DVD Avenue Review
DVD Avenue is a small online DVD rental service based out of Maryland. In fact, it wouldn't surprise us to find out that it was a local video store chain in that region. Running off the popular rental software by VNH Systems, they offer a variety of unlimited rental plans with the standard free shipping and no late fees. While not as large or efficient as some of their major competitors, they do offer some unique options that you won't find through other rental sites.
At around 25,000 titles, DVD Avenue offers a respectable selection of DVDs for their subscribers. For a smaller company, they offer the new releases on the release date and even promote them heavily on their site. While we had some delays in the new releases, we were still able to get a few of them quickly. The rest of the inventory is filled with your basic cornucopia of popular movies organized in their various genres. The availability of these was surprisingly good and we feel the number of copies they keep on each title is above average.
Being a smaller company, their inventory is limited in a few areas. They don't have a very large foreign film section and their television DVDs lack a lot of recent titles. While they stock almost every popular movie over the past decades, they do miss some of second tier titles as well as cult classics (Where's Repo Man?). For the average movie fan though, you'll still have a strong selection to choose from that would top any local video store in town.
One of the unique offerings DVD Avenue has is the ability to rent adult films as well as video games. The video game selection is decent, although they are limited to the PS2 and Xbox consoles. The adult selection is fairly deep and the titles were shipped out quickly. This does give the company a small edge over some of their larger competitors who shy away from adult titles.
Running on out-of-the-box software, there isn't a lot of room for customization with the DVD Avenue website. It definitely could use a face lift and their system would benefit from the addition of some bells and whistles.
The site does function efficiently though and gets you to where you want to go. The search function works well and the movies are broken down into their various genres. There is also the ability to browse by actor, director, year, or language. They've added some other browsing options such as new releases, most popular, monthly top ten, and Oscar Winners (which is a year out of date). Since many of these categories are based on user ratings, and many of the DVDs have not been rated, the results are hit or miss.
Other than that, there really isn't anything exciting within their member's area. All your standard features such as free shipping, no late fees, and unlimited rentals come with your standard plans. You can suspend your account for up to two months if you like. This company is really built for people who aren't concerned with the extras and simply want to get in and out to make their DVD selections.
The movie information within DVD Avenue is basic and gives you the essential details. You'll get a long movie synopsis, list of actors, length of movie, MPAA rating, and it's user rating. You can also find the occasional user review within the site, although they are rare and not very in-depth.
Currently DVD Avenue is operating with only one shipping center based in Maryland. While this means good news for people in the D.C area, it's a long wait for anyone west of the Mississippi. We found delivery to the Midwest to be 2-3 days while people in New York have reported receiving their selections within 2 days (some even reported 1 day turnaround on occasion). There have been no reports of throttling.
One aspect that did make us uneasy is the statement in their terms of use that "DVD Avenue reserves the right to charge you the recommended retail price if you are responsible for loss or damage to a disc.". While we didn't encounter an issue with a lost or damaged discs, it would be upsetting to get dinged with a $20 charge for a DVD getting cracked in transit. We'd be interested in hearing if anyone has ever been charged for this.
Considering the inclusion of adult DVDs and video games, the pricing at DVD Avenue seems fair. They offer 4 unlimited DVD rental plans.
1 DVD at a time - $9.99/month
2 DVDs at a time - $14.95/month
3 DVDs at a time - $19.95/month
4 DVDs at a time - $24.95/month
When you're a small company competing against goliaths like Netflix and Blockbuster, it's important to standout with something unique. While the adult films and video game offerings are a plus, it just isn't enough to really give them serious consideration over the bigger companies. Their smaller inventory and slower shipping times to parts outside the D.C. area put them at a disadvantage.
However, if you're really looking to merge an adult DVD rental service with a mainstream one, they're a solid choice (on the East Coast, Greencine is better for West Coast people). None of the major companies carry adult flicks and signing up through a porn rental service separately can be a pricey endeavor. As a strictly mainstream option though, they just aren't going to give you as much for your money unless you live in the D.C. area.
I love dvdavenue.com. It's the only site I know of where you can rent general and adult titles at a low price. Most adult only sites are about $5 more per month on average. Also, it's easy to get the big titles each week. Semi-Pro just came out yesterday and it has already shippied to me.