DVD - Buy or Rent?

The way in which we consume media these days is drastically changing, I'm sure we're all aware of this. The internet not only offers us new ways of consuming media (be it downloading, youtube, streaming etc.) but it provides more quality and secure services too. Remember back in the day when you'd get spammed by those video rental services through the post? "Get a yearly subscription and get the first 10 videos for 99p!* *£59.99 thereafter, minimum of 100 in any given year"


Well these days DVD Rental is becoming bigger online, but due to stiff competition from many leading services, you can get great value for your money too. You can argue that legal downloading is the 'next big thing', or even pay-per-view TV, but I think that DVD Rental will be here for a while yet, especially given some of the deals currently available!

So which DVD Rental site is best, and who offers the best value for money? Well, it kind of all depends on how many DVDs you think you'll be able to get through in any given month. They're pretty much all the same in how quickly they send out the discs, and they're all pre-paid which is nice. All of the top players also offer different pay plans depending on your needs. It may be that you only want to take out one at a time, but want to have an unlimited amount of times you can do it that month.. or you may want to take out two at a time but be limited to 6 in any given month.. it's really up to you!

LoveFilm was the very first service and offers over 65 thousand titles. That makes it the largest online service and offering pretty much every single DVD there is - nice! They were also the first to offer game rentals - and with some of the prices on new next gen games that's not too bad a service. Their engine also powers some of the other services out there (such as Tesco).


Aside from Lovefilm, it appears that the other big hitters are as follows:

Blockbuster
Amazon
Tesco

Blockbuster are always going to be big due to their history, but massive companies such as Amazon can really afford to offer value for money.

Personally I don't think I can see myself using these services anytime soon. It's not that I don't trust them or that I'm lazy, it's more that I have a weakness for owning films that I love. If I really love a certain director or particular film I'd like to always have it and share it with friends. Although thinking about it, maybe this is just the way to be more experimental in your film choices. Why worry about a film being rubbish if you can return it immediately? Screw it, maybe I will sign up afterall!