mike1977

From what I've heard, they will stop the by mail service on the 19th. And they are letting people keep the discs as a gift. So with that news, I wonder if you can you still sign up for the free trial today and just keep the disc.

It's sad to see it go. That leaves Netflix's by mail without the competition. Streaming is limited and Redbox is limited. When you could go to a movie rental store, you could be pretty sure they carried that years old title you wanted to rent. Same with Netflix and BB by mail. When stuff was yanked from Netflix's streaming (or anything not available for streaming) at least I could continue watching by renting it on disc!

EdTheRipper

Do you have a source? Because I am not seeing anything indicating that they are wrapping up.

mike1977

Satelliteguys forum

Anyway, I just reactivated BB@Home on my Dish account. Signed in at Blockbuster.com and was able to add to the queue.

EdTheRipper

Yeah, their site is still allowing people to sign up for Online, so I'd take any news of them folding up with a grain of salt for now.

mike1977

I guess it's just the BB@Home package on Dish where they are dropping it.

Nate Boss

Yeah, this paragraph sounds ethical...

JimRochester

Haven't heard anything like this. That would suck because I don't have any movies right now.

Bobaray

Here is a portion of an email I received from them on Monday:

Blockbuster @Home™ gives you access to thousands of movies on TV, On Demand and On-the-Go. Whether you’re watching at home or on your favorite device with dishanywhere.com or the DISH Anywhere app, Blockbuster @Home™ brings you more movies in more places.We hope you have been enjoying all of the movies available to you right now, including Skyfall and The Hunger Games on EPIX (chs. 380-382) and The Hurt Locker and The Social Network on Fox Movie Channel (ch. 384).

As of September 19th, 2013, Blockbuster @Home™ will no longer include DVDs or games by mail. You continue to have access to all of the other great features included in Blockbuster @Home™, now offering 15 movie channels and 6 entertainment channels, including EPIX® (chs. 380-382), STARZ® Cinema (ch. 353), Sony Movie Channel (ch. 386) and Hallmark Movie Channel (ch. 187). Plus you get thousands of hours of movies and shows streamed to your TV, computer or tablet!

mike1977

Well, I think if Blockbuster was going to end discs by mail entirely, they would have it posted somewhere and probably remove the ability to sign up or reactivate. BB@Home is really not the same thing. It's an add-on package on Dish *WITH* the perk of being able to get discs by mail.

I logged in through blockbuster.com and my account wasn't linked anymore to my Dish account so I had to choose a plan to reactivate it.

Manzana

With Netflix having no competition in the by mail category and Red Box have such a microscopic selection, Netflix will most likely raise by mail prices soon. I agree that Netflix's streaming is pretty awful because they have so little selection of popular stuff. I've done tests and for any 10 random movies I pick, Netflix has about 2 out of 10 available for streaming. Pretty crappy average.

When older movies get so beat up on DVD from renting, does Netflix replace them (especially if they went out of print)? Probably not. I believe we are soon going to reach a point where if you pick any arbitrary old movie that it may not be possible to find any rental source for it any more. What's funny about Netflix by mail is when I had it years ago (before they jacked around with the prices) I rarely got new releases anyway because they were "Very Long Wait" for weeks or months. I only got catalog titles that were pretty beat up.

So Netflix will be the last bastion of physical catalog titles until all the discs get destroyed.

Draven

I guess I don't understand what people expect from these services. If you love a DVD from 1982 so much that you want to rent it, just buy it for 5 bucks on DVD.

As for streaming, I imagine running down some of those licenses from old titles is a nightmare. And new ones are tied up in all sorts of nonsense too.

I guess I've just never had a problem finding a movie I wanted to watch, either via streaming or renting from Apple or getting off Amazon.

If they make no money on it, why continue offering it?

DaveyJoe

I was born in 1985 and there are still countless classic movies that I haven't seen yet. Most of these are not available to stream. In my experience the selection in most streaming services is very underwhelming, and I can't afford to sign up for multiple services to increase the selection. This is why the Netflix disc version is so valuable for me.

I'd love to get Hulu plus for their Criterion Collection films but I just can't afford another subscription, and aside from CC their selection is awful, so I can't justify switching over from Netflix. My only option is to get those via mail from Netflix.

ProfessorEcho

Prior to "Streamageddon" and its immediate aftermath, Netflix streaming offered lots of very rare catalog titles, movies that will never see the light of day as a disc release. While none may have been pedigreed classics, all were so rare as to be highly attractive to cinephiles who embrace ALL of film history and not just the traditional titles. Since then, Netflix streaming has been a shadow of its former self, with very few catalog titles and tons of straight to video garbage from the last 15 years.

JimRochester

That's the point. I don't know if I love it because I've never seen it before. I don't want to blind buy any more. I ended up with too much crap on the shelves. I'll gladly pay $5 or $10 or even more for a movie I'll rewatch. But I don't want to keep buying stuff just in case it's decent.

What I want is what they offered for years. Great access to titles with fantastic turn-around.

Manzana

^^^ This. Before wasting $3 or $5 (at Big Lots or Amazon) on a blind buy DVD, I need to watch it. I have quite a long list of movies I'd like to watch that have never been released on DVD or Netflix or Blockbuster have never carried for rent by mail. With Blockbuster stopping by mail, there will be even less choice. With Netflix inevitably raising prices once Blockbuster is out of it and Red Box only having a tiny amount of new releases, finding old catalog DVDs to rent will become harder and harder as discs break and rental places won't (or in rare cases can't) replace them.

The list of stuff I want to rent but haven't been able to find is huge. Fortunately I don't have time to rent much. In spite of Netflix's sucky steaming selection, I still have over 100 titles in my Netflix queue. After having Netflix about 9 months, I've watched about 2 dozen movies on it. The blame for watching so little goes where it belongs: work sucking my time and life force away. Work is evil. I wish I could just vege at home on movies and games like so many others get to. I wish the govt would give me free money, but they won't. It seems it's just the other 51% who gets free money. Oh well.

wayne36

I received the same notice about DVD-mail termination when I logged in to blockbuster@home last week. However, I was shipped a new title in my queue today 8/22/13! On the dish website, the blockbuster add-on does not list mail DVDs as a feature any longer. I wonder if dish is continuing with the mail feature for those already signed-up? My blockbuster@home queue is still active.