Badmovies.org Forum

As you've probably heard, NetFlix is getting rid of what (IMHO) is one of their best features, Profiles.  So I'm looking around for alternatives for me and my family.  I've checked out a little bit of greencine, redbox, itunes, and dvdavenue.

Anyone use any non-NetFlix sources for DVD video rentals? Any opinions on selection? features?

I use two 'Flix alternatives and I wouldn't recommend either.

Blockbuster started out as a good option because it had competitive pricing and you could return movies to your local Blockbuster store and exchange for another while waiting for your next movie to ship. They also gave you monthly coupons for more free rentals. It looks like the plan to get people back into the stores so they'd spend more on movie and game rentals, or buy more popcorn and candy didn't work though, because they've jacked up the prices twice since starting the service. After the second price hike I switched from the "3 movies out at a time with free in-store rental exchanges" to the "1 movie out at a time with no free in-store rental exchanges". I'd get rid of it all together if my queue wasn't filled with movies that NetFlix doesn't offer... though the inventory on these movies is pretty sad because a lot of them are either "very long wait" or become no longer available because they're rare and people keep stealing them.

The other service I subscribe to is GamezNFlix.com. The cool thing is that they offer both movies and videogames and they've got decent prices, so on paper they look like a good alternative to both NetFlix and GameFly. Three big problems though: (1) Their movie selection is very weak. Mostly mainstream stuff and not a lot to choose from. (2) Their inventory of games isn't large enough to support their demand. I've put a lot of Wii games on my queue and I'm forced to go weeks sometimes before something becomes available! (3) Their choice of mailing method is horrible. Even when they do have something to mail to me, it takes a week (sometimes two) before I get it. :hatred:

I once saw an add for something like netflix and I want to say the name was horrorflix... I was kinda iffy about it and seemed like a set-up for identity fraud. Anyways, I went back a couple of days later to look at the site and it was gone. So be careful!!

Like AnubisVonMojo, I agree that blockbuster is a complete rip-off.

I wonder exactly how getting rid of the profiles is going to effect netflix?  :bluesad:

What's funny (to me) is that I have never seen this as a selling point for Blockbuster.  Seems like a gimmick.  I mean, if I WANTED to drive to the store, I'd just use Blockbuster anyway!  Why bother with the mail-in DVD rentals at all?

are they getting rid of user reviews (http://www.netflix.com/StrangerReviews?prid=477892184&lnkctr=MDP2RL) as well?



what is their to the profiles beyond the user reviews?

When it first started, the online service was something like $20 a month for 3-at-a-time. If you watched (or just duped) enough movies, you could rent something like $240 worth of movies or more a month between the mailed movies and the free rental movies, provided you rented nothing but the more expensive new release titles. For our household it was well worth it. The website also offered a large selection of movies that our local store didn't, so that added to the appeal. Of course, in an effort to try and salvage some of that money, the Blockbuster store would hold onto movies for several days before returning them to the nearest routing station, so this greatly slowed the number of mailed movies you could receive over a period of time, not unlike NetFlix does for customers whose heavy viewing habits cut into their bottom line. But, since downscaling to the "by mail only" service, I've discovered that the turn around time for the mailing service is much faster when the only thing standing between you and a routing station is the US postal service.

As it's all been said, I had Blockbuster and it started out great and the quality went down and the prices went up and it sucked so I dumped it.

I have Netflix now and frankly never saw the need for additional profiles. My kid stream movies online, (which you can only do on the primary profile) I don't worry about the rating level, because well my kid minds.

I have a 3/mo plan with two profiles.  My wife has one and i have one.  We have completely different tastes in movies (which is why I'm on this board...and she's not : ) but also different viewing patterns.  She'll keep a movie for a week..maybe let the kids watch it a few times if it's something she got for them. I'll watch one usually the night I get it, next night at the latest.  This means that are recommendations (which have found me a few gems) are based from much different viewing and rating patterns and we can manage the movies going back and forth much easier than trying to juggle one queue with two much different usage patterns.

So... it works really well for us.   They don't have two plans together that will give the same number of movies for the same price so I really don't want to break out to two accounts.

Makes sense to me!

My wife doesn't watch many films and when she does it's what ever I'm watching ... which generally ends in "This is stupid, I'm going to bed." So I say ... "Woman! Do not realize "Blazing Stewardesses" is a cinematic master piece?!!"

I do the same thing watch it the night it comes in then gone the next day ... I'm getting my monies worth.

A little off subject, , I have netflix, I go from 3 at a time in the winter to 2 at a time in the summer. Anyways, I've never had any use for the profiles, but if they allowed you to put a note beside a movie, , even just 8-10 characters would be awesome. I could label whatever ones are in because they're on film4's 50 movies list, , maybe put "Troma" "Cronenberg", "Lynch" beside them so I can shuffle them around according to my mood. . I have 50 or so (including 10-12 that they don't have yet), and I don't think I could remember just WHY I put half of them in there.
Anyways, I'm glad you all let everyone know that blockbuster seems to suck, I was kinda trying to talk the wife into switching to it, since they said they had a couple movies that netflix doesn't. I guess I won't be doing that. Thanks

Yeah Ghouck, unless you've got an extra $13 and at least 30 or so movies on Blockbuster that you can't find on NetFlix to make the "1 movie at a time by mail" worth your while, I wouldn't bother.

Blockbuster's shafting of their customers is an even bigger insult because when they first started I kept telling people how great their service was in spite of the frequent, "Blockbuster is EVIL! I'll have no part of giving them my money!" responses. Before I knew it I was staring at the second email price gouge notice uttering, "Et tu Blockbuster?" :bluesad:

Well, ok, point is that Blockbuster sucks and NetFlix is doing away with a vital feature...so the question remains...

What others are there out there?  greencine.com seems to have a great selection in he b-movie realms, but they don't have anything like profiles, either.  Intelliflix has "subaccounts". dvdavenue? itunes would be cool because I watch everything on my computer anyway (note: I'm on a mac so that's not an option with NetFlix).  Has anyone used any of these or anything?

Good News, Netflix is KEEPING the profiles. Here's a C/P from an email they sent me:

Dear Gregory,

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

I like to use the redbox.  The selection is pretty thin, but it is nice to only gamble on $1 for a movie released within the last year or so.  There are 3 redboxes within a few minutes of my house, so I can usually find the new release movie I am looking for. 

It is also nice that you can return the movie to any redbox and search online to see what your local redbox has in stock.

HOWEVER, it can sometimes be a pain in the butt to return a movie.  You have to wait until nobody is there before you can return one.  If someone is ahead of you looking for a movie, you just have to wait until they are done before you can return yours.  I am way too impatient for this!   :hot:

Honestly, I never saw any real point to the profiles. At least not enough for the lack thereof to be worth canceling your account. I know they've halted the "view now" until after January because that division lost money so I can only assume that profile maintenance was another cutback needed to remain competitive in the tough market. But I feel strongly that Netflix is the best of its kind so I'd stick with it. Who really cares about the profiles that much?

I never really saw the use of profiles either.  I'm the only one in my family who uses it and if my mother wants to rent something I just have her tell me what it is then put it up at the top of my queue so that when I get my next shipment of rentals it is there give it to my mom so she can watch it, then when she's done she gives it back to me send it back end of story.  I have my account on hold for now and it goes back online for me next month, so I need to finish the movies in my collection so I can get my backlog worked and when my netflix rentals start coming again I can watch them and not worry about the stuff that I own that I will probably get rid of after I finish them if I don't like them.   

Actually, once my fiancee and I filled up our queue, we discovered the benefit of additional profiles. Now, instead of dropping things so we can fit new movies into our list of 500, we have 1000 slots to engorge!  :teddyr:

i use facetsmovies.com (http://facetsmovies.com). it's the same sort of thing as netflix, but it focuses on independent film. it's also non-profit, and about the same price.

www.ehit.com (http://www.ehit.com)

Ehit specializes in Chinese film, so they have a lot of region 3 discs.  Shouldn't be a problem for most people.  They also have American films.  Only downside is they're located in California, so it can take longer to get movies than from Netflix.

Redbox. There again, as I said in my reply to the thread on Netflix, when "Consumer Reports," the consumer magazine did their survey on places to rent dvds, Netflix was their first choice. And Redbox was their second choice. You can make of that what you will.

Redbox is fine if you absolutely never rent anything more than about a year old.  I really don't think this applies to most of the people on this forum, though. 

Myself, once in a while I'll get something from there even with my netflix membership.  It's great for new releases and such.

I also need an alternative to netflix. I dont care two whits about profiles. What I do care about is getting a TON of damaged DVDs, really lousy service (its almost impossible to actually get a human being on the line to complain to), a large chunk of my 500 DVDs in my queue have a "wait" of some kind. Then  today, the final straw. I recently got internet in my apartment again. I was so excited to use Netflix's on demand with my Wii! Pop in the DVD...oops! It doesnt work anymore. I have to download netflix on my wii shop, only to find out that I have to activate it on my computer. The wii and the computer have to have internet at the same time to do this. I have a modem with ONE outlet. Meaning I will never be able to give my computer AND my wii internet at the same time. I immediately cancelled my membership. Ive had enough.

To the topic at hand: so no one offers a decent alternative to netflix then? Redbox is unacceptable, I generally rent classics and indie movies. I need something with a pretty expansive selection. Honestly, my 300+ DVD collection is enough to keep me happy if I have to live in a world without rentals, but Id like to find something that doesnt suck that IS NOT netflix. Im done with them.  

I think the problem with Netflix is, like Redbox, it is generally targeted to people who rent new and recent releases.  With the kind of movies that most of us rent, the DVD has been around much longer and gone through the mail many more times so the chance of damage is greater.  Also, they keep fewer of the less in-demand DVDs in stock so we have to wait for them. I have asked some of my friends who aren't bad movie fans (I know, why would I have friends like that?) and it seems they have very few damaged DVDs shipped to them.   I have had many. 

I don't know of anything similar to Netflix, but lately I've been watching a lot of stuff on stagevu.com