My Netflix review: My wife and I finally decided to take the dreadful leap. No, I am not talking about anything crazy here. I am talking about signing up for Netflix. We are both huge movie people. One of the things we always love doing together is watching movies!
So we have tried the blockbuster online movie thing in the past. It wasn’t too bad, but their website was really glitchy all the time, and it made it kinda hard to pick out movies (it kept freezing and was extremely slow). So we ended up cancelling our subscription after the trial.
However, Neflix so far has been totally awesome! Wow, I love it! Right now we went with a $8.99 plan. This entitles us to 1 DVD rental at a time, and unlimited online movies. This is so awesome, and let me explain why!
First, the online movies feature is awesome. Who wants to get in a car and drive to rent a movie? Heck, you don’t even have to walk to your mailbox either, with this feature, just log in and watch instantly! They don’t have everything, and many newer titles that they have on DVD will not be available online to watch. However, they do have approximately 12,000 titles available online, and this includes not only movies but documentaries, television shows (lots of great ones), and much more.
So far online, I have watched about 7 movies. It is so awesome, easy, and cool. Here is how it works. Just click the “watch instantly tab” and then browse their selection. They have them all categorized (such as Comedy, Action, Drama, etc.). When you find a movie you want to watch, just click the “play” link below it.
Then, the it will connect with Netflix’ online movie database, and boom it starts playing on your screen (much like how YouTube works). That is so cool! Movies online, and it isn’t even illegal! Whoa! So by far my favorite feature is the online “watch instantly” feature. Again, they have quite a few really good movies on there, and are adding to it all the time.
Now, as far as the DVD rental part, it is also awesome! You just add a bunch of movies to your “Que.” Then netflix ships them asap, and you get them really fast. I live about 2 hours away from one of their shipping locations (they have multiple shipping locations all over the US for fast shipping). So get this- I rented a movie this past week on Monday (National Lampoons Christmas Vacation). They shipped it Monday, and we received it Tuesday (yes, that was next day delivery). So we watched it (great movie by the way) on Monday, and dropped it in the mailbox on Wednesday. Of course this week was Thanksgiving, so the post office was closed Thursday, but they received it on Friday, and shipped our next movie (Jingle all the Way) the same day. And guess what, my wife and I just watched it! That’s right, next day delivery again!
The shipping is of course free both ways since they include a prepaid return envelope (the price is included in the measly $8.99 membership). It is so easy to do. It works great. Their website works great as well, and has lots of ratings and so forth that makes it easy to pick out a good movie. On top of that, you not only get the unlimited 1 at a time rental, but you also can watch absolutely as many movies as you want online at any time you want.
So I can totally recommend this, and sorry Blockbuster but Netflix has you beat by a mile! They even give a free trial if you are a new member, so what do you have to lose? Nothing. You only have loads of great movies to gain!
Have I Had Any Problems or Error Messages with Netflix?
So far in my week of experimenting, I have encountered 3 very minor problems. They were nothing, and in fact didn’t bother me at all. Here they were:
- The first problem I encountered had me a little worried. I was watching an online instant movie (Risky Business with Tom Cruise), and it started flashing and then suddenly stopped. I was like, “um okay.” So we closed internet explorer and tried to restart the movie. We got an error message that said something like, “Error-you cannot stream more than one movie at a time. You are on the one at a time plan.” Finally, I figured out that it was because the movie messed up. If this happens to you, wait for 1 hour and then it should let you watch again. I think they freeze your online watching for 1 hour when this happens. After that it never happened again, and I have watched several movies online.
- The second problem was nothing major either. A very old movie was apparently corrupted and would not play correctly. So I just closed it out. Again, it was old and probably just got corrupted, and all the other online movies were excellent quality.
- On one night, the internet connection was getting slow and the movie stopped and we had a message saying that our internet connection slowed and the movie is re-buffering to accomadate the new speed. It only took a minute or so, and then the movie resumed to normal.
All in all, no major issues. They receive the movies fast, they ship them fast. The online movies are all great quality, and are fun to watch on the old laptop! So if you haven’t got Netflix, and you like movies, then get Netflix. Who needs cable? Who needs to pay for over-priced popcorn? I think I will watch my movies online and from the comfort of my own bed!