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Unless you haven¹t logged on in a year or so, you must have seen the ads for the online movie rental service Netflix (www.netflix.com). I like to watch movies, and have a small but interesting collection. However, it¹s human nature to want to watch a movie that you have to rent instead of an unwatched movie sitting on your television. Unfortunately, to rent a movie you have to get off the couch, drive to the store, pay $4 or more plus snacks, and drive home. This process, if done correctly, can take two hours (ok, so I¹m exaggerating) and can involve a late fee or two.

I joined Netflix as a test to see if it would save me money and give me access to a wider variety of DVDs than I could find in Danbury. I like to watch a wide variety of movies, including the typical "action/drama" flick, foreign (even with subtitles), or even independent movies that were never shown in a theater. Netflix has more than 12,000 titles, which should keep me busy for a while.

They have several plans, all based on how many movies you can have out at any time. I¹m on the "3 out" movie plan, which costs $19.95 per month. They have four plans, ranging from two movies at a time for $13.95 (max. of four per month) to the "Netflix Ultimate," which gives you eight movies at a time for $39.95. For about $20 per month, I get to rent about eight movies a month, which is less than $3 per movie.

The way they do it is ingenious. When you sign up, you pick the movies you want and add them to your queue. They ship out the movies in a thin envelope, about the size of a DVD movie case. When you get the movie and remove the cover paper, it turns into a self-mailer so you can return the movie at no charge. When they get the movie back, they send you the next movie in your queue. I typically have about 30 movies in my queue, and I¹m always adding movies that I hear about from friends or read about online.

The only complaint I have is that they really don¹t promote the new movies as they come out. I think they do this so everyone doesn¹t rent the same movie on the same day. They would need thousands of copies of one movie, and then they would have very few rentals after that, leaving them with thousands of movies that were used once.

I know that Blockbuster and even Walmart are coming out with their own versions of this service, and will target Netflix users. The great thing about Netflix is that there is no contract, and since I can leave them at any time, they have to work hard for my business.
I¹m impressed so far with the service. It does take two or three days for a movie to arrive, but they have almost every movie in stock when I want it, the cost is less than $3 per movie so far, and I have not paid a single late fee.

The only real problem is deciding which movie to rent next.