Anyone tried Nicheflix?
 

It looks like the non-region 1 version of netflix is finally available: http://www.nicheflix.com/

Saw this on another site. Haven't really looked through their selection yet, but it's about $24.99/mo. for 3 movies out at a time.

Anyone here given it a try yet? I'll probably try it next month.

I took advantage of their two-week free trial. In that time, I managed to get 6 movies (3 at a time). Everything arrived quickly and in good condition.

I liked the trial enough to stay with them. However, their selection is extremely small. I may cancel after a few months, once I've seen most (if not all) the movies I am interested in from the available titles.

The site's selection seems really limited, and it charges five bucks more than Netflix. I guess it is indeed going for a niche market.

Yeah, I tried them last week. Great selection in my opinion since I don't watch too many mainstream films. I cancelled my Netflix account a while back because the few offbeat films they carried were always listed as a long wait. I'm definitely going to keep the account going after the 2-week free trial. To be able to rent stuff like the Russian Ken Park disc is really nice since I'd hate to blow $30 on it without seeing it first. They have enough stuff to keep me busy for a long time. As for delivery time, I got my discs the next day, but I am in Indianapolis (they are based out of Carmel which is 15 minutes from me) so that's why it was so fast. At least they shipped out the same day I ordered them. So far, so good! Looks like they have the Ritek Fist Of Legend too.

I also tried the 2 week trial. I received the discs in a couple days in Massachusetts. Also agree the selection is a little limited, but it's still so much better than spending hundreds of dollars on overseas blind buys. I'm most impressed by the Shaw Bros. Celestial discs they have. Very pleased so far.

The unrated Ken Park is also available on DVD on netflix.com.

I was already planning on cancelling my Netflix this month, so I'm going to sign up in January. I actually sold a dvd to the owner a few weeks ago, talked with him in a few e-mail exchanges.

I've been checking this site out a lot lately and I will definitely sign up once I move. I found several movies that I've been wanting to check out. The only other alternative to see some of these films is to pay $20+ a pop at Yesasia. Japanese R2 DVDs are twice that. That's a lot to shell out for DVDs sight-unseen. Non region-1 DVDs are hard to resell. I will definitely do Nicheflix until I see everything I want to see. So far I've got a list of about 20-25 movies.

What is this exactly? A Netflix exclusive? Surely it's not the Russian PAL disc.

I think he might mean the "UNCUT" HK disc, which really isn't uncut since it has fogging. It's just "UNRATED"

I took a look at netflix's site and it wasn't even availible, it was only availible to SAVE to your cart for future release.

This place looks really cool. It's funny that it was started in Carmel, IN. I guess they do more than grow corn in Indiana (inside joke - I grew up in NW Indiana and went to school at Purdue).

Lots to like here, I'll probably be signing up soon. Thanks NicheFlix!

Jeremy

Yep, PURDUE sucks........GO BIG RED!!!!! :D

ummm....

NO it is not...

Better check again...

Shipping is very slow to LA. I joined on a Saturday, my first 3 movies shipped on Monday?!? The first arrived on Thursday, the second on Saturday and the third on Tuesday, 10 days after I had joined!! I'll probably stick with them a month because they have some great stuff, but it's not worth it if it takes so long for the movies to arrive.

Well, what would you like them to do? If you're in LA, you're 2 to 3 hours behind them, time-wise. So, if you signed up on a Sat. afternoon, there was probably no way for them to ship it that same day. Next day is Sunday, so obviously no shipping then. First realistic shipping day was Monday, which is...surprise! The day they shipped to you. Why are you complaining?

Jason

I signed up on 6AM on Saturday. And my queue wasn't updated to show that I was going to get those movies until early evening, if I recall correctly, on Monday. I'm sort of at a loss as to why you would assume I joined in the afternoon and then use that faulty assumption to berate me. What I didn't like about the two day wait was that is that there was no indication as to whether or not the initial 3 items that I had put in my queue would be shipped to me or if somebody else might have been in line ahead of me and snagged them.

And, you're right, my frustration is more with that third disc taking 9-10 days to arrive. Strangely, you chose to ignore that part. As for me being in LA, at the time I joined, I did not know where they were located. I mentioned that I was in LA so that other people near me might get some idea of how long they might have to wait.

Yes they do have KEN PARK, because I just sent it back to them in the mail today!

Here's the deal with Nicheflix and some fo the problems that a small outfit like this has. First of all a lot of the R2 UK and Russian discs seem to break easier than say R3HK or R2JP dvd's. They're just not as strong for some reason. I actually got Ken Park over a month ago and it arrived cracked in half. They're not going to have 9-10 copies of a dvd like this, so when they break they have to order them again and it takes a while longer to get than say if you needed a new R1 copy of SPY KIDS-3D. Thus the reason it wasn't availible for some time.

I live in Chicago and I've been a member of about 2 months now. I love the service that niche provided, but my number one complain would be the shipping time. It's wildly uneven. This is more of a USPS complaint than Nicheflix, of course.

Keep in mind that this is between Chicago and Indianapolis. I live in the city and I believe Carmel is about 10 miles north of Indianapolis, so I was expecting a one or two days shipping would be the norm but the statistics would show something like this:

1 day: 0%
2 days: 50%
3 days: 30%
4 days: 10%
4+ days: 10%

I have an 8/$60 and average about $2.50/rental. I'm comparing this to Netflix, who has a Chicago warehouse, where I have a 5/$30 account and average about $1.2/rental.

Of course, Niche is more expensive but it's still cheaper than Blockbuster. $2.50 is a heck of a bargain when I look at how much it will cost me to get them via different ways. The only other way to get these movies in a consistent manner is importing them (cdjapan, bensons world, etc. etc.), selling the ones you dont want on ebay (compete with bootlegs) or half, and so on. Niche easily beats this both on cost and time. They also have an excellent customer service to boot.

The other complaint I have is the availability. I can easily live with this though since I have around 70+ titles in my queues. I do expect an improvement in this area if they can grow their business. I think they should start buying and selling used dvds to help with synching up supply and demand of titles.

As the name suggests, nicheflix is not for everyone. How much their service is worth depends on what you need. You should try them for a month or two and evaluate your experience to decide if you want to continue.

I don't know what I would do if I live in LA. The cost per disc will surely increase as shipping will take longer. LA probably has more local rental shops than Chicago as well, so that could be an option.

Well, I'm more than happy to pay for a month here in LA just to have access to the non-R1 titles. Depending on how their shipping stacks up over that month, I'll decide whether or not to renew. 2 free weeks is not a long enough period to decide (for me).

If I do cancel, I may rejoin in the future as they add new titles.

Nicheflix? OR Netflix?? I know Nicheflix has it but if you got it from Netflix well, then you must be a extra special customer because I can't get it from them...

I joined the free trial over a weeks ago, and it took a week for my DVDs to arrive.

This is sending them from Indiana to Illinois...

I'm not complaining, but it's a bit longer than 2-3 days, isn't it?

Oh... My bad, I thought I you wrote Nicheflix.

Netflix does have it listed to be released or something like that.

actually, we do have more than 10 copies of Ken Park. It is actually THE top renter. It doesn't show up on the 'top rentals' list because it excludes adult 'content' titles.

Ahhh... I was wondering about that. I thought it should have been listed at least in the top 10 rentals.

I just signed up recently. I'd chosen the 2 disc plan for $19.95 but with the slow turnaround rate, it looks like I should go with more out at a time. I switched to the 3 for $25 deal. I have 31 DVDs in my queue. 9 are available now. I'll keep looking through. There's some killer stuff here.