I've signed up for Amazon DVD rentals

Sun Jan 15 22:46:50 2006

After creating a long list (which may feature here soon), of films that I wanted to watch but did not get around to seing in the cinema, or that I didn't think were worth it at the time, I decided to sign up for one of those online DVD rental programs that have sprung up over the last couple of years.

Dom had signed up for LoveFilm before. They had a program where you would pay £14.99 a month and get 3 DVDs at a time, and a new one whenever you sent one back. This is probably a good system if you are a student, or film buff. But we didn't watch the films at a particularly great rate. Some of the films he got were a bit on the weird side like Delicatessen, and you really have to be in the right mood to watch that. This lead to them just sitting there taking up one of the limited slots. I think that we may have averaged watching just over one DVD a week.

Amazon's cheapest offering limits you to one DVD at a time and three rentals a month. This is a level that means that you don't feel obliged to watch DVDs when not in the mood. The fact that you only have one means that you don't get a lot of choice about what to watch, but then it also forces you to watch some of less frivolous DVDs (assuming that you put one in your basket in a moment of self-improvement). £5.99/month for up to three rentals (and three a month is an easy amount to watch without feeling pressured) means that the rentals work out at £2 each. This is less than blockbuster charge for most DVDs, but you do have to plan in advance what you want, rather than picking a movie based on your mood. Update: And they give you 10% off the DVDs you buy whilst a member, so I paid for my first month's subscription as I wanted to buy two seasons of Babylon 5.

Anyway, so far it is working, and I have quite a list yet to watch. Will I get bored of the rentals before or after I run out of films in the list? I'll try to remember to let you know (does anyone apart from Mike read this?).