Alice:

Wow! You're organized enough to even think of reorganizing a thread! Good idea for making this a new thread and clever to see it from the "Organizing Your Home" angle. Here's a link to the Netflix home page. Thanks!

~Cindy

Here is a link that might be useful: Netflix home page.

Netflix is fantastic. It's perfect for anyone who ends up paying late fees at the local rental place or for those who get stressed out at having to return rentals by a certain date.

Netflix has prepaid envelopes and you mail the movies back to them at your leisure, one at a time if you wish.

Also, you let them know on their website all the movies you want to see in the order that you want to see them. We have never had long wait periods, even for the new releases. My dh, though, is great at keeping the list updated. I don't know about the classics because we never rent those.

Love it, love it, love it! We started out with the 3 discs at a time, and upgraded to 5 after a month or so. Not only do they have movies I'd never find at the library or our local video stores, they have a treasure trove of TV shows--old and new. DH is enjoying watching old Combat! episodes, in order. We just got hooked on The O.C., and are working our way through the first season so we know the background. They recently got in Forever Knight, which I'll start on when we're caught up on The O.C. I only saw that a few times before they took it off, and I'd like to watch it from the beginning.

This past week we were snowed in and were sick. It was great to have something on hand to watch while we were cooped up, without having to go out for them.

We get credited for returns and receive new ones VERY quickly, but that's probably because we live very close to one of their distribution centers. Before you join, you might want to check their list of distribution centers to see whether there's a close one. I think the list is in their FAQ section.

We've lived close to distribution centers as well with very quick turn arounds. We just moved to a very small town in Montana and I still have no complaints with the turn around time.

Welcome to Montana, Marie. :-)

My BIL does the same thing with Blockbuster...he has a running list, and as soon as the return envelope barcode is scanned at the post office, BB considers the movie "returned", and they send out another one. Maybe Netflix does the same thing - hence the fast turnaround time, no matter where you are?

He loves it - he has lots of time for movies, and he's really enjoying not having to go out and walk the aisles of the store every time he wants to rent. :-)

We rent movies on the weekends, but don't have much time for them otherwise, so during the winter, it's not really a "deal" for us, or we'd sign up too (DH thought about Netflix for awhile there). If they ever make it so you can sign up seasonally (like just in the summer), then we might try it. :-)

We love it! Especially the classics and Television shows. We don't have cable so we're watching 6 feet under, also oldies like Forever Knight, Quantum Leap, the Best of the Muppets!

We used to belong to Netflix but then I got an offer to join Wal-Marts version of it. It's $3.00 cheaper. It's not as user friendly as netflix but I go to netflix and copy and paste to WM. Otherwise just as efficient! Can't imagine going to the movies ever again. We don't have children but this has to be a great thing if you do. You can keep them as long as you want and when you get tired of them send them back! Love it. We have saved tons on cable movie channels!

Thanks for the input. Josigirl - that is interesting about Walmart. Each to their own opinion but my husband dislikes Walmart because of the way they treat their employees so guess we will go with Netflix. (At least we don't know how Netflix treats their employees, LOL.)

Now, my only problem is that I'm afraid we're going to become couch potatoes watching movies all the time.

Thanks again for the input.

--Alice

HOLD THAT THOUGHT! Blockbuster just started their on-line service $3.00 cheaper than Netflix + 2 in-store rentals per month! If they start carrying the classics and tv shows we may go back to BB.

Do you know if either offer audio books?

Thanks

Mustangs - www.booksfree.com has an audiobook rental program. (It's not free; I don't know why they call it that!) I haven't tried that part yet, only their paperback rentals. It's been working out ok, but I'd have to say the turnaround time is much slower than Netflix is on the DVDs.

www.recordedbooks.com has been around for quite awhile, and from what I've heard they are quite reliable.

If you google on audiobooks and rental you will come up with many more sources. And don't forget the library. :)

Erica

Thanks Erica. I Googled last night and found some options. I didn't know about Netflex and BB. I will try your suggestions.

Just came across an article in the Wall Street Journal about this. It contained some info that might help someone decide between Netflix, Blockbuster, and Wal-Mart. (Depending on what kinds of movies you like to watch.)

"... the critics of Film Comment magazine recently listed their top 50 movies for 2004; many were small films from overseas. Thirty-two of them have already made it to DVD, but considering their limited commercial appeal, it's unlikely that many of them will ever get stocked in the average video store.

"Netflix, though, offers all 32 of the DVD titles. Blockbuster lists 25, and Wal-Mart, 18."

WSJ, 1/31/05, p. B1 "Portals" column

Erica

Thanks Erica,

That info from the Wall Street Journal does seem to clinch my decision. We always seem to like the weird unpopular movies so sounds like Netflix is best for us. (Hope this isn't a payoff by Netflix to the Journal for a good article LOL).

Along with the fact that I love the website for Netflix. It is so thorough and makes it easy to get ideas along with tracking my own activity. But the good news is that since there is no longterm contract with Netflix, I can quit anytime if one of the others does improve their inventory and Netflix doesn't lower their price. I see lower prices in the future, competition is good.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I have no association with Netflix other than as a new customer.
--Alice

My dh is always on the lookout for those small independent films and we've never had a problem getting them from Netflix. Also, because of moving so much, we've cancelled the service numerous times only to restart with no problems several months later.

Well, our two week free trial offer with Netflix ended, so I cancelled. Then a window popped up and offered a reduced rate: $15.99 per month for three videos out at any given time, unlimited number per month. That offer, I accepted since it was close to the BlockBuster price of $14.99 per month. We are fortunate because we live about 15 miles or so from one of the Netflix distribution hubs, so it only takes one day for them to mail our DVDs. This is an awesome way to get videos and I hope that I never step into a video store again.

We have not used NF since it really exceeeds the amount of time per month that we would like to be watching recreational tv/movies ( for the money) but we did/do have Mentura ( I say did since we are on hiatus right now since both of our DVD's dies in a two week period) for educational dvds. While they do have a large selection of popular family films they built their business on Educational offerings. So we get/got quite a bit for our homeschooling from them.

Maddiemom

Here is a link that might be useful: edu-focus dvd's