What was the first thing you ever streamed on Netflix, and when?

"E. Julius" (soonerfrommi)
03/01/2015 at 16:04 • Filed to: None

I just read an article about the growth in Netlifx's streaming services, and it reminded me of the first time I ever streamed something with Netflix. My parents were Netflix customers back in the days when they actually mailed you DVDs, and I remember my brother sending me a link to a story about how they would be testing streaming services to augment the DVD business. The first day it was rolled out to customers I figured I would check it out, so I installed Microsoft Silverlight on my computer and watched Mad Max for the first time, one of the thousand or so movies available for streaming in 2007.

I'd like to say that I knew it would be the next big thing, but I really had absolutely no idea just how quickly it would catch on and how ubiquitous it would become. Of course I was 13 at the time, so not exactly a business mastermind. These days I actually hardly ever watch movies, and have never had a Netflix subscription of my own. What about you Oppo?

DISCUSSION (12)

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > E. Julius
03/01/2015 at 16:10

I miss blockbuster ;(. Watching a movie was an occasion then.

E. Julius > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/01/2015 at 16:18

It was definitely something very different. On the one hand we have such an incredibly ridiculous selection now, but you're right in that it doesn't mean that much when it's just something you can do at any time in any place. I miss getting the free popcorn at my local video store as well (which of course was put out of business by Blockbuster in the early 2000s).

My family and I do still rent/buy from our local Family Video every once in a while. It's only a 10 minute drive, and sometimes we fire up Netlifx and go "I have no idea which one of these 10,000,000 movies to pick". In that case, somebody will go down to the video store and pick something out of the much more limited choices in the $2 bin, which means it's usually one of last year's hits or some random hilariously awful thing nobody has heard of. Funny how having fewer options makes the decision so much easier. My dad is also into having physical copies as well, so there's still that little tiny niche for a video store that Family Video is surviving in. Weird how stuff like that works, huh?

OPPOsaurus WRX > E. Julius
03/01/2015 at 16:22

I watched VHS. It was shitastic

E. Julius > OPPOsaurus WRX
03/01/2015 at 16:24

This movie? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V/H/S

jkm7680 > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/01/2015 at 16:34

Me tooooo, I used to go there all the time. It was fun as hell just going there and picking whatever.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > E. Julius
03/01/2015 at 16:35

Agreed. Nostalgia is powerful.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > jkm7680
03/01/2015 at 16:40

My dad and I used to take turns playing with one of those remote fart sound toys in blockbuster... People were always so serious, acting like they didn't here it; good times lol.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > E. Julius
03/01/2015 at 16:41

I'd only heard about Netflix in passing until recently. I'd known what it was for quite a long time already because of the internet, but the service wasn't available in Brazil until last year I think. I've never used it though, a subscription is not very cheap down here, and Brazil, or at least my area, doesn't count with the kind of connection required to download and use it...

jkm7680 > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/01/2015 at 16:42

That's awesome, haha.

I remember going in with my parents and randomly picking up some horrible ass movies and still watching them, even though they were shit.

E. Julius > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion
03/01/2015 at 16:45

Yeah I know it launched in France right around the time I got here, so it was weird seeing tons of ads for a service that pretty much everybody knows about in the US. I just read that Netflix accounts for something like 38% of all downstream internet traffic in North America 0_0

Tohru > E. Julius
03/01/2015 at 16:51

I think it was Miami Vice.

OPPOsaurus WRX > E. Julius
03/01/2015 at 20:11

yes. It wasn't that great