Blockbuster

[Tomkat]

I've signed up for their offer thingy that is on at the moment, online.

You sign up for a free month of having movies sent to you. You can have 3 at a time, and can be sent a new one once you send back one of the 3 - up to an unlimited amount.

After the first month this costs you £13.99 (per month). Seeing as the average movie costs £3 to rent, this works out at a profit if you rent more than 5 movies a month.

If the service ends up being a bit crappy, or I decide I don't want in, I won't have lost anything after the first month. As long as I cancel before the end, it costs me nothing. Otherwise they just start charging me to my debit card.

It looks pretty nifty. If you like watching films, I'd recommend the service (although I haven't been sent a movie yet, so my opinion is still in-progress).

http://www.blockbuster.co.uk if you're interested.

[Nondescript Human]

omg ban for advertising.

[Tactitus]

The speed of the mail is the limiting factor.

[Sunday8pm]

You know you could prolly get what you want from blockbusters from the internet and free too... just ask my friend bittorrent... he'll hook you up... aaaaaahhh that's the stuff.

[Billy No Brains]

What happens if you die half way through the month??

[JC]

It only costs me 99p to rent DVDs/videos/games from my local video store .

[Billy No Brains]

Originally Posted by JC

It only costs me 99p to rent DVDs/videos/games from my local video store .

But surely they are old movies?

[JC]

As soon as they are out on DVD they are in the shop. Its 24 hour rental for new films and a week for older and less popular things.

[Billy No Brains]

I bet thats the cheapest DVD shop in the UK then.

[wu_trax]

Originally Posted by Sunday8pm

You know you could prolly get what you want from blockbusters from the internet and free too... just ask my friend bittorrent... he'll hook you up... aaaaaahhh that's the stuff.

you cant compare crappy avis / svcds to real dvds. its just not the same thing. the quality is sooo much better and you can watch it on real tv. sure, you can download DVD-Rs aswell, but how long does that take? it takes about 30 minutes to ripp a rented dvd and burn it on a dvd-r

[Dante Hicks]

I'd imagine most people who download a lot of AVIs etc can watch them on a "real TV".

In our house, we download things to a general server and have that hooked up to an XBox downstairs which is connected to our TV. This allows us to stream episodes / movies / etc off with no problems. A decently encoded xvid/divx isn't bad quality anyway (especially with recent HD-rips for things like Smallville or Dead Like Me). The quality may not be exactly the same as a DVD, but it's certainly passalbe (when viewed on a decent normal TV, not talking about projectors and the like here).

[Tomkat]

Originally Posted by Nondescript Human

omg ban for advertising.

I don't work for Blockbusters though... I was just letting other people know about the deal - as it isn't bad. If you don't want to pay, then just cancel it before the next month (not sure if I will or not yet - am waiting to see the service).

Bittorrent doesnt work for me as I'm behind a university firewall thingy that only allows a couple of ports through. Fast connection, but you can only really use a web browser.

Update though - got an e-mail from blockbusters:

Hi Tom,

Sorry, but we couldn't find any titles in your rental list that we can send to
you.

This usually happens when you don't have enough titles in your list, or all the
titles in the list are currently out of stock.

I mean... my list wasn't that short. I threw it together in 5 minutes while browsing quickly, as I was in a hurry:

Kill Bill 1 + 2 (seen them already, I just fancy seeing them again - plus my girlfriend hasn't seen them)
Angela's Ashes (just noticed it in the list, saw it ages ago and loved the book <3 )
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (never seen it, have always wanted to)
Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (love Agatha Christie, wanted to see how the films were)
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (never seen it, have always wanted to)
Spartacus (I'm Spartacus! No, I'm Spartacus! No wait.... Blockbusters don't have it in stock...)
Dr. Strangelove (someone made a thread about this film not long ago - and wanted to see it, but haven't had the chance)
The Mask of Zorro (was talking about it the other day so decided to watch it)
North by Northwest (again, never seen it - but have always wanted to)

Now I mean, it's a bit of a random selection - I just flicked through their list of films and picked out a few ones that caught my eye. I'd have thought at least 1 of those would be in stock? Bit crap that they aren't. Maybe lots of other people are taking advantage of the free month offer, so there aren't any. Doesn't bode well for encouraging me to stay with the service and pay though!

[Burbank]

what is blockbuster?

[arbondigo]

Originally Posted by Burbank

what is blockbuster?

Click on the link in the first post and you have your answer

[wu_trax]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

I'd imagine most people who download a lot of AVIs etc can watch them on a "real TV".

In our house, we download things to a general server and have that hooked up to an XBox downstairs which is connected to our TV. This allows us to stream episodes / movies / etc off with no problems. A decently encoded xvid/divx isn't bad quality anyway (especially with recent HD-rips for things like Smallville or Dead Like Me). The quality may not be exactly the same as a DVD, but it's certainly passalbe (when viewed on a decent normal TV, not talking about projectors and the like here).

at first i thought so too, but now that i started watching real dvds i notice the differences, even on my normal, 15 year old, 55cm tv. and then you have multi-language support, which is also a nice to have (ofc, for native english-speakers its pretty much useless most of the time) and menus and the whole stuff. it just feels more like the real thing.
but id never buy tv-shows on dvd, they are just too damn expensive. avis are good enough for that.

[Tomkat]

Yeah, that's what I've done. Just add 20 movies or so and they look through them in order and send them to you if they have them.

I think they update it at midnight... and work out if they can send you some or not.

[Tomkat]

Yes, yes it is!

[wu_trax]

found one here too. 12.90€ per month for the same package \o/

[Tomkat]

Nice idi - I don't have a DVD writer otherwise I'd probably do the same.

It's pretty nifty really... I'm watching my first DVD now \o/

[wu_trax]

i think that ripping is pretty much pointless. i mean, how often do you watch the same movie? maybe once a year? i do have quite a collection myself, but most of them ill probably never watch again. with this payment concept you can just rent it again \o/.(on the other hand, you miss the whole 'hunting and gathering'-experience)

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by wu_trax

i think that ripping is pretty much pointless. i mean, how often do you watch the same movie? maybe once a year?

For certain movies, dozens of times.

[wu_trax]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

For certain movies, dozens of times.

yes, but only the really good ones. in my case thats maybe 10 out of 200

[Dante Hicks]

True, most of the times I've bought something "media" wise (e.g. book, DVD, etc) it's been so I could lend to others.

[wu_trax]

Originally Posted by idimmu

this is kind of trollish, there are innumerable reasons to keep a copy, from wanting to watch it more than once, to wanting to watch it at a more convenient time to wanting to share it or needing your own copy for a video editing project.

yes, but most of the time you dont really need it, it just feels good to have them all

[Tomkat]

Originally Posted by wu_trax

with this payment concept you can just rent it again \o/.(on the other hand, you miss the whole 'hunting and gathering'-experience)

Although if they don't have it in stock, they'll send you another from their list. I only got some that were 20th or so in my list.
If you burn them, you can watch them there and then.

[wu_trax]

ok, if you are german or ever should come here and think about signing up for such an online-dvd-rent-service-thging NEVER EVER use dividi.de. this for sure is the most crappy service i ever used. they managed to book the money off my bank-account within a day after a signed on. i didnt even know its possible that fast. then, last tuesday, they send me an email that they shiped my first dvds. do you know when i got my dvds? today!! thats one week. if they way back also takes that long i get a total of 4 dvds per month for 20€.
oh, and to top that all one out of two dvds is so scratched that im not able to ripp it.

[Tomkat]

It takes 1 day for blockbuster - well it does to me
Love it.

And still aren't paying yet. I think I'll keep with it though, it's great.

My girlfriend has a new computer with a DVD-rewriter in, so I might rewrite a few choice DVDs. I don't know though, I quite like the idea of owning them legally, and having their boxes properly on the shelf. There's something more "complete" about it than having loads of DVDs that aren't the originals.

[wu_trax]

Originally Posted by Tomkat

It takes 1 day for blockbuster - well it does to me
Love it.

And still aren't paying yet. I think I'll keep with it though, it's great.

My girlfriend has a new computer with a DVD-rewriter in, so I might rewrite a few choice DVDs. I don't know though, I quite like the idea of owning them legally, and having their boxes properly on the shelf. There's something more "complete" about it than having loads of DVDs that aren't the originals.

if you rip them you need to get dvd-boxes and print out the covers aswell, else it really doesnt feel complete.
on the other hand, watch out for any special offers at stores. i made a real nice copy of a movie once, only to find out that some store offered it for 4€. if i add up everything, the rent, the dvd-box, photo paper and ink for the cover etc. i probably paid more for my copy than for that original that shop offered.

[wakey]

Theres so many of these things that you can can get free rentals for well over a yearbefore deciding which service to go with. And theres more of these services appearing in the uk every month so your never in short supply of free trails to abuse