Friday, October 21, 2005
Netflix
If you haven't heard of Netflix (not likely considering the amount of advertising they do) it's a DVD rental service with transactions handled via postal mail. I've been using it since about February and have been surprised at the level of quality they keep. There are different levels that you can signup for. I have the 3 DVD level at $19.07 (including tax) a month. They have other quantities available. What that means is that you can have 3 DVDs at any one time. By having, this means that Netflix doesn't. So if a DVD is in transit, or in your DVD player, it counts against the 3 quantity.
In my experience, the turn around has been very good. Usually 3 or 4 days from when I mail back a DVD to when the next DVD arrives. I've averaged around 14 DVDs a month since I signed up - or about 120 overall. In all of those, I think I've had two that were actually unplayable because of damage and Netflix sent me a new copy immediately upon my report of the damage. You can report damage via the Internet and request an exact replacement if desired.
They claim to have a selection of over 50,000 titles (I haven't counted), and have an adequate search mechanism. You can search by title or actor, but not by year or content (not really anyway) or genre. You set up a queue of films and as you return one, the top one of your queue is sent to you. The queue can be reordered and revised at any time and also shows the DVD's rating and its availability. Only a couple of times has the specific DVD I wanted been not immediately available - I just picked the next on my list. One nice feature are the member's reviews. Sometimes they're useless but often they make the difference of whether I select a DVD or not. I've been warned a couple of times (after the fact mostly) of atrocious DVD conversions which are almost impossible to watch. After a while you begin to know what reviews to pay attention to and which ones to ignore.
I don't watch a lot of new releases or "box office smashes" which gives Netflix a huge advantage over the limited selection at the local rental places. Which at $2 to $4 a DVD would cost me $25 - $50 a month versus $19.07. I'm going through a few TV series right now including the Highlander, Danger UXB: Disc 3, The Andy Griffith Show, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I also watch a lot of older films and foreign films - all of which are hard to find in the local stores (at least our local stores). I give Netflix two thumbs up!
2fers: Netflix and Hong Kong Cinema
