I was going to watch a rented DVD from Blockbuster. I noticed glitches where the screen freezes as if I had hit pause, and then it continues again a few seconds later. So I take the DVD out and examine it. It scratches all over it. This is the third movie rental in a row that this has happened to me. I put in one of my own DVD's to make sure it wasn't something with my player, and my own DVD's worked fine. All of the rentals had scratches on them. Does anyone else have this problem with scratches on DVD rentals? I'm thinking of just renting video tapes because I'm tired of renting a movie, and not being able to watch it in a fluid viewing.
I've had this problem on a couple of rentals from Netflix. I can send the disc back and ask for a *different* one of the same movie. There is an opportunity cost in that I could have rented a totally different movie in the same time period but it's not that much trouble. But almost all rentals will play in either a friends' DVD player or one of my PC's so I get around it somehow. Also, a radial cleaning sometimes helps.
I have an occasional problem with this since i have a really old school dvd player. If its a really popular title you could ask to check the disc before you rent it. I do it all the time when i buy their used movies. Also be sure to tell them you had problems playing the disc and they should give you a free rental.
I second that. I just started renting with them last week and its much better than blockbuster. They have a much better selection and you can keep them as long as you want.
I stopped renting movies here. I can't stand Blockbuster and thier damn over due charge. I go with out renting movies, and pretty much with out going to the movies until I go back to Saudi, where there is a rental place that says they will charge you for over due movies and hope you bring back the movies on time, but they don't chare you. They really can't, since what they are doing is technically ilegal anyways. Nothing like renting DVD's for $2 and allowed having them for one week, and if you bring it back a day or couple of days late, they don't say anything.
I've had it happen a couple of times, but it hasn't happened to me more recently. But I don't rent that often. The last time it happened, I went immediately back to the store and exchanged it, so I was still able to watch the movie that night.
It's happened to me about three times recently. I've started checking them before I leave for scratches you can see. It helps, but the chumps should look at them before they put them back on the rack. Pay per view is good except for one thing... most of the time it's not wide-screen. I like wide-screen. It's groovy.
Cool. I'm going to check into netflix. I have cleaned the DVD's I rented, but it didn't really help. I just couldn't believe that so many DVD's were scratched. And some of these weren't exactly teh most popular titles either. I don't know how many people rented Sorry, Wrong Number with Barbara Stanwyck that would have scratched the thing. Well I'll give the netflix thing some investigation and clean all DVD's and the player before trying another one.
if you like more obscure titles try http://www.greencine.com similar to netflix but more independent movies and anime. the movies probably wont get to you as fast though since netflix has multiple locations (including one in houston) but they have a cheaper 2/$15 monthly plan and no sales tax (which netflix has).
I haven't rented a DVD in nearly 3 years. They're so cheap, I just buy them. And even if I did still rent them, I'd never go to Ballbuster. They refuse to carry unrated titles and a lot of their stores are inconsistent when it comes to stocking widescreen DVDs.
Netflix is the way to go. I have had some problems with DVDs. Though I am using my PS2 as a DVD player, a simple cleaning fixes any problems I have had from Netflix. Also Netflix has TV shows like the X-Files. I started renting all of the seasons in order, something Blockbuster does not offer at all.
Once Netflix got a local distribution center they have been awesome. I started using them again about a year ago, I usually can put a movie in the mail on Monday and get it back by Thursday at the latest. I also have the 5 dvds at a time so I am never without movies. And it's cheaper than Crapbuster.
I stopped renting movies years ago. I just wait until I see the ones I want to watch on sale and just plain buy them.
I've compared Netflix and Greencine and could find no difference in title selection. What titles are not on Netflix? Anyways Greencine last time I checked only had a San Francisco area distribution center.
I will check that out. I think somebody mentioned only a San Fran distribution center, but I live in LA so it might not be too bad for me. I definitely like a number of independent titles and would be interested in those. I'm not so big on Anime, but I will look at it. The cheaper price sounds good too.
