Sean's Review

Bottom line is that at this time its slightly better than the alternative Blockbuster. Although recently I have been watching the deals that Blockbuster has for now Netflix masters the movie mail service genre.

Before signing up for any Movie Mail Service review your monthly movie rental habits and then check your local movie store prices. Movie Mail Services charge a flat monthly fee for a tiered package which usually consists of 1 movie out at a time up to 5 movies out at a time. Figure that you can return with back and forth mailing a movie every 4 days to count for weekends. (Which will lessen if the USPS stops delivery on Saturdays) If then the price still makes sense try it out. You can always cancel the service there are usually no commitments.

Ask me six months ago and I would have told you the Netflix was the best by far. I use the 3 at a time BluRay option plan. It costs me roughly 22$/month. On average we rent 10 movies a month; although we probably watch 7 of those with the bad movies choices I make sometimes. That breaks down to about $2.20 a movie where the local Blockbuster charges at least $5.

Something in my gut tells me that Netflix has become more popular and their subscriber base has increased because now new movies take an extremely long time to make it to my home. I see "Long Wait", "Very Long Wait" all over my queue. (A queue is what you save movies you want mailed to your house. When you return one the next at the top of your queue is mailed to you) Six months ago that was never happening. It is either that or more users are getting BluRay as its format's popularity increases.

Netflix isn't for you if you need to watch the brand new movies as they are released to disc. For those people the movie rental store is still your best bet. Don't look for new to even semi new releases in the On Demand library of Netflix. While the occasional fresh movie makes it via the Starz library most of the On Demand movies are oldies. There is some value there though when it's a rainy day with no movies at home. You can watch some tv series as well via On Demand on netflix. More and more netflix enabled devices are hitting the market to stream these movies to you. Other services will catch up so don't be in awe over this feature.

Oh yeah, I think the USPS and Netflix are the same company - either that or USPS has stock in Netflix. Some how when you mail a move out, before you wake up the next morning you receive a notification that Netflix received your movie. My take on this is that there is some sort of Netflix receiving machine in the local sorting offices. None the less this doesn't seem to speed up the time in which it takes them to send out the next movie. It is usually two days after you mailed it in equating to on average four days from when you mailed one movie to getting the next. Still your doing a Movie Mail service for a reason. I am sure it will only get better.

The user interface online is straightforward. Searching for and adding movies to your queue is simple. Rate movies you watched and Netflix gets very good at recommending movies you will like. There are even iPhone apps (of course) that you can use to manage your queue. One recommendation is to look at online new release websites to easily find what is coming soon to video. I don't know if its strategical but Netflix isn't always forthcoming on their site about new releases. I usually search IMDB.com for new releases then add them to my queue in Netflix and even add movies to the queue when they are in the Theater.

So to wrap - Netflix may not be for everyone. It has its advantages and disadvantages. If you view more than five movies a month then Netflix can save you money. You need to be patient to watch the latest releases to rentals. With your patience and money saving values you will enjoy your Netflix subscription.

I hope this helps your decision.