2012movies.net

With the recent news that ABC will have 9 new series, I started to think on how many would last more than 3-4 episodes. Don’t forget that Traveler and last mid-season Day Break, The Nine were made by them and those, I liked. I still which the actors to break a leg.

It may be the last year that I invest my time with any networks. If a new show do get a full season, I may rent the Blu-Ray boxset IF they get a second season. I may watch it live if the buzz around it is very strong like it was with Heroes.

Some channels are not good with their new shows and drop them too much fast. Are you listening ABC and Fox!

For this season(2007-08), I will give them one last chance to regain my trust. I will be fair and gave them a chance.

You may read this: How to make a new TV show survive the whole season

Many years ago, I lived in a very small town(pop. 1300) far from the city. Back then, DVDs were out for about 2-3 years and I had not place to rent DVDs. I had to buy them to be able to watch one. A few years later, I was able to rent them online. The company was far from me and that caused a delay. I did not have the time to watched them and get my money worth each months. Finally, the company closed a year or so later.

It’s now 2007 and renting DVDs online or down the street is very easy. I’m now in Quebec City but the same things in happening but for HD(Blu-Ray, HD-DVD) movies. Before buying a Blu-Ray player, I’m looking at options near me.

Going local

One local video store had both format but not many. Plus, I had already seen most of them in theaters. They are a major player in the province and the clerk said that some location had more choices. At least, it’s a start.

Going online

The other option is going online. The situation is more mature(service, faster, many distribution centers…) than when I first experienced it many years ago. I look around and found Zip.ca. They have a good selection of HD movies(both format) and they have many plans from $10.95CAD to $49.95CAD. I’m sure I will find an options that would fit my needs. Again, if you live in a rural area, it’s one solution to consider. Plus for first timers, they offer the 2 weeks trial or you can pay 3 months in advanced and get 1 month free. One thing that I noticed is that shipping is not a free for all. The higher oil price did not help in that area.

How online works?

If you are not familiar with the online option, I will explain it using their plans.

Here are the plans:

Plans Monthly fee DVDs out at a time Free Shipments per month**
1 DVD $10.95 1 2
2 DVD $18.95 2 5
+3 DVD $24.95 3 Unlimited
4 DVD $24.95 4 11
6 DVD $36.95 6 16
8 DVD $49.95 8 22
** $2.49 shipping and handling per each additional shipment


The most popular plan is the 3 DVD/month. You pay $24.95/month and in return, you can keep 3 DVD at home. Once you finished watching one, you insert it in the return envelope and just mail it back. They will then send you the next one in your list. You could keep a movie for 2 months because you don’t have late fees. With this plan, if it takes 6 days(sent and receive) per DVD, you could get 15 DVDs for the month. It’s about $1.66+taxes per DVD. Again, it all depend on the delay.

If you take the biggest plan, it would be around $2.27 per DVD if you don’t go over 22 DVDs that month. You would pay an extra $2.49 for shipping the 23th DVD.

Conclusion

The advantage of going online is the selection of movies. Your local place may not have the space to keep all regular DVDs and I can understand that. One other reason is that you often have a local mail box near you. You don’t have to rush to the store to bring it back.

When I will jump into HD movies(soon), I will look at both options again. Apart from the rushing to watch a movie back then, I remember the overall convenience of the online service. If you are in a rural area, the online option it still good even for regular DVDs and a better option for renting HD movies.

Take a look at Zip.ca

If you wonder about the HD(Blue-Ray, HD-DVD) format war and which one to pick, I wrote a post on Steve’s Tech Blog some times ago in case you missed it. You can go there to find out Why Blu-Ray will win the format war.

You can post your comment there.

Sorry for the lack of update. I’m very busy with the soon to be release MIS Info Video 2.7. Anyway, while testing one of the new features, I came about a photo for John Rambo(2008). I don’t know how I missed that one.

The story is simple: Rambo has for mission(paid one this time) to free Christian aid workers from a small Burmese village being held by bad guys. He is not alone because he will have 5 young mercenaries to command.

Ok, it’s not the most complicated story but I’m sure a lot of fire power will be found in it. Hey! It’s Rambo.

It’s another easy sequel for Hollywood.

I will be very short. I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this afternoon. I’m a fan of the movie series and never read the books. It’s a more mature movie and it’s long at some places but overall it’s a great summer movie. I liked it very much and it should be seen at the theater.

During the movie, warning lights started to flash. No body moved and we continued to watched the movie. After 5 minutes, a clerk told us it was a false alarm. That’s what I taught because the movie was not stopped.

Tip: Arrive way before it starts. I was 1 hour early and had to wait because of the long lines. The first English showing(only theater) was 90% full. The French had 3 showing at almost the same time. That’s not counting the other theaters in the city. So, plan ahead. They should make an English  only line to speed things up for English viewers