January 14, 2005

12:33 PM

Are there any online DVD rental sites with 1) per-rental pricing and 2) good selection, particularly of television shows on DVD? [+]
posted by DevilsAdvocate to (8 comments total)

I'd probably only rent one DVD a month, if that, so Netflix-style unlimited rentals/fixed monthly fee plans don't make sense for me. CafeDVD is the only one I've found with an a la carte pricing option, but their selection in TV shows on DVD seems rather lacking. (Yes, I already check with public libraries first.) I'm in the U.S.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:33 PM on January 14, 2005

Netflix offers a 2 out plan with a cap of 4 rentals a month for $11.99. Having tried most of the major online DVD rental places I can't say much bad about Netflix, you certainly can't beat their selection overall.

You also could buy the DVD on half.com and resell it when you're finished with it. You end up loosing some money (about the cost of a Blockbuster rental) and sometimes have to float the purchase for a while until someone buys it.
posted by sled at 12:58 PM on January 14, 2005

Also, which TV shows on DVD are you hoping to rent? Many are multi-disc sets, and DVDs sold in multi-disc sets are often rented individually by the online sites (unless things have recently changed).
posted by gluechunk at 1:24 PM on January 14, 2005

Also, which TV shows on DVD are you hoping to rent? Many are multi-disc sets, and DVDs sold in multi-disc sets are often rented individually by the online sites (unless things have recently changed).

That wouldn't bother me--in fact, it might even make more sense. Given per-rental pricing rather than a fixed monthly fee, I would expect to have some sort of deadline for returning the discs, and I'm not going to watch an entire season's worth of a show in a week! To answer your specific question, at the moment I'm interested in The Prisoner, The Twilight Zone season 1, and Carnivale season 1.

You also could buy the DVD on half.com and resell it when you're finished with it.

That's an excellent idea--depending on what else turns up in this thread, that may make more sense than renting. Thanks! I should have thought of that myself.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:38 PM on January 14, 2005

Netflix offers a 2 out plan with a cap of 4 rentals a month for $11.99.

This intrigued me and I went to sign up for it, but can't find such an option. Is it hiding, am I dumb, or do they just not offer that?
posted by tristeza at 2:45 PM on January 14, 2005

They do offer it, but I think you need to sign up for the free trial and then change your plan. At the end of the free trial you'll be switched to the plan of your choosing.
posted by FlamingBore at 3:12 PM on January 14, 2005

Also, I've found that a lot of people who think they're not going to use NetFlix that much end up changing their mind when the system clicks in their brain. (Disclaim: i have 497 movies in my NF Queue...anyone want to be my friend?)
posted by softlord at 7:25 AM on January 15, 2005

OTOH, I've ended up using Netflix a lot less than I thought I would and am thinking about dropping down to the 2-out plan. I had three particular movies once for about three months. Could have bought them all for that price.
posted by kindall at 8:36 PM on January 15, 2005