24 replies to this topic

[JamesD]

I let my gold account expire last month and every time I sign on again there is a better offer for a gold account.
25% off, 30% off... it's now 50% off plus 800 bonus points... and counting. LMAO
But then that's only for 3 months.

Sorry Microsoft, I hardly ever play online and I watch Netflix on my Blu-Ray player... and letting my gold account expire is paying for the player. Yup, just 2 years of no gold and it has paid for itself. Oh yeah, and I can watch Blu-Rays on it!
I can rent movies through Blockbuster, vudu, Cinemanow, theres Pandora, MLB.TV, etc...

Now, if it were 50% off for 12 months and 800 bonus points... I might just do it for the hell of it.
Freakin Gold diggers anyway.

[Austin]

Yeah, I guess no deal is a good deal when you don't use it!..

[godslabrat]

Austin, on Mon May 9, 2011 2:34 AM, said:

Yeah, I guess no deal is a good deal when you don't use it!..

I've been tempted to renew, but... I'm in the same boat. I just don't use the service enough to miss it. It was worth the money when I was gaming a lot, but now I can take that money and use it more constructively.

[HatefulGravey]

When my subscription gets low I'll just have to let it expire. I always love to hear about these offers the people that pay all the time can't get but the people that stop paying get offered. Its like cell phone companies offering discounts because your bill is past due and they want you to pay it. What do I get for paying mine 3 months in a advance at a time? NOTHING!

[MCHufnagel]

Don't renew through the dashboard, no matter how good the deal is. Once they have your CC registered, they'll automatically renew your account and it's a real bitch to get that info removed. In the long-run it's cheaper to look online for deals on XBL Gold cards.

[NE146]

Considering most people normally get Xbox Live on sale for 30-40 bucks it really just breaks down to $3 or less /month.. which is not pricey at all no matter how you slice it. Heck I bought THREE YEARS for $24 each (on clearance at K-Mart) so it came out to $2/month. I'll take it.

The only thing I play on my 360 is the casual game, COD online multiplayer (most of my "serious" single player gaming is done on the DS). So I do need Live.

MCHufnagel, on Mon May 9, 2011 2:17 PM, said:

Don't renew through the dashboard, no matter how good the deal is. Once they have your CC registered, they'll automatically renew your account and it's a real bitch to get that info removed.

Virtual Credit Card numbers are the way to go for this.. Citi Cards for example gives the option to generate a 1-time use number, which is what I do. They can feel free to try to use it over again... because it simply won't work.

[Video]

I don't know what the big deal is, I mean, yeah it's $50 a year (a little over 4$ a month for a year) and that's the standard price. Every few months they have a sale and you can get a year subscription for $20-$30 range. That's what I did. Between that and the cards that came with the games, I'd say I could probably have it paid in advance about 8 years (not that 360 live will even exist in 8 years ) But the next 3 years are paid for under $30 a year, as for my credit card, it expired this year, they can try to charge it in three years, but it won't work anymore

[JamesD]

I don't know what the big deal is... heck.. so what if you don't use the online gaming and can do everything else for free on you Blu-Ray player... which can be paid for just by dropping the gold subscription for two years.
Heck, you should want to send Microsoft your money.

[moycon]

JamesD, on Tue May 10, 2011 5:32 PM, said:

Heck, you should want to send Microsoft your money.

???
I think most people don't mind the small fee because they use the service for online gaming.
Can you play Gears of War 3 with your buddy in Idaho on your blu-ray player?
I know, you don't play games online.
Still, not sure what you were expecting starting this thread...but I'm guessing this??

[JamesD]

I have played online exactly twice in 3 years.
Not sure why you insist I should fork over money for the stupid upgrade.
WTF??

[Mendon]

JamesD, on Sun May 8, 2011 7:53 PM, said:

I can rent movies through Blockbuster, vudu, Cinemanow, theres Pandora, MLB.TV, etc...

Which player did you buy that has that MLB.TV feature?

Reason I ask is because I have a subscription to MLB.TV and used my PS3 for viewing it. But, with the PS3 online kaput for three weeks, I can't watch any of the games (you have to be logged into PSN to view MLB.TV). So I'd love an alternative to using the PS3 for viewing of MLB.TV, especially with a lot of Blu-ray players selling in the $99 range.


Mendon

Edited by Mendon, Wed May 11, 2011 6:14 AM.

[JamesD]

I have a Samsung BD-C6500. Several of their models will support MLB.TV but I'd check the website before buying.
I picked this one because it has the audio decoder built in and can play the new audio formats through my old surround sound system.

[Video]

JamesD, on Tue May 10, 2011 5:32 PM, said:

I don't know what the big deal is... heck.. so what if you don't use the online gaming and can do everything else for free on you Blu-Ray player... which can be paid for just by dropping the gold subscription for two years.
Heck, you should want to send Microsoft your money.

Played a lot of demos on your BD player? That's some player, I may just pick one up for me Considering every game comes with a 1 month gold card for free anyways, I'd hazard a guess you don't play many Xbox games on your Xbox either. If that's the case...why do you have one?

Anyhow, always amusing when people assume the only thing you can do on live is play games an "netflix" (which I still don't have yet, but don't you gotta pay a $10 a month fee to use that? And that's regardless of the system you use to access it) It seems to me a lot of people are just limited in their thinking.

Oh yeah, and at an average of $25 a year....(if you don't actually buy any games) let us knowif your sub $100 player is still working in 4 years. (there's a reason those budget players are cheap....in the case of DVD at least, stay away from the low end or you'll be out the money again in 6 months to a year, but hey, maybe build quality of BD is better?)

Edited by Video, Thu May 12, 2011 3:52 PM.

[Austin]

Video, on Thu May 12, 2011 3:48 PM, said:

It seems to me a lot of people are just limited in their thinking.

Not everyone needs or wants online play, nor does everyone have a need or use for the added features of a LIVE subscription (Maybe they simply don't want it, or they have access to the same things on other devices). If you can't understand that, then you yourself are limited in your own thinking.

[JamesD]

Video, on Thu May 12, 2011 3:48 PM, said:

Played a lot of demos on your BD player? That's some player, I may just pick one up for me Considering every game comes with a 1 month gold card for free anyways, I'd hazard a guess you don't play many Xbox games on your Xbox either. If that's the case...why do you have one?

Silver access is free and you can still download/play demos. So your argument fell apart from the very first sentence.
And you'd hazard wrong but you already proved you don't know what you are talking about in the first place so that's not surprising.

Oh look, the new Star Raiders demo is up. Now downloading as I write this.
And the Yar's Revenge demo and a couple others finished from the other day.

Quote

Anyhow, always amusing when people assume the only thing you can do on live is play games an "netflix" (which I still don't have yet, but don't you gotta pay a $10 a month fee to use that? And that's regardless of the system you use to access it) It seems to me a lot of people are just limited in their thinking.

No, you can play online games, Netflix, Pandora, MLB.TV, and streaming music. But then I already mentioned that so you must be talking about someone else. Or was that an attempt at a strawman argument?

I don't play online games and can do everything else on my Blu-Ray player. Well, except Pandora which they were advertising outside the player's online store but now they aren't. Not sure what is up with that. But then I don't want Pandora so who cares? Oh yeah, and I believe I also mentioned I get other movie services besides Netflix. Services which XBOX live does not support and it plays Blu-Ray movies... but you were limited in your thinking and only thought about Netflix.

Since you can play demos on gold or silver, that isn't a gold only thing so I didn't mention it.

Quote

Oh yeah, and at an average of $25 a year....(if you don't actually buy any games) let us knowif your sub $100 player is still working in 4 years. (there's a reason those budget players are cheap....in the case of DVD at least, stay away from the low end or you'll be out the money again in 6 months to a year, but hey, maybe build quality of BD is better?)

Full retail isn't $25/year... not even discounted is $25/year. 50% off was for 3 months and then they hit your credit card at full price for the next period. Who pays for your account?
They aren't getting my credit card #, and I haven't seen gold subscription cards discounted to half price at Walmart or Target ever.

Look up the Blu-Ray model # I posted and tell me it's a cheap budget player. It's one of the faster 3rd gen players and about all it lacks is 3D. That BD player will probably last longer than my first 360 did... and my cousin's 1st gen Samsung Blu-Ray player has already managed that. My first DVD player was a 2nd gen unit and it still works over 10 years later.
BTW, I failed to mention that the rest of the price of the player came from selling my still working, cheap, budget, Blu-Ray player for almost what I paid for it two years earlier.

[JamesD]

BTW, I also refuse to buy new releases when there are plenty of $20 titles that are excellent.

[NE146]

JamesD, on Thu May 12, 2011 11:37 PM, said:

Full retail isn't $25/year... not even discounted is $25/year. 50% off was for 3 months and then they hit your credit card at full price for the next period. Who pays for your account?
They aren't getting my credit card #, and I haven't seen gold subscription cards discounted to half price at Walmart or Target ever.

Probably true.. I did get my 12 month cards for $24 each at K-Mart.. but I consider myself very lucky to have found it, and I haven't ever seen that type of deal ever again! I'm glad I bought three at the time.

That being said, the general sale price is about $40/year now ($20 off) as in the following link: http://www.buy.com/p.../217473129.html ...Which of course is 1/3 off and comes out to $3.33/month to anyone that's interested (which I know is not you). But just talking about price alone, quite honestly I think it's cheap.

p.s. you should check out Virtual 1-time use Credit Card numbers if your credit card company offers that service... Then you'd never feel antsy about giving any place online your CC #

Edited by NE146, Fri May 13, 2011 12:05 PM.

[JamesD]

I guess I should go jump in my wayback machine and buy more gold cards and points cards at Target the last time I saw them on sale. Oh wait... I don't play games online so I'd still be wasting my money on the gold card.
I figure if I ever get together for a night of gaming requiring multiple machines I'll just use one of the 24 hour or month trial game subscriptions I have. I think most are overnighters anymore but new releases might be more generous.

The points I could still use. There are a few new games I like.
One think I preferred about watching movies on the 360 is the ability to download rather than stream the content. Then you aren't at the mercy of your ISP and whatever your neighbors are downloading at the moment. But that doesn't require a gold account.

[NE146]

JamesD, on Fri May 13, 2011 4:42 PM, said:

One think I preferred about watching movies on the 360 is the ability to download rather than stream the content.

Hrm? Wow I didn't know you can do that! How?

[Austin]

NE146, on Fri May 13, 2011 5:20 PM, said:

JamesD, on Fri May 13, 2011 4:42 PM, said:

One think I preferred about watching movies on the 360 is the ability to download rather than stream the content.

Hrm? Wow I didn't know you can do that! How?

Through their overpriced Zune marketplace.

[JamesD]

Austin, on Fri May 13, 2011 5:22 PM, said:

NE146, on Fri May 13, 2011 5:20 PM, said:

JamesD, on Fri May 13, 2011 4:42 PM, said:

One think I preferred about watching movies on the 360 is the ability to download rather than stream the content.

Hrm? Wow I didn't know you can do that! How?

Through their overpriced Zune marketplace.

+1 for the accurate description.

Actually, I don't think I've done it since they switched it to Zune and that's been what? Over 2 years ago?
I was using Netflix to rent Blu-Rays instead... until they raised the Blu-Ray price anyway.

[NE146]

Oh I thought you mean download the shows through Netflix which you already pay for. If you have to pay again through Zune.. forget it. I'll just leech em off Usenet.

[JamesD]

NE146, on Fri May 13, 2011 7:24 PM, said:

Oh I thought you mean download the shows through Netflix which you already pay for. If you have to pay again through Zune.. forget it. I'll just leech em off Usenet.

It's just movie rentals strait from Zune, no Netflix involvement.

[SoulBlazer]

JamesD, on Fri May 13, 2011 7:43 PM, said:

NE146, on Fri May 13, 2011 7:24 PM, said:

Oh I thought you mean download the shows through Netflix which you already pay for. If you have to pay again through Zune.. forget it. I'll just leech em off Usenet.

It's just movie rentals strait from Zune, no Netflix involvement.

And Zune does have the advantage of having stuff straight away -- no 28 day wait like Netflix has, which is the one drawback of a otherwise great Netflix service. With the movie rentals being about $2-4 considering if you want HD or not, I don't think it's THAT bad. I've rented some movies before, good service, no issues.

[JamesD]

SoulBlazer, on Sun May 15, 2011 2:42 AM, said:

JamesD, on Fri May 13, 2011 7:43 PM, said:

NE146, on Fri May 13, 2011 7:24 PM, said:

Oh I thought you mean download the shows through Netflix which you already pay for. If you have to pay again through Zune.. forget it. I'll just leech em off Usenet.

It's just movie rentals strait from Zune, no Netflix involvement.

And Zune does have the advantage of having stuff straight away -- no 28 day wait like Netflix has, which is the one drawback of a otherwise great Netflix service. With the movie rentals being about $2-4 considering if you want HD or not, I don't think it's THAT bad. I've rented some movies before, good service, no issues.

So does Blockbuster FWIW.