Is Lovefilm Any Good?
CommentsLOVEFILM is currently the biggest player in the world of online DVD rental.
And a million DVD renters can't be wrong, right? Or can they? Is Lovefilm any good?
The more the merrier?
Lovefilm do have a huge number of film titles on their books.
In fact, the imperial force of the online DVD rental world has almost every single DVD currently available for rental in the UK - 79,997 at last count.
On the other hand, Lovefilm's TV advert is a bit misleading because so do Blockbuster and Cinema Paradiso.
In fact, Blockbuster has a few more because as a result of a spat with Universal Pictures Lovefilm doesn't have the studio's films (big ones: Public Enemies, Bruno, Kick Ass).
But Lovefilm's size obsession does have its advantages.
Jason Norris, Online Marketing Manager at Lovefilm explains: "If for some reason we didn't have a title, members can request we get hold of it and we will try. This is something we will always try. The usual reason we do not have a title is that it is not out in UK format region 2."
So, is Lovefilm any good when it comes to range of titles? Yes.
If they don't have it it's probably not available in the UK or from Universal. But if, for whatever reason, they just haven't listed it, they'll get it for you on request and make sure you're the first to receive it.
The price is right?
When it comes down to the nitty gritty, the price of a DVD rental package is probably going to be the deciding factor in most consumers' final choice.
It is worth remembering that price is always going to be determined by how many films you plan to watch at once.
For around £9.99 a month, Lovefilm and Blockbuster will give you an unlimited amount of monthly rentals plus online streaming but will only allow you to rent one film at a time.
For 50p less, CinemaParadiso offer the same package. By the time you've allowed for the vagaries of the postal system, and watching the film, you will probably realistically get through around 4 films a month.
Cheaper than unlimited if you don't plan on watching many films a month is Lovefilm's Light Use Plans which start from £4.99 a month for 2 DVDs per month, up to £8.16 for 4 DVDs per month. Blockbuster do the similar Blockbuster 1 DVD Lite deal for £4.88 a month.
Also worth remembering here is Lovefilm's new Pay As You Go DVD rental service where you can rent DVD's on an ad-hoc basis for as little as £2 each, putting Lovefilm in front running for the UK's cheapest DVD rental service.
So is Lovefilm any good when it comes to value for money? Yes, just pennies away from the cheapest especially if you include Lovefilm's Pay As You Go packages.
All the Extra Bits and Bobs
We all like a good freebie and that's no secret to the online DVD rental giants.
To lure us in to their clutches they frequently offer free trials. These are great if you are uncertain about which service is best for you as you can safely test out their movie selection as well as the efficiency of their service.
Exclusively for Choose readers, Lovefilm are offering a fantastic 30 days of completely free rentals. You can get the LoveFilm 1 month free trial here.
Since the Lovefilm free trial is available on any of the Lovefilm rental packages, you can take advantage of the offer by trialling Lovefilm's premium, three discs at a time, unlimited package, which would usually cost £15.99 a month!
The best free trial Blockbuster offer is their £12.71 package. 2 weeks of unlimited rentals but it costs £1 so it's not technically a 'free' trial anymore - probably to keep away the trial tarts.
Cinema Paradiso's free trial limits you to 4 discs at a time, if you trial one of their premium packages. You are able to keep the discs for 2 weeks.
So is Lovefilm any good when it comes to the much loved freebies? Definately yes - especially with the Choose exclusive 1 month free trial.
Is LoveFilm any good for game rental?
LoveFilm now offer an array of rental games to match any dedicated game rental site.
Covering the major consoles Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PSP and Nintendo DS - as well as the slightly older Playstation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube.
LoveFilm offering a staggering 6402 games for rent.
The only point worth mentioning with LoveFilm game rental is it's only available as a combination package with movies too. However, this doesn't mean you have to rent movies - just that the only packages available will also allow you to rent movies.
Is LoveFilm any good for game rental? Yes, with almost the same number of titles as leading dedicated games rental site SwapGame and the ability to rent movies too - LoveFilm is becoming hard to beat for games rental.
Finding your way
Lovefilm has a fantastic website.
Not only is it easy to navigate, but it also includes a cornucopia of competitions, magazines, quizzes and reviews. Lovefilm is highly regarded as being the best online DVD rental company for film information content. Very classy in red and white!
Blockbuster DVD Rental's website is also fairly easy to use while we can't say that their aesthetic is quite as sharp as Lovefilm's their 'Mad About Movies' section is great for reading about all the latest film gossip and also includes celebrity blogs, interviews and competitions.
Cinema Paradiso's website is reasonably easy to navigate, although it did take us a while to work out how to actually search for a film title!
The page layout is simple, but there are no competitions or little extras. Think dark blue and yellow.
So is Lovefilm any good when it comes to the easy of using their website? Yes.
Cards on the table
So, is Lovefilm any good? Do they deserve their 1 million strong army of customers?
We think so.
The Lovefilm website is fantastic, even if you are not a Lovefilm subscriber there is still plenty to keep you entertained. If surfing their webpage for a month gets boring, their humongous range of DVD titles should keep you busy, at least until 2209!
Lovefilm's free trial is also very generous; 1 month if you sign up via Choose, you can find more details on the LoveFilm review.
However as far as value for money and customer service go, Lovefilm has some contenders. While their huge range of DVD titles (and large quantity of copies of the most popular films) may be worth paying the extra pounds for, nothing will make up for being put on hold for 20 minutes or having your emails unanswered.
While we hate to see monopolies develop in this sector we can't help admitting we still LoveFilm.
Comments
Lovefilm is great for me. I save loads of money by renting games and always find something good to watch from the online streaming service. I had a few DVDs from them and not had any problem with them. The service is quick, good customer support and the only thing I would really like to see is they bring it to the Xbox 360.
Was with Lovefilm who have excellent customer service and fast turn around in discs but moved to Blockbuster because of the irritating amount of films not available through the Universal dispute (20 films from this distributor alone at point of moving).
Blockbuster are also very good though occassionally are a day slower turning the discs around, don't have as good website and customer service is not as transparent. The online streaming options are also not offered by Blockbuster though the quality was absolute rubbish anyway and you can forget HD quality let alone DVD quality - unwatchable on a projector! I'll happily return to Lovefilm once they finally sort their silly dispute out but for now Blockbuster edges it on films available - Kick Ass, Inglorious Bar Stewards, Scott Pilgrim, Public Enemy, etc - the list goes on.
Have to say the 'no Universal pictures' thing is getting a bit irritating as a Lovefilm customer. I've been quite happy with the rest of it.
It's not just films that are affected though - anything distributed by Universal since 2009 gets affected to - so for example Not Going Out Series 1 and 2 are, Series 3 and 4 aren't. BBC TV programmes of course, but since they're distributed by Universal...no go.
And, of course, there's the issue of quite a high scratched disc rate - though I've no idea if Blockbuster and Cinema Paradiso do this too, to be fair and Lovefilm quickly send you out a replacement if you report a scratched disc. Quite pleased in general - not enough not to be trying out Blockbuster quickly once my subscription runs out.
I don't get all this talk about renting dvds in the post. Surely these days it's easier, quicker and better overall (no scratches) to just stream the movie off the site? Or is this rubbish?
I am interested in checking out Lovefilm only for the streaming aspect. Apple's iTunes streams very quickly and smooth so is Lovefilm as good?
Does anyone check out the quality of Lovefilm / Tesco DVDs?
Some 20% of the Lovefilm DVDs I received are damaged or unplayable. Sometimes the damage is visible - scratches and grease fingerprints. Do Lovefilm make any attempt to check DVDs on return or dispatch?
I also get DVDs twice and DVDs I never ordered.
Does anyone check out Love film's turn-around time? 1st class post? That means 3 max 4 days? More like a week in reality.
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