Rent DVDs Online

Friday, December 17, 2010 at 10:52 am

If you want to rent DVDs online, there are a growing number of choices available to you. In this article, we’ll examine some of the top options and provide details such as subscription costs, size of their film library, and speed of delivery.

When I rent DVDs online, I always use the services of Netflix. Yes, we do get a small commission whenever we send a new client their way, but our affiliation with the company stretches all the way back to 2005. We’ve been satisfied customers ever since, and it’s been a real pleasure to watch Netflix grow into its current state (not to mention those lovely stock increases). So if you’d like to see what all the fuss is about, click on the provided link and join Netflix today.

Netflix – The leading online rental service in the United States, Netflix has also recently moved into the Canadian market. Subscribers can choose from their library of over 100,000 films, and all these titles can be delivered right to their front door via the United States Postal Service. Their list of streaming titles is also growing, and Netflix looks to concentrate more on this in the future, eventually making the transition to a purely streaming company. They were founded in 1997 by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings, and the primary inspiration behind their no late fees policy came when Hastings was forced to pay a substantial fee for an overdue copy of Apollo 13. They’ve been growing ever since, and subscribers can choose to receive anywhere from eight DVDs at a time to just a single disc. Delivery centers are located across the United States, and the average delivery time for a movie to arrive at a subscriber’s house is one to two days (with one day being most common). Blu-ray discs are also available for rental, although customers will need to pay an additional $8 fee per month to receive them.

Blockbuster – As their number of brick-and-mortar stores continues to shrink, Blockbuster focuses more and more on its online subscription service. It’s comparable to Netflix in many ways, and they offer more than 90,000 titles to choose from. Selected films can be streamed online, received through the mail, or picked up from your local Blockbuster location. There are no extra charges for Blu-ray discs, and customers can also rent video games (one of the few services that Netflix doesn’t offer). The most film you can have at your house at one time is three, and renting streaming movies costs an additional fee.

GreenCine – If you’re a fan of indie, foreign and anime films, then you’ll definitely want to give GreenCine a look. With a library of over 50,000 titles, they specialize in titles that are outside the American cinematic mainstream. They have the largest selection of anime of any online rental service, and they carry a number of movies that Netflix and Blockbuster don’t.

Redbox – While Redbox doesn’t deliver to your door, you can visit their website and reserve a movie online. Then, all you have to do is visit a local kiosk and retrieve your selected film. Kiosks are located at places like McDonalds and Wal-Mart, and they carry all of the latest new release films. If you’re doing some shopping and need something to take home for the family to enjoy, Redbox is a convenient option. If, however, you’re looking for more artsy films, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

iTunes – Movie rentals aren’t delivered to your door, but they can be enjoyed on either your PC, Mac, television, or portable device. All the latest titles are available for rental or purchase, and many are available in high definition. Once you start watching your selection, you’ll have 24 hours to complete it before it disappears from your iTunes library. As you might imagine, iTunes has loads of movies to choose from, and you can also pop over and buy some of your favorite tunes from their music store while you’re at it.

Cafe DVD – With this online movie rental service, you can either choose to rent one movie at a time or join up for a monthly subscription fee. The latter allows you to rent a certain number of films per month. For example, their largest flat fee plan allows subscribers to rent 10 movies per month for a fee of $24.95. To be honest, I have no idea how they’re still in business. For $24.95 per month, you can get as many movies per month as you want with Netflix, not to mention all their streaming online content. If you’re already a Café DVD subscriber, you might want to consider an upgrade to a cheaper and more reliable service.

CinemaNow – Founded in 1999, CinemaNow allows you to both rent and buy movies online. The latest new release movie can be watched instantly over your TV, and over 10,000 films and TV shows are available under this option. Most movies can be rented and viewed online for $3.99, while purchasing a film and burning it to disc usually runs around $15.95. As of this writing, CinemaNow is owned by Best Buy.

LoveFilm – Operating in the UK, Germany, and Scandinavia, LoveFilm offers streaming films and movies delivered right to the doors of subscribers. They have over 67,000 titles to choose from, and it’s estimated that over four million films are rented each month by their over one-million members. In business since 2002, their largest shareholder is Amazon. If you like in Europe, this is the best option available for renting movies online.

DVD Avenue – This online rental service offers both mainstream and adult titles, and they have a library of over 25,000 films to choose from. Shipping is pre-paid, and DVDs can be kept out as long as you want. Plans start as low as $9.99 per month, and you can have as many as four DVDs at home at any one time. Their Buddy List feature also allows you to keep track of what your friends are watching.

So the next time you want to rent DVDs online, there’s no need to waste a lot of time searching the Internet for the perfect fit. Just peruse this handy article to find the online rental service that best meets your needs, and you’ll be signing up for membership in no time. Of course, becoming a Netflix subscriber through our link allows us to collect a small commission, which in turn helps us stay in business.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2010 at 10:52 am and is filed under Netflix Articles, New DVD Releases, Thoughts on Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *