Netflix-I need advice

Ok, I don't rent movies like I used to and have not in years. I have a ton of dvd's I have bought but still have not seen. The issue I am having is that I want to see alot of movies but the price of dvd rentals is just too high for me to justify.

I have been looking at the netflix site and am thinking about the 8.99 a month membership, but have a few questions and since I know that some of you on here use them I am hoping you can answer them.

First and most important question--Is it worth it?

Are these the actual dvd's you can buy at the store, as in do you get the extras that are on them?

If you rent a movie that is a double disc set do you get both discs? (for example: Disc one has the movie, disc two has the extras)

Do any of the discs ever come damaged and unwatchable?

I know the site says sometimes you can get them within a day or so, how true is that?

If I think of anymore I will add. But those are the questions at the top of my head at the moment.

I had Netflix (my account is on hold till I get my finances better) and I loved it. Its like renting where you may not get the special features on the DVD. At the end of the day Netflix is worth it. The only downside is that you have to make a decision a few days in advance. There is no "Oh hey its friday lets rent a movie." Its more like "what movie do i want to watch on friday." But really its not big deal. The best part about Netflix is the instant streaming. There are a few thousand tv shows and movies available to watch right away. It can be streamed to your xbox, ps3, laptop, wii, some tvs, and some blue ray players. Personally this was the feature i loved the most.

Now the negatives. For the cheaper price you can only "rent" one physical DVD at a time. So you get a dvd when you return the previous one. Some of the newer movies do not become available for instant stream for a while. Newer DVDs may have a waiting period. I think when Dark Knight came out for NEtflix the wait was like 1 week.

Overall I enjoyed my netflix subscription and I will be renewing it here in a few weeks. There are no late fees, 90% of the movies are in your hand with in 2 days. If there is an issue you just send it back and then resend you a new one. I also like the feature where you can tell them if you sent a dvd back already or if you never received it. You will not be held responsible, as they say on their website "stuff happen.s"

Hope this helped...

First and most important question--Is it worth it? - We signed up about a year or so ago, and I'd say absolutely. We started off with tv series instead of movies. We caught up on the entire series of The Office, Battlestar Galactica, and now I'm starting Lost. So for tv, it was great to get caught up so quickly, instead of having to wait for installments on tv.

Are these the actual dvd's you can buy at the store, as in do you get the extras that are on them? - Both. It's really a crap shoot. We just rented all the Harry Potter movies, some were normal, some were special editions

If you rent a movie that is a double disc set do you get both discs? (for example: Disc one has the movie, disc two has the extras) - From my experience, they've only sent just the movie disc.

Do any of the discs ever come damaged and unwatchable? - Yes, unfortunately that is a risk with this type of service. Though once you report it they mail you a replacement fairly quickly.

I know the site says sometimes you can get them within a day or so, how true is that? They are very reliable with this. Once they receive a disc, they usually ship out the next one same day

Like Shark said, the only drawback to the $8.99 package is that you only get 1 disc at a time. We do the 3 disc package, which after taxes usually runs about $18 a month. But for us, it was totally worth it. I caught up on years worth of tv shows in a matter of weeks, plus the random new movies that we missed in theaters.

Denim wrote:
First and most important question--Is it worth it?

Yes.

Are these the actual dvd's you can buy at the store, as in do you get the extras that are on them?

Generally, yes, though some studios are starting to release what look to be "rental copies" which contain only the movie.

If you rent a movie that is a double disc set do you get both discs? (for example: Disc one has the movie, disc two has the extras)

They offer the option to rent specific discs, so if you don't want to bother with the Extras disc you don't have to, but the extra discs are available to add to your queue, just like any other disc. In most cases, Netflix will have an option like "Add Disc 1" and "Add All".

Do any of the discs ever come damaged and unwatchable?

Of course, you're watching DVDs that other people have used. In my experience though, I have gotten very few scratched discs and you can report the disk damaged and they'll rush a new disc out to you.

I know the site says sometimes you can get them within a day or so, how true is that?

I think a lot of it has to do with how close you live to a distribution center, so I can only comment on my turnaround time. If I mail a DVD out on a Monday, I will receive the next one on Wednesday. However, it's like clockwork. I've never had varying turnaround times.

All of this helps, thanks. I am one of those people that loves extras, so that was my biggest concern. I will probly be doing the smaller package cause that is pretty much all I can handle. I so have a feeling that last sentence is gonna be used against me.

I was looking at red boxes myself and the ones I seem to come across don't have tv shows. I am looking for those mostly

well the nice thing with Netflix is if you watch 8 DVDs a month (or movies on the live stream) you have made up the price difference with red box.... plus they deliver it to you...

Yeah. I never made it back on time with Redbox and wound up paying $2-4 in fees. Blah

I LOOOOVE Netflix! I really really do.

First off, I have the 13.99 two discs at a time package, and that works really well for me.
The reason I go with this is that one at a time is just not enough for me, with mailing time you can only get two a week, and the three (19.99) at a time is too expensive, as sometimes I slack and don't watch them quickly enough and they can lay around, so I'm not getting the money's worth.

Mailing time: VERY very reliable, but it takes like three days actually. Day one: you have to drop the DVDs in the mail, and the local mail center sends them on the way. Day two: localish Netflix gets them, and gets your new DVDs ready to go out. Day three: mail brings them to your door, and you can't watch them until after the mail arrives (so 1/2 day actually).
With my 'two at a time' plan, I can watch between 2 to 4 DVDs a week, depending on how fast I turn-around. It may seem kinda expensive, but the inventory is the thing that's worth it (see below).
Also, I've been with them awhile and have never EVER had one get lost in the mail.

ALSO, you can live-stream a bunch to your computer, and if you have a WII or another connection to your TV, you can watch them on that too (I'm not set up for that). So if you have that TV ability, you'll really get your money's worth.

I think you can choose to have them send you the extras disc, but it counts as a whole movie. They have alot of TV shows too, which is nice. Each disc in the set counts as 1 movie.

Damage: I have only ONCE had a disc so bad my DVD player couldn't read it. They are always clean, but can often have slight surfaces scratches. Just like with any other rental place my DVD player will freeze sometimes, but I can usually fix it by going back to chapters, picking the one after, and back-tracking it a bit with no problem.

***THE BEST BEST BEST part about Netlix is their incredible inventory, much bigger than a local store. I have wandered about following their 'suggested' movie links forever, and adding them to my que. I actually have like 184 DVDs in my que right now, and about 36 of those are instant live streaming ones. And I keep adding. I pull up two other windows (amazon.com & imbd) so I can check the reviews to avoid stinkers (something I always wished I could do at local store). You can also star-rate them yourself just for fun when you're done!

For new releases (they always come out on tuesday), the best way to make sure you get a hot title is pop your disc in the mail monday, Netflix will get it tuesday and you'll be (possibly) one of the first ones to get it. Otherwise you'll be put on the dreaded 'wait' list. I use, for example, this online site to keep tabs on release dates: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/bargain.php

Netflix has really great and easy customer service too. I've only had to call them once or twice, and I got very polite agents right away. Any problem or lost disc you can easily report online. The nice perks:
1. They email you constantly with updates, which is nice. They let you know when they receive your discs, they let you know when & what they're shipping to you. I like this because I don't have to worry about things getting lost in the mail, and I know what and when to expect.
2. If the disc has damage you can report it right away, and I think they can send your a replacement or some other disc, but this has only happened to me once so I can't remember.
3. AT ANY TIME you can put your account on hold and they won't charge you (you can hold for like 3 months I think). You can take it off anytime, and do this as much as you like. Great for iffy finances.
Once when I put my account on hold, I didn't return the DVD quick enough, and they charged my account. I called them up panicky, got a very nice agent IMMEDIATELY, and no worries, as soon as I popped the disc in the mail, they reversed the charge immediately. No fuss.
Also, most are kept at a local-ish location, which is why they get to you so quickly, but on a really rare occasion if you have one in the que that they have to send from farther, they email you to let you know, and send out a thrid choice while you wait, so sometimes you can blip and get an extra freebee!

Again, it may seem kinda expensive, but I have seen so, so many cool movies I'd never be able to get at a local store, plus you don't have to be embarassed if your watching an uber-violent or uber-sappy movie.


okay, I'm done.

Netflix isnt worth it anymore. Redbox is a buck for a movie and I only have time to rent one a week or so. We have a Redbox at every store in town and already had a Movie Gallery go out of business.

I concur with all the above posters except on the damaged discs. IT might be because of how many DVDs I go through in a month, but I've had several scratched discs that were unwatchable, and one disc that was snapped from the center hole outward. That being said, the good discs have far outweighed the bad ones, and they send out a replacements extremely quickly.

Also, all the major game systems now support the Netflix stream, and alot of the TV shows are on their streaming catalog. If you have any of the big three consoles, it's well worth getting the streaming disc (it's free anyway).

I have signed up, have a que all set to go and have watched a couple of things on my pc already. So far, not so bad. Looking forward to disc one of True Blood to get to me.

Whip it out.



I didn't read your question though, so my advice may not apply.

Splitty wrote:
***THE BEST BEST BEST part about Netlix is their incredible inventory, much bigger than a local store.

A great point that I completely forgot to mention. Be it a brick and mortar store or a Redbox machine, no one else has as amazing a selection as Netflix. For casual movie watchers it may not be as big a factor, but for those of us who devour movies and t.v. shows Netflix's enormous selection is definitely the best thing they have going for them. There are tons of movies I never would have seen or heard of had it not been for Netflix.

I personally use Blockbuster online. It is round about the same price. Plus you can exhange movies you rented online in stores for a free DVD with no late fee. You will not get the next DVD in the mail till you return the one to the store. But say you want to watych a season of a show you can work it where you get disk 1 online. Then return and get disk 2 right away and when you return the one instore you can get disk 3 and so on. It is how I watched all of Chuck season 1 and Lost season 5. You can also use the online disk tyo get a discount off of games too.

Only downside to blockbuster online is they do not have streaming online yet like Netflix does.

Yeah, I gotta admit, since I am new to netflix, I am hooked, lol. The online streaming thing is awesome. Great, one more thing to distract me from looking for work.

Actually I just signed up for Netflix yesterday though Best Buy's Reward Zone. 500 pts for signing up, then 100 pts a months for 6 months. 1100 total. Might be something to look into, if you use Reward Zone a lot.

since you use netflix now, do not forget to rate the shows/movies you watch. this way netflix can offer you some more movies that fit your style, movies you may have never heard of before but you will like....

I've cut a lot from my entertainment budget, but I'll never give up my Netflix. We just got our Wii set up to stream the Instant View to our TV and we love it.