Blockbuster vs Netflix - FIGHT!!
I've become a bit disappointed in Blockbuster's DVD rent-by-mail availability. It used to be that a title would pop up as "High Demand" maybe 10% of the time - now it seems 90% of the movies I want to watch (retro anime series DVDs excluded) are on High or Very High Demand all the time, meaning that months will go by before I might get a chance to see them. What the hell, guys?
I'd switch on On Demand, but the thing is that I really like the extras that accompany DVDs most of the time. Gag reels, commentary, whatever - I like to check that stuff out, and most of it just isn't there on streaming options. Sad. Extras aside, I could also watch things using Amazon's Instant Video, though something about paying almost $3 an episode bothers me a little... I guess when it's part of the rental fee I'm less bothered because chances are that if you calculate the number of discs, how long it takes me to get them and watch them, and how much I pay Blockbuster for that time, I'm looking at something like $8 for a season of True Blood, vs. $30+ for Amazon Instant. Of course, if I have to wait for weeks and weeks, it's not as good of a deal anymore.
So, now I'm contamplating giving Netflix by mail another crack. We used to have Netflix by mail, then a customer service gaffe sent us off. Well, presumably. I'm still almost positive that Chuck failed to report a mis-sent disc (we were supposed to get Hellboy, and instead we got someone's personal DVD-R of Iron Chef America) in the proper way - but even so, poor user interface design that makes errors hard to report is not a good sign either. We switched to Blockbuster Online before we moved to Green Bay, so it's been a good 5 years or more, but this recent lag in availability is making me seriously want to see what things are like elsewhere for those of us who enjoy physical DVDs and the extras that accompany them.
I'd switch on On Demand, but the thing is that I really like the extras that accompany DVDs most of the time. Gag reels, commentary, whatever - I like to check that stuff out, and most of it just isn't there on streaming options. Sad. Extras aside, I could also watch things using Amazon's Instant Video, though something about paying almost $3 an episode bothers me a little... I guess when it's part of the rental fee I'm less bothered because chances are that if you calculate the number of discs, how long it takes me to get them and watch them, and how much I pay Blockbuster for that time, I'm looking at something like $8 for a season of True Blood, vs. $30+ for Amazon Instant. Of course, if I have to wait for weeks and weeks, it's not as good of a deal anymore.
So, now I'm contamplating giving Netflix by mail another crack. We used to have Netflix by mail, then a customer service gaffe sent us off. Well, presumably. I'm still almost positive that Chuck failed to report a mis-sent disc (we were supposed to get Hellboy, and instead we got someone's personal DVD-R of Iron Chef America) in the proper way - but even so, poor user interface design that makes errors hard to report is not a good sign either. We switched to Blockbuster Online before we moved to Green Bay, so it's been a good 5 years or more, but this recent lag in availability is making me seriously want to see what things are like elsewhere for those of us who enjoy physical DVDs and the extras that accompany them.