When we talk about video nowadays, the conversation is usually about streaming content and the services that provide them. While Netflix’s DVD service is still kicking — and even has its very own app — it’s been losing customers steadily for years. And now, with the latest quarter’s subscriber exodus, some are wondering whether the disc-based service’s time is limited. [More]
dvd’s
DVDs Are More Expensive In Target’s Reality Vortex
By 12.14.15
Like many Americans, I like to shop at Target. However, walking inside the friendly red doors means that shoppers must accept that they’re entering a different reality. Inside the Target Reality Vortex, numbers have no meaning, and ordinary retail logic doesn’t hold up.
Shopping there is easier once you’ve accepted this, but our readers still send us pictures from Target’s reality vortex. [More]
UPDATED: Critic Publicly Calls Out Movie Company For Editing His Negative Review Into A Rave
By 7.27.15
Everyone knows that when a movie trailer or poster is peppered with single-word review quotes — “Wow,” “Thrilling,” “Meh” — there’s usually a good reason why the full sentence from the reviews aren’t being quoted. But when you see something resembling a complete thought on a DVD box, you might be misled into thinking it accurately represents the reviewer’s opinion. [More]
Why Are The Netflix Episodes Of ‘Friends’ Shorter Than Those Included In My DVD Set?
By 1.2.15
As we hit the afternoon of second day of the new year, many Friends fans might already be eyeballs deep streaming the entire series after its Jan. 1 release on Netflix. But with the super fans come super powers of observation, including a discrepancy noticed by a Consumerist reader we’ll call Gunther. He wondered why the Netflix episodes seemed to be shorter by about three minutes on average than the episodes included in his complete DVD set, noting that the originally aired episodes would’ve been closer to the length of the Netflix episodes. [More]
Redbox Hikes Prices For Movie And Video Game Rentals
By 11.24.14
The cost of a night in with a rental DVD is about to get a little more expensive for those of us out there who still rent physical movies and video games: Redbox is increasing the price of DVD rentals by 25%, as its parent company Outerwall Inc. tries to boost its revenue stream. [More]
Redbox Is Running DVD And Blu-Ray Price Hike Tests Again
By 8.28.14
Movie and game rental kiosk company Redbox is considering another price change to its DVD and Blu-Ray rentals. They’re testing out new pricing schemes in different markets, presumably to figure out which pricing scheme consumers hate the least. In the market where reader Dave is, in Salt Lake City, Utah, they’re trying the price points of $1.50 for DVDs and $2 for Blu-Rays, a price hike of 30¢ and 50¢ respectively. [More]
Netflix Killed Off Saturday DVD Deliveries In Early June And No One Noticed Until Now
By 7.18.14
The worry for Netflix DVD subscribers used to be that the United States Postal Service would stop Saturday mail delivery, thus putting a kink in movie-consuming schedules. Instead, the time has come for Netflix to put down Saturday DVD delivery all by itself. Actually, the time already came and it’s already dead, just not a lot of people noticed. [More]
Walmart Customers Charged With Beating Security Guard, Running Off With 55 DVDs
By 1.28.14
On Friday, a Walmart security guard in South Carolina confronted a woman who was pushing a cart filled with DVDs that she hadn’t paid for out the door. That’s his job. Instead of surrendering or simply running off, the two women allegedly started hitting the guard and then ran off. [More]
Let’s Review: If You Didn’t Order It, You Don’t Have To Pay For It Or Send It Back
By 4.12.13
Andrew subscribes to Popular Photography magazine, and was annoyed to receive an instructional DVD in the mail. Not because he’s a pro photographer and already knows his way around a DSLR, but because he didn’t order it. “I was just going to throw it out,” he writes. “thankfully I didn’t.” Why is that? Andrew frets that they would have charged him for it if he just tossed it out. But they can’t. [More]
Hey Kids… This Mystery Shopper Report Tells You Which Stores Will Probably Sell You R-Rated Movies & Games
By 3.25.13
When I was an adolescent, my friends and I had to rely on word-of-mouth about which stores would look the other way when it came to movie ratings and parental advisory warnings on music. But kids today, they have the benefit of the Federal Trade Commission, which periodically looks at how strict various businesses are about sticking to these ratings systems. [More]
Netflix: Actually, We Mailed Reader Three Different DVDs, And They All Broke
By 3.5.13
Last week, we published the story of Michael, who ordered a documentary from Netflix and wasn’t able to get a non-broken copy. The two relevant parties, Netflix and the band that was the subject of the documentary, saw our post and reached out to Michael through Consumerist. [More]
Netflix Insists That This DVD Works Just Fine, Sends It Back To Me Twice
By 2.26.13
Michael wants to see this movie, “Cork n’ Bottle String Band: The Ken’s Bar Story.” It wasn’t exactly in the year’s top 10 at the box office, but Netflix has it, because Netflix is cool and stocks copies of relatively obscure movies that people still want to see. What he’s found, though, is that Netflix does not necessarily stock working copies of these movies. [More]
Netflix Locks My Wife Out Of Her Profile, Shrugs
By 1.14.13
Do you use separate Netflix profiles to manage the separate video preferences of your household members? Whatever you do, don’t lose your passwords. Eric and his wife have learned this the hard way. They’re locked out of his wife’s profile, and have no way to get back in. Netflix’s response? They’ve shrugged. [More]
'Sale' Is Not French For 'Charge $15 More'
By 8.23.12
Shopping at Best Buy, Arthur noticed this odd shelf tag for DVD copies of “The Adventures of Tintin.” The double printing on the left indicates that something isn’t quite right with the sign. Yet it made its way onto the shelf in the real world, where people can see it, making everyone who has seen it just a little bit stupider. [More]
Why Is My Alarm System’s Instructional DVD A Mormon Easter Movie?
By 7.30.12
Howard’s shiny new home security system came with an instructional DVD. Being one of those weird people who apparently reads the directions for his new purchases, he popped it in the DVD player to check it out. That’s when he found the disc menu for a different kind of edifying film entirely. It was an inspirational film about Easter distributed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. [More]
Does Netflix Even Have Any Playable DVDs?
By 4.16.12
Reader Somedaysomehow is annoyed with Netflix. She’s been a loyal customer on the one DVD at a time plan, but lately most of those DVDs have been unplayable. What’s the point of continuing to pay for movies in the mail? All complaining to Netflix gets her are bonus DVDs from her queue….which are unplayable, too. [More]
At Least Netflix Streaming Doesn't Take 6 Weeks To Reach My House
By 4.12.12
Like many other Netflix customers last year, Chris was frustrated with the service’s price hikes, loss of content, and wacky re-branding efforts. He canceled and took advantage of a free trial offer from competitor Blockbuster. His happiness about switching didn’t last long, especially when it took Blockbuster six weeks to get his first DVD to him. Sure, he lives in Alaska, but it’s not like they were delivering it on horseback. [More]
No, You Didn't Rent A Pirated DVD From Redbox
By 3.30.12
Nathan didn’t know who it was replacing Redbox DVDs with ripped and burned copies in his city, but he approved. Kinda. He like pirated copies better, without all of the un-skippable trailers and other nonsense that studios cram on DVDs. “I don’t know who this vigilante is, but I’m thankful for him,” he wrote. Only there was no vigilante stealing discs from Redbox en masse. This Sony DVD-R with the movie title written in felt-tip pen is an official, legal copy of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” [More]
