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Review Of Netflix DVD Rental Service

Posted by Hemos on from the damn-rental-fees dept.

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."

4 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. In Canada dvdhype.com by slippy51 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  2. My personal review by mattdm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:My personal review by VAXman · · Score: 5, Informative

      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

      Learn to pipeline to get around the high latency of US mail. I live in Texas and also have about a one week round-trip time. But, you have three rental slots so you can make three-stage pipeline. That way, if you time things right, you will get a movie every 2 days, which is 15 per month.

      I have noticed that the service has gotten much slower since September/October (presumably because of the anthrax scares?), and hasn't really recovered. Since then, I've had a number of very long waits (2+ weeks) for movies to ship.

  3. Former NetFlix Member by Frums · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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