Anime Online Rental

[guest]

I think there used to be a thread like this but I can't find it anymore. Anyway, this info needs to be updated.

What is your recommended anime online rental?

I am using Netflix now but they don't have some not-so-well-known series. Also, they are more likely to discontinue a series which doesn't get much rental and you are left without knowing what happen in the end! But they do Ok on delivery and queue waiting time.

Of course, I have only tried this one so I don't know any better.

[someguyouknow]

i want to know too.......i have netflix too and it aint cutting it........

[Catgirls]

Originally Posted by guest

What is your recommended anime online rental?

I've used three:

- NetFlix
- AnimeForest.com
- AnimeTakeOut.com

Of those, I'm fond of Anime Take Out dot com. I also rent from my local BlockBuster mostly because it's just down the street from me. Plus, the MILF to geek ratio is quite high during the summer.

Hope that helps. Cheers.

[Forbin]

I've used Animetakeout.com and unfortunately I just cancelled it.

They had a few problems.

#1! The post office can take from 1 day to 14 days to deliver / return your anime. When I first signed up a year ago they were 1-2 days turn around. That means I got at least 2 shipments a week. Near the end I was getting less than 1 a week.

#2 Sometimes they don't ship out the same day that they said they would. It happens about once every 5 weeks, they say it shipped on a Tues but I know it went out on Weds.

#3 Their system of what is going to be shipped to you next is a bit hit or miss. I had something say 'AVAILABLE' for 3 straight shipments and I never received it.

#4 They have been down for the last 2 weeks. That doesn't bode well for them.
------------------
Another one people have been using is GreenCine.com.

Some people I know say it's good. I'm being particularly harsh on AnimeTakeout because they are about 50 miles away from me and these Post Office delays just sucked.

[Fellini 8.5]

I've been using GreenCine, but it's quite a long turnaround time for an east-coaster. I do the 4-out plan, and rotate 2 per week. If I put return discs in the mail on Monday, they'll show up in San Fran on Friday or Saturday, and the discs they send back out will show up Wednesday or Thursday. Since I really only have time on the weekends anyhow, this has been working for me, though it's pricey.

I'm sticking with it because they also have a great selelction of obscure indie/foreign cinema.

[dfens]

I guess I'm the lucky one, their is a anime shop down the street from my house and they have every single region 1 anime DVD released to date. And they usaully get the newest releases 1-3 weeks before the official release date.

Plus since I know the owner and staff they always give me a discount and hold titles for me. But I tend to download/watch fan subs now since they come out way faster then a official DVD so I only rent titles I missed now.

But back in the day before high speed internet these guys where their for me only with VHS but they had everyone so I couldn't complain.

Still I would say screw online rentals and just use bit torrent save yourself some time and money.

[guest]

Originally Posted by dfens

Still I would say screw online rentals and just use bit torrent save yourself some time and money.

Unfortunately, not everyone has that time and money to download for such a long period of time, which is necessary for any method of downloading big files now, even 1 hour is long to me.

I really hope someone can come up with a faster (and cheap!) download method for exchanging big files.

Anyway, I don't like blockbuster because they have such few selction. The only anime rental shop around here is not any better. Selection is ancient. Returning dvd is only possible during their store hours, which doesn't give you much of a choice.

[Forbin]

Hey Hey this is not a thread about Piracy. It's about Online Rental Companies.

Asking about R1s and saying Bittorrent is better = piracy.

And BTW there are faster ways for Bittorrents. It's just that there are so many people sharing, the line is slow.

So far no one has talked about AnimeForest. Anyone have any experience with them?

Animetakeout is Located in Los Angeles for those who are in the east Coast. NetFlix is in every major city.

[dfens]

Just to clarify I never meant PTP is better just more efficient well for me anyways. I always buy the region 1 release if I like the series if not I delete fan sub after watching them.

But their really isn't any place to rent anime for most people especially in certain remote areas. Blockbuster is a joke they'll get volume 2,4, 6 of a seven volume series and since it's out of order and that's all they have what's the point of watching it.

Or these online rental sites they charge a monthly fee even if you don't rent any movies to me it would be a waste to sign up for one. I either rent several anime movies at a time or just one but where I go they charge by the disc that's it no membership fees etc. and the more you rent at one time they give you a price break too.

For me it takes 10-30 mins per episode to download. I rather just rent it at the store I mentioned which I use to all the time but it takes forever now for the official release. So I don't see the difference wheter I rent it or download it other than downloading I can finish a series faster and for free. I either buy it after watching it or don't. I never buy a movie I've never seen and can't watch over and over. Hell I could jist rent it then burn it but I want a perfect copy so I'll go out and buy it.

[mit7059]

I use netflix, and it works pretty well, especially because I have no local anime provider. Sure netflix may not have some of the more obscure titles, but its not that expensive and you can get normal movies too, add netflix to bittorrent and you have more anime than you can shake a stick at.

[DarkCntry]

Originally Posted by dfens

Or these online rental sites they charge a monthly fee even if you don't rent any movies to me it would be a waste to sign up for one. I either rent several anime movies at a time or just one but where I go they charge by the disc that's it no membership fees etc. and the more you rent at one time they give you a price break too.

The thing about that though, by the time you've rented your 4th movie in a month, you've pretty much paid for the monthly fees. I use Blockbuster for my online rentals, their anime selection is pretty barren overall but it's growing, but I rent, on average, 5-8 movies a month on a 3-out at a time deal. That's $20/mth, considering the movies at Blockbuster are ~$4, on most I'm saving money by using that plan than renting them seperately. Add on the fact that there are no return dates for the movies and you've got a pretty good deal overall.

It's a matter of convience really.

[EternityOfPain]

I have tried three online rental companies.

Rentanime, Greencine, Animeforest

I tried 5 months of Rentanime getting 3 discs a month, I live in MD and I would average about 9-11 a month. In the end it really didn't cut it for me. They do have a plus verses Animeforest in that rentanime does have hentai and Animeforest doesn't. After those 5 months I went about a month without any service, I tried to look around for good reviews but in the end I found none. So I decided to check out greencine, I was with greencine for a solid 6 months at 10 discs a month! The first 4 months were good I was averaging about 35 DVDs a month! (I shipped out the DVDs the following day). They also do have hentai so it was great (I rarely got hentai DVDs but when I did they had a fantastic selection). Anyways, for the last 2 months the service seemed to slow down a bit. I began only getting about 26 DVDs and then the last month I was with them it was 22 DVDs. I don't know if they were busy during that time or what but hence this is one of the reasons I ended up leaving them. I do however like the availability bar they had and they did also have a forum so that was kind of cool. Then I tried Animeforest for 1 month at 10 DVDs. They are slow, and they do not send you an e-mail letting you know they sent the DVDs or received them. So now currently I am not with any rental company.

Conclusion:

Rentanime

+ They have a hentai section
+ They have a good website layout
+They send you e-mail confirmation when DVDs are sent and received.
- They have a bit slow shipping, I live in MD and their base in FL it usually took 5 days to get my discs. They said they had problems with the shipping provider but even so their is a limit to excuses.

(I have not been with this company for about 10 months so things may have changed who knows)

Greencine

+ availability meter
+ Tons of DVDs, hentai section and a good size of foreign films section.
+They send you e-mail confirmation when DVDs are sent and received.
+They have a forum; just kind of neat to have one on a rental service therefore it gains an extra point.
+ They have the new releases for the most part the day you are able to buy them which is very nice.
+ Extremely fast tech support. Once their mailer forgot to place the stamps on it to send it back and they gave me the stamp money + a little extra for my trouble!
- The only real minus was for those last two months I was with them they slowed down a good bit, still don't know what the problem was but oh well.

Animeforest

- Slow service, it once took me a week and a half to get me my DVDs.
- NO e-mail confirmation of when they send the DVD or when they receive it!
- No hentai

In the end I recommend checking out Greencine. If they begin to slow down, then stop and go with rentanime. But I suggest avoiding animeforest untill they improve their service.

Hope this helps.

[guest]

Originally Posted by EternityOfPain

I have tried three online rental companies.

Rentanime, Greencine, Animeforest

I tried 5 months of Rentanime getting 3 discs a month, I live in MD and I would average about 9-11 a month. In the end it really didn't cut it for me. They do have a plus verses Animeforest in that rentanime does have hentai and Animeforest doesn't. After those 5 months I went about a month without any service, I tried to look around for good reviews but in the end I found none. So I decided to check out greencine, I was with greencine for a solid 6 months at 10 discs a month! The first 4 months were good I was averaging about 35 DVDs a month! (I shipped out the DVDs the following day). They also do have hentai so it was great (I rarely got hentai DVDs but when I did they had a fantastic selection). Anyways, for the last 2 months the service seemed to slow down a bit. I began only getting about 26 DVDs and then the last month I was with them it was 22 DVDs. I don't know if they were busy during that time or what but hence this is one of the reasons I ended up leaving them. I do however like the availability bar they had and they did also have a forum so that was kind of cool. Then I tried Animeforest for 1 month at 10 DVDs. They are slow, and they do not send you an e-mail letting you know they sent the DVDs or received them. So now currently I am not with any rental company.

Conclusion:

Rentanime

+ They have a hentai section
+ They have a good website layout
+They send you e-mail confirmation when DVDs are sent and received.
- They have a bit slow shipping, I live in MD and their base in FL it usually took 5 days to get my discs. They said they had problems with the shipping provider but even so their is a limit to excuses.

(I have not been with this company for about 10 months so things may have changed who knows)

Greencine

+ availability meter
+ Tons of DVDs, hentai section and a good size of foreign films section.
+They send you e-mail confirmation when DVDs are sent and received.
+They have a forum; just kind of neat to have one on a rental service therefore it gains an extra point.
+ They have the new releases for the most part the day you are able to buy them which is very nice.
+ Extremely fast tech support. Once their mailer forgot to place the stamps on it to send it back and they gave me the stamp money + a little extra for my trouble!
- The only real minus was for those last two months I was with them they slowed down a good bit, still don't know what the problem was but oh well.

Animeforest

- Slow service, it once took me a week and a half to get me my DVDs.
- NO e-mail confirmation of when they send the DVD or when they receive it!
- No hentai

In the end I recommend checking out Greencine. If they begin to slow down, then stop and go with rentanime. But I suggest avoiding animeforest untill they improve their service.

Hope this helps.

Do you know where greencine ship out DVD? Netflix has shipping provider at every major city. How about greencine?

[Forbin]

Originally Posted by guest

Do you know where greencine ship out DVD? Netflix has shipping provider at every major city. How about greencine?

Greencine is in San Franciso, CA
AnimeTakeout is Los Angeles, CA
AnimeForest is in Milpitas, CA
NetFlix is everywhere.
Blockbuster is Everywhere

So it looks like it's more advantageous to West Coast people over East coast.

[dfens]

You know what's funny now I know why AnimeForest sucks they aren't too far from where I live hell they where hiring not to long ago. I was offered a job I told him to shove it. He wanted basically a anime guru, to do 50 things for slave wages.

They have like only one guy filling the orders and restocking all the DVD's etc. And they pay minimum wage so that's some real motivation to work your ass off and do a good job. Oh but you get to borrow so many movies for free. It's owned by some fob guy who barely knows english.

[guest]

Originally Posted by Forbin

Greencine is in San Franciso, CA
AnimeTakeout is Los Angeles, CA
AnimeForest is in Milpitas, CA

Too far, guess I will just have to rent from Netflix for a very long time.

[Forbin]

Originally Posted by dfens

You know what's funny now I know why AnimeForest sucks they aren't too far from where I live hell they where hiring not to long ago. I was offered a job I told him to shove it. He wanted basically a anime guru, to do 50 things for slave wages.

They have like only one guy filling the orders and restocking all the DVD's etc. And they pay minimum wage so that's some real motivation to work your ass off and do a good job. Oh but you get to borrow so many movies for free. It's owned by some fob guy who barely knows english.

And what's the difference between working for AnimeForest and Working for Blockbuster? I have a friend who works for BB and she says that it's slave labor.

[Forbin]

Hehe on a unrelated but related topic, did you see that Funi wants volunteers to work their convention booth?

Oh my, 8 hour day working a booth / setup / tear down/ for a free convention ticket. Now that's slave labor. I sure hope they give each person like 5 DVD's for their trouble.

[DarkCntry]

Originally Posted by Forbin

Hehe on a unrelated but related topic, did you see that Funi wants volunteers to work their convention booth?

Oh my, 8 hour day working a booth / setup / tear down/ for a free convention ticket. Now that's slave labor. I sure hope they give each person like 5 DVD's for their trouble.

I seriously doubt they're going to just funnel people in and have them work without any incentives to do it...my guess, with the cost of your convention badge, you'll also have first-hand access to news and products, they'll more than likely give you T-shirts/hats/or other articles of clothing to wear at the booth, and then they'll give you the requisite DVDs. Beyond that, I saw in the sign-ups that it's blocked to 3 hours with breaks/lunch, so it's not that bad :-P

When I worked for TAN at conventions I'd pull up orders for various merchandise to give out, and what I didn't give out at the Cons I would be able to keep...so now I have several hundred TAN stickers, buttons, and nifty little pens. On top of that, I'd get a free DVD every month.

So honestly, as a fan of anime, doing this shouldn't be considered work, but a chance to see the other-side of the conventions Of course, FUNi isn't stupid, comparing the cost of giving incentives than to pony up the bill to ferry employees around, you'll see a lot of reasons why they chose this path

[Aoie_Emesai]

Online rental isn't for me. I hardly ever rent movies anyway. I stick at home watching reruns on The Discovery Channels, The History Channel, and those Premium channels anyway. And G4 every now and then.