My Future In DVDs Is The Netflix Way
Media, Personal April 27th, 2007Over the past year my interest in DVDs and movies has increased considerably. My DVD collection went up from a pitiful ten movies, to where it stands today at around 50 titles. No, it’s not too big compared to others, but for me to pick up 50 DVDs in the past year was quite a considerable feat.
Over the course of the past year, I kept hearing of online “DVD rental” services, Netflix in particular. After hearing Kevin Rose talking about how great Netflix is on the latest Diggnation episode, and Adam Betts revealing he has received over 1500 DVDs from them in an interview I read a few weeks ago, I decided to join up to a similar New Zealand based service called DVD Unlimited.
I signed up to a pretty basic plan where I can have any two DVDs at once, with no limit on how many I rent monthly. I feel this will work much better in all, I’ll be spending less money on movies, I’ll have more movies to watch, and when someone says “You need to watch this”, I can easily add it to my queue and forget about it until it turns up in the mail.
The service is costing me $28 NZD per month, around the price of one brand new (new release) DVD. I’m hoping this will be more enjoyable in the long term, less money spent on new movies, more movies to enjoy on a regular basis.
Is anyone else subscribed to Netflix or a similar service?
April 27th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I’m slowly thinking that I should sign up to something like this and it could be very useful. I think I would be very tempted to ‘Handbrake’ them to my hard drive though :(
April 27th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I’ve been a Netflix subscriber since roughly 2001, and I’m completely happy with it. I’ve been on the “3 at a time” plan for most of that time. With Netflix, I don’t feel bad about watching the most random, possibly stupid movies, because if I don’t like it, it can go back in the mailbox right away, and I can get a replacement in about two to three days.
I’ve probably saved more money by paying the $18USD a month, and being more picky about what I buy versus taking a chance and buying some crappy movie at $18 and being disappointed. I also have been able to find some real gems that I wouldn’t have found without having the no-risk option of Netflix.
One other thing about Netflix that I love, is that I’m not limited to movies. I’ve found documentaries on there, and also television seasons. It’s great being able to watch shows that I never got to see completely when I was younger, or were before my time.
April 27th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
My current DVD collection stands at 438 DVD’s…
I travel a lot…
April 27th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
I’m signed up with a movie rental service called Fatso, also New Zealand based.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Why did you go with Fatso over the others? I was considering them too.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I use Block Buster’s version of it. It’s the same thing. I get two movies at a time and when I want to watch one I just send one back and put another one in the que. It’s a great system.
April 28th, 2007 at 2:52 am
I’ve been using Netflix since 2000 and absolutely love the service. I’ve had as low as two discs per month to 5.
April 28th, 2007 at 6:02 am
I was a subscriber to a DVD rental service in the UK called, “Love Film”. It was great for getting rare DVDs or simple just DVDs not normally found in the local video rental shop.
However I found that even though it was great getting DVDs through the post, when I really wanted to watch the new release every once in a while. I’d add it to my queue, but I’d end up waiting so long I wasn’t in the mood when it turned up.
Apart from that I really enjoyed it when I had it. Great thing is they really don’t like customers leaving so they have now offered me 3 months for the price of one.
One last point. I think though in the end I prefer owning things than renting them.
April 28th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Hi there, Glenn! I would like to thank you for your post from November… something 2006! I teach English as a foreign language and I needed sth like for my students to analyze! Thanx a bunch!
April 28th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Do you rip them before you return them, Glenn?
April 28th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I got an offer from SKY, where we would get the service free for 2 months, so I signed up.
April 28th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
A new category Glenn? And more than one category for the post? Is this a new thing?
April 29th, 2007 at 12:03 am
I thought long and hard about this, I may, I may not - I haven’t decided yet. The ethical decision would be a no..
Yep, new category. I’m expanding bit by bit, and have taken this as a chance to expand into Media topics, including gaming, music, movies, etc.
More than one category for a post has been used before, but rarely due to the specific nature of most of my posts.
April 29th, 2007 at 8:14 am
…And then rip them? :)
June 15th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Wow, one week = one DVD, quite impressive ! How can you afford all this ?
June 15th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Three words ;-) Long. Hard. Work.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I am currently subscribed to Zip.Ca, a Canadian version.