movies in the mail: a product review

The Skivvy:

1. Netflix -- Plans start at $9.99 for the one-at-a-time plan and $17.99 for three at a time -- FREE Trial -- 50,000 titles to choose from!
2. Blockbuster -- $9.99 for the first month, $17.99 a month thereafter for the three-at-a-time plan -- Two FREE in-store rentals per month are included -- 40,000 titles to choose from!
3. Intelliflix -- Several plans to choose from, $16.95 for the three-at-a-time plan -- Frequent specials -- 40,000 titles to choose from -- also rent games and mature content
4. DVD Avenue -- $19.99 a month for the three-at-a-time plan -- located in the Washington DC Metro Area

The Reviews:

I don't know about everyone else, but renting movies can be a pain. It's not hard, mind you, but when I want to sit at home and watch a movie, it's because I don't want to go out...but the video store requires just that. Besides, at $4 a movie it can be pretty expensive. It's in that mindset that I took to exploring the internet DVD rental market starting last year and I want to share with you my findings.

The first service I tried was WalMart's. Now defunct, or rather merged with Netflix, it was decent. WalMart's stingey "family values" kept some movies off the list and the location of their warehouse several hundred miles away meant it took two days each way for my movies to make their circuit (WalMart, like all others required reciept of of a returned movie before shipping another). It was, however, the cheapest program...I didn't stick around after the free trial though anyway.

Blockbuster

I then moved on to Blockbuster. Also allowing me a two week trial to check things out, I found the selection to be better than that on WalMart's site as well as better than that found in any brick and mortar Blockbuster store I had ever been in. Finding titles was a snap and soon my queue was lengthy enough to keep me in a business for awhile. Blockbuster has many more shipping warehouses than WalMart did and so it was no suprise that there was one located sixty miles away; which means I could recieve a movie, watch it that night, send it out the next day and receive my next movie two days later. Much quicker than WalMart, and therefore much better. I was happy, but I wanted to check out the competition a little more.

NetFlix

So I signed up with NetFlix. Like the previous two, I was able to sign up for a free two weeks. Looking through the available movies, I found titles that hadn't been in either of the previous' listings. When I say that, I don't mean "adult", but rather the extensive availability of foreign movies, as well as documentaries, indie films, and television shows -- the staples, really, of my DVD renting habit. The interface was much the same of the other two sites, and like Blockbuster NetFlix has a shipping address close to home, but the selection just felt better. I've stuck with them now for a year.

DVD Avenue

There are other options, however. DVD Avenue works exactly the same way as all three listed above, but is largely East Coast related (shipping from Maryland).

Intelliflix

Intelliflix is another company tryng to compete with the "big boys" (in fact, it seems they're willing to give you a month free if you forward your cancellation from their services to intelliflix -- see site for details). They are running frequent specials as well as offer game and adult movie services (which both cost more).

GameFly

Similarly, GameFly.com offers the same sort of rent over the internet thing that all the above companies do, but with video games. Not being much of a gamer myself, I don't know what to say, but I wanted to put the info out there for anyone that might be interested.

There it is then, all I really know about the internet movie rental scene. I do like it, it's about the best entertainment value that I've come across. Well planned, it's quite possible to rent 15 movies a month -- or barely over a buck a piece. You can't ask for much better than that. Cheaper than cable, easier than the video store, I'm hooked.

Hope that all helps.