Netflix vs. Blockbuster Revisited

Thomas Hawk writes "Exactly one year ago at thomashawk.com Davis Freeberg debated Wall Street analyst Michael Pachter regarding the future of the online DVD rental world. Freeberg maintained that Netflix was the clear and obvious choice for a winner while Pachter predicted that in the next 12 months Netflix would significantly underperform Blockbuster. Now another look one year later at the competitive landscape in the DVD market. Pachter is nice enough to continue the conversation and even admits in hindsight that he made a mistake regarding his prediction on Netflix vs. Blockbuster for the year past -- but Pachter still maintains that Blockbuster has the upper hand over Netflix in the coming year ahead. Freeberg, of course, thinks he's wrong once again and that Netflix will continue to dominate as the leader of this market. "

I want what comes next

The biggest problem with Netflix is time. Like most folks, I figured to sign up, watch movies quickly, and really get my moneys worth. It doesn't work out that way. Just because "Teenage Exorcist" is waiting in my mailbox when I get home doesn't mean that I'm going to feel like watching it tonite. Recently, I've gone through nearly three busy weeks when I haven't had time and haven't been in the mood to watch a movie. At that point, my subscription isn't very cost-effective.

I'll keep subscribing for now, but I may just be one more watching-mood-drought away from cancellation. What would really keep me as a customer is someone who could offer high quality and fast downloads for a buck or two. Then I could buy on a whim and get exactly what I'm in the mood for instead of picking from among the three Netflix envelopes on the kitchen table that just happened to be fairly close to the top of my queue but aren't *precisely* what I want tonite.

Re:I want what comes next

Just because "Teenage Exorcist" is waiting in my mailbox when I get home doesn't mean that I'm going to feel like watching it tonite.

I think you're doing it wrong. "Netflixers" I know do it like this -- get the DVD in the mail, copy it to your PC with something like DVDShrink, send the DVD back right away so you get the next item in your queue sooner.

Then later when you feel like watching the movie, burn it to a DVD+/-RW, watch it, then delete the file off your computer.

This may be walking the tightrope of "fair usage", but that's the reality of how people I know are using this sort of service.

boxlight

Re:I want what comes next

I don't do that. They come in, we watch 'em when we have time. They go back out. Some months we watch 3 movies a week--some months, just 3 movies total. At $20/month, it's a good deal for me for these reasons:

1) If I hear about a movie I might want to see, or if somebody recommends something I haven't seen, I put the movie in the queue. No fuss trying to remember anything.

2) We don't have cable, so this is the majority of our entertainment budget.

3) With no late fees, we have total control of when we want to watch something.

4) Practically endless choices. I've never gone looking for a movie that I couldn't find.

If you're going to rip the DVDs as soon as they arrive, why not just download them from torrents? It's just a legal (or illegal, rather), and you don't have to worry about shelling out that MASSIVE $19.95 every month and making sure that you somehow game the system so your Netflix rentals work out to be $0.25/movie like a penniless schlub.

Re:I want what comes next

That's what I've been doing when I don't have time to watch it right away (except I rip them to my mythbox...no need to burn anything).

The problem I'm having is that I'm unprofitable for Netflix, so rather than just canning me outright, they are doing their best to slow me down. After the first couple months of 8 movies per month, many of my returns started taking 2 days to get back to them (the return center is very local, so they have to be sitting on it for a day). That slows my down to under 2 per week. I kept that rate up for a couple more months, and occasionally got 2 a week by mailing back the same day I received it (or when my return actually got processed next day). Now the latest trick is 3 of the last 4 movies have been being shipped from across the country. Thats never happened before, and these aren't old/rare movies, nor are they movies in high demand. They are couple of year old movies that had their run. I never had any problems before with movies being shipped across the country, so it seems more than coincidence.

Anyway, those 2 acts have my rental rate just over 1 per week. That doesn't make it very worthwhile to use Netflix. On top of that, they've been shoving me to the back of the queue for new movies. I added King Kong to my queue the week before it was released. The morning of release, I checked my queue and it said short wait. Later that day it changed to long wait. The next morning it was now a VERY long wait. It's been 4 or 5 weeks now since King King came out, and I'm still at a long wait.

Anyway, my Netflix subscription is just about renew, so I'm planning on cancelling and switching to blockbuster. Well see how they are, but the one real advantage I see there is that they give you coupons for 2 free store rentals per month. That means even if they do the same sort of profiling of high use customers, I can still run out and get the movie from the local Blockbuster in a timely manner.

It's to be expected really

Infinite rentals, no due dates, a massive library, and you can rent from your very own chair without ever leaving your house. What's blockbuster got to top that?

Re:It's to be expected really

What's blockbuster got to top that?

Ummm, infinite rentals, no due dates, a massive library, and you can rent from your very own chair without ever leaving your house. (Hint: I'm not talking about the brick and mortar Blockbuster.)

MOD PARENT UP

Not only does blockbuster online (the thing being compared with netflix) do everything netflix does, you also get coupons for various in-store promotions, as well as free in-store rentals included in the cost of your rental program. I get two free in-store rentals each month, which means if I decide on a whim that I want to see a certain flick, I can pick it up without paying any extra on top of my monthly subscription fee. I still have my 3-out-at-a-time movies to pick from as well. BB does everything netflix does, plus some.

Re:It's to be expected really

Coupla decades of building brand recognition and customer base?

Such as getting screwed by their late fee policies? That's what I think of Block Buster...

Haha
Hahahahahaaaa

Re:It's to be expected really

Infinite rentals? Infinite up to 11 per month when they start throttling [msn.com] your [foxnews.com] deliveries [acmetech.com], you mean. Not such a good deal now, is it?

i wished they'd pay-as-you-go

I would like to use an online rental service like Netflix (more specifically, their Canadian equiv. zip.ca [www.zip.ca]) instead of Blockbuster, but I don't want to be locked in with their subscription model.

If they would introduce some kind of pay-as-you-go scheme, that would be ideal. I don't want to pay the monthly fee as in any given month I may only rent one movie -- or none at all.

boxlight

Re:i wished they'd pay-as-you-go

And you're they're worst nightmare.

They would make no money off of you. Business is a 2-way street you know. They get to make money and you get something in return.

I think the situation you're describing is more suited for the "on-demand" model of cable television.

Let's See...

Which one did I just dump on Saturday: Blockbuster
Which one did I just pick up (again) : Netflix

If that represents the trend, the guy's wrong. If it doesn't, I just posted virtually useless info!

How I look at it.

With Blockbuster, my membership gets me 4 "free" in-store rentals a month for my $17.99 Blockbuster Online membership. So basically, the service is letting me make 4 rentals for $4.50 each (which is about the norm anywhere), and then in additional, I get "unlimited" Blockbuster Online rentals. As Blockbuster figures out how to further utilize their brick-and-mortar stores, I wonder how NetFlix will be able to compete against this?

Re:How I look at it.

Um, Netflix sure didn't satisfy me. Their stealth throttling policy lost them my business many years ago, before they acknowledged that they throttle their service.

Had they simply been up-front about it, there would have been no issue. However, a queue of 40+ movies, all on "delayed availability", with nothing shipping to me, told me they didn't want my money anymore.

Re:How I look at it.

In-store coupons for BB are pretty worthless where I live. BBs in-store selection is pathetic (almost completely lacking in older movies, even cult classics), and greater than 50% of the store is checked out pretty much all of the time. That's the reason I got Netflix in the first place, because it was usually the case that BB didn't have any movie that I was even vaguely interested in seeing. The small handfull of cult classics they had were always checked out, and they seemed to stock huge numbers of horrible movies (that stupid ocean liner horror movie stands out in my mind with a full wall of copies with disks behind them surrounded by a sea of checked out (better) movies).

All it took was BB screwing me on one late fee--got to the store around 11:55 or so, but had to stand outside waiting for the guy to finish his work on the door (apparently some punks had vandalized it the night before) before I could get in. Got in the store at a touch after 12 and got hit with a late fee because I was after the 12:00 time limit. The manager was insistant that I should have just gone earlier to drop it off too. Needless to say, that's the last time I've ever visited BB. I can't remember if I even paid that late fee.

Re:How I look at it.

I received a $10 gift card to Blockbuster. It took me over an hour find two movies. Essentially, every movie I wanted to see was out of stock. In the end, I didn't rent anything. Rather, I bought two used movies "I Robot" and I forget what else.

So, I don't think I'd find those in store rentals of much use. Sure, there may be a film that me and a bunch of friends might want to watch right this moment...and be willing to run out to the rental store to get it. But I'd wager all the copies of said film will be rented out. At least that last few times I went to Blockbuster that was always the case.

At least with Netflix I have a steady flow. I also get to watch a lot of TV shows I miss. I've got the 5 disc program and seldom do I not have something to watch. With 5 discs it's pretty good. Just make sure you mix you queue up so you always have something lighthearted, something action and something dramatic. Plus your series filler (currently ST:DS9 for me) *lol*

Re:How I look at it.

I found that to be a great deal as well. However, I also found that some months I really didn't feel like I needed any more movies than the ones that I got online (and that was when they only gave out 1 rental a month). I've since switched to Netflix because I didn't want to pay $17.99 for the 4 extra movies when I hardly need more than 2 at a time and don't necessarily need the in-store movies. I would guess that the vast majority of people are probably in the same boat.

I guess the way I see it, here is your decision:

Do you watch 3 or more movies a month?

• If Yes, continue...
• If No, just go to the movie store...

Do you need to get a movie at any time on a whim as long as you're alright with driving to the movie store and paying a little extra?

• If Yes, Blockbuster Online is probably better for you.
• If No, Netflix is probably better for you. Be patient grasshoppa.

Other considerations

• I have had better luck getting working discs from Netflix
• The friends recommendation system is pretty nice on Netflix (I don't recall if BBO had this)
• You may set up individual family member queues on Netflix

I don't want either of them to "win"

I want both of them to keep fighting it out... for a very long time.

Because when video rental services compete, I win.

Three cheers for competition!

What about Redbox?

http://www.redbox.com/ [redbox.com] They have some they everone else doesn't... Cheap pay as you go rentals. And you can get fries with that!

Blockbuster's New Releases

I got fed up with turn around time with netflix and went with blockbuster. A month later I'm now back with netflix. Blockbuster will not send you a new release until it has been released for 90 days. Netflix will have the movie on your doorstep release day. After renting virtually limitless movies for a year New Releases are all I have to look forward to. Blockbuster not shipping new releases to force store visits completely contradicts what people are looking for.

Until blockbuster can realize that they need to stop putting all their weight behind their stores, netflix will always be the superior choice.

I once had NetFlix

I found eDonkey significantly outperforms Netflix, at least for me.

I was once a subscriber, but I dropped Netflix back when they went from $19.99 to $23.99/mo.

blockbuster in-store rental coupons

they are just a pain in the ass. they come as e-mail links, you visit the web page, print it out, pick it up from the printer, then have to remember to bring the coupon when you go to the store. in the several months that i was a blockbuster online dvd rental subscriber, i didn't use a single in-store rental voucher. if, on the other hand, they had simply tied the coupons to my blockbuster account, i would have used them. and perhaps remained a customer. but as it was, the value-add just wasn't there.

I feel your pain!

they come as e-mail links,

Oh my GOD! The ultimate in inconvenience!

you visit the web page,

Great Satan's Firey Balls! That must require the use of at least three muscles to move the pointer and click the link! Does Blockbuster offer health insurance?

print it out, pick it up from the printer,

Jesus Tap Danching Christ On A Cracker! Those foul villans! They make you trek all the way to the printer? Do they subsidize the required team of Sherpas and ruggedized GPS navigation equipment?

then have to remember to bring the coupon when you go to the store.

Wow! What does Blockbuster think? That we have highly evolved brains with complex memory capabilities? Those fools! Thos bloody, viscious fools!

My Thoughts

I really REALLY like Netflix. I've had them for two years or so and they are fantastic. I haven't tried Blockbuster and I don't intend to because, frankly, I hate the company. Their stores have gone down in quality and the prices have gone WAY up in last few years (specifically video games). All that said, I'd like to comment on something from the article:

"Since the launch of Blockbuster's online dvd rental program in August 2004, they have added 1.3 million customers, but over the last 6 months alone, Netflix was able to add almost as many subscribers. Each customer that Netflix acquired represents pure growth for the company, but of Blockbuster's 1.3 million subscribers, how many of them represent former retail store customers? "

The last few times I've been in my local Blockbuster, they have been doing hard sells on their online service to every customer. They talk about how convenient it is, how much it will save you, blah blah blah.

I seriously doubt Blockbuster has gotten very many new customers at all to their online service. I think most of them were conversions from in-store customers.

No Netflix stores around here.

It's not about cheap. It's about convenience and spontaneity. Suppose some friends come over and we decide to watch a movie. We're not going to wait for one to arrive via mail. We're going to pop over to Blockbuster, grab a movie or two, some popcorn and sodapops and watch the movie right away. The only thing that is more convenient is video-on-demand/pay-per-view, but the selection is usually very limited.

Blockbuster and Netflix each have their own issues

Have you been to a Blockbuster lately? Buying DVDs has gotten pretty cheap while renting movies has only gotten more expensive. The $4.50 per rental they charge is about 1/3 to 1/4 the price it would cost to buy the movie outright. And game rentals are now in the neighborhood of $7 per game! That's just crazy when the used video game market is rapidly devaluing games. Most of Blockbuster's gaming library can be bought for $20 or less. Why spend $7 just to rent it for a week?

Then there's Netflix where I can't just go pick up any movie I want. I have to request it and have it shipped. And that only happens after they get back one of the earlier movies I rented from them. That's a minimum two day turnaround. And while it is nice that you can request Netflix movies from the comfort of your own home, the less scrupulous out there have discovered that you can download just about any movie you want in far less time than it would take Netflix to get it to your door. And on top of that, their "unlimited" rental model leaves a lot to be desired for those who don't rent very often. Their cheaper packages offer little enough that they're not a good deal.

My shipping history...

For 2006 I've kept a log of my movie rentals to track turn-around-times. I recorded when a movie is sent, est. arrival, actual arrival and when I I recorded when I return the movie and how long until they log it received. It's about a 1.3 days on avg to receive a movie and 2.2 days on average for Netflix to record it received. A total turn-around time of 3.5 days per film. Not too bad, consider they're utilizing the postal service. (Which in my area is notoriously poor in performance. A letter mailed 2 hours away can take 4 days + to be delivered.)

They are both toast in the long run - here's why:

On-demand movies are here to stay - they are more convenient than rentals, and as the selection gets better, a nice way to watch older movies that your local video store may not stock. Hard drive space is cheap, and soon it will be possible for cable companies to warehouse thousands of titles that you can watch whenever you want.

Content providers aren't too thrilled with this setup since the carriers (cable companies) get a cut of every viewing.....but it is a deal with the devil they must make - why you ask?

Piracy. Physical media is bad for the war on piracy. Everyone I know makes copies of their Blockbuster and Netflix rentals. Shipping physical media around the world is no way to control the duplication of that content.

The RIAA and the MPAA want to make this an on-demand world - one where you don't possess physical media. You consume the content streamed to you in a protected, DRM'ed out the wazoo, format.

The final nail in the coffin for physical media will be wireless - once wireless speeds are up to the challenge, you'll be able to stream music and movies to your portable devices and the car. It will only be a matter of time before the "lazy" media-consuming public stops collecting physical media and streams everything.

Then the issue of piracy via "media copying" almost completely goes away. Sure it might take 10 years, but it will happen. The hardcore guys will still figure out a way to capture the streams, but if the streaming world is easy enough, available enough, and cheap enough, most people won't bother.

-ted

Screw those guys....

Support your local library. Membership is free, and usually you can borrow all the latest movies and music at no cost. There are late fees, but nothing near what Blockbuster et al charges.

Why I switched

Until this morning I was a Netflix user. I had cancelled this morning and subscribed with Blockbuster before reading this article. The problem with Netflix is getting 'new' movies. I am a medium level user with Netflix (I get a good amount but I'm not one of the more heavy users) but anytime I want something relatively new it is in "Long Wait" for weeks or even months.

Even if Blockbuster makes me wait a while for the newer movies then I can still get the one free in-store movie a week, as well as satisfy the impulse rentals that my wife and I want.

That Was A Nice Update

12 months later ... Nothing's changed. One person thinks their vision is still right. The other still thinks their's is right.

It's like watching a soap opera. I'll be sure to tune again another year from now to find out, yet again, that nothing has changed, except that one has fallen down an elevator shaft while experiencing menopause, and the other will have an illegimate child being held for ransom by their estranged spouse on an abondonded oil platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

I think that Blockbuster has an edge

If you are comparing the Blockbuster Mail DVD service to Netflix then you get an additional benefit of 1 free local STORE DVD rental each week. Netflix can't do that. On the other hand, I suspect that Blockbuster has significant employee theft. They sure have high employee turnover.

I often don't watch my rentals for several weeks! I canceled once then rejoined Blockbuster and my queue remained in tact.

People, they're talking about ONLINE rentals...

From the comments I've seen so far, people are either not reading the flipping SUMMARY of the article, or else are off their meds. Blockbuster has an online rental presence, they offer a few less movies then netflix (but then again they offer some movies that netflix doesn't so it's a bit of a wash.) but in my experience, after being a netflix subscriber on and off for the last 4 years. I've now completely switched to blockbuster. The shipping times (for my area) are at least as fast as netflix, however blockbuster registers the movie as received, and sends out the next movie in roughly half the time as netflix. That coupled with the 1 "free" instore coupon each week (for those popular movies that are released on tuesday and go to "short wait" imediately there after) and I am now only a blockbuster subscriber. The fact that netflix is suing blockbuster didn't hurt matters. Personally I think netflix has as much of a claim against blockbuster as say McDonalds has against Burger King.

Either way, it's nice to be able to rent online, and I hope with more competition us consumers will see better service and lower prices.

Cheers

Amazon Rentals

I think Amazon will have the lead in a year or two. It has had good success in the UK and they are preparing to launch similar services in the US.

They have more than enough stock, and shipping centers. I think they can finally do online rentals right.

Why I'm Loving NetFlix

Selection. Wife likes Christian Bale (after seeing him in Batman Begins). I went to 4 local Blockbusters and only one of them had Equilibrium, and it was a $20 copy for sale. Signed up for NetFlix. Not only is there a gigantic selection, but I don't have to worry about those so-called "edited for content Wal-Mart style" movies that Lacklustre is rumored to be pushing.

I went with Blockbuster

I had been a Netflix subscriber in the past and hadn't had any problems with them. For me the determining factor was that Blockbuster, for the same monthly fee, gives me additional coupons for in-store rentals. It's nice to be able to pop into the store and rent something you want to watch right then once in a while. It also allows me to save money by being on a lower priced plan.

Turnaround time has been identical for me in Seattle. I pop the DVD in the mail one day, Netflix/Blockbuster got/gets them the next day and I have a new DVD in the mail the day after that.

The Longterm Winner....

The longterm winner is the one that can first come to market with a downloadable delivery method.

It doesn't have to be super fast (you can choose your download in the morning and have it ready tonight), it doesn't have to be unlimited (people will pay $2-4 like they currently do), and it doesn't have to be open (most people don't care about DRM). It just has to be mostly reliable, current blockbuster hits, and very very easy to use.

Whoever that is (Netflix, Hollywood, Blockbuster, Comcast, or NewCompanyYetToBeNamed) will most certainly reign while the others scramble to catch up.

I'm still trying both services.

There are pros and cons to both that I'm not going to get into. But the one thing that I've found that no one has mentioned yet... For either service... there really are not enough good movies to make either service worth while. Maybe one good flick a month comes out? I was thinking about canning one of the services, but I might just cank both and rent the one flick a month that I actually want to watch.

Selection

In my experience, Netflix has had a much larger selection of titles as well as a greater number of obscure titles. I don't recall what movie I was trying to get from Blockbuster but it was seemingly impossible to get it because of its obscurity. On Netflix, I got it right away. I also recall that Netflix has a lot more of the Season sets for Television shows.

netflix for pr0n

now I just need a Netflix for pr0n and I'm set.

blockbuster bricks&mortar a dinosaur

Rochester MN is a mid sized midwestern town of about 100K people. About 6 months ago, one of the two blockbuster videos in town closed. This was the one that was in the same parking lot as a Super Target.

I drive home right past the other blockbuster each and every day. My observation is that it too, is on the skids. Used to be on a Friday night the parking lot was jammed with folks loading up for the weekend. Not anymore. Occaisionally we'll head there on a Sat night for something for the kids or a new release. used to be the parking lot was full and the line to check out was long. Not anymore..the place is a ghost town. Also gone is the "no late fee" policy.

I don't have any evidence to support this, but near as I can tell, netflix and $20 DVD's is kicking blocbusters ass.

Zip.ca

For all you Slash-Canadian reader who have had a chance to experience Zip.ca I have to admit, services like this beat the snot out of Blockbuster. Few reasons for this: -Block Busters tend to lack in selection outside, recent American films. There are the odd large BB's out there that have world selections etc but they're often tiny. Zip on the other hand has a huge selection of 'classics' and film circuit movies. Not to mention all the new releases. -Zip is FAST. If you have a watch list of movies, you get the or two (depending on your membership) within a few days if you're like me and live in a major city. As for small towns. I had a great experience dealing with them in Halifax too. -Sure, BB you can walk down the street and pick up Aquamarine before most places get it but for the price you pay on new rentels (regardless of deals) isn't much compared to membership with zip. It really depends on the user though. If you like all sorts of movies and don't watch them every single night you can hold on to the movie with zip and send it to be done and have the next on the list within a very short time. If you want the latest releases 24/7 BB is your bet. I'm a bit byass because I worked of BB and also dislike their ads, selection, promotions and end the end the service.. Can't say much about the service mention in this topic but internet DVD rentals give you a great choice. [J]

I fired Blockbuster

I had to pull the trigger and fire Blockbuster when they announced that they were raising their fees to 17.99 for their service.

During the several months I was using them, I noted that it took them sometimes weeks to process returned movies, many movies would "disappear" in transit, the movies I received would be in the wrong sleeve, Disc 2 inside a Disc 1 sleeve, and did I mention that they took weeks at times to process the movies I would return?

Their service is not worth 17.99, 14.99, or even 12.99. At best I could get four to five flicks a month plus the coupons they would give me for two free rentals a month which make a 6-7/month movie rental for, call it, $15. I can get them cheaper if I drive down to their store and rent them one at a time from the dollar/bargain bin.

I'm sorry but Blockbuster just is not worth the money.

The problem with blockbuster

There are no longer any physical Blockbuster stores near me. I still pay for the free in store rentals even though I have no use for them. This is why I use intelliflix for online rentals. They are cheap, and I have had no problems with them yet. The shipping probably could be a little faster, but for the price it's definitely worth it.

Why do people fall for the in-store coupons?

Why do people fall for the in-store coupons? Are they so short-sighted and impulsive that they really have no idea what they want to do that night? I know, for example, that I wanted to see "Corpse Bride". I added it to my netflix queue while it was in the theatre, and the dvd came to my house within 48 hours of its dvd release.

I didn't need to go running down to any store, risking car accident, spending gas, risking rude staff, parking hassles, the left turn out of the shopping center, or anything else.

Who are all these people who are so impulsive and impatient that they are willing to take a stupid path just for some instant gratification? Is this some left over hunter-gatherer instinct from the caveman days?

It sure as hell doesn't seem logical to me that people would use Blockbuster's "in-store rental coupons" as a reason to switch to Blockbuster's online service. It seems that these people want to hop on the new internet bandwagon, but they are too tied to their old ways to completely abandon them. And for that, they pay. I pity the fools.

Experiment

I did an experiment: I had never tried either service before. I joined both Netflix and Blockbuster at the same time about two or three months ago, and rented from them as fast as I could (returning movies the next day most of the time). The first month, Netflix was a bit faster (I think it led 15 to 11 or something, I don't have my notes here). The second month and beyond, Blockbuster was significantly better (almost 2 to 1). Figure in the Blockbuster coupons (which I do use, since there is a convenient Blockbuster for me), and it looks like I'll drop Netflix soon and keep Blockbuster. YMMV *shrug*

There's Your Answer

Anybody here read to drop your NexFlix for Blockbuster?

There's your answer.

Netflix + DVD Burner = Fantastic

Look, all I'm sayin' is, my roomie has Netflix, we both have burners, and our movie libraries have increased massively.

Go Netflix!

Still fuming over the days of late charges

Every time my girlfriend feels compelled to go rent a movie I walk into a Blockbusted with disdain as I'm still infuriated over the years of late charges. I can recall a couple occasions where I'd forget to return a movie and the late charges would be more than the cost of the movie itself. Sure I should be upset with myself, but there should be some common sense applied. Now when she pays for the movie and they try to sell me their online subscription I scoff. I'll be damned if I give them another penny for all the money the made off me in the past. As it is Netflix has a 1 day turnaround for me once my return gets there. They've been nothing short of spectacular in terms of service. Sure Blockbuster is cheaper, but I have my principles.

I'm using both right now

I've been using Blockbuster Online's service for months now but I'm just ending my 2 week trial period with Netflix after having heard good things about them for a long time.

Short story:

I'm sticking with Blockbuster.

Longer story:

Netflix:
I tried out Netflix because some friends in the area said they have a fast turn around since one of the location places is just one town (15 minutes) over. I had heard about the Netflix settlement (they were sued for purposely demoting fast returners DVDs) and figured that was settled and they wouldn't do it again. Well, my Blockbuster DVDs still got here faster than my Netflix ones...and this was with me churning them over at the same rate. So that was one possible Pro for Netflix that turned out to be a wash.

One Pro that did pan out for Netflix is their website. It was easier to browse and add DVDs to my queue using Netflix and the friend recommendation system is nice. One caveat to this... while using Blockbuster's website I didn't have any complaints so it's only something I noticed using both systems.

Finally, for a Netflix Pro point I figured they would have a wider selection of movies. As a test I searched for "The Last Temptation of Christ" which I had heard was not available from Blockbuster. I was wrong, it's available from both services. Maybe time has made that movie not as controversial though?

Blockbuster:
I started out subscribed to their unlimited 3 out at a time plan with the additional 2 free coupons a month. At the time I also got a coupon for a buy one get one free ice cream, and a free used DVD. The next month I got a coupon for buy one get on free popcorn and a used dvd for $5, another offer was for a discount on a game. You chose which coupons you wanted to print out. It continued like that for awhile but I haven't seen another coupon like that for 2 months now, I of course still get my 2 free rental coupons.

After I got into some TV shows (darn it, I got hooked on LOST) I realized that 3 movies at a time plus the coupons was too many DVDs. I cut back to the 2 out at a time, 2 bonus coupons plan, at a very affordable $11.99 a month. The bonus coupons are great, they allow for immediate gratification on new DVD releases and for spontaneous viewing choices. If I lived far from a Blockbuster I'd re-consider Netflix's service.

Anyway, there's my two bytes worth :)

Netflix, the good and the bad

I was a netflix user for about a year and a half... I would get my dvds in the mail, watch them within 1-2 days, send them back and get another in 2-3 days. I ended up watching seasons 3-7 of Star Trek Voyager along with several dozens of other misc. movies (100+ discs). It was no hastle to me except to have to drive to the post office to drop them off.

All was well until about the last 2 months where at least 75% of the DVDs would never show up; Netflix would report them as being shipped but I would never get them. This was not normal since I had never once prior to this time had to report a DVD as 'missing' or 'not received' in their system... I was extremely frustrated by this and had heard that they have a system in place where if you use the service too much they will purposefully put a minor hold on sending you DVDs. I do not know if my account hit this barrier, as I only had the 3 at a time service, but it's still a very inappropriate procedure in my opinion.

Needless to say, I ended up qutting my service because of the rate at which I would not get DVDS and when I found out about this tid bit of information.

I have planned on going to Blockbuster because:
1. Same or close prices for same service
2. I have one near so using the 2-free movies a month would be worth it.

Quality control, anyone?

I'm surprised that nobody's talking about quality control. While the throttling is indeed annoying, that's not why I contemplate cancelling Netflix every month. The problem is with the quality control. I would say that about 25-35% of the discs that I get have playback problems of varying degrees. About 10% are completely unwatchable, 10% it really ruins the movie because you can't see it all, and the last 5-15% annoy the shit out of me, but I can at least see the whole movie. One thing I've learned is that you never, EVER, watch a Netflix movie when you have friends over. Netflix is personal viewing only, because it's just not worth the risk of ruining the evening with friends by getting half way through a movie and having it crap out. At that point it's too late to start another one and everybody's mad at you.

Since the beginning of February, I've had 30 movies out. Of that total:

• 1 got lost in the mail (Doors concert film)
• 2 wouldn't play at all (Jaws, Saving Private Ryan)
• 3 couldn't play all the way through (School of Rock was unwatchable, Fatal Attraction couldn't play key scenes, Psycho also missed key scenes)
• 4 had minor but annoying glitches (Mystic River, The Gods Must be Crazy, La Cage aux Folles, Nightmare on Elm Street)

Others may have had minor glitches that I just don't remember. So why don't I cancel? Because it's still a decent $/movie, because I'm not convinced the alternative is better, and because I have hundreds of movies in the queue that I don't want to have to set up again.

Moods

What works for me as far as beeing in the mood for this or that, I set up profiles at Netflix and use one say, for action one for comedy, and one for drama. Doing this assures that I will have a varied selection at home.

McDonalds' Big Red Box

Netflix and Blockbuster better be paying attention to McDonalds (http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t- 365864.html).
My local McDonalds has a kiosk that lets you rent DVDs for $1/day. I have read that it is very popular.
Now, it won't satisfy you SlashDot readers who want to rent Tron, but the selection is probably "good enough" for 50% of the popluation. Personally, I think this a much larger threat to Blockbuster than NetFlix.
So, either way, Blockbuster is dead. Killed by NetFLix or McDonalds. ,dave

Despite any problems, Netflix is still better

After I convinced my wife to sign us up for Netflix last year, she wanted to try a trial membership with Blockbuster.

We'd already gone through about 10 movies in the first month with Netflix with no problems.

In the trial membership with Blockbuster we went through 9 movies, of which:

2 were totally unplayable due to scratches. (these were the so-called "free" rentals we picked out from our local brick&motar Blockbusters.)

4 were mostly playable, but had to skip a scene due to scratches.

2 were scratched, but played fine after cleaning.

1 was a fairly new disc apparentally - no scratches on it at all.

Now, after one year with Netflix, we've had minor problems with 1 scratched disc - which Netflix addressed by expressing us a new copy, and we had one instance of getting the wrong version of a movie (fullscreen vs. widescreen.) Again, Netflix expressed us the correct disc.

We were doing the standard 3 movies at a time plan, but have since dropped back to 2 movies at a time. We figure this allows us to always have 1 movie at home while Netflix processes our second title. We haven't been heavy viewers, so we can get new releases fairly quickly if we want.

Netflix has more titles than Blockbuster and their customer service has been excellent the few times we've had to use it. Blockbuster's free rental from their brick&motar stores is sort of a neat idea (get what you want, *NOW*) but their selection sucks, their movies look like they've been worked over with 20 grit sand paper, and - surprise! - if you aren't careful, you can still get smacked with late fees on that "free" rental of yours! Woo-hoo!

Even if Blockbuster's "free" rentals applied to games, you're still stuck renting last year's mediocre titles.

Aren't they missing the point?

Will either service be around much longer? Honestly, since I got TIVO I hardly ever use NetFlix anymore. Movies On Demand are coming down in price and you can save them to your TIVO hard drive.

Distribution Centers...

I'm with Blockbuster, and overall, I'm pretty satisfied. For me, the big selling point was the in-store rental coupons since there are times that someone in my family really wants to watch a movie. For example, we see a movie and then decide to see the sequel, or a friend mentions a very interesting movie that I want to get on the way home. But anyway... I'm here to talk about distribution centers. I live about 5 miles away from one of Blockbuster's distribution centers, and for the first few months, that seemed to be where I got all (or at least most) of the DVDs from. But suddenly things changed, and they all started coming from another center which is about 200 miles away. While the close one always had overnight shipping, the far one was overnight only about half the time. I asked Blockbuster and they basically said "too bad, you can't change it, it based on super-complex algorithms that change minute-by-minute" and other hand-waving. But basically, their answer came down to "the post office says that both of those centers should give you 1-day delivery" -- and I looked it up at USPS.com, and sure enough, that is what they say. However, I still want my movies to come from the close distribution center instead of the far one. But anyway, what I REALLY want to ask is... Has anyone every tried returning a movie -- on purpose -- the the wrong (closer) distribution center? As long as I used the same sleves, but changed the address with a label, it seems that it should work fine. But I'm reticent to try it since the DVD might then get "lost". Has anyone done this before?

My Blockbuster/Netflix Experience

My first experience with Netflix was several years ago. I liked it, but the problem was that the DVD's were often too slow for how much it cost. So I cancelled.

Then, a couple years later I went back and thanks to their new shipping centers (some of which were close to where I lived) speed was much faster and their selection had pretty much everything I could ever want. That was about a year and a half ago and I've been generally happy with them ever since.

However, I did try Blockbuster about a year ago or so, around the time that they launched with the really low price, and before Netflix dropped their price for the 3-at-a-time plan. Generally, everything was fine with Blockbuster, the only problem was, at that time at least, their selection was sorely lacking. I mean, if all you wanted was a good mainstream selection they had you covered. But for me, whose tastes have a little bit wider of a range of stuff, I was severely disappointed in my choices, and that's why I cancelled.

Now, honestly, if they didn't take so long to get here (I live in the Southeast) I would simply go with Greencine because they have the best and most diverse collection out there, and the few holes I've noticed in Netflix's collection are plugged wonderfully by them. But, the time lag is just too large to be worth the effort, IMO.

So, until something better comes along, I'm sticking with Netflix

already made the change

from netflix to blockbuster.

i was with netflix for 4 months. i was watching about 2-3 movies a week and sending them back quickly. after a while they were sending me 1-2 movies a week. i emailed them and they sent me a reply quoting their "change in policy toward" that rewarded their less frequent users.

i then subscribed to blockbuster and, although they don't have nearly the selection that netflix has, haven't had the same problem at all. in fact i also get one in-store coupon per week for a free movie rental.

of course time will tell.

Haven't been in a Blockbuster in 5 years

Ever since they hosed me multiple times for fees I didn't owe. Maybe folks will forget that in a few years, but I won't. Even if they move to streaming movies on demand, I will use netflix, or billy-bob's video streaming, (or doing without for that matter) before I ever do business with Blockbuster again.

Re:Blockbuster's limited Library

What the heck are you smoking? Blockbuster has over 50,000 DVD titles - as much as NetFlix has. The difference is, Blockbuster doesn't throttle you like NetFlix does. I consistently get over 20 rentals per month on a 3-out-at-a-time program. Try doing that with NetFlix!

Re:An Alternative to Both...

Peerflix is a pretty good alternative to Netflix, especially for low-volume users. I can just trade a couple of DVDs a month, and it'll only cost me a few bucks. If I really like a DVD, I can keep it; if not, I can put it back into the system and trade it out again. There's not much chance of getting new releases (or any other high-demand titles) through Peerflix, though.