Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Blu-ray is dead - heckuva job, Sony!

With my recent Blu-Ray player purchase, err, I mean, with the Blu-Ray player that is sitting in my closet waiting for Christmas, I plan on buying a few Blu-Ray movies right off the bat, but then, I may fire up Netflix again. That was great when I used it for HD-DVD titles, and with Blu-Ray discs even more expensive, it may be a winner for me again. I don't watch nearly as many movies as I'd like to, so for the cost of 1 new Blu-Ray for $25, means quite a few rentals over 2 months with a couple of bucks left over (I'd quote pricing, but netflix.com is blocked at work)...

Now that's willpower!!!



Before Blu-ray, I just went to my neighborhood Blockbuster (4 blocks from home) to rent the movies I wanted to see. When I got into Blu-ray, my local blockbuster wasn't even carrying them so I signed up for the monthly mail thing ($18+ monthly). I can rent as many as I want per month, but no more than two out at any one time. Plus, 3 times per month I can exchange a mailed movie for one at my local store, no extra charge, and it doesn't count against the number of movies I have out.

My local Blockbuster started carrying Blu-ray about 6 or 7 months ago, but they had limited titles (about 1 full bay) and limited quantity of each title. But, lately that has expanded to 3 or 4 bays of blu-ray titles and multiple copies of the really interesting movies. So, if a movie comes out that I'm really interested in seeing (like WALL-E), as long as I have a mailed movie to exchange, I can run over to my local store and pick it up as soon as it's released. If I'm not that interested in a given title, I can just wait until it is mailed to me.

At first I was uncomfortable with the expense, but I usually rent at least 4 movies per month, and often considerably more, so I feel the deal is worth it. There must be a distribution center near me because I usually get the mailed movies in two days or less.

Distribution center location is key to some really good renting. I live right next to Des Moines, Iowa, which is where a NetFlix "hub" is. I think all but 1 movie I got from them in the past came from the hub meaning that I put in a request today, and if it is early enough, I have the rental tomorrow. When I send it back, it goes out one day, and it is "returned" the next. Now if I could just figure out which post office they use, I've heard that some post offices will take the rental and put it back into their box before their daily pickup meaning that it is the same day return...

Dang, you guys make netflix sound good. I am tempted to give zip.ca a try, but I don't watch that many movies in a month, maybe 2-4.

Netflix IS good. It would be hard to make it sound otherwise.

Ditto Netflix rules - if only I didn't watch so much TV, I'd get more out of it ...

Just start watching your TV shows via DVD.

Thats one reason I may try zip.ca. I got hooked on Battlestar Galactica, and there are probably a few other good shows out there I could get into, but I refuse to pay for the extra-superdelux-with-too-much-crap fees for cable here in Canada just to watch a couple of good shows.

Thanks for reminding me to add Battle Star Galactica to my Xmas wish list.

You mean "winter festival registry", right?