Topic: RedBox DVDs (I canceled Netflix)

[charlie]

We canceled Netflix.

Now we get movies from the RedBox DVD thingie at our grocery store. You select your movie and put in your credit card. Then it pops out of the slot and you take it home and watch it. Then you return to the box and put in the movie, and it charges you $1 for each day you have it rented (days end @ 7pm I think).

Positives:

• It's cheaper (at least for us). We were paying $15 a month for Netflix's 2 movies at a time unlimited plan. We'll probably be paying $5-10 max now (even with the writer's strike).
• It's easy. Just have to remember to return the DVDs by 7pm to the grocery store, and no need to cancel or postpone if you're going out of town or waste money when you don't feel like watching anything.
• Free previews. Put in your email and you get codes to get free rentals all the time (at least for now).

Negatives:

• Can't always find what you want. Sometimes the box is sold out of a movie you want to see.
• You have to get up off your ass and go somewhere to get and return your movie.
• Lacks the nice interface and queue that Netflix has to help you remember what you've seen and want to see.

For now, all the negatives are outweighed by the nice cost advantage. And if we really want to see a movie that is sold out at the box we'll go to Blockbuster and get it for $4 instead and still probably come out ahead.

P.S. Link: http://www.redbox.com/
P.P.S. Apparently you can rent online... maybe that will help for big movies that might be out.
P.P.P.S. I might be wrong about the box being out of DVDs for a particular movie. I don't know if it has happened to us or if we were just not following the instructions correctly or looking for a movie that wasn't released yet.

[charlie]

You don't have to register (but if you give an email it will send you codes for free rentals).

You do have to give you credit card, which is almost the same as registering. It keeps your info and then it will just charge your credit card when you return the movie for however many days you kept it.

[hans]

My friend did that for a while. I still think I'll keep for Netflix for a bit longer. It's taken me a few years to get through all the movies in my queue and I really don't like having to worry about bringing the movies back. It's more of a convenience thing for me. I have thought about switching to blockbuster though. My boss does that and it's nice to be able to return the movies to the store and get a new movie right away. If you play it right, you can get by with 1 or 2 a month but still rent a bunch. Still $20 a month isn't so bad for me since I used to buy a lot of movies. Now I don't buy so many, hardly any since I can just put them on my queue again and watch them.

[KnuckleBuckett]

Checked into it.  Too lazy I gotta stay with NFlix.

[charlie]

It helps to have a wife that's a stay at home mom who goes out every day anyway and can just pass by and drop it off. I'm still too lazy to do it, but she isn't.

[A Bit of Fruit]

Don't you guys want the personal touch thats provided by a professional film purveyor such as myself at your local video store? I have so many customers at work that come in and chat about movies...

[Govtcheez]

I'm with our boy face, as a former professional film recommendeur (that's french for someone who recommends films) myself

[charlie]

I'm no connoisseur of movies, so getting recommendations isn't really valuable for me. All the movies I like are movies that so many other people like as well that they are well known to me.

one day, I'd love to be a stay at home father... without kids.

Oh my god... me too! Except I already have a kid, so it'll be at least 17 years before that can happen.

[Jake]

sorry for the bump, but my company just started selling redbox's competition - and it comes from Blockbuster. Blockbuster teamed up with NCR and we are starting a roll out. Looks pretty neat - same price as the redbox, but more titles/DVDs in each box - oh yeah, it is blue

Check out http://blockbusterexpress.com/ for more info.

We are a little late to the party, so there are not too many of them out yet. We signed up 15 stores in the last week alone, so I think this might be big.

What's in the works? sometime next year ipod users will be able to download movies directly from the Express Box and for the gamers, you will be able to ent games from these as well.

[charlie]

Sounds cool... too far from me now but I'll keep a lookout.

I haven't been thrilled with RedBox's selection lately. You can look up online ahead of time but I'm usually too lazy to do that. If this one has more selection then I'll check it out.

[hans]

too late to the game. the money would have been better spend on streaming technologies instead IMHO.

I read some other stuff about BB wanting to exclusiveness for a week or something before NF gets the movies. Seems like they'd just be pushing people towards pirated copies then.

jump ahead. don't simply catch up.

[KnuckleBuckett]

Streaming?  That won't be nearly as feasible as RB for a decade.  The US just isn't there.  Worse the increasing bandwidth caps may well kill streaming in its infancy.

[Govtcheez]

I use netflix for streaming all the time.  I don't think the bandwidth is there for BluRay, but for just regular movies, it works really well

[charlie]

too late to the game. the money would have been better spend on streaming technologies instead IMHO.

I don't think it's too late for Blockbuster to compete with RedBox. All you've got to do is stick a box in the supermarket next door, people won't care whether they use RedBox or Blockbuster, they'll go to the closest one or the one with significantly more selection.

[KnuckleBuckett]

I predict that BB is doomed.  Too poorly managed, way too much hate over the decades of late fees charged, and too much cash tied up in assets and overhead. 

The RB business plan is both simple and effective.  They have a local technician who (usually) works part time for them. This person purchases the DVDs at the local Walmart or the like, stocks the machines, and maintains the machines with on hand or quick ship modular parts.  I think the tech is paid a flat fee but forget the specifics.  They have no ties to Hollywood nor anyone else.  Overhead is thus extremely low.