Please Note: This is a review of the US Blockbuster online rental service and has no bearing on the UK service.
Blockbuster made its first foray into the online DVD rental market some months back and has quickly become one of the top 2 or three choices in terms of service standards, size of rental catalogue and competitive pricing. At the time of writing this review, they're cheaper than Netflix by a full $3 every month for the popular three at a time package and their subscription package offers some nice touches which makes them arguably better as well as being cheaper than most.
There's one rather large advantage Blockbuster has over its closest competitors and that's not only is it a recognised name you know you can trust to be around next month but also that it eliminates one of the major gripes about online rental services...
The biggest complaint people have about even the biggest DVD rental companies like Netflix and GamezNFlix is the availability of new and popular titles sometimes leaves a little to be desired. If you put the latest movie blockbusters at the top of your rental queue you often find they are overlooked in favor of less popular titles lower down your wishlist. This is no oversight, but simply because with hundreds of thousands of people all wanting the same movie, you just have to get in line sometimes.
Blockbuster has a way around this! With every subscription you also a get TWO free in-store movie rental vouchers which allows you to pop off down to your local Blockbuster movie rental store and pick up to two DVD choices off the shelf every month for free. So if there's a movie you really want to rent right there and then, either a spur of the moment choice or one which is being skipped over on your movie renting queue, then you can go out and pick it up and it doesn't cost you a penny extra.
None of the other online movie rental services can offer you this.
Quite possibly the only complaints we have about Blockbuster's online rental service is that video game renting is not included in the online package. Computer and console games are available at Blockbuster online but they're not part of the movie rental package. HOWEVER, you can use your two free rental vouchers to rent games from your local store at no charge so in a way, you do get video game rentals by the back door.
In all, Blockbuster offers a very competitive and professional movie hire by mail service and with over 40,000 titles to choose from from just $14.99 a month plus those two free Blockbuster movie or computer game rental coupons, this should be one of your top choices.
