Fri 24 Feb 2006
Online DVD Rental:
Comparing the Top Three Programs on Price, Selection, Service and Features
I’m far from a Luddite (given the 18hrs a day I spend working on a computer) but I haven’t owned a TV since I left home some 20 years ago. I see my share when out in bars or hotel rooms or visiting more typical households. But I love to watch movies and in fact have been catching up on so many I missed during years I lived in Europe or was too busy to go out and rent them. So home-delivery DVD rentals which I can watch on my laptop with a nice 24" LCD flat screen is perfect.
DVD Rental by Mail is a market segment NetFlix created five years ago and still largely owns for U.S market. I started online DVD rental with a NetFlix subscription and stayed with them six months. Deliveries in the beginning were prompt and I received most everything at the top of my rental queue right nearly no waiting. I was initially a heavy renter, returning the DVDs the next day and sometimes even the same day, and that rental behavior — as has been reported on extensively over the last year and spawned a class action suit — resulted in my becoming displeased and moving to Blockbuster. Moreover, at the time I jumped ship, Blockbuster Online was a few Dollars cheaper for the same 3 movies at a time, and the selection was more than adequate for my tastes. More recently, I’ve been subscribing to an up-and-comer DVD rental service, Intelliflix. More about their unique offerings below.
If you are already familiar with how DVD rental by mail works, you can skip down to the summaries. The home-delivery DVD rental service as implemented by most of the companies in the field works as follows: you select movies you want to watch and order them according to which ones you’d like to receive first using the movie rental website’s software (usually referred to as the Rental Queue). The rental company sends out your first selections, you receive them a day or two later in your mailbox. Watch them and return them at your leisure (no late fees, keep them as long as you wish). Each DVD is sent with a special envelope which is used to return the movie, and postage is already paid on your behalf. As you mail back DVDs, your next selections are sent out usually the same day.
Occaisionally you may receive a movie that’s been put in the wrong envelope, or one which is unplayable on your equipment; and they also get lost or damaged in the mail now and then. You are normally not responsible for any of these conditions, and it doesn’t happen that often. But these things happen from retail video rental stores too, and the retail stores can never stock the vast number of titles which are available through the online services (45,000 titles or more).
Having been a past and present customer of all three of the services at various times over the last two years, I’ve reached the point where I can no longer say I think any one of them is teh overall best for everyone, nor even my preferences. They all have some advantages not found in the others, their own quirks and differences which will be more or less important to each subscriber. The remainder of this article attempts to hit the highlights — both positive and negative — in a manner which facilitates making your own choice. Regardless of which service you start out with, there are no contracts and you can cancel anytime.
Note: the subscription rates are roughly equivalent for all three programs — with certain notable exceptions which will be mentioned — and all three have a half dozen different subscription plans to choose from; in the name of conciseness, I’m not going to elaborate on the typical plans and pricing for each service but will provide links to each service as well as a link to a more detailed side-by-side chart which contains that information.
Blockbuster Online
- Selection
- Blockbuster Online has a vast library of movies and TV shows to choose from, not as extensive as NetFlix, but still massive. Most movie buffs will find what they’re looking for from Hollywood to Bollywood titles and the latest Indy films.
- Service
- I found their service to be above average. DVDs are shipped out quickly, arrived in 1-2 days, I got the films near the top of my queue about 75% of the time, and anytime I had a problem with a DVD, it was quickly and efficiently resolved.
- Features
- The BlockBuster software for managing your rental preferences (queue) works quite well, though parts of the navigation could be optimized, and movie reviews weren’t always that helpful (Amazon.com, NetFlix and IMDB.com all offer much better reviews). Blockbuster sweetens the online rental subscription with monthly coupons you print on your home computer which give you free in-store rentals of movies and video games, plus coupons to buy (also in a Blockbuster Video retail store) used DVDs at discount prices. [see sample of blockbuster coupons]
- Price
- they offer a variety of unlimited rental plans from one movie out at a time to as many as eight out at a time. BB has recently began offering a new "SuperPass" plan which includes free theater tickets as well as in-store free movie rentals.
- Blockbuster Online Summary
- BlockBuster’s online DVD rental service is competitively priced, they have a vast library to select from, and the website experience is good but not yet great. Passionate movie hunters will often use outside sources for reviews and recommendations. If you live within range of one of the retail stores, the added bonuses of free in-store rentals may be attractive.
Try BlockBuster Online for $9.99 the First Month
Intelliflix
- Selection
- Intelliflix is the only one of the three services which offers adult titles and video games in addition to all the new, old and Indy films. They boast "60,000 titles of movies and games".
- Service
- Service is personal and above board. They have a good home-grown website for managing your rental queue and locating films to rent.
- Features
- These guys have more distribution points than the other two services (though that’s a something that can shift at anytime as they all grow and adjust to customers needs). They also exude a spirit of small company innovation which gives you the feeling their better able to monitor their customers habits and adjust to them. They’re the only one of the three to experiment with video game and adult film rentals. I can’t comment on the video game rental experience personally and haven’t rented any of the mature titles, but they do have an extensive collection of adult DVDs, though you’re on your own in figuring out which to rent given that there are no reviews and minimal descriptions. Their library of regular DVD titles is large and will satisfy the majority of your film watching desires.
- Price
- Subscriptions and pricing is another area where Intelliflix is showing their boldness for exploring different models. They’re competitive with the other two for typical monthly subscription plans, however you can also pay-as-you-go (instead of or in addition to regularly all-inclusive monthly plan), but you can save nearly 50% over the other services if you take the prepaid annual subscription which brings the price down to as low as $8.25/month for 3 out at a time.
- Intelliflix Summary
- Intelliflix is an amazing though lesser-known company. Consumer Reports Rated Intelliflix #1 in the online DVD rental category. They score big points for flexibility in their offerings, a commitment to innovation and listening to customers, and are the only service reviewed here which offers adult DVDs and video game rentals by mail.
Visit Intelliflix’s Web Siterecommend the service to family and friends.
NetFlix
- Selection
- Great selection, they advertise 55,000 titles (many of which are TV serials, documentaries, etc.).
- Service
- NetFlix is a focused company and knows the competition is coming after them, so they try pretty hard. Buried in their Terms of Service you’ll now find mention of the fact that heavy renters may not get their top selections as quickly. But most people don’t need to worry about that.
- Features
- Their website is highly refined and they have something like one billion user-contributed movie reviews to help you select movies you’ll like. No other service compares for that, however as mentioned above, The Internet Movie Database and Amazon.com are great sources for reading others’ opinions and recommendations.
- Price
- Competitive with BlockBuster, standard "X movies out per month" plans. No innovation here as with Intelliflix.
- NetFlix Summary
- NetFlix set the standard for movie rental by mail and owns this category. Their customers are generally very pleased, their library is huge, and their website is great. There are some very vocal and pissed off NetFlix customers (myself somewhate in that category) but those folks are not the average movie renter.
Try NetFlix free for 2 Weeks or Learn More…
So Which DVD Rental Service is Right for You?
If all you care about is price, you’ll save a bundle getting the prepaid one-year membership to Intelliflix and have the option of out-of-membership rentals, or getting a plan with video games and mature titles. Intelliflix is very highly rated, just not so much on the radar of average consumers yet. NetFlix is the tried and true choice, and you may want to explore their website experience to see if that’s where you place the highest value in making this choice. If you have BlockBuster stores in your area, now and then catch a movie in the theater, BlockBuster Online is a great choice to begin with due to the free in-store rentals and optional plan with the theater tickets. But don’t worry, it’s not like mobile phone contracts which lock you in for years at a clip, you can bail at the end of any month with any of these three services.