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Cafe DVD Review

 

CafeDVD Screenshot

 

Star Ratings:

Number of Movie Titles:
Ease of Use / Navigation:
Turnaround Time:
Features:
Ease of joining / registration:
Customer Support:
Value for Money:
Editor's Overall Rating:
Average User Rating: None posted

Visit CafeDVD.com

No. of Movie Titles: Around 10,000

Membership Costs :

A choice of an “a la carte” (pay per rent) service:

  • 1 or 2 DVDs for $3 each, plus $2.49 postage (first class) or $4.75 postage (priority mail)
  • 3 DVDs for $3 each, plus $2.99 postage (first class) or $4.75 postage (priority mail)
  • 4 DVDs for $3 each, plus $3.49 postage (first class) or $4.75 postage (priority mail)
  • OR $3.50 per rental (including postage) if you buy a prepaid Saver pack.

OR

  • 6 DVDs per month for $14.95
  • 8 DVDs per month for $19.95
  • 10 DVDs per month for $23.95

Features:

  • Free shipping (except with a la carte service)
  • Keep DVDs as long as you like (except with a la carte service)
  • No minimum contract
  • No late fees (except with a la carte service)
  • Cancel anytime - no extra fee
  • Gift certificates available
  • Rewards for renting and returning DVDs
  • Website is secure
  • Website includes film articles and reviews to help you pick

Visit CafeDVD.com

Editor's Verdict:

If you’re done with having your eyebrows burnt off by another exploding helicopter movie or choking from having Formula Romcom 267B crammed down your craw, Café DVD is here to provide eclectic treats for the cinematic connoisseur in all of us rather than fast food film fodder to appease the baser instincts. The movies offered by Café DVD are hand-picked with love and critical scrutiny to provide you with more of what you might not know you liked. This ethos carries through the personal standards of customer service they offer.

The website is neat, accessible and highly browsable. The selection of lists, reviews and recommendations here is truly impeccable and grouped under a wide variety of genres and themes to help you choose movies you will enjoy. Downsides include a lack of TV boxsets and no introductory offer.

Though the total number of titles they stock looks small compared to that of the industry giants, the selection on offer is great for eclectic cinema and surprisingly good for quality mainstream films too (nothing wrong with an exploding helicopter movie just as long as the explosion is artfully done and says something about the human condition). Don’t make the mistake of thinking “quality movies” always means “difficult movies” either, Café DVD offer much more than abstract Polish arthouse films about depressed clowns having existential crises in black and white, though if that’s what floats your boat that’s here too. Even so, if you’re worried Café DVD won’t have what you want, try searching their database for a few of your must-see films before you decide whether to join or not; its fun and you may even be pleasantly surprised.

The range of rental options is diverse and complicated enough that it takes a little braining to get your head around what’s on offer, but then this is the rental service aimed at people who like to think, so maybe that isn’t a drawback. All the monthly packages are based on how many DVDs you can rent per month rather than how many you can have out at any one time, so whether this service will suit you better than a similar connoisseur service such as Greencine will depend on whether you prefer the structure of a monthly ceiling to your rentals or the flexibility of being able to rent as many as you like each month. The value for money on the “A La Carte” option is less competitive (as pay-per-rent services usually are compared to subscription schemes) but offer a reward point system whereby 20 rentals will earn you one more for free. Note that on this scheme the amount of time you can keep the DVDs for is limited to 8 days, unless you want to pay an extension fee. A plus side is that this service allows you to specify a particular film you want to see which you may have experienced trouble getting hold of in the past, Café DVD will endeavour to locate a copy for you even if there is only one left in a yurt somewhere in Uzbekistan (do they have yurts in Uzbekistan?), and chances are they will succeed, though this may take a little while.

By contrast, the subscription service works pretty much like many of the other DVD rental sites listed in this category. You create a list of DVDs you want and a batch of two are sent to you by post. When you're done watching them, you just pop them in the pre-paid return envelope. As soon as they receive your returned DVDs they'll mail you your next batch of DVDs from your list. Note that movies ship from a distribution centre in San Francisco, so how quickly you receive your movies may depend on geography as well as how efficient their staff are. This is partially ameliorated by a clever system Café DVD run by which you can let them know (via the website) when you have mailed back a pair of DVDs so they can get the next batch in the post to you right away. Anecdotally, Café DVD is sometimes said to be not quite as quick on the draw as most of the top guns in the online rental market, partly because they currently only ship from one location and partly because, whilst they have a decent range of different titles, they may stock less actual copies of them than their larger competitors.

So if you like a cappuccino with your Al Pacino, Café DVD may just be for you. It’s the DVD rental service Frasier Crane would choose.

Visit CafeDVD.com

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