LoveFilm review

I haven't been a LoveFilm subscriber for about two years or so now. It has nothing to do with their service, it just I haven't had much time to watch films and I also decided to wait for them to build up their Bluray collection. Recently I decided to reactivate my account to see if anything has changed, and also to test their streaming films.

I have always been a keen user of LoveFilm's (and ScreenSelect before them) mail DVD service. Nothing beats a good old physical disc when it comes to film. You get the maximum video quality, special features and do not have to deal with bandwidth issues. LoveFilm's The amount of Bluray films on LoveFilm's library has indeed improved, sadly some films remained only available in DVDs. I blame the rights owners for this but it isn't easy to excuse LoveFilm and Amazon for not trying. 

LoveFilm used to be brilliant when it came to sending out DVDs. Sadly this isn't true these days. Long gone were the days when I used to watch three films in a day and send them the next day, only for LoveFilm to immediately dispatch the next three DVDs the following day. It wasn't uncommon for me to receive six discs a week, or perhaps even nine if I was lucky.

Still, I expected I could at least watch three films a week. Even this was a mistake. Turnaround was slow I could walk to a Blockbusters 100 miles away (if there is still one!), and get my film fix first. In the one month I was with LoveFilm this month, I probably received nine films. At one time three days lapsed after they received a disc before dispatching the next! This despite having a reasonable queue of around 15 discs.

Having been bought by Amazon, I had high hopes of LoveFilm. I was wrong of course. With Netflix having now set up a UK operation I expected LoveFilm would buck up. Sadly this was not the case. The streaming library was disappointing. To be fair, part of the issue remains with the film industry for being backwards to new technology like this. Still you would think a giant like Amazon would be able to flex their muscle once in a while. Rubbish streaming or otherwise, the least they could do is try not to screw up their core mail-in business!