I know I know This is an old Gripe BUT.

[Sciwolf359]

I keep around 75 movies in my Q. well its down to around 45 now because over the years with Netflix I have seen a TON of movies, and most of the new stuff coming out is garbage. Well over the last few months the ones that are wait listed have piled up at the top. Normally I just add any new ones to my Q and by the time they reach the top they are ready to go.

So I keep thinking that I am getting throttled. everyone says I am not. Today I had John Adams in my Q for a little while. It said it was available NOW, then when I moved it to the top of the Q poof it went to short wait. THAT JUST CHAPS MY B'hind!!! :< Presto Proof is in the pudding.

So thats just my little rant for the day. I know no one cares but I feel better now... :)

[ColdOne]

"Throttled" is the wrong word, but there is no doubt that Netflix prioritizes delivery of discs that are in demand. Anyone who tells you that they are not doing this is ignorant or lying.

There have been a few reported cases of people moving a title up their queue and having it change status, but I haven't seen this myself and others haven't been able to reproduce it consistently. If Netflix were actually disguising availability in this way it would be dishonest, IMO, but I think it's more likely that these are just border cases.

It's a mathematical impossibility to continue to watch more good movies than are being released, as you have been doing. You can either broaden your viewing habits or slow them down.

[Sciwolf359]

Well I did drop down the amount I get at one time. As far as my viewing habits I just refuse to watch some genres of film and I really don't want to take the chance on 1 or 2 star movies.

[ColdOne]

Dropping your disc count has a good chance of moving you down the priority list, that may be part of the reason why you're seeing longer waits now.

I bet there's a lot of good stuff you're missing out on, but if you really think there are no more movies (or TV) you want to see there's certainly no need to force yourself to watch anything else. There's more to life than movies.

But that also doesn't mean you have to be a slave to new releases - that 4-star movie is still going to be 4-star quality if you watch it two months after it comes out. If it's worth it for you to pay more (in dollars or in effort) for getting those new releases more promptly then that's up to you.

[Scott P]

It makes sense that it would change status. If it's number 495 in your queue, it's likely there won't be a long wait when it comes up.

[Cheryl]

I dropped down a disc at a time at Netflix and opened a one at a time account at ClassicFlix. This is totally an experiment on my part--I like classic movies more than any other genre, there's stuff there I don't find at Netflix. It depends on how long it takes to get movies from them and if I can get stuff from them that is currently on a Wait status at Netflix for me to continue using their service.

I agree a lot of the stuff that's come out lately is crap, but I also have issues with kids on my lawn.

[Greg]

I agree 100%. I had about 30 movies in Q on average, and since about November, almost half showed a wait. Many of these were movies that had been out for 2 or 3 months.

Out of desperation, I put my NF account on hold and tried Blockbuster Online a month ago, and I have been very satisfied. Out of 30 movies, maybe 4 have waits. NF has a distribution center 30 miles from me, and BB's is about 200 miles away, but I only trade movies once a week, so for me it's not a big deal.

Also, with a BB plan similar to the NF plan I had, I can trade movies at a local BB store 5x/month.

If you're close to a BB distribution center and/or close to a physical BB store, I would recommend you try BB. If you turn over movies more than once a week, then it may not be as good. For me, NF was unable to ship anything relatively new, so it was an easier choice.

I keep reading here that BB's content is more limited, but I haven't found it yet; however, I watch mostly releases less than a year old with the exception of old sci-fi/horror movies. At least in that regard, BB has been at least as good as NF.

Good luck.

[Evil Herbivore]

it's all been said before: but wait statuses can be a month or two - especially on high demand or rarer titles.
NF doesn't focus on new release stuff at all - less than 1/4 of it's catalog.
REad hacking article about NF members added over 2 million queue titles during the oscars - so be prepared for waits on those - it's common sense.
john Adams is a popular DVD series - and being a series lots of customers tend to keep the discs around their house for a while. i have quite a few "popular" movies in my queue, and a few have a wait status, but not many. remember - fox or universal or whomever doesn't print 5 million or 10 million copies of the discs just for NF.
what ColdONe said is very accurate
good luck w/ John Adams - it's a VERY good series and worth the wait.