“Which is better, Netflix or Blockbuster?

DVDs by Mail Comparison: Netflix and Blockbuster Monthly Plans

	Netflix	Blockbuster
# DVDs out at a time	Monthly	Monthly	1st Month
0	$7.99	N/A
1	$9.99	$11.99	$5.99
2	$14.99	$16.99	$8.49
3	$19.99	$19.99	$9.99
4	$27.99	N/A
5	$34.99	N/A
6	$41.99	N/A
7	$48.99	N/A
8	$55.99	N/A

While there are some smaller players in the rental business, for the critical items like option plans and movie selections, more is definitely better. Both Blockbuster.com and Netflix are at the top of the game when it comes to selection, convenient returns, reviews, and personalized recommendations.

For all their similarities, there’s a lot to pick and choose from between these two. In fact, the differences between the two are much greater now than in past years, which makes it easier than ever to pick the plan that suits your needs best.

Ask yourself a few basic questions about what’ll make your life easier. How many videos do you go through in an average month? How many people in your house? Need video game rentals? How about your daily commute — is driving to the neighborhood store on the way or an inconvenient drag? Once you consider your priorities, picking the right plan is a snap.

Netflix or Blockbuster: Let’s Compare

So how do these two stack up? Both offer online ordering, free delivery and returns via first class mail, and no late fees.

Netflix is definitely the market leader here, with over 12 million members compared to about 1.25 million Blockbuster subscribers. Their library of over 100,000 titles edges out Blockbuster’s 95,000, and with its 58 distribution centers nationwide, Netflix is likely to provide more efficient delivery to its customer base than Blockbuster’s 23 centers can manage.

Blockbuster, on the other hand, offers a few options that Netflix can’t (or won’t) match. For an extra three bucks a month, you can upgrade to their “Total Access” plan, which includes up to 5 in-store exchanges per month. Blockbuster will continue to close more stores this year, so make sure your neighborhood location will be around for the duration. While there’s a degree of potential convenience in the mail-and-store strategy, you’d best be careful here: while an online DVD rental is free from due dates and late fees, once you exchange your title in a retail store, the new rental may come with a return deadline. Miss it and you’re racking up late fees again.

Blockbuster also includes Blu-Ray in their plans at no extra charge. You’d have to pay five bucks a month for that option at Netflix.

Let it Stream: Netflix Watch Instantly or Blockbuster On Demand

Online Access: Netflix vs Blockbuster

	Netflix	Blockbuster
Library	20,000+ titles	5,000+ titles
Cost	Free, included with monthly subscription.	Most at $3.99 each.
Mac Support?	Yup	Nope

Yeah, both Netflix and Blockbuster offer online movie viewing, but there’s really no comparison .

Netflix includes unlimited streaming of over 8,000 titles directly to your Mac or PC with each of its DVD-by-Mail plans, starting at $8.99 a month. All this on-demand full-length commercial-free content is absolutely free with your monthly subscription. Add a Netflix-enabled device to the mix, and streaming video direct to your TV is a snap.

In spite of its recent troubles, Blockbuster has been investing in its instant access. Blockbuster On Demand offers movie rentals via download, similar to iTunes or Amazon, you pay per movie. On Demand is a separate service from its DVD rental plan — there’s no need to subscribe to Blockbuster to rent (or buy) digital movies. And once you hook up a select Samsung or Tivo device, you can stream direct to your big screen. Although its current online offering is closer to 5,000 titles, Blockbuster just inked a new deal that’ll add more than ten thousand movies to its library.

Choose and Enjoy

Deciding which company is right for you can be pretty simple — once you’ve figured out how many movies you’re likely to consume, and how you value getting movies in a store versus on your laptop.

Both Blockbuster and Netflix offer free 2-week trials. Both are good bets to be around for the long run, and as web-based delivery methods get faster and easier, we’re sure to see these guys revise their offerings and their prices with new strategies and partnerships, as the entire online video market heats up with new competition like never before. Which reminds me of one other appealing aspect to both Netflix and Blockbuster: unlike your mobile phone company, you can change or cancel your plan anytime and move on to the next new thing.

We wanted more control over managing our Netflix instant queue. Now you can add new releases directly to your instant queue directly on your screen — no need to power up the laptop to catch fresh flicks. There’s still room for improvement on managing the Watch Instantly queue though: sorting, tagging, and filtering could all be useful ways to find those hidden gems in a snap. But were always willing to reward progress, so we’ll give ‘em a “5″ on that request.

We also asked for greater control over playback resolution, and this is where the Xbox Experience upgrade really shines. One major drawback of Netflix Watch Instantly was the regular stop-the-show-and-downres that occurred as your available bandwidth changed. We’re happy to report a major improvement. What used to bring the entire show to a grinding halt for 15 seconds or longer is now a mere 2-second lapse. Even better, while in the past the appearance of the rebuffer screen guaranteed a coarser image quality, with the latest update the brief interruption is now just as likely to improve your resolution as your network’s capacity opens up.

While there’s still some room for improvement here (like, say, seamless rebuffering in the background), the overall effect of this upgrade is a dramatic improvement in the online video experience. Scores a big fat “9″.

And even though we never asked for the Xbox Live Party, we’re having fun sharing Netflix with friends via our Xbox 360. Getting a recommendation from an online friend is always cool. Chatting while watching: cooler.

Just last month they enabled HD content from Netflix, previously available online only through Xbox Live. Now Roku has announced integration with Amazon’s new Video On Demand service, with access to instantly purchase, rent and watch digital movies and TV episodes. The new content is planned to go live “early in 2009.”

The Roku box is well respected for its easy setup. Features include built-in connections to wifi and to any television set using HDMI, component video, composite video, s-video, stereo audio or optical audio.