Are they being greedy or is this just inflation? $7.99 was the original DVD rental fee in 1997 → which is $12.51 in 2019 dollars.
I wish I had a better mental tool for working with inflation in my "get-mad-o-meter", haha.
Wasn't $7.99 for the one-at-a-time plan? I also recall it being more like $10 or $12, but I wasn't paying for it at the time so I'm not an authority.
I felt like my family was lucky to get through 7 DVDs a month with one-at-a-time. We had a pretty good 3-4 day turnaround, but no matter how hard you tried to watch every movie the day you received it, we always managed to end up holding onto a disc for a few days. We eventually switched to 2-at-a-time so we could have one in-flight and one at home, that helped smooth out the gaps.
But even counting 2 or 3 at a time subscriptions, with unlimited streaming I am able to consume more content in a week and a half then I could in an entire month with DVDs, so in terms of content viewed per dollar I still think I'm getting a good deal. Streaming is especially a boon to anyone binging on a TV show. DVDs would have 3, maybe 4 episodes per DVD, so going through a show could monopolize your subscription for weeks at a time. Today I pop the show I want on and it just goes and goes.
> Another big change is BluRay, which I've found has far and away higher quality than streaming of any type.
Standard Blu-ray (As opposed to UHD Blu-ray) doesn't have, to me, subjectively better (or even as good) quality than either 4K and/or HDR content available from YouTube, with the particular data connection I have at home, and with the screen I use. (I'm not currently paying for the 4K service from Netflix.)
I haven't actually compared UHD BluRay to 4K/HDR streaming. But a lot of this is going to vary by streaming provider, codec, data connection, and display hardware.
Why does it have to be one or the other? I don't think a company is greedy if they raise the price on a luxury item more than the rate of inflation. Consumers speak with their dollars. If a company prices out their consumers, consumers will stop spending and they'll either be forced to reduce their prices or go out of business.
