dvds Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Have you ever wondered how on earth rent-by-mail DVDs manage to get so scratched up? Take a close look at the photo above, from Boston.com, and notice how carefully a gloved Netflix employee is scratching up a DVD so it has that "used" appearance we've all come to know and love. Isn't that considerate of them?

Bad jokes aside, the gallery of images below provides a behind-the-scenes look at "an unmarked warehouse" in Northborough, Massachusetts, where about 50 Netflix employees "sort through and repackage more than 60,000 discs every day." To be fair, it's the customers who manage to scratch up DVDs, and Netflix appears to make a good-faith effort to discard DVDs that have become unplayable -- at least to the extent they can, since they're sorting them at the rate of 500-700 per hour.

Netflix angered some customers this week with the announcement that it would be increasing the $1.00 per month surcharge for Blu-ray customers, which was just added last fall. They explained in an e-mail that they had "increased significantly" the number of Blu-ray titles they stocked, and "as you've probably heard, Blu-ray discs are substantially more expensive than standard-definition DVDs." How big an increase depends on how you look at it: Information Week described it as a "300% increase," since the surcharge would increase from $1.00 to $4.00 for customers on the "three disks at a time" monthly plan. Overall, the same plan would cost 24% more per month.

I don't have Blu-ray capability (it's a long, sad story), so I'm wondering what your experiences have been renting Blu-rays, either online or in person. Completely satisfactory? Are you downloading / streaming more movies to watch on your computer or TV? Or do you prefer to buy your DVDs and Blu-rays?

Gallery: Netflix at Work

In a move that redefines the phrase "2 outta 3 ain't bad," Warner Bros. Home Video announces the arrival of a whole bunch of pretty cool-looking Triple Feature DVD releases, budget-priced tri-flick platters that are handily connected by theme, star or general schlockiness. And hey, there's a few that I'll definitely be picking up. You'll be able to snag the following discs for about 10 bucks a pop.

• The Cop Thriller Sci-Fi Weeper Political Biopic Triple Feature: Frequency (2000), Thirteen Days (2000) & 15 Minutes (2001)
• The Awww Kids Love Animals Triple Feature: Born to Be Wild (1995), The Amazing Panda Adventure (1995) & Alaska (1996)
  
• The Steven Seagal Kicks Things Triple Feature: Out for Justice (1991), On Deadly Ground (1994) & Fire Down Below (1997)
  
• The Billy Crystal's Lamest Movies Triple Feature: Forget Paris (1995), Fathers' Day (1997) & My Giant (1998)
• The Free the Damn Whale Already Triple Feature: Free Willy (1993), Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995) & Free Willy 3: The Rescue (1997)
• The Yes Elvis Made Movies Triple Feature: Harum Scarum (1965), Speedway (1968) & The Trouble with Girls (1969)
• The Chuck Norris with Varying Degrees of Facial Hair Triple Feature: Forced Vengeance (1982), The Hitman (1991) & Hellbound (1994)
• The Eastwood's One Good Movie & Two Big Blunders Triple Feature: Honkytonk Man (1982), City Heat (1984) & Pink Cadillac (1989)
• The Turd in the Middle Sci-Fi Triple Feature: The Hidden (1987), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) & Dark City (1998)
• The Larry Cohen's Mutant Baby Triple Feature: It's Alive (1974), It Lives Again (1978) & It's Alive 3: Island of the Alive (1987)
  
• The Lassie Do This Lassie Do That Triple Feature: Lassie Come Home (1943), Son of Lassie (1945) & Courage of Lassie (1946)
• The Fourth One Stunk Anyway Triple Feature: Lethal Weapon (1987), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) & Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
• The Vin Diesel Movies That Made No Money Triple Feature: Boiler Room (2000), Knockaround Guys (2001) & A Man Apart (2003)
• The Horsey Triple Feature: National Velvet (1944), The Story of Seabiscuit (1949) & Black Beauty (1994)
• The Errol Flynn/Van Johnson/Frank Sinatra War Movie Triple Feature: Objective, Burma! (1945), Go for Broke! (1951) & Never So Few (1959)
• The We All Have Murder In Our Title Triple Feature: Murder in the First (1995), A Perfect Murder (1998) & Murder by Numbers (2002)
• The Calamine Jailbait Triple Feature: Poison Ivy (1992), Poison Ivy 2 (1996) & Poison Ivy 3: The New Seduction (1997)
• The Remind Me Again Why I Like Burt Reynolds Triple Feature: Hooper (1978), Sharky's Machine (1981) & Stroker Ace (1983)
  
• The Angsty Slacker Chick Flick Gangster Comedy Triple Feature: Singles (1992), Home Fries (1998) & Mickey Blue Eyes (1999)
  
• The Duke '32 Triple Feature: The Big Stampede (1932), Ride Him, Cowboy (1932) & Haunted Gold (1932)
• The Duke '33 Triple Feature: The Telegraph Trail (1933), Somewhere in Sonora (1933) & The Man from Monterey (1933)
• The Randolph Scott Triple Feature #1: Colt .45 (1950), Fort Worth (1951) & Tall Man Riding (1955)
• The Randolph Scott Triple Feature #2: The Man Behind the Gun (1953), Thunder Over the Plains (1953) & Riding Shotgun (1954)

Are you one of those people who chose to rent the first four Harry Potter films on DVD, thinking somewhere down the line you would purchase them either as a gift or to include in your fabulous Harry Potter archive? Well, I'd break open that piggy bank if I were you because Warner Brothers plan to pull the first four Potter films off shelves, beginning this December 29 when it yanks Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire will follow, vanishing into thin air on February 9, 2007.

Why are they doing this? I imagine they want little Harry all to themselves, kept under lock and key, only to be brought out for super-special occasions. Actually, it's a fairly common move (Disney does it all the time), and seeing as this is a non-Potter holiday season, Warners wants to beef up sales and, potentially, start building hype for what's sure to be a plethora of special edition, HD or Blue-Ray DVDs to follow. Currently no re-release plans are set, though, so get em' while they're hot folks!

[via JoBlo]

• Lisa Schwarzbaum discusses the really misleading trailer for ATL. It's a roller skating movie!
• In honor of Sharon Stone's return as Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct 2, EW lists 10 femmes fatale. Some great choices, but do Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman really deserve to be in the top 10 of all-time? Who's missing from this list?
• Is American Beauty really the worst film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar?
• New movies: they give Basic Instinct 2 a B-, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown a B , and Slither a B .
• New on DVD (not online, for some reason): they give a B- to The Mel Brooks Collection, a B to The Billy Wilder Collection, an A to 9 to 5, and a B to the Director's Cut of Crash.