Goodbye Hollywood Video; Hello Netflix: Why I've Made the Change to DVDs
Written: Jun 12 '01 (Updated Jun 24 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Some internet services really do have a pathway to profitability.
Cons: I'm still an absent-minded jerk.
The Bottom Line: The DVD player will certainly pay for itself with the money I'll save in late fees.
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| Sloucho's Full Review: Netflix.com |
Of late fees and absent-mindedness (by way of a rather pointless preamble)
Because the Hollywood Video outlet that I patronize is just about the halfway point between my house and my workplace, the renting and returning of videos has usually fallen on me (rather than on Mrs. Sloucho). I suppose that lots of objective third parties would consider the arrangement 'fair,' since Mrs. Sloucho's workplace is in the opposite direction. But the simple fact of the matter is that I am not qualified to rent and return videos. I am chronically absent-minded. Most people would only have to forget to take their videos to work with them on a couple of occasions before they would do something to help them remember.
Well, I am not resourceless when it comes to mnemonic devices. I have tried putting the videos in front of the back door (which only gets them broken when you have tunnel vision like mine), leaving them in the car overnight (and receiving a phone call from a rather irate store manager concerning the damage that hot Philadelphia nights can do to videos), and even taping a note to my briefcase (a note which I didn't bother reading the next morning because I know my own handwriting when I see it and I've learned through experience that I almost never say anything worth paying attention to).
I wish I could say that my decision to go with Netflix and their DVD selection over video tapes at Hollywood Video had something to do with my appreciation of letterboxed movies and digitized sound. But it doesn't. It has to do with the fact that I recently decided I would no longer tolerate late fees in my life.
One morning a few weeks ago I left thirty minutes early for work because I had to get gas and return a weekend's worth of videos (though I have decided not to reveal just how many videos go to make a weekend's worth here in Sloucholand). I set my alarm thirty minutes early because I wanted to leave thirty minutes early, but I was so sleep deprived as I showered that I didn't bother to ask myself why I was leaving so early. I was halfway to work before I realized that I had forgotten the videos. By the time I drove home to fetch them, I was actually running five minutes behind schedule.
Although my fuel tank was running very low, I simply didn't have time to stop for gas. I certainly didn't have time to drop off the videos and was going to have to take care of that little chore after work. In other words, I accomplished absolutely nothing with that extra half hour that I had allowed myself.
After a day of grading papers and trying to help students think about sentence structures, I got into my car and forgot about the videos once again as I worried about getting the car to a gas station before it ran out of fuel. The fact that I did not end up stranded on the roadside before refilling my tank was such a triumph for me that I didn't even think about the videos as I drove past the store at which I was supposed to drop them off.
Only when I had returned to my own driveway did I remember that I had quite a few movies to return. If I waited until the next day to take them back to the video store, I would incur over twenty dollars in late fees. But at that point, it was pretty darn tempting to swallow the charge. And I'm sure I would have swallowed it if a certain favorite website of mine hadn't taught me the value of a penny.
I got back into my car and hauled the videos to the store and handed them gruffly to the clerk who had no business being treated gruffly simply because of my frustration with myself. I left the store feeling like precisely the sort of jerk that other people are forever telling me that I am. And I decided that since my memory only gets worse with the passage of time, I would have to address the problem of my absent-mindedness in some other way.
Enter Netflix
When I first read about Netflix, it sounded too good to be true [1]. The benefits were impossible to overlook:
1) DVDs delivered to your mailbox;
2) More importantly, DVDs returned via your mailbox;
3) No late fees, NOT EVER;
4) A more extensive DVD selection than any brick and mortar rental chain can possibly compete with;
5) Account management via the internet.
Mrs. Sloucho and I did NOT purchase a DVD player in order to enhance our movie-watching experience. We purchased a DVD player for the express purpose of joining Netflix.
And we have not been disappointed. For a very reasonable fee of twenty dollars per month (far less than we used to spend on tapes from Hollywood Video), we're allowed to have up to three movies out at any one time. We can keep the DVDs for as long as we like.
The fundamental principle of DVD rental from Netflix is the queue. After you sign up for the service (at www.netflix.com), you can start adding titles to your queue. You can request the hot new titles that have just come out, but you'll be in line behind the people who have already submitted their requests for the same titles. So in order to be sure that Netflix will be able to send you something, it's a good idea to put together a fairly long queue of films ranging from obscure to mainstream, classic to hot-off-the-burner.
The first three DVDs sent to you will be the ones that are A) highest on your list and B) available. As you finish and return the DVDs, others from your queue will be sent to you according to the same criteria. The fact that you often have to wait for the newest releases is a good thing because the subscription methodology of the service means that it is in your interest to have three DVDs out at all times, which will prompt you to do a little cinematic exploring. And cinematic exploration is a marvelous thing; it opens our minds, challenges us, and keeps us alert. Better still, if your exploratory film is a dud, it didn't really cost you anything. You simply had an opportunity to try something new while you were waiting for the latest Disney release to become available.
The DVDs arrive in a Tyvek sleeve that does an astonishingly good job of keeping them in excellent condition. More importantly, the package that your DVD arrives in is the same package (postage paid!) that you will use to return it. Just rip off the front label (the one with your address on it), slip the DVD into the Tyvek sleeve and the sleeve into the mailer, and drop the DVD into your mailbox. When it reaches Netflix' California headquarters (roughly three days later if you're on the East Coast), you will automatically be sent the next available DVD on your queue.
If you don't want to manage your account on a daily basis, you should spend an hour or two building a queue of a hundred titles or so, which should last you six months if you watch 15-20 movies per month (as Mrs. Sloucho and I do).
The only problem that crops up with Netflix has to do with the time that it takes for a movie to be sent to you and returned to Netflix HQ--which simply isn't a problem if you only watch a DVD every other night. But if you want to be sure to have a DVD every single night, then you can sign up for the $30/month plan (which lets you keep out 5 movies at a time) or even the $40/month plan (which entitles you to 8 movies).
Incidentally, movies really are cooler on DVD--but not as cool as returning films by sticking them in your mailbox.
My review of Hollywood Video can be found here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_26792332932
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[1] I learned about www.netflix.com because of a news story that cynicalone was kind enough to send me. The writer of the story began by explaining that 40-50% of Blockbuster's revenue came from late fees, but that Netflix had discovered a way to make money by renting movies without charging late fees.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Sloucho
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Member: Mike Davis
Location: Philadelphia
Reviews written: 199
Trusted by: 248 members
About Me:
Read my reviews in order to heal the sick and control the weather. Seriously.
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