Redbox Instant Review - Redbox vs. Netflix vs. Amazon vs. Xbox Video vs. Vudu

I have been renting DVD's and blue-rays for some time since Redbox came out.  I was excited to hear that Redbox was getting into the streaming market.  When I saw the price I thought to myself "How awesome I don't ever have to leave my house for DVD's again".  Sadly that is not how the service works and from where I stand it is a complete waste of time money and effort.

First here is what the Redbox Instant Website Says -

"INSTANT, UNLIMITED ACCESS TO STREAMING MOVIES"

"ENJOY 4 FABULOUS DVD CREDITS AT THE KIOSK"

"STREAM MOVIES WHEREVER YOU ARE"

Furthermore you can "Rent/Buy" online as the website shows when you sign up.  It is some tricky marketing but in a nutshell here is what you get.

1. Crappy old movies you can stream (Even Netflix has better movies)
2. 4 Credits to use at the Kiosk ONLY
3. The "privilege" to rent current movies for about $5.99 a movie.

Whoa wait, are you telling me that I have to pay $5.99 to stream a movie after I pay $7.99 a month for the service?

Well no, not if you wanna watch a crappy old one.

So here is how this works.  All the "Instant" access gets you is access to the same thing you may already be getting on Netflix.  If you want to watch something recent you pay out the wazoo for the movie just like pay per view.  Which in my opinion very misleading.

The only benefit I saw of the free trial is 4 free DVD rentals from the Kiosk which I'll use then dump the service.

So how does this compare to all the others services out there.  I put a matrix together I hope saves some people some time on a comparison of the streaming services.

Service	Current Movies	Older Movies	DVD Rental	Cost
Netflix	No	Yes	Yes*	$7.99/$7.99*
Redbox Instant	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	$7.99*/$5.99 on demand
Amazon Prime	Yes	Yes*	Yes	$79.99yr/$1.99-$5.99 on demand
Vudu	Yes	Yes	No	$.99-$7.99 on demand
Xbox Video	Yes	Yes	No	$0-$7.99 on demand

Redbox Instant clearly is trying to compete Netflix.  To me though it's clearly not worth it.  With Netflix I can rent movies and have them delivered and if I really need a new movie I can see it on Amazon Prime, Xbox Video or even stop at RedBox for the $1.

Out of all the providers I have to say that Amazon Prime is my favorite.  I can get just about everything on it.  The only thing I dont like about Amazon is that a Prime membership is required.  I use Amazon for my shopping so I have an advantage there.  Its also by far cheaper than Redbox or Netflix.  However I have found a few cases where Netflix had a movie Amazon doesn't