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July 18, 2025, 08:54:16 AM

we're back, baby

So I've been a fairly happy Netflix user for a year? or so, really only had a problem once with a bad DVD, and the selection is great. However, the last 2 or 3 months have gotten worse and worse as far as turn around time on movies. Anyone else noticing this trend? I just happened to check my queue, and the last movie they shipped on 5/5 isn't slated for delivery until 5/10. I used to easily be able to squeak in 4 day turnaround on almost everything, but now I'm up to closer to 9-10 days in ship to and return times. Needless to say, I'm starting to lose value for my money. If I can only get 9 movies per month now instead of the 19 I used to, the cost per DVD has doubled on me.

Anyways, I'm considering trying out the Blockbuster version, anyone have any experience with it? Looking at turnaround times, and movie selection, especially the TV seasons that I can grab from Netflix. I haven't been in a brick and mortar movie place in a year or more, so I honestly have no knowledge of what Blockbuster actually has available. The other question would be whether BB offers games as well as movies?

Thanks in advance

I've never used Blockbuster's service, but just judging from their stores I'd avoid them. Blockbuster has a heavy duty Christian/"Family" slant to it, so they do a lot of underhanded shit like having edited versions of movies without it being indicated. Try renting Pulp Fiction from a Blockbuster if you want to see this in action. They also cater to the fullscreen edition jackasses more than letterbox, so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the stuff you rent from them is butchered.

Personally they're just a company that I won't do business with. If you're losing the love for Netflix there are other companies besides Blockbuster that operate on this same business model, give 'em a try.

Quote from: Big Gulp on May 07, 2005, 10:55:19 AM

They also cater to the fullscreen edition jackasses more than letterbox, so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the stuff you rent from them is butchered.

Wrong-o. They changed their stance to only carry Widescreen versions of films about 2 years ago.

Quote from: Video Store Magazine

Blockbuster Brings in More Widescreen
Author: ENRIQUE RIVERO
erivero@advanstar.com
Posted: May 7, 2003

Reversing a previous policy, Blockbuster is giving preference to widescreen editions over full-frame presentations when studios offer them in separate editions on disc.

"The policy change, made at the beginning of the year, was due to demand from customers, who are becoming more accustomed to the black bars at the top and bottom of the widescreen image," said Blake Lugash, spokesman for the Dallas-based chain.

"We made a decision to purchase the majority of titles we bring in on DVD in the widescreen format," he said. "We try to follow our customer preferences. As DVD becomes increasingly popular, they become more familiar with the features and with the benefits of letterboxing. They've learned it's a superior format to full-frame." That familiarity with letterboxing hasn't come just from DVD, he noted.

"Customers are much more familiar with the letterbox format, even through broadcast television," he said, citing such popular shows as "The West Wing," "E.R." and other network and cable TV shows that are letterboxed.

"It's not as unfamiliar to our customers as it used to be," Lugash said.

The chain, however, continues to order family and kids' titles in full-frame, he said. "We find that families and children still prefer to see those types of movies in full-frame," he said, adding that chain executives would like the studios regularly to offer both on a single disc rather than in separate SKUs.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment often offer both full-frame and widescreen on one disc. Other studios, such as Universal Studios Home Video, have said they release their extras-laden special editions in separate SKUs because there is not enough room on the disc to include both versions.

Prior to this, Blockbuster gave preference to full-frame editions when both were available. For instance, in 2001 the chain stocked only the full-frame edition of Universal's The Mummy Returns, citing customer preference for cropped or pan-and-scan movies. DVD gurus, such as the online Home Theater Forum's Ron Epstein, were none too happy (VSM, Oct. 14-20, 2001).

Epstein, co-founder and co-owner of Forum, was elated with Blockbuster's change of mind, as were many Forum members who posted comments about the chain's new policy. Epstein hopes mass merchants such as Wal-Mart will follow suit.

"Overall, I'm ecstatic. This is good news," he said. "All you need is someone like Blockbuster to say something like that. They've got a huge chunk of the rental market, and for them to come out and say that customers are saying they want widescreen over full-frame, that's a pretty bold statement."

Epstein took exception with Blockbuster's contention that youngsters prefer full-frame presentations, saying that the Forum's own surveys show that kids "don't mind" letterboxing.

Still, the mass consumer appears to be savvier about the benefits of widescreen.

"It seems like the public is being educated on their own, either reading forums like ours or becoming aware that they're seeing more of the picture, even if it doesn't fill up the screen," Epstein said.

Quote from: Shockeye Doodle on May 07, 2005, 10:58:25 AM

who are becoming more accustomed to the black bars at the top and bottom of the widescreen image,

Gah! This is the kind of shit I deal with when talking to my Dad. "I hate it when they do that! They're screwing up the picture!" I then explain to him that, no, they've actually killed at least a third of the movie in pan and scan versions, but he doesn't care.

Of course, now the folks finally bought a widescreen TV which automatically cuts off the top and bottom halfs of regular tv broadcasts and autoformats whatever movies they rent, so half the time they're renting fullscreen movies and don't even realize it.

Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

I remember working at Blockbuster during my last year of high school. People complained constantly that the tapes or DVDs were "broken" because "there are these black bars blocking the picture on the top and bottom of the screen!"

Blockbuster is a crappy company. I wouldn't recommend using them if you have an alternative. The only reason I use them is because they're literally located across the street from me with the next nearest competing rental store being a few miles down the road.

Netflix is in my mailbox.

Quote from: schild on May 08, 2005, 12:44:41 PM

Netflix is in my mailbox.

Have you noticed any big delays in the last few months with turn-around times? It seems like when they dropped the pricing plan to the 9.99? or whatever it is, the service went down the shitter, at least for me. I don't have any complaints as far as selection, or availability of movies, it's all about getting the most for my dollars, as far as as many movies per month as possible.

The closest blockbuster to me is a good 20-25 minute drive each way, and not in the direction I drive to work each day either, with everything else being really tiny mom and pop places that all seem to close at 8pm, and usually have nothing at all as far as selection goes.

I'm definitely going to stay with some sort of online service, I'm just not sure if I need to just suck it up and deal with the "new" and unimproved service, or if I need to be looking at other options. Blockbuster has a free month promotion going, I may just sign up and test the time it takes to get movies back and forth, and then make the decision then, seems like everyone here is happy with Netflix, and maybe I'm just some anomaly.

Netflix turnaround time hasn;t changed for me. Mail it Monday, get it Thursday is still the norm. 20% or so I get a Friday delivery instead.

Do you live in a big Wal-Mart area? Lap time depends on how close you are to a distribution center. Maybe Wal-mart will have better turnaround for you. Of course, if any firm is going to edit movies for family content and not tell you, it will be them.

I live something like 10 miles away from where my dvds get sent from. No more than a 2 day turnaround. Ever.

Yah, where do you live that the turn around times are so long?

Mine never take more than 2 days, and I've only had to wait in a queue for a movie twice (for a day).

My turnaround times haven't been all that different lately. Maybe I get an extra day, but it's very rare that I don't get at least 1 to 2 movies a week. Nothing has changed about the service that I've noticed. The only delay I've gotten recently was in the forwarding from my old address, which wasn't their fault, but the post office's.

Former Netflix user, current Blockbuster. Hated to leave Netflix in a way... wanted to support them as the 'little guy' in the emerging on-line-mail-order DVD rental market or whatever; not to mention the originators.

But here's what did it for my family. You mentioned games. With our BB online subscription we not only get the same three-movies-out-at-a-time deal as Netflix, but we get 2 coupons per month valid for any in-store movies OR games. Or put another way, for just a smidge over what we were paying to rent a couple games a month we now get all the movies we want free in the mail. This, combined with BB's new more liberal return policy, is a very good thing.

Turn around time in the mail has been fine, and no problems to speak of waiting to get the popular titles right out of the gate; but then I never had those issues with Netflix either.

Just a note: One of my co-workers tried Blockbuster's online service and said she kept getting broken discs or unreadable discs (something like 2-3 out of 10). Also said it took longer than netflix to get new discs. But this is only one person's issues - I'm sure someone could say the same for Netflix.

I haven't tried Blockbuster's online stuff - does it have profiles and friends and the other things that Netflix has?

I will say that competition is good, so maybe Netflix will continue to (finally) improve their website/serivce.

Doesn't Netflix have a much larger collection to chose from?

I switched back to Netflix because BB didn't have the shows I wanted to watch.

Netflix.

My turn-around time is two days, with the exception of no delivery on Sunday. Effing US Postal Service.

Quote from: Viin on May 09, 2005, 10:43:08 AM

Yah, where do you live that the turn around times are so long?

Mine never take more than 2 days, and I've only had to wait in a queue for a movie twice (for a day).

I live on the CT shoreline, almost at the RI border, the closest "city" to me is Hartford, which is about an hour away from me, it's also my distribution center, so go figure, my mail has to pass through Hartford anyway. One of my local friends who used Netflix has had the exact same experience, and dropped the service about 2 months ago, and we both saw the problems at the exact same time. I honestly don't believe it's a mail problem, my mail to Hartford takes one day if I send a letter with normal postage, , I think there's an issue at that distribution center, obviously my first class mail is going to be at least that efficient, so if it takes 1 day to get there, it takes 2-3 days to process my return and ship my new one.

As far as proximity goes, for a year or so, I had no problems whatsoever, and had the 2 day each-way turnaround going, but a few months ago, it suddenly doubled, and they're aware of it, the ship dates posted on their website for me are their projected dates, not mine, though they are accurate, and reflect my 4 day turnaround on movies.

I use Blockbuster. I like the 2 coupons each month for free game rentals. Service and selection has been great. From when I stick a disc in the mail, I get the next one in 3 days usually. No broken disks. I go through 2 movies a week on average. No complaints at all.

Maybe if I put a DVD player in my room I would sign up for one of these services and watch the "proper" amount of movies.

The number of "great" films that I Have Not seen is downright embarassing.

The thing I like most about this service (no matter who provides it) is that I am willing to take more chances on what I choose. It feels like I can't go wrong. If I get one I don't like it goes back in the mail no problem. Normally, when I would go into the video store I'd see something that looks like a possibility, but at $4.50 a shot I don't usually gamble.

It is also one more thing for me to do with my wife after the kids go to bed. We are enjoying our movie nights a lot. Variety is the spice of life indeed.