After installing Boxee I realized that I now have devices in almost every room of my house that will stream Netflix movies. Based on that, I decided to re-enable my Netflix account and give them another chance.
I don’t really need Netflix. Between the movies I’ve purchased, things I’ve downloaded, and the shows we watch every week on cable, I have decades (and maybe centuries!) worth of things to watch. What I miss, however, is the physical experience of walking through a video store and discovering things that look interesting — “window shopping”, as it were. A friend of mine recently told me that he checks out the new releases in stores and then downloads or streams them later from home. Not that that’s beneath me, I just don’t get out as much as I used to.
According to them, I originally created my Netflix account in 2000. Since then I’ve closed and re-opened my account several times, based on my needs. I originally opened my account back when DVDs were shiny and new and expensive, but closed it when they got cheap. I re-opened my account when our kids were young(er) to rent kid movies, but closed it due to Redbox. As of this week all three of my video game consoles (Wii, 360 and PS3), all of our iOS devices (iPods/iPhones/iPad), my television, DVD player, and now Boxee can all connect directly to Netflix and stream content.
On another note, the basic streaming service is only $7.99, although I opted for the $9.99 package which makes more movies available for streaming and also allows for one physical disc at a time to be rented. $9.99 is half of what I was paying for Netflix the last time before I cancelled it.
I’m going to keep track of how many movies we watch on Netflix over the next couple of months and see if the investment is worth it.