Can't find a suitable subforum, so this is more a review of a service rather than a product but:

On the web Quickflix has some rave reviews and some really bad reviews, but as the bad reviews could be posted anonymously by people with an 'axe to grind' it's hard to get an accurate view. Just signed up with QuickFlix free 14 day trial as I live in a Video Store Backwater here and got my movies in 2 days, very happy so far ....

The user stories here at DTV Forum about Quickflix are on the HD DVD and BLU RAY subforum, but what I'm talking about here is just your average DVDs and the service actually provided by the company, with any comparos with Bigpond Movies - if anyone has any comments.

Would be grateful to know what I've let myself in for!

I signed up with them about a week before you. I know that is not a long time but so far the turn around time has been sensational. Rather than having the movie and scifi networks on Austar this is far better value. Picture quality is better and you get to pick and choose. I live in Wollongong. I signed up on a Monday morning and had three movies in my mail Tuesday. If I send movies back on say a Wednesday I will usually get more on a Friday. I'm wondering once I am a paying customer and I can let them know I have sent my movies back before they recieve them then on occasion I may even recieve movies the very same day I post some back. Should be interesting.

Here's hoping they don't slack off once we're signed up as paying customers! They seem to have mailing 'depots' all over the place, our 'local' one is on the Gold Coast. Like you I'm looking forward to being able to inform them that I have returned discs so they'll send the next lot out by return. Just received my second batch (2 days, quicker than my bank!) but didn't get the top 2 of my queue, however they were 'curly' ones, "Pandora's Box" Louise Brooks (1929 silent movie) and "Playtime", 1950's French movie by Jaques Tati - probably only one copy for the whole nation, so don't expect them to have stock on the Gold Coast!!! Cheers.

I've foudn quikflix pretty good really. suits our veiwing patterns. there are a couple of threads already in other sub forums that will be worth checkign out.

I've found them excellent as well. If you tell them you're returning something, they will usually despatch that day even before its come back.

As long as my list is pretty well populated, I've never had to wait for anything. I get a fair mix, but most of my stuff is back catalogue anyway. I've had one disc in crappy condition out of about twenty, and they resent it a few weeks later after I sent it back.

some big news here for quickflix. apparentyl woolworths big W is joinging forces with them

http://www.quickflix.com.au/public/investo...h_Quickflix.pdf

soem other news of interest here worth a read.
http://www.quickflix.com.au/public/investors/investors.aspx

I've been with Quickflix for 18 months. I have had 3-4 dud disks in all this time and their turnaround time is excellent seeing as they utilise Aussie Post. I think that they're a little on the expensive side as I can grab 7 weeklies at my local video store for $7.95. If they were a little cheaper then they would be a "must have".

The main issue I have with them is the fact that movies at the top of my queue can remain there for months. The present one has been there for 8 months. I got an email from them a few months ago telling me that 5 of the top 10 DVDs in my queue are no longer available. "They were never available" would be closer to the truth. The local video rental store is by far the best option for new releases, but if you're after something unusual or very old, Quickflix can usually oblige if you're prepared to wait. This is where Quickflix excels. They have titles that no DVD store would ever bother with. Quickflix has opened my eyes to a world of older movies that are incredibly good. For example, some old Bogart movies and Hitchcock thrillers that I would never have bothered with have become some of my favourite films.

Another option would be Webflicks. I have been with them ~12 months, and only had 2 duds which were replaced the next day.
They seem to have a good selection, and are prompt in dispatching titles.
I will be trying Quickflix soon (just to compare) and if they dispatch from the Gold Coast, their turn around should be quicker, and I may have a choice to make .

I signed up.

Expect two free as a trial.

Was advised they were shipped.

A day or two later got one from the addional 20 I had to list. First on the list actually. 300.

Not sure what is going on but impressed by the speed.

Will watch on the weekend and return.


Lyle

think theyre in perth lyle hence the speed. they must have branches aroudn the country as seem to get to me pretty quick to.

the hi-def discs I get now and then as my wife has the queue well stacked to make sure the ones she wants to see come through first. anyways its good to watch some movies she wants to watch for a change !

I tried the Bigpond DVD service for a couple of months.

Had to return a high percentage of discs because they wouldn't play due to severe scratches etc.

Even the replacement discs sent had problems, in some instances.

They say they clean/check all disks on return.

Did they single me out to send faulty disks?..... I doubt it.

Was looking at giving Quickflix a go as I got a free months trial in with the EP-10.

Cheers,

Karen

I use QF for BD & HDDVD and quite like the service - I think it works well .... just dont put any normal DVD's in your queue or you'll get them more than HD media.

Ahh thanks for the tip.

Cheers,

Karen

Its your DVD player. I am also a bigpond movies member and had "endless" trouble with disks until I chucked my old DVD player (Sony) and got a Denon. Have not had a single disk that did not play, even scratched ones. They jump a minute or so and just continue on. I have been a bigpond subscribed for about two years now. Works great.

I understand your point, but can assure you it wasn't the player, having tried the 'damaged' discs in three players, all refusing to either play the 'damaged' disks, or skipping/freezing.

All three machines work perfectly with other disks.

I don't understand why you think the scratched disks from Bigpond that "jump a minute or so and just continue on" is working great, even on your new player.

I've been using Bigpondmovies since it launched as fetchmemovies. 2 and 1/2 years? In that time I've had 4 damaged discs (out of around 270 shipped), 3 which simply skipped little bits of the movies (10 or 20 seconds here and there) but not enough to annoy me and one disc that that was bent (must've got crunched in the mail sorting machine) I simply reported all discs as bad and mentioned the issues. Never had any discs go 'missing', although there have been a few times when it's taken an extra couple of days for a disc to arrive, particularly around school holidays. Discs usually arrive within a day or two. Some discs never seem to arrive (e.g. Top Gear best of season 1 and 2) despite being at the top of the list for months, I can only presume they sometimes underestimate demand for some titles and don't purchase more copies quickly/frequently enough. Some DVDs (tv shows in particular) aren't available to rent even though they are for sale, I presume it has something to do with distribution licensing and the fact that the TV show is yet to air on TV (e.g. Battlestar Galactica Season 3).

The new website/interface is much better than it used to be (still room for improvement though), you can now explicitly rank movies in the order you'd prefer to receive them (used to be just high, medium, low priority) and they tell you whether the disc is 'available' (not sure I believe them' or has a short or long wait. The new interface was released last weekend so I haven't used it long enough to tell whether the ranking actually works or not.

I'll keep using bigpondmovies - it's the only Telstra service I can bear to use. I've had no reason (yet) to try any of the competitors, other than price, but I can't be bothered transferring my queue over. You can get a cheaper price ($5 a month off) by signing up for a bigpond internet service, and apparently paying for just an email address at about $20 a year counts, haven't tried it though.

You can also suspend your account for 1 month, 2 months, or indefinitely (as long as you're on a pay per month plan) which is handy if you travel lots like me or are busy and have a backlog of shows stored on the PVR.

Bigpondmovies has a free trial as well (1 month, 10 movies, 3 at a time) so you might as well take advantage of it.

I've had the odd dodgy disc from quikflix, and its not player related as have tried it on 4 different players. have notified them and theyve sent out a replacement. to be expected I guess with rental discs. and maybe more of a problem if you rent some really old titles that have maybe been around the traps a bit more.

My experience is similar to the one below. We've been customers for ages. I've had Monkey Magic (all 19 DVDs) on my list for 4 months and not one has arrived.

B

'They have titles that no DVD store would ever bother with.'

Most DVD stores would ever bother with. Most. Not all.

i have tried bp and found qf to be faster and has a better selection tho bp had user defined categories which is pretty cool and helpful when those mental blocks came about when chosing films. In the end tho, i am now with qf and am rapt with their bluray service which i predominent use. ps - sorry for the crap typing, i'm using my ps3

I have only just started using Quickflix but their selection of HD-DVD is excellent. I enrolled last Sunday and got my first three HD-DVDs today.

I watched the Shooter which is actually available in blu ray and HD-DVD which is nice. An excellent movie by the way and it looks stunning in HD.

I can't really comment too much yet on Quickflix except that it leave BigPond for dead with it's selection of HD-DVD movies.

Grant

Further to my previous post, things have taken a turn for the worse with Quickflix. Over the last 2-3 months, Aussie Post has become determined to piss me off as every second delivery is delivered a few doors down the street. Now these neighbors are frequently interstate and they don't check their mail for several days. So the once great service I had has become pathetic. The average delivery has gone from 1-2 days to 5-8 days. Two discs were three weeks late and I actually sent Quickflix the "it's gone missing" form for two DVDs before my neighbours dropped them off.

I have complained to Quickflix who blame Aussie Post and say that there's nothing they can do. I then contacted Aussie post who gave me the mirror response, "we'll look into it", six weeks ago. It's obvious that one stupid postie is causing all this hassle and over the next few days I will leave Quickflix. $35 for watching 8 old movies over a month is just plain shitty value. I much prefer to pay $8.95 for 10 old movies per week at my local video rental store.

Several threads on Quickflix so chose this one.

What is it with some renters.

Got a BD rental last week of Die Hard. Played about half way through and it started doing all kind of weird things (both picture and sound). Took it out and it was absolutely covered in fingerprints and grease. Gave it a clean and voila, all was sweet.

But makes me think that some people just don't give a shyte about caring for disks and/or others in the food chain that might want to view it after them.

Lyle's gripe for the day!

I did the free Bigpong one month trial. If you get a voucher number you get more movies and a longer period. The service was generally good, and movies arrived quickly. I did have a number of movies that were scratched and I have heard others report the same thing. I also found that quite a few of the movies on my wish list never became available, including some quite recent movies like No Country for Old Men. My mate who gave me the voucher said that he has had a movie on his list showing as "long wait" for over a year!

^^ I agree Lyle, its a appalling the way some people treat rental DVD's how hard is it proper care of these things?!

to add to the discussion, i've been with BigPond for about 9 months now and the service has been great. Had heaps of Blu-Ray's and HD-DVD's and no major problems with damaged disks (nothing unplayable, mostly just skipping which has been fixed by just cleaning it).

found it quite quick as well, for example i'll mark a disc "returned" today and a new one will arrive tomorrow. probably helps that they are mailed from Melbourne, so not as far to travel / as much time for Aus Post to stuff it up.

was going to try quickflix, but havent bothered as ive been happy with bigpond.

I initially did the Quickflix trial and ended up subscribing. Great service, I have had it for a few months now and only one disc has been lost by the post. Have recommended it to everyone

Never did try bigpond cause I don't like anything to do with telstra.

Heard you can pay for bigpond movies on your telstra bill now, just like foxtel. Have to call one of their call centres though. Can't do it online.