Review Of Netflix DVD Rental Service 260
Bigbird504 writes "If you haven't already heard of Netflix, they basically rent DVDs online... but for a price of $20/month. While many believe it isn't worth it, many others do feel its a good bargain. Afterall, you can take out 3 DVDs at a time. Best of all, there are no late fees on returns. You keep the DVD as long as you like, and return it when you are done. Its a pretty interesting concept, and may be well worth the money. Check out this review on Netflix."
Re:NetFlix rocks (Score:2, Insightful)
Now, one interesting side effect of this rental system is that you try to turn around movies as fast as you can so you can maximize the number you can get per month and thus increase your values (getting 6 movies for $20 instead of 3).
There are a couple of features NetFlix needs to add to their service:
1) Multiple sign-in accounts per 1 rental account:
NetFlix allows you to rate movies and then makes suggestions based on your ratings (much like TiVo). Now, if my wife signs in (as me, of course), her ratings will completely screw up its suggestions to me (I couldn't stand 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape').
2) The ability to set a definite sequence in your rental queue: With NetFlix, you set up a list on 10 movies you would like to see. If the first on your list isn't available, they will send you the seconds one. I am not sure how the algorithm works but what if I wanted to see the Godfather trilogy, I don't want to get II then III then I.
Re:Problems with DVD Rentals (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, if the movie industry wasn't so lame, what they'd do is send the movies to the rental places over the net, and each individual store would burn their own discs. But I somehow don't see that happening.
Re:NetFlix was good once upon a time... (Score:2, Insightful)
Nope, it's just clumsily worded. Newsgeek does the review.
Re:Former NetFlix Member (Score:4, Insightful)
I think NetFlix needs to add a feature where their database is automatically checked on a weekly/monthly basis, and all high-demand-low-availability discs have extra copies purchased. Combine this with a "purchase used" feature, like the major video chains already do to get rid of movies that are no longer in high demand, and they'd have a killer service.
Economically, the service isn't much better than a pay-per-rental video store, once you factor in the travel time for your movies in the mail. But the convenience of not having to worry about returning them on time (something my family is awful about) is a big plus.
Re:Tried it, and cancelled it... (Score:1, Insightful)
I was signed up with NetFlix when I was living just outside of Washington D.C., and all of my DVDs arrived in ~2 days time.
I highly recommend this service to anyone who is lazy, impulsive, and doesnt feel the need to collect (buy) movies.
Re:My personal review (Score:2, Insightful)
Netflix USED to rock... (Score:2, Insightful)
purchase service from them, they had an awesome plan. You could rent a single DVD like you would from blockbuster (not a subscription), for a fairly high rate, like $7, including postage. That was so-so, but what was good about it was, if you liked the movie, you could pay the difference to the retail price and they'd let you keep it! I used this quite a bit to buy movies I thought I'd want to own but wasn't sure because I hadn't seen the movie, or didn't know how the DVD content was. That's gone now though, I wish someone would pick that business model back up, though!