Reviewing Netflix

Netflix recently announced that they are teaming up with LG to offer a set-top box that can be used to instantly watch movies streamed over the internet. Of course, you need a Netflix subscription as well, but this is a fantastic move by the company, especially if the box if affordable. I am a Netflix subscriber and have taken advantage of their online offerings through the computer - we've almost made it through the first season of Friday Night Lights - and I've found the service to be reliable and easy to use.

Aside from that, though, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with Netflix overall. I joined a few months ago and am on the $14/month 2-at-a-time plan. At first, everything seemed pretty good - I was getting new releases pretty quickly and the mailing process was very speedy and reliable. Lately, though, things have been less than impressive.

One of the major selling points of the service was the fact that they offered high-definition movies as well as regular DVD's. When I joined, I didn't have my PS3 or my HD-DVD player, but I knew I'd be picking them up soon. Now that I have them, I naturally prefer to get high-definition discs. Netflix is not cooperating.

I have 17 Blu-ray/HD-DVD's in my Netflix Queue right now; only 5 of them say that they are available now. Those five movies are The Good Shepherd, The Thing, Casino, Army of Darkness, and Midnight Run. Not exactly new releases. The rest have some type of wait associated with them, with 6 of the 17 movies listed as having a "Very Long Wait". I've been waiting on Live Free or Die Hard for over month now, and it's been at the top of my queue the entire time.

I'm currently being shipped the Blu-ray of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. My queue said it was available "Now". Problem is, it was apparently only available from one of their locations in Oregon - I'm in Michigan. When they do that, it takes an extra day for them to ship it out (not sure why) and then it takes longer to get it here. Today is Thursday, and it's being shipped today - I'm not even sure I'll be getting it for the weekend, even though I sent the last movie in on Monday (there was a holiday in there, but still). Update: It didn't arrive until Monday. Plus, the same thing happened on my next disc - the HD-DVD version of The Good Shepherd was "Now", but it got shipped from Maine.

It's obvious that my local shipping facility is very weak on high-def discs, but is anyone else having this problem? I'm tempted to start asking for the DVD version of new releases so I can watch them before they're no longer considered new releases, but I really don't want to do that. I paid good money for my HD players; I want to get some use out of them. To do that, though, might mean finding an option other than Netflix.