Service Overview

Number of Titles: more than 16,000

Billing Name: Your credit card statement will read “Empire Images Distributing” only.

Shipping Envelopes: Discreet, plain white DVD envelopes.

Pros:

• Polished service
• Above average turnaround time
• Good customer service
• Free video on demand with rental plan
• Exceptional web site
• Rapid Return features enables you to mark a DVD as returned as soon as you drop it in the mail, so that your next one can be shipped out
• Voted best rental site, 2007 and 2008.

Cons:

• Poor DVD selection

Site Usability

Can browse titles by studio, director, or genre. Handy actress and actor pages allow you to view overall ratings for adult stars. Star ratings and reviews for movies are also available.

A particularly handy rating feature is one that is similar to IMDB, and that’s the rating dashboard. You can see a summary of reviews in dashboard format, so that you can easily see why a movie is rated a certain way. Like Amazon, the top reviews are considered top because other users voted them helpful. These kinds of community management features make their site very user friendly.

Monthly Rental Plans

• 3 at a time, $19.95 per month
• 4 at a time, $24.99 per month
• 6 at a time, $29.99 per month
• 8 at a time, $39.99 per month

Other Rental Plans

Free unlimited video on demand, iPod and PSP support (free), live cams (free).

Service Overview

Number of Titles: unknown, but it’s reported as average, likely in the 20,000 to 25,000 range

Billing Name: Your credit card statement will read “Oddesse Inc.” only.

Shipping Envelopes: Discreet, plain DVD envelopes stamped with “Oddesse.”

Pros:

• Polished, professional, reliable service
• Customer service is always top-notch
• Multiple shipping centers so that your rentals arrive faster

Cons:

• Some members report slow turnaround times

Site Usability

Can browse titles by studio, director, or genre. Handy actress and actor pages allow you to view overall ratings for adult stars. Star ratings and reviews for movies are also available to help you find a good selection. There are also several handy lists, including top rentals and best of genre lists. Unfortunately, for as professional as the service is, the site needs an overall. It is above average in terms of usability, but it falls behind other aspects of their service.

Monthly Rental Plans

SugarDVD’s premium rental plans are less expensive than most other services, but their entry-level rental plan tend to be a bit more expensive. They do offer a 1 at a time rental plan, as well.

• 1 at a time, $9.95 per month
• 2 at a time, $17.95 per month
• 3 at a time, $22.95 per month
• 4 at a time, $26.95 per month
• 6 at a time, $34.95 per month
• 8 at a time, $43.95 per month

Other Rental Plans

Casual rentals (no plan required), and video on demand available.

Service Overview

Number of Titles: more than 28,000

Billing Name: Your credit card statement will read “CBT Media Group” only.

Shipping Envelopes: Discreet, plain white DVD envelopes.

Pros:

• Polished service
• Professional, informative, easy-to-use web site
• Their video on demand is unlimited, unlike the typical pay-per-minute plans
• Offer a ‘Quick Returns” feature so that your next DVD begins shipping as soon as you notify them that your previous one is in the mail
• AVN award winner 2005, 2006, 2007

Cons:

• Their movie selection is limited in comparison to some other services

Site Usability

Wanted List earns top marks for the web site design. Finding and browsing titles is very easy, page design is wide and easy on the eyes (making things easy to scan and find). Plentiful information is available for each title and performer, high resolution box shots are available.

Their DVD queue also includes availability information, e.g. in stock, short wait, long wait, etc. just like services like Blockbuster and Netflix do.

Monthly Rental Plans

Wanted List is slightly more expensive for entry-level plans, a moderate amount less expensive for premium accounts, and just about average for typical accounts.

• 2 at a time, $17.95 per month
• 3 at a time, $22.99 per month
• 4 at a time, $27.99 per month
• 6 at a time, $34.99 per month
• 8 at a time, $42.99 per month

Number of Titles: more than 50,000

Billing Name: Your credit card statement will read “Empire Images Distributing” only.

Shipping Envelopes: Discreet, plain black and white DVD envelopes.

Pros:

• Polished service
• Large selection
• Good turnaround for local delivery area

Cons:

• Sister site dvdempire.com has received many negative reviews
• Site is unfocused, so rentals are harder to find than they could be

Site Usability

Can browse titles by studio, director, or genre. Handy actress and actor pages allow you to view overall ratings for adult stars. Star ratings and reviews for movies are also available. A particularly handy feature is the dashboard availability of each movie. Popular and favorite sorts make finding the best titles a snap.

Monthly Rental Plans

• 2 at a time, $16.95 per month
• 3 at a time, $22.95 per month
• 4 at a time, $26.95 per month
• 6 at a time, $38.95 per month
• 8 at a time, $53.95 per month

Other Rental Plans

Casual rentals (no plan required), as low as $1.99 per rental. Rentals must be returned within 20 days.

Service Overview

Number of Titles: more than 30,000

Billing Name: unknown

Shipping Envelopes: Discreet, plain DVD mailers. Postage paid both ways.

Pros:

• Large service
• Fast turnaround time
• Their DVD rental system is mature

Cons:

• Site is “broken” in some areas, and there are some obvious typos, which lead you to wonder what other things they might have overlooked!
• There is a fair amount of negative criticism regarding their customer service

Site Usability

Can browse titles by studio, director, or genre. Page layout is a bit cumbersome, which makes it difficult to scroll through a large number of videos to find something interesting. All-in-all, their site could use a complete redesign so that it catches up with their actual service.

Monthly Rental Plans

• 2 at a time, $14.95 per month
• 3 at a time, $19.95 per month
• 4 at a time, $24.95 per month
• 6 at a time, $34.95 per month
• 8 at a time, $44.95 per month
• 2 at a time annual pay option, $134.95 per year
• 3 at a time annual pay option, $179.95 per year

Other Rental Plans

Video on demand service available.

Number of Titles: more than 29,000

Billing Name: unknown

Shipping Envelopes: Discreet, plain DVD mailers.

Pros:

• Offers a rapid return option where the next DVD from your queue is sent as soon as you notify them that the previous rental is in the mail

Cons:

• Good inventory of movies, but members report that many stocked titles are old or unpopular.

Site Usability

Can browse titles by studio, director, genre, or star. The reviews are fairly comprehensive and a lot of background and classification information is displayed for each movie, but the site itself in not overly appealing.

Monthly Rental Plans

• 2 at a time, $15.95 per month
• 4 at a time, $26.95 per month
• 6 at a time, $35.95 per month
• 8 at a time, $45.95 per month

Other Rental Plans

Rentals range in price from $1.49 to $7.99, and shipping is a flat rate of $2.99.

Number of Titles: unknown, but it appears very low

Billing Name: unknown

Shipping Envelopes: unknown

Pros:

• Next DVD ships as soon as you notify DVD Climax that the current DVD has been returned to them.

Cons:

• Poor site layout and navigation.
• Titles difficult to find.

Site Usability

Can browse titles by studio or genre only. Finding specific titles or actresses is difficult. No ratings or commentary available.

Monthly Rental Plans

• 2 at a time, $16.95 per month
• 3 at a time, $22.95 per month
• 4 at a time, $25.95 per month

Other Rental Plans

Casual rentals (no plan required) seem to be what Climax DVD is set up to fulfill. One-off rentals are as low as $3.00 each plus shipping.

Number of Titles: more than 15,000

Billing Name: Your credit card statement will read “Haka LLC” only.

Shipping Envelopes: Discreet, blue mailers with a return address of “PlanetFlixs.” Larger plans are shipped in standard USPS envelopes.

Pros:

• Many rental plan options

Cons:

• Site is not user friendly
• No product or performer reviews
• Slow turnaround time

Site Usability

Can browse titles by studio, director, or genre. No reviews or ratings available. Average to below average web site functionality.

Monthly Rental Plans

• 1 at a time, $10.95 per month
• 2 at a time, $15.95 per month
• 3 at a time, $20.95 per month
• 4 at a time, $25.95 per month
• 5 at a time, $30.95 per month
• 6 at a time, $35.95 per month
• 7 at a time, $40.95 per month
• 8 at a time, $45.95 per month

Other Rental Plans

Casual rentals (no plan required), $4.99 per rental. Rentals must be returned within 7 days.

Number of Titles: unknown

Billing Name: unknown

Shipping Envelopes: Discreet, plain black and white DVD envelopes.

Pros:

• Nothing stands out

Cons:

• They will charge you for lost or damaged DVD’s!
• Turnaround time is often very slow
• Web site functionality is well below average

Site Usability

Finding movies is cumbersome with the provided interface, which makes discovering new movies difficult. Site lacks polish in many areas.

Monthly Rental Plans

• 1 at a time, $8.95 per month
• 2 at a time, $15.95 per month
• 3 at a time, $21.95 per month
• 4 at a time, $264.95 per month

Other Rental Plans

None available.