New Celebrity Sightings

With all of the benefits that I’m experiencing with my online movie rentals, I don’t know why I waited so long to start. I’m using a three-at-a-time rental plan, and I get to watch unlimited movies each month for one falt rate. Whenever I want a new movie, I ship one back postage paid and a few days later a new DVD is in my postbox. In this way, I control how long I keep movies and never have to worry about rental deadlines.

While it’s not a major factor of online DVD rental, something else to consider is the video streaming you have access to. Some services offer a premium add-on where you can stream movies directly to your TV, and others offer a free online streaming option. With the growing popularity of Hulu plus movies on demand, you really have full control over what you watch and when.

With most DVD rental services, you go to their site and make a list (or queue) of the films you’d like to view. You then rank your films on your list in the order you’d like to receive them. Based on availability and your ranking, the videos on your list will be sent to you through first class mail.

Is it a better deal than my local Blockbuster? For me, the answer is an easy decision, particularly if I take video on demand into account. It only takes about three rentals every 2 weeks to pay for itself, not including all of the intangibles like time, gas, convenience, and so on.

Regardless of your viewing habits. there’s a service out there for you. Obviously, the big mainstream services are Blockbuster and Netflix, but there are also more specialized services out there. Services like SugarDVD and URent exist for online adult DVD rental, and GreenCine is a favorite for independent and foreign film enthusiasts.

Another factor that many don’t realize is that these plans can also be very accommodating. For example, I was recently able to pause my Netflix subscription for three months, and Blockbuster was always very flexible with my frequent account downgrades and upgrades as my watching habits changed.