I've had my DVD for 2 years now. Gave up on Brick & Mortars early on as they had about 10 titles and always out, so went to Netflix...was one of the "founding members". That was good for about 6 months until another million people found out about them and it seemed they only had 10 titles as I wasn't getting much of my selections, and their turnaround time was abysmal. Then I switched to RentMyDVD and that lasted only 2 months as out of the first 7 DVD's, 4 of them were damaged beyond repair and not viewable.

On one occasion, I had about 30 minutes to go into the Mexican and disgusted with RMD, I went to my local Hollywood to rent it so I could finish it. Well, I was quite surprised. They had hundreds of DVD's and so many in stock!

Lately though, I'm getting disgusted with all the people out there who just don't know how to treat DVD's. I've got so many scratched ones, even at Hollywood, I was getting frustrated. Hollywood was great because they would credit me if I brought one in and told them after I watched it.

However, I decided to stop before I left & actually look at the DVD's before I left. When I found ones with scratches in them, I asked if I could get another one. They said "sure, go get one". In the past 2 months, I have NEVER had a DVD that didn't play now that I can check them before I even leave the store. On some occasions, it's take 4 or even 5 disks before I'm happy and I have to give the store credit, they don't even blink.

Now, every B&M store may not have as great as staff as the one near my house, but I have to give credit where credit is due.

And did I mention Anime? They're starting to build an impressive list of the genre. I've watched a number of Anime's lately - even Perfect Blue, which never shipped at Netflix nor RMD.

My only complaint is they don't have the Sopranos' on DVD...only on VHS.

Anyway, I've bitched enough about my bad experiences & thought I'd start the new year off right & start praising where I get good service!

Tman

Funny, I rented Perfect Blue from Netflix at the time...might have been over a year ago however.

I have always like Hollywood Video, they seem to have a decent selection.

I don't rent from them simply because of a local grocery store chain that rents all DVDs, even new releases, for $0.99, but I still respect them (as opposed to Blockbuster Video).

Hollywood Video will ALWAYS have my business. In a time when DVD was struggling to find it's foothold in our lives, and places like Best Buy and Blockbuster had such a limited selection (I don't even think Blockbuster HAD any DVDs for quite a while), along comes Hollywood Video. They fully embrace DVDs! I started renting from them waaaay back, and have been very happy. And their selection continues to improve every week. The store in my town is almost 50% DVDs now (yea!).

Hollywood Video

A loooong time ago, before there was DVD, I was a loyal Blockbuster patron. Then when I got my DVD player, Blockbuster lost my business because they didn't carry DVD. But lo-and-behold, I discovered Hollywood Video. Sure they only had a few shelves because it was a new format, but the point it they made an effort. Now I go there and they appear to be seriously backing the format. They have oodles of copies of all the recent releases. Now if they could only do something about that $4 rental fee, then they would be an even better store.

Too bad that whole Reel.com thing didn't work out.

HWV is where I rent as well. Better selection. Faster check-out. 5 days on all rentals. Pretty sweet.

Hollywood has a good selection of flicks but watch your account with them. I've had two incidents at two different stores where I was told I had late fees on vids I'm 100% certain I never rented. I've never had that happen before at any other video store (I'll own up when I bring something back late) and because of that, I've not been back. It might have been an isolated thing and bad luck but be careful FWIW.

So Heat is the one getting all the new releases before I get there! I just wish that Shop N' Save would quit getting the P&S and rated versions when better alternatives exist. I had to break down and go to Family Video (regional independant chain) to rent Ghosts of Mars. Hollywood has a much better selection though.

Not to mention that a Hollywood Video store just is a more pleasent place to be. Most of the Blockbusters I've been to feel quite old, dark, and small. Just tired feeling. Most of the Hollywood Videos I've visited (especially my local one) is bright, brand new, huge, more energized, and a much cheery place to visit.

They're definately doing something right. And just a few years ago I thought there is no way anybody could have started a viable competition to the Blockbuster.

Beeeil