I rarely like to post ABOUT a post, but Davis (who writes over at www.thomashawk.com) sent me an email about his recent review of Netflix v Blockbuster. I enjoyed the read, and since it came right on the heels of my Moviebeam rundown, I thought I’d give it a little link.
I received a flurry of emails regarding Moviebeam, and have a few more thoughts on it which I think are relevant to mention in conjunction with Davis’ post. Many people seem to compare Moviebeam to Netflix as a competitive offering. I disagree. Netflix, in my opinion, is great for people who want to individualize their queue, and generally put a lower priority on new releases or the “big” movies (not that they don’t watch them, just that they aren’t ‘must-haves’ on release weekends). This works out well as Netflix is able to satisfy this kind of a need. But Moviebeam does not have this capacity (or at least not today).
Moviebeam is, in my opinion, much more of a threat to Blockbuster (or even HBO at the pace they are going). The box is best suited for delivering one-to-many content, not one-to-one content. This means it’s great for getting Lady and the Tramp 3: Lady Fights Back to the masses, but not so good at helping my mother find some obscure film from 1983 where Antonio Banderas plays Parking Valet #2. If I’m getting too highbrow, what I’m saying is the whole concept of the ‘queue’ from Netflix can’t work with a device that is not capable of downloading individualized pieces of content.
Personally, I want a little of both. I’d like to see Moviebeam introduce some type of individual or group-based queuing features that allow me/us to determine some of next week/month’s movies, while also getting the latest and greatest hits from the big studios. Hopefully their eventual activation of the unit’s Ethernet port will open up the product to such concepts.
In the meantime, take a look at Davis’ thoughts, then go rent something good (movie selected at pseudo-random out of movies I’ve seen that I think are great and most people I talk to have unfortunately not seen or heard of).
Excusez-moi!!
I don’t think Moviebeam needs queueing, but should have a Tivo like feature that lets you rate the movies you’ve seen. Based on the movies you rate, the list of available movies would be updated to reflect your desires based on collaborative filtering.