Planning to watch a classic movie via Netflix? You might not find the title that’s in your mind, because it’s expiration time again. Starting today, Netflix will lose hundreds of classic titles including James Bond classics like Dr. No and Goldfinger, Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories”, and “10 to Midnight” starring Charles Bronson.

According to InstantWatcher, 1,794 different titles will disappear from the service this month. And it’s not because the titles are going to the Warner Instant Archive as assumed earlier by many. Netflix has many licensing deals for movies, and sometimes when deals expire they simply do not renew less viewed titles. Netflix has confirmed that many titles being removed this month were from a deal with Epix.

And this is not the first time that a drop of titles has happened. Last year, their contract with Starz expired and famous titles such as “Scarface”, “Toy Story 3″, and “Gangs of New York” were removed.

But Netflix is promising the addition of more than 500 new titles including Mission Impossible 2. And also, as you might know, they are planning more and more exclusive original content.

This is what Netflix has to say on the matter:

“The vast majority of the titles that expire on Wednesday are older features that were aggregated by Epix. We recently added many great, more recent titles such as ParaNorman (Universal), Hunger Games (Epix), Safe (Epix) and Bachelorette (Weinstein). Tomorrow [May 1] we will also add MI: 2, among many other titles.

Netflix is a dynamic service, we constantly update the TV shows and movies that are available to our members. We will add more than 500 titles May 1, but we also have titles expiring, this ebb and flow happens all the time“.

Check out InstantWatcher’s full list of the movies being dropped and let us know if one of your favorites is in there.

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Netflix now has more than 36 million subscribers and as part of developing and improving their service they will be offering a new plan for big families who are not satisfied with their $7.99 per month plan which enables streaming to just 2 devices simultaneously.

In a quarterly letter to shareholders, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says:

“A few members with large families run into our 2-simultaneous-stream limit. To best serve these members, we’re shortly adding a 4-stream plan, at $11.99 in the U.S., and we expect fewer than 1% of members to take it”.

So, for an additional 4 dollars, users of the same account will be able to watch 4 video streams at the same time. Netflix believes that only 1% of their customers will be interested in this option, but they might not have thought about customers who let their friends or relatives use their accounts.

Furthermore, in the letter, Hastings is also talking about a new “profiles” feature which is currently being tested. This feature, which will be available globally sometime in the future, will allow different users of an account to get individual recommendations based on their viewing habits. This would of course go well with the new plan.

Are you interested in this new plan, especially for a household that is using services like Netflix and Hulu as a complete alternative to traditional cable?

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Thankfully, it is an opt-in system. Only those subscribers who choose to share their viewing habits will have said viewing habits become visible to their friends (and vice versa). When you start watching another episode of Big Bang Theory, for example, that can get posted on your wall and then your friends can comment on your viewing activity. They can tell you why Sheldon is so awesome (or not).

The interesting thing is that while this Facebook integration is only rolling out this week, Netflix announced its intention to do this way back in July 2011. Then, they got hit by the US law that prevents rental companies from publicizing member rental history. They fought it and won. It’s likely that they’ll be expanding the social aspects of their service moving forward. Some GetGlue integration would make a lot of sense, don’t you think?

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Nielsen has finally decided to change its strategy of measuring TV viewership to better suit the digital age. From this fall, the company’s ratings will include data from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the decision comes from a committee of representatives from TV networks and advertisers. From this September onwards, Nielsen will release new hardware and software to the 23,000 American homes that they get their data from.

Nielsen will monitor data viewed on devices from set-top boxes to video game consoles, and tablets are also in the list although at first there will be a limit in the amount of data that will be drawn from them. But, apparently, their ultimate aim is to “capture video viewing of any kind from any source”. This clearly shows just how important the Internet has become, and how it has truly changed the way that many people are watching their latest shows and movies.

Considering that Nielsen’s current system is pretty limited, this certainly seems like a step in the right direction. What do you think?

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For some time now, Netflix has wanted to integrate social media into their customer’s video watching experience. That has been prevented due to the United State’s Video Privacy Protection Act. The bill prevented companies from sharing customer’s watched videos without written consent from the customer.

A few days ago the Senate approved a House bill that ammends the current act allowing for customers to opt in to video sharing via online means, rather than just with written consent.

Netflix has been pushing for this for some time now to be able to integrate Netflix with Facebook, allowing customers to share their viewed videos with friends via social media. This has been the case in countries other than the United States for some time now, however the US represents such a large chunk of Netflix’s business.

This feature is set to go live as soon as President Obama signs the bill. Is this a feature you would use or not?

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Looking for an alternative to Netflix and Amazon Instant Video? Soon you will have one in the form of Redbox Instant.

Official details have now leaked revealing that the service will set you back just $6 per month for an unlimited subscription. While this is $2 cheaper than Netflix, it is also worth noting that the video selection is going to be significantly smaller. For those that use Redbox regularly, there is also going to be an $8 subscription that includes four Redbox credits each month that you can use to pick up a movie over at your local Redbox.

Redbox Instant will run using Microsoft Silverlight technology and will be compatible with the PC, Android, iOS, Xbox 360 and Samsung’s Smart TV platform. More than likely other platforms will be supported down the road as well.

So when is the new service coming? The leaked information from Redbox suggests the new service will be officially launched to the public on December 17th. What do you think, tempted by this Netflix alternative or not?

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Running out of storage space won’t be an issue with the new Boxee TV. It’s been proclaimed as the first DVR to offer virtually unlimited storage. They do this by uploading your videos to the cloud, rather than storing those recordings on a local drive. In fact, there’s no on-board storage at all.

In addition to the more traditional DVR function of recording live television, the new Boxee TV also lets you enjoy several streaming services, like Netflix, Vimeo, VUDU, YouTube and Pandora. The Boxee TV is a dual tuner unit too, so you can watch one channel while recording another. By uploading your recordings to the cloud, it means that you can watch your recorded TV shows on screens other than your living room TV. Go ahead and watch Big Bang Theory on your laptop and Game of Thrones on your smartphone.

That’s the good news. The other good news is that the Boxee TV will retail for a very reasonable $99 when it ships next month. The bad news is, because you’re using the cloud, you’ll have to pay the monthly subscription fee of $14.99. Ouch! The initial launch is also being limited to just eight cities: New York, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philly, and Washington, DC. They’ll add more markets next year.

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What do you think of the Netflix app for Android? While many users have learned to live with the smartphone version, not everyone loves it. That being said, the UI is finally getting a change it seems. Several people have spoke up claiming that they now see a new user interface when using Netflix.

The funny thing is that there is no Google Play update, so how is that possible? It’s possible thanks to Netflix’s HTML5 webview design for its main content pane. This means that certain elements of the Netflix app can be totally reworked without needing to submit an update.

So this isn’t a new update per-say, it’s just a UI change. The new interface has a side-scrolling experience that isn’t too terribly different from what we’ve seen in the tablet version, or even on the desktop. It has new options like single-tapping a show for info or double-tapping to play.

What’s weird about this new UI is that it is hit and miss on who gets it. Many users have reported the new UI, while total fresh downloads of Netflix are still showing off the old one. Perhaps Netflix is testing out the changes and it inadvertently is making its way to some users?

Do you use Netflix on Android? Does it look any different for you? Let us know in the comments below.

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It’s like the Apple TV, sort of, except it’s Google. Set to ship July 22, the $199 Sony NSZ-GS7 is being marketed as an “Internet Player,” since you can use it stream such services as Hulu Plus and Netflix. You can also use it for browsing the web and using certain Android apps. The remote control is Bluetooth and, interestingly enough, it has a touchpad on one side and a QWERTY keyboard on the other.

There’s even a three-axis motion sensor in there, which will let you interact with certain Android apps and games like how you would on a smartphone or tablet. If you don’t like the provided remote, you can download the free iPhone or Android app to control the set top box instead.

Realistically, though, I’m not sure anyone would really want to spend $199 for this when there are similar “media players” available in the $99 range. I can’t imagine this will do wonders in improving the adoption rate of Google TV.

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An exact date isn’t mentioned, but they are saying that the Roku 2 XD and the Roku 2 XS should be both be available through the usual retailers “in the coming days.” The XD is priced at $89, while the XS is tagged at $109. Both are available for pre-order as of right now, if you happen to be particularly enthusiastic.

But before you get too excited, it should be noted that the Canadian version of the Roku likely won’t have full access to the over 450 stations offered to our American counterparts. Thanks to “regional restrictions” and the CRTC, that’ll get bumped down to about 100 channels, including Netflix, Crackle, NHL, Flickr, and Rdio. I’d be nice to get Hulu Plus and ESPN, but I find that doubtful.

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