Netflix Downloads Still on Backorder

After postponing rollout of its movie download service, Netflix has been tweaking its movie preview feature. Could Netflix be getting the download infrastructure in place using Netflix preview users as guinea pigs? After only recently adopting Flash video as the delivery medium, Hacking Netflix caught NetFlix playing with Windows Media Player, too.

Personally, I don’t see what’s so horribly wrong with NetFlix’s current DVD-based delivery model, especially if there are more dedicated NetFlix mail slots like this one in Grand Central Station. I’ve got over 20Gb of raw data being delivered by my mail carrier any minute now, and not a byte of it went over my already crammed DSL line. And with TiVo having trouble with its DRM, will online delivery schemes ever be able to keep the content providers happy?

NetFlix is tentatively expected to launch its new service in January.

Photo via Hacking Netflix.