I have been seriously thinking of joining Netflix. Redbox may be cheaper per movie (but maybe not), but the convenience of movies right in my home is tempting. (Especially after I accidentally kept my last Redbox movie for 3 extra nights, ouch!)
I have been a hold out for a long time, but I am thinking that now might be the right time.
If I do decide join Netflix, it will be through Ebates. They offer a free 1 month trial and $8 cash back right now. (So it is kind of like getting 2 months free on the $7.99 plan.)
I have tons of questions for you, if you have already joined Netflix.
What do you think? Do you love it?
Do you recommend getting the service that provides streaming movies to your computer and gaming stations?
Or do you prefer still getting the DVDs or Blu-ray discs by mail?
Anyone still holding out like me or am I the lone non-Netflix chick?
I disclose : There may be affiliate links in this post.
{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
I have had the 7.99 Netflix for two months now and we really enjoy it. We stream it over our Blu-ray player that is wifi. I think it cost an extra 2.00 per month to have the dvd’s mailed to you.
If you watch alot of movies…..I think netflix is the way to go.
Hope this has helped.
Teresa
We LOVE Netflix in our house! We don’t have cable or satellite. Netflix gives us the chance to watch movies and shows that we feel are appropriate for us and our kids without having to watch commercials! We use our Wii to watch streaming movies and also receive two DVDs at a time. I love this option because we can have family movie night with thousands of movies to choose from. I definitely recommend Netflix; you won’t be disappointed.
We love Netflix! We stream it to our XBox and also get 1 movie out at a time. I think its $10 a month. My husband was able to watch some TV shows from start to finish and I love the movies. I don’t think you can go wrong with Netflix!!
We Love it! We don’t have cable or satellite, so I am able to watch some of the cable shows that I do love. The kids have a full range of movies to watch and everything is right there at our fingertips!
No, you’re not the only hold-out. I have had the same questions as you… So glad you have asked. I have an additional question… I have a Wii; so how do you get movies to “stream” over it???
Wii has a free “Channel” you can download, just like the internet or news channel. You will need wifi connection or an adapter for a hard wired internet connection. I think the adapter is about $14 at Wal-mart. The Netflix channel allows you to search by title or browse through the suggested titles for you.
Also, do forget to rate movies that you do watch! Netflix customizes their suggestions for you based on your ratings. It helps when you feel like you’ve seen every movie out there. They seem to have just the right movie for you.
I meant DON’T forget to rate movies. Hehe…
You should also request the instant streaming disc from Netflix for Wii. You keep the disc and we use it everytime to watch instantly. Takes the hassle out of going through your Wii Channels and immediately pulls up your Watch Instantly guide.
Love Netflix! We stream through our Wii and get one DVD at a time. We watch all of our TV shows through the Wii – no commercials and no waiting a week for the next episode!
Due to health issues we are shut ins at our home so NetFlix is our choice.
The $8 monthly fee covers streaming only. Once you get it, you have choices for where you wish to stream through and a walk through on how to do that. We stream through our Wii and my comp. It was an easy set up. I DO like it and there are many things to watch, the choices however can seem a little limited compared to the vast number of movies you can have delivered.
I also pay the additional $2 to have DVDs delivered to our home. I can keep them as long as I wish, or until I remember I still have it, with no late fee.
The returns are prepaid and a new movie shows up within a day or 2 if you set up a list of movies you are interested in seeing. I was surprised to learn that the movies that come to our home are from a local NetFlix site and not from another state. Making returns and deliveries much quicker.
It’s a pretty straight forward plan and worth the money in my opinion.
We started using Netflix a few months ago, and haven’t watched cable since. We are going to get rid of our cable come August and that will save us 88 a month (we’d have to pay a fee if we cancelled it before then). We have two tvs-on one we stream Netflix through the Wii and on the other, through a bluray player. The content is always being updated so there is always plenty to watch. We also get one dvd at a time which is also great because the newest releases aren’t available on the streaming. We also get movies for free from our library. Cable can’t compare especially since in our case, it’s 88 a month and Netflix is only 10 a month.
We’ve had Netflix for several months now and we love it. We have the 1 DVD at a time and streaming plan. We would never remember to return movies on time so that’s why we chose Netflix over just doing Redbox. The movie selection for the streaming is kind of limited, you don’t get a lot of new releases (although the Starz play does have some recent ones) but there is a huge selection of older movies and TV shows (we watched the first 4 seasons of Psych through the streaming, which was great because my husband and I love Psych so we’d watch an episode or 2 when we got home from work). We were streaming through our blu-ray player but the cable has a short and now we stream through the Wii. We actually prefer the Wii now because you can browse the movies/shows on the Wii but you have to add them to your queue from your computer to watch on the blu-ray player. You can also play movies/shows on your laptop anywhere you have a good internet connection which is super convenient. The turn around for the DVDs is really fast because, like someone else said, they go to the closest Netflix center. We normally have a 2 day turn around. Overall, I think it is worth the money.
We just got on the 9.99 plan with the 1 DVD out. Not everything is available for stream which is the nice thing. My husband wanted to see Red, which was a new release and wasn’t on the stream, so we got the DVD instead. I LOVE British TV and have no problem dropping $50 on a box set of something that doesn’t air in the US (I can hear couponers/frugal people everywhere cry right now) but with Netflix they have tons of British TV (and tons of everything!) so it was worth it.
For us it will be saving us tons of money.
We stream and get 2 DVD’s at a time. We choose to get the DVD’s because new shows like the newest seasons of True Blood, Big Love, etc. don’t get released on Instant Queue for long time. We play catch up on older seasons so that we can begin to follow the new seasons on t.v.
NEVER have had a complaint about Netflix. Our post office kept “eating” the DVD packages and we would get these little scraps of the package with no DVD. We could immediately go on to their site and let them know and with out any questions, they would immediately send us a replacement DVD (same thing with scratched ones, although its only happened twice over 2 yrs with them).
We have netflix and we have a Roku box to let us stream. So we can watch instant movies and we also get discs in the mail. You should absolutely positively get a Roku box. It’s awesome. We actually ended up cancelling our cable. With the instant streaming, only some of the total Netflix catalog is available. So that’s why you can still get discs too — the streaming is only a portion of all available titles.
Which Roku player did you go with?
Jamie,
We originally had the cheaper box — as I understand it, there are two levels – “plain” and “nicer”.
After using it extensively for nearly a year, DH thought we should upgrade to the nicer one. I do not remember why. I had no problems with the plain box and thought it worked great. DH is pickier than I am when it comes to technology. I am pretty oblivious.
I will say that now that we have the nicer one, it looks like i’m going to be able to sell the old one on ebay for almost what we paid for it.
I recently won a 2 month trial on Netflix and I will definitely renew after the trial period. We love it. I have been watching streaming videos of the shows I have been wanting to see. My daughter uses it on her iTouch to watch shows she wants while we’re away or in the car. It’s a great tool.
I was thinking of getting the Roku box. I currently don’t subscribe to Netflix but I was thinking of replacing our cable with it. Does anyone know what the difference between Netflix and Hulu Plus is, besides getting the discs with Netflix?
Netflix is great for some and a waste of money for others. I think it really depends on what you like to watch on DVD and how often you watch DVD’s. While I use Netflix, I am impatient and sometimes hate having to wait for a movie to come in the mail. In addition, Blockbuster is securing deals with distributors to have rights on new DVD’s a month earlier than Netflix or Redbox. So if it’s a movie I’m really dying to see, I find myself sometimes still going to Blockbuster (yuck).
If you’re watching a mini-series or television show, then Netflix is perfect. AND, if you have a Wii video game console, it acts just like a Roku, so you can watch older movies and tv shows directly from your TV without adding it to your queue and waiting for the postman.
I’ve had Netflix, then dropped it. Then I started back up again when we got a Wii. Try it for a couple of months and see if you can figure out whether you’re saving money or if it’s costing you the same as if you’d used Redbox/Blockbuster.
We had Netflix for about a year or two, but recently cancelled it
They are super fast the first month, maybe two months, then the movies start to slow down & your chance at getting “new” releases becomes longer & longer. After taxes & fees we ended up paying a little over $9/month for the 1DVD option, so $110/year. We stopped using it for new released movies & started getting it for instant streamed cartoons (through our Wii) & older movies for our kids to watch, but all the movies I got for the kids I could get for free f/ our local library! A newly released movie is only $1.98 at our local store & we definately do not rent 50 movies a year so I did not feel it was worth the extra $100/year. Doing the cheaper plan, sending the movies back instantly you will only get 1-3 movies/month w/ mailing times & those are older movies. A free test subscription is worth a shot and if you do not like it after having it for 3-4 months there is NO cancellation fee. Just make sure you check your account & cancel right before it is to renew or you lose those extra days you’ve paid for.
We pay a little over $10 a month for streaming and 1 DVD at a time. I would think about canceling our regular TV cable before Netflix if I had to! The best part of Netflix are the instant streaming TV shows series that we usually can’t see due to schedules or the lack of subscriptions to HBO, Comedy Central, etc ( we have a super basic channel package). Netflix always has interesting documentaries and religious films. I think my favorite movies so far are the ‘independent’ romantic comedies that I would have passed over in Blockbuster (back in the 90s)
You can watch Netflix over your Ipad or ipod touch, computer, and Wii. I’m sure there are other ways too. The downsides are Netflix does not have subtitles that I’m aware of and the new releases that are mail only are sometimes are a long wait. They do have good customer service!
Some of their movies have subtitles, but call and tell them–the more customers who request them, the more of a priority it will become. They told me that they are working on getting all movies to have subtitles in the next year hopefully! I am excited about that!
One more thing! If you have a super big cable package and only rent once or twice a month I would stick with $1 redbox movies!
I have to say that netflix does seem like it may be worth it. You are not the only holdout, as we do not have netflix either. Currently, we have broadcast tv only with rabbit ears and do hulu for our other content and download one tv series from itunes. Lot cheaper than cable, but could consider netflix. If I didn’t have free coupons from blockbuster all the time, I probably would do netflix.
I love our bunny ears (with box) for cable! That plus hulu and netflix = way better and way cheaper than cable
Ditto on hulu & fancast…you’ll never miss cable again.
We have been cable and satellite free for over a year now. We LOVE Netflix. We use the live stream the most. (we use XBox in the Living room, PS3 in the master br and Wii in the spare bedroom lol)
We did have the 2 discs at a time (with 2 different queues) but we moved down to one disc at a time and that seems to work best for our family of 3 (soon to be 4!)
No complaints what-so-ever and its budget friendly!!!
I love my Netflix!! It is awesome! We get 2 dvds a week, one family movie and one “date night” movie. We also love our Instant Que and watch movies on our tv through our Blue Ray player! I also watch episodes of my favorite shows, like Monk, as well. I especially like that when I want to watch television and there is nothing good on the tube.
I highly recommend it! You should join!
We have had Netflix for years and I love it. We also stream it to our XBox and also get 1 movie out at a time. I think its $10 a month… You will enjoy it. I have on occasion pick up a movie from Redbox or Blockbuster when we want to see it now. It never fails, I forget to return it. Enjoy!
I have had Netflix for a couple of years. I like having access to older movies and the option keeping them longer. If you prefer to watch new releases only then stick with Redbox. Sometimes there is a wait for new releases with Netflix. But if you are like us, we can take 2 weeks to watch a movie, Netflix would be best. I would recommend trying it and seeing how it works then cancelling. There is also the Instant Que feature. It doesn’t take long to receive the movies in the mail. The turn around time is actually prettty quick. Hope this helps.
I love it, but to be honest the feature we get the most use out of is the streaming online movies (we bought the video cord for maybe $25 that goes from the laptop to the tv, so we can still watch the movie on the tv!). We also watch a movie a week that gets mailed to us usually. Every once and a while, we may use a code to get a Blockbuster Express (like redbox, but gets the movies sooner) movie, but we love Netflix the most. Another consideration (the breaking point if you’re thinking they’re about equal) is higher gas prices make it very un-economical to drive out just to rent or return a movie!
I totally recommend Netflix. We have the habit of going a couple weeks between movies, so the convience to have a movie around the house when you want to watch it – is great. We do alot of streaming, esp since we don’t have a regular TV. I can monitor closely what the kids watch. The selection is much better than Redbox. And you can build a cue of movies so as soon you send yours back, a new one is shipped right out. Our turn around time has been 1 day.
It’s worth it.
I LOVE Netflix. I have the 9.99 plan, one movie at a time. I have the app on my phone so if I think of a movie that I want to watch. I can add it to my queue right then and there. I have a Wii at home so I stream movies through there also. They do not have the same titles as the ones you order but they still have some good ones. like my daughter found the new Alice in Wonderland last week and because we have wireless. She watches it on her Ipad and I can with my laptop.
Also they have workouts, yoga. I get bored easily working out at home so with Netflix I always have different workouts at home. No need to buy the DVDs
IT’S WORTH EVERY PENNY!
We’ve had it for a 2+ years now and still love it! We do not have cable or satelite service so it’s always been nice to recieve movies thru the mail (which is always very fast service). For Christmas this year we invested in a new tv and blu-ray player with the Netflix live stream option…and it’s great! Now we can watch just about any tv show we want to and the movie selection is fantastic! Old, new, family, childrens (lot’s of options you don’t get at Redbox or the movie store)…all unlimited for under $10 a month! We still use the Redbox once in awhile if we want to see a new release right away…but usually we only get Redbox if we have free promo codes and we cut our Netflix mailing option back from 2 movies out at a time to 1 movie. Good luck!
I bought my Dad Netflix for his Birthday and he loves it!
The only thing you will regret about Netflix is that you didn’t start sooner. We are very heavy movie watchers in my house and we also use redbox and blockbuster express when we have codes. The streaming is awesome and their turnaround for mailing movies is very fast!
Shelly,
It really depends on what you want in entertainment. Around the same time I started couponing, we looked at other ways to save $$$. We don’t watch a lot of TV, so us paying over $60/month for the most basic package was ridiculous. We suspended the satellite service for a couple of months to see how painful life w/o current TV would be…and we lived.
We pay $10/month to stream though XBox and have one disc out at a time. We primarily use the streaming feature. Lost and 24 have been our favorites.
But, I could see this all being different pre-children. We had a lot more time to ourselves. We’ve thought about doing the Hulu plus thing, but haven’t committed simply b/c we’re not sure that we’ll really benefit from it.
My only problem with Netflix is that now I’m addicted to it.
We also plan to drop our basic cable and do antennae TV plus Netflix. As for new releases, you can still get Redboxes for movies that you can’t wait for. OR if you are really desperate and have a blueray, you can buy new realease pay per view movies for $2-4 each. (We just got a new blueray off Craigslist, but were using wii previously). All in all, it is awesome, convenient, and affordable. BUT if you are trying to cut down your TV watching, it won’t help with that. 
We like netflix but do not love it. We did have the deal where you get 3 unlimited out at a time with the blu-ray option. One thing that bugs me is that netflix is about a month behind in getting new movies, and then you have to type them into the search engine just to find them…
Redbox and Blockbuster started doing specials on their rentals! Like $1 for 3 rentals or $2 for 5 rentals! We stocked up through groupon on these and now have about 18-20 movie rentals that we paid about $4 for. The trick, with groupon is when you refer someone new, that new person (say your husband) gets a $10 credit added to his account! With this we have used $5 in free money to buy13 rentals from Redbox/Blockbuster! Needless to say, we switched our Netflix to one movie at a time with no blu-ray and have the movies streamlined to the Wii where we can watch unlimited when we feel like it. Its a lot cheaper all the way around!! Groupon should still be doing this deal today, check it out. There should be one day left to buy
http://www.groupon.com/deals/blockbuster-express-wilmington-newark?c=dnb&p=1
We’ve had Netflix for over one year and we love it. We are TV watchers and so our instant streaming gets lots of use. I have so many movies to “catch up on” and so many movies that I had never heard of that I have over 700 movies in my queues! LOL! I can now access it on my Ipod and also on my laptop so I always have access to movies. We have the two disc option, no blu ray and we get more than our money’s worth!
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