I have just moved to Switzerland from the UK where I used screenselect.co.uk, now called lovefilm.com. They worked on the basis of a single flat monthly fee (like amango.ch) for which you could have one, two or three DVDs on loan at any one time, and generally (though not by any means in every case) if a DVD was shown as being dispatched one day it arrived the next. I was between jobs at the time, so was able to watch and return the same day, whereupon they would often send out a replacement the same day as they received the previous one. Rapid watch-and-return of two at a time brought unit price per DVD down to less than a pound (about CHF2), though it did require some rigid self-discipline I had been looking for a similar service here in CH, so many thanks to everyone for this thread, which I have been reading with interest, and will look into in more detail when I'm not at work :-)
With regard to screenselect/lovefilm, though (obviously not specifically relevant to CH, as they are UK-only, but something to watch out for), I do echo JenniferD's comment about the selection "getting kind of bad" once I'd been with them for a while, as despite me keeping anything up to 200 titles on my selection, it was often pretty difficult to get my priority 1 titles sent to me. I had Bladerunner as a priority 1 on my screenselect list for more than a year after an ex-lodger half-inched it from me when he left, and never did get it before I came here.
So quality of service of the titles you want is probably an important factor as well as cost, speed of delivery, range of titles, etc.
I look forward to further comments before plumping for a particular service myself.
This is not an online option, the university library in Lausanne at La Riponne also has a selection of DVD's. Library cards are free for residents. Bring your permis de sejours.
I'm moving to the Geneva area soon and would like to know the video rental situation there. In Portugal, where I live now, all English language videos are produced with the original voice/sound track often with options to use Portuguese (or other language) subtitles. So any movie produced in English can be enjoyed in its original version. Foreign language movies, such as French or otherwise, are only produced for the rental market here in the original language or with Portuguese subtitles, so I can't enjoy most French, German, etc films without a good Portuguese dictionary by my side.
What's the situation in Geneva and France? Please don't tell me they dub the DVDs for rental like they do on TV...
So English language films can be rented and heard in original English, and similarly, non-English language films are produced in original language with possibility of subtitles in other languages, including possibly English...I'm getting this right?
Renting DVDs is ridiculous here... at least in the Lausanne area, there is a chain called "video folies" which is extremely expensive, plus they expect you to bring the DVD back the next day. No 5-day rentals like Blockbuster here, so if you don't end up watching the movie, no luck. That also means you only end up taking out one at a time, massive waste of effort...
We end up buying them most of the time. Anyone know of a better solution? Am I missing something?
Talking of ripping (mentioned a couple of time's here). Not sure if I should start a separate thread for this and/or look elsewhere.
I have a ton (litteraly just over 100) HD-DVD's (don't ask I backed Blu-ray from the start but eneded up with these in a comp...) which I want to backup for that fatal day that my Xbox add-on dies (was the cheapest way to get a player here).
Anyhow backing up was easy, but now need to convert the files into something useable like H.264 so I can play them on my media player.
Any ideas?
I did some seraching and found some ways, but they look quite complicated and not sure if they really work. Maybe someone here has done this already and can advice me?
I love to watch movies and see almost everthing new that comes out. I like to rent on average 5 DVDs per week and would rent more if could find a cheaper option than paying CHF8 per day per movie in rental shop. I read most of the posts here but I did not see any rental by post company which would be good for me. I am not really interested in renting old releases as I either already saw them or have them in my home collection. Does anybody have a recommendation for me? Thanks.
The owner used to be an English teacher, but she sold the (very good) service to someone else and since then (spring'08) the quality of the service dropped to such a bad level, that I cancelled my subscription.
is there anything in Switzerland similar to 'lovefilm website' in UK where they post to you the films you want to rent and then you post them back when you have watched them?. see http://www.lovefilm.com/welcome/beta.html