Do you think digital rentals are too expensive?

douki

Prominent Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2009
Messages
4,798
Reaction score
272
Points
710
£4.50 is the standard price for a HD rental of a new release, sometimes it can be £4.99. I understand this price is set by the studios however I think it's too high and it should be more like £3.50.
 
Join lovefilm mate I pay £9.99 a month and get around 10 bluray rentals by post a month so that's £1 a movie.
 
I think £3.50 is still too high, as kbfern says Lovefilm by Post is cheaper (& higher quality thanks to Blu-rays), also the quality of streaming/downloading varies so much you just don't know what you are paying for.

Maybe £2.00/£2.50 for the newest releases & £1/£1.50 for catalogue titles would be fair?

I think the way forward for digital rentals is for a premium streaming service where you pay a higher monthly fee to include new release titles alongside the catalogue ones.
 
Join lovefilm mate I pay £9.99 a month and get around 10 bluray rentals by post a month so that's £1 a movie.

I was with them for years but cancelled because there's always a delay with them getting new releases.

I think the way forward for digital rentals is for a premium streaming service where you pay a higher monthly fee to include new release titles alongside the catalogue ones.

That's a good idea. Seems odd they haven't done that yet. Not sure what I'd be willing to pay though... maybe £10-£12pm for unlimited new releases in HD.
 
I have been with LF for about 5yrs now and had about 1000 blurays off them, never had trouble getting new releases either,in most cases I will get a new release movie in the first week or two of release.
 
I do think digital rentals are too expensive. Much too expensive - especially considering what they are, how they're delivered, and the varying quality. It was only ten years ago I was renting physical DVD's for I think £3, but yet a "HD" rental from (for example) Apple is usually £4.49. I say HD with quote marks, because it's isn't actually HD, just higher res. The bit rate is lower than DVD, and the resolution is less than 720p in most cases. Plus, no DTS; you're lucky if you get 5.1 DD.

And they wonder why so many people choose to download films illegally rather than paying for rentals! Full 1080p HD titles, including HD audio such as DTS-HD MA 7.1 are easily available on the web, and don't expire either. 720p, DTS/DD 5.1 titles that don't look far off a Bluray are equally available. And because of the lack of DRM, you can do pretty much whatever you want with them.

Stack that against sub-par quality "HD", limited time, rentals, that you can often only watch on one or two devices due to format, codec, DRM, etc, that cost getting on for a fiver a pop!

And yet the movie industry moans it's being destroyed by illegal downloading. I wonder why...
 
And yet the movie industry moans it's being destroyed by illegal downloading. I wonder why...
Which it's not at anyway.
 
Doesn't stop them moaning about it though! ;)
 
I have been with LF for about 5yrs now and had about 1000 blurays off them, never had trouble getting new releases either,in most cases I will get a new release movie in the first week or two of release.

I've just done a search on Amazon under 'LoveFilm by Post' and they show Philomena 23rd May, The Counsellor 16th May, Gravity 2nd May, Don Jon 23rd May... All these are currently available to rent on Google, iTunes and Sony Entertainment Network.
 
Never mind renting, what about the price of buying digital downloads? More often than not it's cheaper to buy a better quality DVD/BD than it is to buy a download.
 
I've just done a search on Amazon under 'LoveFilm by Post' and they show Philomena 23rd May, The Counsellor 16th May, Gravity 2nd May, Don Jon 23rd May... All these are currently available to rent on Google, iTunes and Sony Entertainment Network.

Yes there are a few movies that are not available but this is because the studios won't do rental/sell through day date on some movies. The vast majority of movies are available.

Look below at what I have rented since 27th Feb (less than a month) and most of these were out no more than 10 days before I got them.


Thor/The Heat/Kings of summer/Whitehouse down/Frozen ground/Selfish Giant/Insidious 2/The Butler/ Enders game/Empire State/Were the Millers and in the post which I will get tomorrow Sunshine on Leith & Hunger games catching fire.

And that lot has cost me £9.99.
 
Never mind renting, what about the price of buying digital downloads? More often than not it's cheaper to buy a better quality DVD/BD than it is to buy a download.

I'm not really into buying movies digitally to own.

Given the choice of buying say Blue Jasmine on Bluray for £13.99 or renting it digitally for £4.50 then I would choose to rent it because it's not something I want to own. Some might argue that I could sell the blu-ray after watching it once but then that would require effort to advertise and post it etc. So it balances out.

Speaking of Blue Jasmine, LoveFilm by Post users can get it on 18th April. I saw it on digital about 2 weeks ago though, funnily enough via Amazon Prime.
 
I certainly prefer BDs to streaming. I'm on a free trial with Netflix at the moment. The quality is often very poor going down to below VHS standards and there's way too much judder. I used to rent BDs when we had a local Blockbuster and I don't think I ever paid over £3.00. They also often had deals on so I paid less than that.

Bri
 
I used to rent the blus I wasn't sure about , and buy the ones i thought I'd most likely be keeping. I'm not into streaming, I'd rather have the disc so there's no loss in audio or visual quality. Now I'm just buying my discs. The ones I don't want find themselves in the classifieds...and if it's a new release, it's a £3-4 hit, same as what a rental from Blockbuster would have been :)
 
I certainly prefer BDs to streaming. I'm on a free trial with Netflix at the moment. The quality is often very poor going down to below VHS standards and there's way too much judder. I used to rent BDs when we had a local Blockbuster and I don't think I ever paid over £3.00. They also often had deals on so I paid less than that.

On Netflix for only 5.99 a month I don't expect everything to be super high quality, same applies to Amazon Instant at 5.99. On Netflix I've watched House of Cards and a couple of movies and the quality seems more than acceptable, House of Cards looked like blu-ray and sounded great too. However, renting an individual movie at £4.50 a pop then I expect the quality to be excellent and so far from th eservices I've used I don't have any big complaints. New HD releases rented on iTunes and on the Playstation 4 look like blu-ray quality to me.

The ones I don't want find themselves in the classifieds...and if it's a new release, it's a £3-4 hit, same as what a rental from Blockbuster would have been :)

That's fine if you have the time and are organised enough to do that. Here's the thing - I don't want to organise my weekends viewing days in advance. A big part of renting a movie is the spontaneity of it. In the 'old days' I would nip down to blockbusters and pick up a blu-ray, but I can't do that now. The only way I can now watch a new release at short notice is by streaming it and I'm being forced to pay £4.50 a time which I think is unfair. It used to cost £3.50 to rent a blu-ray from blockbusters (or £3.95 I can't recall exactly), streaming should be cheaper in my opinion, at the very least it should be the same.
 
That's fine if you have the time and are organised enough to do that. Here's the thing - I don't want to organise my weekends viewing days in advance. A big part of renting a movie is the spontaneity of it. In the 'old days' I would nip down to blockbusters and pick up a blu-ray, but I can't do that now. The only way I can now watch a new release at short notice is by streaming it and I'm being forced to pay £4.50 a time which I think is unfair. It used to cost £3.50 to rent a blu-ray from blockbusters (or £3.95 I can't recall exactly), streaming should be cheaper in my opinion, at the very least it should be the same.

It sounds as though youre over complicating things! I don't exactly organise a weekend viewing day/s in advance in the manner I'll calculate what time my buttocks will hit the couch or what time exactly the movie must end. Although there's spontaneity involved on your behalf, you're aware of what the new releases are and I'm the same. You also know that you'll be watching a flick..so it's not complete spontaneity or randomness. So when I go shopping on Saturday at the local supermarket, I'll pick one of the new releases, or watch one of the discs sat at home that I still havnt had time to watch.

I do agree though, I miss my local Blockbuster. And although there isn't a great deal of choice, no one is forcing you to stream, that's the way things are going though with t'internet!
 
On Netflix for only 5.99 a month I don't expect everything to be super high quality, same applies to Amazon Instant at 5.99. On Netflix I've watched House of Cards and a couple of movies and the quality seems more than acceptable, House of Cards looked like blu-ray and sounded great too.

As well as judder the picture resolution often goes down to 240 which is terrible. At first it appeared only to be happening at peak times but I've found it can happen at any time. It spoils my enjoyment even when it's ok as I'm expecting it to happen again at any moment. If the picture quality drops for any reason I'm thinking it's down to the streaming but it might be something the production team have done such as introducing grain for effect. On a Blu I'd just accept it but on Netflix I'm thinking "Here we go again.". Even at it's very best I find streaming a poor second to Blu. The sound is only DD 5.1 and don't get me started on the menus. It's very hard to find stuff. The other day I found a Lee Evans stand up show in the sports film section.

Bri
 
I don't exactly organise a weekend viewing day/s in advance in the manner I'll calculate what time my buttocks will hit the couch or what time exactly the movie must end. Although there's spontaneity involved on your behalf, you're aware of what the new releases are and I'm the same. You also know that you'll be watching a flick..so it's not complete spontaneity or randomness.

Indeed. You may well be like me in that you don't always watch your latest buy straight away so you build up a selection of unwatched discs especially with regards to TV shows. That combined with old stuff you want to watch again means you have an excellent choice of titles to choose from with little or no worry about the pic and sound quality.

Bri
 
Indeed. You may well be like me in that you don't always watch your latest buy straight away so you build up a selection of unwatched discs especially with regards to TV shows. That combined with old stuff you want to watch again means you have an excellent choice of titles to choose from with little or no worry about the pic and sound quality.

Bri

If my latest buy is a new release of a recent film, then more likely than not I'll watch it on the nearest sat evening..maybe during the week if I can't wait. New releases of older films just get saved. I tend to rewatch some films just prior to viewing the sequel to.

Unfortunately however, I barely watch any tv. So I'm not familiar with the likes of Breaking Bad, King Of Thrones et all. The Channel 4 News and maybe Top Gear or Have I Got News For You is as good as it gets for telly programming, if I'm lucky!
 
It sounds as though youre over complicating things! I don't exactly organise a weekend viewing day/s in advance in the manner I'll calculate what time my buttocks will hit the couch or what time exactly the movie must end. Although there's spontaneity involved on your behalf, you're aware of what the new releases are and I'm the same. You also know that you'll be watching a flick..so it's not complete spontaneity or randomness. So when I go shopping on Saturday at the local supermarket, I'll pick one of the new releases, or watch one of the discs sat at home that I still havnt had time to watch.

I do agree though, I miss my local Blockbuster. And although there isn't a great deal of choice, no one is forcing you to stream, that's the way things are going though with t'internet!

Not sure how I am overcomplicating things, it's more complicated to plan ahead than it is to hit the download button. I am being forced to pay £4.50 because if I want to rent a new release at short notice then there is only one option for me now. Your solution of buying and then selling doesn't really count because it's not renting it's just a time consuming (and complicated) workaround.

As well as judder the picture resolution often goes down to 240 which is terrible. At first it appeared only to be happening at peak times but I've found it can happen at any time. It spoils my enjoyment even when it's ok as I'm expecting it to happen again at any moment. If the picture quality drops for any reason I'm thinking it's down to the streaming but it might be something the production team have done such as introducing grain for effect. On a Blu I'd just accept it but on Netflix I'm thinking "Here we go again.". Even at it's very best I find streaming a poor second to Blu. The sound is only DD 5.1 and don't get me started on the menus. It's very hard to find stuff. The other day I found a Lee Evans stand up show in the sports film section.

What device are you using to stream Netflix? Just wondering becasue you commented in thread with the guy asking about Netflix on the Wii so wondering if that could be the issue.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
What device are you using to stream Netflix? Just wondering becasue you commented in thread with the guy asking about Netflix on the Wii so wondering if that could be the issue.

I'm using a PS3 which works fine with Blus and 4OD. When I have the pic problems with Netflix I tend to check to phone line download speed and it's ok so it must be Netflix themsevles rather my gear. The odd thing is that my TV picks up a 1080i signal from Netflix rather than 1080p as it should be. The PS3 outputs 1080p from Blus no problem.

Bri
 
I'm using a PS3 which works fine with Blus and 4OD. When I have the pic problems with Netflix I tend to check to phone line download speed and it's ok so it must be Netflix themsevles rather my gear. The odd thing is that my TV picks up a 1080i signal from Netflix rather than 1080p as it should be. The PS3 outputs 1080p from Blus no problem.

Bri

Not sure what the problem is there. Have you tried renting a movie from the PlayStation store? Quality is really good for me.
 
New release HD rentals (subscription free) are £3.50 on Blinkbox. That's about a quid cheaper than the Playstation store . Mind you, I still think that's too expensive and I have to think twice (or comb through Netflix) before renting.

I recently rented Hunger Games Catching Fire and I'm glad I did as it was a good film that I didn't like enough to buy.

Blu ray is still superior and will remain my preferred method of watching- but only for things I'm certain to want to keep.
 
New release HD rentals (subscription free) are £3.50 on Blinkbox. That's about a quid cheaper than the Playstation store . Mind you, I still think that's too expensive and I have to think twice (or comb through Netflix) before renting.

I'll give it a go when/if it arrives on PS4, however I've looked on their site and new HD rentals such as Saving Mr Banks show as £4.50.

What would be useful is an aggregator site to compare rental price across all platforms because sometimes you do get special offers. I've found a couple of sites that do this but not for UK it seems.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Virgin Media Movies On Demand: FilmFlexOn Demand movies are pay by title two days rental

Here's the blurb
Big names, latest releases

Need a film fix? Choose from over 500 titles with Virgin Movies, many available the same day as the DVD is released – and some even on the same day as cinemas. There’s everything from box office hits to family favourites and hidden gems. All at the touch of a button from just £3.99.
Virgin Media - Movies On Demand | TV On Demand | Virgin TV from Virgin Media

Of course HD Movies are £4.50/99 personally I don't bother as its to expensive for HD & I won't bother with SD titles. My other issue is not all films get a HD version, they had Samsara only in SD I mean really what's the point so give me a Blu-Ray any day, if I don't like it I can sell it trade it & buy used much cheaper & I get out of the house :D
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom