Netflix

What with having limited space when i first moved over here (and, indeed, when i returned from my recent UK sojourn), you can understand that i had to leave a lot of things behind (mainly stored at my Dad's house). This included my DVD player and, of course, all my DVDs. Not that just the DVDs would've been any good owing to the whole regional system. In short, DVDs in the US are Region 1 (they WOULD have to be number 1) and so will only play on US DVD players or unless you have a multi-region DVD player (which i believe are becoming more common). In contrast, the UK are region 2 DVDs (if you notice, most of them are Region 2,4 - meaning they can also be played in Hong Kong and out that way) and so the DVDs will not play over here (they will play on my laptop - apparently i'm allowed to switch Region up to 5 times). Anyway, although i've managed to get a small number of DVDs since i've been here, i haven't really had the time, energy or patience to join Blockbuster or anywhere like that - mainly as the nearest to me is a good walk away.

Anyway, the problem of this is now solved for the time being owing to the recommendation of Netflix by a friend/workmate. Basically, it's an online version of a rental store except with a slight difference. You pay a set fee every month and get sent a DVD from a list that you input in on the site. You keep it as long as you want, and then send it back to them (you don't have to pay the postage). When they get it, they send you the next choice on your list, and so on. There are no late charges at all - cause basically if you hang on to the DVD, you don't get the next - so it's up to you to send them back and get the most out of your money (doubt that'll be a problem for me!!). I joined last weekend and my first DVD should be arriving today. Sorted. It got me to wondering if there was such a service in the UK - i'm sure there must be somewhere. Might be worth checking out for all you folks who don't have the time to make the trip to the local store. It sounds like a great idea to me.