Is Greencine worth it if you live on the East Coast?

May 30, 2007 1:26 AM

Is Greencine worth it if you live on the East Coast?

Their selection is more to my tastes than Netflix but I've heard GC takes a while to get stuff to NYC and is only really great on the Left Coast, is this still true?

posted by lia to sports, hobbies, & recreation (8 comments total)

I used them for about a year. In Asheville, NC it took about 5-6 days from when I put a movie in the mail to when I got a replacement. This seems kind of slow compared to the turnaround times I've heard of other people having, but it's the exact same rate that I saw with Netflix, and much faster than Blockbuster. And yeah, their selection is great (but their search function needs some work).
posted by Who_Am_I at 4:46 AM on May 30, 2007

Depends how fast you want your movies. Typical turnaround for me in Pittsburgh is close to a week, as opposed to 2 days or so for Netflix when I last used it. When I watched a lot of movies, this really bugged me, so I got around it by having one of the larger subscription plans so I could always have something to watch. These days I don't have as much movie-watching time, so I have a small plan and it doesn't bother me when I'm stuck without a movie because all mine are in transit.

I consider it worthwhile. The selection is definitely more to my taste, and I've found the customer service more responsive. But speed is definitely still the big drawback.
posted by Stacey at 4:48 AM on May 30, 2007

when I had it there was about a week turnaround time AND the totally annoying red light - yellow light - green light thing. the more obscure titles, you know, the reason you're probably considering green cine in the first place, are in very short supply, regardless of where you put them in your queue. there were titles that i NEVER GOT even after having the service for months and months, which was infuriating.
posted by tremspeed at 5:15 AM on May 30, 2007

I don't live in NYC so I don't really know how long it takes the mail to get there. I live in Georgia and it normally takes four days, sometimes up to a week. Customer service email is very good and responsive. I use GreenCine, Netflix, and Blockbuster Total Access. If a title is high in demand at GreenCine I use Netflix or Blockbuster instead.

I find this arrangement is best since there aren't any good independent video rental stores in my area. I get more bang for my buck by researching films online and using the online DVD rentals. I try to watch my DVDs the day they arrive and mail them the next day. I watch an average of six DVDs a week (using all three online rentals).
posted by plokent at 5:27 AM on May 30, 2007

I live in east Tennessee and use Greencine exclusively. There is invariably a week in between the time that I put a movie in my mailbox and the time the next one gets to me. I think it's still worth it just because it's as cheap as renting from a brick & mortar store and there are no independently-owned rental places left here.

I have been to some incredible ones in bigger cities--Videodrome in Atlanta, Le Video in San Francisco--and I'll bet they have some doozies in New York. If I were you I would be all over them. If you have the patience to wait a week for everything, Greencine is just fine, though.
posted by zebra3 at 6:41 AM on May 30, 2007

No, not worth it. Slow turnaround as said above; and while they have a great selection, they only keep a few copies of each awesome, indie, hard to find movie you couldn't get from Netflix, so you'll be waiting months to see any of the rarities that you signed up for in the first place.

The only other thing Greencine has over other services? Porn. But a really bad selection IMO. So yeah, get your porn on the internets and use Netflix or other services closer to you.
posted by ibeji at 7:50 AM on May 30, 2007

I wouldn't. Here in Michigan it was 5 days to a week turnaround. There was a time when their selection was worth it, but Netflix has put a lot more into catalog depth that makes the difference negligible (it's even better for some genres like Bollywood).
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 10:53 AM on May 30, 2007

In New Jersey, I found GreenCine basically unaccaptable when compared with Netflix's turnaround times (GC was around 6-8 days turnaround time to the next disc, Netflix almost always 2). And even as someone who ought to be squarely in GreenCine's target cinephile audience, I couldn't find much that I was looking for that Netflix lacked and GreenCine had. I like their friendliness, but not their service.
posted by RogerB at 10:57 AM on May 30, 2007