Indian movie dvd rental

Web DVD service delivers more

Now that 50 percent of U.S. households own a DVD player, at least half of you should know about something called Netflix.

Because of this mail-order rental DVD company, I've watched the film adaptation of James Joyce's novel "Ulysses," an IMAX version of a Cirque du Soleil show, and Sherman Alexie's "The Business of Fancydancing."

I'm one of the 1.3 million people who pay at least $19.95 a month for Netflix, which mails me rented DVDs.

For the monthly fee, I can use their Web site (www.netflix.com) to order any DVD from their library of 15,000 titles.

The flat fee makes the obscure choices less risky because if I pick something weird, and I hate it, I can simply turn it off without thinking, "There goes four bucks down the drain."

"We've created a more adventurous group of movie watchers," said Lynn Brinton, spokeswoman from Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif.

To me, the best part is there are no late fees. My wife and I have had a copy of "The Hours" sitting on a shelf for weeks now, and that's just fine with Netflix. Netflix, the leading home-delivery DVD service, allows me to keep three movies at a time. When I mail one back, the next movie on my list, or queue, is shipped to me.

Just about every movie on DVD is available, which is part of the problem. At first, there's this huge joy of realizing that virtually any movie on DVD is at your fingertips.

Last time I checked, I have 105 movies in my queue. I see about eight movies a month at home, which means I already have a one-year waiting list. I'm not sure when I'll find time to watch the IMAX- version of "Beavers."

Netflix does let you re-order your priority list, which can be interesting if more than one set of preferences are applied. You see, my wife got the password to access and adjust my list.

Somehow my Godzilla movie from the 1970s has been moved from 5th to 75th, and the Ultimate Fighting championship disc is even lower.

Nothing like getting the red envelope in the mail and opening it to find Vol. 1 of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

I wonder if Netflix offers marriage counseling.

"We don't, unfortunately," Brinton said `We do definitely hear from families. Juggling more than one person's taste in movies is something our members wrestle with."

What I realized from our minor struggle is that the movie queue is something very personal. Your list somehow becomes a revealing glimpse of your personality.

My small crowd of Netflix compadres think movie queues would be a valuable dating tool.

Brinton, who pointed out that a lot of young people work for Netflix, agrees. "We've talked about that around the water cooler," Brinton said. "Wouldn't it be cool on match.com (a dating service) if you could see their queue?"

There's no current plan to pursue that. Maybe some day it will happen.

Several years ago, Douglas Coupland wrote a book called "Microserfs," in which the heroes were often described by their dream "Jeopardy!" board.

For instance, a colleague said his dream categories would be: Frito Lay products, domestic beer and midnight television programming.

My wife's dream board might be: The works of Jane Austen, science fiction and Amish cooking. My own would be: Obscure "Seinfeld" references, American Indian authors and carbohydrate-free foods.

As revealing as the dream board can be, I see a future where our movie queues will define us.

In September, my list included: "The Importance of Being Earnest," "Insomnia" and "Hard Times."

During the holidays I'm hoping my movie list will include "The Big Sleep," "Mo' Money," "True Romance" and "The Best of Times."