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Re:Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List by tracker1 on Wednesday October 12, 2016 @02:47PM (#12695492)
That was my thought as well.. no, it isn't instant gratification, but it does have value... I wonder how legal a dedicated feed rental system would be. Effectively, you rent a movie (as available) and someone puts it into a drive in a data center, that is then played for you directly, with the software interface controlling playback... you then click "return" when done watching... maybe a bonus for early returns (vs checked out for 24hrs).

It might take some custom hardware, but just a few larger central stores vs something like redbox for example.

Re:Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List by swift on Wednesday October 12, 2016 @03:10PM (#12695658)
Believe it or not, this was tried years ago:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/03/is-zedivas-new-re...

It turned out that the courts were not impressed by this workaround.

Re:Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List by zo1 on Wednesday October 12, 2016 @03:08PM (#12695645)
There was a company that did this. They don't exist anymore:

https://www.wired.com/2011/10/streaming-movie-service-zediva...

Re:Netflix Now Only Has 31 Movies from IMDB's Top 250 List by oconnor0 on Wednesday October 12, 2016 @03:13PM (#12695682)
https://www.vidangel.com/ does something similar. You buy the movie for 20$ and then can stream it whenever, but if you return it within the first 24 hours, you get 19$ back.