: Sweeney Todd comes to HD DVD April 1.

Netflix's website seems to have just come back up, after being down since last night. Also, they've cut the prices of several plans by $1, which is nice, I suppose.

Netflix is rolling out streaming video to subscribers. Apparently, for every dollar you pay for your existing mail-rental subscription, you now get one hour of streaming video, as well.

I've been considering returning to Netflix, and this gives me another incentive. I've put a moratorium on new DVD purchases, making exceptions for things I really, really want, and know I'll watch (season one of Extras, for instance). But I've been considering Netflix, to meet some of my desire for new releases, while I work through my backlog of DVDs. But now that I have digital cable with a DVR, and now have both a DVD and taped-movie backlog, I'm thinking my money might be better spent elsewhere, while I get caught up a bit. But this article certainly piqued my interest, especially the discussion of "movie-surfing," using the service to preview films or just watch one's favorite scene in a movie (even if you own it, digging out a DVD to watch one scene always seems like more trouble than it's worth, at least if you're as lazy as me).