Russian DVD rental service

RussianDVD.com uses the Netflix model to rent Russian-language movies to continental U.S. residents. They say they have 5,000 in their library, and many with English subtitles.

I discovered them when I was trying to finish the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. They had one of them (now out of stock), The Asthenic Syndrome, but it was in Russian, without English subtitles, and I don't want to watch it that way.

One Month free trial cards from Netflix--May 2009 edition

It's time again for the ONE MONTH FREE TRIAL CARDS from Netflix. Act fast, because these single-use codes are available on a first-come basis. They expire JUNE 15, 2009. Go to Netflix.com/tellafriend and enter one of these codes:

M11577892195
M21577892035
M71547892055
M81597892325

You are welcome to post your unused codes in the comments.

Fine print says: Cannot be combined with any other offer. Current and previous members and their households are ineligible. Netflix will bill you at the completion of the free trial unless you cancel prior to the end of the free trial. Netflix is a month-to-month subscription that you can cancel at any time. No refunds or credits for partial monthly subscription periods. Please visit Netflix.com/TermsOfUse for complete fine print. Netflix reserves the right to change terms and conditions any time they feel like it, and since I don't work for Netflix, nor do I represent them, I have no right to speak for them, and you're at your own risk. You should check out their site and not take my word for it.

Reed says I'm weird...and I agree

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, was asked in an interview by Motley Fool, "With so many shows on DVD, why doesn't Netflix directly market the 'dump your cable and save money' message?"

Hastings replied, "Well, no one dumps their cable."

!!!!!

Well, I have news for Mr. Hastings. I DID. I dumped cable for Netflix in 2004. Five years ago.

I don't even watch broadcast television.

I get my news from various Web sources, but I'm very happy "living under a rock". I no longer feel the pressure of materialism which comes from the bombardment of continuous advertising. I no longer feel panic or anxiety from a repetitive news cycle of tragedies, disasters, and human evil over which I have no control. I get my television series on DVD, long after you have deleted them from your DVR.

I live in peaceful oblivion punctuated by the arrival of red or blue envelopes.

via Hacking Netflix

Clark Howard on Netflix

I listen to Clark Howard on the radio in the afternoons. He's the financial guru whose slogan is "helping you to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off." He's famous for his thriftiness, and he says Netflix is a great way to save money. It's always a thrill to me to hear smart folks endorse Netflix, because it brings back the feeling I had when I first discovered the best way to get movies.

I listen to Clark on an FM talk 101.1 WZTK in North Carolina,

Facets Multimedia

If you're looking for titles which are unavailable through Netflix, out-of-print or imported*, you should try Facets Multimedia in Chicago, Illinois. I rent movies from them by mail, on DVD and VHS**. They have a subscription service identical to the Netflix model (except instead of a queue, you have "selections"), and the prices are the same**. Allow an extra day or two for your selections to arrive, since they come from Chicago.

For imports, you need a multi-region DVD player.

**The VHS rentals incur an extra shipping charge.

Get Satisfaction from Netflix

You can Get Satisfaction from Netflix by asking a question and getting help from hundreds of Netflix users registered at GetSatisfaction.com, a message board or forum for various products and services. It's also a great place to find frequently answered questions for new users, perhaps stuff you think Netflix would never tell you. Not an official Netflix service, and no Netflix employees are involved.

The site requires registration, or you can use your OpenID or Windows Live ID.

Find Netflix Instant Watching titles faster with these tools

I found these on Lifehacker:

FlixWare searches title, actor, genre, year.

Netflix Instant Watch Tracker searches by title, actor, and genre

InstantWatcher.com is very versatile, with searches by title, actor, genre, new, expiring, best, worst, and random. Includes links to play or add to queue, if you're logged in. Includes pop-up title synopses. Free and no registration required.

Airport no longer snowed in

Actually, it is I who am no longer snowed in, and my Apple Airport Express is back to work! It's still under warranty, so I took it to IT Worx, a certified Apple Reseller and Service Center, and they fixed it. It was a configuration issue. Boy, do I feel silly.

Even though I had three Netflix DVDs at home, I immediately watched a movie on my Roku. It was such a relief to have it back online. My Roku gave me the welcome message telling me that it had been upgraded. I changed my display settings to HD, but I haven't tried watching an HD movie yet. There aren't any in my queue. I still can't see the Amazon menu, which is supposed to be along soon.

I should confess that, in my desperation, I went to Video Review, the best video store in Greensboro, and rented a couple of DVDs to carry me until I could get my Airport working again.

Snow Day, and no Netflix

I'm bummed. We are having a rare snow day in North Carolina, and the office is closed, but I have run out of Netflix DVDs to watch. Worse yet, my Apple Airport Express died, so I can't watch instantly on my TV. OK, so I should be grateful I can watch instantly on my Mac, but it's awkward, since my desktop is not a comfortable place to watch a movie.

Should I risk my neck to venture out into the cold, to find a video store or movie theatre where poor, minimum-wage-slaves have risked their necks to get to work?

Or should I read a book?

Family movies in 2009

Cinematical has an interesting list of family movies to anticipate in 2009. I'm looking forward to Disney-Pixar's Up, which is coming in May.

Best family movies of 2008

Commonsense Media, which partners with Netflix to provide information for parents, has compiled a list of the Best Movies of 2008, and the ages of the children for which the movies are appropriate.


AGE 4+
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!

AGE 5+
WALL-E

AGE 6+
Kung Fu Panda

AGE 13+
Iron Man
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

AGE 15+
American Teen
Slumdog Millionaire

How many movies did you see in 2008?

Without even trying hard, I saw more movies in 2008 than in 2007. I saw 263 movies in 2007.

194 from Netflix (36 of those were Watched Instantly)
56 in a theatre
14 from Classicflix
12 from various other sources: TV, a friend, or eBay
6 from Video Review, a bricks and mortar video store
4 from SilverScreenArchive
1 from the Greensboro Public Library

For a total of 287.


You can see all the titles, categorized by source, on my Listology list of Movies Seen in 2008

Will work for Netflix

I work a regular job, for money, for which I am very grateful, because it is the means by which I obtain things I need, like food and shelter, and Netflix. 

Film personality test

Ben Tesch says:

It’s not strange to disagree about movies that are wildly different, and there are surely a few random movies that are very polarizing. What I find most interesting is which movie people consider the best movie from a particular director, as it is usually very telling and polarizing in a different way, so to this point I will propose a new personality test where you reblog your favorite movie from each of these directors:

1. Joel Coen: No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, etc
2. Wes Anderson: The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tennenbaums, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, etc
3. Hal Ashby: Being There, Shampoo, Harold and Maude, etc
4. Kevin Smith: Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Dogma, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Clerks, etc
5. Quentin Tarantino: Grindhouse, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc

My results:

Joel Coen: Raising Arizona
Wes Anderson: Darjeeling Limited (I haven't seen Bottle Rocket)
Hal Ashby: Being There
Kevin Smith: Chasing Amy
Quentin Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs

Via Listology

Faster than Netflix!

Wow, that was fast! I posted my promo codes here, then Mike at Hacking Netflix linked to my post, and within hours, I received four bonus rental vouchers on my Netflix account.

Has it worked for you yet?

More One Month Free Trial Cards from Netflix

These Netflix promo codes expire October 31, 2008. Each code can be used only once. You must be a new member. Limit one per household. The free trial lasts one month. At the end of the trial, Netflix will begin to bill our payment method. No refunds or credits for partial months.

M298097791525
M278027791555
M218087791515
M288037791565


I dislike the glue which they used to hold the cards to the mailer this time. When I removed the cards from the paper, it removed some of the fine print from the back of each card.

I will receive one bonus disc voucher for each new customer who signs up using one of the priority codes provided. The voucher will appear in my queue. I must redeem the voucher for the disc to ship. I am limited to five bonus discs. All bonus discs plus one plan disc must be returned for the next shipment.

Post your priority codes in the comments, if you want bonus discs too.

Netflix Movie Watching World Championship: The Quest for the Popcorn Bowl

Some sleep-deprived folks are going to try to watch movies for more than 5 days in a row, continuously, in order to set a new world record for movie-watching. In Times Square. Sponsored by Netflix, of course. The prizes are great. If I could stay awake for more than 120 hours, I would go for it, but I value my sleep too much. After watching movies, my second favorite thing to do is sleep.

The longest I've ever continuously watched movies was probably at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, when I was watching movies from 8 AM to 10 PM. Even so, the most consecutive movies I watched was only five.

Via Cinematical.

"Land of no return"

This Slate Magazine online reader poll asks "What unwatched Netflix rental have you kept unwatched the longest?" Poll closes Tuesday, September 5, and they promise to "offer some strategies for avoiding the land of no return."

Thanks for all the bonus discs!

Thanks to those of you who signed up for Netflix using one of my trial codes, I received 5 bonus rentals.

If you posted your promo codes here, and you want to see how many bonus rentals you received, check "membership terms and details" under "your account" on Netflix.com.

What powers the Netflix Player?

HotHardware interviews the Roku VP of Consumer Products, Tim Twerdahl, about what's inside the Netflix Roku player. He confirms there is no hard drive, only flash memory. It runs a version of Linux on an NXP core processor. They are also going "to seek out other content providers to put their content on the Roku box."

They are sold out and on about a two-week back-order.