Online Movie Rental: Choosing the Right One

Renting DVD's online is increasing in popularity, but it remains a short-term, imperfect solution. While we wait for technology to catch up with the ambitious promises that were made years ago (that's right, I'm referring to ubiquitous broadband and streaming movies), we'll continue to see greater and greater demand for online movie rentals. 

So for those who are now making the decision to try one of these services, or for those who are considering a move, here are a few factors that you should consider in making your decision:

• Distribution Centers: so that your DVD's arrive quickly, you will want to be sure that there is a fulfillment center near you. This can make the difference between a 1 to 2 day turnaround, and a 3 to 4 day turnaround. This consistent turnaround time will become important to you as a user of the service so that you can plan your returns and rentals around typical viewing nights.
• Movie Selection: the breadth of movie selection is obviously important. Many movie watchers are primarily interested in new releases, but you might also want to consider what the inventory of TV series, classics, and movies from the past two decades is like You might even join the ranks of those who turned off cable entirely once they began using a rental service. Having regular access to series hits from HBO, Showtime, and network television is very attractive.
• Movie Availability: a huge library of movies does you no good if your DVD rental house only has one copy of each! This figure will probably never be disclosed, but for the most part, the more popular the service, the deeper their inventory. In this area, Netflix is generally considered to outrank Blockbuster.
• Plan Selection: each rental house should have a plan that satisfies your requirements, but some offer more flexibility than others. Examine your movie viewing habits and be sure your chosen rental house has a plan that fits.
• Ease of Use: as you build your queue and look for movies to rent, you'll start to appreciate more and more how easy a web site is to use. Looking at things like search facilities, response times, site down times, availability of information in areas like popup dialogs, ease of navigation, etc. will have a big impact on your satisfaction with a service. I personally find this one of the top three factors for online DVD rental selection.
• Reputation: you're probably aware of the two largest players in online DVD rentals, and those are Blockbuster and Netflix. But what you might not know is that there are plenty of other niche providers like Disney for children's movies, DVD Empire, and other smaller providers. Unfortunately, many of these smaller services are smaller for a reason: they just don't compare to the two big guns. To avoid any painful experiences, you should probably stick to the known entities.

Considering all of the factors above, there really are only two logical choices for a rental house, and those are Blockbuster and Netflix. To look at how each of these rental houses stacks up with the other, and to see which one's best for you, check out this Blockbuster and Netflix review. It stacks the services up side-by-side, and can help you make a better decision.