So, Netflix is pretty great and all but the selection is quite small. Oddly enough, searches return plenty of results that are "currently unavailable" which makes me wonder: does anyone know if it is just the Canadian site that has so few titles? Would it be worth making a US account? Is there an easy way to compare catalogues? Has anyone had any experience with this?

Thanks.

Netflix just hit the news here in the US for its stock shares plummeting overnight. If you're referring to its streaming selection, then no, its streaming selection sucks and has for years.

I quit them about a year and a half ago and now I rent movies from amazon and blockbuster. Sure, it costs more, but I only rent 1-2 movies a month, which is less than a monthly subscription to Netflix where I'm not guaranteed to watch more than 1-2 movies a month.

I wouldn't recommend a US account, but if you can use a proxy you can check the list on their site and see if the US selection is any better, if all else fails.

Are you talking about the instant viewing or the disk in the mail? My experience is that the instant viewing titles are a very limited selection, but the disk in the mail part has never failed to turn up a result of what I'm looking for. They have some pretty obscure titles on dvd.

Sorry, I am talking about the streaming service. I ask because I noticed this post and realized Network is available in the US but not in Canada. So there are obviously differences but I'm really just trying to determine whether or not I'm getting the short end of the stick for the same price.

I assume you're talking about the streaming option. And yes, the selection is really that tiny. I don't know how small the selection is in Canada, but the selection in the US is only a fraction of the size of the DVD selection.

Personally I no longer subscribe because the cost went up substantially a few months back, but the streaming selection was always inferior to the disc selection.

It might be larger for the US than Canada, but it's still pretty small.

Yes, Canadian Netflix has far fewer titles for streaming (like 20% of what the US has) and I don't know about the DVD catalog, but the US one has pretty much everything, so if yours doesn't then you must have less DVDs as well.

Personally I think the us version of streaming netflix is pretty awesome, I don't understand how somebody can say "the streaming selection sucks and has for years"

There is no DVD exchangey mail service here. Also, 20% seems just about right. I have been browsing instantwatcher.com for the past hour and I'm feeling kind of cheated. There are even Canadian movies in the US store that aren't available in Canada!

I just logged into netflix on my computer and checked how many streaming videos for certain genres.

I checked for action, comedy and documentary, I get at least 40 pages of movies , with 40 movies on a page so 1600 movies each in those 3 genres alone I guess? ( Though it could be a lot of those are repeated in both action and comedy)

Maybe that will help get you a size of the library available here

The selection here in Mexico is seriously lacking compared to the one in the US. And even so, it has pretty much replaced blockbuster rentals for me. It is just so goddamn convenient! And most of the titles it has are rather solid. Now if more titles had adio track/subtitle options... And it did not lie on things like Texas Chainsaw Massacre.


Not a bad service, I hope it improves here. Worth the 100 pesos a month. I used to spend more on blockbuster rentals.

Edit: No dvd rentals from netflix here.

Some strange things have been happening where I live regarding the whole Netflix debacle. First off, Blockbuster has been bought out by a new company (Comcast), and they are actually opening up stores again as well as putting in kiosks in 7-11 stores, so Blockbuster seems to be coming back to life.

Netflix, on the other hand, just fumbled one of their main film providers, Starz, which provided about 80% of the newer films on the service. They signed a deal with a new cable channel, Epix, which holds many Paramount films like the Iron Man movies, and likely Thor will appear soon, and they recently made a deal with Dreamworks Animation for exclusivity starting in 2013.

Netflix seems to want to be an alternative to cable, so they are focusing on producing new originals. The big news story is that they will show original episodes of the show Arrested Development in 2013. The main problem is, 2013 is looking like a good year for new programming, but at the cost of 2012 which will see a large drop in programming. On top of that, fiber optics are becoming more widely available, data caps are being slapped into place, and the option of using streaming to replace cable/satellite/fiber optics threatens to blow over those caps and lead to terribly high Internet bills, deterring customers from using streaming services.

To top everything off here, Netflix decided to announce higher prices at the same time they announced their content was getting cut, so that angered customers as well. In short, they scared cable providers into action, cable providers enticed Showtime and Starz to stay with them and pull their programming from Netflix, (it seems likely many other providers will eventually follow) they scared the phone companies with their perceived threat to fiber optics, and the phone companies responded by putting on data caps.

Netflix tried to be heroes and take on the big guys, but the big guys had plenty of weapons up their sleeves to fight back. I hope Netflix survives this (and they probably will) but they've been taking serious blows lately. Still, there are many good TV shows (Whole Star Trek/STNG series along with the spinoffs of those series- good by me) and a lot of FX shows. Also, for Anime fans, they have an incredible selection. For new mainstream films, though, they are not doing well.

Now I really feel cheated. Americans get Star Trek and I have to settle for Quantum Leap! Grrrrr....

TNG is available here in mexico, but not the original series. Quantum Leap was one of my favorite shows in thr 90's, so that satisfies me.

We even have the newest Star Trek movie:)