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Comment by yardie | Hacker News Reader

BTW, this is still the case. https://dvd.netflix.com/

Netflix has never dropped their DVD service even though they wanted to many times. There are still places in the US where broadband is unavailable.

Also, due to first sale they don't have same license restrictions as they would on streaming. Once they buy the disc they can rent it as many times they want for as long as they want.

I've considered re-adding the DVD rental, I've been using Netflix since they included the coupons in DVD player purchases, because they have the films that aren't available on Netflix streaming and it would be cheaper than adding the myriad streaming service subscriptions.

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I re-upped their DVD service for a while early in the pandemic. It's still worthwhile if you want to watch a lot of movies even if their back catalog availability has deteriorated quite of bit. It makes me shake my head a bit that so many people consider suggesting that the idea of just watching some things on physical media (whether Netflix disc by mail, library, or just buying a movie) makes you a weirdo. (Or for that matter, renting streaming a la carte.)

There were a couple of movies I just can’t get without pirating. Already had Netflix and Prime, but to watch Chunking Express I would have needed to subscribe to HBO Max just for this one movie. There was no option to buy/rent it one time on YouTube/Amazon. This was true for at least 4-5 movies I wanted to see (yep, I’m that snob that doesn’t watch the latest and greatest).

And then I’d have to remember to cancel HBO Max.

HBO max makes me mad. A bunch of good old movies had their rights purchased so if I want to watch the Thin Man, a movie from the 30s, I need to get HBO max. No thank you.

Or you can rent it a la carte. (Or very possibly borrow it from your local library whether they have it or can get it from inter-library loan.)

Or instantly access it via the internet for free because everyone who made it is long since dead.

Funny, I'm not from the US, all I get from https://dvd.netflix.com/ is a 404 page not found error.

Maybe that's the perfect use case for subscription-based VPNs, renting DVDs from an American IP address... Hope it fits through the IP tunnel.

Actually, though the page literally has the string "404" in the title, it returns an HTTP 200 and redirects via Javascript.

  $ curl -I https://dvd.netflix.com/
  ...
  HTTP/1.1 200 OK

They probably don't have DVD rental at all in your country. Netflix in the US/CA and Lovefilm in the UK were the only DVD/Bluray mailing service that I'm aware of. Once they were able to offer streaming internationally, setting up mailorder service probably wasn't even considered.

I use the disc service instead of streaming. Its cheaper and the selection has a ton of stuff I want to basically rent but not buy. I also purchase a ton of movies on disc too. It is good for those 'hmm not sure if bargain bin is ok on the price to buy'. Friend of mine uses redbox pretty much exclusively too in the same way. We both have access to decent internet as well.

Downside, there is starting to become a decent number of shows/movies that are exclusive streaming. Second downside is it can be decently slow to get anything. I average about 4 discs per month on a 1 disc out at a time level. It used to be 6-8 per month. But they slowed it down.

I stopped messing with streaming because of the churn of is it on this one or that one. I just gave up and bought whatever boxset I needed. Then found I was not watching the streaming services at all.

You know what’s even cheaper than renting DVDs?

But also, I get your stance. I prefer legal routes over gray/black markets.

In the UK second hand DVDs are very cheap on eBay. A classic film might cost $2.50. Action trash is buy one get one free for $2. Both prices include postage.

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