Streaming Netflix Leaves a Lot to be Desired

Most technologically-minded people know by now that Netflix is able to stream movies near-instantly to your TV (also in HD) or PC (unfortunately not in HD yet), assuming you have a piece of hardware that is capable of doing this. My XBox 360 happens to be one such piece of hardware.

I was chatting with a friend and he was talking about all the TV shows he was spending time watching in HD with Netflix, streaming through his 360. So, I decide to give it a shot. It would be nice not to have to wait for discs when I want to watch something. Note this, because its important - the whole point of streaming is to watch a show instantly without having to wait for the typical disc-mailing process.

So, I set everything up and get to watching stuff. I started watching the first season of Sliders. I watched the first three episodes and when I went to watch the fourth, to my surprise it said, "This episode available on disc only". Odd...but ok, one episode. As I got to looking at the rest of the shows (a mix of typical live-action TV and anime), I noticed several series, most notably the new Doctor Who seasons, have nearly half the season available "on disc only". A couple of my anime have the "disc only" episodes scattered throughout, so any way you look at it I would have to wait for the disc to come in the mail to watch things straight through.

Now, remember my point above that I said to note, because it was important? Here it is again: The whole point of even bothering to use this streaming Netflix service is to watch a show instantly without having to wait for the typical disc-mailing process. It makes no sense whatsoever to even bother using the bandwidth and storage space necessary to stream these shows - in HD, no less - if your subscriber is going to have to rent out the disc anyway to see every episode. What is the point? And, more importantly, why is this even an issue? I can understand why perhaps an entire series isn't available on demand, as there are licensing issues involved, I'm sure. But for half a series to be available and the other half not? Why? How does this happen? What's the point?

If Netflix truly wants this service to take off, they need to be more consistent with what they have available, because I'm not going to bother if every other episode of the series I'll have to rent the actual physical disc anyway. The quality is great, the convenience is great, but the selection and availability of episodes leaves so much to be desired its probably not worth bothering with it.