More on $1 DVD Rental Kiosks

McDonald's is rolling out DVD rental kioks that charge $1 per night to all U.S. restaurants as a lure to get people to eat their food (our May 26th post on this story). The MercuryNews.com site has a more detailed story (free reg. required) about renting from one of these machines and the company behind it, DVDPlay, Inc.

From the MercuryNews.com story on DVDPlay:

And DVD rental could just be the start. Jens Horstmann, DVDPlay's chief executive officer, told me the company is looking for other products to sell from its kiosks, everything from computer games to cosmetics. Future versions could also fetch music and movies on demand from the Internet, burning them to disc on the spot -- so you could buy or rent anything you want at any time. That's when Blockbuster will really have to start worrying.

Here's a quick page with information about the DVD rental kioks: http://www.dvdplay.net/factsheet.html.

Comments

[RonG]

Love these $1.00 machines. Went to use one at Publix Supermarket in S. Florida. Didn't read instructions that said to place credit card in first. So after the man in front of me was through returning 2 DVDs and took his card out of the machine and left, I searched the screen for the DVD that I wanted....when all of a sudden, it popped out of the dispensing opening...FREE.
So after watching the movie, I returned it with a note of what happened, thanked them for the free show and said I hoped that the return of the DVD would be payment. I also asked them not to charge the customer before me $27.95 when a DVD is not returned and signed it a "satisfied customer." I'm going to place an order first, before putting in my card, in the future...who knows....it might happen again.

[BigD]

The DVDPlay kiosks do not require you to insert your credit card to browse titles or return DVDs. Most of the larger foreign made machines due. I use the DVDPlay kiosks operated by VendFlix in SC all of the time. We pay $1.99 but it still much better than Blockbuster.