Blockbuster Total Access
It's summer time which means TV re-runs (and a lot of mindless reality shows). Time to catch up on some great movies missed or overlooked. Last year we rented a lot of movies from Hollywood Video. The deal back then was $14.99 / month for older movies and you could rent three at at time for a five day period. This was fine cause we hadn't seen a lot of those older movies anyway and we didn't want to pay over $14.99 . We had stopped membership after three months upon our list as well as other priorities came up.
This year, the deal with Hollywood Video doesn't seem to be so great. I threw away the flyer.....err...I meant RECYCLED the flyer but the details are here. The key takeaway is that you need pay a minimum of $24.99 / month just to be able to rent two new releases at a time and HV doesn't deliver to your home.
Now I know Netflix is all the rage these days but I personally never liked the fact that you could not return/exchange at a retail store. I want instant gratification! And I want it now!
Blockbuster Total Access is what I consider to be the "best of both worlds." The finer details: There is a 2 weeks free trial period and it's $17.99 / month afterwards (they also have lower prices plans as well). When you first sign up, you create a queue of movies and you have to wait until your first three movies are delivered to you but Blockbuster will give you a coupon for one in store rental while you're waiting for your first three DVDs to be delivered (very fast 1-2 business days). After you receive and watch your mailed DVDs, you can mail them back yourself with pre-paid envelope -or- you can bring them back to the local Blockbuster store and they will let you exchange for three in store rentals. The great part is that while you are watching your three in store rentals, the online queue will still continue to send out your next three DVDs. So you're pretty much never without a movie. The one caveat is that the in store rentals have a 2-5 day limit while the online rentals are unlimited days.
My strategy has been to use the Blockbuster store to get Standard Def DVDs and use the online method to rent HD DVDs since none of the stores around me carry HD DVDs yet.
Some GREAT movies recently rented:
- The Prestige
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Apocalypto
- Happy Feet HD DVD (I thought the movie was OK but the hi-def picture was jaw dropping amazing)
Some HORRIBLE movies recently rented (I want those hours of my life back):
- Pirates of the Carribean The Curse of the Black Pearl
- Van Wilder Rise of Taj
- Smokin' Aces HD DVD ( fantastic HD picture quality but the ending of the movie was a huge let down)
This year, the deal with Hollywood Video doesn't seem to be so great. I threw away the flyer.....err...I meant RECYCLED the flyer but the details are here. The key takeaway is that you need pay a minimum of $24.99 / month just to be able to rent two new releases at a time and HV doesn't deliver to your home.
Now I know Netflix is all the rage these days but I personally never liked the fact that you could not return/exchange at a retail store. I want instant gratification! And I want it now!
Blockbuster Total Access is what I consider to be the "best of both worlds." The finer details: There is a 2 weeks free trial period and it's $17.99 / month afterwards (they also have lower prices plans as well). When you first sign up, you create a queue of movies and you have to wait until your first three movies are delivered to you but Blockbuster will give you a coupon for one in store rental while you're waiting for your first three DVDs to be delivered (very fast 1-2 business days). After you receive and watch your mailed DVDs, you can mail them back yourself with pre-paid envelope -or- you can bring them back to the local Blockbuster store and they will let you exchange for three in store rentals. The great part is that while you are watching your three in store rentals, the online queue will still continue to send out your next three DVDs. So you're pretty much never without a movie. The one caveat is that the in store rentals have a 2-5 day limit while the online rentals are unlimited days.
My strategy has been to use the Blockbuster store to get Standard Def DVDs and use the online method to rent HD DVDs since none of the stores around me carry HD DVDs yet.
Some GREAT movies recently rented:
- The Prestige
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Apocalypto
- Happy Feet HD DVD (I thought the movie was OK but the hi-def picture was jaw dropping amazing)
Some HORRIBLE movies recently rented (I want those hours of my life back):
- Pirates of the Carribean The Curse of the Black Pearl
- Van Wilder Rise of Taj
- Smokin' Aces HD DVD ( fantastic HD picture quality but the ending of the movie was a huge let down)
posted by baconandeggs at 3:05 PM
2 Comments:
i, too, like instant gratification. i, however, am also very lazy. i don't like going out to get stuff. i barely am able to check my snail mail and that walk to the mailbox is only like 20 feet from the front door! i did use the blockbuster pass for the game rentals when i first started to play with my xbox. i get bored of games VERY quickly so it was nice to be able to pop in and out (sometimes in the same day) and mix up games.
one of the things that i don't like about the blockbuster program is that i can NEVER find movies that i want to see when i go into the store. that was what finally drove me to go the netflix route.
granted, you do have to wait for the movies to come, but netflix has a pretty fast turnaround for me, the selection is always huge and i always get the movies in the order that is in my queue. i don't know if that's true for the blockbuster mail-in route, i know that they had problems earlier in their delivery rollout.
but if you are just itching for movies through the summer, i think i have a netflix code somewhere for 1 free month of netflix trials. if you space it out right and use different credit cards and names for you and viki, you could do: 1 month (Warren's netflix), 1 month (Viki's netflix), 2 weeks (warren blockbuster), 2 weeks (viki blockbuster) and then the summer is over. =P
theoretically, it's sound. morally, i'm not so sure, but, hey, if it doesn't bother you, it's an option!
Dude, you are talking to a guy who use to be on Fry's Electronics "watch list." Oh wait a tick, that was Jimmy :-)
So far any movie we've wanted to rent in store has been no problemo. But that could be because we were not after the newest releases.
wow, I had no idea Netflix was one month "free" now. my current trial period does end 6/19. Hmmm...your proposal is interesting. I did think up to Blockbuster 2 weeks for her (currently) and then switch-a-roo 2 weeks under my name. But I had not considered adding Netflix trials as well. It is technically legal :-) Man, I can't be that much of a cheap ass now can I? :-)
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