Before you finally decide to get signed up with a DVD rental service, there's six features you should consider carefully.

#1...The first is the number of choices you have in their stock of videos available for rental and how many are in the types of videos you would rent. The larger rental sites have an available stock of 35,000 to 60,500 DVD to rent.

That sounds like you could rent new videos until the next Ice Age, but those numbers are deceptive. Most of the time, that count includes how many individual DVDs they have, with multiple copies included in that total. They are counting physical copies, not titles. But, on the positive side, the more copies means less waiting time to get your new shipment of popular titles.

#2...Does the site have an internal search engine available so you can browse their catalogue? If not, you might consider how much time you will be wasting looking for the titles you want.

#3...The number of titles you can rent at any one time is an important criteria to consider when you are balancing that number against the subscription cost. You will find variations in all the rental services. Check them out carefully. Determine how many DVDs you are likely to have time to watch on a monthly basis and compare that number against how many you can rent at one time. Once you have that comparison, see if the subscription cost seems reasonable or not.

#4...One part of the service that might be important to you is the speed of the turnaround when you return the DVDs you've watched. If you want to have weekend movie nights and the turnaround time is slow, your weekend will be less than you wanted it to be. Do some testing during trial periods so you don't get hooked into slow service and have trouble getting out of it.

#5...During your trial period, closely inspect the videos that get sent to you. Are they scratched? Are they mailed in media that protects them while they are getting to you? Are they full of fingerprints and other undefined sticky fragments? Return them immediately and cancel your service before it costs you anything.

#6...When you are through with the considerations above, the last decision you have to make before signing up is if the quality of their customer service is responsive to your problems or questions. Do they offer reasonable solutions quickly that satisfy you. You can check out onsite forums, if they have one, or you can find reviews of their service with a Google search.

When all these points are covered to your satisfaction, you will have good value for your money. Isn't that what you wanted in the first place?