Netflix's Breakout Move

Although this is a good idea in theory, let's not forget that the broadband delivery folks (MSOs) are doing themselves the favor of packet filtering to sites they compete with. I recently had to cancel Vonage service as my MSO was dropping packets which destroys my phone calls to Vonage, miraculously I had no problems switching to their product.  

Day late, dollar short. LG and Netflix will "develop and market a set-top box" -- already been done. It's called Tivo. Anyone in the market for a DVR either has (or will buy) a Tivo or get a settop DVR from their cable/sat. company. Netflix will learn that it's not about the technology (Tivo is pretty darn good - very little on which to improve). It's about catalog, pricing and customer support - all of which Amazon has much of and is far ahead of Netflix. Netflix is "dead company walking."

Well, we used to subscribe to Netflix - but then they wouldn't allow us the "free" download of movies to watch on our computer. Why? We wouldn't run Windows. After repeated calls, they said there was no "Mac" option to watch downloaded videos in the future. We don't want to jump through hoops to access our "free" movies. We are Mac users and Netflix wouldn't allow an option for us to download movies. Maybe it will be different to TVs because they want/need even more money.

Great, another box! How many boxes can consumers have in their home next to their TV - 1) Cable TV Box / Dish Network Box, 2) Tivo Box, 3) VCR / Game Console(s) - and now Netflix box? Of course let's not forget when Blockbuster comes out with their box, that will have a different platform and all, which will then create another war just like the HD and Blue Ray. Which box do I get then? A common character of all these boxes is that they all have a hard drive (almost). Maybe we should put this hard drive in the TV itself, so we don't have to carry so many boxes for every single service we get. Is anyone else getting tired of all these boxes? I suffer a dilemma, having succumbed to a growing tangle of boxes and cables under each HDTV. What I really need is an HDTV that has BUILT INTO IT the SAT or Cable decoder, multiformat disc player, internet browser, and a terabyte (or two) hard drive/PVR for all the content I might download.

Another point of view in this could be,  I am not going to buy a TV and have to live with it for 10 plus years that has Netflix as my only option to download movies. Good news for Netflix, bad news for LG. I would rather buy an external device like Apple's iTV than a TV with this already installed. So the bundling effect goes away.

After all these points, I would just like to conclude by saying that I don't see future in this thing because of various reasons, but nothing could be said with surity, we might see that this comes out as one of the leading service. Have your say on it.