Lovefilm postal alternatives

[panholio]

Lovefilm has gone utterly wk since Amazon took over. The website is unbearable and as such I have cancelled my subscription.

Are there any good alternatives? Anyone got any experiences? I'm OK with streaming but prefer the quality of blu ray and like having one sat there to watch.

[BenM77]

iTunes is great for renting films. Although you do need an Apple TV.


Browse the library and download to your computer. You then have 30days to start watching the film.



You can rent in HD and SD. The quality of their SD films is very good IMO.

[philwhite]

I have LoveFilm postal and echo panholio in that it is now awful since moving to Amazon, since moving they just seem to send random films, usually from the same list even though we have multiple lists.

I'm truly gutted as it used to work really well for me, I'm all for streaming but am quite indecisive, so when presented with a list of potential films to watch I would just end up spending the time trying to decide what to watch, and then ending up watching nothing! The postal service solves this as I just watch whatever falls on my doormat.

I'd be interested in what alternatives there are, I have considered Sky Movies, but my interest in film steers more towards cult and classics, most of which never get shown.

[panholio]

Yes this is another part of my reason for liking the postal service. I prefer having "one to watch" so to speak.

[vrsmxtb]

Apart from the various streaming services I don't think there are any other postal rental companies, I get the feeling Lovefilm will soon be completely consumed by this Amazon Prime rubbish. Anyone remember when there were several options, screenselect, blockbuster etc. I also like getting discs still, even though streaming is pretty good these days.

[panholio]

Found one called Cinema Paradiso. Going to give it a try.

[Hackney]

If it helps the Lovefilm app is much better. It has changed since Amazon brough Lovefilm in house but it's much simpler to use than the amazon website for adding films to your list.

[vrsmxtb]

panholio said:

Found one called Cinema Paradiso. Going to give it a try.

Ah interesting, never heard of them. Might bookmark if Lovefilm really goes down the pan.

[lexham]

I've also found that Lovefilm by post (as it's now called by Amazon) is just awful.
Not only is it difficult to add to your rental list and you cannot change your package, but the film choices are seemingly ever more limited.
It seems that Amazon have taken a good service and totally buried it, on the path to killing it off.

Amazon bought the last part of Lovefilm in 2011 for £200M - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9aa7315e-2482-11e0-8c0e-...
Near £100M turnover with 1.6M subscribers - can't see how you couldn't sustain that as a profitable operation. Unless the licensing fees for films were taking too much of a chunk out of that.

So for now, CinemaParadiso seems to be the only rental by post alternative left in the UK, but at a higher cost than Lovefilm. May have to try them out.

[tickious]

We just have a simple 4 films by post per month. So twice a month we'd receive two films at once. Today we received just one. Checked my account and they seem to have moved us to a 2 film package for the same money. Has anyone managed to find a way of actually contacting them.?

[Alucidnation]

Unless you want bang up to date movies, i sometimes find it cheaper and easier to just buy the DVDs second hand from amazon or play, and then punt them on when you are done.

[hungry_hog]

I too am on the verge of cancelling. Amazon also seems to take two / three days to process returns, whereas LF used to be one day. If you return a film on Wednesday you don't seem to get the next one until Monday the week after.

[P-Jay]

lexham said:

I've also found that Lovefilm by post (as it's now called by Amazon) is just awful.
Not only is it difficult to add to your rental list and you cannot change your package, but the film choices are seemingly ever more limited.
It seems that Amazon have taken a good service and totally buried it, on the path to killing it off.

Amazon bought the last part of Lovefilm in 2011 for £200M - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9aa7315e-2482-11e0-8c0e-...
Near £100M turnover with 1.6M subscribers - can't see how you couldn't sustain that as a profitable operation. Unless the licensing fees for films were taking too much of a chunk out of that.

So for now, CinemaParadiso seems to be the only rental by post alternative left in the UK, but at a higher cost than Lovefilm. May have to try them out.

Agreed, it's, for example, almost impossible to actually find the 'by post' service via Lovefilm.co.uk I do suspect Amazon bought it up to get a readymade streaming service to battle Netflix and would rather the postal service just died off.

It's especially annoying because when LV first started (what 5 years ago?) there were quite a few alternatives which they slowly bought up and rebranded - my subscription I'm certain started as a Blockbuster one.

As others have said the app is much easier to use than the website.

In other LV news I notice they're just signed an exclusive deal with Sky to stream Sky Atlantic stuff via LV streaming, which of course is pretty much HBO UK. I notice 'The Wire' is being taken off Sky OnDemand shortly, I assume all the HBO stuff will be LV only soon

[Sonic]

P-Jay said:

Agreed, it's, for example, almost impossible to actually find the 'by post' service via Lovefilm.co.uk

This does my head in also... it's very frustrating since Amazon have taken over.

I signed up to LF because i want the physical discs to watch at home, not any of this streaming bks which is crap anyway.

[Chris Type R]

My queue is now empty, and the interface seems impossible to use.

Guess I'll be cancelling as well.

[Chris Type R]

Cancelled.

So that's Prime & Love Film cancelled. Well done Amazon.

[stuarthat]

Try this app for iPad and android http://gappcenter.com/cartoon/ 🍻don't thank me buy the beers

[Deepesh]

I tried cinema paradiso postal service as suggested after cancelling my lovefilm subscription. Compared to lovefilm postal after Amazon destroyed it, Cinema paradiso looks a pretty good alternative. Being a subscriber for 4 months now and absolutely no complaints. Good collection of movies and fast delivery.

[BoRED S2upid]

Deepesh said:

I tried cinema paradiso postal service as suggested after cancelling my lovefilm subscription. Compared to lovefilm postal after Amazon destroyed it, Cinema paradiso looks a pretty good alternative. Being a subscriber for 4 months now and absolutely no complaints. Good collection of movies and fast delivery.

I might give this a try. I too saw my arse with Lovefilm as soon as Amazon bought / killed it and enjoyed getting films through the post.