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Review Of Netflix DVD Rental Service
Bigbird504 writes "If you haven't already heard of Netflix, they basically rent DVDs online... but for a price of $20/month. While many believe it isn't worth it, many others do feel its a good bargain. Afterall, you can take out 3 DVDs at a time. Best of all, there are no late fees on returns. You keep the DVD as long as you like, and return it when you are done. Its a pretty interesting concept, and may be well worth the money. Check out this review on Netflix."
Netflix worked well for me, i used it for a few months and will continuing doing so. Works even better if you have a mailbox at work, you dont even have to stop at one to drop it off =p
Litigation is scheduled to follow the minute that we can cheaply and reliably copy DVD's.
AWG
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
for those of you in Canada check out a similar service offered here at dvdhype.com. I've been using the service for over a year now and I am very satisified with the service.
Is this an ad? A review for NetFlix... on NetFlix?
Anyway, this was once a GREAT service, but as I am sure many posts to follow will indicate, it slipped as the dot-com funds disappeared. It takes way too long for processing of returned DVDs and too long to receive new ones - if you can even get the titles you want.
Here's to ya NetFlix, once a great service, still a great idea!
But I doubt it will last, I mean who would want to rent 3 DVDs and then just watch those over and over again? You'd still have to make a trip to pick up something new.. Could really save on those excruciating Blockbuster late charges though..
Somehow I don't think that DVD rentals will take off the way VHS rentals did. About half the time either I or a friend rents a DVD it is scratched to the point of being unusable. When burnable DVDs get cheap enough to be used frequently people we really start in on copying DVDs, so rental places won't have a place. If I want to watch a DVD I don't have, I'll borrow it from a friend.
"ph34r my 1337 n3kk1d ski11z!" - largo of megatokyo
We've been a netflix survivor for half a year or so, and I really like it. It's especially great for watching things like The Sopranos, where there are four one-hour episodes on each disc, and you don't necessarily want to watch them all in the same night -- you can keep it as long as you want.
Unlike the reviewer, we're all the way in Boston, so turnaround time is much higher -- sometimes more than a week round-trip. This means that unlike the 45 movies he mentions, we can only fit seven or eight in a month, and that only if we watch right when they come, so I'm highly looking forward to the rumored east-coast distribution center. (This article was the first I'd heard of that.)
Still, it works out to a pretty decent deal for us, and the convenience is unbeatable, especially in these sad and dark post-Kozmo days. We've got a queue of about 45 movies stacked up (and like the reviewer, pretty much always get the first thing on our list -- I don't know if they do this, but I can imagine crunching everyone's upcoming queues for optimal dispersal of inventory...). It's basically like TV-on-demand, with really high latency.
have to pay for this advertisment or is this in some way that i am missing news?
If you live on the east coast, you're going to have to put a lot of faith in the post (ha)
They don't seem to rent out porns
Since Netflix movies are shipped from the west coast,
its not very effective if you are on the
east coast. sometimes the time between sending and recieving a DVD is 1 Week+ .
Netflix was a great service for me, and I was a customer for a little over a year. But as their popularity grew, it became harder and harder to get new releases, etc. Netflix always delivered what they said they would on-time, and the ones we sent back in got to them quickly almost every time.
The real problem for us then was availability, and as new releases became harder and harder to get (they show up in your selection queue as out of stock or delayed or something) we found ourselves buying the new releases we liked and using netflix for older stuff we weren't sure was any good before we bought. When we had seen all the ones we wanted to via the service, we saw no point to keeping it. I guess you could say we used it up.
Take this comment as you will, because most people don't watch as many as I do. To date, I have roughly 300 DVD's and watch anywhere from 3-9 per week, as I watch very little television.
I joined NetFlix this past year and had a rather bad experience. My primary reason for joining was to gain access to anime rentals, as the only place in Atlanta that rents anime (that I know of) only has vhs.
But I digress, the big problem i ran into is their queue system. It sounds good, queue up the ones you want and they will send the highest one available as it becomes available. The problem is if your high demand ones are at all popular they will almost never get to you.
The flaw in their system is that they WILL send you a lower priority one when it becomes available. if you have you X number checked out they won't send you anything until you check something back in, then they will send out your highest rated available one - again generally not the one you want most as they tend to be in demand from everyone.
After a few months I realized I could buy the DVD's i wanted for the same price as i was spending either A) waiting with nothing extra in my queue for a specific couple movies, or B) watching lots of movies i don't especially want to but am vaguely interested in so stuck in my queue.
So, yeah, is a great deal if you don't especially care about getting a specific movie, but just one or two of a selection, but if you want some specific movies (which with their vast lit of titles is what attacted me) it is not so hot - especially if you want ones that are typically in high demand, but are not carried sufficiantly in Blockbuster (ie, most anime).
-Frums
Well, as long as there is no nasty copy protection, humm.
When will people offer rentals of DivX (or similar) online? :-) ) we must make a new format that can't be easily copied first... What about those DVDs that could be read only X times that were mentioned on Slashdot earlier this week? well, they can't be transferred digitally... so they suck.
Well, (hmm, I am answering my own question too
Find nice cocktail recipes @ www.spitzy.net
I subscribed for 5 months. Sometimes it would take three days to ship out the next selection after recieving the return. The queue page keeps up-to-date on the status of all so you know exactly the when and wheres of all your discs.
The one thing I didn't like was double disc sets counted as two rentals and not just one. So for like Citizen Kane, you have to rent the film disc and the bonus disc separately.
I used it for two months. Here's what I found:
- Their DVD selection was very impressive. Think Amazon.com.
- NetFlix provides a rating system that they use to generate rental suggestions.
- Customer service never responded to emails, but I did see changes possibly due to my suggestions.
- NetFlix took seven business days to deliver to Atlanta. (i.e. Needs an East Coast distribution center.)
- They charge state tax even without local presence.
Conclusion: A great deal if you live near Los Gatos, California!
I've been a happy, East Coast Netflix user for a while. There is a significant lag time, but the selection is so superior to the offerings in local video outlets that it is worth it. Also, their DVDs are usually in better condition.
Finally, they are willing to take responsibility for the inevitable lost DVDs. When a DVD I returned to them was lost in the mail, I just reported it lost on their website and they immediately removed it from my list of currently rented movies. There was no charge to me and minimal inconvenience. Go Netflix!
This is a fine example of a story that forgets that large part of Slashdot readers don't live in US. For them it's spectacularly irrelevant if Netflix is worth the money or not, since they can't use it anyway.
It's true that it seems possible to exclude stories in the "United states" category, but how many readers bother going through all the prefs options - and not all US stories are uninteresting. Stories should mention it when the product in question is available in US only.
When I want to watch a movie, I'd like to watch it *now*, rather than in a week or so. I tried them out for a month, and I was able to view eight movies. That was one night apiece, watch the movies and send them back ASAP. 8 for $20. Probably a $12 savings over Blockbuster, but with them I get instant gratification and I can keep the movies longer. No thanks.
From what the reviewer writes it does seem like the idea is a good one. Everyone hates late fees anyway, so right off the bat it seems like it's bound to succeed. One thing the reviewer mentions is the added hassle of dropping the movies off at a mailbox. I would think that, in many circumstances, mailboxes are closer than the rental stores the films would be returned to anyway; besides the films come right to your door. Not bad?
Unfortunately the idea can't fly. In these weak iEconomic times it seems like another dot com idea claiming to make the most simple of things (renting a movie) simpler, would be discounted quickly if not ignored at all. People, in general, (and I'm stereotyping here,) enjoy the experience of renting a movie. When done as a group it can be an additional source of entertainment itself. Additionally the flat rate $20/month subscription fee, ultimately desired as the most profitable source of income, will quickly get tiresome... especially those months where you fail to rent a movie. As the final straw it should be noted that renting a movie often involves (at least in paraphased forms) the following request, "Do you want to get a movie tonight?"
"Sorry, it takes two days for them to come in the mail..." Well, it just won't cut it.
I tried the service a few months ago. The "no late fee" idea was a good one, but having to wait a week(!) for a movie to come in the mail was terrible. By the time the movie got to me, I would watch it same night, send it back the next day. But I could get 5 movies with 5 viewing days for the same money. I could only get 4 in a month because of the mail and still had to wait a week to watch it. That is if all the ppl on the west coast hadn't gotten them all first. I waited 3 weeks for a movie to come back in so they could send it to me. My girlfriend got so tired of waiting, decided to go get it from Blockbuster. Wouldn't you know it, showed up same day.
Overall: Excellent idea, but SNAIL mail?
User logging on... 300 baud... 300 BAUD?!? (Click!) NO CARRIER
Was a customer for a few years. Generally liked it but about half of the DVDs were unplayable when they arrived. Seemed like quality control was done by waiting for a customer complaint before checking a returned DVD.
It was also strange that about 1/3 of those I returned never arrived back at Netflix. They always immediately considered them retruned when I told them. But it did always make me wonder why so many were lost in the mail.
We've had net flix for about 2 months. We've watched about 7 flix, and have 3 ready to watch. Our turnaround is two-three days, because we're in Berkeley, which is nice. The price is right for us, as we're terrible at returning DVDs at blockbuster, so we're saving about 10 bucks a month this way.
Our biggest problem is that it's actually hard to browse their selection. If you know what you want, you can usually find it, but browsing is hard. Their categories aren't as complete as one would like, and the recommendations don't run all that deep (only 10-15 in the indie section, for example). A secondary problem is that we end up with 3 DVDs that we "think" we want to watch someday (e.g. movies like Remains of the Day, Requiem for a Dream) that just sit around because we never quite "feel" like it.
Overall we like the service, but it doesn't replace the impulse movie watching available through our local (non Blockbuster) rental store.
Cheers,
David Andre
I can't see myself ever using this service. I have a hard time with traditional rentals. Looking at a cost benefit analysis, a new movie in the theatre typically costs $12.50 per adult in Canada. For my wife and I, that's $25, plus the possibility of a popcorn combo for another $10 so we're now at $35. For the price of one night out, we can save money on gas & the hassel and BUY most new-release DVDs (typically $25 here). With our new 53HX71 Toshiba + surround sound (pro logic...sorry) it's pretty close to the real deal. The thing with DVDs is that I see a $20 value...CDs I see a $2 value, hence mp3s, but if I can buy and own I would never, ever rent.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
I love Netflix for the selection, and I am one of those people that fills my queue to bursting (115 movies at the moment).
The one thing that has had me worried during my two years dealing with netflix is the slow degradation in service levels. In the beginning, you could mail back a DVD, then tell their website you did so and you would get your new one. Not so anymore, though I can understand it for dealing with people who say "yeeeah, I sent it back" but never did. Second was when they bumped the basic service level down to 3 DVDs from 4. Finally, it seems that they are taking much longer to process my movies lately. A couple months ago I could expect that they send the top of my queue out a day after recieving my return. Now it seems there is a 2-3 day lag time between them, without having 'Wait' movies in my queue.
I do love the service though, and bought a year of it for my parents this past Xmas. There's just this nagging feeling that they will do more to cripple it.
I was a Netflix subscriber for a few months but cancelled. It's really annoying to have to wait a week for a movie you want to see. In the end, I still had to go to the local Blockbuster...
Unless you live in California, it will take almost a week for the DVD to reach you. For a mail round-trip, that's two weeks. In my experience, you won't be able to watch more than 8 movies in a month. I was really not satisfied with the service.
I wish they had warehouses and shipping centers across the country. That should cut the mail time down to a couple of days. Plus, they could actually have brick-and-mortar rental stores attached to the warehouses. Then you could pay a monthly fee but also go to the store to pick up your titles. If you don't have time to return, just mail them back.
The bottom line is: Netflix falls short of their "unlimited rentals" promise.
... and there is a large (read: LARGE) amount of Slashdot readers who AREN'T in Australia.
Weird! I totally meant to write "netflix subscriber", and in rereading the above just now, I notice I actually wrote "netflix survivor". And I even used "preview" and everything. Well. Take that as you will. :)
Wouldn't it make more sense to rate them according to how good they were ;).
Netflix isn't the only one around. There's Rentmydvd.com which incidentally also has a branch in NY. There are some others that are small-scale like Cafedvd.com that operate on a pay-per-DVD option. And back to Netflix and Rentmydvd.com, the thing I like about them is the flexibility they offer. You can, for instance, change your subscription for a particular month to a 2 DVDs a time if its finals time or you're really tight with your work. And you end up paying lesser.
All said and done, what's really needed is a lot more of the classics being converted to DVDs. Usually, if the movie has a DVD version, Netflix has them. Its the ones that don't that are hard to get. It'd be great if these folks would pursue bringing out DVD editions of these movies.
PS: There's also talk abt Netflix opening up shop elsewhere in the country.
I was a user for about a year, and I kept having problems with them losing movies. They would say they'd shipped the DVD, but it never arrived. After four of these, I got frustrated and cancelled.
The day I cancelled, I got a charge on my credit card for the full retail price of all four DVD's! Their service agreement hadn't said anything about this, and the "lost-dvd" page didn't say anything about it either. I called and called them, e-mailed, tried everything I could, but they wouldn't listen. I even offered to buy them the DVD's at my local Blockbuster (at less than 1/4 of the price they charged my card) but no luck.
Later, we found out that our mailman had been stealing things from everybody's mailboxes at our apartment complex. There still wasn't anything I could do about it, though.
What's your damage, Heather?
The fix for this is really - surprise! - to move to one of the more expensive tiers of service that give you more disks.
That said, NetFlix really is great for those obscure films. I finally got to see Robert Downey's Greaser's Palace again through NetFlix. I'd loved it in college in the '70s, and had tried to describe it to my wife, but there's no describing that movie. None of the rental stores here had it, but NetFlix did. Ironically, it wasn't as good when seen through more mature eyes. Another myth of youth shot to hell.
C'mon, baby, kiss The King.
I then came across a similar company that, at that time, was fairly new to the DVD rental market, RentMyDVD.com. New releases seemed to be in stock much more often than with NetFlix, it was rare to have to wait longer than a week to see a new release. Better yet, they have a shipping center in San Francisco and one in New Jersey, meaning I could normally get a fresh batch of movies here in Ohio for each weekend. I stuck with RentMyDVD.com for 6 months or so and was fairly happy, eventually dropping them once I saw most of the movies that I wanted to see but didn't want to own.
The problem that DVD rental services as a whole face are scratched discs, and this is a glaring problem with the Netflix-types of long distance rental companies. It's frustrating enough to settle in for a night of movie watching only to have some bad skipping an hour into the movie. But when you rent locally, you can run down to the local store right away or the next day and have the problem correct. With NetFlix and RentMyDVD, they'll credit you with a free rental, but you're still waiting at least 3-4 days to have the problem rectified. For the most part, these companies do check to ensure that they're sending out unscratched movies, but I've had at least 5 movies ruined by having some pretty bad skipping right in the middle of a movie. For the most part these days, I spend a few bucks more and just buy the bulk of the movies I want to see, and use Half.com or Ebay to get rid of whatever I don't want to keep.
I would appreciate if they could be posted (because frankly, Blockbuster UK is a total rip off in comparision to US counterparts).
"You know you don't act like a scientist, you're more like a game show host." Dana Barret
I live in the Boston area and have been using netflix about a year. Cost wise it was like this- looked at my cable bill and realized I was paying way too much so I canceled some of the movie chanels that I never watched because I could never schedule myself to watch movies at exactly 8:00 or 10:00 etc.. (yeah I know I could have looked into a tivo). So I saved ~25 bucks and instead of paying the cable company I pay netflix 20 and save 5 for popcorn.
:(
The time delay for living on the east coast can be a little annoying at times but I don't watch so many movies that it is really a factor (I'd love to see this eastcoast dist center rumored though). I am also one of those people that always ended up paying late fees to blockbuster. (BB is out of my way to get to but I drive right by a drive up mailbox on my way to work so this is a plus for the NF service for me)
bottom line is that the service is good depending on your viewing habits. For some its good for others it is not. You need to try it and see if it fits for you.
BTW- blockbuster has a deal around here where you can get one rental a day for a flat rate of around $20. of course the last time I was in there I don't think I could find enough movies that I would take the time to sit down and watch to really take advantage of the offer and there would be those late fees again
Even with blockbuster, the last half-dozen DVDs I've rented have skipped at least once. I cancelled my netflix account when the last movie I received from them was phsycially broken (a crack all the way through one side).
I think this is going to hasten the rise of video-on-demand vs. movie rental. Food for thought: 10 years ago, forget about going to Blockbuster and getting a new release after 9 on Friday or Saturday. When was the last time you were in a video store on a weekend and saw a recent movie completely checked out?
When thinking about netflix, I basically compare it to my other option: Blockbuster.
I've really liked netflix.
w o r l d w i d e w e b e r
If you don't plan to rent 5 DVDs per month check out www.dvdovernight.com. They charge by the rental ($4) instead of a monthly fee. They also rent porn.
I have been a Netflix subscriber for 2 years, so I get 4 DVDs out at once instead of the 3 they currently offer.
The selection is amazing and I usually get the first choice in my queue. I like reading the reviews and searching for similar titles.
The latency problem has been getting worse. Originally, I could tell them when I dropped it in the mail and they would send me my next DVD. Turnaround was around 4 days then.
Later it changed where you could tell them when it has been 4 days since you dropped it in the mail if you have not received an email saying they received it back. They would then send the next movie out. I would be able to drop a movie in the mailbox on Monday morning and claim I sent it out Saturday, since the mail is not picked up from the boxes between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning.
A few months ago, they removed that option. Now you can only report a movie delayed if it is over 6 days since you sent it to them. They also consider that lost and have warnings about "If you report them lost too often, your service will be cancelled." (not an exact quote).
I hope the East Coast distribution center happens. The service would be much better.
I and 4 of my family members are all members of Netflix. We all live on the East coast. I was the last to join of my family.
Now, I can't say much about the Anime fan who didn't like the service, but I rent mainly mainstream movies and have enjoyed the service immensly. My biggest problem was that I was always returning movies late. I also watch a lot of movies.
I've always gotten the 3 movies at the top of my list, so far. It's only been two months, but it's definitely saved me money. It only takes 2-3 days for my movies to get returned and another 2-3 days for the new ones to arrive.
I'm even thinking about upgrading my account to one that allows me to have even more out at a time.
The self-addressed, no stamp required, return envelopes are ingenius. It just can't be any easier.
I joined when their pricing structure was a little better. I get 6 movies out at any time for $28/mo plus tax.
Most of what I want to see isn't the new block buster releases, which is why I was really disappointed with the selection at my local Blockbuster.
I used to live in a town with a great video store, had basically everything, so Netflix kept that type of selection for me.
I probably watch about 15 movies a month for a total of about $2 each compared to $4 for Blockbuster.
It may not be for everyone, but for me it is just the thing. The only problem is not being "in the mood" to watch what you have in the house.
I live in a rat hole in the back waters of Florida (yeah yeah I need to move but I'm still a minor, not up to me). Anyways, I can' find any descent movies locally, and it's a 2 hour drive to any place with a descent selection. The shipping time isn't so bad. I usually get them a day or two before Netflix's ETA. The selection is awesome. Just watched Apocalypse Now Redux and John Carpenter's They Live last night. I rent alot of obscure movies sometimes and some anime (while living in an anime free area). Netflix saves me alot of time and frustration in finding these movies. All and all, I highly recommend it, even if you live on the East Coast:) *mutters something about needing more gigage so he can rip to VCD*
I've completely given up broadcast TV and spend my cable budget on Netflix. I got sick of commercials and the 56-channels-and-nothing-on syndrome, so I made the switch.
I give Netflix three stars, with the following accounting for one star withheld:
Netflix tries real hard to get you in at $20/mo, but they offer an option at $12.50/month. You have to start at 3 movies/$20 though - and then manually downgrade.
For this price you can always rent 2 movies.
We live in SF, and probably watch 2 movies a week using netflix. Much more convenient than Blockbuster (which is only 1 mile away, but has wicked lines). The turnaround for movies is about 3 days from when we drop them in the mailbox. Netflix lists in our account when movies should arrive, and it is reasonably consistent.
So far, no hitches. Been using it 3 mo. I think in principle we could watch 15+ movies a month for this price, although we usually watch 6-8. I suspect we'll hit the wall of available and desireable content soon though.
I've been using Netflix for about year and a half. I've been genetally satisfied, however I notice that service goes downhill , slowly but steady. The most irritating new "feature" for me is that now, when you rent a movie which comes on 2 dvd's, you have to rent them as a two separate items! Example. What could be worse then receiving the last 1/3 of the movie and wait until the beggining willl come out of the "long wait" blackhole!
I've been a customer for 1 1/2 years now. I am very happy with this service. I always have the next 2-3 movies i want to watch on top of my dvd player. Very cool. I can decide to watch them any time with no trip to the video store. Great service.
I must have different tastes than a lot of /.rs, as I thought their catalog was sadly lacking. For example, they are woefully light on the incredible restorations done by Criterion.
That took a bit of effort to determine, too, as your choices of categories to browse by are pretty limited, and certainly don't include production house. Their site is generally clunky to browse, as others have mentioned. It's easy to find what you want it you know exactly what it is, but how hard is that?
Cancelling is a hassle, too. You have to speak to a rep and convince them that you really, trully want to leave, you can't just use the site.
They guy I spoke with was surprised that I found their selection so weak. "We stock pretty much everything that gets released," he said. When I mentioned that I couldn't find anything by Ingmar Bergman, he asked, "who's that?" Could explain a few things.
Now, all this said, their actual get it in the mail, keep it 'til you're done service is great. And they gave me no hassle when the second disc they sent me got lost in the mail. If I looked again and saw a broader catalog, I'd sign up.
I hope they make it.
On the anime dvds you are only telling half the story - as far as I can tell they have not purchased any new ones in the past year. try a search for anything released in 2001 and you will not find it. I've been with them since 12/99, but they bang for the buck is getting more slender all the time.
-- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
My roommate and i subscribed to netflix a year ago when they were offering 4 dvds per month before they changed the prices. It was great for awhile, as long as you made sure you got your money's worth by always having something ready to be shipped to you when you returned one. But eventually the selection ran dry and it wasn't worth it, not that they have a slim selection, but at 3-4 movies per week, you run out of stuff you *want* to see.
I was a member of netflix for 10 months - overall it was good, but...
1. interesting movies (like cult movies, or special interest) were extremely limited, so the waiting list was often on the order of MONTHS
2. popular movies, ibid.
3. initially they were quick to send out movies when your movies were returned. By the time I canceled (sept), they would sit on returns for a few days before sending out the movie at the top of my queue.
4. when I canceled, they charged me for the movies en-route back to them 2 DAYS after cancellation despite their policy that says otherwise.
aem
-a.e.mossberg
I got NetFlix when it started more than a year ago. It was great. The problem is, that it took at least three days for any dvd to come to my house. This was because I'm on the east coast and they're based on the west coast. People on the west coast will be getting a very good deal, as you can get the dvd you order in usually under two days. I cancelled my service because I'm a filmaholic and could watch a dvd a day (and without my fix man, I get withdrawal symptoms!)
I belong to the ______ generation.
Here are some other options. I haven't tried any of these yet, but I'm about to.
.. give them a break. The replacement came and I eagerly watched it (after being teased with the first 20 minutes from the previous week's attempt). I got 1:30 through the movie and it happened again! Sure enough, this DVD was scratched just as bad. You can imagine I was about to throw the damned thing out the window.
Rent My DVD
DVD Barn
Number Slate
DVD Overnight
I recently rented Payback from Netflix. I never used to check the DVD's face for scratches because I assumed Netflix has some sort of quality control (mistake #1). I got about 20 minutes into the movie and then it wouldn't go any further. Upon inspection, the DVD face looked like someone had taken steel wool to it. How the hell does that get past the retard that puts it in the little envelopes?
So I reported it as unplayable and had them send a replacement. I figured this had to happen from time to time
It's one thing to send a bad DVD, but to send an unplayable replacement for an unplayable DVD? That's just sad.
Other peeves have already been posted, but I'll reiterate: If you want a 2-DVD set, some of them are split so you have to rent each DVD separately. They don't have many copies of some movies, meaning that you have to wait and watch something else or wait for that movie to be returned to Netflix. Their turnaround time is horrible and they ship bulk mail (slow compared to 1st class).
I had a good run with Netflix, but they seem to be getting worse. I'm to the point that I'm going to try one of these other services out.
That's Mr. Eradicator to you.
trance-port
Some of my friends and myself have loked into this. We decided that if each one of us would encode a movie we could get 3 DIVXs movies and only keep the movie for a day. We have yet to try this out but I am wondering if anyone else is doing this to build their DIVX collection?
From NY I found I was lucky to turn a movie around twice a month, they really drag their feet on their end. So with three inventory slots, you can see maybe six movies a month, and then only if you watch them the day they arrive.
But the real problem is that they advertise availability of films that are just not available.
"Hobson's choice. An appearantly free choice that offers no real alternative. After English liveryman Thomas Hobson who required that customers take the horse nearest the door or none." -- American Heritage Dictionary
Just because some of you don't like it doesn't mean no one likes it. I've been searching for something like NetFlix for years. I can't believe it took me so long to find it.
Why I like NetFlix...
I hate Blockbuster. The stores in my area aren't well organized (and the staff doesn't seem to care). Everyone else decides to rent movies when you do resulting in huge lines. Blockbuster also decides on my behalf that they don't need to carry certain contraversial or particularly graphic (or god forbid anti-christian) movies. Fuck them.
NetFlix has no late fees. I can keep the DVDs for as long as I want, but it's not a problem to return them at all. They come self-addressed postage paid. Just drop it in the mailbox to return it.
You pick about 10 movies you're interested in seeing. They send the first 3 on your list, and each time they receive one back they'll send the next one. Besides requiring minimal user interaction, this allows them to better forecast what movies they're going to need in the next few weeks. Video stores don't have this luxury.
Their recommendations system is great (think Amazon.com). I've seen a lot of movies that I've been meaning to see but completely forgot about.
Yes, there are some disadvantages. You have to plan your movies out in advance. There is a delay between asking for a movie and getting it. For never having to deal with Blockbuster again, that sounds like a great deal to me.
I do it, and I love it. Rent 'em, watch 'em,
divx-itize them.
Plus, Netflix was the only place (I checked
every Blockbuster in my area!) that had the
Phish movie.
Long live Netflix! And Phish!
The reason I signed up for a free trial at Netflix was so that I could finally get to see the out-of-print Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo DVD ($80 on eBay, $24 retail). I did get to see it, and I also figured I'd rent some other anime as well. At first my rental queue said they were sending part 2 first (I was furious), and then they sent part 1 later. The funny thing was that part 1 arrived first. I live in the midwest (Indiana) and it took 5 days to get the discs. (5 day shipment makes a 2 week trial tricky). After I cancelled, 2 months later I realized that they had been charging me $20.95 a month! You don't cancel online, but merely initiate the cancelling process (i.e. Are you sure, are you really sure? Okay you're cancelled. after you...call (494)555-4534. I never saw the part about calling the phone number.
C. Griffin
"Can I keep his head for a souvenir?" --Max from Sam 'N Max Freelance Police
Glaring Omission: For whatever reason, Netflix has just about zero opera performances in its collection. I'm not sure why. Dozens have been released, and there's a lot of other obscure classical music in their collection.
I've used the service for ten months. I live in the midwest, so transit time is usually pretty long, roughly six days per title, and sometimes longer, not the four customer service thinks it should be. Six day both ways == long turnaround between getting new titles, so I subscribe to the 8-movie at a time service (@ $40 a month). I usually manage to cycle through my rentals twice a month.
Netflix offers custom recommendations. I don't find them helpful - the choices were overwhelmingly weighted toward mainstream hollywood movies despite all the other cool stuff in their catalog.
Disappointing.
My mailman does not comprehend that what Netflix is mailing are DVDs. He may not know what DVDs are. I don't know. At any rate, He's been known to shove four or five titles in my tiny mailbox... fold them (snap!) when he's delivering magazines on the same day. Netflix must hate me. I know I've reported seven broken DVDs and I need to report another for the movie that just arrived yesterday.
For awhile the same title was "stuck" in my rent queue. Every time I sent it back, they would send it out again. Annoying, and it went on for a couple months despite mails to customer service.
Here's my main beef: Netflix dropped it's "Mature" title section. At one point they had a fairly large number of titles - Cinemax-style soft-porn (I happen to like that sort of thing. So does my fiance), Playboy's Girls of whatever, that sort of thing. That stuff vanished from the site in December. You can't search for it, you can't review it, the category isn't even there any more. They did this without any announcement or indication on their web site, despite the fact that I regularly receive e-mail indicating that they're tracking my preferences and they know I rent those titles. I emailed customer service about the matter several times. No response. I continue to receive those titles I already had in my queue, though.
Overall I have a number of minor gripes about the service. For most people I *am* sure it's worth more than a weekly trip to the video-rental place costs.
Shameless plug: Visit Storage Forum!
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
I just signed up with Netflix. I'm happy with the 3 movies for $20, HOWEVER I will probably downgrade to the "TWO FOR $13" option (check your prefs as this is not widely promoted onsite).
All of my return envelopes have Worcester, MASS on them (40 miles from here). The label is a sticker over a CA address, so I figure based on this and the comments here, the distribution center is new. It takes 2-3 days to get the movies returned. It takes 2-3 days to get the next movie.
Customer service has been VERY quick for me, although the only problems I've registered are mistakes in their database, etc. They need to automate that correcting-movie-details bit, like imdb.com has since it's a different group that actually fixes the db content.
They also need to automate requests for new movies (not go through CS). We should just be able to "vote", and see how many others have also voted on same title.
They seem to be trying, as people note they change according to requests. They just need to invest in their internal programming dept., so they can react faster to our requests (and do so with a lower head count in Customer Service).
Also, by focusing their new customers on the "3 movie plan", they lose people. The webpage with the "alternate" subscription plans REALLY needs to be more visible. A coworker of mine cancelled, but told me he would have stayed on had he known about the 2-movie option.
Anyways, if you DO sign up.. do so by going through an AFFILIATE, because those people get money or credits (at no cost to you). I signed up through a link on LINUXISO.ORG. I think they get $7 for referring me, which is great because I appreciate linuxiso.org's mirroring service.
I've been a member for a few years - I've had rally good experiecnes so far.
Though Anime is not my only reason for joining, I have rented a number of anime titles (like Lain) and I haven't had to wait too long so far.
One big advantage that I like is not so much jst the selection of Anime, but also foriegn movies in general - like interesting indian musicals or british films.
Also, I'm amazed to hear all of the stories about problems with scratched discs as I've only had one scratched disk, and one broken one (came in two pieces!) out of a few hundred discs.
As for new releases, I agree it can be a pain getting those - but on the other hand there's a large enough selection that you can usually find something you'd want watch until the movie you want to see is no longer a "hot new release". Once you wean yourself of the need for new releases you can get almost any movie you want, and while you're watching those movies the current batch of new releases are becoming old enough to rent easily.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've been a netflix member for 3 years now and have loved it since the beginning. I'm on a $20/month for 4 movies plan since I hooked on near the beginning. When I first signed up, I was able to go through about 12 movies per month which comes out to about $1.66 a movie (pretty good). Around a year ago I had a little trouble with a few DVDs arriving broken in half. Upon sending them back, they would send me a replacement at no charge.
As for the slowdown, this might just be a coincidence, but ever since past Sept. 11th, I can only go through about 5-6 movies a month ($3.33 a DVD). I've thought about writing them and explaining the history I have with them. Now that I've heard other stories, I think I will.
I worked out the cost. There's almost exactly a 1 week latency (i.e. drop the movie in your mailbox to return, wait for the next in your queue to arrive). So its easy to figure. Each 'slot' you have available means you can watch 4 movies that month (assuming you watch it right away), maximum.
So their '2 movies out for $14' means at best you'll hit 8 movies, at $1.75/movie.
'3 movies for $20/month' means 12 movies max that month, or $1.66/movie.
'8 movies for $40' means 32 viewings, at just over a buck a movie.
Assuming you keep most movies 3 days, that means a latency of 1.5 weeks or 3 'views'/month, and the cost per movie ends up around the $2.50 range.
So it's pretty easy to compare with your local rental place.
Personally, I love Netflix, because
a) I always procrastinate with returning stuff,
b) I can't get out much,
c) I can catch up on the classics or tv episodes.
It's really good for seeing movies that you sorta wanted to see, but never got around to watching. In particular, I'm slowly catching up on Twilight Zone episodes, older classic movies, and marginal movies I thought were interesting. So for a dilettante, it's great.
A.
I was real happy with the service. I live fairly close to their distribution center, so I usually got the discs very quickly.
Then they emailed me some spam. I don't do business with people who spam. So I am lo longer a customer of theirs.
It was funny because their spam was trying to get me sign up. So sad.
I wrote my own review a while back of netflix, and there were some other comments when someone asked about it. See it here.
Rip, Burn, Return!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
When I started using Netflix (early adopter here...been a member for over two and a half years), the plan allowed 4 movies at a time, for twenty bucks a month. They have since changed that policy (six months ago, maybe? I don't remember), and now allow three on hand instead of four; however, I seem to have been "grandfathered" in allowing me to have four movies on hand, and still for twenty bucks, instead of the basic plan's current 3. From my "Membership Terms" page:
I mention this not to gloat to new users, but to point out that, unlike so many companies, who say "these terms subject to change without notice," Netflix seems to be of the opinion that I should continue to get what I signed up for, even when they decide to change their program. I wish more companies would do this--Go Netflix!
Also, about two years ago, they did a survey on possibly expanding their service to include video games (probably PlayStation discs, although they might have also been considering cartridges, I don't know). As far as I can tell, that idea didn't go anywhere (I personally said I wouldn't use it, because I don't have any game consoles), but with their popularity growing (substantially, it seems), it might be possible to resurrect it, if enough people ask for it.
(In case you couldn't tell, yes, I am very happy with them, and no, I don't work for them.)
"Make it ten--I am only a poor corrupt official."
--Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), Casablanca
- Good selection: They really do have a good selection, and it
seems to keep up with new DVD's that are released.
- Usually prompt delivery: The West Coast distribution center is
near where I live, so standard mail usually gets me items in 1 to
2 days.
- Good customer service: When I've had problems, the responses
have been fast, courteous, and appropriate. When some customer
service droid didn't get it right the first time, the follow-up
was right-on.
The bad:- Most disks are scratched from repeated use. I had a problem
once when the disk crapped out in the last 10 minutes of the
film.
- Delivered out of order, based on availability. I had 4
Musketeers (1974 version) would have been delivered before
3 Musketeers. I had to remove 4 Musketeers from the queue to get 3M
delivered first.
- No "Save for Later" feature. I often put books in my shopping cart
on Amazon to ponder whether I really want to buy the book. I have
like 15 items there now, most in the "Save for Later" section. With
NetFlix, anything you put in your queue will be sent to you, and
you have no real control over when it will be sent.
- I go through up and down periods, sometimes watching 2 or 3 movies
a weekend, sometimes 2 or 3 a month. It's not always worth it, and I
find that I still go to Blockbuster sometimes for an impulse buy.
- Delivery times vary. Typically, if I send a disk (or 2 or 3)
back on Monday, it arrives at NetFlix on Tuesday and new disks are
sent out that day; I receive them Wednesday. My wife was travelling
for 10 days and I planned to maximize my viewing pleasure, ordering
some DVD's ahead of time. Though I sent the movies back after viewing
them, on successive days, I didn't receive new movies for a week. In
10 days, I only managed to watch 4 films, which may only have been
a coincidence, but it soured me on the service.
There's room for improvement, buy YMMV.Three places in Atlanta that have the best movie selection (in general):
- Movies Worth Seeing
- VideoDrome
- Village Vidiot
Use the Yellow Pages to find them, they're listed. Just Say No to blockhead rental joints.One simple rule for its versus it's
DVD rentals are going to shoot through the roof this year because of widespread availability of DVD players. I work in audio/video retail and there were a lot of people buying DVD players this Christmas, especially because major equipment manufacturers (Sony, Pioneer, JVC..) decided to cut prices and sell DVD players for under $200 (and cheaper brands sold for even cheaper... I saw a "Classic" Brand DVD player at a local retail store for $109). What this means is that a ton and a half of people have DVD players, and now want to get movies. But also with the expanded DVD player market, also expect some of the more recent DVDs to come down in price (our buyer had a hell of a time, and we've actually given up on selling DVDs because the list prices and wholesale fluctuated so much, and it sucks trying to sell product you've bought for $17 and compete with Target down the street who bought it a week later for $7) Once prices stablize though I expect the used DVD market will be remarkably similar to the used CD market...
"Defenestration" is to throw out of a window; what's a word for throwing 'Windows' out of something?
I was actually looking around at some game rental programs, and found Red Octane, which is basicly the exact same thing but for video games, with a per-month membership fee and you can have up to 2 games out at once. The only thing is that I'd be more inclined to use Red Octane for games because they have the added bonus of having just about any import (ie. where else can you find *every*, and I count 11 on their site, single Dance Dance Revolution version for rent)
I buy most of my DVDs so that I can watch what I want when I want. If I'm unsure if I'll like a movie, I'll rent it first. Netflix *used to be* great for that, but I barely watch $20/month out of my own collection, much less rent them. I cancelled my Netflix account when they switched to this mode a couple years ago. I'd love to find one that will rent on a per-title basis.
Netflix is great because although I love watching movies, I don't go rent them because it seems like too much of a hassle or because I don't want to spend $3. These are both BS reasons, as driving to the video store is easy and $3 is not a lot of money. The real reason I don't rent is mental inertia. I just don't want to get off my keister and get to the video store.
Oh yea, plus I have all of their Soprano's video's qued up now, and that's just going to be sweet.
Hey slashdotters...
.... what do you think we'd need to start this up ? Obviously a couple of hundred DVDs, and a web site to process the orders, but after that - how difficult could it be ? If anybodies interested in talking about this, drop me a reply or a mail. ( richardagreen@yahoo.com ).
I've got some time on my hands
Hell, if it succeeds, you get rich. If it doesn't you get to keep 1000 DVDs....
Two wrongs may not make a right, but three
they had (still have?) a free 2 week trial. I signed up, got the dvds, compressed, saved and mailed them back. cost to me?...exactly $0.00.
since they're based in san jose the turn around between dropping a viewed movie in the mail and receiving another one from my queue is 2-3 days. the only video store near me is a blocksucker and both good video stores on the peninsula are out of the way from my commute.
if i need a movie immediately i still go to a video store; all others come from netflix.
anyone who says "but this will bring about the demise of the local video store" obviously hasn't noticed that the reason local stores still exist at all is porn.
I've been a member of Netflix since August, 2001. The main reason I joined was because Blockbuster and Hollywood Video had a crappy selection of DVDs. If I ever wanted to see anything older than 6 months I was screwed... but Netflix has every DVD ever released. The selection is awesome.
:) Although, if you want to see "Ghost in the Shell", you need to be prepared to wait in line 6+ months... It's been near the top of my list since I joined and it's still there.
;p
I live in southern California and it takes 2 days to get a DVD from them when it's shipped. Out of the 100+ of so DVDs I've received, only one was cracked. Maybe 1-2 had some minor defects that caused the DVD to freeze at some part in the movie but was easily fixed by skipping that 30 seconds.
They are pretty good on sending new releases. I actually received some movies before the in-store release date.
If I had to bitch about anything with them... It would be that they don't rent porn.
I signed up for and enjoyed this service for quite awhile. That is, until the 9-11 events. Since then, mail service has been poor at best. I have enough to worry about with the USPS delivering my CCard statements and payments on time, without wondering why I'm spending $20/mo for, at most, 3 DVD rentals. In fact, one DVD was lost, and now I've got to pay for a disc that may have gone home with a postal worker, or worse, been tossed because of some terrorism scare. Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea ... I just don't think that the USPS can be relied upon for timely deliveries. (sure, it ultimately gets there, but by then you're only averaging 3 or 4 movies a month).
It takes two days for the movies to reach me, and two days for them to return. This means that I can rent, theoretically, (with some serious power movie watching) about 45 movies a month.
This turns out not to be the case. The actual limit under the above conditions is more like 15 per month. Here's why: assume for the sake of argument that you can only have one DVD out at a time. Assume further that the round-trip delay for one DVD is 6 days (2 days postal mail to customer + 2 days post mail to netflix + 1 day for netflix to ship another DVD + 1 day for customer to watch DVD). Clearly under these conditions you would receive about 30/6 = 5 DVDs per month.
Now, no matter how many DVDs you can have out at a time, the basic round-trip delay doesn't get any shorter. Therefore, even if you can have 3 DVDs out a time, you would only be able to watch 15 DVDs per month (which is still a great deal for $20). Josh
When you take into account the fact that I've abandoned cable television, it pretty much pays for itself in entertainment value.
used it for several months w/o any major problems. delivery time can be annoying at times, but the anime/music selections outweight that. it was better when you could get 4 at a time for $20 though.
And thus will not get a single dime of my money. Too bad, because it sounded so good.
NetFlix has the rental system down pat. I *REALLY* like that the movies come to me, and I just have to put them with the rest of the outgoing mail to get them back to the mother ship. For my selection, out of 56 movies on my list, there are about 5 of them that they don't have in stock, so there is PLENTY of selection.
We started boycotting renting movies about 2 years ago when we returned a set of 3 movies to the wrong branch of the store (they aren't indicated on the movies which one they come from, and we simply forgot).
A few weeks later we went in and they told us we had a late fee of $75! The other store brought them back, over a week later. They offered to cut the late fee in half, we paid it and cut up the rental card. We started buying VHS movies at that point, and the ones we didn't want to watch again got donated to the library (about 100 of them so far).
NetFlix really is a delightful rental service. Our problem is that we live "behind" one of the only post offices in the US that got shut down by the Anthrax event...
It takes a solid 4 business days for movies to get to us, or to get back, that combined with a day turnaround time for NetFlix to get the replacements in the post means 10 to 11 days from when we finish watching a movie, until we get it's replacement in.
We've cut down our movie watching a fair bit lately, and switching up to the "5 out" plan (for $30/month) is actually fitting our needs fairly well... Or at least will once the movies stop being bunched up.
The last cycle we got 4 movies on the same day, have taken almost a week to get caught up (plus the fifth movie arrived a day or two later), and now have a solid week to wait until we get a replacement.
It would be nice if NetFlix had an "honor" system where they'd let you tell them when you sent a movie back, and would send out a new movie then... It would also allow them to prioritize their queue better for high-demand movies.
Until DVDs get cheaper to purchase, NetFlix is worth it to us. I've already seen more than 2 movies that I was interested in but wouldn't have made sense for us to buy. That saves the cost of membership right there...
Sean
So far out of ten rentals Ive had three go missing in mail (stolen because of bright red "steal me" envelopes maybe?) and two DVDs so badly scratched that they were unplayable or at least unenjoyable. Now Netflix is going to fight me saying that I cant loose 3 DVDs without paying for them. No thanks...
Ok. I've been a netflix customer and a few of my friends joined after I told them how cool it was. We have all quit the service now. First, netflix is raising its prices and lowering its quality, but this is NOT an attempt to become profitable. Netflix is already profitable, and if you dont believe me you can find that one on the net. It'll take you a lot of digging, but it'll be mentioned in reference to their withdrawn 2000 ipo. They had to release some financials to attract people to the IPO. Now,
1. Netflix does not adequately adjust its inventory to meet renter demand. You will run into situations where it will take you 4+ months to see a DVD. They don't allow you to put a DVD in some sort of "wait until it arrives and then send it out" state.
2. Netflix stocks some anime, but really they have to be aware of how many of their users are there for anime. They should be pumping up genres with lots of rentals.
3. Service has consistently fallen from day one, and I was a subscriber for over a year and I live 15 miles from their location. It has come to my mind more than once that the longer you subscribe the lower your priority as a customer is. They also seem to have a tactic of delaying recieving a movie. My friends and I tested this by mailing back a movie from Chicago and also mailing me a letter at the same time. I got my letter DAYS in advance of netflix acknowledging recieving the DVD.
4. They use packaging that encourages identification of the contents. I don't know where they all get lost, but I think some of our postal workers have a nice DVD collection. I don't know how many customers they can seriously think they're picking up from their LOUD packaging. Why they don't replace the big NETFLIX DVD RENTAL banner with a DO NOT BEND is beyond me.
5. We've noticed a trend where they lose movies when you cancel service and then they charge a PREMIUM for the movies. 30$??? C'mon, I could buy the movie and ship them a replacement for less. And you know that they have to have some sort of quantity purchase discount. They rip you off on money at every turn it seems.
6. Absolutely no customer service. If you can actually find someone to talk to they are quite rude and will accuse you of all sorts of things. Beyond that they seem to not really know anything.
Here's the deal. As long as they continue to have subscribers they will continue to raise prices and lower service levels. It's like any good company that is driven by greed with no concern for customer service, you push people to the point of quitting and then try to back off a little from that. I would rather send my business elsewhere, and for now that is a local DVD shop that is privately owned. They recognize me when I go in, and they've been happy to kill a few late fees for me.
I think Blockbuster or Hollywood also tried some deals a few months back to fight Netflix. You might look into what they offer, it was something like a flat fee you paid and then you got X number of rentals a week.
That netflix has had banners on Slashdot and now they get a whole review? oooh... thats some integrity.. Is this more advertising? probably.
Slashdot has fallen to new lows.
Sometimes if you search for a director's name, only a handful of titles appear, when in fact there have potentially dozens by a director. Their database is screwy, and you need to use IMDB for better information. Also, it's difficult to find foreign films, since sometimes the titles of the movies are entered in either the foreign-language title or the english title, and never both.
As someone else mentioned, the original deal was 4 at one time for $19.95, since degraded to 3 at one time. I was also grandfathered in - and that kept me a subscriber for an extra couple months.
At this point, there are other companies that do distance rental, both at a pris fixe a la Netflix
or individually at a deeper discount than blockbuster including shipping. If I were in need of a regular dvd fix, I would try out the alternatives before returning to NetFlix.
-a.e.mossberg
Netflex can bite my crank.....
I had considered joining them..... I do a lot of flying so having DVD's that i could watch on the plane and not worry about late fees was very appealing....
BUT
In the last couple of weeks they have been the #1 popup add thats showing up as I surf the web. I must get 2 dozen of them a day.
It's an interesting business, but I refuse to patronize something that goes out of it's way to annoy me.
Don't patronize companies that use spam or popups.... thats the only way they'll stop.
I used Netflix for a few months when I first got by DVD player (a couple of years ago) and again for about 2 months a year later. I cancelled twice for the same reasons: 1. I live in Florida and the shipping times were outrageous. I would go for a week and a half without DVDs sometimes. 2. New Releases are rarely in stock. Blockbuster gets a good 10-20 copies of the new releases and almost always have one in stock. This was very annoying because I found I was just renting older films from Netflix and going to Blockbuster for new releases. 3. Multiple DVD movies are not counted as one. If you want both disks of Fight Club, they are treated as 2 rentals. These are all problems that can be fixed, if Netflix decided to. I mentioned these complaints to them both times I cancelled. My new system is to use Blockbuster for new releases and DVDOvernight for the harder-to-find rentals. Also don't forget about Blockbuster's Rewards program. For just $10 (supposed to be yearly, but I've never had to renew) I've received about 150 free rentals over the past two years. A great deal.
Why not just rent a DVD for the night, copy it, burnit/divx or whatever's your poison. Take it back. Or if you can find a big store that fires its staff weekly, you can just keep returning your dvds - if the staff keep changing, no-one will catch on.
Remember folks: Piracy hurts no-one, big corporations are capitalist pigs. producers will only spend your money on illigal drugs and prostitutes.
And most important - If you don't have money to waste, then you were never intending to buy the dvd in the first place - face it, you were _never_ going to buy the film, you would never watch it. Is that a crime? no, not buying something is your right. So, if you were never going to buy it, but you do get the pirate copy, no one looses out - you were never going to buy it anyway so you have deprived no-one of a potential sale. Don't argue with this, i have thought it out very carefully, ok argue if you wish but you will surely loose - go ahead.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Well, even if turnaround isn't as immediate on many releases (as another poster said) still, they have selections you won't find anywhere but Amazon.com -- most rental places (Blockbuster especially) do not carry unrated or NC-17 DVDs as a policy and let's not even talk about the Indie and foreign releases, which are my specialty interest. I can deal with a minor inconvenience.
The only better deal for me is the public library...
I had NetFlix for about 6 months. If you're going to cancel your account, make sure you send back all of the DVD's and that they acknowledge receipt before you cancel the account.
I had three DVD's out when I cancelled. After I cancelled the account, they told me that I had 7 days to return them. I mailed them out the same day, and they denied ever receiving them, and charged me the full retail price for all of the DVD's. They eventually credited my account about a month later after I sent them a letter.
If you must send back DVD's after you have already cancelled, spend the extra few dollars to send them Return Receipt Requested from the post office to make sure that they cannot deny receiving them.
I signed up today for one reason alone, you know all those overpriced DVD's of the documentaries and biographies you see on TV? They have them, although you wouldn't know it from the main page on their site due to poor infotecture.
..and in Australia, you can try www.dvdbuzz.com.au. I just signed up, currently waiting to get my cc verified then the movies will be on their way! Costs $A39 a month, so pretty much the same as Netflix.
Having just bought a DVD player (was waiting for a multi-region capable player from a vendor big enough that their CSS key probably won't be revoked), I was considering signing up with them. Then I got spammed by "NetFlix ". I warned them a third party was destroying their good name, but they didn't bother to reply, so I have to assume they're scum.
I had many problems with netflix about a year ago. Because I am on the east coast and they were mailing movies from CA, it was talking 4 or 5 days for stuff to get back to them, and 4 or 5 days to get me my new movie. In the 5 months that I was a member, several (3+) movies never showed up in my mailbox, and when I quit I was told that I could not rejoin until _I_ paid for the missing movies.
I've been an East Coast subscriber for over 18 months now, and have rented around 80 movies. Some months I watch only two, others I watch six or eight. Depending on where I've lived during that time, (Connecticut, Cambridge, and Boston) I've had fair to good turnaround time that's depended entirely on the post office servicing me. I find that if I send my movies back from the office in Cambridge, they get to Netflix in two days, and I have my next one three days after that. In Killingworth CT however, it would frequently take eight or nine days.
I think Netflix is a fantastic thing, and just don't bother with rentals any other way anymore. If you have good mail service and reasonable expectations of a $20/month service, you'd do great to subscribe.
http://www.cinemanow.com has a per month fee for movies or pay-per-view depending on the movie. The quality is quite good, just a few notched down from VHS - if you have a high speed connection. They have some FREE movies to test out. The only problem is it uses Windows Media Player. So no Linux, though it works fine on Mac.
Just canceled my membership about 2 weeks ago. The St. Paul, Minnesota Public Library has a growing DVD collection. They started about 3 months ago. Have checked out the entire first season of the Sopranos, The Godfather Trilogy, From the Earth to the Moon series. All FREE and can have up to 5 titles checked out for seven days with up to one renewal, so really can have a check-out for 14 days.
They are adding discs to the inventory every week. Up to about 350 titles.
If I really need a new release like right now, I'm back to going to Hollywood Video.
Free from the library is a good thing.
Try www.dvdovernight.com. They are $4/rental.
Especially B movies.
A lot of wacked out foreign films (Brava, Argento, even Jackson's Bad Taste) are not available. No big deal, except I got excited when I heard "huge rental selection". Yes, better than Blockbuster, but not enough to get me to subscribe.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for about a year now, and generally happy with the service. I have received no broken dics, or scratched movies. the only gripes I have are the the long waits for popular animation titles, like Cowboy Bebop, and the lack of Porn. But I have found a good place to get porn, whose model is very similar to Netflix: www.bedroomdvds.com.
But If it were up to me, I would have called the company, Nutflix.
I signed up in November 99, when I bought my first DVD player. Back them it was 4 movies for $15 and once you stuck it in the mail you clicked a button and they would mail the next. But I think that was abused so they went to the chech-in, check-out thing. I live in SoCal so movies take 1-2 days to get to me so I have been very happy with the service. I also switch plans too. When I was really busy I switch to the 2 movie plan, then a few months later when I had more free time I went to the 4 movie plan. I agree the turn around time is the worst factor, I am ust lucky to live so close.
I joined Netflix for anime. Rented and viewed everything they had in stock. After a month of nothing but waiting for "long wait", I dropped Netflix and switched to rentmydvd.com. Same service, same spotty anime stock, but they had some discs that netflix lacked. A couple months later, I'd seen everything anime they carried, and I dropped rentmydvd.com.
When I called rentmydvd.com to cancel, the service rep said that anime DVDs were made in much smaller production runs than mainstream DVDs. So rental stores have a much harder time buying stock. When I asked "why not just go animeplanet or amazon and buy a few copies", she replied that they could buy up all available stock of such titles and *still* not have enough rental stock to satisfy demand. If I wanted rental stores to carry anime, I need to call up the anime DVD production houses and convince them to make larger production runs.
The whole thing sounds a little fishy to me, could this really be true?
- Netflix costs $20/month (can't remember if this includes tax) for 3 movies out at a time, while RentMyDVD costs $24/month (tax not included) for 4 out at a time. I'm pretty sure Netflix's default plan used to be 4-out, and I believe they grandfathered those folks. But now they are 3-out by default.
- I turn my movies around pretty quickly. With Netflix I averaged around 10 movies a month, while RentMyDVD is much higher - I just clocked a 20-movie month! I'm certainly getting higher throughput than the 3-out vs. 4-out plans would indicate. I attribute this to being on the east coast. Since RentMyDVD has an east coast distribution center, the turnaround time seems to be 3 or 4 days rather than the 6 to 8 I was experiencing with Netflix.
- Netflix lets you store unlimited numbers of movies in your queue, while RentMyDVD has a 50-movie limit. In general, Netflix has a nicer UI. Adding a movie to your Netflix queue is very quick since they do a nifty little Javascript popup/form-submit, while RentMyDVD reloads the whole friggin' page.
- I'm guessing I've rented at least 100 movies from the two services combined. I've only gotten 1 damaged disc from each service. All others have played fine.
- While this is hard to confirm, my general sense is that Netflix's selection is slightly broader (more titles) but not as deep (fewer copies of each title). That could be very wrong, but that's the way it feels.
Neither one measures up to my dream rental service, but I'm pleased that I switched to RentMyDVD. 20 movies for $24 bucks is hard to beat.my lists
Having been a member for some time, I remember the email they sent out, lamenting that CA (which will tax anything they can) decided that the DVDs themselves, when shipped to another state, constituted a "presence" there, by virtue of their property (the dvds) being in that state. Of course, in my mind, that would still leave Netflix paying tax to the state in question, not CA, but expect CA to make up anything they can, and expect you to settle it in court if you don't like it.
dude, they don't rent out pr0n or cartoons!! what the fuck am i supposed to watch in my parents' basement now??
This goes well with decss and mpeg 4!
When I think of a movie I'd like to see, day or night, I get on line and add it to my queue. It shows up at some point, I eventually get around to watching it, and then I drop it in the mail. My wife and daughter likewise add to the queue as they wish.
The savings in time and convenience, as well as the selection, far outweigh the occasional queue delays. I've had no quality problems with the DVDs. And I actually spend less per month, even with my somewhat-enhanced membership (5 DVDs out at once) than I did when visiting Blockbuster/Hollywood on a semi-regular basis.
That's my take on Netflix. Your mileage may vary.
..bruce..
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
I've been with Netflix for about a year and a half now, and I've been overall pleased with the service. It seems that almost all of my movies have arrived since I've gotten the service, with one being stolen in the mail. Turnaround here in Atlanta is terrible, looking at about a week per disc, but it gives me more time to study. Also, even though economically its worst than renting from blockbuster, I don't have a car and the local block buster is about 20 miles away. The no late fees are great, because you don't have to immediately watch the movie.
If you have finals or want to lend out the movie, there is no need to worry, because there is no late fee. YOu don't have to rush.
There haven't been that many scratched discs either. My Apex has been able to handle almost all the dvds well, except for that copy of ghost in the shell that was cracked.
Also, their anime section is very nice. While it dosn't have some of the titles I want, and they have a lot of incomplete series, its still nice to whet your whistle and far better than the local blockbuster or hollywood video.
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
Netflix used to have a feature called "Delayed." With this feature, one could send a movie in and declare it delayed so the next movie in your queue would be sent immediately. I used this feature extensively, because I live in the middle of Kansas. In my nine-month experience with Netflix, I found the only way to make it economically viable was to watch the movie immediately and send it in the next day. The round trip delivery time was ~10-12 days - not counting Sundays and holidays. I subscribed to their 5 movies out plan. After a bit of number crunching, I found the the average cost of a movie was ~$3.33. When the "Delayed" feature was cancelled, the value of the plan dropped... and so did I. I truly hope they re-instate the "Delayed" feature. I would come back then. I wish I lived in San Jose, where Netflix is located. I could watch lots of movies then.
I hope they charge you for every snapped DVD. You didn't get an inkling of what would happen after the fourth or fifth destroyed disk?
- With 3 kids, I get to keep a rolling queue of movies coming. The DVDs with super bonus stuff get played with a lot. I can also expose them to older DVDs from their huge selection. I recently got some Marx Bros. and Abbott & Costello things I have NEVER seen for rent at my local shop, on DVD anyway.
- This Saturday, the disney Atlantis was delivered in the mail. I stopped in at a video store while doing some other errands and noticed all 3 dozen of their DVD copies were out (All their VHS copies 2-3 dozen, were still avail). So, those who argue they can't get to see what they want quick enough or complain they have to wait a long time for new releases - well yeah, you do for the popular stuff don'tcha.
- You can add upcoming releases to your queue, maybe helping your chances of seeing a new release a bit quicker.
- Great, terrifically deep selection of DVD - Lots of old stuff too. TV shows, etc. all the star trek, twight zone, space 1999 episodes.
- My wife got me a 4 month Gift certificate to start out with so my 1st few months are only $13.95. They have a 12 month GC for about $14/mo.
- In the 1st month, I got 11 DVDs delivered. That's less than $2 ea. and no late fees. My local store charges $4 for new releases for 1 night.
I live in Maine - you can't get any further away folks - and it usu. takes 4 days from when they ship till it shows up in my mailbox.Lately I've been perusing review services such as IMDB.com and metacritic.com for their highly rated stuff and going to Netflix to put in for things I've missed. You can't easily do that kind of research in a store.
I'll still get some in town locally from time to time, but I haven't too much since Christmas.
I'm very satisfied with their service so far. They also have upgrade options - you can go for up to 8 discs out at a time for $39.95. I'm sorely tempted but don't want to watch DVDs every single night yet! If you have kids, would normally rent 6-10 discs a month, and are interested in seeing recent and old stuff you haven't seen before and not so hot on catching all the new releases right when they come out, they're defintely worth a try.
Plus, I like getting stuff in the mail!
I had the same experience with NetFlix service going south. I started when they didn't have any service levels over $20, and every time they offered a higher level I joined. I watched an amazing number of videos for years. And then I started having problems with not being able to get movies I wanted, queueing issues, and I wrote them some really long, detailed messages about what was wrong and how it could be fixed...
and all I got were AnswerBot replies. Eventually, when I was paying $35/mo for nothing, I quit, and haven't missed it even if it means I have to go way out of my way when I want to see "Violent Cop" or other cool foreign flicks my local Hollywood doesn't stock.
I didn't expect them to call me up and give me free service for ideas, but as a long-time customer who recommended them to many people, I would have liked to have had someone take a couple minutes to write me a nice email. Going the PayPal route of customer service doesn't inspire confidence.
-- q
Put me in the pile of people who have tried Netflix, and got sick of the long shipping delay times. I've had movies take 10 days or more to arrive, and I live on the west coast.
I had such high hope too, that I think I got especially pissed off about my giving up on them. The other thing that I disliked about Netflix as that their selection was HORRIBLE. Sure they might have 10,000 movies, but they buy a VERY short supply of the top 10 movies. The main problem is with their distribution deal with the studios. Netflix current purchases all of the movies they rent. I very expensive proposition for a movie rental company. Hollywood Video, and Blockbuster have profit sharing deals with the studios, so the movies are given in MASS to the them...since it makes business sense for the studio to give as many videos as possible right when the movie hits the shelves.
Until Netflix makes these same sort of deals with the studios, they'll never be as good as a deal as Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. I only rent top ten movies.
But this weekend I spent with my sister-in-law, and found out what a great deal Netflix could be for some people. And those people are people with young children. I'm always amazed how much WORK children can be, and all of my friends who have recently had children say the same thing..."Say goodbye to movies". Most of my friends with children have NOT seen a movie since the birth of their child. It's just too much of a hassle.
Netflix is PERFECT for parents. You don't need to drag kids to the rental store, you can keep the movie forever if the kid screams half the night and you werent able to find 2 solid hours to watch the movie.
One of the bigger problems I found with Netflix was that pretty quickly I had seen just about EVER movie on video I wanted to see. I saw all the top 10 movies, and started renting old classics just so I'd feel like I was getting my moneys worth.
Well my sister-in-law had not seen a movie in 8 years. She'll never run out of movies to rent. She's still excited to finally see Titanic for the first time.
My old roomates used to subscribe to netflix. It was great. Several freinds use them and recomend them.
I was all ready to subscribe to them myself, but then I started getting their annoying pop-up ads.
I really want to use them, but pop-ups are unforgivable. Stop the pop-ups, and I'll sign up. They were getting dang good word of mouth before that, why they had to spend money to annoy me and make sure I don't use them is beyond me.
The Internet is generally stupid
BlueDVD does almost the same thing with porn, and has a decent selection thereof.
Switchdisc is also an interesting idea.
I just want to say I've been using it for a few months and it's great. Getting and sending back DVDs via the mail are great. And they pay the postage. It's a little pricey but in my business time is money and I can't afford the extraneous trips to Blockbuster to plead with some zit-faced teenager not to charge me the late fees since I turned it back in 5 minutes late.
I've received at least 4 Netflix spams in the past week...
An imperfect plan executed violently is far superior to a perfect plan. -- George Patton
Been a member since December 2000 and have logged over 160 movies (I had the "8 out a time" plan for 9 months).
I enrolled because of an "Intro to Film" class and Queued up every film they mentioned in class or in the book (the ones that were on DVD anyway). I saw Anime, Classics, Comedies, Dramas, Westerns, TV Shows, Porno, you name it I was there. Movies that I know i wouldn't have rented at BlockBuster (Godfather I/II/III) work great with Netflix.
Good films I woulnd't have checked out at BlockBuster but found to be pretty good after watching from Netflix:
Series 7: The Contenders
The Big Chill (with Humphery Bogart)
Clerks (Animated Series)
The Sopranos (Complete Episodes of the Series)
Sex in the City (Complete Episodes of the Series)
Faulty Towers (Complete Episodes of the Series)
French Connection I&II
Godfather I/II/III
Monty Python Flying Circus (Complete Episodes of the Series)
Black Adder (Complete Episodes of the Series)
Primary Colors
This is Spinal Tap
Thirteen Days
Don't be a menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice
Best of Chris Rock Show I&II
Double Indemnity
Poirot: The ABC Murders
Jesus Christ Superstar
Dr. StrangeLove
StarTreck#14: City on the Edge of Forever
Manchurian Candidate (highly recommended)
Roughnecks: The Pluto Campaign
Maltese Falcon
Wild Things
Dune (The Sci-Fi Channels Version)
Fight Club
M
Dark City
North by Northwest
Bound
Strangers on a Train
I don't know when this happened, but at some point in time they STOPPED PUTTING UP PORNO!!! WTF? That was one of the better features in my mind. And then when I went down to 2 DVD's out a month I REALLY started noticing the turnaround time. A few movies have been lost in the shuffel, but I blame the post office.
I throughly enjoy the service, but it's gone downhill for me lately. After 160 movies I came to the conclusion there were only 30 or more I wanted to see then I would hang up my hat, of course 20 of those are all on "Short/Long/Very Long wait". I'm hoping that at some point in time they will eventually get around to me.
I encourage everyone to try it for 3 months to really get a feel for it. If you don't like it after that time you probably won't at all.
It's ignorance itself to think you know all the answers. -Miles Comer
I've found that the trick to getting movies quickly is to never rearrange the queue. I keep about 60 movies on the list. When an interesting new movie shows up in the theaters, I use the Netflix "Save" button to tell them I want to see it someday. When it comes out on DVD, it goes at the bottom of the queue.
Since my queue is 60 deep and we watch 2-3 movies per week, it takes 20-30 weeks for a new release to work its way to the top. The result is that the "long wait" problem has pretty much disappeared because the faddish types are all crowding around for a movie that's just been released. But what do I care that it took me 6 months to see the flick? I already waited 3-6 months to have it come out on DVD; if I was eager I would have gone to the theater instead.
As a general rule, we see movies within a year of their theatrical release. That's plenty fast for me -- and a lot quicker than the 70 years it took me to see Hitchcock's first talkie (which I got from Netflix, BTW).
Meanwhile, we always have a few unwatched movies on the shelf. If we get the movie urge at 11 PM, we just plug one in. No half hour running to the store (if it's opened) and trying to pick. And any time I think "It'd sure be great to see X", I can slap it on the queue and someday it'll be at my front door.
For me one of the biggest problems with Netflix is simple: I'm not always in the mood for the same movies. As a film geek who's depleted almost every video store in town and someone who despises Blockbuster there isn't a lot that I haven't seen so obviously harder-to-find titles would be a bonus as there is only one place in town that rents DVDs with any ammount of stock and they often pale in various genres. However just because I want to see a film doesn't mean I want to see it now. I'll regularly spend over an hour or so in the video store passing over films I want to see just because I'm not in the mood. To date I haven't seen Virgin Suicides because every time I pass over it I feel like something else. With Netflix I have to hope that I get a movie I'll want to watch when I get it without a great deal of ability to choose what I get (at the store if they're out of something I get another film I want then, not the next one of my "to see" list). I originally considered them, but the high cost (aside from new releases if you're paying more than a buck and a half a disc you're getting raped or going to blockbuster), the fact that I usually watch at least 5 movies a week on DVD or VHS and don't care to wait a few days to get a movie (when my g/f and I decide to go and rent something, we want it that night to watch, not the next weekend to sit around until we decide to watch it), and my picky tastes on what I watch at the moment and the service doesn't seem like that good of an idea.
Has anybody used RedOctane for console games? Or are there any other alternatives? How about for us canucks?
Buy the rights to install several Netflix drop-boxes in every city. Guarantee that the disks will be considered "checked in" on the night they are dropped off. Then hire someone to feed the returned disks into a sorter which reads their barcodes, prints new envelopes with the address of the closest person for whom the movie is in the #1 queued position. (If there's no one like that, check who has it as their #2, etc.) Then, send it directly from the city where it was dropped off instead of funneling it through the headquarters each time. Furthermore, whoever does the local nightly sorting of the arrivals would also have a mailing address, so you could mail the disks to a place in your city rather than further. This means they'd have to hire a couple of extra part-time workers, but their service would improve by a lot, and importantly, they would have a local presence without having to pay rent for a high-visibility location with shelfspace.
Also, there's nothing really preventing them from eventually having parallel "conventional" rental outlets in addition to their mail buisiness. They could compliment each other. For example, I'm sure that if we saw all the disks that spend each night in the California headquarters, that, in and of itself, would probably be the best-stocked video store in town. Using that principle, their other reigeonal centers could eventually morph into dual-operations stores. They would look like video rental places but in reality work like exclusive libraries with a kick-ass ILL program that delivers to your door on request. I imagine all this could be done for a membership fee rather than a per-use fee.
This is one way in which we might defeat the evil Blockbuster. It's not obvious the cure is better than the disease, but here's one reason why it might be: Blockbuster in my town is more of a traditional monopolist in that it uses pretty dirty tactics to starve out locally-owned video stores. Basically, they open a branch almost literally next door. That branch loses money for years, because the great majority of people prefer the local store. However, Blockbuster HQ have deep pockets and patience. Eventually, they pull away just enough customers from the locally-owned store that it has to close. Then the city belongs to Blockbuster, and suddenly their stores become profitable as they absorb all the former customers of the local store. Anyway, this clearly falls into the category "legal but evil," and because it's evil I refuse to give a dime to the Blockbuster dicks. However, services like Netflix could not possibly establish such monopolies, because if they became huge and started to screw us the way Blockbuster does now, we would just switch to a better/cheaper mail-in DVD rental club. The only change in our renting habits would be that we return our disks to a different address--we'd hardly notice. In other words, this sort of store can't dominate a reigeon like Blockbuster can, and it can't wipe out direct competition like Blockbuster can. So I say: fight on, Netflix. When you open a local branch here in NY, you're likely to have me as a customer. Meanwhile, I will continue to check out my DVDs from the public library, where the selection is great, loan periods are a week, and the cost to me is nothing. There are very few DVDs that are not in our public library system. I will probably get those from Netflix.
my local blockbuster does 1.99$ (2.13 after tax) for a 2 day or 5 day rental depending on whether its a new release or not. that's approximately 9 rentals a month for 20$. then add in the fact that u get free rental coupons all the time in the mail, and also u get the rent 5 get 1 free, and rent 2 new releases (2 days), get a blockbuster favorite (5 day) free. but alas, thats my local blockbuster back at my parents house. the blockbuster here at college blows shriveled monkey balls.
While I agree it's an issue, I've been thoroughly stunned how much abuse a DVD can take and still function without any (visible or aubible) problems. For those that aren't Netflix members, the "packaging" of their DVDs is minimal. It's basically just a DVD in a sleeve, packed in an envelope. No padding. No stiffeners. And no "do not fold, spindle, multilate" style warnings on the mailer.
I've been a Netflix member for a while, and I've seen a lot. First of all, because of where I live (Rural NH) I get all my mail via a small PO Box. Well, the PO box is small enough that you can't fit a DVD in it (diagonal of the box is about 1/4" or 1/2" less than a DVD), unless you seriously bend it. About half of my DVD's from Netflix get crammed into the box by a postal worker (the other half of the time they hold them behind the counter and I have to go into town in the middle of the day to fetch 'em). And the rest of my mail is crammed in the box as well. So most of my DVDs arrive in badly mutilated and torn mailers and have been sitting bent at a wicked angle for at least a day...
That, and some of the discs that arrive have obviously had other abuse. Huge scratches. Even gouges. Actual coffee rings. Waterlogged. Partially cracked (usually in the hub ring or around the edge). Sticky residue (don't know what it was, but it was water soluble). No mailer, just the disc sleeve (apparently someone at the PO knows that I'm the one with the Netflix membership, since I got this one without a delay). Etc.
And without a single exception, they've all worked. I'm still shocked.
Netflix has it's issues (poor availability of popular titles, long time delays), but they've been working for me. Certainly way better and cheaper than the local Hollywood (the only place with DVDs for rent. They suck).
I moved into my current apartment about a year ago, and never ended up buying cable TV (financially, it was either CATV or DSL, TV lost easily) For the first few months, I couldn't even get tv channels from an antennae, so I survived on DVD's. Netflix was perfect for that. Provided you have the odd discipline I have for watching half a movie at a time, it becomes fairly easy to set up a cycle where there is new material arriving all the time.
:)
I have the 3 DVD package, but you can also have 8 out at a time (for about 40 bucks a month) that would ensure new movies every day.
The main reason I like Netflix however, is that with the Machiavellian rental periods and fines for Blockbuster rentals and my horrible timing on returns, I could have easily bought a dozen of the DVD's I've rented from there. For me, even 5 rentals a month from netflix is a bargain at $20
free online diet tracking.
Then I got a Tivo about 6 months ago... I think I've only watched 2-3 DVDs since then.
The only reasons I haven't cancelled the NetFlix subscription are that:
We've used NetFlix for about 12 months and have found it to be perfect. You can either have 3 or 8 DVDs out at once (we just use 3). In the twelve months we've had two incidents that were handled fine. One DVD was lost in the mail when we returned it. We just marked it as lost and they sent the next one (I imagine they check for people who have an unusually high number of lost DVDs). Also, a few months ago, I accidentally returned one of my music CDs instead of the movies. They noticed and returned my CD without a hitch. The Netflix website attempts to guess what movies you like based on your feedback (if you provide it) and then recommend movies. That probably needs a little work - it seems like it generalizes into a fairly small number of groups.
I subscribed for almost two years and really liked the service. Then 2 DVD's never arrived in the mail and after notifying Netflix of that, the trouble started. First they where very nice about it and simply listed the DVDs as lost but then my monthly rate increased $5 /month. After learning that some friends that live 20 miles away (they referred me to Netflix) never got the rate increase I realized that Netflix passes along the risk with using US mail to the "problem area" consumers by raising rates. Six months later another DVD never arrived and Netflix put me on "hold" status until I sent in the "lost" DVD's implying that I received them but intentionally never returned them. After their refusing to initiate an inquiry with the US Postal Service, I had to cancel service or continue to pay the monthly fee but never receiving any more DVD's
Up to that point, I was really satisified with Netflix, after that I realized that they were only willing to do business if the consumer was willing to assume all the risks involved. Typical corporate attitude.
I've seen a variety of reasons people thing Netflix rocks. I just have to say I love it because I can preselect movies. Nothing more frustrating than my wife and I spending an hour at Blockbuster remembering the list of movies that we had come up with. This way, we simply add the movie whenever we think of it.
We're in Phoenix, AZ and you can usually get a movie, watch it and send it back within 6-7 days . Very rarely do we not have a movie to watch.
Forget the whales - save the babies.
Actually, yes.
I have a friend that works at a local vid store that carries anime (a few dbz dics and some others) and they can only get 2 or 3 of them at a time because of the lowered number of titles available.
Way back in the day before amazon bought the DVD
purchase service from them, they had an awesome plan. You could rent a single DVD like you would from blockbuster (not a subscription), for a fairly high rate, like $7, including postage. That was so-so, but what was good about it was, if you liked the movie, you could pay the difference to the retail price and they'd let you keep it! I used this quite a bit to buy movies I thought I'd want to own but wasn't sure because I hadn't seen the movie, or didn't know how the DVD content was. That's gone now though, I wish someone would pick that business model back up, though!
I'd join in a heartbeat if they offered PS2 and GameCube games. There's a link on their site to another similar service that only does games, but I don't want that either. I want to pay on company for games and DVDs.
-Sam