Aside from times when
my son or wife talks me into seeing something at the Alamo Draft House in
Austin I buy or rent movies. I see no reason to endure the crowd, rude people,
poor sound systems and dull pictures so often associated with going out to a
movie.
I buy a pretty good
number of movies on DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD but most of the movies I watch are
rentals. I have belonged to both Netflix
and Blockbuster, even both at the same time at one point and I have been reasonably happy with both. A recent
thread at my favorite online hangout, The
Home Theater Forum, was about which rental service is better. The main complaint
about both was the long wait for many titles and I have experienced the same
problem but I have always been able to make it work. I don’t bother with
downloaded movies so I will not be discussing that option, available from both
parties.
I started with Netflix about a month after they came
online. I was in hog heaven, movies right to my door, no late fees and an
amazing catalog of movies to choose from. I dismissed Blockbuster altogether at this point
because of a grudge over late fees that I felt was unfair and it was some time
later that they introduced their online plans.
Years later Blockbuster
came up with their trade in deal. Instead of mailing the movies back, I take it
to my local brick and mortar in exchange for an in store rental, at no cost. I
decided to give it a try and it has worked so well for me I dropped Netflix.
The movies I put in my Blockbuster
queue do tend to be older classics, cult favorites and concert videos. These
types of movies tend to have a short, long or very long wait associated with
them. While that would be a problem with Netflix,
it isn’t for me as the wife and I make a pilgrimage to the store every Saturday
and pick up the latest releases, often on Blu-Ray. Occasionally, if there is a
standout release I will go in on a Tuesday morning. This works, I get the best
of both worlds for the cost of a single subscription.
If you sole purpose
for renting online is to never walk into the store again and you order a lot of
older movies and classics you are likely to be disappointed by the wait
associated with these types of selections. My advice is to brave the sun once a
week or so and take advantage of the Blockbuster
trade deals, they let you have your cake and eat it too.