Netflix vs Blockbuster Online

I've been a happy customer of Blockbuster Online since 2005.  At the time, Blockbuster was a little cheaper than Netflix, and while I knew a lot of people hold grudges against Blockbuster for late fees they've incurred in the past, I'd never really had a bad experience with them.

A couple weeks ago I read an article that referenced the old PBS documentary about the rise of the PC called Triumph of the Nerds, which I had seen when I was in high school.  I went to see if Blockbuster had the documentary available, but it wasn't there.  Next I went to Netflix's site and lo and behold they had it.

Technically I am now a subscriber of both services, though I will soon be canceling Blockbuster. Since I feel like I understand both pretty well, I thought I'd offer some comparisons.

Blockbuster's killer feature is Total Access, where you can return DVDs you received by mail at a store and get a new DVD for free.  Consumers who live near a Blockbuster store and watch a lot of movies will find this to be a key differentiator.  I however, live about 10 minutes away from my nearest store and almost never go there.  If I really needed a movie or TV show immediately I have Apple TV.  The only other thing that is in Blockbuster's favor is their envelopes, which are slightly smaller than Netflix's and show the movie's title without having to actually pull the DVD out.

One thing that really irritates me about Blockbuster is the fact that if you put a DVD in your queue that is part of a series, you have to put the whole series in together. This was an issue when Becky and I started watching Dexter on Apple TV and I wanted to finish the season with DVDs (Apple TV charges $1.99 per episode). I had to get the first disk of the season before getting to the second disk, but we'd already watched all of the episodes on the first disk already. Blockbuster didn't always force you to do this, I'm not sure why they decided on this "feature."

Obviously Netflix appears to have the advantage of a deeper catalog (at least they had one title Blockbuster didn't).  Also Netflix's website is much friendlier and prettier than Blockbuster's. The search dialog auto-completes a la Google Suggest and the Ajax-iness works a lot better, at least with Safari and Firefox.

So bottom line I would recommend Netflix over Blockbuster for anyone who wouldn't take advantage of Total Access.  Netflix also has a video-on-demand service, but between the DVDs and Apple TV I see no use for it for me personally.