Consumers have several options when it comes to viewing movies at home. Two of the most used are renting movies at the local video store and renting movies via an on line service. An informal survey was recently conducted on a home electronics/entertainment site regarding the movie viewing habits of website visitors. The outcome pointed to a few of the misconceptions that also exist about online rental of DVDs by consumers that have not even tried the service.

Participants in the survey were asked several questions, including how often they watch movies at home, whether or not they rent movies online, and if not, why. Nearly 28% of those responding indicated which they rent movies online. Of the remaining, the most frequently cited basis for not utilizing an online movie rental service was concern which centered across the perception that online movie rental will be more costly than the local video store. When considering a few scenarios it becomes evident which method tends to be more affordable.

For individuals who indicated which they watch only 1 to 3 movies monthly the savings from renting online are small. Renting 2 movies monthly at the local video store would average around $7.40 whereas renting from Netflix like, should they chose the program that has a 123movie control of 2 movies monthly, would run $5.99. After finding a video at the local store an individual could have overnight or simply 1 week to come back the movie but an on line rental allows them to help keep the movie for an unlimited amount of time.

For those individuals who responded which they view 1-3 movies weekly, the savings will be more significant. For instance, renting 8 movies monthly would run around $29.55 at the local store and as low as $14.99 online should they chose the “2 out at a time” plan or $17.99 for the “3 out at a time” plan. As viewing increases so does the likelihood of experiencing greater savings.

For folks who responded which they view 4 movies weekly (averaged out to 16 per month) the common cost at the local store will be $59.04 while online rental will be $23.99 allowing an individual “4 out at a time” ;.Renting via a service like Netflix generally does not limit exactly how many movies a person views but rather, exactly how many movies they can have out at any given time. Therefore rentals are just about unlimited with most of the plans.

The second most often cited basis for not utilizing online movie rental services was that the person rented movies on the spur of the moment and did not plan ahead. Certainly renting movies online and receiving them through the mail wouldn’t allow someone to decide at 6:00 p.m. that they want to see The Queen and receive it so that they may be viewing the movie by 8:00 p.m. However, the delay for receiving movies selected through the mail is just 1 business day which will seem sufficient generally in most instances.

The future of DVD rental may be changing however as Netflix announced in early 2007 that customers would now have the choice of watching movies instantly via a streaming service that’s available nowadays for many movies. The service ought to be quicker than most download services as streaming allows viewing of the movie as it is streamed rather than waiting until download is complete. Although a full transition from the existing mail delivery system to a download kind of service will take time, it’s clear that immediacy is only going to continue to improve. It would seem that other online movie rental services would follow suit in coming years to be able to compete.