LOVEFILM VERSUS BLOCKBUSTER

[johnnyblue]

We used to be members of Lovefilm, but cancelled when we couldn't find enough films we wanted to watch, particularly as their Top 40 chart hardly seemed to change from one month to the next.We moved to Blockbuster and found that they seemed to have a much newer choice of movies and also a significantly shorter waiting time for new stuff.We were with them for about a year and then found that again we'd pretty much run out of things we wanted to watch and decided to cancel.

Since we left Lovefilm they have regularly sent me emails with special offers and as the latest one was 3 months for the price of 1 we rejoined, but the Weekly Top 40 Chart has still got stuff on it like Harry Brown and The Men Who Stare At Goats, which came out nearly a year agn the other hand, we've selected the first series of 24,which was released on dvd 9 years ago and despite offering it for rental they appear to not actually have it.

What confuses me is that on these forums most people seem to be members of Lovefilm and I wondered why?Am I missing something good about them?Or is it the case that,like the friends I was speaking to yesterday,people aren't aware that Blockbuster have an online service?

 

[professorhat]

As with all these things it depends what you're after. I don't necessarily want to see all the latest releases, I just have a list of films I want to see. For £3.99 a month, they send me a film, at some point I watch it, then I send it back and get another one. I don't need anything more than that from them.

 

[Anonymous]

I for one wasn't aware that Blockbuster had an online service, hence being affiliated with Lovefilm... It is by no means perfect and you sometimes struggle to find stuff that you really want to watch, but it beats spending a lot more on buying blu-rays that end up being rubbish and then never watching them again...

 

[cram]

Don't get the relevance of the Top 40 chart. Don't think I ever look at a chart when deciding what I want to view. What films are blockbuster covering that Lovefilm don't

 

[johnnyblue]

cram:Don't get the relevance of the Top 40 chart. Don't think I ever look at a chart when deciding what I want to view. What films are blockbuster covering that Lovefilm don't

Currently, Mike Leigh's Another Year with Jim Broadbent.Let Me In,Hollywood remake of Let The Right One In.The Town, Ben Affleck, various others.Plus they do difinitely have shorter waiting times.

 

[johnnyblue]

cram:Don't get the relevance of the Top 40 chart. Don't think I ever look at a chart when deciding what I want to view. What films are blockbuster covering that Lovefilm don't

I don't really keep up to date with film and dvd releases anymore so the relevance of the Top 40 is to remind me of what films have been released that I might be interested in watching.Obviously, they don't cover everything, but in my experience they do tend to include most of the best of the new releases,even foreign movies.

 

[johnnyblue]

professorhat:

As with all these things it depends what you're after. I don't necessarily want to see all the latest releases, I just have a list of films I want to see. For £3.99 a month, they send me a film, at some point I watch it, then I send it back and get another one. I don't need anything more than that from them.

Fair enough, although I thought Lovefilm's cheapest package was £4.99 for 2 films a month?

 

[Clare Newsome]

Some studios are odd about the rental market and whom they choose to give releases to.

However, many industry commentators are suggesting that Amazon's recent, full takeover of LoveFilm will lead to greater availability of more movies.

With the top TV/disc player manufacturers now including LoveFilm as a standard movies on demand feature, its potential is massive....

 

[professorhat]

johnnyblue:professorhat:As with all these things it depends what you're after. I don't necessarily want to see all the latest releases, I just have a list of films I want to see. For £3.99 a month, they send me a film, at some point I watch it, then I send it back and get another one. I don't need anything more than that from them.

Fair enough, although I thought Lovefilm's cheapest package was £4.99 for 2 films a month?

Mine is currently £4.07 per month (with the VAT increase) though it seems you're right that if you joined now, the cheapest offer is £4.99 per month.

 

[John Duncan]

I've had both Blockbuster and Lovefilm, and have found Lovefilm much quicker in terms of disc turnaround, though am still waiting for Inception, despite it being my only 'high priority' film...

 

[johnnyblue]

Clare Newsome:
Some studios are odd about the rental market and whom they choose to give releases to.

However, many industry commentators are suggesting that Amazon's recent, full takeover of LoveFilm will lead to greater availability of more movies.

With the top TV/disc player manufacturers now including LoveFilm as a standard movies on demand feature, its potential is massive....

One of the reasons I rejoined Lovefilm (other than price) was that Amazon was taking control again.We used to be with the old Aamazon service and it was far better than Lovefilm (except towards the end when they seemed to lose interest).Unfortunately, for those of us with slow,low or unreliable internet connections mod is mostly not an option - unless someone here knows different and can point me in the right direction.

 

[Sorreltiger]

If I send back a film to LoveFilm on a Monday, the new one always arrives before the end of the week - usually Wednesday or Thursday - which I reckon is excellent service. For me, only a very small number of movies are 'keepers' and I save loads of money by borrowing others that are interesting once or worth the experiment. A really positive aspect of LoveFilm is the diversity of choice - foreign language films are readily available, for instance.

 

[f1only]

I use Blockbuster & the local library mainly cos the library is cheaper & i can have a blu ray on rental for 5 days for just £2.20 so cheaper than Blockbuster. I dont rent online for most of the above reasons that its hard to get hold of the films i'd like to see. The other reason for going over to the library is it helps their finances, less likely to close them down if we use them more, so supporting the local community.

 

[johnnyblue]

Sorreltiger:If I send back a film to LoveFilm on a Monday, the new one always arrives before the end of the week - usually Wednesday or Thursday - which I reckon is excellent service. For me, only a very small number of movies are 'keepers' and I save loads of money by borrowing others that are interesting once or worth the experiment. A really positive aspect of LoveFilm is the diversity of choice - foreign language films are readily available, for instance.

Yeah,pretty much my experience with both Lovefilm and Blockbuster, although I must admit that nowadays I can't think of any films that would be keepers - but that might just be an age thing.I did toy with the notion of buying Downfall, but realised that by the time I wanted to watch it again technology would probably have made buying a dvd redundant.