Bring on the Lazy-Man's Video Rental! (screenselect.co.uk)

Member Name: denzil82

Product:	screenselect.co.uk
Date:	03/11/04 (309 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Easy, Can save a lot of money

Disadvantages: Can't be spontaneous, End up getting movies for the sake of it

I received an email from screenselect.co.uk about a week ago asking if I wanted to sign up for a free 21 day trial of their online DVD rental service. Now, I've seen a few of these before and always tried to avoid them thinking that they'll be a con and they will somehow swizz me out of money!

Having read over the information I decided to sign up for my free trial, and as long as I cancelled it within the agreed time limit, there would be nothing to pay!

Registering with the site is free and easy and it's just a simple matter of filling out your details as you'd expect. However, you do have to give your card details so they can verify your age and identification etc but also in case you default on any of the agreed terms, or just decide to continue on your subscription past your free trial period.

Once you have registered, it is a simple case of selecting movies that you wish to see. They advise you to keep around 30 movies in your movie selection list so you can best take advantage of their service, and also in case there are problems with availability etc. They try not to let you have any less than 10 movies in your list at any one time!

Selecting your movies is pretty easy if you know what you're looking for. You simply type the name of the movie into the search box then click 'add' to put it on your wants list. You can also type in the name of your favourite TV or movie star, director or production company to bring up a list of all their movies. Scrolling through the list you can 'add' the movies you want at the click of a button!

The movie also comes with its own synopsis so you can find out a bit about the story and read people's reviews about it. The good thing about these reviews is that they may absolutely slate the movie yet screenselect are happy enough to show them! Obviously screenselect want you to rent as many movies as you can and subscribe for longer periods, but they don't want to send you something you won't like. This is one major advantage over renting from a video store!

You can also search for movies under each category eg Sci-Fi, horror, drama, action or thriller but I'm not too sure these bring up the best matches? For example, if I click on Action/Adventure it brings up 'We were soldiers', 'The Assassin', 'Street Fighter II - The Movie (Animated)' and 'K-19: The Widowmaker'!

Where are movies such as 'Bad Boys 2', 'Troy' and 'The Day After Tomorrow'? Even going into the recent releases section it brings up 3 movies I've never heard of and probably have no interest in, 'Reeseville', 'Eternal Blood' and 'Mayhem'!

This can make it quite difficult to make your selections as it doesn't really offer you the most recent and most popular films that you might be looking for. I had to go onto another movie website to inform me of what movies were available now to rent so I could make my choices! So although these movies are available from screenselect.co.uk, you may have to look elsewhere for your recommendations?!

One advantage that I can see from screenselect.co.uk is that they offer a wide range of adult movies and movies of gay/lesbian interest. This makes the renting of such movies discreet if you are embarrassed to rent or buy them from your local store.

If you wish to order a TV series such as Buffy or Friends they will send them to you in chronological order, meaning you get to watch them in the correct order!

You can also create your own profile by telling screenselect the movie genres you like and choosing which actors etc you like from pre-selected lists! Screenselect will then make recommendations based on these... This was a slight help, although I still found myself searching for individual titles.

Apart from the slight flaw with the movie recommendations I must say that they service is flawless. You can prioritise your movie selections by allocating them with a number: 1 if you want your movies ASAP; 2 if you wish the movie to be sent as soon as it is available; or 3, if you are not bothered when the movie is sent to you.

After selecting my movies on the Thursday, they were with me by the Monday. All in identical packaging, with no details of what was inside! (not that I was hiding anything!) The movies do not come in their original boxes, but instead come in a more practical circular box.

They all come in a red envelope which also acts as the Freepost return envelope. You simply tear off the front part ,which has your name and address on, then peel back a sticky label and press it down. Done. As soon as screenselect.co.uk receive your DVDs back, they'll immediately send you your next movies.

This means you can make an absolute steal if you are a huge fan of Movies and TV. The quicker you watch them and send them back, the quicker you get your next ones! However, you can keep the DVDs for as long as you wish! There are no late fees and no deadlines to return the movie! As long as you pay your subscription fee then you can keep the movies. This of course means that you may be paying a lot for just a few titles so is unadvisable. However, if something happened which meant you needed the movie for longer than the usual 2 days, then there is no problems!

Now with this free trial you can only have 3 movies at a time, which if you continue on with the subscription will cost you £14.99 per month. On my estimation you could realistically expect to get around 12 - 15 titles per month, which works out at excellent value.

However, even in my trial period I am finding that I am getting titles that I will watch purely because I have signed up for this service. They aren't movies I would rush out and get off my own back, I am simply getting them because I can!

Another problem with this is that you cannot be spontaneous! If it gets to a Friday night and you feel like hiring a scary movie, then you'll have to wait 'til Tuesday before it would reach you! Possibly even longer if you already have your quota of DVDs at home! So you may still find yourself nipping to the video shop!

If you wish to subscribe to a lesser or higher number of DVDs then the subscription prices are shown below:
2 discs - 11.99 per month
3 discs - £14.99 per month
4 discs - 19.99 per month
5 discs - 26.99 per month

You can subscribe for as little or for as long as you want, as long as you cancel your subscription 24 hours before they take the next payment and you promptly return any movies you have!

Handy tip: The website only currently offers a 14 day free trial period, but if you enter 'DVD21' in the promotion code box, it will upgrade this to a 21 day trial!

I think I will cancel my subscription before they take the first payment, mainly because I have far too many direct debits as it is! But I would definitely take advantage of their free offer!

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