The online DVD rental market is now well established with the multitude of providers of a few years ago now reduced to a few big names, and a couple of specialist services.
Whatever your requirements, there is bound to be a service that suits your needs better than another one. We’ve compared the offerings and prices of the recommended providers so you can choose the best service for you.
LOVEFILM
LoveFilm are the biggest provider of DVD and Blu-ray rental at the moment, boasting some 65,000 titles. They have a neat movie rental list where you can prioritise the discs between high, medium and low priority, and you can even have multiple lists. Their website is easy to use, and you can choose between DVD, Blu-ray or streaming on many films too. They also work with a lot of hardware and you may have found their service built-in to your Sony Blu-ray player, or Samsung television. They also have iPhone and Android Apps so you can manage your lists on the go.
The downside to LoveFilm at the moment is their lack of any post 2009 Universal Pictures films, meaning no Bridesmaids, Paul, Public Enemies or Inglorious Basterds. We have also experienced occasional problems where they have sent out lower priority films from our lists, but on the plus side, they will normally ship your next film so it arrives on the day you new monthly cycle starts.
Their plans start at £4.99 for 2 movies a month so represent good value for money for viewers who don’t watch many movies.
Blockbuster
Blockbuster is the best known High Street DVD and games rental companies and also one of the biggest online rental companies too. They have a massive selection and their plans start at £4.99 for two movies a month. We were happy with their service and they seem to be able to supply old films as well as new. The plans aren’t as cheap as some others, but they do have a massive selection of titles.
We liked their ‘Top Ticket’ service where you can use your ticket against a particular film to guarantee that you get it next. As well as this they also manage to get a selection of top titles exclusively and before anyone else.
Cinema Paradiso
Cinema Paradiso are one of the slightly more specialised DVD rental services. Whilst you can still get mainstream box office movies, if you are interested in expanding your movie watching horizons into world and arthouse film, Cinema Paradiso is probably for you. They have a wonderful array of brilliant and classic movies that will keep any film enthusiast happy.
They also use longer descriptions than most for the film synopsis, and the customer reviews are just as well written. Plans are good value and their 3 and 4 disc a month packages rollover into the next month if you do not use all your credits, which is a really nice touch.
During our extensive review with them in 2011, we also found the delivery times and customer service to be excellent, so would not hesitate in recommending them.
In Summary…
Based on the service we have received, we don’t think you can go far wrong with any of the current DVD rental services and it is difficult to choose between them.
We really like LoveFilm and we’ve found the Android and iPad apps really useful in keeping our lists up to date. Blockbuster too has some really neat features that could be worth going with them for especially if you don’t like to miss out on any of the latest films. Following the service we received from Cinema Paradiso, we have a real soft spot for them too, and if you are looking to broaden your movie horizons they are a good choice, and at the moment, our favourite.
Good article, I found it very helpful. Currently trying to choose the best deal fo me, there’s some good looking deals there.
Thank you for the article. I used Cinema Paradiso and LoveFilm. For me, Cinema is much much better. Better movie choice and new titles are being added every day.