How to Choose the Right Online DVD Rental Service

Online DVD rental is growing in popularity, but it's still a temporary, imperfect solution. Until such a time that technology catches up with the far-reaching promises that were made years ago (yes, I'm referring to broadband in every house and movies on demand), we're sure to see an even greater demand for online movie rentals.

So for those who are now making the decision to try an online rental house, or for those who are considering a move, here are a few factors that you should consider in making your decision.

Shipping Facilities: for added convenience, you will want to be sure that there is a fulfillment center near you. This can make the difference between a 1 to 2 day turnaround, and a 3 to 4 day turnaround. It might not sound like much, but being able to consistently gauge turnaround times is a great convenience (e.g. timing a new release to arrive on a Friday night).

Movie Selection: the breadth of movie selection is obviously important. Many movie watchers are only interested in new releases, but you should also consider what the inventory of TV series, classics, and movies from the past two decades is like. You might be surprised to find yourself turning off cable because you can rent all of the best series from network television, Showtime, HBO, and more.

Movie Availability: a huge library of movies does you no good if your DVD rental house only has one copy of each! The number of copies of each movie will never be disclosed, but for the most part, the larger the service, the deeper their selection. In this area, Netflix is generally considered to outrank Blockbuster.

Plan Selection: each rental house should have a plan that meets your needs, but some offer more flexibility than others. Examine your movie viewing habits and be sure your chosen rental house has a plan that fits.

Ease of Use: as you build your queue and look for movies to rent, you will begin to appreciate more and more how easy a web site is to use. Looking at things like search facilities, response times, site down times, availability of information in areas like popup dialogs, ease of navigation, etc. will have a big impact on your satisfaction with a service.

Ratings and Other Information: being able to view what others have thought about a movie is important to help you narrow down your selection. Ideally, your service will be able to learn from your movie selections and soon be able to recommend movies to you with some degree of accuracy.

Specialized Features: each service will have characteristics that make them unique from the other services. For example, Netflix has a very convenient instant movie section. The movie selection isn't great, but being able to watch movies on your PC on demand is very convenient. Similarly, the ability to walk into a local store to return movies or rent new ones, as you get with the Blockbuster service, are also very important to some.

Reputation: you're probably aware of the two largest players in online DVD rentals, and those are Blockbuster and Netflix. But what you might not know is that there are plenty of other niche providers like GreenCine for independent movies, DVD Empire, and other smaller providers. Unfortunately, most of these smaller providers are smaller for a reason: they just don't stack up to the two big guns. To avoid any painful experiences, you should probably stick to the known entities.

Considering all of the factors above, there really are only two logical choices for a mainstream rental house, and those are Blockbuster and Netflix. Both have the depth and breadth of coverage you'll need, have multiple distribution centers across the US, have fast turnaround time, and offer solid user experiences.