Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

This seems quite good to me - free postage (see how long that lasts) and up 4 DVD's for 8 quid (2 quid each for the mathematically challenged :D)

[Admin Edit] (Neil)-Source= The Register.

Please give credit to websites when using their work, I would feel the same if people were copying/pasting our work without crediting us.

(There's also no need to quote the whole article when a paragraph or so will do) :)

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Erm, well at the moment they having BIG problems shipping things to me that supposed to be shipped within 24 hours and I am still waiting a week later so I doubt many ppl will say this service will be "good".

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

That is odd, I ordered two Gamecube games on Monday and Tuesday nights and they both arrived this morning (one was shipped in 28 hours and the other in 16 hours).

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Oh I got Buffy Season boxset 1-7 and the Ultimate Matrix Box Set in record time and then I get a bunch of stuff that takes AGES to ship ??? very uneven service.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

screenselect are still the best, well worth the £14.99 a month

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

this is a really poor DVD rental deal and I suspect will be quickly improved.

a)it's poor because unlike 90% of the other online sites they dont offer a free trial - usually you get 2 weeks or a month.

b)the one I'm with at the moment offers 3 at a time for £13 a month with no limit to the number you can have although technically I'd expect not to be able to have more than around 15 per month due to the speed of post. much better value than amazon.

c)the online help/faq is crap. one major issue with some companies (especially blockbuster) is that when they get the DVD you have returned they wait until the next day before posting your next selection. Cant find any help on this in the FAQ. I believe screen select dont do this which is a tick in their box. Also worth noting that some work at the weekends while others only do mon - fri. If they work saturdays it's also means quicker turn around.


So before you jump in - always do it via a trial! or dont bother at all.

And look for a service which has plenty of stock - ie. when the latest release comes out has sufficient copies to be able to meet a reasonable amount of demand.

Note that ScreenSelect operate a very poor trial - any releases within the last 4 weeks are not available to trialists BUT this probably means paying customers get a better service than other sites that do 'fully featured' trials.


nb. when I tried a screen select trial only to find latest releases arent issued to trialists I phoned up to discuss and was passed to a man who said "I can help you with that - do you want me to fix it?" or words to that effect. After the call I checked my account and he had cancelled my trial and closed my account!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

During my trial with them I got 3 new release DVD's certainly released considerably less than a month before the trial started.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

this is in the FAQ and is not available to see unless you sign up!

http://www.screenselect.co.uk/help/h...ion_priorities


this probably means that paying customers are more likely to get better service with screen select than other sites.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

This seems like a good offer to me compared with the usual 1 DVD at a time for £9.99, 2 for £12.99 and 3 for £14.99 offered by most retailers now.

I guess the main difference is that you are limited to the number you can have per month. The others are only limited by the number you can receive, watch and post back in the time (theoretically if you watched a DVD on the same day you received it and posted it back before the last post you would be limited to 15 DVDs a month). But if you only ever watched one DVD per week it would make little difference.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I've been using screenselect for a good while now, must say their service is fab. Having 154 items in my selection is a good disinsentive to start hopping around for free trials. I also see I have rated / rented 27 items so far.

They have just started a new product

2 DVDs at once (5 per month) £9.99 so £2 each and comparable to the Amazon service.

My only whinge about Screenselect is on their box set delivery they will send you more than one disk from a box at a time, so if you return 3 disks and have a box set selected, they may send you disk 3, 4 and 5 from the box, great, I have to watch these in order and have no choice of selection from you.

Using the priority system enables you to up the priorty of a box when you want the next disk and drop it to low (unlikly to ever be sent) when you have one though.

Oh and every time I have had one thing as priority high, that has been the disk that has been sent so stock is good and kudos to that.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I'm currently with:-

www.globalerental.co.uk

very cheap - £13 a month for 3 disks and they have good stock - so when a released or recently released film is at the top of my queue, I have so far always got it. (they also offer 4 disks for £16 and 5 disk for £19)

another plus point is that they answer emails! unlike blockbuster. and they have a good web site.

they also offer a full month's trial.

and you dont have this problem with them - "My only whinge about Screenselect is on their box set delivery they will send you more than one disk from a box at a time, so if you return 3 disks and have a box set selected, they may send you disk 3, 4 and 5 from the box, great, I have to watch these in order and have no choice of selection from you."
- we global you select the individual disks from the box set as and when you wish to view them.


the negatives are - turnaround is slow - they only work mon-fri so if they receive a DVD on a sat it is registered as arrived on the following monday. they also send your next disk the day after receiving a disk. This probably doesnt affect the casual user but is a real pain for someone who's a keen film fan.

Also I'm suspicious about the speed they receive post - I posted a DVD last sat evening and another on sunday evening - both arrived at their end on thursday - but when they send me DVDs it never takes this long.

Another negative is you can not change your subscription level unless it's 2 or more weeks before your next payment is due! This is in the small print of course! So I wanted to upgrade to 5 disks at a time for crimbo but when I tried to it wouldnt let me cos it was the week before billing.


I've trialled loads of companies - moviechoices, cd-wow, blockbuster etc


dvd385 were the last people - they were ok for the first month or so but then started to send me items low down on my queue - stuff that had been released in the last few weeks were never available. they had a fast turn around - brilliant in fact but that's useless when you cant get the film you want to see. I got to the point where I was receiving disks and immediately sending them back - that lasted a couple of weeks and then I cancelled. when I cancelled their computer offered me 2 free extra weeks which I took and continued to get disks I wanted to see which I kept putting back in the post!!!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I should clarify - Screenselect allow you to select individual disks from a box, or box in order, or box randomly.
I generally select box in order. The problem being this does not stop them sending multiple disks from the box (in order), what I would like them to do is add an option to box in order that is maximum 1/2/3 discs from the box at one time.

I have emailed screenselect about this, but I am in a minority about this, aparantly most peeps when they want to watch a box set series want the next disk at home ready to go when they have finished the last.

It's a minor irritation and something have learned about and manage in my selection so not a great negative.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

spend £50 at www.currys.co.uk and you get vouchers for 60 days dvd rental at screen select!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I have signed up to Amazon's £7.99 service and I'll let u know how i get on. the moment I get a scratched or jumpy disc then it's an immediate cancellation.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

So the abuses of the previous user of the disk will be blamed on the service provider? Do you switch physical rental stores every time you get a damaged disk?

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Yes please do. I though about it then realised I will be too busy over Christmas to watch any DVDs - maybe in the new year, so I will be interested on your opinions.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

no I don't blame them, I just politely say that the disc was unwatchable and get a refund if it's a store.

Previously I went with another company online and I recieved out of 20 or about 11 discs that seriously impaired the viewing of the movie. That put me off till now. Amazon are more reputable. So hopefully it'll be better.

And the discs should be taken out of circulation after say 10 viewings. Come on it not expensive to get the actual discs itself.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

10 viewings, they are not a charity. Lets see, £2 a rental. Postage costs will be 56p, the envelope it is in, probably printed in the volumes they have about 6p each. So gross income from each transaction is about £1.40.

Now pay for the software to run your shipping, CS, inventory, internet process. The people to pack and pick, their NI, sick, maternity; the disc itself, the plastic caddys to keep them safe, VAT, Tax.

A Rental DVD is more expensive (significantly) than a retail disk. Back in the 80's a friend of mine was so desparate for a copy of top gun he bought it the day it went rental, that VHS cost him £80! Prices have fallen since then and the movie houses have worked toward a commission based system, so you pay per rental, not to buy the disk outright (this is why you could not rent Warner from Blockbuster last year, they were arguing about this contract). I would think that 25 cycles is break even and 50 is what they want to get out of a disk at a minimum.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

No you shouldnt!

Rental sites have very simple facilities to report faulty or missing disks. Either by email of online button pressing. I dont know about SMHarman but I've received the odd wonky disk - the last one wouldnt play and looked like someone had mistreated it. A nice polish on my jumper sorted it!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Sometimes a polish doesn't help. I don't really like skipping the disc to the next clear bits just so I can move on into the movie. if I wanted half a movie then I'd put a half a dvd in it :p:

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

No kangeroo disks received from Screenselect so far, and my antique Panny A360 player is more fussy than most.

The current West Wing disk I'm watching sounds warped, it is certainly noisy when it spins, but it plays fine.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

www.netflix.com will be hitting the UK soon - they compete big time in the states with blockbuster and currently charge around $18 a month which in UK money is around £10 for 3 disks at a time.

they have shipping centres throughout the USA to speed up despatch and delivery times - expect some serious competing when netflix arrive!

hopefully global and others will improve their weak areas due to this.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Between 2 and 8 quid each (ignoring the special case of 0 DVDs) for the mathematical pedants amongst us.
:D

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I have been informed today by mailbox movies that the DVD rental disks cost around £40 when they are new releases and after around 2 to 3 weeks come down to £15.

http://dvd.mailboxmovies.com/welcome

Thus in order to keep costs down these people show new releases as 'coming soon' until they can buy them in bulk at the lower price. The benefit for the customer is that (in theory) lower costs means they can have more copies available or lower subscription prices.


What you'll find though is that most people who rent by mail have new releases at the top of their list and want to see them within the first week of release!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

So far Amazon r0x0r3d!!!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

eh?

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Screenselect are beginning to get a bit crap, so far I've had 2 DVD's in nearly 2 weeks and that's with me posting them back the day after I receive them :(

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Well converting it into (what I think) are letters I get roxored - maybe I do not understand...

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

global are good and I'd recommend you trial them if screen select are going crap! hmm I was thinking of trying screenselect just out of interest but perhaps not!

they reply to emails and send me out stuff on the top of my list which are always the new release of the week. the only downer is turnaround is slow and they operate that policy blockbuster have where they receive a disk then send you the next the following day - having said that though at £13 a month it's good value and the replying to emails bit is a big plus point! alternatively you can have 4 for £16 a month or 5 for £19 - I recon these prices are the best in the market.

www.globalerental.co.uk

I'd suggest trial at 3 disks then upgrade to 4 disks after the trial - but remember if you want to upgrade your package you must ask for it to change 2 weeks or more before your next billing date.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Got to agree about Global, very good service.

Much better than Screenselect and Video Island for both price and turnaround. Never had to contact Customer Service in the time I have been with them, about a month after they launched.


BW1967

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

how's things now? did you change to global?

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Still very slow with Screenselect, the trial with Global seems ok but they're also a bit slow on the turnaround.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I signed up to trial video island (which is part of screen select) a couple of weeks ago.

Sent the 3 disks back yesterday and they received them today but 2 disks sent back to Global havent been received. I wonder if either the post to Glasgow from Manchester is slower or Global put in an artificial delay as Global always appear to receive disks only after a few days.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Amazon still rocks, I have used up my 4 dvd's allocation but I liked them so far I upgraded it to the 6 a month starting 10th January. They email u as soon as they get ur dvd back and they email u when ur next one dispatched and cos there a limit of 6 they seems to be a faster turnaround.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Things going well now with Global - Turnaround is a little on the slow side but receiving latest films which are always at the top of my list.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Same here, Global are sending out the DVD's in the right order (unlike screenselect who I've now cancelled on account of them being useless)

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

turnaround appears to have improved considerably at Global - a disk sent back on Sat morning was marked as returned on monday and another sent back Sun morning was marked as returned today. It used to take at least a day or 2 longer.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I signed up for DVDS365 ... Shocking .. they sent 3 DVD's all of them were cracked in at least 3 places and completely unplayable and they've refused to extend my trial period despite me losing at least 3 day's because of it.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Well, the trial period is just that - it lets you try the service for a bit to see what you think of it. I would say that going by your experience you would not want to continue beyound the trial in any case.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

No, but if I were them, I'd at least offer them 3 or 4 more day's to try it out rather than just lose a potential customer.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

dvd365 have taken over the qflicks (logistics side) and were fairly ****e when I used them - they kept sending me ancient titles way down on my list. and they didnt always reply to emails.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

how's everyone getting on with their rental companys?

I upgraded to 5 disks plan at global but the availablility of titles appears to have tailed off during the last couple of weeks as nothing near the top of my list has been sent to me. Other than Catwoman which I'm not proud to admit to renting!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I cancelled my account with Global, they don't seem to have such an extensive selection of titles and also manage to send out at least 3 DVD's that were completely unplayable. I've started with Lovefilm now, but I'm still waiting for them (a week later) to send out the first titles :(

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I have that quite often - I've found wiping the disk on my jumper sorts it! We recon it's cos my scan player is old and intollerant.


I had a list of about 30 titles at global but last week started to get only the crap stuff at the bottom area of my list - the films I'd want to watch only when there wasnt anything decent out.

So I deleted my list and kept just 5 recent/new releases including Collateral on it to see what kind of stuff I'd end up with. I've received nothing since mid last week. Today Bourne supremacy and freeze frame are out and despite having only 3 out of a possible 5 disks out, I have not been sent these 2 new titles. By tomorrow I'll have 0 disks out. :(

I was thinking of cancelling and trying Lovefilm again but perhaps not after your experience!


is it 'cos you only have a small list and on that list is very recent stuff like collateral?

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

How's Amazon going TigaSefi?

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Nope, I have over 50 titles in my queue and still no sign of any of them being sent ..

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

jesus! I hope you're on a trial and not paying for that!

love film also power sainsburys, last minute, woolies, cd wow - perhaps they are over subscribed!

have you emailed asking where the flip your movies are?

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Not yet, I'll wait until the end of the day, if I don't see anything pertaining to them being sent, I'll cancel my subscription.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Hey Guys!! Right I just used my second quota of 6 disks per month as I upgraded to six from 4 a month so that 10 discs that I could play right the way through with no unplayable bits whatsoever and I am chuffed to bits. However for some ppl 6 a month is quite limiting I think 8 or 10 a month would be fairer and I will email them about it when I get a chance. Also even when Amazon rental list says long wait or short wait for popular titles I do find them being sent to me in any case which is excellent.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I'm still using screenselect and they seem pretty good in sending priority one disks and seasons in order without breaks. Had one unplayable disk and when this was reported using their online functionality it was removed from my allocated disks and another from my selection was sent out later that day, and the replacement for that disk when my next disk was returned.

Used their holiday option over Christmas so this months bill was only £8, that was nice.

As I have over 200 items in my list I really cannot be bothered to tart the list about for a few 30 day free trials.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

ok here's one for you Bifta!

http://www.1dvd.co.uk/index.html

I aint tried these people so I cant say if it's worth it though!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Ah no, I've tried them too, they only send 1 dvd at a time during the trial and the two I got looked like someone had taking a belt sander to the data side of the disc.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

things have declined a little at global - I currently have 0 out of a possible 5 films! in the last 10 days only received 3 films (borne and freeze frame) plus collateral was sent but didnt arrive.

what annoyed me was after reporting collateral missing, they made me wait until a week after sending before removing it from my rented list - which meant I couldnt re-order it until that week was up.

I've also had a film called 'two brothers' in my list since december which is annoying her indoors as it's for her and she wanted to watch it over chrimbo!

I'm probably going to give screenselect a try out but I'm open to recommendations!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I got shot of global, decided to stay with Lovefilm, they sent out my top 3 choices (collateral, bourne supremacy and some other old brock) fairly quickly

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

do try amazon. i found them to be rather good indeed.. *waits till 10th February* that when I get the next batch of 6 for the month.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Why? I watch more than 6 films a month I reckon I can get around 15+ from Lovefilm for £14.99, and let's face it, you can never contact anyone at Amazon when you need to and their usual postal habits are a bit crap.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

it was aimed at etcblokey......

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I think I'll try love film then!

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

What am I, psychic?

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I've been trying lovefilm since last week. One thing they claim is that when they receive a disk they will send your next one out:-

This is complete horse manure. I've noticed that films are marked as received at around 8-8.30am - there's no way they're getting the post in and unpacking all the received films by 8.30am and logging this into the computer. What I recon happens is they get a film back and then a couple of days later the database is updated first thing in the morning.

Funny how I get films they have sent out the next day but when I send films back they never show as received the next day.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

It shouldn't be as all they are doing is ripping open the paper envelope and scanning the barcode on the disk, hardly an arduous task. I would imagine most delays occur when the computer system decides to ship you a disk that has just come back in and the pickers don't find it in the racks as it has not been put back yet.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

since my initial bad experience at sainsburts dvd rental (lovefilm) - turn around has been extrememly good - films posted back at the weekend usually arrive back on the monday morning.

eg. this weekend a film posted back on sunday morning and another posted back on sat morning night both show as received this morning.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

I'm still with lovefilm, no problems recently other than the postman losing 3 DVD's.

Re: Amazon to offer DVD's to Rent at a Reasonable Price
 

Some news on the rental by post world

I am from DVDs 365 (MovieTrak, Qflicks, or MailboxMovies). How will the merger between ScreenSelect and DVDs365 affect me?

Answer
The merger between ScreenSelect and DVDs365 means we're the biggest and best in all the land (even if we do say so ourselves).

It means that everything's shiny and state-of-the-art. And it means we've got new carpet and curtains.

Not to mention some truly superb features for you:
*Over 34,500 titles - the biggest selection in the world.
*Selection Pledge - for any titles you can't find. Let us know and the first copy we get is sent to you personally.
*Film & TV series sent in order - watch your favourite series from beginning to end.
*Problem Solver - a dedicated online trouble-shooter.
*Screen-shots, quotes, enhanced Gift Certificates, Radio Times reviews, news feeds and much more planned.

Thats a lot of companies Screenselect has hoovered up in recent months.