Change of Heart: 3 DVD rental services reviewed
Can a DVD addict find happiness through a mail-order rental business?
Can a DVD addict find happiness through a mail-order rental business?
I don't know what it is about the many DVD rent-by-mail operations popping up around Australia that initially put me off.
Is it the fact that DVDs wouldn't fit in my mailbox anyway, and walking past the video rental store to pick up undeliverable DVDs at the Post Office didn't seem like the greatest of ideas?
Or maybe it's just the fact I imagined the selection would about the same as trying to pick a good flick from the video section at Woolies.
Or is it simply the involvement of the Post Off ... erm, never mind. Don't want to upset any postal workers.
But other people I knew were joining these schemes ... and liking them. What did they know that I didn't? There was nothing else to do but join one myself.
First of all, if you've been a sceptic like me, it's probably best to take a quick look at how these things work.
In general, once you've chosen which service you intend to go with, you sign up online for a specific payment plan (giving your credit card details, of course). You then can start choosing your list of preferred movies. (This, of course, means that you'll need to visit the online site regularly to manage your account.) The first-available DVD or DVDs from that list you create online are sent to you -- or to your office if your home mailbox isn't big enough -- in envelopes not much bigger than the disc itself. (Sorry, no DVD cases.) A return envelope is also included so you can pop the DVD back in the mail as soon as you've finished with it. There are no late fees, but no new discs are mailed out to you until the last ones are returned. And because you're usually charged a fixed rate on a weekly or monthly basis, taking too long to return movies just means you're spending more per movie.
When I joined at the beginning of the year, four different operations seemed to be taking in the lion's share of the business: Meteor, Homescreen, Quickflix and the Telstra-owned BigPond Movies (formerly known as Fetchmemovies). I joined Meteor because several people had recommended it. Unfortunately, Meteor went out of business in March of this year, so of the remaining three (each of which service all of Australia) I chose Homescreen, but the basics of the experience are similar for the other two as well.
The online Web interface makes it easy to select your wishlist, or "must-see" of movies (they like you to keep 15-20 movies in your list so they'll be able to send you something you want even if some of your choices are not available). The choice isn't quite as extensive as my local Blockbuster, but most of the movies I could come up with were there. And, of course, the Web sites provide a lot of features such as search, and dynamic "Top rentals" lists to make it easy to find movies. As you rate more and more movies on each of these sites, you are presented with (hopefully) better recommendations.
Once the movies you choose are in your list, they are displayed with a rough indication of availability (for example, example, "usually available", "short wait", or "longer wait"). One good thing about choosing movies this way: you'll often select films or television shows that you wouldn't when browsing through the rental store in person. One bad thing: you'll often select films or television shows that you'd have the sense not to when browsing through the rental store in person.
Is the demise of Meteor an omen for the future of DVD mailing services? I wouldn't bet on it. In the US, Blockbuster has already jumped on the bandwagon with a service of its own. Amazon UK now offers the option of renting select DVDs by mail.
In any case, I know of quite a few people who have joined a DVD mailing service recently and seem to be very happy with the system.
Let's take a look at how the current national competition stacks up. I asked Homescreen, Quickflix, and BigPond Movieseach the same questions, including "How many titles do you have in your catalogue?" and "How big is your support staff?".
I also created my own list of "essential" movies (focusing a bit more on the obscure titles) in order to see if any of the different services had a noticeably broader catalogue.
(There are other regional providers of this service, but I have concentrated here on those who operate nationally.) Here are the results:
| DVD title | BigPondMovies | Homescreen | Quickflix |
| The Party (Peter Sellers) | No | No | Yes |
| The Brothers McMullen (Ed Burns) | Yes | No | No |
| Capricorn One (James Brolin) | Yes | Yes | No |
| The Long Goodbye (Altman version) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tender Mercies (Robert Duvall) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tender Loving Care (interactive) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Hercules in New York (no, don't rent it) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Waking Life (Richard Linklater) | No | No | Yes |
| Classic Albums - Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key of Life | No | Yes | No |
Tested: July 6, 2005
Many more movies were put to the test, but when they appeared in all three inventories, or none of the three, they were removed from this table.
None of them, for example, had excellent films like The Straight Story, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Stranger than Paradise, The Last Wave, Bad Day at Black Rock or Stop Making Sense.
BigPond Movies | Homescreen | Quickflix
Though all the services were pretty similar in the breadth and depth of their offerings, BigPond Movies and Homescreen seemed to edge slightly ahead with some of the more obscure movies in our random sampling. We liked the Poplist feature, where users get to make lists of their favourite films. The user ratings and reviews adds a bit to the community feel of the site, but we have to say that BPM took the longest to respond to our queries, kept us in queue loops for the longest time when we called, and even said they could not give out the number of their marketing department!
| Phone: 1800 502 502 URL: www.bigpondmovies.com.au Free trial period: 14 days |
The online service interface with Homescreen is intuitive and quick. The selection is quite extensive, and a large number of older films also seems to be coming in with each new batch of available movies. User reviews are not a part of this site, but that's probably a feature that appeals to some and not others.
| Phone: 1300 852 812 URL: www.homescreen.com.au Free trial period: 21 days |
The online interface is quite similar to the other two, and the catalog of DVDs on offer is extensive. The Member Reviews adds a nice touch and community feel. Quickflix also provides a number of novel ways to help you search for discs, such as exclusive online reviews from David Stratton, and lists such as Time magazine's greatest films of all time.
| Phone: 1300 138 644 URL: www.quickflix.com.au Free trial period: 14 days |
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| * | Average of 9 DVDs per month. Telstra price stated is for BigPond members with four movie rentals per month total (non-members cost is AU$16.95). |
| ** | Average of 13.5 DVDs per month. Homescreen and Quickflix have one-year-contract plans that are slightly cheaper per month than the month-by-month fee. Telstra price stated is for BigPond members with 10 rentals per month total (non-members cost is AU$26.95). |