DVD Rental Service Netflix Vs Blockbuster

This is your best guide to choosing Netflix vs Blockbuster as your online DVD rental service.

Whether it’s old DVD movies, kids’ DVD movies, or family DVD movies, the way we rent movies has been forever changed for the future. While some people still prefer to browse the aisles of the local movie rental store, be it Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, many people are switching to the convenience of an online DVD rental service. It’s very easy to order kids’ movies online on DVD or queue them up for later viewing. There are no late fees to contend with, and the price war between Netflix and Blockbuster makes signing up for old DVD movies, or even war movies on DVD (whatever your preference), very appealing to the budget-conscious household. , especially in this economy. But how do you decide which DVD rental service is best for you?

Netflix was the beginner in this field of online movie rental, so it is necessary to take a serious look at them. In fact, Netflix has been so popular that rival company, Blockbuster, thought this new company was enough of a threat to them, so they started the division of online DVD rental company Blockbuster in response. Currently (March 2010), Netflix offers over 100,000 movie titles, and some of the ever-expanding devices that can stream Netflix movies and TV episodes directly to member TVs include gaming devices. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 and, in spring 2010, Nintendo’s Wii console; Blu-ray disc players from Samsung, LG and Insignia; Internet TVs from LG, Sony and VIZIO; the Roku digital video player and TiVo digital video recorders.

Blockbuster, on the other hand, provides a comparable list of more than 95,000 movie titles and you can stream movies to your PC, mobile phone, TIVO device, and Samsung device. So our question is whether Blockbuster can prevent mega online movie provider Netflix from dominating the “buy DVD movies online” business. So will the Netflix vs Blockbuster war continue or will one dominate the other?

Well, the answer seems to be yes, in a different way. Although Netflix may have taken the “buy DVD movies online” business by storm, Blockbuster offers a service that Netflix can’t. Blockbuster uses its stores as distribution points, and it means that it’s very easy to take a movie to the store after receiving it in the mail and choose another movie, making delivery of the next movie very fast. And since the price is very similar, Blockbuster offers free rentals in the store. This could be very attractive and decision making in this economy because it allows a person to get a new release they have been waiting for for free and put old war movies on DVD on hold.

So if it were me choosing a DVD rental service, it might be Blockbuster if I were in a situation where I felt like free rentals are the deal breaker. I would choose Netflix if the free rental in the store didn’t matter. Both are very close in monthly rental, mail delivery at about the same speed, and have a similar consumer rating for both “buy DVD movies online” services. However, I do believe that with the free movie rental service, Blockbuster will see a boost in their rental service during the current economy.

Blockbuster provides its customers with convenient access to movies and games anywhere and almost any way they can request it: in the store, by mail, through vending machines or downloaded to their PC or mobile device. Netflix does the exact same thing, except they don’t maintain a store presence, so they’ll need to remain competitive in another area to stay ahead of Blockbuster’s store presence. We wonder what Netflix will do next to compete with Blockbusters’ in-store presence.