what are people's experiences with amazon ordering dvds and shipping to an international address? are they packed properly? im thinking of going with the normal shipping option

Yes.
If your mailbox is not too small to have the parcel, then you can go for the standard shipping option (via post). It's quite safe, in principle.
The next option isn't faster than the standard one. It's just a registered mail.

However, if the parcel is large so that your postman usually just leaves it on the floor, then someone may steal your parcel.

i live in singapore

sometimes when i receive mail which is too big to fit into my mailbox the postman throws it into my garden or puts it in one of the loops on my gate, but thats usually with heavy catalogues or he sees me walking out of the house but just doesn't want to wait for me

When I think of Singapore, I think of trains running on time and mailmen kicking arse.

I've ordered a few times from both Amazon UK and US, and never had a problem. In fact I landed two sets of the Herzog/Kinski collection, from Amazon UK, because the first one was missing a disc. They forfeited it rather than have me return it, and sent another (opened and examined). I imagine this is typical.

What's also notable is that their shipping policies only differentiate separate items in the one order, so the 9 disc Kubrick Collection will set you back the same as a 1 disc item.

deadbirds: where do you live and how long did shipping take? yeah thats what i like abt thier shipping policies as well, i was actually thinking of using a forwarding service but that would be more costly since they charge by the number of discs in a box set

the only thing that worries me is my mailman throwing the box into my garden if theres no one home, cos hes done it before with smaller boxes...so i might go with registered post

Australia, and it probably takes about ten days to arrive. Presumably a little longer from the UK.

You might look into using a post office box address, and bypass the mailman altogether.

That's also my suggestion. But I think it's not bypass the mailman but the neighbors or pedestrians .

I just use my company address as the shipping address. No problem at all.