DVD rentals NetFlix Euro-style


This quest all started when I was doing my usual netflix rant, and one student said that he saw something similar available here. I was on the hunt. (Thanks Juan Carlos!!)

A quick rundown for those who don't know or phased out when I as talking about this, netflix is a DVD rental service, for a set fee a month, you can order DVD rentals via internet and have them mailed to your house. You make a list of films you want and they ship you the first three that are available. When you're done watching one, you just pop it in an included envelope and when they receive it they ship you the next on the list. You can take as much time as you want, there are no late fees.

It took a bit of searching but I think I've found 3 services so far, and have decided on 1 to try as the other 2 just didn't look too professional.

Click 'read more' below for, well, more on this.

The first one I found was:
http://www.cineacasa.com/
Its website has a decidedly mid-90's textured GIF look, but the first thing that struck me was the pop-up stating prices. There's a limit of 9 dvds a month. Now this may certainly be enough, but I don't like limits. Also, there's a lot of contradictions in the FAQ, but basically it seems that they are using a private delivery service that comes by twice a week. hhmm. Well, what clinched it was that they're not delivering in my post-code just yet. (The FAQ says they'll be serving all cities over 50,000 people by the end of 2002, Where I live it's 2004, and there are 180,000 plus. Maybe it's time to change the FAQ.)

Cine Mediaxpress
http://www.mxp.tv/home.cmd
Looked a bit better, despite its .tv domain. Only problem seems that they charge for three months. And there's a registration fee (currently waived). And their 1 month free come-on seems to include me paying up front anyways and then having the month tagged on the end. End of what? When I cancel?

http://www.digitae.com/
This one has a nice look, is fairly fast and offers a 15 day trial. which is great, because I can test out the delivery model. 15 days should be enough to test the turn-around time.
So this is the one I registered for, I set up a list of about 30 dvds and we'll see what arrives in the mail next week.

btw, if you too decide to try digitae, please put my email address (scotandrews@mac.com) in the promotion code field during registration, and we'll both get 50% off the first month if we decide to continue.

In any case stay tuned to this space to find out how well it works.

Posted: Sat - February 21, 2004 at 07:14 PM            

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