A couple of months ago I dropped our Showtime/HBO subscription via DirecTV. We found that we weren't watching anything on those channels or that what we were watching we actually were DVRing and watching weeks/months later (Dexter comes to mind).
I also found we were getting a lot of movies, some old, via Hollywood Video and later Redbox. (The Hollywood Video that was near us is long gone now)
So, I got us the 1-DVD at a time NetFlix subscription. This also includes free unlimited streaming via our Wii.
We've ended up using this more than I would have expected and not in really 'bad' ways. First, the streaming to the Wii is great. Lots of kids stuff, but also older movies and TV shows that we wouldn't explicitly go looking for in a video store. (Anyone remember Heavy Metal the movie? It is on there. And it isn't nearly as good as I remember from college ;-)
The streaming can also be a to PC, so we have it setup in the 'gym' so you can watch something on the PC while working out. (Technically it is my office, but that is where the elliptical machine is) This is where streaming TV episodes is really useful 24 minutes per episode is a good workout!
We now have a 'system' for using the 1 DVD at a time.
- Saturday or Sunday night we either watch a PG movie or PG-13+ for Deb and I (closest thing we get to a date night these days ...)
- Monday drop the disk into the mail, put a PG or G movie into the top of our queue for the little guy (or something the Courtney wants to see)
- Wednesday it arrives. He watches it Wednesday or Thursday morning
- Drop it into the mail on Thursday and push something Deb and I want to watch to the top of the queue
- Get a new DVD on Saturday and repeat.
Only snag is when Courtney (12) wants to see something that isn't for the little guy. Then he misses out that week, or we get it for the weekend and I miss out.
We still have a 20+ DVD queue of things that I want to see, so this should work for a many more months. At $9/month vs. 40+ we were spending on HBO and DVD rentals it is actually a pretty good deal.
