I download movies and watch them on my PC.
I think there is a way to cable your PC to your TV and have the movie displayed there.
If you have a graphics card with TV-out, it’s just a matter of buying the right cable. The low resolution of non-HD TVs means that videos which look tiny on a monitor can look decent full-screen on a TV.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I work for Hollywood Video, so I can have up to three movies or games out at any given time at no cost. The poor suckers working at Blockbuster are limited to five rentals a week.
I live next door to a Blockbuster. Yet, I use netflix and the library. I get 3 movies from Netflix and can have up to 5 from the Columbus library. I like to use the library for documentaries as I can keep them for 14 days. Netflix has worked well. I just don’t like Blockbuster’s policies about not having letterbox dvds.
Library all the way. Mine just reoopened with a massive selection of stuff, bigger new releases and loads of classics, for either £1 or £2 for a week. As you get a more discerning customer, they don’t tend to be scratched up to shit like they are whenever my housemate can be arsed to go to Blockbusters.
Bay Street Video or Queen Video, two very nice independent stores. Blockbuster often has special deals and stuff like that, but jeez - it feels like a Wal-Mart.
I go here, though I think their website is awful, the store itself is great. Nice selection, rarely out of stock, nearly instant service and it’s right in the neighborhood. Hell, they’ll even deliver and pick up free of charge!
It’s staffed primarily by the owners, so they know everthing. I walked in one night up to the counter and said “do you have Nosferatu?” He turned around, walked straight to it on a huge wall of stacked identically marked DVDs, and got it instantly. No screwing around searching for a movie, tell them what you want, and it’s in your hand. In the time it took me to get that movie, and be on my way home, I would have been lucky to even find the section in Blockbuster that might have it, forget about finding the movie on the shelf and waiting in line to get checked out.