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As I promised Monday, I went ahead and tried out Netflix’s “Watch Now” feature. My review is:

Shoot this dog and put it out of its misery!

Man, what a disappointment! I am an unabashed fan of Netflix, but it went completely the wrong way with its new “Watch Now” service. It is not available on a Mac, you can’t use Firefox or any browser other than Internet Explorer 7, you need to use Windows Media Player (WMP), and YOU ARE REQUIRED TO USE DRM THAT DOESN”T WORK!

I tried the service on two computers, both of them PCs under three months old, one running XP and the other Vista. I initially felt pity for the poor bastards using Macs who couldn’t access the service, but hey, at least I would be able to use it. Not so fast, cowboy! I tried for about an hour and a half on both computers to get a movie running, but no dice. During that period, I also spent more than 45 minutes waiting for Netflix customer service to pick up and put an end to the elevator music before I finally gave up on that too.

I updated both computers, updated both versions of WMP, upgraded the security components per Netflix, ran the “reset DRM” utilities per Netflix, and did every other damn thing required of me, ad nauseum, through the endless loops. Nada for both computers. I attempted to obtain new DRM licenses from Netflix, but the license site it listed was a bad link. What a mess from beginning to end.

In the course of two days I went from initially considering buying Netflix stock to considering canceling my service completely. I simply cannot believe Netflix uses such a crippled and useless setup as Microsoft’s DRM. I hadn’t drank the anti-DRM kool-aid before this, but sign me up for a grande now.

If you can get this thing working, I hope you enjoy it, but all I can do is watch the movie buffer and then mock me with its unavailability. It is an incredibly bitter pill be unable to access significant features of my account. Even more so because the promised features didn’t really exist for me until recently. I’m not saying others will have the same trouble, but if an average computer user like me cannot get this thing working on two different new computers and can’t get through to tech support, then there is a problem somewhere.  Good luck.

We’ve been relying heavily on Netflix as our movie source ever since we canceled cable. Recently Netflix actually lowered its subscription prices, yet again reaffirming my satisfaction with the company. No doubt the price lowering is due to increased online competition such as from Blockbuster. Blockbuster, faced with a surfeit of brick-and-mortar stores in an increasingly online world, has been clawing desperately for online market share to keep its head above water.

The price drop is a public relations maneuver more than anything else. For example, the 3-movies-at-a-time deal went from $17.99/month to $16.99/month, which is hardly a reason to switch services. The big news, however, is that Netflix has been moving towards delivering online content for quite awhile now and is testing the waters with (in my subscription) 17 hours/month of free online movies. Netflix, in a well-played maneuver, used the price lowering notice to inform subscribers of the new service. Subscribers to the regular Netflix service can choose from over 4,000 movies and television episodes with Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service.

Regardless of the reasons, though, Netflix has lowered its subscription prices and now offers free online content to subscribers, which is good news for the frugal consumer. Over the next couple days, I’ll kick the tires,  fire it up, take it for a spin around the block, and let you know how it performs.

There’s a line in the movie Colors that comes to mind: as a neighborhood teenager gets busted and is hauled off to prison, a watching kid exclaims “they’re canceling Christmas!”

The Argonautica household recently canceled cable and, judging by the reaction, you would have thought the Grinch swept in and swiped all the presents out from under the tree. It was time, though. In fact, it was way past due, as the Comcast bill was somewhere around $140/month for just cable and some premium channels. We had already switched to DSL, but the package included internet access and Comcast would not lower the price after I canceled the internet portion because it was a package deal.

That made the decision pretty easy; sure I could have used the negotiation tips I’ve mentioned before to knock some major dollars off, but Comcast was still $15 higher than I could get with DirectTV, so I had Comcast pull the plug and I returned their equipment.

The first night was hard on everyone, but I scrounged up a pair of bunny ears and we reintroduced ourselves to broadcast television. Turns out I’m not much of a fan. Two months later I still get the shakes whenever someone mentions HBO original programming, but I am coping. It didn’t affect Mrs. A much, but Little A is still jonesing for the Disney channels. She has discovered Saturday morning cartoons, though, which is a joy every kid should experience.

The initial plan was to switch to DirectTV, but I’m rethinking the plan because I find I don’t want to spend the extra bucks, and, for the most part, I don’t really miss it. We already have Netflix, which I recommend if you cut the cable cord, and there are always internet options if we get too antsy. For example, see my earlier post about LikeTelevision. I also tried Joost, but that was an utter failure as far as I was concerned.

I was hoping the decision would encourage everyone to read more, but it doesn’t look like that idea has really taken hold yet. Fortunately, nobody seems to be pushing too hard to get cable, so I’m going to save that money and work on paying down the debt until the troops begin to foment rebellion.

I read a Free Money Finance post first thing this morning that discussed advice to recent grads about personal finance. One of the pieces of advice, which you see everywhere these days was “Consolidate your cable, phone and Internet service to get the best deal.” You can find the same advice all around the interweb these days, e.g., a quick search brought up a couple random sites with the same advice:

• Original NY Times article
• Gospel Cougar
• Kim’s Frugal Life

The problem is, ever since they have been offered, I have found that bundling these services will cost you more if you are a savvy consumer because you can get better deals by a) mixing and matching services, and b) playing each company’s promotional rates off of one another. When I first read FMF’s post there were no comments and I didn’t want to throw in my off-the-cuff opinion without doing some current comparisons, but I’m happy to see that others have since commented and made the same point. Doing research for this post, I also found that MyTwoDollars reached the same conclusion last month, that bundling does not necessarily save money.

So let’s break it down with what is available in my area and compare. First, if you take anything away from this post, let it be this:

Compare all your local utility rates with Whitefence.com. Whitefence gave me unbundled and bundled rates for the 3 biggies: Phone, Cable, and Internet.

Unbundled Rates:

1. unlimited local & long distance: $35 (multiple companies; if VoIP then $25)
2. Internet $15 Verizon
3. basic cable $25 Direct TV

Total: $65-$75

Bundled Rates:

1. Comcast $99 promo, goes to $137 (that’s VoIP)
2. Verizon $95-$120 (depends on options)

Total: $95-$137

There are some differences between the unbundled and bundled package options, but they came out roughly equivalent for my needs. So depending on how you want to look at it, I can save anywhere from $20-$72 per month by staying unbundled.

One disadvantage when not bundling is that you have to pay three bills instead of one, but if you’re using free online bill payment (and why wouldn’t you be?), the difference is negligible. One advantage to not bundling is that you can periodically call your cable company and threaten to cancel, citing the low promotional rates offered by its competitors. Can’t do that with the flat rate bundled packages. Be sure to check out PFAdvice’s technique for cutting his cable bill that way.

If, like the Argonautica household, you canceled cable to save a couple bucks a month (actually over $100/mo., but that’s a story for a different post), you might be looking for some alternatives to get your boob tube fix. I tried Joost, but quickly gave up, and now I’m trying out the free shows and movies on LikeTelevision.

They are free and they are online, but I can’t recommend the site without caveat. LikeTelevision (”only better,” they say) is an online site that offers classic television shows and films for free. I’m watching the “Barney’s First Car” episode of the Andy Griffith Show as I write this post. I also checked out a couple classic films this weekend which I outlined below.

Unfortunately, LikeTelevision is seeking subscribers for its full size high quality versions of films, i.e., those of a size you can actually watch on a TV. So while the free offerings are decent enough resolution, they are only of a size you can enjoy on a laptop or smaller screen. For example, no matter which computer I streamed Yojimbo or Street Fighter on, I couldn’t figure out a way to get the widescreen/letterbox aspect films (16:9) to appear any larger than about 4 inches by 2 inches. Full screen aspect films (4:3), such as Orson Welles’ The Third Man, appeared to be around 4 inches by 3 inches on my computers. Not surprisingly, television shows are the same 4:3 aspect and size. I noticed on the Andy Griffith show that an LTV logo appeared in the bottom right corner, which I don’t recall seeing in the film versions.

There were also advertisements displayed in the sidebar for the free versions, but a little manipulation with the Real Player display settings got rid of them easily. I would recommend using Real Player, because I did have problems trying to use alternatives. Lastly, the subscription model LikeTelevision uses is ridiculous, at those prices a viewer would be better off subscribing to Netflix or a similar service with better variety for less cost.

So, while the site definitely has its drawbacks, there is some classic free content that streams well on broadband connections and might pass the time if you’re on a laptop. Savvy viewers could probably even figure out a way to capture the content and convert it to enable viewing on a portable device as well.

P.S.- I do recommend the “Barney’s First Car” episode. Barney even gets to put his bullet in!