can we have a thread to detail the differences between the two services?

what do you have or what do you prefer and why?

thinking of switching from Netflix myself and would like to know the stats.

It's been a couple years since I tried Blockbuster. But in my experience, their turnaround time was slower. Plus their selection and availability was weaker. Their in-store returns was nice, if you don't mind the trip to a store. But these days my local Blockbusters are all closed down.

Redbox is good for cheap mainstream rentals. But you have to return it the next day. And driving over to the supermarket can be a hassle.

Even though I'm pissed with all the changes at Netflix, they are still the best for rentals. Turnaround time is 48 hours, which means I can easily go through 6-8 movies a month on the 1-out plan. They have almost everything. And availability is very good. I'm rarely on a waiting list.

Sticking with Netflix. Faster turnaround, better selection, streaming, less changing of plans than Blockbuster does. I was a member of Blockbuster for a few years and have seen first hand how they start off with a decent promotion/rental plans and slowly erode away at it until it's crap. Rinse, repeat. Whatever promotion they're doing now to win over Netflix customers is only going to slowly get worse until Netflix ends up being a better deal again.

While in-store trade-ins are nice, I'd rather not get up and just be able to stream a bunch of stuff, which I've been doing a lot more of lately. I remember when Blockbuster used to have unlimited in-store trade-ins, which I guess they've started up again to get new customers. Back when it originally started, it was great but eventually they changed it so you could only do a limited number of swaps. I fully expect them to head that direction again as that's just how they are and one of the reasons they went bankrupt.

In terms of using kiosks, Redbox has them beat. I think the selection at Redbox sucks in general but when I've used Blockbuster's, it was even worse.

I was happy with Blockbuster when I had it, but I dropped it after the stores in my town and where I work closed. It's now too inconvenient to go to the store to make the changes. Netflix' disc library is more extensive (many titles that were listed in my BB Queue as "very long wait" were immediately available from Netflix). Used to use the BB Queue for obscure items and the store exchange for new releases, now i use a combination of Netflix and Redbox.

This is my exact experience too. Much slower turnaround times. Plus, now that I can't return in-store, I'm not interested in switching at all.

I have switched over to Blockbuster and found that the turnaround times are much better than they used to be. I am also happy they carry video games. Much cheaper alternative to my Netflix/Gamefly combination. The availability is not always as good as Netflix, though I think it depends on what you have in your que.

I was a member of Blockbuster for about 2 years, ending it in 2008. I remember my queue was about 30 movies deep and every single one had a long or very long wait on it's status. I just decided to cancel and tried Netflix's free trial. Most if not all of those titles were available for rent.

Much has probably changed since then, but I am happy enough with Netflix to keep it going.

I switched to Blockbuster from Netflix a few months ago and I'm pretty happy. I think the key is whether or not you have a store close to you. I pass my local store every day to and from work...so it's perfect.

As others have said, turnaround times via mail are about a day slower than Netflix...sometimes two days. However, the option to exchange at the store more than makes up for this. One big plus for me has been new releases. Not only are many available to rent before Netflix, but it's much easier to get them in-store without dealing with "long wait" via the mail-in route. My Blockbuster queue also tells me how many copies are available in store...which is nice.

In addition to my plan, my blockbuster gives me free $.99 rental coupons about every other time I exchange a movie in the store. With a ton of $.99 BDs...this has been a nice perk. This may be YMMV...and the rentals are for one night only...but it has made the $9.99/month plan I'm on worth it.

There is one thing that I wasn't completely aware of regarding in-store exchanges when I signed up though...You can only exchange the discs mailed to you in-store. Once you get a movie from the store, you have to drop it off and wait for the next disc to be mailed. For some reason I thought I could exchange everything. Basically...you get an in-store exchange for every other movie/game you rent.

I'm dropping BB next week due to lack of free time and because the fall TV show season has started. I'll probably sign up again in May (I'll look into Netflix again too) when I have some more time.

EDIT: Decided to keep BB...

I switch back and forth between Blockbuster By Mail, Netflix & Greencine. Redbox & Blockbuster Express are a pain in the ass, I don't like daily rates.

Greencine can be frustrating sometimes but they have titles that none of the other services carry, particularly some of the recent Code Red DVDs or the Synapse DVD/Blu combos. Greencine's recommended if you're a cult movie fan who's had too many disappointing blind buys, haha. (Do Blockbuster or Netflix even have Rituals for rent?)

I think I stopped using Blockbuster in 2007. They were constantly doing things like sending me the #30 disc on my queue and it was annoying.

Of course, that was four years ago.

Blockbuster always seemed to me to have more copies available of new releases, but Netflix had a larger selection.

wow...i never knew about the inefficiency of BTA. never really thought of it actually until Netflix prices starting sucking. think i may stick with Netflix, but thinking about dumping the streaming.

I think Blockbuster has a 30-day free trial. So you might as well sign-up and try it out.

I cancelled NF and went back to BBBM(blockbuster by mail).
Last time I used it was two years ago.

I still see the same problem as before, almost all the movies in the Q are either short or long wait. These are mostly the new releases.

If anyone is getting movies shipped from lower downin the list you have to go in the settings and change it to ship in one day so it doesn't skip movies.

Oddly though they did ship Tree Of Life the other day even though it was on long wait.

Blockbuster is going to start getting the same 28 day delay for new releases like Netflix starting with Warner Brothers.

But according to the article, new release delay may be increased longer than 28 days for Netflix and Redbox.

source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...ockbuster.html

I see that you can get games with Blockbuster. Anybody out there able to compare Blockbuster to GameFly?

I haven't tried Blockbuster for game rentals. But I checkout out their site and it looks like they hold new releases for a couple months. Gears Of War 3 isn't available until January. Battlefield 3 isn't available until February.

Yeah the new games seem to get delayed. But if you are not in a hurry, it is so much cheaper than Gamefly and for me it gets to me way faster.

Same here went back to BB. Almost every title shows short, long or very long wait but almost all those titles are available at my local BB only 2 miles from me.

They keep skipping titles shown as available and I usually get them 1 day after shipped, the last one still hasn't arrived must have shipped from farther away.

sticking with Netflix as my interests lie mainly in older titles and Netflix has a much better selection.

All the rental providers carry some titles the others don't. I'll share my observations if anyone cares:

Netflix only:
Bloody Disgusting Presents (Rammbock, Yellowbrickroad, Cold Fish, etc)
The Last Circus (at the moment, at least, BB still has it "on order")
Sole Survivor (Code Red)
Thriller (the entire television series, that's a lot of discs)

Blockbuster only:
Aussie Horror Collections 1 & 2 (Elite)
Boardinghouse (Code Red)
The Chilling
The Last Horror Film (Troma Retro)
The Losers (Dark Sky)
The Nest (Corman's New World)
The Phantom Carriage (Criterion)

Greencine only:
The Final Programme (Anchor Bay)
Lorna the Exorcist (Mondo Macabro)
Maria's B-Movie Mayhem: Haunted, Night of the Demon, Curious Case of the Campus Corpse & others (Code Red)
MST3K: The Sinister Urge (Rhino)
Rituals (Code Red)
Synapse DVD/BD combos (Vampire Circus, Dorm That Dripped Blood, Exterminator)

[NOTE: A couple of the BB or Netflix titles might cross over with Greencine, but I'm pretty certain BB doesn't have the Netflix titles & vice versa.]

Great list, Deadpan. I'm currently on a 30 day trial for BB, but have already found about 25 grndhouse/exploitation/horror titles that Netflix doesn't have. Many I just got from the worthless SAVED section of my Netflix queue. Plus it seems to me that about a year or so ago Netflix stopped getting any new catalog releases on DVD in their efforts to focus on streaming. So far in my research I have found new releases like THE PYX available at BB.

Problem is, as I found with my recent BB trial, titles like The Pyx & Nothing With the Night have been stuck in "On Order" limbo. I've tried BB on and off over the past few years, and unfortunately a lot of these "On Order" titles end up as "Unavailable", kind of a tease. Let me know if the aforementioned titles ever actually appear "In Stock"! (Btw, did you add Island of Lost Souls to your queue? )

See now that's the kind of info I need to have on this BB nonsense. I'm just starting out and wondered what it meant when it allowed me to add a title to my queue and then said UNAVAILABLE. ???

I'm already disullusioned by the slow turnaround. I returned three discs to the local Blockbuster store but only one got recorded as being returned. I had to manually report a problem on site for the other two. Not a very good start so far. At this rate I'll be lucky to get half the titles that are in my queue before the trial is up.

Deadpan, anything else I should know about them?

Just add as many titles as you can, and only rely on "In Stock" ones ("Short Wait" can go one way or the other). I've saved money renting Criterion titles I may have otherwise splurged on during sales. Especially ones that you can only buy in expensive box sets. It was nice to be able to watch Corridors of Blood & The Haunted Strangler without paying $40-80 for the Monsters & Madmen box set. (Btw, Corridors was way better than I expected, deserves its own individual release, imo. It's just as much medical historical drama as horror, recommended especially if you're interested in the barbaric early medical period of pre-anesthesia operation.)

The titles I listed in that earlier post should all be In Stock (or maybe "Short Wait" for the ones I need to return).