<p>1) the Prime student account that many of us opened is free for one year; that’s just for the free two day shipping…if you want instant streaming, there is an option to upgrade for $39/year</p>
<p>2) So, I asked “what happens when the free year is up?” “How much is the Prime membership w the instant streaming”…the cust service rep said $39/year…I asked him twice to repeat this, and got his name…it’s going to be $39/year to renew…this is a student rate that will hold until the student does not have an edu email address (or whenever Amazon decides to raise prices, whichever comes first)…</p>
<p>So, for $39 you get the instant streaming on Amazon…the instant streaming on Netflix is $7.99/month or $96/year…</p>
<p>Yes, there are different titles…but since we make our kids pay out of their pockets for this, I will give them the option…</p>
<p>I currently have the one DVD at a time with unlimited streaming ($9.99+tax), and it will be cheaper for me to drop the streaming and pay $7.99 a month for one DVD at a time.</p>
<p>We’re going the other way…We’ll drop the one-DVD-at-a-time and just use streaming. It’s true that the selection for instant view isn’t great, but the kids both use the account remotely to watch tv shows on their laptops. I’m going to check out redbox to supplement with newer dvds.</p>
<p>He’s giving you the correct answer. My older son’s Amazon prime membership is ready to expire and I had marked my calendar to find out if it would roll over and charge the full rate. It seemed likely. He just got an email confirming what you were told.</p>
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<p>Luckily, we have another kiddo headed off to school this year so yet another .edu email to exploit! :)</p>
<p>I never did Blockbuster much because (if it weren’t for a new or new-ish release) it was really hit or miss when it came to anything old that I wanted to see. </p>
<p>As for viewing netflix, I either watch it on my TV using my AppleTV box or I watch it on my iPad. If I’m on my iPad, I usually have to be in certain rooms of the house that are serviced better by the House Wi-fi. I bet if I upgraded my router, I’d be able to get great reception of netflix in any part of the house.</p>
<p>I have never watched netflix on the computer. I have watched some tV shows on the computer when I am too lazy to hook up the computer to the TV.</p>
<p>I never went to Blockbuster, but we had a great independent video rental place in our neighborhood – tons of movies, including many with subtitles, knowledgeable staff, friends and neighbors hanging around giving each other advice on which movie to rent (and more gay porn than any one could ever imagine watching, even if one were gay). It was wonderful. The Netflix/Red Box/On Demand pincers killed that, too.</p>
<p>What exactly is Hulu (I can’t keep up with all this stuff - had to fill out my medical details at a specialist yesterday - on an Ipad - glad I got an Ipod for my birthday or I would have felt like a complete idiot)</p>
<p>I have the same plan as mamabear, one DVD/streaming for 9.99/mo. At the end of July it goes up to $16/month, and I have it on my calendar to cancel just before then. I am irritated because I have had Amazon Prime for years, but can’t use their streaming video because our LG Blueray player, bought last Christmas, will not be able to access Amazon (they do access Netflix). The newer LG models do have Amazon, but the company is refusing to offer a firmware update for my model. I have already complained about this, as have others. </p>
<p>I find the Netflix streaming offerings very limited, and we don’t really use them. We do use the DVDs, but not often. I find that it is faster and easier to use our local library system, which has any movie you can think of. It usually takes only a day or two to have a DVD transferred to our local library, if the movie we want is not available there.</p>
<p>I’ve been a member since 2005, and was a member for an interval when they first started as well. and this is the first I’ve heard of a change. HATED blockbuster, and use gamefly for videogame rentals. </p>
<p>Ahhh. just checked my email…it says I don’t need to do anything, and my price will go up from $14.99 to $19.98 in September. </p>
<p>Once again, thank you college confidential, for the heads up!</p>
<p>This was the topic last night at dinner. I rarely watch. H and younger D are just finishing up Season 3 of Dexter. H wants them to power through season 4 before Sept 1st. We will probably cancel the DVD and just keep streaming. Older D who doesn’t have a TV uses our Netflix account to stream on her computer so it is worth it for us to keep it. For the occasion when H and younger D want a movie they will use Redbox. We have plenty of Redbox places nearby. You can look online to see what kiosk has the movie you want and you can even reserve. My H is frugal to the core and they never keep a movie over a day so never go over the $1. H hated the prices of Blockbuster and rarely would let the kids go to Blockbuster. Until 2 yrs ago we had a great local video store that was $2.50 a day for new releases and just a buck for anything else. The best was the owners who watched everything and knew what your family liked.
Adding- we stream Netflix through our Wii.</p>
<p>My Netflix email offered me a 2-DVD-at-a-time deal for $11.00 (which is what I prefer, so I can stagger them and always have something to exercise to – currently on Season 2 of Doctor Who!). I see others have 1 DVD at a time offers.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, I do Hulu streaming. It is MOSTLY tv shows but they have some movies as well. I think it’s like 6 or 7 dollars a month. Difference between it and Netflix is that there are commercials on the tv shows of maybe 30 seconds or so. They have a huge selection of TV shows… much much much bigger then Netflix.</p>