Netflix

[furryrabidbunny]

I am interested in signing up for netflix, but I have a quick question for people that use it: When "renting" a television series box set, does each dvd in the box set count towards your allowed amount, or does the entire box set count as one title?

[zelmo]

Each disk is considered one movie.

[pseudobrit]

I am interested in signing up for netflix, but I have a quick question for people that use it: When "renting" a television series box set, does each dvd in the box set count towards your allowed amount, or does the entire box set count as one title?

They send you one DVD at a time. Each sleeve is one DVD, and counts as one movie. There is no "allowed amount" on most plans (unlimited rental), but they will never send you more than one disc per sleeve.

[freiheit]

This is actually a question I had been wanting to ask for a month or so but never knew where to ask it. I'm glad someone here did. That's very good to know, as I was wanting to rent Scrubs season 1 which is 3 disks but I only want the (cheaper) 2-at-a-time deal since I won't be using it all that much.

[Mr. Anderson]

This even goes for the movies with 2 DVDs. You have to order the 2nd DVD as well - but its not really that bad a deal. I love it and have been doing it for about a year now.

No hassle and no driving back and forth to the video store :D

D

[iGary]

I love Netflix.

Just saying. :D :cool:

[atszyman]

If you live close to a Blockbuster store you can sign up for a similar system where, for a monthly fee, you can walk in to the store and take 1 or 2 (depending on the plan you are in) movies home. One benefit of the Blockbuster system is that you can get as many moves in a day as you want. If you go home and watch the 2 movies in 4 hours you can go back and pick up 2 more where Netflix will only send you the next one after you send the previous DVD back resulting in a delay of days between movies.

[dejo]

But unlike Blockbuster, Netflix has no late fees.

[furryrabidbunny]

I hate blockbuster... the reason they are the reason i was looking into netflix... i even have one about five minutes from my house. They've tried to hit me with late fees on movies i've never rented (more than once), every dvd i rent never plays correctly (smudges, scratches), and I don't like false advertising (that no late fees bs, and yes they still use it, even though they aren't supposed to). Thats a bummer though about netflix about the discs, makes sense though. I am thinking about doing the one a month, because i don't know if i have enough time to watch that many. I don't know... i have to really think hard about it, between school and work and social life, I don't know if i can be "obligated" to watch a certain amount of movies a month for it to be worth it.

[efoto]

But unlike Blockbuster, Netflix has no late fees.

Not sure if it is a national change or not, but all the Busters by me just changed over to No Late Fees! Its really kind of a stupid setup because its just extended rental periods in effect. I think you can keep it something like 10 days past the rental date, but I think they still charge you eventually. I did the 2-at-a-time rental promo thing and it was pretty nice (Buster is roughly 10min away for me) because I could rent a couple of movies on Friday night, watch one, watch one Saturday morning, go get two more new ones Saturday afternoon, watch one etc etc, you get the idea.

It was nice because you only have to pay once. You walk in with the two you are returning (don't but them in the return box) and tell them you are a member of the program, go find your two new ones, then they scan old ones back in and scan the new ones out, no financial transaction required, and no ID card or member card either since the old ones are on your account they just swap the 2 for 2 and off you go. Good idea IMO.

[BornAgainMac]

I like how Blockbuster changed "Late Fee" to "Extended Viewing Fee". It sounds better and hopefully the customers won't feel like criminals when they turn a movie late and never come back again.

[iGary]

Blockbuster suxors.

I never wait in line anymore or deal with mentally challenged employees.

I love Netflix.

[efoto]

Blockbuster suxors.

I never wait in line anymore or deal with mentally challenged employees.

I love Netflix.

Waiting in line I understand, but what exactly do you need the employee to do other than scan the bar and send you on your way? If you expect them to help you select a movie you will like, that is expecting a little much IMO. They can perhaps make a non-educated guess at which genre or film you will enjoy, but they are always wrong, as are most people who don't know you at all.

And on the topic of waiting, I'm quite sure you spend more time waiting for DVDs in the mail than I do waiting in line (although I really have never waited more than 1 min, surprisingly fast service at my Blockbuster).

[zelmo]

Netflix is cool. We have the plan that lets you have 3 movies out. At first, we would watch one a day, send one a day back, and rarely have a day when we didn't have a new movie to watch. At this point, we go through probably 7-8 movies a month. That's more than enough to make it a better deal than buying DVD's I may only watch one time.

I definitely prefer Netflix to going to Blockbuster, even though it's 2 minutes from our house. No hassles, no driving, if I suddenly remember a movie I want to see, I can log on and add it to my queue anytime, rather than try to remember it for the next trip to Blockbuster only to find they don't even have it on DVD.

[krimson]

I like how Blockbuster changed "Late Fee" to "Extended Viewing Fee". It sounds better and hopefully the customers won't feel like criminals when they turn a movie late and never come back again.

Not widely known, Blockbuster franchises do not have to abide by the "no late fee" program, my buddy and I had a very long 20 minute arguement with the owner of the one near his house. So make sure that the store you rent from is participating in the "no late fee" program before you stop returning it by the due date.

Though I have no concrete proof, Netflix does have a monthly limit for those of us that consistantly rents more than 20 DVDs/month. Though, it's still a good deal if you can get 20 a month, though I used to rent 40+/month when I first started the service.

[evilernie]

How could you possibly rent 40 in a month!? Considering the time the disks are in the mail, you'd have to watch two or three a day! :eek:

One (of many) thing that really pissed me off about Blockbuster was their refusal to carry widescreen movies. I asked why, and they said the public prefers pan and scan! So I said c-ya, I prefer Netflix! And I haven't been in a Blockbuster ever since. That was like 7 years ago. :D

[cleo]

If you decide to get Netflix, buy Netflix Freak (http://www.thelittleappfactory.com/application.php?app=Netflix%20Freak) -- it'll be the best $15 you'll ever spend. It's basically an app that lets you do everything you'd do on the Netflix website, except more and much faster. (The Netflix site can get annoyingly slow.) It's probably my favorite app on my iBook -- I use it daily -- and made me fall in love with Netflix all over again.

[aloofman]

I concur with all the other Netflix fans. It's fantastically convenient and it has a far, far bigger selection than any video store. I recently got into choosing TV show DVDs, which I space out across my queue. I also pick and choose from some shows (like X-Files) from which I only want to see a handful of episodes.

The way I see it, at $17.95 per month, it becomes worth it from a pure money standpoint if I watch at least two movies a week, which is about what I'd pay on average at the local store. Add in the lack of fees or deadlines, no hassle of trekking to a store, and many more movies to choose from, and it's way worth it.

Not really looking forward to getting promotional ads from Walmart though. :rolleyes:

[krimson]

How could you possibly rent 40 in a month!? Considering the time the disks are in the mail, you'd have to watch two or three a day! :eek:

it takes only 1 day to get to and from the shipping center, it's 20'ish miles away from my house.
I'd get shipments monday save to hard drive and put it back in the mail.
They get it Tuesday, and ship next set to me.
I get set 2 on Weds, and it's back in the mail.
etc.
that's 12/week over 4 weeks, that's 48 DVD's. I just watch the movies during the off days or the same night i get it.



One (of many) thing that really pissed me off about Blockbuster was their refusal to carry widescreen movies. I asked why, and they said the public prefers pan and scan! So I said c-ya, I prefer Netflix! And I haven't been in a Blockbuster ever since. That was like 7 years ago. :D

There are few (if any) P&S DVD's at the blockbuster store at my house, and the online store pretty much is widesceen if available.

[howard]

i've had netflix in the past and liked it, canceled it when i moved though

how does it compare with blockbusters online service? i hear you get a free store pickup each month with that, which is nice if you want to pick up a movie right away.

does Hollywood video have a comparable service?

[stcanard]

If you live close to a Blockbuster store you can sign up for a similar system where, for a monthly fee, you can walk in to the store and take 1 or 2 (depending on the plan you are in) movies home.

I don't use netflix, but I do use a Canadian version -- Zip. For me the biggest benefit of the model was an increased range of titles to choose from. Blockbuster can let me rent 100 movies a day if they want to, but it doesn't matter because the store by my place has *$&@#$ for selection.

[furryrabidbunny]

blockbuster does have a service like netflix with a free rental in store... when i closed my blockbuster account the guy worker there tried to convince me to sign up. But, their service still has one major downfall... it carries the name and service of blockbuster.

[Danger! Will]

Blockbuster Online service is slow. At least here in the metro phoenix area. It takes time for them to recieve and process the movies then send new ones out.
Netflix is really really quick here in phoenix, arizona.
Distribution centers are here in phoenix for both Blockbuster and Netflix.
But netflix does things faster.

The only advantage I see to blockbuster is that you can go in store
and get two rentals per month with a voucher you print on your computer with your membership.

[atszyman]

Blockbuster Online service is slow. At least here in the metro phoenix area. It takes time for them to recieve and process the movies then send new ones out.
Netflix is really really quick here in phoenix, arizona.
Distribution centers are here in phoenix for both Blockbuster and Netflix.
But netflix does things faster.

The only advantage I see to blockbuster is that you can go in store
and get two rentals per month with a voucher you print on your computer with your membership.

Blockbuster also has a not well publicized subscription setup for the physical stores (which I am currently part of). You walk into the store grab 2 movies, checkout, go home watch the movies and comeback to pick up 2 more movies. In theory if you watched 24/7 and were conveniently close to a Blockbuster you could get through 12 1.5 hour movies a day (drive time and bathroom breaks for the rest). This has the advantage of giving you more movies/day than Netflix can but you are tied to the specific store where you sign up and are limited by their selection. We just work with a few of our friends who have Netflix and work out deals for the best of both worlds. You can usually get new releases faster at Blockbuster stores but you don't have the selection of Netflix.

[evilernie]

There are few (if any) P&S DVD's at the blockbuster store at my house, and the online store pretty much is widesceen if available.

As I said, this was about 7 years ago. At that time they did not carry anything in widescreen that was available in pan & scan.

They have since re-thought that policy.

You must have a big-ass hard-drive to copy all those movies...
:)

[pseudobrit]

Blockbuster...you are tied to the specific store where you sign up and are limited by their selection...you don't have the selection of Netflix.

Which is the reason I dumped the BB Moviepass. I ran out of old/foreign stuff to watch and the new releases -- at least the popular and good new releases -- would be out of stock for at least two weeks after their release date. Plus I had to drive to the store.

With my Netflix, I just hit a mailbox that's on the way to work, which is in a township directly attatched to the postal ADC where the local Netflix distribution center is. Turnover is two days.

[krimson]

As I said, this was about 7 years ago. At that time they did not carry anything in widescreen that was available in pan & scan.

They have since re-thought that policy.

You must have a big-ass hard-drive to copy all those movies...
:)

they're deleted once im done with them... and yes, i have massive amounts of portable storage. Ill admit i do have a few movies lingering on my PB.

---
edit:

Oh, and i'm currently using both BB and NF, the turn around time for me is the same. That's including Netflix "1 day delay in shipping".

[DavidLeblond]

I love my Netflix. I'd love it even more if they started renting out video games as well.

[Ugg]

I just started this month. I love it. Turn around is generally two days, so I generally get about 4 movies a week. How they can make money on this, I have no idea, considering it is just slightly over $1 per movie and postage must take most of that.

The big draw for me was the huge selection of foreign movies. My rental queue so far is about 90% foreign. Blockbuster also doesn't carry some of the more controversial films due to its bible belt mentality. That's probably the main reason for me not using BB. I'm not interested in supporting censorship.

[stcanard]

I just started this month. I love it. Turn around is generally two days, so I generally get about 4 movies a week. How they can make money on this, I have no idea, considering it is just slightly over $1 per movie and postage must take most of that.

The DVD essentially turns into a zero cost item. For people that are turning it over as fast as you, they've barely lost it out of the shelves, and that $1 per movie really only needs to cover the postage. OTOH for those people that keep the movie for a month, well they paid $25 for it. Those people are the ones they make money off from.

Really, their main overhead is the postage, unlike Blockbuster that has to pay for large amounts of retail space and way more copies of the movie to keep them evenly distributed.

Here in the north they have an even better deal; the main service is Zip.ca which just happens to be run by Future Shop (aka Best Buy). So they already have all the stock and purchasing deals in place.

[Les Kern]

I like how Blockbuster changed "Late Fee" to "Extended Viewing Fee".
Like the GOP "Clear Skies Initiative"... almost. At least at Blockbuster it means what it says.
Okay, off subject.
It's Netflix for me after talking to lots of folks.

[Xtremehkr]

I am happily using Netflix again. I was an early subscriber to the service and they have gotten a lot better.

The movie recommendation program sucks though, the movies they recommend are unwatchable.

The selection is outstanding though. Netflix just bought WalMarts subscription rental service from them, so they may be expanding even more. Beating Wal Mart out is no small feat.

[dejo]

I've been a satisfied member since March 2000. Because I'm an early adopter I actually get to keep 4 DVDs at a time for the same price that newer members pay to keep 3! Plus, I once keep Metallica's S&M for about 6 months cuz I never seemed to get around to watching it. Try that with Blockbuster.

[howard]

If you decide to get Netflix, buy Netflix Freak (http://www.thelittleappfactory.com/application.php?app=Netflix%20Freak) -- it'll be the best $15 you'll ever spend. It's basically an app that lets you do everything you'd do on the Netflix website, except more and much faster. (The Netflix site can get annoyingly slow.) It's probably my favorite app on my iBook -- I use it daily -- and made me fall in love with Netflix all over again.


well i got back on netflix, i'm pretty excited.

i've been using this program, it seems cool except i can put ratings in when i'm browsing...to bad they don't have a field for it

[efoto]

How could you possibly rent 40 in a month!? Considering the time the disks are in the mail, you'd have to watch two or three a day! :eek:

One (of many) thing that really pissed me off about Blockbuster was their refusal to carry widescreen movies. I asked why, and they said the public prefers pan and scan! So I said c-ya, I prefer Netflix! And I haven't been in a Blockbuster ever since. That was like 7 years ago. :D

My BB carries *only* widescreen from what I have seen, but as you said it was 7 years ago that you were referring to, perhaps the late trend of larger, widescreen televisions swayed their view on carrying only 'the box' version.

Well from the sounds of it, I should really give Netflix a try then because it seems to have quite a few upsides. So now, the big question:
Netflix sends DVDs by way of regular post correct? So I live in a neighborhood (when at home) and we have these stupid (IMO) community mailbox thingies. A large metal box housing perhaps 20 different mailboxes supposedly placed like this to 'help' the mailwo/man. Point being, they are smaller by a little bit than your average mailbox....think they will fit? :confused:

[krimson]

grab a CD you dont 'need', stick it in your mail slot, if that'll fit (with a little buffer, i'd hope), you're good to go. My friend lives in a condo complex, and they do fit in his mailbox, diagonally.

[iGary]

grab a CD you dont 'need', stick it in your mail slot, if that'll fit (with a little buffer, i'd hope), you're good to go. My friend lives in a condo complex, and they do fit in his mailbox, diagonally.

They fit fine in most small mailbox slots (we live in a condo), but I usually just drop them off at a streetside mailbox on the way to work. Two days later...more movies.

I love it.