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Netflix
Written by: Kage
Alan
I remember when I first heard about the mail rental
DVD concept and thinking what a terrible idea it was. Whenever I
go to shop for a disc, I like to look at the cover, read the back
(especially if it's something I've never heard of before), look at
what the special features are and, most important of all, what aspect
ratio the disc was released in. Fortunately, Netflix has a
system that addresses all of the issues someone like might have.
Well, all except being able to turn the box cover over in my own hands
anyway.
Why review Netflix now when they've already been around a few years?
Word has it that Blockbuster (still notorious for not carrying nearly
the number of Widescreen versions of titles as it could) is going to
be starting up their own service. I hope that never sees
fruition, but that's my own personal view. After watching
Blockbuster squeeze the life out of Mom and Pop video stores for
years, I can't help but wish this venture has them falling on their
faces. Besides, as the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix
it and Netflix has got a good thing going here.
For the most part, I'd say I've found 95% of the titles I was looking
for. The ones I couldn't locate at Netflix are either from
smaller distributors or they were alternative or independent films.
Now, I'd like to see the company expand their selection of these
titles in the future, but for now I'm assuming they are only going to
purchase titles that are guaranteed renters. Considering they're
the only mail rental place at this time, they'll want to address this
issue before someone else fills the niche.. Personally, I don't
foresee that as being Blockbuster, so they have some time.
The Netflix website is fairly easy to use and it's possible to
rearrange your rental queue on a whim, so that's a positive.
They also notify you on the site what discs are readily available and
which ones have a waiting period as well as indicating what kind of
waiting period may be involved. While looking up a specific
title is fairly simple, their genre searches didn’t particularly
thrill me. If I was in the mood for a comedy, there were
suggestions on the site, but I was unable to find an alphabetical
listing. If there is a feature that allows for this kind of
search, I couldn’t find it easily enough and they should take that
into consideration during their next site upgrade.
So, the plan I previewed at Netflix had them sending me out three
selections at a time, meaning I only ever had 3 discs at my home.
Honestly, it's almost not enough for someone like myself who's used to
going through rentals extremely quickly. On the plus side,
however, they offer other plans that allow for more discs to be
rented, though obviously at a higher monthly price. There aren't
any late fees, however, and you are allowed to keep the discs for as
long as you desire. One downfall I've identified with this is
that for films like "Spiderman" or "VanWilder"
that contain 2 discs in their DVD set, the supplementary disc must be
rented as a whole separate disc. While I understand the need to
do that for DVD box sets like "X-Files", I do not understand
why it can't be an option to get that second disc without it counting
towards the three discs that can be rented at one
time.
As for the packaging the discs arrive in, they're easy to take apart
and reuse, so no complaints there. I did have two occasions in 6
months where a disc had been sent that was either scratched, terribly
smudged or otherwise defective and had to be returned. Netflix
was very quick to respond and send a different copy out to me. I
don't believe there is any way they can check every disc that comes
back for these kinds of defects and they shouldn't have to.
Customers ought to be a bit more educated as to how to care for a disc
than some of them are.
I realize I've been fairly critical of picking out the little things I
believe need to be tweaked at Netflix, but I wouldn't be doing my job
if I wasn't. It's a very good service, certainly a convenient
service that can be accessed with a computer anywhere for those of us
who travel and for those of us who don't always have time to
constantly run back out to the video store to return something, and
it's affordable. For $20 a month, figure on getting 3 titles a
week, maybe 4 if you're quick, for a total of 12-6 titles a month.
That comes out to be a heck of a lot less than visiting your local
video store and also less money spent on gas. Overall, not a bad
deal. There's a reason Netflix has a huge number of subscribers.
With a little work, they ought to be able stomp any competition that
comes their way.
Overall Rating:
B+
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