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Moving into the new house shortly, and this time instead of picking up premium channels I'm gonna go with a subscription to one of the online movie rental services.

While Netflix is probably the obvious choice, I'm seriously considering Greencine.

I like their focus on foreign, indie and arthouse films(hell, they even have a copy of Eraserhead on DVD, available only through Lynch), and from reading through the forums it appears that they actually communicate with their members and take their suggestions and requests. They've also added reviews, lists, and recommendations to the site, features I'm all for that Netflix is missing.

Unfortunately, while the Greencine catalog is very wide, it is not deep. They might have that obscure film, but they've probably only got a couple copies at most. As a result, it appears to be hit or miss whether you actually receive the movie you want to rent; most members set up a large queue of movies they'd like to see and then just watch whatever happens to be delivered.

Additionally, as they are west coast based without any distribution centers, shipping can take longer for those on the wrong side of the country.

If you are or were a member of either Greencine or Netflix, mind sharing yer experiences with em?

Hi,

I've been using Netflix for sometime. Quite happy with the service. The catalog is not as deep as it could be, but I have yet to look at GreenCine and compare the two.

The best thing for the Vegas market is that Netflix has opened a center here in town. I have noticed much shorter processing, receiving and shipping of DVDs. Nice change, and making me quite happy.

Posted by: Robert on July 1, 2004 05:25 PM

I recently signed up for GreenCine's 2-out plan and have set up a large queue of about 80 films. I already got the first two, which were received within 2 days. So far, so good...

Since I can just expect to get the next-available film in the queue, I think this may work for me. It could also be fun, sort of like asking your friend (with non-Lenny film tastes) to go to the video shop and bring back a surprise. I don't have to bother deciding what to watch (unless I want to, of course). I'll probably just go through and add things to the queue as I hear about films that I am interested in seeing...

Anyway, I'll see how it goes. At $15/month, it's not a bad deal. I will never give another cent to CockBuster ;-)

Posted by: n8 on July 2, 2004 01:03 PM

I've been with GC for about 2 months now and I have no complaints. That's probably because if I am absolutely dying to go see a certain movie, I'll walk down to the video store and rent it. But, for all of the other movies that I've said "sounds like I should see that some day," Greencine's been great.

I've only had a movie take longer than 3 days once. I've slowly been able to catch up on all the foreign films I should have seen in college, but didn't. It's fine for my purposes.

By the way: daily.greencine.com is a great, MT-powered blog they run. And they donate $$$ to film preservation. I'll stick with 'em.

--sean

Posted by: sean on August 13, 2004 11:51 AM