MSN Video Island

[mshinners]

I tried MSN Video Island out for the 2 week trial and found that they were pretty good to start. Although they never did manage to send me the next batch of DVD's the following day when I had posted the DVD's back to them. I rented Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers Special Edition, this is on 4 DVD's and I selected the first 2 DVD's as these contain the film, this is classed as 2 rentals. Anyway they sent me the first disc and nearly 2 weeks later I still never recieved the second disc even though I had it as my only high prioity selection. I thought I would give them a month so paid for the rest of the month and then things got really bad. It was as if I was only paying for a 2 DVD service even though I was paying for 3 DVD's. There would only ever be 2 DVD's showing up as on loan to me. I made a complaint and 4 days later they replied stating that they were going through some technical diffuculties and refunded me £3.99. They also said that the service would now improve,,,,,it didn't so I cancelled my account!!

I have now tried Qflicks which were not to bad, better than MSN Video Island but again could not seem to turnaround the DVD's you returned the same day.

I am still trying out Choices Erental as I got a full 30 days trial with them. This has been running for about 3 weeks now and there service is on par with Qflicks and once again they seem unable to turnaround the returned DVD's the same day.

I then tried Screen Select. They seem very quick on turnaround and your returned DVD's are processed the following day of return and the next batch dispatched. So far Screen Select have the quickest turnaround. They also seem to have a good amount of DVD's as I seem to get films that I have at the top of my list. Another good thing about Screen Select is when I rented Schindler's List which is spread across 2 DVD's I got both the DVD's as one rental.

I just joined Lovefilm last week and so far they seem to be about the same as Qfilcks, unable to turnaround returned DVD's the same day. The one thing I do like though is that you get the 2 week trial with upto 4 DVD's which is so far the only one offering this service during the free trial.

My latest trial is with Blockbuster, this is a 30 day trial which I took out nearly 2 weeks ago. This is so far the best one I have tried. They seem to have the quickest turnaround of all the services I have tried and I am getting the films pretty much in the order I have them selected in. Another good thing I noticed when I rented E.T. was that you get the bonus DVD as part of the singel DVD rental rather than with most rental's where the bonus DVD is classed as another DVD. Another good thing about Blockbusters is the price, only £13,99 a month for the 3 DVD service which I think is the cheapest so far, that and the fast turnaround make Blockbusters my best experience so far with DVD rentals online!!

[StevenS]

You seem to be having the opposite experience from the one i have had.

I found Choices turnaround to be very good while Screenselect were eratic. Blockbusters were the worst i have come across with the turnaround taking almost a week.

I'm currently subscribing to Tesco's and the turnaround is fantastic but the selection process frustratingly random.

Just signed up with LoveFilms free trial (30 days) and they have picked my first 3 choices. Be interesting to see how the turnaround goes.

It does seem that there is no consistency with any of the companies. Perhaps it depends on where you live and what your rental queue is. Regardless, by the time i have finished these trials i'm not sure there will be any movies i actually want to see.


steven.

[mshinners]

It must be like you said, location. I have found that Blockbusters are best for me followed by Screen Select, then Choices. But might aswell try them all and see which one suits your location best.

[Michael Mouse]

I find VideoIsland quite slow at times in disc turnaround. They do have a great world cinema range though - although I think alot of other people are getting these, as they don't seem to quick to come to me!

One very impressive thing was that I received Cold Mountain this morning, and I only pre-ordered it on Thursday! Not bad at all. I think it was only released today...

I've tried Screenselect, Blockbuster, DVDs365, Moviechoices, Lovefilm, Qflicks and have two weeks left of Global Rental and Video Island.

Global Rental is possibly the best for quantity over quality - five discs at a time for a month's trial (but a very limited range). I still think Blockbuster and Screenselect are the best overall though.

MM