Product Review: Intelliflix Online DVD Rentals

About the company: Intelliflix is the world’s largest combined online movie and game rental destination, offering more than 40,000 titles of movies and games to customers in all 50 states. In 2004, we surpassed Netflix with the largest number of distribution centers in the continental United States. This allows us to provide our customers with typically 1-2 day delivery to most areas of the country. We are the only online company to provide both unlimited subscription programs and individual pay-per rental (PPR) plans.

The big pitch: 3-out Unlimited Rental subscription plans for just $8.25!3-out Unlimited Rental subscription plans for just $8.25! Pay-per-rental plans are also available, starting at $3.95 per movie/game.

Netflix hit the movie industry like a hurricane, bringing online movie rental into the population's mindset at such a fast rate that established bricks and mortar chain stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video have seen their profit margins severely slashed.

Intelliflix is just the latest of many upstarts to have entered the market seeking to take back Netflix's crown, but it'll be a hard road to hoe if they have any ideas of beating the original - the company that created the industry from scratch. Thankfully, Intelliflix does a lot of things well, and indeed does some things better than Netflix does - and some that Netflix doesn't do at all.

The way online DVD rental works is simple. You choose the movies you want on Intelliflix's website, put them in order of preference, and wait. That day, the Intelliflix staff will send the movie you asked for out to you by mail, for you to watch whenever you want. If you watch it right away and stick it straight back in the post (using the free postage-paid return envelopes that they supply you), as soon as they receive your returned movie, they send out the next one on your queue and you receive it the next day.

The best part? Hard to say - it could be that you can keep the movie as long as you want with no late fees. Or it could be that they send you out 3 movies at a time, so you should always have something waiting to be watched. Or it could be that you never have to get to the video store, fighting traffic and queues, to return a movie that sucked. Whatever you think is the best reason to rent online, take it from us, a group of people who are all heavily addicted to online movie rentals - it rules.

Intelliflix is a good option to begin your online rental experience, for several reasons. For starters, their 3-out online DVD rental subscription plan is just $16.95 per month, which is dirt cheap. In fact, at the time of writing, Intelliflix was offering an incredible $8.25 discount price on that plan, and though that can't last long, it's the sort of discount that makes people sit up and take notice. If you prefer to pay per rental, which works better for casual renters, you can do so for $3.95 per title, for a five-day-rental, with up to four movies at a time, again with free shipping, which matches any video store that I know of.

To help you decide if Intelliflix is right for you, they'll give you one free month trial with every new account, and not only will that get you three movies, free of charge, delivered right to your mailbox, but you can also choose from video games as well. In fact, Intelliflix has over 40,000 video games and movies waiting for you to rent, right now - including mature/adult movies. Alternately, Netflix doesn't offer adult titles OR video games.

Another great forward step for Intelliflix is that they're integrating their service into actual bricks and mortar stores across the US, which will mean you'll be able to order your films and pick them up later that day, rather than waiting for the mail, if you choose to do so.

Lastly, Intelliflix processes orders on Saturdays - not just Monday to Friday like Netflix does, which means you'll get more discs per month, and have your weekend turnaround times slashed by a day. Great stuff.

The Product Trends rating: We didn't think that anyone could beat Netflix, which is a truly great, innovative, dedicated to customer service kind of company, but Intelliflix gives them a real run for their money. Four and a half stars.

To try Intelliflix for yourself, click the image below:

posted by Oz @ 10:45 PM