Picking the best way to rent movies

Ways students on a budget can enjoy new hits and old favorites

With the sheer amount of options available for students wanting to rent the newest movies, it is good to know which option is the best.

Netflix is a common way to rent movies on the Internet. According to its Web site, Netflix’s most popular plan is about $17.00 a month, and the plan allows people to rent three movies at a time. It also allows the person to keep the films for as long as the person desires, until they would like to rent something new.

Blockbuster also offers an online movie rental option for customers. Blockbuster has similar deals to Netflix, for a dollar more, with the added flexibility of being able to exchange movies in the store instead of waiting for the mail.

However, the newest online movie rental trend is ignoring DVDs completely and skipping right to movie files.

The popular purchasing site Amazon rents movies for a dollar. By using a standard Amazon account, people can download movies which can be stored onto a computer’s hard drive. Once the movie is watched, the file deletes itself.

The files can, however, take hours to download depending on Internet connection speed.

For people who prefer to keep computers out of the rental experience, there are still store options.

Blockbuster and Hollywood Video have long been dominant rental avenues, but many stores such as McDonald’s and Safeway also have rental kiosks for people who are interested in obtaining new releases.

“I go to Redbox because it’s like a buck,” said Sydney Scofield, 20, a junior architecture major.

The kiosks take a credit card number and charge a renter’s card every night until the person brings the movie back (McDonald’s costs $1.00 and Safeway charges $1.49).

Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Cameron Naish at cameron.naish@thecampuspress.com