DVD Rental via Internet

[Elgalad]

We recently signed up to a service called GreenCine. It's not unique since other outfits have offered the same basic thing: Video rental through the mail, rather than going to the video store. There are of course advantages and disadvantages.. On balance though, I think we will enjoy this plan.

It works basically like this:

I go to their website and peruse their vast collection of dvds in stock (along with other renter reviews and synopses ~ a big plus here). Their catalogue has many options for selecting lists of similar movies to those I enjoy, by actor/crew, or by genre, or by other user created lists. I then select those I want and add them to a queue where I can prioritizes my choices. The company takes the top three from my list (provided they are available) and sends them to me through the mail ~ shipping both ways is free to me, probably calculated into the subscription cost. When I get the video(s) I have no time limit, I can keep them as long as I like or send them back immediately, this is also a plus. The movies all come individually and I can return them the same way, no need to box them all up if I would like to just save one a little longer.

Now all in all, it looks like a great deal. The basic subscription plan I chose was appx. $22/month and I am allowed to have 3 dvds out at any given time. Compare this to renting perhaps 8 videos per month from the neighborhood store at $3 each and the price is similar (without the late charges ) . But GreenCine's selection is much greater than the video store's. (compare roughly 25,000 selections? to 8,000 or so) And the turn around time at GreenCine is virtually instant ~ they work 7 days a week and send the next dvd on my list out the moment they get one back.

But there Is a catch, and it's this: I am entirely dependent on the reliability and speed of the US Postal Service.

Has anyone else used GreenCine or one of their competitors? (Netflix, Blockbuster, other) If so, how have your experiences been?



-Elgalad

 

[Turner]

Netflix. It was decent.

Careful, now. This borders on advertising....

 

[Elgalad]

I'll remove the links if it is a problem. I'm more addressing the (fairly) new convenience that these online services represent. DVD/video rental stores aren't new of course, but their main competitor to date has been the cable television market. This might give them a run for their money.

*Edit links removed in initial post



-Elgalad

 

[Turner]

I've used both Netflix and Indemand. Indemand is on demand PPV. You 'rent' the movie for eight hours. You can watch it as many times as you want in that 8 hours. Pause, fast forward, rewind, the whole bit. To me, In Demand is a lot better than Netflix. You get it now. You get it for eight hours, digital quality. Don't have to worry about scratched discs, getting lost in the mail, waiting ques, all the hassles associated with Netflix et al.

That being said, Netflix & Co are a lot cheaper than the Indemand. At $4.00 a pop, indemand gets expensive quickly. The nominal fee for Netflix, or the Blockbuster movies pass works out to be a better deal than Indemand. Honestly, I must have rented 50 to 60 DVDs from blockbuster with their movie pass in the first month. I was really stretching there at the end, getting movies I had already seen.

I'm not familiar with your source, but if it's anything like Netflix was, it shouldn't be that bad. Our experience with Netflix was a positive one.

 

[IglooDame]

I currently subscribe to Netflix - I imagine all the DVD rent-by-mail shops are pretty much the same. Between it and ReplayTV, I find that I rarely watch television in 'realtime' any more. I keep the queue with 20-30 DVDs in it, essentially whenever I think of a movie that I'd like to see, I put it in the queue. So far two or three of about 50-60 DVDs have had noticeable scratches but were watchable, and one has been unwatchable. The post office has been doing a good job with delivery/return, about two business days in either direction. One of the hidden bonuses (to me) has been being able to catch up on television series that I've missed in the past - I've gone through whole seasons of Andromeda, Farscape, Futurama, and Dilbert, am currently watching that cancelled gem called Firefly, and will at some point take up X-Files and Stargate. Just keep every third or fourth DVD in the queue as a tv series that you've wanted to watch, and you'll never again say "there's nothing to watch".