LoveFilm DVD Rental Review

Review of LoveFilm DVD Rental

STOP PRESS! Lovefilm is now offering a Pay As You Go DVD rental system which is well suited to occassional users. Read our review of Lovefilm Pay As You Go.

LOVEFILM DVD rental claim to have 'virtually every DVD in the UK' and with over 65,000 titles on their virtual shelves, there are few other DVD rental sites that even come close. Perhaps only Blockbuster and MyMovieStream can claim to even vaguely compete on that front.

The Lovefilm website itself is quick, navigation easy and we find their 'browse by mood' section a very useful addition. After all isn't that exactly how we choose movies down at the local video shop?

Innovative

Despite being a monolith that has raised the heckles of more than a few disgruntled customers, LoveFilm remains at the top end of DVD rental market, especially when it comes to innovation.

For example, Lovefilm now allows their zillions of subscribers to create and publicly share their own 'collections'. It's a brilliantly simple, but hugely useful feature when you are stuck for inspiration. We especially love the official selections of certain celebrities including Matt Damon and Bill Nighy. In fact as Lovefilm becomes more and more powerful, it seems that their celebrity endorsements become ever more impressive. While this is no criteria on which to judge the service, we can't help but be slightly impressed.

More importantly though, we're also thrilled to see that Lovefilm has listened to its customers and now offer a Pay As You Go rental service too where, instead of unlimited rentals, you simply pay for each DVD you rent. Read our full review of the Lovefilm Pay As You Go DVD rental service.

Not without faults

While we maintain that LoveFilm has few services that rival it, it is not without fault. Some users report a slow turnaround and others are disgruntled with the way they have been treated by Lovefilm's customer services. Keep in mind though that with more customers than any other service, there are naturally going to be more complaints. Our experience with LoveFilm has always been positive.

Heavier users should be aware that LoveFilm operates a fair use policy where the heaviest of renters will lose priority to popular titles during periods of high demand. There does seem to be a rather hazy interpretation of what a heavy user is and even some moderate users claim to have fallen foul of the policy.

The other thing Lovefilm tends to fall down on at times is their availability of top choices in your rental queue.

In this instance, they are a victim of their own success - with almost a million subscribers, the mind just boggles at how many copies of popular titles they'd need to stock in order to fulfill everyone's wishlist in order. Having said that, most of Lovefilm's rival DVD rental firms suffer the same problem. If you want your first choice of movie at exactly the time you want to watch it, you'd be better off with Sky, Virgin Media, Tiscali TV who all offer on-demand movies, or plump for Lovefilm's slightly pricier downloadable movies (more about that below).

Now offering games rentals too

LoveFilm now offers game rentals for a range of consoles including the big 5: PS2, XBox 360, PS3, PSP, Wii and just recently DS too, however they don't offer as many titles as the more dedicated games rental services. This is fast changing though as Lovefilm continues to push its games rentals heavily. We suspect there are some sweaty palms over at the dedicated games rental services.

Customers can choose from 3 packages that include both films and games. There isn't an option for a 'games only' subscription, but you can choose to rent as many games or films as you want, so if you don't want to watch any films you don't have to, but it's nice to have the option there if you do.

Movies-on-demand

LoveFilm has recently started offering movie downloads, and significantly, you do not need to be a paying Lovefilm subscriber to access these films.

While there are some free titles, it is essentially a PAYG service with the option of renting a download (prices vary, but are on average £2.99), or buying a download where you can burn the film legally and keep it (prices start at around £9.99). In some cases you can buy the download to watch immediately, and Lovefilm will send you a hardcopy of the film on DVD to keep.

These Lovefilm movie downloads are becoming increasingly popular on the site, and Lovefilm now boasts over 2000 titles available for download. We strongly suspect this is the beginning of the end for DVDs-by-post, and Lovefilm is - once again - leading the pack.

LoveFilm get two-thumbs up for:
Being the closest thing to actually being in the video shop! We also love Lovefilm's massive title range, fast turnaround and innovative features.

Free trial details

	LoveFilm offer a free trial of 14 days. It's free, so...

Actual User Ratings

Independent Comments

		LoveFilm has won the BVA Rental Home Delivery award in 2007, 2006 and 2005. BVA (British Video Association) Awards 2007
		LoveFilm was awarded Internet Magazine's Five Star Award in a recent review. Internet Magazine
		Which? Online has rated LoveFilm with an overall performance score of 74%. LoveFilm was rated good for ease of use, features, movie range and value for money. They were rated average for performance (customer service and DVD quality). Which? Online Report

User Comments

At a Glance

Our Rating
No. of Titles	65,000 +
Free Trial	14 days
DVDs at once Max / month £3.99 £7.99 Unlimited £9.99 Unlimited £12.99 Unlimited £15.99 Unlimited £10.99 Unlimited £14.99 Unlimited £18.99

	DVD Types Available:
	Recent Releases		Bollywood
	Popular Choices		TV Series
	Children's & Family		Sports
	World Cinema		Adult Themed
	Game Types Available:
	Sony PS3		Sony PS2
	Sony Playstation		Sony PSP
	Xbox 360		Xbox
	Nintendo Wii		Nintendo GameCube
	Nintendo DS		Gameboy Advance

Customer Reviews

Add your own review of LoveFilm's dvd rental service...

Remember, the customer reviews below are subjective (and are not the opinions of ChooseDVDRental.co.uk).

A. Higgins from Southend writes... 3/19/2008

"Have just cancelled LoveFilm after my 2 week free trial. In that time I was sent 4 dvds. They were all from my "low priority" list and one never arrived. Not impressed."

Heidi from Macclesfield writes... 2/18/2008

"5 consecutive damaged, unplayable discs, what a rubbish service! You can't escape them either because they've just bought out Amazon & they power Tesco's rental service...isn't there supposed to be a law against monopolies?"

Bill from Hampstead, London writes... 11/6/2007

"I have been with LOVEFiLM (previously ScreenSelect) for almost 4 years and have not had any disc that was a problem to play. I don't watch that much but find I always have a movie from my 'high' priorities. I particularly like Lovefilm's priority system: when I am watching 24 (I am an addict) and 24 is my only 'High' priority, and I always get it. Other times I have 3-4 High discs and am quite relaxed about which one I get. Only about twice in the last year have I ever not had a High priority disc. Well done LOVEFiLM!"

(Mr) Subash Chandran from Watford, Herts. writes... 9/21/2007

"My experience with this excellent site (for "non South Indian" movies) is different to the view of Mr Glen Banyard. I have had no complaints with Lovefilm, and it is in the nature of "Discs" that they sometimes have faults, mostly cured by "mild polishing & replaying". If fault cannot be cured, LoveFilm re-send a "fault-free" Disc. I have been very satisfied with their customer support."

Glen Banyard from Littleport writes... 8/15/2007

"Poor service, over stretched, frequency of poorly maintained and scratched discs increasing that it's more like Russian Routlette that you might get to watch a film all the way through without jumping. Customer service is a foreign concept to LoveFILM, the ASA should actually be barring them from using the phrase."