Section 12.2. DVDs by Mail


12.2. DVDs by Mail

Downloading movies from the Internet may be cutting-edge and very quick, but it's not a moviephile's dream by any means. You have to figure out a way to connect your PC to your TV (or else watch movies on your computer, like a total nerd). The quality is fairly low. The selection is poor. The 24- hour window for watching is draconian. And you don't get any DVD extras (director narration, omitted scenes, and so on).

For millions of people, online DVD rental shops are a much better bet. Granted, it takes longer for the DVD to arrive in the mailbox than for Mr. & Mrs. Smith to download to your hard drive off the Net, but you still don't have to dig up your car keys.

12.2.1. Netflix

With 55,000 DVD movies in stock and high-speed shipping that can deliver a DVD to your door in about one business day, Netflix (www.netflix.com ) gets as close to instant gratification as you can expect from activities that involve the post office. When you rent a movie, it shows up in your mailbox in a bright red envelope; after you've watched it, you mail it back to Netflix in a bright red return envelope with prepaid postage . The next DVD on your wish list gets mailed to you automatically.

The beauty of Netflix (and its rival Blockbuster, described next) is that there are no late feesever. You can keep your DVDs as long as you like, and watch as many as you like; your monthly fee's the same either way. Of course, it's in your interest to mail them back when you're finished (because, otherwise , you're paying that monthly fee for nothing).

Netflix's monthly fee depends on how many movies you like to have "checked out" at a time. For example, you can check out one DVD at a time ($10 monthly), two ($15), or three ($18). Free two-week trials of each plan are often available.

The flat-fee system means that you can help yourself to more movies per month (the average subscriber rents about six). It also makes you a more adventurous renter, leading you to explore movies you wouldn't have felt like spending money on before.

Once you sign up, you can browse Netflix's well-structured catalog and build a list of movies you want to rent. That way, as soon as you return each movie, the next one is automatically shipped out.

Netflix may not be as zippy as a download service, but you don't have to worry about filling up your hard drive or wrestling the PC close enough to the TV to watch your films without hunching over a computer monitor. And the movies are, literally, DVD-quality.

GEM IN THE ROUGH
Books and Games Get the Netflix Formula

The Netflix formulapay a monthly fee, check out as many titles as you likeworks so well, the Web's entrepreneurs have applied it to other borrowable goodies , too.

For example, if you have time left over after watching your movies, Blockbuster's online service also rents out video games for Sony's PlayStation 2 and PSP consoles and Microsoft's Xbox game station.

Similarly, with 3,500 titles in stock, GameFly (www.gamefly.com ) rents video games; its pricing starts at $15 a month for one game at a time with no late fees.

But why stop there? If there's even more time to kill, you may as well rent audio books, too. These are all the bestsellers , read by professional actors and recorded on CDs that get sent to you in exactly the same way Netflix sends you movies.

SimplyAudioBooks.com and Jiggerbug.com , for example, let you check out two audio books at a time for $25 a month. (Jiggerbug also lets you download one electronic audio book for that price. It plays on a Windows computer or a non-iPod portable player.) As usual, when you return one set of CDs, the next set gets shipped to you automatically. If you want to keep your audiobook downloads and play them on your iPod or other portable, visit the huge selection of titles at Audible.com.

But why stop at books on tape? What about books on paper ?

This, too, is a blossoming business on the Web. Booksfree.com , for example, will happily mail you books on the Netflix plan. Read 'em, send 'em back, read the next ones, all for a fixed monthly fee. (Works best for people with no public library nearby, of course.)


12.2.2. Blockbuster

Retail rental giant Blockbuster (www.blockbuster.com ) has obviously felt the heat from Netflix; it opened its own online rental service that works almost identically.

Just like Netflix, Blockbluster stocks more than 50,000 movies to mail back and forth, imposes no late fees, charges $18 a month for unlimited three-at-a-time rentals or $10 for one DVD at a time, and so on. (In fact, Netflix thought that Blockbuster's service looked so familiar, it filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Blockbuster in April 2006.)

There are a couple of key differences, though. Blockbuster also has physical video stores all over the States, which it uses to its advantage. For example, Blockbuster's online membership includes coupons for two free in-store rentals each month, which is handy when you can't wait for the mail.

Note, however, that even if you live next door to a Blockbuster store, you still have to mail the rented movies back. The physical shops don't handle the virtual store's stock.


Tip: Netflix and Blockbuster aren't the only online DVD rental outfits. GreenCine (pronounced GreenScene; www.greencine.com ) is a third one. It specializes in art-house films, film noir, documentaries, Japanese anime, and cult movies. And true movie nuts swear by it.



The Internet. The Missing Manual
iPhone: The Missing Manual, 4th Edition
ISBN: 1449393659
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 147
Authors: David Pogue

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