I've used Netflix for six months or so and despite living in Pennsylvania I've found it to be a much better deal than any of the local rental places. Yes there is about a week to a week and a half turn around from when I send a DVD back to when I get a new one. I've heard that Netflix is in the process of setting up an East Coast distribution center so that may be a moot point soon. For now, if we mail them out as fast as we get them we might be able to watch 9 to 12 a month for $20 which is around $2 a DVD. That's much cheaper than any rental place in the area (Blockbuster is about twice that).
In reality we probably manage to watch 6 to 10 a month which is $3.33 per movie if we only manage six, still cheaper than any video rental store and they are delivered to our door. If you have to drag two kids to the video store every time you want to pick up movies you will REALLY appreciate this convenience . Plus there are no late fees ever. I suppose if you lost a disc you could be out a month or two worth of rental fees but I've forked over almost $10 to Blockbuster for a movie that was returned about a week late.
The hot deal here is time saved not dragging the kids to the video store (which is loaded with candy), time saved not having to drop off videos on my way to or from work, and money saved by not paying late fees.
One dodge (which violates the digital millenium copywrite act :Q) is ripping the DVD to a HDD so you can immediately mail it back and then watch it while it's in transit. The trouble is the TV out on most vid cards sux (I have a Voodoo 3500 TV, but hey it was $35) so in general image quality is sub VHS, plus you fill that HDD pretty fast at 4Gb+ per DVD so you don't get to buffer much.
A better solution is convert them to SVCDs, burn to CDRWs then play them on an SVCD capable DVD player. This is *nearly* indistinguishable from the original quality, if you do it properly (purists may disagree). It takes a lot of PC time to convert the movie (>24 hours on an Athlon 1.0 GHz) but ripping is <20 minutes so turnaround would not be an issue. If you just rip the feature you miss out on the extra stuff on the DVD (which in many cases is worth missing ). You could take time to rip the extra stuff but then why not just spend that time watching the movie and the extra stuff instead of futzing around with software. I suppose it could be automated along the lines of the DVD2SVCD utility that is available online then it would just be a matter of computer time.
Since there aren't too many movies I'd want to see more than once (remember you'll never get that two hours of life back) a buffering scheme like this seems like a reasonable way to mitigate the mail turn around time for Netflix. I suppose if you had a mind you could create a vast library of SVCDs on CDR for about $2 a pop but for many I think that might cross the line from hot deal to outright theft. Then again, the MPAA seems more intent on controlling the consumer than providing them an entertainment service. Let your own conscience be your guide.
Max L.