Sorry I haven't posted in a while - sometimes life gets in the way of things, even blogs! But I'm back with a timely discussion on my experience with online dvd rentals.
As always, some background. I've always loved movies - I like most genres (my taste can go from Hollywood Blockbuster to obscure Foreign film, usually no Horror flicks though) and I enjoy tracking movies I have seen and figuring out which were the best ones of the year (imdb is one of the first and certainly the best movie resource on the 'net - it now has some pretty cool features that let you vote and keep track of your movies with customizable categories - I divide mine by year and in which format - Watched on DVD 2007, Watched in Theatre 2007 for example - this is awesome for someone like me who cannot remember which previews I just saw at the beginning of a movie, let alone which movies I have seen in a past year). I'm probably a lot like the Cusack character in High Fidelity that way, Top 5, Top 10 lists and all.
Heck, I used to even manage movie theatres for a living (did I just say heck?)! I used to really enjoy tracking Box Office stats too, but as of late, in an Entertainment Tonight, E! Television, People magazine saturated world, I'm sick to death of celebrity culture and that has translated for me to not seeing movies as often. Not to mention I was used to seeing movies for free, and usually in a private screening(with a *cough* beverage or two as well). So I should also point out seeing movies with the masses, especially with cell phones, chatter, and everything else in between, does not appeal to me at all. So I find myself watching DVD's more and more. And that's where I finally get to my point.
When we moved last Spring, our new place did not have a name video store around the corner from it (I think our nearest such store the Rogers Video at the Skydome!). So I didn't rent over the summer and when I went back to doing so this past Fall (I found a Blockbuster near my work), I was appalled at the prices (what is it, $5, $6 for a rental?) and I found could never follow the restrictions (even without late fees, I always forgot to bring movies back on time).
Luckily, I remembered reading about online DVD rental services so I started to check them out to see if that would make things an better.
In short, it has. Tremendously. After doing some investigation (this was the first article I read) and visiting a very helpful site (go to the forums as well- weed out the extreme cult-ish like people such forums usually attract - you know - bitchin' why the service isn't faster, forgetting to mention they live in Yellowknife - and go to the informative and honest customer experiences), I settled on Zip.ca. After a two week free trial, I pay $25/month. I can have 3 DVD's out at any time, and I can rent as many as I want in a month. All DVD's ship (quickly so far 1-2 days!) prepaid in handy little envelopes and when you return them (again, prepaid envelopes supplied) more DVD's are sent. Simple, quick, and easy.
What DVD's get sent you? Well, one of the reasons I went with zip is because of their huge catalogue - you can read the site lest I start to sound like marketing material (over 20,000 titles I think). Basically, you can browse through all titles (sorted a million different ways - best of lists, genres, actors, you name it) and "zip" or pick which ones you are interested in seeing. These go on your "zip" list. From there, you can rank them in order of importance to you, so theoretically, you get sent ones higher up on your list first (you can have 2 account settings: speed over priority or priority over speed - pretty self explanatory). Then, based on availability, they get sent out to you, and then taken off your list when returned. I love this set up, as usually when I go to the video store, apart from New Releases, I can never remember those titles I always mean to see. Plus, they have tons of TV titles, which saves me buying a bunch of shows I always mean to watch but didn't find the time to watch (24 for example). They also have a ton of obscure titles I had never heard of but have interest in (I found a bunch if Irish documentaries and even that Canada : A People's History - Something I have been meaning to watch, in order). And I kind of like the surprise element of seeing random titles show up at my door. So far, I love the service and at $25/month, I am at pace to easily rent 12-15 movies this month, which is damn cheap.
Any complaints, or warnings? Well, if you are totally in to New Releases only, this may not be the service for you. Sure, I've got tons on my Zip List, but so do thousands of other customers, so do not expect them right away - there are other Online DVD rental services that specialize in that market. Zip offers "book the next available copy" service for an extra charge if your desperate I guess. But with the size of their collection, I hardly need the new David Arquette movie right away, so it is not an issue for me. I also like the feature that lets you add movies to your list currently in theatres but not available on DVD yet - when they become available, they go on your list - cool, especially around this time of year when there are so many good movies out - Oscar season anyone?)
If you like watching movies on DVD and do it frequently enough, and like a assortment of titles, then I encourage you to give Zip or one of the other services a try (and let me know how it goes - actually, if I was smarter, I'd probably find some sort of referral program or something - and no, I'm not shamelessly linking to it). Or just keep downloading the stuff like you do now you thieving bastards :)
As always, some background. I've always loved movies - I like most genres (my taste can go from Hollywood Blockbuster to obscure Foreign film, usually no Horror flicks though) and I enjoy tracking movies I have seen and figuring out which were the best ones of the year (imdb is one of the first and certainly the best movie resource on the 'net - it now has some pretty cool features that let you vote and keep track of your movies with customizable categories - I divide mine by year and in which format - Watched on DVD 2007, Watched in Theatre 2007 for example - this is awesome for someone like me who cannot remember which previews I just saw at the beginning of a movie, let alone which movies I have seen in a past year). I'm probably a lot like the Cusack character in High Fidelity that way, Top 5, Top 10 lists and all.
Heck, I used to even manage movie theatres for a living (did I just say heck?)! I used to really enjoy tracking Box Office stats too, but as of late, in an Entertainment Tonight, E! Television, People magazine saturated world, I'm sick to death of celebrity culture and that has translated for me to not seeing movies as often. Not to mention I was used to seeing movies for free, and usually in a private screening(with a *cough* beverage or two as well). So I should also point out seeing movies with the masses, especially with cell phones, chatter, and everything else in between, does not appeal to me at all. So I find myself watching DVD's more and more. And that's where I finally get to my point.
When we moved last Spring, our new place did not have a name video store around the corner from it (I think our nearest such store the Rogers Video at the Skydome!). So I didn't rent over the summer and when I went back to doing so this past Fall (I found a Blockbuster near my work), I was appalled at the prices (what is it, $5, $6 for a rental?) and I found could never follow the restrictions (even without late fees, I always forgot to bring movies back on time).
Luckily, I remembered reading about online DVD rental services so I started to check them out to see if that would make things an better.
In short, it has. Tremendously. After doing some investigation (this was the first article I read) and visiting a very helpful site (go to the forums as well- weed out the extreme cult-ish like people such forums usually attract - you know - bitchin' why the service isn't faster, forgetting to mention they live in Yellowknife - and go to the informative and honest customer experiences), I settled on Zip.ca. After a two week free trial, I pay $25/month. I can have 3 DVD's out at any time, and I can rent as many as I want in a month. All DVD's ship (quickly so far 1-2 days!) prepaid in handy little envelopes and when you return them (again, prepaid envelopes supplied) more DVD's are sent. Simple, quick, and easy.
What DVD's get sent you? Well, one of the reasons I went with zip is because of their huge catalogue - you can read the site lest I start to sound like marketing material (over 20,000 titles I think). Basically, you can browse through all titles (sorted a million different ways - best of lists, genres, actors, you name it) and "zip" or pick which ones you are interested in seeing. These go on your "zip" list. From there, you can rank them in order of importance to you, so theoretically, you get sent ones higher up on your list first (you can have 2 account settings: speed over priority or priority over speed - pretty self explanatory). Then, based on availability, they get sent out to you, and then taken off your list when returned. I love this set up, as usually when I go to the video store, apart from New Releases, I can never remember those titles I always mean to see. Plus, they have tons of TV titles, which saves me buying a bunch of shows I always mean to watch but didn't find the time to watch (24 for example). They also have a ton of obscure titles I had never heard of but have interest in (I found a bunch if Irish documentaries and even that Canada : A People's History - Something I have been meaning to watch, in order). And I kind of like the surprise element of seeing random titles show up at my door. So far, I love the service and at $25/month, I am at pace to easily rent 12-15 movies this month, which is damn cheap.
Any complaints, or warnings? Well, if you are totally in to New Releases only, this may not be the service for you. Sure, I've got tons on my Zip List, but so do thousands of other customers, so do not expect them right away - there are other Online DVD rental services that specialize in that market. Zip offers "book the next available copy" service for an extra charge if your desperate I guess. But with the size of their collection, I hardly need the new David Arquette movie right away, so it is not an issue for me. I also like the feature that lets you add movies to your list currently in theatres but not available on DVD yet - when they become available, they go on your list - cool, especially around this time of year when there are so many good movies out - Oscar season anyone?)
If you like watching movies on DVD and do it frequently enough, and like a assortment of titles, then I encourage you to give Zip or one of the other services a try (and let me know how it goes - actually, if I was smarter, I'd probably find some sort of referral program or something - and no, I'm not shamelessly linking to it). Or just keep downloading the stuff like you do now you thieving bastards :)
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