Blockbuster online?

[ChadTower]

Anyone else here use it?  We can set up a BYOAC recommendation chain.

My url

I'm pretty sure that's how that works.

[shardian]

I did once upon a time, but canceled after about 2 months. I don't like feeling obligated to watch 3-4 movies a week to justify the expense. Plus, they weren't ever shipping the movies I wanted to see, so I had to keep throwing junk in my queue just to get something.

[shardian]

And of course, I'll never forgive them for the Vampire Assassin recommendation.

[ChadTower]

I figure if I watch 3-4 movies a month it justifies the expense... though the last two sucked pretty hard, but I did choose them myself.

[Glaine]

My bro uses them now, used to use Netflicks I think. He seems to like it a lot, plus I'm pretty envious about their "pay a few more bucks and you can keep it" policy on some games he rents.

Like this past weekend, he brings over some MonkeyBall game for PS2, and says he can keep it for something like $2 more. Thats absurd. I would probably pay $10 minimum for most PS2 games, whether from Amazon, Ebay, or a store. So definitely not a bad idea for some. Mind you, some stuff (especially newer games) are still going to cost a whole lot more to keep em, but some of that stuff seems like the best bargains ever.

[shardian]

In our area, Kroger grocery stores now have a auto dvd rental box thing. It costs $1 per day. Much easier to just rent when I know I'll watch it and pay  a buck than paying $20 a month.

[ChadTower]

They have that here, too, but it has pretty much no selection.

[J_K_M_A_N]

Same by me. We have a Hollywood Video box that has squat to rent. All old movies. The one time I got a fairly new release, it was scratched and I couldn't watch it. I use blockbuster now. I just started about 2 weeks ago. Not bad. I like the in store exchange. You can have up to 6 at once with that. I have to admit, I haven't watched most of what I have rented yet. Eventually, I will go down to the 1 at a time.

J_K_M_A_N

[ChadTower]

They just changed the in store exchange to only 5 per month for most plans. 

[HaRuMaN]

I have Netflix and love it.  I'm on the three DVD's at a time plan.  Plus, some of their movies you can watch online, so I just hook my laptop up to the VGA port of the HD LCD in the livingroom... 

[Samstag]

I'm on one of the Netflix el-cheapo plans.  It's 2 at a time with a limit of 4 per month for $12.  It works out pretty well for us since we don't watch a lot of movies and we never know when we're going to have time and interest.

[JackTucky]

I did once upon a time, but canceled after about 2 months. I don't like feeling obligated to watch 3-4 movies a week to justify the expense. Plus, they weren't ever shipping the movies I wanted to see, so I had to keep throwing junk in my queue just to get something.

Shardian, I know you love Chad, but I didn't know you WERE him.

 
=J

[Hockeyboy]

I do the Blockbuster online plan with 3-at-a-time unlimited # of movies per moth. Until recently I could take those 3 movies into a store and exchange them for any movie they had in the store, they would mail out my rentals and while watching the 3 movies my next queue selections would be on their way. Nice setup. Now they restricted that to 3 or 5 per month.

I had Netflix but got tired of waiting up to 6 days to get my next set of movies, even though they promised they would be sent in 1 business day. I got lots of e-mails asking when I received movie such-and-such, I would send them the feedback and still no improvements.

Either one is perfect for those who like to watch a few movies per month - beats going to the actual store and paying $3.49 per movie (or whatever cost it is in your area). It's also great if you want to say, watch it on your computer in a very fast mode in a small little box window??        

[shardian]

I did once upon a time, but canceled after about 2 months. I don't like feeling obligated to watch 3-4 movies a week to justify the expense. Plus, they weren't ever shipping the movies I wanted to see, so I had to keep throwing junk in my queue just to get something.

Shardian, I know you love Chad, but I didn't know you WERE him.

 
=J

Okay, you'll have to explain a little better here.

[shmokes]

I used Netflix for a couple years and was always VERY satisfied with it.  However, I only had a Hollywood Video in my town.  Now that I live in a real city I'm surrounded by Blockbuster Videos, so I decided to give them a shot and have been a member for about a month now.  By the way, when I went to sign up it said I would only get a limited number of in-store trade-ins, but there was a box to put in a coupon code.  Whenever I see those I jump onto google and search for a coupon code (generally with no success).  Blockbuster Online, however, had lots of codes.  The one I used gave me the first-month free (instead of just two weeks), unlimited in-store trade-ins and, this is the best part, we get an e-coupon in our email once a month for a free in-store rental of a DVD or a videogame.  That's for three movies out at a time.  I can't remember off the top of my head whether I pay $15.99 or $17.99, but I feel like it's the former.  I know I don't pay more than the price for three-out would have been without the coupon code.

As for service, I'm very satisfied, but they have a distribution center in Miami, where I live, so that's subjective.  One complaint compared with Netflix is that when they receive your movie they don't ship your next movie on the same day.  If I drop a movie off at a B&M store at 6:00 at night, it will show up in my queue almost immediately as returned, but they will likely not ship my next film the next day, but rather the morning after that.  With Netflix, your next flick is usually in the mail within a couple of hours.  Netflix has a MUCH MUCH better turnaround.  However, being so close to the distribution center means I still get movies faster than I usually got them from Netflix for most the time I was a subscriber because I wasn't near any Netflix distribution centers.  Living in Miami, I think I was getting Netflix a little faster than Blockbuster, maybe a day quicker sometimes, but the trade-in deal more than offsets that for me.  Sometimes you just get to jonesing to see a particular film.  It's like an itch.  Sure, you can throw it at the top of your Netflix queue, but by the time it arrives, the itch will likely have subsided of its own accord.  Blockbuster's Total Access thing gives you the means to scratch the itch.

Anyway, so far so good.  I was never unhappy with Netflix, but I'm even happier with Blockbuster.  But it's only been a month and I was perfectly happy with Netflix for years, so we'll see how Blockbuster holds up over time.  Any real problems and I'll switch back to Netflix in a heartbeat.  Great company.

[divemaster127]

Im on the blockbuster cheapo plan, its $7.99 a month I get 3 movies mailed to me a month, 3 movies on exchanges & 1 coupon that I give my son for a game. So I think I definitely get my moneys worth
dm

[Dartful Dodger]

I have Netflix, two at a time plan ... I like it.

I think my local post office has a direct line to Netfilx because when I return DVDs their they register as returned the next day.  if I put them in any other mail box they take two or three days to register as returned.

[ChadTower]

I started with netflix a couple years ago... If I got to about 5 in a month they'd just stop coming until the next month.  It was annoying enough that I stopped online rentals for at least a year.

[shmokes]

I know of throttling, where they will lower your priority for high-demand movies if you are going through movies very fast (though I never personally noticed this and I can't imagine that many people were outdoing me, since I was commonly ripping all three movies the day I got them and then mailing them all back the next day), but I've never heard of Netflix slowing down shipments (unless you just had nothing else in your queue).  I've had Netflix two or three times over the years and never had a problem with them (except for a particular two-week period when every damned disc I got was too scratched to play so I'd get 1/2 or 2/3 the way through and be cut short  ).  It might help that I have no desire to see 90% of the most popular new releases.  ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- like Fast and the Furious, or Scary Movie, or Failure to Launch or The Hills Have Eyes, just don't appeal to me.  If Michael Bay or Ron Howard have put their hands on the film, I can be almost 100% sure without seeing it that I will hate it, and most people will love it.  Netflix probably never saw any need to throttle me because most the movies I rent are either relatively obscure, or have long lost any association with the new release category.

[shmokes]

P.S.  Blockbuster's official company line, at least for now, is that they do not throttle.  Ever.  Like I say, wasn't ever a problem for me, but I guess some people have had really bad experiences with it (or are prone to exaggeration )

[ChadTower]

I definitely got throttled.  I got a lot of obvious bootlegs, too.  Popular releases with screen printed bare text and inferior quality.  Why inferior quality on a DVD, I have no idea, but that was the case.  I also got about a third of my DVDs in pieces after a while... I hear their service has really improved since then but I'm good with Blockbuster.

[psik0tik]

I use netflix online too. Since I'm on the road at work alot it works in my favor....not much to do on an oilrig..believe me

[billf]

If Michael Bay or Ron Howard have put their hands on the film, I can be almost 100% sure without seeing it that I will hate it, and most people will love it.

Ron Howard has directed some very good movies.  Have you seen any of these?  'Apollo 13' or 'A Beautiful Mind' or 'Parenthood' or 'Splash' or 'Night Shift'?

[shmokes]

Yes.  Splash is great.  Parenthood was good (but I haven't seen it since I was like 12),  A Beautiful Mind sucked balls.  Apollo 13 is mediocre.  Haven't seen Night Shift.  Ron Howard's problem is that he doesn't make interesting movies.  He makes movies the way non-artists paint by numbers.  He takes no risks, and delivers mostly competent but utterly forgettable movies.

Sure, you thought A Beautiful Mind was great when you saw it, but you only forgave it for being so bloody boring because Russell Crowe's performance tugged at your heartstrings.  But, importantly, while you have classified it in your head as an excellent movie, your actions suggest otherwise.  Unlike other excellent movies, for some reason you NEVER have a desire to see this one again.  You're never sitting around and think, "hmm . . . I'd like to pop in A Beautiful Mind and watch it again."  To a lesser, but still significant degree, the same goes for Apollo 13.

Ron Howard just makes safe, formulaic fluff.  He's a master of bland.  He hasn't made a Splash since he made Splash.

He is involved with Arrested Development, though, which is almost enough to forgive him everything else.

[ChadTower]

Night Shift is a must see.  One of my favorites.  I always watch it when it's on.

[psik0tik]

Is that the stephen king movie.

[ChadTower]

Michael Keaton, Henry Winkler, Shelley Long.

[psik0tik]

I'm thinking of another movie. The one where the people work in a cotton place and there are tons of rats.

[shardian]

I'm thinking of another movie. The one where the people work in a cotton place and there are tons of rats.

Graveyard Shift

[psik0tik]

Thats it. Cheesy acting but decent movie.

[FrizzleFried]

I've had Netflix, Blockbuster and even Walmart Video when they did it.  I am back to Netflix.  Their website is easier to navigate (at least since the last time I used Blockbuster) and they don't send censored movies like Blockbuster (they have a no NC17 / UNRATED policy).

[J_K_M_A_N]

I just got 1408 unrated version from blockbuster today. So that must be old.

J_K_M_A_N

[boykster]

I don't have an opinion on blockbusters service or walmarts for that matter, but I have been a satisfied netflix customer for almost 7 years (Dec 2000).  I can't think of a single other pay-service that I've had during that period where I get the same if not better quality of service (netflix has gotten better) and actually pay LESS money. 

When I signed up, the 3 at-a-time was $19.99 I think, then briefly jumped up to $21.99 a couple years into it.  But then, it dropped down to $18.99 after Netflix actually listened to their customers about their pricing.  Since then, it's dropped another $2/mo to $16.99.  Amazing.

They've also added a few neat features - instant watching (great on the road or at work  ) and their website has definately evolved over the years.  I'm not a fanboy, but I'm serious when I say I can't think of another service I pay for that has both gotten cheaper AND better over the past 7 years.  Cable? nope...pay more get less.  Internet?  Gotten better, but pay way more $$$.  Phone? nope, again, better service, but more $$$.

I do think the Blockbuster model of allowing you to return to a BB store as well as check out from there intriguing...but my wife absolutely HATES going to rental stores.

 

[ChadTower]

Must be better shipping to your area... didn't do me much good getting DVDs in pieces.

[boykster]

Must be better shipping to your area... didn't do me much good getting DVDs in pieces.

I've never received a broken disc, but a couple of badly scratched ones have come my way.  I've also had exactly 2 discs lost.  Also, turnaround is really fast....1 day each way.  I mail them back friday, they get them monday, i get new movies either tuesday or wednesday - sometimes processing delays it a day.