on-line rentals Blockbuster, Netflix

[vaking]

I can't help on this, I've not rented a movie probably in 7 or 8 years. I'm just not into them. Bill

Ditto here!
1. There are probably 3 - 4 new movies a year at most that I want to see.
2. If I am desperate to see a new movie - I will go to the movie theater. Once the movie becomes available on DVD it takes little time for that movie to appear on TV. Anything not very new is available.
3. With my media center PC I can record anything on TV, zoom past any comercials, etc.

I don't see myself paying for any movie rental, monthly or otherwise.

[dwolsten]

I'm going to jump in with all the Netflix lovers here. Netflix is great!

We tried BB online first, and didn't like it at all. Slow turnaround and terrible selection. We like to watch a lot of older movies, foreign movies, TV show seasons on DVD, IMAX and documentary movies, etc., and Netflix has them all. I'd be happy never watching TV again and just watching stuff from Netflix.

The turnaround time is excellent too, at least if you live near a distribution center (I'm in Phoenix and we have one here). Just make sure to put your DVD sleeve back in the envelope correctly so that the barcode shows from the little window: Netflix has a deal with the USPS so that the USPS scans this code and Netflix sends out your next movie before the old one even gets back to them.

If you're one of these nuts who watches way too many movies and wants to watch all the very latest ones, you may experience a little slowdown, but for the other 99.9% of us, that shouldn't be a problem.

[hitekrednek]

We've had a very good turn-around time with Blockbuster. Of course, the return address for the DVDs is in Dallas and we live in Ft Worth so I suspect it has more to do with USPS time than Blockbuster itself. Typically after we return one it shows to have been received by them in a day or two and we have the next movie within a couple of days after that. In the couple of years that we've been subscribed, I'd have to guess that we average about 20-25 movies a month. Works out to be a pretty sweet deal from where I'm sitting.

[LCHIEN]

Update on Blockbuster On-line

Update:
while the first two rentals took around a week, I don't know why, the turn around has been two days for the last 3 disks now .
Usually put them in mail box in the morning which the postman empties at around 3PM, then two days later I'll get a new disk in the mail. I think that's about as fast as it can get. Plus I get two free store rental coupons every month, worth $8, so for $7.95 per month it's not looking too bad. Pretty painless.

So if I get a disk on Monday, watch it that night, put it in the mail tuesday morning, I'll have another disk on Thursday afternoon. With a 3-day cycle and there being 26 mailing days per month I can go thru 8 or nine movies per month. The trick being you have to watch it (or record it to watch later ) the same day you get it.

[dlminehart]

I've been very happy with Netflix turnaround on movies, and their occasional email polls asking about my turnaround experience suggests that they work hard at this. My current work schedule (afternoons and evenings M-F) militates against making good use of the service. No way am I gonna sit around on a weekday morning watching a movie, when I could be doing something more productive. So I'm rethinking my subscription.

[Ishmel]

I use Netflix and LOVE IT!!!! Turn around time for me is excellent. For example, if I mail a movie back Monday, 99.9% of the time they recieve it on Tuesday and ship my next movie which I recieve on Wednesday. Occasionally a movie takes and extra day to recieve, but that only makes up the .01% of the time. Also, if I mail a movie back on Saturday morning or Monday morning and have a movie that is scheduled to release that Tuesday, 99% of the time, I get the new release movie. This only works for the occasional user.

If you rent a lot, Netflix does not always send you the new releases right away. They reserve them for new users and "light" renters first. So, if you have a 3 out at a time subscription and constantly return and recieve like 20-40 movies/month, you are less likely to get the new releases right away even if it's at the top of your queue. If you do rent that much, well, you need a life. I have had the 3 out plan for almost 3 or 4 years now and on a busy month get about 15 movies for the month and I have never had a problem with new releases.

I did use a free trial of blockbuster online because I thought the 2 free in-store rentals was cool, but I had the same turn-around that Loring described. I cancelled after the 2 weeks.

This has been my experience too. I've been a member of Netflix for just over a year, and I love it as well. As a matter of fact, I canceled my movie channels package, and am concidering canceling the rest of my cable. In addition to the hollywood movies i rent, I also rent all the tv series from netflix (i.e. 24, Lost, The Sapranos, etc.).