Net Flicks VS B Buster VS Buying.

[Snap]

Help me out on this.....any one use the netflix stuff? How much of an advantage or disadvantage are these mail rental places?

Do you all prefure to rent once and buy it?

Just wondering?

[Shane Martin]

My theory:

If the movie has borderline reviews(read not bad like Alone in the Dark or Elektra), I buy if it interests me and I sell it off to someone for $10 if I hate it. Therefore I'm out the cost of a rental.

If I have mixed emotions or the reviews are horrid like Elektra, I rent.

For me I never used Net flicks enough to really make a use of it. I rented maybe 8 movies from them. NO problems but I prefer to go to the movie store myself. Considering how many I rent(very few), I don't use the pay 1 price and rent as many as I want plans like BB or Hollywood offer.

[PewterTA]

I'm almost to the point of I know which movies I plan to buy and while I do rent occationally, it's becoming less and less frequent as I tend to just borrow the movie from someone I know that has it. Otherwise I don't waste my time until someone tells me it's a phenominal movie.

I used www.hometheaterforum.com and www.dvdtalk.com to read the reviews on the new DVDs released to see if the movie is really worth owning/renting/or skipping. A lot of the times they are dead on to my thoughts on the movies.

Netflix is good, though for the price, you can only rent (I believe) 3 at a time without sending one back to get another (which they have to receive) so it limits you to about ~12 movies or so a month (depending on how quickly you watch and send them back in).

I used to use Block Buster but they got to expensive and I had been using a couple local places to rent (including Hollywood Video which is a national chain).

All in all, I like having movies to view whenever I want them, so all the good ones I try to get when the come out and don't mind spending the $15 - $18 for them even if I only tend to watch them once or twice myself, by the time others want to view them I end up watching some 5 or more times. But it's nice to have a group together and be able to go, "what do you want to watch" and not have to go to the store to figure out...they are all there in their shiny cases waiting saying, "pick me! pick me!" ha ha.

[Shane Martin]

Netflix is good, though for the price, you can only rent (I believe) 3 at a time without sending one back to get another (

You can pay more to get more.

[Foxman]

A lot of people are able to take advantage of the Netflix deal and I have begun to consider it myslef, but at this point I still buy since it is so much cheaper than going to the theater in the first place.

[Nick M]

I'd love to use netflix, but I'm too impatient. I want to see movies when I want, so I rent from a local place. $3 for new releases. Older films (older than ~1yr) are $5 for 5 movies for 5 days.

[George Bellefontaine]

I'd love to use netflix, but I'm too impatient. I want to see movies when I want, so I rent from a local place.

Pretty much the same here. I sometimes rent or buy on impulse, too.

[John Holmes]

I've been using netflix for quite sometime (since they opened). I like the extensive selection and the convience. But, I can understand those that don't want to wait for the mail or, just don't rent enough to justify the cost.

[Penningtonsm]

I use netflix and I get two movies every three days. I love it. There collection is spaktakular.

[saurabh]

Well well, it all depends on how many DVD movies do you see in a week/month and are you willing to wait for DVD's for new releases ???. I would usually go to the theater to watch the movies with good reviews than to wait for the DVD's to come out, for eg would you wait for Star Wars III to be released on DVD to be seen on your HTS only ????? would you????

Anyway nobody can create that theater sound and screen size at home and that ambience....although at a cost :T .

[june]

Blockbuster is $3.00 chaper than Netflix. Also BB gives you 2 free in store rental coupons every month. We only buy DVDs during the 1st week of the release date. Around $15.00 at Walmart.

[Nick M]

I don't have cable, and usually rent 2-5 films a week (depending on how many new releases I want to see). I use to impulse buy DVDs until I ran out of rack space and figured out I was spending close to $3k/yr on DVDs! :E :B

Renting at ~$500/yr and buying ~$750/yr has been cheaper... :lol:
I probably spend about $150/yr at theaters. I go 2-3 times a month.

I expect those numbers to drastically increase once Blu-Ray/HD-DVD hits stores... :roll:

[Radec]

Something to keep in mind is where the company's mailing locations are in relation to where you live. For me living in Denver, my wife and I could cycle through movies pretty quick as they have one mailing location right here in town. My in-laws living in rural Missouri it would be 2-4 days more to get a new movie. I have no idea where the distribution centers are now, but it might matter if you have the "3 out at a time" plan

My wife and I loved Netflix before kids, now with 2 under the age of 3 we are lucky if we rent 2 movies a month.