Netflix Netflix Netflix! I used to have BBO and it sucked. The only advantage for me was the 2 free in-store rentals a month. Much of my queue had wait times and they didn’t carry a lot of the movies I wanted (I watch a lot of older movies, obscure/indie stuff, and lots of documentaries). So I tried Netflix - HUGE improvement!
I’m also a former BB employee, which is why I gave BBO a chance. But Netflix completely won me over. And Portia, I don’t know where you worked for Blockbuster, but I worked there for over 3 years and we never had a movie come through that Blockbuster had edited themselves. They even carried both rated & unrated versions of certain particularly risque titles (Y Tu Mama Tambien springs to mind).
In my experience, movies Netflix doesn’t have are mostly movies that aren’t available on DVD - older films that nobody’s paid to have transferred and rereleased in the new format. I’ve been very happy with it, but haven’t tried Blockbuster and can’t compare.
Another vote for netflix. I’m quite happy with it, even if they don’t have some movies I’d like to see.
It’s rather cool to send a disc out on monday and get a new one on Wensday. Not to mention to to see movies like “The Iron Giant” without having to wander through the kiddie section of the video story.
I hate Blockbuster…no, I loathe Blockbuster. Hollywood Video is ok though I don’t think they have a mail order plan yet. They do have an in-house plan but you have to go there.
I tried NetFlix and maybe it has gotten better, but in Las Vegas, the turn around was horrible. Wound up to be a waste of money.
So I took the same funds and used it to pay for HBO and Showtime and get the same films, a few weeks/months later.
I also have digital cable with movies on demand. So for the same price as Schlockbuster, I can just press a button and see the newest releases.
I did free trial periods with both Netflix and Blockbuster and found that for me, Netflix was vastly superior. I’ve now been a happy Netflix subscriber for several months.
Many of the movies I put in my Blockbuster queue were not available immediately; they were listed as “short wait” or “long wait.” That very rarely happens with Netflix.
Shipping times were much faster for me on Netflix than Blockbuster.
Several of the movies sent by Blockbuster were heavily scratched and would not play. That has yet to happen to me with Netflix.
BLockabuster sent me the wrong movie once during the trial. Netfix has never done so.
Netflix has more foreign and obscure movies than Blockbuster.
I like Netflix’ website better. Netflix has a surprisingly good system of movie recommendations, based upon your reviews of movies you’ve rented.
I’ve got to say, I love not having to go to the local video store. Netflix is a much more pleasant way to get movies.
I believe Netflix has a distribution center in Las Vegas now, but may not have had one when you were a subscriber. You may want to try it again. HBO and Showtime are great (I subscribe to both) but Netflix has a much deeper collection.
I have never used Blockbuster, so not sure if they have this feature or not, but with Netflix, they also have a “friends” feature where you can add your friends and see which movies they rented, their ratings for movies, and you can add a mini-review of a movie so only your friends can see it. You can also click a button and “recommend a movie” to a friend. I love Netflix and their selection of indy/foreign/documentaries cannot be beat! I live in so Cal, and rarely get “short wait” on my queues and I’ve been a member for over a year and only received a broken disc once. I’ve never had any disc come scratched. Also, Netflix will carry NC-17 films so this helps because some foreign films I like have this rating.
Never received a broken or unplayable disc from them. Never had a disc lost in shipping. Never had to wait for a disc because there were no copies available.
Turnaround time is usually two days from posting the DVDs off to receiving new ones. That is, if i send back a film on Wedneday before the local mailbox pickup (2.45pm), i usually have a new film by noon on Friday.
No complaints at all, except that i don’t get enough work done because i’m watching too much Six Feet Under at the moment.
Local library! I have to wait two weeks for a movie, but it is free! And if you have inter-library loans available at your library, you can get pretty much anything you want since there is bound to be at least one library in the country that has it. Oh yeah, and you have to leave the house to get the DVD. But other than that, the local library has it all over Netflix and BBO.
I’m pretty sure in Indiana the ILL program costs $1 per book as I used to use the program all the time. Plus another problem is that since I live in a college town the county library won’t get a DVD if the college offers it (the college may offer it, but not for rental by students, and not for free). I don’t know what they charge for DVDs though, or if they do charge for them. And it usually takes a while, a week or so for something to come in. I’ll have to ask to clarify though.
I’ve subscribed to Netflix for several months and my experiences are a little more mixed than the other Dopers reporting. I have had one broken disc and had 3 or 4 arrive very badly scratched to the point of having to skip a segment of the show or movie in order to be able to keep watching. I’ve also had some experience of them being slow to send out a new disc after I’ve returned one to them. I live in Seattle and the distribution center is in Tacoma but since there’s only 30 miles between the two cities that shouldn’t have any impact on delivery speed.
On the plus side, the one time I had to contact them for customer service (the broken disc), they responded very quickly. I also enjoy coming home and having a movie I’ve chosen waiting for me rather than having to settle for whatever the video store had left.
As for selection, only 2 choices haven’t been available, so I have no complaints there. They’re not perfect but wll worth the monthly fee.
Very few libraries lend out A/V material to other libraries for free, if at all. It can be different if you’re in a large urban library network, or some sort of large academic consortium, but generally, recent dvds are near impossible to get with no charge, and a royal pain in the ass for ILL librarians.
Hm, mine must be different then, I can ILL books for free and I’m pretty sure I can do the same with DVDs (though I haven’t wanted to rent something that wasn’t available in the Pittsburgh system–our library is really great). I know lots of people’s libraries aren’t so great; the A/V department of my old town had only twenty VHS tapes of old romantic comedies and documentaries. I feel very spoiled by this library.
Interestingly, this seems to depend very much on where you are; I’ve had friends in Chicago wait weeks for the same movie I’ve gotten here in Atlanta in a matter of days, so I think the popularity of movies varies by locale and that will make a big difference in how quickly you get it.
Ever since we got a center in Des Moines, the turnaround has been awesome and very very few waits. I’m talking I drop it in the mail one afternoon, they check it in the next morning!
I love Netflix’s service. I have gotten a few damaged DVDs, but they send out a new one before receiving the old one back, and they also extended my free trial too.
I’ll join the Netflix gushfest in yet another of these threads. I’ve had it since February 04 (just looked it up on my Netflix Account page), and have had exactly one bad disc. I’m pretty sure the distribution centers (at least in this area) have a policy of using disc cleaners/wipes on movies at some point of their warehouse process, since I rarely even find fingerprints on DVDs (yes, I compulsively look).
One thing that I’ve just started exploring in the past month or two is the Account Profiles, which allow you to assign X number of discs to different people on the account. I have had the 3-at-a-time the entire time so far, and since giving my fiance her own profile (which allows her to maintain her own queue, give her own ratings, receive her own recommendations, etc), I now reserve two for myself and she gets one. Usually we talk and a disc here and there from each of us will be for watching together, but it’s nice to maintain separate lists.
I’ve had no problems with the Curse of the Heavy User Delayed Turnaround, but from reports I’ve seen, it depends on a number of factors. Foremost how quickly the user goes through movies. If I consistently receive a movie one day, and drop it in the mail the next every single time, Netflix is definitely losing money on me. If I let a movie sit on top of my TV for a month at a time (recently Gangs of New York sat for about 3 weeks, and Ladyhawke has held the record at about 3 months), they’re more likely to give me what I want when I want it, make me still feel like I get my money’s worth when I’m not requesting enough movies to get me to breaking even on $18 per month. The second factor, and probably more important, is the type of movies one watches. We at the SDMB are a cultured lot, and are certainly more likely to pursue special interests. Many are not, and when a person is constantly wanting to get the hottest new movie the first week it is out, for movie after movie, they’re taking away opportunity from people who mostly watch largely out-of-demand movies with the occasional supplement of fresh blood, and Netflix curses the New Movie Only Viewer accordingly. IOW, depending on your interests, the delay may or may not even happen.
It’s worth it for selection alone, much of which can be found even when you never realized you wanted it because of the generally decent recommendation system. Of course, if you do just want the latest and [del]greatest[/del] most expensive, Netflix’s policy (if indeed it exists) will hurt you.
I joined zip.ca. In Canada neither Netflix nor Blockbuster is available - or at least they weren’t when I joined zip.ca.
Very satisfied with this service. Quick round-trips, huge selection - in fact, if they don’t have a movie available all it takes is one member to request it and they’ll buy it. I’ve done this myself with Freaked
I decided to look a little more, as I am curious (but not nearly curious enough to give Blockbuster a go.
As far as their own website claims go, Netflix states 50,000+ titles, while Blockbuster boasts 40,000+. Netflix has the wide selection of rental plans already stated above (though you can’t find any whiff of any beyond the 3-at-a-time until after you’ve signed up. I guess they don’t want to scare away potential business with the thought of the too intimidating $48 8-at-a-time plan); I can’t find the exact costs of Blockbuster’s higher-number plans, but I would guess them to always slightly undercut Netflix’s. Netflix allows up to 500 movies in a queue (I’ve had friends hit the limit. I myself usually have around 200 in mine - 265 right now); I don’t know Blockbuster’s limit and can’t find it in their FAQs.
So to the OP, selection by raw number of titles goes to Netflix, and until I discover that Blockbuster allows more than 500 in a queue (and you could always split up your account over multiple profiles to add more queues in Netflix; up to 1500 total movies for a 3-at-a-time plan), I’ll assume Netflix can win that facet of “selection” too.