tony_2003

Came across this place on Tuesday. It is an online DVD rental place, you can order up to 3 DVD'S at a time, they send you the discs and a pre-paid envelope to return them, for $20 a month. They have a free trial that lasts two weeks and you can choose to cancel anytime. I signed up on Tuesday and received my first disc (Red Dwarf series II) on Thursday, so it's pretty darn fast.
Anyway it seems like a pretty cool service and I thought it may be of intrest here because they have a ton of BBC stuff.


netflix


P.S also if you have a VHS hooked up to yer DVD player

dunroving

Yep, been using them for almost a year now. Wished I'd bought stock in them as soon as I realized what a great idea it was. Shares have increased from $12 to $80 in the past 12 months.

They have a very wide selection, and you can set up as many as you want in your queue. I like that bit b/c usually I can't remember all the movies I've noticed and thought I'd watch at some later date. Also, no late charges. Also no buggering about in the Friday night line at Blockbuster. Lots of good reasons to join Netflix. If you watch more than 2-3 movies a week, you can sign up for broader (more expensive) membership where you can have more than 3 out at a time.

Only drawback I've seen so far is that the turnaround time isn't consistent, and about once every couple of months a DVD goes "missing" (still hasn't arrived a week after it was sent).

tony_2003

Yeah I wondered if the speedy delivery is because I'm on the free trial period. Still even if I can get around 10 a month it is worth it. Can you give me a rough idea on the average turnaround? Do they take more than say three day's on average? I suppose they could hold the DVD's you have sent back for a couple of day's before updating your account que.

dunroving

Tony, Typically, if I watch one Friday, mail it Sat, they email me to say thet got it Tue/Wed, and predict it will arrive the next Saturday. In practice, it arrives on Thu/Fri. So I guess the easy amswer is "5 to 7 days".

The spanner in the works is Sunday (no mail), so a Sat night movie doesn't get picked up until Monday, and although it usually is replaced in time for next Saturday, sometimes it doesn't make it.

Whether Netflix works for you depends on your movie-watching habits. I usually watch a couple every weekend. So, the basic "3 in hand" level of membership works fine because I've alwasy got a "spare". If I were to want to watch all three every weekend, I'd say about maybe 20% of the time I'd be in a situation where the 3 replacements wouldn't arrive in time. Now, when one of the 2 doesn't arrive it doesn't matter b/c I've still got one in hand.

One weird thing is the irregularity of the mail. I've put 2 in the mail at the same time and they've arrived as much as 3 days apart.

One "good" (kind of) thing is if a DVD is 7 days overdue (i.e., it hasn't arrived 7 days after it was sent) you can report it as lost and they'll ship your next one. Every time I've done that, the "lost" one turns up within 24 hours which is a bit suspicious. My understanding is that if it stays lost (forever) you're not liable for paying for replacement, but if it happens too many times they may cancel your membership.

On the whole they're a good company, great idea, and for me watching 8 DVD's a month for 20 bucks is a good deal. Plus as you said, great selection.

Hope this helps.

nathan barley

Yeah, I dont think the Netflix distro centers are open on weekends. The center nearest us is just literally down the road, so we get same day/early next day delivery during the week, usually. But if we send things in on Fridays, then they don't acknowledge them as received until Monday evening.

This week was a strange hicup for some reason, we mailed the discs in on Monday, but didn't receive our next selections until Friday, which kind of irked me because they are usually fast. They are doing a very agressive advertising campaign though, so I expect a lot of new subscribers are coming on board which will undoubtedly have an effect on speed.

tony_2003

Thanks mate. That gives me an idea of what to expect. The appeal for me is the UK stuff, these are not readily available in the average Blockbuster so it's a good source. Stuff like Cracker is nye impossible to locate where I am. I don't think it sounds too brilliant if you are a fan of new releases though. If I can manage 8 discs a month I will be pretty happy. Not to thrilled with the splitting up of series discs though.

cheers

nathan barley

As annoying as it is, it makes sense though. An average film is 2 hours long on one disc, most series collections are several hours long, on four or five discs. If you want to take out a full collection at once, then there is always the 5 or 8 disc-at-a-time plan.

jaybob

Forgive me for dragging this old thread up and also this is for prepats still in the UK. A few months ago I joined a similar DVD club to netflix in the UK.

Dvds365.com

15 quid a month constantly rotating 3 dvds. I have found the turn around time to be quite good, e.g. post one on monday, get a replacement on wednesday, so I can watch 4-5 a week. Usually only bother watching about 3 because I do have a little bit of a life (emphasis on little). I guess it works out about a pound a dvd and you can send them back whenever you like, so no fines. I was sick getting fined at blockbuster. So there it is, thought someone might be interested, I know what it's like, you see these things advertised, but you're always dubious until someone else has tried it. And by the way Mods, no I have no affiliation with the company, I just wanted to share the joy. One more thing if anyone does join, they never give you your choice of dvds in order of preference (you make a list of ten) it's more of a lucky dip, doesn't bother me though. I'm just happy not to get ripped off by blockbuster anymore.

Duncan Roberts

Just to add to this a bit more! I signed up for the 2 week trial and decided not to sign up, but when you go to cancel they offer you reduced rates for certain amounts of time. I think it was something like 18 for 3 months minimum and 15 for 6 or something like that.

jaybob

Now you tell me

monster

Here's another service for those still in the UK: Webflix