...dvdsontap.com website. All the information was clear and it was relatively easy to navigate around the site. As it is a new concept, they are offering a free 14 days trial to allow people to try out their service with no obligation to subscribe after the 14 days period. I jumped at the chance ... Read review
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Advantages: Great for people who rent/watch more than 4 films a month, Efficient Service, Clear site navigation, Freedom to cancel subscription at any time Disadvantages: Delay in getting new titles, lack of some major DVDs, not really for occasional renters, Credit/Debit Card payment only
...fancy. Obviously being online, dvdsontap.com doesn’t provide the same experience and require you to have some sort of knowledge of what film or type of film you are looking for to search through its extensive 2500 films catalogue. They also have a wide range of popular TV series on DVD as well.
My major criticism on the service is the release of new titles on their catalogue. They don’t seem to get the new releases as quickly as normal ... ...weeks delay on some titles, which means that they may have lost some potential renting customers. To makes matters worse, they seem to have taken the same stance as Blockbusters by not stocking any Warner Brother titles (such as Oceans 11 and Training Day) due to a legal wrangling with WB about rental copy prices (basically WB want to charge rental companies more for the rental DVDs than their retail DVDs. The difference is about £50).
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As most of you may know, I’m a big movie fan. I don’t think I could spend a week without watching at least a couple of movies. I’m the Cinema and Video stores favourite type of customer. Not so much for Sky Digital as I like to see films when I want to and not when they are shown on television about 2 years later.
As with most people, I always tend to go to the cinema to see films I really want to see or if they are big budget special effect type films where seeing it on a small screen really doesn’t do it any justice (Lord of the Rings or The Matrix?). Like most people, I tend to rent the films I didn’t feel I needed to see at the cinema or I missed it at the cinema at video stores such as Blockbusters or Choices. Until a few years ago I hated this option as most rentals were on VHS and suffered from the dreaded effect of Pan and Scan which basically meant you never got to see the whole picture as it was intended to at the cinemas. Thankfully DVD and Widescreen TV came out and rectified that problem (and I had to get a new telly, a DVD player and rebuild my film collection again).
DVD seem to take off slow at first as a rental format but has rapidly replaced shelf space where videos once dominated. You walk into any video store now and it will be roughly 2/3 DVDS and 1/3 videos.
The days of the local video stores with lower rental rates are numbered, being edged out of the market by the big rental chains. These bigger video stores have the money to buy about 50 copies of the same film so that for most of the time, it is available for people to rent. At the same time, film rental has now become quite an expensive hobby, costing on average £3.25 to £3.75 for 1-2 night(s) rental.
As DVDs are less bulky compared to video’s, there has been a steady emergence of DVD rental websites popping up on the Internet and up until now, I haven’t been convinced to use any of them. Why? Well to be honest, like most things on the Internet, they're better done in real life. Some people prefer to do some things in reality as opposed to virtual reality. Say for instance, trying and then buying clothes. It’s a whole shopping experience in itself and something that online stores hasn’t really captured.
Likewise, I think that going to the video store to rent a film to watch is an enjoyable process. The minutes spent looking around on the wall for a film you like to see and then deciding you prefer to watch something else instead or arguing with your other half, what to rent. The Friday nights where you rent 2 or 3 films to watch over the weekend(if you have nothing better to do or prefer a quiet weekend in). For years, we’ve been going to the video store, so why do it online?
DVDsOnTap changed my mind. A friend sent me a recommendation to try it out and I’ve been using it for the last month and so far I’m very happy with the service.
The concept is simple. You pay a monthly subscription fee (at varying levels) which allows you to rent as many DVDs as you want in a month and keep them as long as you want, with no late charges. Depending on your subscription level, you are entitled to have up to 3 DVDs on hire at the same time. Once your return your rentals than you get sent your next film.
Impressed? I was when I first went onto the www.dvdsontap.com website. All the information was clear and it was relatively easy to navigate around the site. As it is a new concept, they are offering a free 14 days trial to allow people to try out their service with no obligation to subscribe after the 14 days period. I jumped at the chance and if I didn’t like the service, I would just cancel my credit/debit card. The service does require you to register and pay your monthly subscription with a credit/debit card and so far there are no plans to introduce direct debits or any other method of payment.
Signing up was an easy process, choose a username and password, fill in your personal info and credit/debit card details and I was ready to choose my first ‘online’ film rental.
There are currently 4 types of subscriptions:
1)Basic (£7.99 a month) - 1 DVD allowed at Once, Return Postage Not Included 2)Bronze (£9.99 a month) - 1 DVD allowed at Once, Return Postage Included 3)Silver (£14.99 a month) - 2 DVDs allowed at Once, Return Postage Included 4)Gold (£19.99 a month) - 3 DVDs allowed at Once, Return Postage Included
Before you all go worrying about online security and passing on your details, the site is secure with a Verisign certification and a little yellow padlock at the bottom of the screen to tell you its safe. Trust me, I work in the field.
Once you are a subscriber, the rental process is relatively simple. Choose from the extensive list of DVDs on the site to rent and if you want to watch it, put it into your own personal rental queue. You have to manage a queue of the films you want to see and prioritise which ones you most want to see most and Dvdsontap will try and send your first choice. If the film is out, then you get sent your second choice and so on. Unless you are on the most basic subscription, they also pay for the return postage too! You get the film through the post, take as long as you want watching it, then send it back via their special plastic case and envelope, and then you patiently wait for your next rental.
Ok enough of me trying to sell you the service, but is it any good, I hear you all asking. I’ve been using it for more than a month now and I have to say it is very efficient and would highly recommend it. If you rent more than 4 films a month, then you should seriously consider this service as it will cost less than renting from your video store. I have the £9.99 Bronze subscription and have so far rented 5 DVD’s from them in a month, which makes each rental only £2 each. Far cheaper than your video store, I think you agree. Realistically with the Bronze level of subscription (which only allows you to have 1 DVD at a time), you should be able to easily rent about 6-7 DVDs in a month if you are efficient with your watching and sending back. That makes each rental less than £1.75, excellent value for money. It takes roughly 3-4 days to send it back to them and for them to send you out your next rental. You send it back to them on Day 1, they receive on Day 2 and send you out another rental and depending on the postal service, it should get to you on day 3 or 4.
Although the service is ideal for me as I watch a lot of films, this service wouldn’t really suit people who only occasionally rent films as it would work out more pricey than your local video store. There is also the commitment of a subscription as well, though this can be cancelled at any time. Like I mentioned earlier, part of the fun of going to your video store to rent a film is to look around and read the inlays and look at the pictures behind the box to see what takes your fancy. Obviously being online, dvdsontap.com doesn’t provide the same experience and require you to have some sort of knowledge of what film or type of film you are looking for to search through its extensive 2500 films catalogue. They also have a wide range of popular TV series on DVD as well.
My major criticism on the service is the release of new titles on their catalogue. They don’t seem to get the new releases as quickly as normal video stores. I notice about a week to 2 weeks delay on some titles, which means that they may have lost some potential renting customers. To makes matters worse, they seem to have taken the same stance as Blockbusters by not stocking any Warner Brother titles (such as Oceans 11 and Training Day) due to a legal wrangling with WB about rental copy prices (basically WB want to charge rental companies more for the rental DVDs than their retail DVDs. The difference is about £50).
If they want to improve the service and get more subscribers, this is definitely an area they need to look into improving.
Other minor gripes include the fact that if a film comes with 2 discs, you have to rent them seperately, but due to the DVD rental market, these are becoming less often as the distributors strip down the special features on a rental copy. Likewise, if you wanted to rent a box set of say Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Friends, once again you have to rent them as individual discs and not as a whole.
The only thing that counts against dvdsontap, that I can clearly think of, is the fact that you can't always get what you want so even if you badly wanted to see your first or second choice, sometimes it may be your third choice that arrives. At least at a video store, you are more than likely to get the film you want to watch or rent it for free the next time. If you dont have a problem with this, then this service is highly recommended. The current free trial is a good way to test out the service for yourself if you are interested.
A simple but unique idea, I can guarantee there will be plenty of copycat sites on the Internet soon.
Advantages: Excellent Rental Service Disadvantages: None
~ Introduction ~
I first heard about “dvdsontap.com” after reading a fine review here on Ciao, now I must give credit where it is due, so thanks very much Graham (Gr_Design).
Basically “dvdsontap” is an online DVD rental company that I have been using for over a month now and have enjoyed an extremely reliable and efficient turnaround of DVD’s that I will further detail within this review.
~ Website ~
The first thing ... ...it, there is hardly any clutter at all and no advertising, the front page looks well very well presented with a clean white background.
On the home page there are two main panels on either side of the screen. The panel on left of the screen consists of the login boxes (username and password), links to your rental queue that I will explain shortly, your account information, referring friends and logout. Below this are some options for searching for ...
Wolfie1974 10.10.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of dvdsontap.com
Advantages: Cheaper, more flexible and more convenient than Blockbusters Disadvantages: Not the very latest releases
-: Introduction :-
There are times when in life when the pure genius of a simple concept can leave you breathless at it’s brilliance …and then kicking yourself that you weren’t the one who’d thought of it and actually carried it off. www.dvdsontap.com is a perfect example of this. Flying in the face of conventional rental wisdom that demands each movie rented should incur a charge, the boys and girls at dvdsontap have done away with this outdated ... ...subject to certain conditions.) This being an opinion on a website, obviously this idea has been implemented in the much vaunted virtual world so it can all be accessed from the comfort of where you are sitting this very second.
-: The Site :-
As a web designer myself, albeit occasionally these days, I am always interested in looking at new sites. I must confess my initial impressions of dvdsontap were not those of unbridled admiration. The design ...
Mercury 21.11.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of dvdsontap.com
Advantages: Dvd rentals delivered to you at home Disadvantages: Can take up to 5 days to receive next DVD
...recommend this service.
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Dvdsontap.com allows you to rent DVDs to be delivered to your home address.
First the positive aspects:
DVDs delivered to your own home - no more having to visit the old Blockbuster store in town. Convenient and cost efficient.
Membership costs from £7.99 (Basic Membership) per month which allows you to rent one DVD at a time. Receive only 4 DVDs per month and that ... ...For £7.99 you need to pay the postage of 27p to return the DVD or for £9.99 (Bronze Membership) then a stamped addressed envelope is included with the DVD.
All you need to do is log on to the Dvdsontap website, select a list of DVDs that you want to rent and wait for them to arrive at your door. The site is easy to navigate and you can amend your list of DVDs at any time, changing the order of the list or adding to or deleting from the list.
You ...
lee-uk 10.01.2003 (23.06.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of dvdsontap.com
Advantages: Very cheap compared to rental stores, price plans to suit you, you can keep them as long as you want. Disadvantages: If you rent 1 dvd at a time it takes 2 days for another one to arrive.
I came across dvdsontap.com when I was quite new to the Internet. I was quite surprised to see DVD rental sites and wanted to know more. After I checked out a few of the sites that offer dvd rental I decided I wanted to subscribe and receive dvds directly to my door. I decided that dvdsontap was the one for me.
THE SITE:
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When I first entered the site I was greeted by the free trial subscription offer were you get a free 2 week trial ... ...post you can always contact dvdsontap.com but they will notice if dvds are lost frequently.
Before you cancel your subscription you must send back any dvds you may have.
FINAL THOUGHT:
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I’ve been with dvdsontap for 4 months now and I am happy with the service they have provided. When I have a bigger income I will probably upgrade to silver.
I recommend this site to people who like to rent dvds but don’t like the £3.50 and up ...
shadyem 20.01.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of dvdsontap.com
Advantages: Quick easy and efficient Disadvantages: non really
...service behind it. DVDsOnTap.com offer you unlimited DVD’s per month for a certain amount of money, depending on your subscription. The idea is that you look round the site and add the DVD’s you would like to rent to your rental queue. They will send you out a DVD when they have received the last DVD you rented back to themselves. So, you can basically put as many DVD’s as you like in your queue and then leave the site to work for ... ...next in your queue.
So, onto the all important prices…..ahhh, this is the scary bit, or so I thought anyway!
There are 4 tiers of subscription packages, as follows:
Basic….£7.50 a month: This gives you the basic package. You can have one DVD at any time and they will send you your DVD with an envelope, but no stamp, so your basically paying to send the DVD back. With the basic package you get unlimited rentals throughout the month, ...
GR-Design 10.09.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of dvdsontap.com
