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And, for people who only want to rent the physical disc: http://www.redbox.com/

I'll just leave this here:

http://www.redbox.com/instant

The basic issue is that the law doesn't get to be ignored

You're right, it doesn't. There's always a contract specifying what it'll cost if you break/lose/don't return a rental. It's a conversion, legally, not a theft, in most places.

2) Being a licensed rental copy, the replacement cost is in the range of a hundred dollars or more.

Bullshit. RedBox is a for-profit business, and to stay afloat, needs to cover the cost of things like rental videos. From their Rental Terms and Conditions:

5. If you keep an item through the maximum rental period, that item is yours to keep and Redbox will charge you the maximum charge for that item. The maximum charge varies depending on the type of item you are renting and the daily rental charge(s) for the item. For example, if a DVD’s daily rental charge is $1.20 and its maximum charge is $25.20, then the maximum rental period for that DVD (before you own it and owe $25.20 (except for Maryland Rental Transactions for which additional tax is not charged)) is 21 days. Therefore, for many items, the maximum charge is equal to the daily rental charge multiplied by the number of days in the maximum rental period plus tax (except for Maryland Rental Transactions for which additional tax is not charged). See the examples in the chart below. However, if an item’s rental charge for the minimum rental period (i.e., the first day of rental) is different from the daily rental charge for each additional day, the maximum rental period will be shorter than for other items because the maximum charge will be reached faster. For example, if a DVD’s daily rental charge for the minimum rental period is $3 and then $1 for each additional day and the maximum charge for that DVD is $25 plus tax (except for Maryland Rental Transactions for which additional tax is not charged), then the maximum rental period for that DVD is 23 days (i.e., $25 was reached on day 23 because you owe $3.00 for the first daily rental charge and then $1.00 a day for all additional days).

Their sample maximum charge for an unreturned item is around $60 for a game, $34.50 for a Blu-ray disc, and $25.20 for a DVD. You're full of shit.

Redbox does not do blueray

What?

neither does netflex mail service

Again, what?

Sure their entire catalogs are not in Bluray.

Renting a movie is much the same except that I don't know where to rent movies anymore. But if you do get a blue ray most players won't let you skip past the various warnings and even sometimes the trailers.

1. Rent from Red Box: $1.32/night.

2. Rip it to laptop

3. ???

4. WATCH IT WITH NO RESTRICTIONS!

Redbox is $1.00 + tax. At least it was last time I rented one from there. Their site doesn't say what the current rental fee is, but if you reserve the movie online first, it's only $1.00.

The nearby Redbox machines are in front of gas stations and grocery stores. I can generally pull my car up within a few feet of the box. Worst case, I'd have to park on the other side of the parking lot, and walk 100 feet or so.

As has been pointed out to me, "bluebox" movies are free. Well, assuming that someone dropped a Netflix return in that mailbox. :)

I live within a 5-minute drive of over a dozen redbox kiosks, and so my current "acceptable" 24-hour rental fee is 1 USD.

That does completely ignore the fact that it's more difficult than pirating. I'd much rather pay the extra 99c and not have to do a 10minute round trip in the car.

The DMCA be damned, I bought the movie, I'll watch it however I want.

Damn straight! It's the movie industry's obsession with attempting to control it even after they've sold it to you.

Where I'm from, $4.99 for a movie would not be considered affordable. For that matter, $1.99 wouldn't be

Where do you live the $1.99 isn't affordable for a movie?! Gees most people find that to be affordable for a song on iTunes.

I live within a 5-minute drive of over a dozen redbox kiosks, and so my current "acceptable" 24-hour rental fee is 1 USD.

In addition, my local library has hundreds of DVDs to choose from in each location, and I can go online to their website and request a hold/transfer of materials from the dozen locations that aren't within 3 blocks of my house. those movies are "rented" for a week, at NO cost to me. Of course, it's a dollar a day late fee if I don't bring them back on time, but I usually watch them within a day or two of borrowing them, and get them back with several days to spare... and that's still no more expensive than redbox.

If I could watch unlimited movies, on demand, of my choosing, from a catalog that had *everything* I might want to watch, I'd be willing to pay $30 a month for that service - assuming I could access those titles without having to even get up from my chair in my living room.

I still purchase movies off the "new" shelf, and of course I dig in the bargain bins for $5 popcorn-munchers, and I rip every single one of my purchased movies to avi files. I even bought that stupid "VHS-to-DVD" USB dongle from Best Buy so I could move my extensive VHS collection to digital media (there's a step in the middle where you export the MPEG to DVD media - I skip that step, and convert it to avi instead). I am in the process of moving my entire video collection to digital formats, and I play them on my desktop, my laptop, and even my phone. I used to rip the DVDs because I didn't want to worry about scratching up the originals and having to replace movies I already purchased simply because someone left the disks out, or used them for coasters. Now I store my movie collection in the garage, and simply watch what I want over my LAN from a server I store all my movies on. My "backups" are my original physical media, and I play the digital version with no worries that my movies will be destroyed by someone's 4-year-old throwing the disk across the room like a Frisbee. This also allows me to stop in the middle of a movie, wander into the bedroom, and fire it back up at roughly the same point - without having to eject a disk, drag the disk across the house, stick the disk into something else, then hold >> for 3 minutes to get to the part I was watching.

As for DRM and other media-control crap... well, it may be a legal gray area for me to format-shift my DVD and VHS media to avi files because I'm "circumventing copyright protection mechanisms", but I don't care, and I'm fairly certain that no jury in the country would convict me for watching content I have legally acquired in whatever manner I choose, whenever I want to, on any player I happen to own, in any "private" environment I wish to. The DMCA be damned, I bought the movie, I'll watch it however I want.

Before this whole price thing blew up, I gave up on Netflix. Why?

1. If I want anime (my favorite genre), I'm better off with http://www.rentanime.com./ It costs $20/month, but the selection is significantly better. I'd already seen pretty much all the good anime that was on Netflix anyway.
2. If I want TV shows, go damn near anywhere on the Internet these days and you'll hit a way to get TV shows. From Hulu+ to iTunes, to Amazon, they're everywhere. Pretty cheap, too.
3. For new movie DVD releases, there's http://www.redbox.com./ Sure, it's not quite as convenient as Netflix was, but I only watch 1-2 movies a month, so it's a *lot* cheaper. Plus it has the spur-of-the-moment factor...as long as I'm willing to put some pants on and drive 5 minutes, I can get the DVD right away.

About the only thing left is older movie DVD releases. You can get most of those on Amazon too.

"Its not. It costs $6 just to rent a single movie and their free movies are lame. "

VUDU is the same. You can only rent movies to stream, unlike netflix where you pay once a month for all-you-can-eat. And VUDU has been around for 4 years. Yes, FOUR, and it hasn't gone mainstream yet, while Netflix is everywhere.

And VUDU wants 99 cents to $5.99. Come on, $5.99 is about what I pay Netflix for the month, and you want me to give you that for just one movie? No thanks, not when I have redbox down the street with $1 DVDs and $2 games.

For me, it is the subscription. I don't watch a lot of movies and old television/TV shows/series these days due to work and other real-life activities. I wouldn't mind if they had a payment on demand like RedBox (99 cents for a day rental!) and others. I also don't mind if I have to pay more if I can't watch it within a day.

Forget Android... what about on demand payments instead of subscriptions? I don't watch many movies and TV shows on discs and streaming. I love Redbox for its 99 cents and no need to subscribe.

I use RedBox for newer releases and low rental costs, without its dumb subscription.

I rent my videos from Redbox.com. I don't rent enough movies to really justify spending on a Netflix subscription and the idea of depending $4.50 on a DVD rental is absolutely preposterous. For $1 + tax I get to watch a DVD--a just price for someone who watches movies as infrequently as I do.

...and no, it doesn't run Linux...but it could.

I have been a Netflix subscriber since about 2000. Every now and then I would go to a Blockbuster to pick up a movie "right now" that might have been buried in my queue or just a spontaneous rental. I no longer use Blockbuster for these rentals because of the marketing and hassle just to check out. The barrage of upselling sodas, snacks, movie deals cards, etc when all I want is my movie and go. I still have an average of 30 movies in my queue and quite happy getting two movies every week but now and again still crave the spontaneous one in between. I am now in love with RedBox that is in my local grocery store and I've seen a few at other shopping centers. I don't know how far reaching or large they are but this was an awesome idea. http://www.redbox.com/

"Can somebody tell me how long will it take to hack into this box and reuse the code in some PC apps?
I don't think film studios are going to be particularly happy and enthusiastic about it."

Who cares? I'm still wondering why I can find a Redbox anywhere (nine less than 5 miles from me) and rent a new DVD for $1, a DVD with DRM that has been broken a million times over and I can duplicate easily, but I still can't frickin download one to watch on my PC or TV?? Hello? Consumer to movie studios, what are you doing? I should be able to go to walmart tonight and buy a set-top box for under $50 that allows me to download movies for $1 and watch them up to 24 hours.

You've never seen a Redbox, have you? I agree with your comment about picking up a decent quality DVD with the groceries to watch in the living room, as opposed to downloads in a browser. However, brick-and-mortar video-only rental stores are not necessary for that. We pick up Redbox movies at the grocery store. I'm trying to convince my office building to put one in the lobby.

Between Netflix's cheaper plan for backlist titles, and Redbox for new releases, I would have little need for the likes of Blockbuster.

the supermarket chain in my area installed redbox machines. i have used them a couple of times and find them to be meh. there are no subscription fees (one of my biggest turn offs about netflix (i don't rent enough to make it worth while)), but the selection isn't that large.

There is one of these at the supermarket down the road, and while the technology is fairly modern, using the UPS-style 3d barcodes, the geek in me wonders why they must use prepressed discs, and not burn-on-demand. Is it a speed, security, or reliability issue?

Why would I pay full price for a movie that, due to DRM restrictions, I'd have a good chance of only having on my hard drive for a short period of time, when I can just go down to McDonalds and rent a new movie for $1 from the http://www.redbox.com/ ?

http://www.redbox.com/ They have some they everone else doesn't... Cheap pay as you go rentals. And you can get fries with that!

That is actually a great point! When I lived in Denver almost every McDonalds had a RedBox that rented DVD's for $1. We never went to Blockbuster because McDonalds was just as close and despite not having the selection, was one fifth the price. It would be silly of Jobs to pay for all that real estate when he doesn't need it. Unless he has some other idea to make money off the space. Which he might. Anyways for more info on RedBox check out: http://www.redbox.com/

Having just looked at the titles availble from redbox, I'd say the one constant factor in your options is a subpar selection of movies.

If you're going to flack for someone, at least pick Netflix, or someone who's got more than two or three watchable films.

Let me see, which would I rather do: spend $30+ on a movie ticket, popcorn, and a drink just so I can watch the latest subpar selection of movies at a time set by the theater and have popcorn thrown at me by 13 year old cell phone wielding children, OR pick up whatever movie from the redbox for $0.99 (or DVD rentals through the mail) and a drink and popcorn from the local store all for less than $5 and watch it on my widescreen in the comfort of my own home. Tough call.