You Should Join Netflix
I’m sure you’ve all heard of Netflix, the online movie rental service. In case you haven’t, I’ll explain how it works. You pick a number of movies that you’d like to see. Netflix sends you 3 of those movies at a time (this is the default plan). They mail them to you along with return envelopes (with prepaid postage). You send those movies back whenever you feel like it (no late fees) and when they receive one of your movies back, they send another from your list (queue). To top it off, it costs only $17.99 per month regardless how many movies you get.
This model is so popular and successful that Blockbuster introduced their own similar plan. It’s worth checking out because the main differences between the two services is that Blockbuster offers two free in-store rentals per month (including games). It also costs 50 cents less at $17.49.
Up until recently, I brushed off the service. Offhand, I couldn’t think of even a couple movies that I wanted to see. How could I possibly get my money’s worth? Even if I could find enough movies to make it worthwhile, how can I effectively browse for movies? I can’t walk down the aisles after all.
A single feature of Netflix (and I assume of Blockbuster, maybe someone can confirm) makes those non-issues. That is its excellent recommendation feature. These recommendations aren’t made based upon what you rent. It’s based upon how you rate movies. As you browse the site, you mark movies on a one to five star scale. You can also mark them “No opinion” or “Not interested”. Based upon these ratings, it will start to recommend movies, which is indicated by a little star. If you are curious as to why a movie was recommended, it will reference which movie ratings you set that suggest that you will enjoy that movie. Within minutes, you will have recommendations tailored to you. My recommendations reminded me of movies I wanted to watch and had simply forgotten about.
You can also manipulate your queue, reordering the movies that you want. It naturally pulls the next available movie should one of your top three be out or not released yet. Just to give some perspective, I had only one or two movies that I could think of to rent. By the time I finished playing with the website for the first time, my queue had 20 movies in it. They even feature TV series DVDs, which are an easy way to pad your queue.
There are two other things that Netflix a winner for me. Their website is fast and friendly. It’s not overly ornate (as Blockbuster’s site is). I like a nice, simple design. The other thing is their complete use of RSS. They have personalized member feeds for:
- Your Queue
- Your Activity
- Your Recommendations
All of which make it easy to monitor your account. You can also subscribe to an Overall Top 100 list, as well as category top 25 lists, new releases, and their resident reviewer’s list. If you need even more ways to pick, they offers (non-RSS) lists by a variety of reviewers and awards winners.
I’m sold already, and I haven’t even gotten my first shipment. Imagine how happy I’ll be when I actually start getting my movies.
A) I don’t like Cocksucker Video because they’re fascists who pee-test their employees and don’t carry some films because of controversy in the Bible Belt. Either one would put them on my shit list, but that they do both makes me declare jihad.
B) Netflix is totally, totally worth every penny, especially if you like indie movies, anime and other stuff that video store chains rarely carry. The problem is actually finding the time to watch the stuff. Especially if they’re sending you a disc with four or five episodes, like anime or TV series.
What I’ve taken to doing lately — and I know it’s legally uncool, but don’t particularly care, is ripping the stuff to my HD using Mac the Ripper then watching it later, just to get it through my queue, which is well over 70 movies long at present.
There were a few months there where I was so distracted by other things that I let 3 videos sit around for a month before I’d ever get around to watching them and sending them back, so I don’t feel particularly guilty about this — I still have a couple more months of getting through this stuff as fast as I can before the balance is worked out to where Netflix is a good cost/benefit ratio for me again.
A) I’ve never actually had a beef with pee-testing (which is why I was ok with working at Home Depot). I agree about not carrying specific films.
B) I just started looking through their anime listings. I didn’t even think about that at first, but now I may overfill my queue. Being a big DBZ fan, I can finally get filled in with all the plot I missed.
I’ve cough actually been doing the same, only with Handbrake (I found it so easy that I never even bothered trying Mac the Ripper).
I’m hoping that with a week and a half vacation coming up, I’ll have the time to really get my money’s worth. My first shipment comes tomorrow!