We believe Quickflix is the best online rental company in Australia; their site design is user friendly, their price plans are straightforward with many, versatile options, and they go the extra mile in customer service. Quickflix was launched in 2003 and now stocks over 50,000 titles, over fifteen times more than most video stores, as well as 850+ new Blu-Ray High Definition titles.
In fact, with BigPond DVD Rental's closure in September 2011, we've seen a major exodus of their customers to Quickflix, which should provide a major boost to the company. We've noted some strain to the excellent system they have in place, but that assimilation period is largely past as of early 2012, and we still think Quickflix is a better choice; for years we'd rated them a better company than BigPond anyway.
Quickflix offer their service throughout Australia and have an unmatched five distribution centers/DVD warehouses to reduce DVD turnaround times wherever you live. These are located in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. As of early 2001, these centers had shipped over three million DVDs to more than 65,000 households across Australia.
Their website design was revamped in September 2011 (Quickflix 3.0) in response to customer feedback, and we're certainly impressed with the result. The expansions include a new colour palette, simpler, fullscreen layout, and breakout of TV and Movie navigation. The ratings and recommendation system also works better.
There is plenty of information about each disc; cast, director, synopsis, etc. and even critic reviews for many films. Browsing is simple and easy, by Genre, Actor, and Director. They have an impressive 23 genres to browse through, each of which has many subgenres (a whopping 381 total when we counted; for instance, SciFi has Action SciFi, Horror SciFi, SciFi Spoofs, and another 14 subgenres!) No other Australian DVD company boasts this level of classification, important when you're browsing inventories of many thousands of films.
Their search engine is powerful compared to most, allowing queries on title, actor, or year. Other features include Movie Selector, Kid's Queue, Queue top-up functions as well as a reviews by Empire magazine, and critics Megan Spencer, Scott Goodings, David Bond, and David Stratton. There is also an active blog, featuring the latest new releases, new features, general Hollywood news, and such--content no other Australian DVD rental service matches in our opinion. They even have an iPhone app which lets you manage your queue on the go, not to mention Facebook, Twitter, and blog content.
Finally, they do seem to go the extra mile with customer service compared with other large DVD rental companies. This is not to be underestimated--if you've ever had problems canceling your subscription or returning a DVD which you never asked for, you'll certainly appreciate it. The fact that have an actual phone number (open seven days week) you can call is a major plus. Moreover they continue to respond to criticism and suggestions to improve their service--their newly improved website, and recent introduction of adult film rentals are prime examples of this. Quickflix may not be perfect, but if we had to recommend one DVD rental company, this would be it.
Quickflix streaming over the internet is a relatively new feature launched on 16 November 2011. You can stream films and TV shows to your PC, Mac, PS3 (see screen capture to the right), or Sony Bravia internet-enabled TV. The service uses Microsoft's Silverlight and PlayReady technologies, and by most accounts is a smooth experience. Streaming costs extra, but if you are so inclined is well worth the price, as it is unlimited. Be aware that their streaming library is only a few hundred titles, compared to 50,000 DVD titles, but this online library is expected to grow swiftly.
Prices: Quickflix usually offers a 14-day free trial of its service, but currently has a rare, one-month free trial, up to 8 discs, so you can really try before you buy.
They have either programs with monthly caps, or pricier unlimited plans; we suggest starting with the capped plans, as many people get through the DVDs slower than they think, saving them for the weekends, etc., so get better value this way. They start with a 1 disc out at once plan, maximum of 2 discs per month at $5.99, a 2 disc out and a 4 per month plan for $16.99.
They have two unlimited rental tariffs, 2 discs out for $22.95, and 3 discs out for $32.99. Note, this last tariff was $36.95 in early 2011, so it's good to see prices continue to go down.
Options for Blu-Ray HD discs cost an extra $4 per month on the capped plans only, so if you watch many Blu-Ray films, you really should go for an unlimited plan which includes them for free.
They also have WatchNow streaming options you can add to your account from $7 per month on the unlimited plans, more for the limited ones.
Australia's all round top choice for service, choice, speed of delivery, and value for money, 
DVD Rental Basics