Free movie rentals from the library

I recently lost the last video movie rental store in my neighborhood. (And no, it wasn't a local outlet of the financially-troubled Blockbuster chain, but a branch of a very good local "mom-and-pop" DVD rental shop in New York City's East Village.)

To compensate, I've begun "renting" videos from the New York Public Library, which circulates some 20,000 or so titles on DVD alone. The library may be a "sleeper" source for home entertainment—especially since all the buzz around movie rentals is from subscription services (like Blockbuster, Netflix) and online video streaming services (like Netflix).

For the March issue of Consumer Reports, the Consumer Reports National Research Center surveyed our subscribers about their satisfaction with such movie rental services. Although the Ratings of video-rental services (available to subscribers) highlights only for-pay services, our survey results offer an insight into how libraries stack against Netflix, Blockbuster and other rental services.

On the whole, libraries weren't as satisfying a source of movies as the other options. According to respondents, borrowing movies from the library rated an overall satisfaction score of 64. That's significantly lower than the mean satisfaction Ratings score of 80 for eight for-pay sources, including subscription services, video-rental kiosks (such as Redbox), video-store chains, and independent video stores. (A perfect score of 100 means that all respondents who use that video rental service were completely satisfied.)

Libraries fared particularly poorly on:

• selection of movies (16% highly satisfied)
• in-stock availability of titles (13%)
• availability of recently-released movies (8%)

In addition, fewer than half (43%) were highly satisfied with the picture quality of the videos they borrowed–perhaps because a lot of the collections in public libraries are sill in analog videotape format.

On the other hand, libraries were rated similarly to pay venues in general for customer service—64% of library renters were highly satisfied compared to 67% for all the pay venues.

For me, the no-cost nature of library rentals makes it worth putting up with their imperfections. I'm also resisting a subscription service, since I feel over-subscribed to entertainment as it is, what with cable, satellite-radio, and music-subscription services. But the library obviously isn't for everyone.

Do you rent movies from the library? If you do, any tips for newbies to the such rentals? If you don't, are tougher economic times making you consider it? Weigh in below.

I'll roll some of your tips into my own in a follow-up blog on making the most of the library as a video source.

—Paul Reynolds

Comments

[Free Movie Online]

Thanks for this information..!! There is also lot of sites available on net which can allowed us to watch movie online and it is free of cost.

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[Ben]

Love the post. I've been checking out cool and obscure movies for several years now. I've saved a ton of money. More people need to do this!

[Toby Radloff]

I'm from the Cleveland, OH area. The main downtown Cleveland Public Library has a HUGE selection of DVD's...and they're starting to get Blu-Ray discs in, although the Blu-Ray selection is still limited. I just bought a Blu-Ray player, mainly to upconvert DVD's to 1080i for my TV, but to also watch the occasional Blu-Ray disc. I borrowed, ironically, two Great Depression-set movies on Blu-Ray: "Kit Kittredge" and "Bonnie and Clyde". I was awed by the sharp detail of the Blu-Ray discs, although at this point I don't see myself buying Blu-Ray discs unless it's a movie I really loved. That's why I'm glad I can get both Blu-Ray and DVD from the Cleveland library. The Cuyahoga County library system, which serves mainly the suburbs, has good selections of DVD's also, but no Blu-Ray discs yet. I also get DVD's, mainly of TV series, from Netflix and new-release DVD's from Redbox, but you can't beat the library.

[David]

We used movies from the library a lot about 10 years ago. Poor selection was our only complaint. Now, with the catalog online and so many parts of the process automated, I would encourage people to explore your options. We stopped because we moved outside the USA. But, some friends just told us that they routinely download audio books from their Canadian home library, even though they now live near us in a foreign land.

Investigate your options and support your public libraries. You probably qualify for several libraries new you. City, University, etc. Movies and music and even some software are free at many libraries. Learn how. Now that Inter-Library Loan is getting better, the selection has improved a lot. We used it while visiting my mom in the states for the Holidays.

[Dennis Network Cable]

The library is a great idea for videos I never thought of that but I also have seen it recently in the super market as red box videos for only $1.00. That seems to be cheaper then anyone around and fast. I was a great beliver in the video vending machine idea but the super markets now have it down to simple and fast. Thanks Dennis.

[Michael Spadoni]

I'm a firm believer in my libraries. Since I've cut the cord on cable, I've been getting my TV entertainment through DVDs borrowed from the library, and from sites such as Hulu. So far, it has worked out very well for me.
Our library district (which serves a good portion of the Las Vegas, Nevada area) allows one week checkouts of most DVD's; multi-disc sets are two weeks; and there is a limit of seven DVD checkouts per person at one time.
True, you can't get the newest DVD's at the library. But it's a great resource for classic films, the occasional foreign picture and TV series (I've recently checked out sets of short-lived but much-loved shows such as Steven Bochco's "Murder One" (ABC, 1995-97) and "The Comeback" with Lisa Kudrow, which lasted just one season on HBO.)
Advantages: Price (you can't beat free); fair selection; occasional gems on the shelves depending on which branch you use.
Disadvantages: Sometimes the DVD's are worn or scratched so they are hard to use or unwatchable. I've cleaned library DVD's with furniture polish or glass cleaner, and it sometimes helps.
But I agree with Paul Reynolds: The drawbacks are overshadowed by the bottom line. And one other benefit: If I get bored watching TV, I still have a stack of new books to read!