Mrs MTG is talking about getting one of those live streaming film deals.
I can remember hearing an advert on the radio recently with a bloke with an Irish accent saying their deal was better than Netflix or LoveFilm, but I wasn't really paying attention, so can't remember the name.
So, which is best ?
Netflix at £6 a month, Lovefilm at £5 a month, or the other one ?
Get Lovefilm and pay the extra for the DVD rental option. You have access to a LOT more up-to-date content that way.
I've done free trials for both of these and NowTV, out of all of them NowTV is the only one I carried on with best content
Graham Norton has been advertising Now TV.
I've tried Lovefilm and got bored with the selection fairly quickly and delivery was crap for me.
I'm with Netflix now and love it. It's more about the series available on Netflix for me although we also watch films. It doesn't work very well on the Kindle HD though, I'm fairly certain Amazon scupper it up purpose. Every other device in the house is fine.
Anyway, Netflix for me. We get way more than a fivers worth out of it even if we just rated it on films which we watch around 1 a week. I'll watch 2 or 3 different episodes from various series every week and my son hammers it for Heroes, Game of Thrones and probably porn.
Get Lovefilm and pay the extra for the DVD rental option. You have access to a LOT more up-to-date content that way.
I've only just started looking in to this a few minutes ago and I was still trying to work out why anyone would pay extra to have DVDs posted to them instead of streaming the film.
So, there's stuff available on DVD through the post that's not available to stream then ?
[quote=MidlandTrailquestsGraham ]
So, there's stuff available on DVD through the post that's not available to stream then ?
Loads.
NowTV, that's the one. I remember it now.
It's only to watch on the big telly, so we're not bothered with mobile devices.
I'll have to have a look at what's available for download and what's disc only to see if it's worth paying the extra.
I've done free trials for both of these and NowTV, out of all of them NowTV is the only one I carried on with best content
This is true, but at £15/month, it's also 3 times the price of Netflix or LF after the trial period.
Get Lovefilm and pay the extra for the DVD rental option.
This is the best option imo. I've had both Netflix and LF, and none of the selections are particularly good, especially for movies. I now pay £10/month the streaming an unlimited bluray/DVD rentals (2 at a time).
I have lovefilm. Disc service is good, lacking in options on the online service though. No up-to-date american series like Breaking Bad for example. Seems to be improving now that Amazon have bought them out.
I'd vote netflix - Lovefilm I found a bit rubbish on selection and the search/general UI for streaming is terrible. Also had big problems with speed, I couldn't get anything full screen in 1080p to run properly on a 20meg connection. Netflix has been loads better, and you can find stuff a lot easier. Never tried now tv.
Still can't get into breaking bad though, it's a bit rubbish! 😉
I'm guessing the studios delay streaming of content, so you can get stuff first on DVD before the permit streaming.
Sky have been heavily advertising their YouTV thing on the radio - not that I'd ever give any money to the Murdochs...
We are with Lovefilm, the online selection isn't great but is improving slowly, we can have 2 discs out at a time too.
If you go for the disc option you can really get your moneys worth if you get your timing right, We try to post ours back on Thursday and new ones will arrive on Saturday, watch over the weekend and ship back on Monday and you'll have new films for Wednesday.
So, a fairly even split between the three then.
At the moment, we get most of our films by going through the second hand videos and DVDs in charity shops.
None of us is all that bothered with TV or films. We would pay £5 a month for the convenience of watching a good selection of films on demand, but if it's going to be significantly more than that for the good or more recent stuff, we'll have to look in to it to see exactly what we would get.
We have Love Film on trial ATM. I was expecting a the streaming selection to be a lot better than it is. TBH it's bloody rubbish. I had another search on Sunday night and found the newly available movies to stream included Mad Max. Bang up to date. If you are expecting new releases then you will be disappointed. It's not as advertised that's for sure.
With the trial we have, the 2 discs option has been a better option. As said above if you watch the movies pronto you can get 4 per week easily. Whether we will get through our request list before the trial runs out is a different matter. I did a trial a few years ago and I had movies on the priority list for the whole 3 months and didn't get them. Time will tell.
Is there any rules regarding watching american TV series in a way which watching a film would be classed as illegal? If not have a look at a website called let me watch it.com.
Im not sure there is anything illegal in watching a TV series there is there? Top gear is on there going back to 1989, surely there is nothing wrong with watching that (just so that i dont get booed off immediately)
Netflix was excellent throughout the trial, easy to navigate and near-instant playback - Picture/sound quality excellent (HD).
Not used Lovefilm
NowTV - No idea why but the picture quality is absolute junk on this one. No HD?!
If Netflix had a better (newer) catalogue, it would be flawless imo.
If Netflix had a better (newer) catalogue, it would be flawless imo.
Netflix Canada/USA. 😉
So, there's stuff available on DVD through the post that's not available to stream then ?
Graham - the Love Film DVD option is miles better. We've certainly had our money's worth out of it. They send you 2 disc at a time. You can pre-order stuff before its even been released, so as soon as it is, you get it straight away. I'd definitely recommend it
Found this on LoveFilm...
By post you can access over 70,000 DVDs and Blu-rays. With LOVEFiLM Instant you have access to over 5500 titles however it does not include our Box Office (pay per view) titles.
...so that is a lot more films by post.
I still think £5 a month is a lot of money just to watch films, the same way that some people think £500 is a lot of money to spend on a bike. I just don't watch enough TV to make it worthwhile.
The £10 download and two disc deal looks the best value if we want to watch the more recent stuff. I'll see if Mrs MTG wants to go for it.
With [url= http://www.quidco.com/lovefilm/ ]£18 cash back via Quidco[/url], we might as well go for the free trial at least.
Mrs MTG and Junior are discussing this as I type.
It sounds like Junior is more interested in older stuff like Shrek and Harry Potter, so we might get away with the £5 deal once we've been through the list to see what's available.
Got Lovefilm instant here, not bothered with the disc option as we never seem to have time to watch a rented disc the moment we get it so wouldn't work out for us. Found a good introductory deal with £15 amazon voucher back, will use it hard until post surgery wound heals/proper summer arrives, then I will cancel it and use Netflix next winter for variation and then carry on like that as I don't use the tv much come summer.
You don't get the newest stuff, but a good enough selection of stuff you'd want to watch, without the adverts of tv.
I still think £5 a month is a lot of money just to watch films
If you think that £5 a month is a lot 'just to watch films' then, whatever you do, don't go anywhere near a cinema!!! As the costs involved may well induce some kind of seizure 😯
We have Love Film on trial ATM. I was expecting a the streaming selection to be a lot better than it is. TBH it's bloody rubbish. I had another search on Sunday night and found the newly available movies to stream included Mad Max. Bang up to date. If you are expecting new releases then you will be disappointed. It's not as advertised that's for sure.
Completely agree. All the trial has done for me is realise that it is not very good. Will have a look at getting disk option but will signup through a different email address to get the quidco offer as I didn't realise that was around.
We've got Lovefilm £10 2 disc and streaming options, and it's great for us. As mentioned before the library for the streaming content isn't really all that, but the disc availability is generally awesome. A couple of my friends have got Netflix and the streaming library for that seems pretty good, possibly better than the Lovefilm one but I don't think there's a clear cut winner. The Lovefilm streaming one generally has something vaguely decent on it when push comes to shove.
To be honest, with me it comes down to what device I use to watch it. My tv's got Lovefilm streaming built in, so it made sense to go with them (plus we've had a disc subscription for years, pre-UK-Netflix), and I could get Netflix on the xbox but it's bloody loud. If I had an Apple TV then I'd probably get Netflix as well, but I don't, so I don't.
I'd rather pay the £10 a month and watch good TV (currently getting through Mad Men by post) than spend nothing and be stuck with the crap that passes for content these days.
We've had Lovefilm for about 8 months now.
Watch a lot of kids movies on it - but I'm pretty sure the selection has shrunk a bit recently (the movie Holes - Cool Hand Luke for 6yr olds - was certainly missing).
Wifey watches old TV series on it. We've had the last two disks skip though.
I've watched some stuff (World's Fastest Indian) but generally can't be bothered. The initial setup with Sony TVs is a ballache but works OK once you've set it up.
I use the LF disc service. Can't fault it.
The "killer app" for me is, it can include games. Gone are the days of me paying £30+ for the current "must have" game just for me to play it twice and lose interest before trading it in for 50p.
Have lovefilm instant + 2 discs.
I have prepaid 12months and got some money off (~£2 p/m ?)
Lovefilm + discs for me, the online thing is ok but overall would be rubbish without the discs being sent out.
I have thought about switching over to Netflix just to see the difference.